Mark Foote

we'll reap what we've sewn buttons popping everywhere sow what, you might ask?

it's already been the ice cream truck; have to wait for tomorrow now

awaiting false move or any indication of inattention (sword master Boy Cat)

Jabir writes, "Our stone is one, one medicine, to which we add nothing, from which we take nothing away, only removing that which is superfluous." Kobun: "It is something to do with going back to, going back to what you actually are. It’s not like what you become." I found those quotes to be very similar, that's all.

Michael, have you checked out Olaf Blanke's work? Olaf was preparing people for surgery in connection with their epilepsy, and discovered that poking electrodes in the brain in the temporal region could trigger an out of body experience in some patients. Blanke studied the medical literature on OBE, and he and a colleague Christine Mohr have a paper about their study with their conclusions online. Basically, his hypothesis is that the three kinds of OBE are produced by challenges with respect to the coordination of the vestibular, otolithic, proprioceptive, and ocular senses (so equalibrium, gravity, place and motion in muscles/ligaments/joints, and vision). I know, I know, somebody read what was on a paper on top of a shelf while they were floating out of their body, somebody saw a tennis shoe on top of a building. Not saying there isn't more to it sometimes. Since I've become more aware of these senses and the role they play in the feeling of self, in the location of self, I've found cessation of habitual activity a more regular visitor to my breathing, which is a source of happiness to me.

Not seeing that the "poverty" in verse 3 implies anything like the same for poverty as used in 29. With Gautama the Buddha as well, his use of "before" and "behind" usually referred to past and present, but in the stanza I quoted about developing pyschic powers, I have to believe it had a totally different meaning (because of the explanation he gave for "above as below"). ?

With regard to "one stone", quote from Kobun Chino Otogawa, who came to San Francisco from Eiheiji to help Shunryu Suzuki found Tassajara Zen Monastery: “One might talk about, discuss about, what does it mean to be ‘enlightened’. It is something to do with going back to, going back to what you actually are. It’s not like what you become. That’s an idea. It’s not some day, or somewhere from this place, from what you are. And sitting in meditation, being who you are, is something to do with this facing to your own true figure. Not made up or taught or wished to be.”

while chomping some ferns the small mammal who eats them kept a watchful eye

abide in the now sympathize with heavy hearts in this place, as one

Love this, and like the one about "two gods or one", can't say much about it. Action that follows deliberate thought is natural enough, yet so is the cessation of habitual activity; a movement and a rest? I am caught up, I think.

"When we let go of our minds and cast aside our views and understandings the Way will be actualized. One sage clarified True Mind (Reality) when he saw peach blossoms and another realized the Way when he heard the sound of tile hitting a bamboo. They attained the way through their bodies. Therefore, when we completely cast aside our thoughts and views and practice shikantaza, we will become intimate with the way… " (“Shobogenzo-zuimonki”, sayings recorded by Koun Ejo, translated by Shohaku Okumura, 2-26, pg 107-108, ©2004 Sotoshu Shumucho) This passage from Dogen is only slightly out of context, but I've always been struck by the line: "They attained the way through their bodies". The "great wealth" is something spiritual, presumably, and the poverty would seem to be the physical body. Gautama described the meditative states in detail, and the causal conditioning that was his insight, but he turned around to say that anyone knowing, seeing the things of the senses as they really are will develop and bring to fruition the factors of enlightenment. That to me is the spirit coming into being because of the body, and the wonder of wonders.

I want to speak to "empty they came into the world, and empty too they seek to leave the world". I do, I do seek to leave the world empty! I'm thinking the intoxication prevents the sons of men from seeing that empty is how they seek to leave the world. As I've mentioned, Gautama characterized the meditative states by the cessations associated with them, and "beholding cessation, breathing in; beholding cessation, breathing out" was a part of his way of living.

