Mark Foote

by they go or stop the summit of mystic peak a pity, indeed

some real writers here just over the horizon hats bobbing along

Straw dogs, for your benefit and mine, Stosh? Straw dogs (simplified Chinese: 刍狗; traditional Chinese: 芻狗; pinyin: chú gǒu) were used as ceremonial objects in ancient China. In one translation Chapter 5 of the Tao Te Ching begins with the lines "Heaven and Earth are heartless / treating creatures like straw dogs". Su Zhe's commentary on this verse explains: "Heaven and Earth are not partial. They do not kill living things out of cruelty or give them birth out of kindness. We do the same when we make straw dogs to use in sacrifices. We dress them up and put them on the altar, but not because we love them. And when the ceremony is over, we throw them into the street, but not because we hate them."[1] I sat this morning for 40 minutes in the lotus, and I didn't have any pain or numbness. That's great, for me, but it's always been more difficult after I break my fast. I myself like to walk as much as I like to sit, and there's a sermon in the Pali Sutta volumes where Gautama the Buddha says he sometimes liked walking on the highway more than answering the call of nature (that sermon is immediately followed by another one that makes no sense at all, where he says he liked answering the call of nature more than walking on the highway--presumably inserted by later editors to ensure that would-be Buddhas didn't hurt themselves). Kobun Otogawa once said, "Take your time with the lotus." I've been doing that, and I think it's good advice, both for the emphasis on the lotus and for the emphasis on patience (I should mention that it's been 40 years, I've been taking my time!). My approach is actually science, Eastern and Western. I think we're fortunate, we have the translations and we have some medical science that applies now, but for me it's been years of research and organizing my thoughts on paper after an initial experience. Good luck with that Adia, good luck to us all!

dwai, thank you for the videos, but I cannot find the relevant material in them. Any chance you could summarize in your own words or with a few quotations, along with posting the video? The eight-fold path is associated with Gautama the Buddha, but he also spoke of the ten-fold path of the adept. Here's a quote from the Pali Canon, followed by my conclusion regarding the ninth and tenth aspects of ten-fold way: “...[an individual], not attending to the perception of the plane of no-thing, not attending to the perception of the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, attends to solitude grounded on the concentration of mind that is signless. [Their] mind is satisfied with, pleased with, set on and freed in the concentration of mind that is signless. [They] comprehend thus, ‘This concentration of mind that is signless is effected and thought out. But whatever is effected and thought out, that is impermanent, it is liable to stopping.’ When [the individual] knows this thus, sees this thus, [their] mind is freed from the canker of sense-pleasures and [their] mind is freed from the canker of becoming and [their] mind is freed from the canker of ignorance. In freedom is the knowledge that [one] is freed and [one] comprehends: “Destroyed is birth, brought to a close the [holy]-faring, done is what was to be done, there is no more of being such or so’. [They] comprehend thus: “The disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of sense-pleasures do not exist here; the disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of becoming do not exist here; the disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of ignorance do not exist here. And there is only this degree of disturbance, that is to say the six sensory fields that, conditioned by life, are grounded on this body itself.” (MN III 108-109, Vol III pg 151-152) Thus, right knowledge is based on first-hand experience of the impermanence of all that may be “effected and thought out”, and right freedom is freedom from the three cankers of “sense-pleasures”, ‘’becoming’’, and “ignorance”. Regarding "effort/no effort", Gautama appears to see the same effort at each stage of an individual's spiritual evolution (as it were): " ... those who are novices, not long gone forth (from home), late-comers into this Norm and Discipline,–such... should be roused and admonished for, and established in, the cultivation of the four stations of mindfulness. Of what four and how? (Ye should say this:) ‘Come ye, friends, do ye abide in body contemplating body (as transient), ardent, composed and one-pointed, of tranquil mind, calmed down, of concentrated mind, for insight into body as it really is. In feelings do ye abide contemplating feelings (as transient), ardent, ...for insight into feelings as they really are. In mind do ye abide contemplating mind (as transient), ardent, ...for insight into mind as it really is. In mind-states do ye abide contemplating mind states (as transient), ardent, composed, one-pointed, of tranquil mind, calmed down, of concentrated mind, for insight into mind-states as they really are.’ [Those] who are imperfect, who have not attained their goal, who abide aspiring for the peace from bondage unsurpassed,–they also abide in body contemplating body (as transient), ardent, composed, one-pointed, of tranquil mind, calmed down, of concentrated mind, for the comprehension of body... So also do they abide ... for the comprehension of feelings, of mind, and of mind-states. [Those] who are Arahants. destroyers of the [cankers], who have lived the life, done what was to be done, who have removed the burden, who have won their highest good, who have utterly destroyed the fetters of becoming, who by perfect knowledge have become free,–they also abide in body contemplating body (as transient), ardent, composed, one-pointed, of tranquil mind, calmed down, of concentrated mind, with respect to body being released. So also in feelings, they are released from feelings... and in mind, they are released. In mind-states they abide contemplating mind-states (as transient), ardent, composed, one-pointed, of tranquil mind, calmed down, of concentrated mind, in respect of mind-states they are released.” (SN V 144, Vol V pg 123-124) I made a summary of the teachings of Gautama contained in the first four Nikayas, about twenty years ago, and the quotes above are from the last few pages: Making Sense of the Pali Sutta: the Wheel of the Sayings

