Mark Foote

From my reading of the four principal Nikayas, the cessation of in-breathing and out-breathing associated by Gautama the Buddha with the fourth rupa jhana concerns the cessation of the exercise of volition in the body affecting in-breathing and out-breathing, or the cessation of habitual activity connected with in-breathing and out-breathing, not an actual cessation of the movement of breath. There is a place in the Nikayas where Gautama speaks of actually cutting off his breath, and of an intense pain in his head associated with the experience which he said nevertheless never impinged on his mind; he mentions it among the list of ascetic practices he gave up. There's this: “You must strive with all your might to bite through here and cut off conditioned habits of mind. Be like a person who has died the great death: after your breath is cut off, then you come back to life. Only then do you realize that it is as open as empty space. Only then do you reach the point where your feet are walking on the ground of reality.” (Zen Letters, translated by J.C. and Thomas Cleary, pg 84) Here's an explanation I gave in my writing "Letting Go in Action: the Practice of Zazen": Yuanwu made a connection between "biting through here" and the ability to “cut off conditioned habits of mind”, where to “cut off conditioned habits of mind” meant to cease any voluntary activity of thought or direction of the body, just as though one were letting go of life itself. Yuanwu stated that as a matter of course, such a cessation of habitual activity results in a feeling that the activity of breath in the body has been cut off, and causes a person to come to their senses as though returned to life from the dead. Returned to one’s senses, the location of awareness shifts in three-dimensional space without restriction, as in empty space; activity in the body is engendered by virtue of the location of awareness and the nerve impulses generated by ligaments and fascia as they stretch in response to the relaxed necessity of breath, without volition. A practice that has been very helpful to me in coming to my senses would be: "...the placement of the little fingers against the lower abdomen in the posture of (zazen) provides a direct sense of the geometry of support for the lower spine initiated through reciprocal innervation. In particular, ...if the little fingers leave the abdomen, awareness of the forward and backward motion wherever consciousness takes place and relaxation of the activity of the body in awareness can restore the little fingers to the abdomen. Similarly, ...if the elbows lose their angle from the body, awareness of the side-to-side motion wherever consciousness takes place and relaxation of the activity of the body in awareness can restore the angle. Likewise, ...if the shoulders lose their roundedness, awareness of (the rotation) left and right wherever consciousness takes place and relaxation of the activity of the body in awareness can help restore the round to the shoulders." That I came up with in 2005, and was the basis for my website "The Mudra of Zen". Still seem to attend to the location of awareness in space from time to time, as necessary to the movement of breath.

telepathically heliocentrically interrelated

Don't get excited, boys- from snopes.com: Earlier comments notwithstanding, the quote appended to the image that circulated in December 2014 does not match any verifiable comments made by Pope Francis.