it was more for me everything I've written here I took it to heart

I have written about this passage from the Gospel of Thomas a lot. I think we've touched on the inside and outside, so I'll lay that aside for now. Regarding above and below, Gautama gave this recipe for cultivating psychic power: So he abides fully conscious of what is behind and what is in front. As (he is conscious of what is) in front, so behind: as behind, so in front; as below, so above: as above, so below: as by day, so by night: as by night, so by day. Thus with wits alert, with wits unhampered, he cultivates his mind to brilliancy. (Sanyutta-Nikaya, text V 263, Pali Text Society volume 5 pg 235, ©Pali Text Society- more on this here) Gautama didn't really elaborate on the meaning of "before" and "behind". With regard to "as below, so above; as above, so below", he said that this referred to regarding each part of the body as it really is, from the soles of the feet to the crown of the head and from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. On the male and the female, let me introduce some of my writing; here's a description of the cessation of the third of the initial meditative states, "the cessation of ease apart from equanimity": "The cessation of "ease apart from equanimity" that marks the third meditative state points to a strenuousness of the posture. Involuntary reciprocal activity in the muscles associated with the major ligaments of the body, such as those that connect the sacrum to the pelvis and the pelvis to the hips, only comes about because the ligaments and fascia are stretched to a point where they themselves generate the impulses necessary to contract the muscles for their resile. The induction of reciprocal, ongoing involuntary activity in the major muscle groups requires stretch that remains on the border of the generation of such impulses in the associated ligaments and fascia. Because of the need for resile that is felt at the level of stretch necessary to the third meditative state, ease does not exist apart from equanimity." And now a bit that I hope pertains to "make the male and the female one": "It happens that the stretch and resile of ligaments in the lower abdomen (paralleling the stretch and resile of the fascia behind the sacrum) can sometimes focus at or immediately above the pubic region. Gracovetsky, Farfan, and Lamay proposed a mechanism of posture whereby, with the right alignment of the spine and the right flatness of the lumbar curve, the lumbodorsal fascial sheet could be displaced (they did not say by what means); such a displacement, they calculated, would increase the load-bearing role of the fascia of the lower back, and decrease the load on the annuluses of the spine. Perhaps in a bent-leg posture, there comes a moment when the initiation of such support through the displacement of the fascia of the lower back is necessary, and the distinction of the senses allows pressure in the fluid ball to complete what the extensors behind the sacrum initiate." If that seems far-fetched, there's this, from Cheng Man-Ch'ing's "Thirteen Chapters": "...First we isolate the most vital portion of the sexual energy and the mind's fire, and heat them together with the ch'i in the tan-t'ien. Then we stir it up and set it in motion, causing the sexual energy to be converted into heat which passes through the wei-lu (tailbone) up the spine, reaching the crown of the head and spreading out to the four limbs." More from my writing, about the above: "Cheng mentioned that the ch'i must be allowed to overflow the tan-t'ien and pass through the tailbone without the use of force (in fact, he goes so far as to advise his students to seek out a teacher, to avoid any harm that they might do themselves in this regard). I would say Cheng is advising that the displacement of the lumbodorsal fascial sheet must be achieved only by reciprocal activity generated by the stretch of ligaments, and will occur as a matter of course in a bent-knee posture through the experience of equalibrioception, proprioception, and graviception, provided the movement of the diaphragm is free (as is necessary to experience "the whole (breath-)body", inhaling and exhaling). In order for the movement of the diaphragm to be free, the activity generated by ligaments and fascia throughout the body must be relaxed." Here's the last part of the quote we're addressing, from another source: “...when you make eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place of a foot, (and) an image in the place of an image, then shall you enter [the Kingdom].” ("The Gospel According to Thomas", coptic text established and translated by A. Guillaumont, H.-CH. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah 'Abd Al Masih, pg 18-19 log. 22, ©1959 E. J. Brill) And more from my writing, following on from D. L. Bartilink's assertion that there is always some pressure in the "fluid ball" of the abdomen in support of posture, produced by involuntary activity in the abdominals (not by the rectus or the diaphragm): "To the extent that the necessity for pressure in the “fluid ball” of the abdomen engenders experience of equalibrioception, graviception, and proprioception, to that extent some feeling for the posture supported by the distinction of the senses is gained as the pressure is sustained." I continued: "The ‘feeling for the posture supported by the distinction of the senses’ allows me to make an eye in the place of an eye, a hand in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place of a foot. This morning I asked myself, does feeling for the posture supported by the distinction of the senses allow me to make an image in the place of an image? If I take the word ‘image’ to mean the location of my awareness, the question becomes: does feeling for the posture supported by the distinction of the senses allow me to locate my awareness in the place of the location of my awareness?" Equalibrioception I feel is closely related to pressure sustained in the "fluid ball", while proprioception and graviception are intimate with the support of posture and carriage provided by the "fluid ball". My conclusion is this: "It’s possible to experience support from the “fluid ball” exactly as a sensation or perception that sustains the “fluid ball” takes place. In fact, I would say such a simultaneity is a normal part of everyday life, and underlies any induction of concentration. The simultaneity feeds on itself when the circumstances are appropriate, and exercises in the distinction of the senses and the recall of signs are really only intended to allow an openness to such a simultaneity." Lately I seem to have to remind myself that the resile of ligaments (such as between the sacrum and the pelvis) and the rhythm of the senses (including the mind) can be conducive to the cessation of habitual activity, particularly with regard to inhalation and exhalation.