"...the breath that reaches everywhere in the mind of friendliness"--ok, more correctly: "[One] dwells, having suffused the first quarter [of the world] with friendliness, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth; just so above, below, across; [one] dwells having suffused the whole world everywhere, in every way, with a mind of friendliness that is far-reaching, wide-spread, immeasurable, without enmity, without malevolence. [One] dwells having suffused the first quarter with a mind of compassion… sympathetic joy… equanimity that is far-reaching, wide-spread, immeasurable, without enmity, without malevolence." (MN I 38, Pali Text Society volume I pg 48) "The excellence of the heart's release" through the mind of compassion, said Gautama, constituted the first of the immaterial concentrative states (the states characterized by equanimity with respect to uniformity); "the excellence of the heart's release" through the mind of sympathetic joy, the second; and "the excellence of the heart's release" through the mind of equanimity, the third (SN V 118-120, Pali Text Society volume V pg 101-102). 'Mayu, Zen master Baoche, was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, "Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. Why, then, do you fan yourself?" "Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent," Mayu replied, "you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere." "What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?" asked the monk again. Mayu just kept fanning himself.' ("Genjo Koan", Dogen; tr. Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi. Revised at San Francisco Zen Center, and later at Berkeley Zen Center; published (2000) in Tanahashi, Enlightenment Unfolds (Boston: Shambhala), 35-9. Earlier version in Tanahashi 1985 (Moon in a Dewdrop), 69-73, also Tanahashi and Schneider 1994 (Essential Zen))

dwai, I confess to having added to my post--just fyi on that. "Relax! Sink!", as one of the local Tai-chi instructors is fond of saying.

"A sinking spiral, rising upward, it opens and closes by turns..."--I like that, dwai! "When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we shall not be ashamed, to turn, to turn shall be our delight, 'til by turning, turning we come round right." (zikir practice in Sufism, bowing to the left, straightening and bending the knees, bowing to the right, straightening and bending the knees--whilst chantin the name of the divine or similar) This morning I found myself particularly focused on the part of Gautama's "way of living" that is the experience of zest in inhalation and exhalation, and similarly the experience of ease. He speaks of the body permeated and suffused with such feeling, so that no part of the body is left out. To the extent that relaxation of the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation precedes such experience of feeling, I identify the zest and ease with picking up the sense of proprioception (and joy with opening the hand of thought, as it were). Sure enough, if I look for it, zest and ease. Equally, the role of my eyes in the experience of equalibrioception and a location of mind was necessary to me this morning, to begin. Is this an effort, or is this the effortless experience of things as they is, out of necessity ("things as they is", after Shunryu Suzuki)? The lotus definitely gives me to know necessity, but I presume any bent-leg posture would do the same, including prayer on the knees or zikir. For me, the differences in the coordination of support for posture are reconciled in the autonomic function of the movement of breath; I have faith in this, because I know the breath that reaches everywhere in the mind of friendliness has gotten up and walked around, and I believe can as necessary.