The sense of physical location, informed by the sense of proprioception and the sense of gravity, can allow the experience of action without the exercise of volition. "When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point." ("Genjo Koan" by Eihei Dogen, trans. by Aitken and Tanahashi) From my write, here: "The relinquishment of volitive activity in relaxation is familiar to everyone as a part of falling asleep; such a relinquishment of volitive activity can also take place as a part of waking up. With a relinquishment of volitive activity in waking up, an ability to feel can enter into the location of awareness such that the weight of a fly generates activity of posture and carriage. One of the difficulties many people have in falling asleep is the notion that they must somehow turn off the activity of their senses in order to do so; although sensory overload can definitely serve to keep a person awake (at least for awhile), calm acceptance of the activity of the senses is actually a necessary part of falling asleep. The sharpening of the senses that occurs with a relinquishment of volition is a part of falling asleep and waking up (although a bout of insomnia may be required to see that this is so in falling asleep). The distinction of the senses, including the sense of mind, frees the location of awareness to shift and move with proprioception." More, from my blog: "Whatever... is material shape, past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, mean or excellent, or whatever is far or near, (a person), thinking of all this material shape as 'This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self', sees it thus as it really is by means of perfect wisdom. Whatever is feeling... perception... the habitual tendencies... whatever is consciousness, past, future, or present (that person), thinking of all this consciousness as 'This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self', sees it thus as it really is by means of perfect wisdom. (For one) knowing thus, seeing thus, there are no latent conceits that 'I am the doer, mine is the doer' in regard to this consciousness-informed body." (MN III 18-19, Pali Text Society III pg 68, underlining added for this Tao Bums post) ...about "perfect wisdom": '"By means of perfect wisdom" is an affirmation that seeing through the conceit "mine is the doer" depends on a knowledge inherent in human nature, a knowledge that escapes the use of reason.' I say that because until a person experiences action of the body without the exercise of volition, they cannot find a way to believe it exists, even though they may have seen it in someone else during a performance of stage hypnosis or in the presence of someone like Kobun Chino Otogawa. The practice of Gautama was the intent concentration on in-breaths and out-breaths, both before and after his enlightenment. That his observation of cause and effect could have been so selfless is the reason his descriptions have endured (but he also made mistakes as a teacher, as when his "meditation on the unlovely" resulted in the suicide of scores of monks). For me, "this is not mine, this am I not, this is not myself" is a a part of freeing the mind in an in-breath or an out-breath, and yet freeing the mind is preceded by composing the mind in an in-breath or out-breath: this is proprioception alongside of equalibrioception as a nececessity in the movement of breath, and the experience of detachment and the cessation of volition in an in-breath or out-breath can take place out of necessity in an in-breath or out-breath. Mindfulness of detachment and mindfulness of the cessation of volition constitute the fourteenth and fifteenth aspects of Gautama's practice, preceded by mindfulness of composing the mind, of freeing the mind, and of impermanence. Deliverance from thought without grasping is non-thinking, but in this consciousness-informed body there can be no doer of non-thinking; it's a matter of relaxed necessity in the movement of breath." Clear as mud, I'm sure, but I hope I'm speaking to your points. As to the jhanas, I make sense of the first four by recalling Gautama's description of what ceases in each of them: dis-ease in the first, unhappiness in the second, ease in the third, and happiness in the fourth (yet all the meditative states are marked by happiness, a contradiction he acknowledges this way: "(The Tathagatha does) not lay down that it is only a pleasant feeling that belongs to happiness; for, your reverences, the Tathagatha lays down that whenever, wherever, whatever happiness is found it belongs to happiness." (MN I 4 , Pali Text Society II pg 69)) In particular, settling into whatever stretch we find ourselves in is the cessation of ease; the natural distinction of the senses, including the sense of mind, is the cessation of unhappiness; stretch beyond the comfort zone (but not beyond what's healthy) is the cessation of ease; and the distinction of sense beyond the boundary of the senses (but with the spirit of friendliness, of compassion, of sympathetic joy, and of equanimity) is the cessation of happiness.

"The psychotherapist Milton Erickson held that trance is an everyday occurrence for everyone. Getting lost in a train of thought, or absorbed in an athletic endeavor, he described as examples of trance (Wikipedia, "Milton Erickson"). In his practice, Erickson regularly invited his clients to enter into trance, out of regard for the benefit of the client. That a client entered into trance in response to such an invitation, Erickson viewed as a result of the unconscious decision of the client, quite outside of Erikson’s control. Erickson was famous for what came to be called "the confusion technique" in the induction of hypnosis, and in particular for his "handshake induction". By subtly interrupting someone in the middle of the expected course of an habitual activity, like shaking hands, Erickson enabled them to enter a state of trance. For Erickson, the confusion technique could also be applied through engaging the patient’s mind with a sentence whose meaning could not be found through the normal interpretation of the words and syntax (engaging the patient’s mind in a transderivational search). Mention of the induction of trance, which was explicitly recognized and described in the teachings of Gautama the Buddha and was obliquely referenced in the remarks of Bodhidharma, the first Zen teacher in China (entering "the Way" in Denkoroku), is largely absent in the Chinese and Japanese literature of Zen. At the same time, instances of sentences whose meaning cannot be found through the normal interpretation of the words and whose utterance may therefore enable the induction of trance in the listener are ubiquitous in the literature. The induction of trance serves to heighten the experience of the senses (a fact that Erickson noted), and thereby to allow a person under the right circumstances to discover activity in the senses that underlie the experience of self. Neuroscientists Olaf Blanke and Christine Mohr hypothesized that the tactile/proprioceptive/kinesthetic and vestibular senses in combination with the ocular sense are principally responsible for what is regarded as the experience of self. Particularly important to their conclusion was the observation that persons who experience themselves as being simultaneously in two places at once (a particular kind of out-of-body experience) appear to have a dysfunction in one or another of these senses. For those who are already familiar with Gautama the Buddha’s teaching regarding the lack of any actual abiding self, the conclusion that the experience of self is a function of activity in the senses should come as no surprise. Gautama’s most widely acknowledged sermons concern mindfulness and the eight-fold path. Less widely appreciated is Gautama’s teaching that knowing and seeing experience of the senses "as it really is" can develop and bring to fruition, not only mindfulness and the elements of the eight-fold path, but each of the factors of enlightenment as well.' (from Fuxi's Poem, by yers truly) '(Anyone)…knowing and seeing eye as it really is, knowing and seeing material shapes… visual consciousness… impact on the eye as it really is, and knowing, seeing as it really is the experience, whether pleasant, painful, or neither painful nor pleasant, that arises conditioned by impact on the eye, is not attached to the eye nor to material shapes nor to visual consciousness nor to impact on the eye; and that experience, whether pleasant, painful, or neither painful nor pleasant, that arises conditioned by impact on the eye—neither to that is (such a one) attached. …(Such a one’s) physical anxieties decrease, and mental anxieties decrease, and bodily torments… and mental torments… and bodily fevers decrease, and mental fevers decrease. (Such a one) experiences happiness of body and happiness of mind. (repeated for ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind). Whatever is the view of what really is, that for (such a one) is right view; whatever is aspiration for what really is, that for (such a one) is right aspiration; whatever is endeavour for what really is, that is for (such a one) right endeavour; whatever is mindfulness of what really is, that is for (such a one) right mindfulness; whatever is concentration on what really is, that is for (such a one) right concentration. And (such a one’s) past acts of body, acts of speech, and mode of livelihood have been well purified.' (Majjhima-Nikaya, Pali Text Society volume 3 pg 337-338, ©Pali Text Society) I would like to think that Gautama would have included the vestibular, gravitational, and proprioceptive senses if the science and the language had been around in his day. As to trance, you guys have been watching too many scarey movies!