On stones that minister, we have (perhaps) Dogen: "When we let go of our minds and cast aside our views and understandings the Way will be actualized. One sage clarified True Mind (Reality) when he saw peach blossoms and another realized the Way when he heard the sound of tile hitting a bamboo. They attained the way through their bodies. Therefore, when we completely cast aside our thoughts and views and practice shikantaza, we will become intimate with the way… " (“Shobogenzo-zuimonki”, sayings recorded by Koun Ejo, translated by Shohaku Okumura, 2-26, pg 107-108, ©2004 Sotoshu Shumucho) Gautama spoke to "knowing, seeing" as it really is each sense organ, along with the sense object, the consciousness arising from contact between a sense organ and sense object, the impact of consciousness, and the feeling as a result of impact; he spoke of knowing, seeing as it really is that feeling as pleasant, painful, or neither. He said that this kind of knowing and seeing with regard to all six senses (he included the mind) assuaged fevers of the mind and body, produced happiness in the mind and body, took care of the eight-fold path, and developed and brought to fruition the seven factors of enlightenment. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the five trees are the five senses.

To realize the cessation of habitual activity in inhalation and exhalation, is to relinquish the action that Gautama described as "first there is deliberate thought, then action" with regard to the body. The action that takes place without thought deliberate, that's a surprise, it comes from the place that's the beginning and the end. The notion of place is echoed in Dogen, where he says, "when you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point."

To me, the big fish is the experience of cessation; Gautama catalogs meditative states by cessation in at least one sermon, yet the principal cessations are habitual activity in speech, in inhalation and exhalation, and in perception and sensation. Gautama speaks of a happiness inherent in these states, and to me this is the fire cast on the world, to know or to see that a person can persist in a happiness that is apart from the pleasures of the senses. I like the quote from John about the seed that dies, to become the grain; I think there's an echo of that in the bit about what is dead and what is alive. Yuanwu spoke of how one should "bite through now", become as one who has died the noble death; "when the breath is cut off you return to life"; so he said. The cessation of habitual activity in inhalation and exhalation through the surrender of action--sometimes the surrender becomes heavy-handed, a suppression and a suffocation, before we awake to the senses that make activity automatic in the movement of breath, before we return to life. The two questions, very koan like, reflecting the secret that there is nothing to be done. To realize action in the absence of conscious volition, it's necessary to give up action, but it can't be done deliberately; magic.

Can't speak to birds and fish; maybe as Apech suggested, reason and emotion, or simply mind and body. Inside and outside; curious to me that Gautama the Buddha spoke of deliverances, in the first of which forms were perceived internally and externally, and in the second of which forms were only perceived externally. I am unwinding the teachings based on a correspondence between meditative states, or states of enfoldment, and patterns of coordination in the senses involved in the experience of self, namely equalibrioception, proprioception, graviception, and oculoception. Equalibrioception sustains pressure in the abdominal cavity that is essential to posture and carriage, and proprioception/graviception supports the posture/carriage realized; oculoception can continue or reset the location of equalibrioception. The key is the cessation of volition in activity, whereby the necessity of posture or carriage is simultaneously sustained and supported, particularly in the movement of breath. When volition ceases with regard to the movement of breath, the coordination necessary to sustain and support posture takes place involuntarily. This is child's play, as simple as falling asleep or waking up, but increasingly difficult as the mind is perceived as something other than simply one of the senses. It's a curious sensation, when contact in any sense supports the posture realized. That to me is the meaning of "(the Kingdom) is outside of you"; likewise when contact is particularly within, in the sense of equalibrium and proprioception/graviception ("the Kingdom is inside of you"), given the relinquishment of volition. I hope to return to pick up this thread, and hope everyone forgives the comments out of order.

Just reading this thread, still on page 2, and hope you will all forgive me for late arrival. On "rule the All", I'm thinking it's similar to turning the world instead of being turned by the world. Where that comes from, I'm not sure, but I think it's Eastern. (Back to page 2...)

recycled futures underwater traders, there passed on the presents

believeland bouncing as in a house, amongst tykes artful dodgers, all

and fight, Arjuna; the red flag, you must unfurl with two hands empty

like Humpty Dumpty I'm better off without walls compass toward joy

live a decent life whether you want to or not if you live at all

are good bedfellows those who sleep the soundest? Then Davy Jones has many