dwai, can you summarize or quote? Interesting to me that in some Japanese arts, the initial promotion to a master's rank is by the individual's attainment (and possibly some of the subsequent master ranks), yet there comes a time when promotion depends on the attainment of the master's students or of honorarium. I'm thinking of judo, but I think there's something similar in the hats that they wear at the main training temples of Zen. See George Carlin, on hats. Anyway... Gautama spoke of initial states that were characterized by equanimity with respect to multiplicity, and subsequent states characterized by equanimity with respect to uniformity. He himself studied the "state where no-thing exists" with his first teacher, but was unsatisfied, and so came to study the "state of neither perception-and sensation-or-yet-not-perception-and-sensation" with his second. He wasn't satisfied with that either, and subsequently attained the cessation of "neither perception-and sensation-or-yet-not-perception-and-sensation", which was identified with his enlightenment. Point being that there were masters and then there were masters, in the India of 500 B.C.E., and I suspect that's still the case today. Can't judge the saint by the followers, witness "Kumari". I hear a different voice in the sermons in the first four Nikayas that are uttered by Gautama's disciples, not exactly the view of Gautama, even from the foremost of his disciples. Do we look to turn a corner, either through effort or effortlessly, and always be the son or daughter of the divine or a Tathagatha without ever losing faith or teaching things that lead to the suicide of others? Or do we look to manifest that tight connection between breath and consciousness simply because there's a kind of happiness involved, and understand that there are no Zen teachers (even if there is Zen)?

Reminds me of Gautama's analogy for mindfulness, the stake an elephant is tied to in order to calm it. Not the way I think of it, I'm afraid. More like a juggling thing, not just hard to get the elements he described up in the air and rolling, but requiring a state of grace while at the same time a natural rhythm of living.

"For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11:25-30‬ ‭KJV‬‬ Our topic here is effort/no effort, and Jesus seems in this passage to be coming down on the side of effort, that is almost effortless (but not quite). How's that for a wiggle? In my mind John is a later composition, like the 5th volume of the Nikayas that contains Dhammapada, and may not represent the words of Jesus (as the 5th Nikaya may not represent the words of Gautama). I would affirm Silent Thunder's insight, that breath and consciousness are linked in the most amazing manner. My effort lately is this, which Gautama described as his way of living before and after enlightenment (in the chapter titled "Concentration on In-breathing and Out-breathing" in the Sanyutta Nikaya Volume V trans. Pali Text Society, and again in Majjhima Nikaya Vol. 3 I believe it is): "Mindful [one] breathes in. Mindful [one] breathes out. Whether [one] is breathing in a long (breath), breathing out a long (breath), breathing in a short (breath), breathing out a short (breath), one comprehends 'I am breathing in a long (breath), I am breathing out a long (breath), I am breathing in a short (breath), I am breathing out a short (breath).' Thus [one] trains [oneself] thinking, 'I will breathe in experiencing the whole body; I will breathe out experiencing the whole body.' [One] trains [oneself], thinking ' I will breathe in tranquillizing the activity of body; I will breathe out tranquillizing the activity of body.' [One] trains [oneself], thinking: 'I will breathe in... breathe out experiencing zest... experiencing ease... experiencing the activity of thought... tranquillising the activity of thought.' [One] trains [oneself], thinking: 'I will breathe in... breathe out experiencing thought... rejoicing in thought... concentrating thought... freeing thought.' [One] trains [oneself], thinking: 'I will breathe in... breathe out beholding impermanence... beholding detachment... beholding stopping (of "voluntary control... concealed from the consciousness by habit") ... beholding casting away (of "latent conceits that 'I am the doer, mine is the doer' in regard to this consciousness-informed body")'." (MN III 82-83, Pali Text Society III pg 124; parentheticals added: "voluntary control... concealed from the consciousness by habit" borrowed from Feldenkrais's "Awareness and Movement", "latent conceits that 'I am the doer, mine is the doer' in regard to this consciousness-informed body" from MN III 18-19, Pali Text Society III pg 68; "zest" and "ease" from SN V 310-312, Pali Text Society V pg 275-276, in place of "rapture" and "joy") The trick is in that second line. Rujing, Dogen's teacher in China, said this: "Breath enters and reaches the tanden, and yet there is no place from which it comes. Therefore it is neither long nor short. Breath emerges from the tanden, and yet there is nowhere it goes. Therefore it is neither short nor long." ("Eihei Koroku", Dogen, vol. 5, #390, trans. Okumura) Essentially the way of living Gautama described requires thought applied and sustained, yet hinges on freeing the direction of mind (or "freeing thought") and the beholding of "cessation", and I would contend without these latter elements the initial element of comprehending the long or short of inhalation or exhalation is absent. The place where the location of mind can move without triggering activity in the body--that's right here, and it's a lot like falling asleep or waking up. Lately I spend time on relaxing whatever comes into mind, and on allowing gravity to generate the activity of my posture. I spend time on relinquishing the direction of mind, and accepting the influence of sensory contact and the surface of the skin on the activity of posture. I rely on the movement of breath and the rhythm of experience that Gautama described as "a pleasant way of living", in the knowledge that action can originate in what lies beyond the senses, given the mind of friendliness that reaches beyond the senses (or the mind of compassion, or sympathetic joy, or equanimity). IMO it is in accord with the teachings of Jesus in "Thomas", as far as "entering" (the Kingdom, which is within), and with the teachings of Bodhidharma ("have no coughing or sighing in the mind, with a mind like a wall one can enter...").