I myself feel better when I accept that waking up and falling asleep are about the same thing. Milton Erickson, an influential psychologist, believed the senses are sharper in a state of trance, and so do I. Comes down to what trance is actually like, as opposed to Hollywood depictions, in my estimation. If you're thinking of Buddhism, remember that Gautama the Buddha spoke repeatedly of four material trances, and four immaterial trances along with what may ensue.

Hey, everybody- I was on a thread quoting passages about Bodhidharma from the Denkoroku, which is a Japanese text of course ("Transmission of the Lamp", my copy translated by Thomas Cleary, and I was quoting from 30 "Huike"). However, there's a reference to a text entitled Mystic Devices in the Room, as follows: "Huike was always talking about mind and nature, but he did not realize the essence of truth. The great teacher just refuted his errors and did not explain the essence of mind that is free from thought. In Mystic Devices in the Room, it says: "One time Huike climbed up Few Houses Peak with Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma asked, 'Where are we going?" Huike said, "Please go right ahead--that's it." Bodhidharma said, "If you go right ahead, you cannot move a step". Hearing this, Huike was enlightened." Not a footnote to be seen, regarding Mystic Devices in the Room (thanks a lot, Cleary!). Google gives no clues. Anyone have any ideas? Good friends who oversee the fun here on TTB-- I'm posting this here rather than in the Buddhist section because I believe the text referred to must be Chinese, and there are more people who are knowledgeable about the sacred texts of China here than there are on the Buddhist subforum. At least, that's my rash assumption! Ah, those Buddhists... --Well thanks for bearing with me!

Thanks ChiDragon, dawei, and Taoist Texts! Apparently the text you've quoted there, Taoist Texts, is the same passage quoted in Denkoroku. No surprise, since it was a Japanese source. I was hoping to find a text which might be the Chinese original from which the quote was taken. At the moment, the archive.org site appears to be down for maintenance. I'll try that again later, thank you ChiDragon.

The levels are about trance, and trance depends on something that can never quite be pinned down. My opinion. So thelearner is right, levels are deceptive; in my experience, all the levels must actually be present to one degree or another, in order for any level to be present. And thanks Jetsun, for the poetry! The Zen teacher I met, Kobun Chino Otogawa, said some interesting things, and one of them was "you know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around". To my mind, if you exercise intention to go right ahead, zazen doesn't walk; you cannot move a step, even though everyone will agree that you are walking around. I have written more about this, here: Fuxi's Poem.

Silent Answers, there is a text referenced in the Japanese "Denkoroku" that appears to be a Chinese record of sayings attributed to Bodhidharma, and possibly other Zen ancestors. Dawei figures the title is this in Pinyin: Shih Chung Hsuan Chi = Shi Zhong Xuan Ji = 市中玄机 I can't find anything in Google for any of the above. First question is, do we have the title right; second question would be, does a copy of such a text still exist; third question might be, has it been translated into English?

Thanks much, dawei-- I feel like I'm a good deal farther along then when I started. What do you make of this?-- https://archive.org/details/hanshansheshizho03hans Alrighty, if Google Translate is any indication, that has nothing to do with the text I'm looking for, in spite of it having "Shi Zhong Xuan Yi Ji" as a part of its title. Never mind. I appreciate your help.

Thanks, dawei. Seems like what Shasta Abbey has given in parenthesis is a reference, although it's hard for me to tell-- do you suppose Shih Chung Hsu¨an Chi would be the name of the Chinese text?- can't find anything in Google under that. Nuts.