I myself am interested in the mindfulness that Gautama described as "a thing perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living besides"--not so much in enlightenment. I believe Gautama's description changes the dynamic somewhat, with regard to what a spiritual life looks like, and how it should be appreciated. Also changes the role that other people play, in my education. That doesn't say that the mindfulness that was his way of living doesn't require an effort. Doesn't say it does, either. No longer an effort at enlightenment out of the context of daily living, however; no longer an enlightenment out of the context of daily living, even if it is effortless.

"none have command over directing divine grace, for if someone did then it would no longer be such....(including a Self realized master) what one may have command over is getting themselves out of the way so that Spirit can work through them without resistance."--3bob And what is the Tathagatha, or the Jesus that Thomas knew, if not the spirit working? Gautama was a man, as a teacher he made mistakes in his teaching (we know this because scores of his monks took the knife as they sought to follow his advice to meditate on "the unlovely"). I do believe that Jesus wondered why his god had forsaken him on the cross. Jesus I believe said he would perform no miracles. Gautama said that the greatest miracle was the ability to teach what he had to teach to others, and he performed no miracles, although he did profess psychic abilities. To my mind, Gautama had it right, and the fate of human civilization and the world hinges on whether or not we can make the gateless gate, the effortless effort, understood by 5th graders.

That is not what Jesus is describing. What was Jesus describing?

Need that 3bob, MH blocker...

but o holy crap more extreme climate events coming soon, near you

Just kidding, MH. Jeff, you have a way of posting quotes as though their meaning and relevance in the current discussion should be self-evident. Maybe so, and I will be the first to acknowledge that establishing context is often opening the door to contradiction, yet I can't help but wonder at your meaning sometimes. If it's good for you, it's bound to be good for some of the rest of us here. Lead on, McDuff! (Keep 'em honest, MH & 3Bob!)

"OBE heautoscopy and autoscopic hallucination of neurological origin", Olaf Blanke & Christine Mohr (pdf) Not exactly what you ordered, which is perhaps more along the lines of instructions for lucid dreaming.

Effort or no effort... The father, the son, the holy ghost. One who blasphemes the holy ghost has no salvation. Aristotle's use of the excluded middle in logic has been found to result in contradiction, by the mathematicians of the twentieth century--as in, "effort or no efflort". The way of living that Gautama described as his own involved thought applied and sustained. The only unusual element is the beholding of cessation. "Making self-surrender the object of thought, one lays hold of one-pointedness of mind, one lays hold of concentration"--Gautama's description of concentration. May I offer from my own writing? "Lately I've written about what I consider to be two mechanisms of support for the lower spine, and their coordination in the natural movement of breath.* By natural here I mean "autonomic", a movement of inhalation or exhalation that takes place without any conscious activity in the body to effect the breath. That there could even be a challenge in experiencing such a breath with full awareness is the open secret of meditative states. When Yuanwu wrote, "When will you ever cease?", he pointed to the moment when the force of gravity is the only agency in the movement of breath, when mind and body drop off yet the body is upright." (from here)

Although the coordination of the two mechanisms of posture I spoke of above is an autonomic function in the movement of breath, the feeling is like this: "When you find the place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point." "When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point." That's Dogen, from the first essay he wrote in Shobogenzo ("Genjo Koan"). Again we have the indication of two modalities of the senses whose coordination is critical to the sense of self, and the feeling of self-location (gravity, sight, equalibrium, proprioception). Dogen finishes like this: "Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be readily apparent." Dogen goes on to cite a koan where the discussion concerns "the wind which is everywhere", which I mentioned previously as the breath that got me out of a chair. Gautama observed cessation in connection with inhalation and in connection with exhalation as one of the sixteen elements that made up his way of living, both before and after his enlightenment (chapter on "Intent Concentration on In-Breathing and Out-Breathing in volume V of Sanyutta Nikaya).

Let me add that the Dhammapada belongs to the fifth volume that was added to the canon much later than the other four. There are many statements in Khuddaka Nikaya that don't seem in keeping with the previous volumes, to me. Also, there is a sermon (somewhere in the first four Nikayas, sorry I can't quote chapter and verse) where Gautama is asked about the status of a former monk who had passed away. That monk was an alcoholic, and Gautama said he was a never-returner, which was something like one level below the ultimate in Gautama's descriptions of reincarnation. Eventually, Gautama got so tired of Ananda asking him about the status of people after their deaths that he told Ananda just to look at how they lived their lives before they died and figure it out. We know from Godel's theorems that it's not possible to start from a set of logical assumptions and describe everything that's known in mathematics without contradiction. The set of logical assumptions that does not give rise to contradiction cannot describe the whole of what is known to be true in mathematics. The first proofs formally established through the use of computer, a field which is relatively new of course, were Godel's (and I've read that Einstein only stayed on at Princeton for the pleasure of walking home with Godel--having said which, Godel starved himself to death when his wife went into a skilled nursing facility and could no longer eat first from his plate to ensure he was not being poisoned). What I'm saying here is, that words that describe the human condition must always be insufficient, or they will result in contradiction. This to me is the strength of Gautama's approach in the first four Nikayas--he speaks to the particulars of the human condition, and their relationship to one another, yet at his best he avoids trying to place them in an overall context. Cessation can be many things. Here are some of my favorite descriptions, from Gautama: In the first meditative state (trance), dis-ease ceases. In the second, unhappiness. In the third, ease without equanimity. In the fourth, happiness without equanimity. In the first of the states marked by uniformity (with respect to sensory activity), the perception of multiplicity ceases. In the second, the perception of the infinity of ether (which marked the first) ceases. In the third, the perception of the infinity of consciousness (which marked the second) ceases. In the fourth, the perception of the plane of "no-thing" (which marked the third) ceases. In the last, the perception of "neither perception and sensation nor yet not perception and sensation" (which marked the fourth) ceases. The last was precipitated for Gautama with the thought, "I have attained (the fourth), but all that is constructed and thought out is impermanent, is subject to ending"--something like that. With that, (habitual activity in) perception and sensation ceased for him. He came back with the four truths, to teach the five ascetics, who at first blew him off (since he was no longer an ascetic). To my mind, the four truths are only truths when suffering exists, and the chain looks like this: ignorance>habitual tendency or the exercise of volition>a stationing of consciousness>name-and-shape(discrimination)>senses(habitual or willful sensation and perception)>feeling>craving>grasping (after self in the five categories) That last, he said was identically suffering. Only applies, only has meaning, in the context of suffering, and for me there's nothing to be done about this. In the end, Gautama spoke of his own way of living, not of enlightenment. That way of living consisted of sixteen observations, trainings, and beholdings, each paired with either inhalation or exhalation. My study concerns the two sets of ligaments that support the last and penultimate vertebrae of the spine, during flexion and extension, and how the accent of the support in inhalation and exhalation allows gravity to work its magic through the sacrum and pelvis into the legs and back again into the support of the spine. From my reading, there are two mechanisms in the support of the spine, one the stretch of the facia behind the sacrum by the mass of the extensors pressing rearward as they contract alternately, and the other occasioned by pressure in the "fluid ball" of the abdomen as it displaces the rest of the fascial sheet behind the lower spine. The coordination of these mechanisms is autonomic, in the natural movement of breath.