Ah, he forgot his sandal. "The parasite of Shao-lin", as Yuanwu referred to him ("Zen Letters: Teachings of Yuanwu", trans. Cleary & Cleary). Here's some favorite quotes for me, from the Denkoroku, attributed to Bodhidharma: "The seal of truth is not gotten from another." "Outwardly cease all involvements, inwardly have no coughing or sighing in the mind--with your mind like a wall you can enter the Way." "In Mystic Devices in the Room it says, 'One time Huike climbed up Few Houses Peak with Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma asked, "Where are we going?" Huike said, "Please go right ahead--that's it." Bodhidharma said, "If you go right ahead, you cannot move a step." (all from "Transmission of Light", trans. T. Cleary, 30 "Huike", pg 111)

sorry for your loss as they say out on the res', the man has walked on

time-lapsed images given the place, coalesce to a memory

E is mc² broadly speaking. Hey, presto: nothing up my sleeve

"I have a practice that I’d like to offer... The practice I have in mind is a practice that everybody is already familiar with, even if they don’t think of it as a practice. What I’m referring to is waking up in the morning, or falling asleep at night; if you’ve ever had a hard time waking up or falling asleep, then you know that there can indeed be a practice! In my experience, the practice is the same, whether I am waking up or falling asleep: when I realize my physical sense of location in space, and realize it as it occurs from one moment to the next, then I wake up or fall asleep as appropriate. This practice is useful, when I wake up in the middle of the night and need to go back to sleep, or when I want to feel more physically alive in the morning. This practice is also useful when I want to feel my connection to everything around me, because my sense of place registers the contact of my awareness with each thing, as contact occurs. Just before I fall asleep, my awareness can move very readily, and my sense of where I am tends to move with it. This is also true when I am waking up, although it can be harder to recognize (I tend to live through my eyes in the daytime, and associate my sense of place with them). When my awareness shifts readily, I realize that my ability to feel my location in space is made possible in part by the freedom of my awareness to move." That's my write; there's a bit more if you're interested, here.

My comment on the "Double-Weightedness" thread, where dwai quoted his sifu as saying "if your mind and motion are together, you are double weighted", and wonders about the meaning: 'Sometimes I come around to just the senses, including the mind, but also including the sense of location and weight that I seem to really identify with, physically. The weight goes into one foot and the next posture opens up in another direction. My mind is going nowhere but there is a sense of place and weight. "if your mind and motion are together, you are double weighted". Heart-mind is a place, motion gives potential to place while at the same time motion is a function of place.' What I had in mind, although I didn't look it up until just now, was Yuanwu's use of the words potential and function. Here's one passage where he uses the words: 'In general, when superior wisdom, excellent capacity, and natural potential are already there, it is just a matter of working to penetrate through surely and truly. When you put it to use, you command Great Potential and unfurl Great Function, moving even before any impulse to action, operating free of things.' ("Zen Letters: Teachings of Yuanwu", trans. Cleary & Cleary, pg 2) Yes, and he's wonderful for leaving me with that vague sense that I know what he's talking about, but don't press me for the precise explanation-- as in his continuation: 'Yantou said: "Spurning things is superior, following things is inferior. If we talk about battle, each one's strength is in the turning point." If you can turn fast on top of things, then everything will submit to you, and everything will be in your grasp. Capturing and releasing, rolling up and rolling out--all can be transformed. At all times you remain peaceful and tranquil, without having anything whatsoever hanging on your mind. In activity you accord with the situation and its potential, holding the means of discernment within yourself. Shifting and changing and successfully adapting, you attain Great Freedom--all things and all circumstances open up before your blade, like bamboo splitting, all "bending down with the wind".' (Ibid) Nothing to be done about any of it, but I love the sound!

Ever since I read "Black Elk Speaks", it's been the great spirit. And as for a subtle reference to action, "the mystery dance", thank you great spirit!

no one gives a fuck I had to know I was sick before I could heal

Yeah, I get that too- jerked awake in the lotus, time to consider a nap. Unless it's at sesshin, in which case-- say a prayer!

Meanwhile, per the Wikipedia article, the bamboo strips with the B.C. version of the work have been translated by Paul van Els as part of his doctoral at Leiden University, and a complete PDF can be downloaded from here (image link):

Found myself thinking today that I should buy something, it's cyber-monday. Total B.S., but there it was in my thought-train. So I bought a hard-bound edition of this book, with the paper cover, for $0.01 on Amazon. $4 with shipping, have it by Christmas. Thank you, Santa (total B.S.) I'm excited. I like Cleary's translations.

cup and I take that walk out and up the street to where it never ends