Enjoyed this thread so far tremendously, wretch that I am. "Resting in the self", spontaneously, yet there is a time for effort. One day in 1975, my effort was to stay aware of each movement of breath, and as I was seated at my desk, suddenly breath got up and walked to the door. For years, I tried to always find my action through "the windy element", and in the end I found that what I truly believe becomes the windy element--whether my belief turns out to be sound or mistaken. At the same time, there are moments when the windy element is strong enough to move me regardless of what I think. Not able to sit the full lotus for forty minutes without pain or numbness, I finally set to studying anatomy and kinesthesiology. Lately it's the work of Olaf Blanke, the Swiss neurobiologist, that has been most useful to me. Olaf and Christine Mohr have a paper online with the results of their study of out-of-body experience. This was keyed by Olaf's discovery, during preparations for epilepsy surgery, that he could trigger out-of-body experience in some patients by inserting electrodes into the area of the brain above the ears inside the skull. Turns out there are three kinds of such out-of-body experience, and only about 150 cases in the medical literature. The conclusion in the paper is that out-of-body experience is a result of dis-coordination between the vestibular, proprioceptive, and visual senses, along with the sense of gravity. Blanke and Mohr hypothesize that the sense of self is provided through a coordination in these senses. Gautama the Buddha described the feeling of the first four meditative states in detail, these states being concerned with "equanimity in the midst of multiplicity (of the senses)" (all of the meditative states, he said, are marked by an immaterial happiness, and this is key for me as without the experience of such happiness, I have no stomach for long meditation). There is an alternation between sensation like that of water lilies immersed in water, and sensation like that of the surface of a pond fed by an internal spring so that it is always full to the brim. I believe these are modalities in the coordination of the senses that Blanke and Mohr described. In the third of the initial meditative states, there is no ease without equanimity. This I take to mean, no ease in the stretch in which I find myself without relaxation (sensation here described as like lotus flowers that never break the surface of the water). In the fourth of the initial states, there is no happiness without equanimity, which I take to mean no happiness without an acceptance of the origination of consciousness through contact in any of the senses, including but not limited to the mind. In particular, opening the mind to the experience of consciousness originating in the proprioceptors, the nerves that tell us where the muscles, joints, and ligaments are, and to consciousness originating in the otoliths within the vestibular organs (the sense of gravity in equalibrioception), is an effort for me now, as I seem to have grown up without the distinction of the experience of these particular senses in my daily living. The fourth meditative state is marked by the cessation (of habitual activity) of inhalation and exhalation. It's interesting to me to watch video of teachers from India, and see the extent to which they return to a spontaneity of breath. The first three further states, the states of equanimity with respect to uniformity, are described by Gautama as the excellence of the heart's release through the extension of the mind of compassion, the mind of sympathetic joy, and the mind of equanimity through the four quarters of the world, above and below. I do find that the experience of the "windy element" as the source of my action is often dependent on the acceptance of what lies outside the apparent boundaries of the senses, and the extension of a mind of friendliness. The mind that moves, and whose location is informed by all the parts of the body with no part left out, enjoys a peace--that keeps me going, and I accept that passing through no ease without equanimity and no happiness without relinquishing the direction of thought is necessary.

different perspectives above the water, below winter, spring, summer

On Chuang Tzu versus Gautama, you could fault Gautama for teaching attainments, yet bear in mind that his way of living (as he described it) consisted of attending to a rhythm of awarenesses against the backdrop of the movement of breath, as a thing perfect in itself (and pleasant besides, so he said--he came to this after decades of frustration with teaching enlightenment, I'm guessing). My impression is that he simply stated the natural mindfulness. As Marblehead brought out, the idea is to accurately describe the components and relationships, and allow the autonomic functionality of being to take care of the rest. You only need to know the parts of the bicycle when something's not working right--the rest of the time, once you know how to ride a bike, it's effortless. Yuanwu (12th century Ch'an teacher and author of "The Blue Cliff Record") may have spoken of "seeing things the way they are", but what I remember instead is this teaching: "Be aware of where you really are 24 hours a day. You must be most attentive." ("Zen Letters: the Teachings of Yuanwu", trans. T. Cleary, pg 53) I'm certain that Yuanwu is referring to the sense of self-location, which is a function of the senses (equalibrioception, proprioception, graviception, and oculoception--yes, I'm making up words for the senses of gravity and vision--see the research of Olaf Blanke), and depends in part on the spontaneous movement of breath. If you can't ride, you might want to exercise the pieces and their relationship to one another.

know, don't speak: guidance speak, don't know--flip side--all good. automatic speech (au·to·mat·ic writ·ing noun writing said to be produced by a spiritual, occult, or subconscious agency rather than by the conscious intention of the writer.)

does the cowboy know how the haiku goes--maybe just hum a few bars?