Mark Foote

Why do I love TTB, let me count the ways: today I have read two poems by Elliot (thanks Apech!), that I swore I would find and get around to reading someday. They were perfect. I have a friend who pushed his Norton from SF State College back home to 19th Avenue, one night. The insanity of youth. Sorry to hear that your Prius bit you, Manitou. I've noticed that yoga myself, getting out of modern sedans. Yesterday I was walking on my PC, and thinking "the ox crosses the wooden bridge" and I apparently only get to learn things out of necessity. Close to injury. I had to remember to take it all in, and not know so much; that's me! Don't know, Taomeow; I came to my necessity of my own free will, attempting to take only what I had to in order to survive, at 25. Thanks, Rachel Carson, Alan Watts, and Philip Kapleau (for the pictures at the back of Three Pillars). Thanks, Kobun Chino Otogawa. Everything was going in one direction, 30-40, but for sure I thought I would be where I am today and more by 30. By 40. By... 52. Now older than that, but there's still starlight through the pyramid (what star is that, Apech?)

From Wikipedia on Milton Erickson: "Erickson also believed that it was even appropriate for the therapist to go into trance. 'I go into trances so that I will be more sensitive to the intonations and inflections of my patients' speech. And to enable me to hear better, see better.'" Erickson used something called the confusion technique for induction: 'Confusion might be created by ambiguous words, complex or endless sentences, pattern interruption or a myriad of other techniques to incite transderivation searches." Transderivational searches are described on Wikipedia as: " search(es) for a possible meaning or possible match as part of communication, and without which an incoming communication cannot be made any sense of whatsoever." The turning word of Zen instruction, which is designed to "utterly kill a dead man", because: "Utterly kill a dead man, then you will see a live man. (Bring a dead man fully to life, then you will see a dead man.)" (Blue Cliff Record 41st case verse commentary, parenthesis mine) Now why would the Zen masters be looking to induce a state of trance. Because the senses get sharper, and the way in which all the senses inform the sense of location and through location alone, engender activity, comes forward. "...Layman Pang pointed to some snow in the air and said, "Good snowflakes-- they don't fall in any other place." (Blue Cliff Record 42nd case) My own turning word lately is difficult to say, but I keep saying it anyway: "She calls to her maid again and again though there's nothing the matter, because she wants her lover to hear her voice." (Zen Letters: The Teachings of Yuanwu, trans. T. Cleary, pg 16; contemplating this saying, the "bottom fell out of the bucket" for Yuanwu) _/\_

something about cultivation, it looks like Bums don't live past 75...

a sapling growing in the spongy forest crust from the inside out

over and over I bow my head, still learning from the inside out

temporal transit through the tunnel of love and back again for more

That is kind of the way I am getting to know myself these days, seeing that I am fearful of not knowing and not doing, and I don't have to be. Weird. Prayer for change is good!

best to leave no trace but do not burn the paper-- pack it out, campers (sorry again-- Grand Canyon ranger video fresh in my mind)

really, owledge... that pony! I just mentioned the pony in the line above so I could work in edit mode, without the distraction of a carousel pony doing its ups and downs (I'm a little tired tonight!). Gautama mentions extending the mind of compassion in the ten directions to infinity, and says the perfection of such an extension is the realm of infinite ether (the first arupa jhana, or immaterial trance). Lately I'm on a lot about proprioception in equalibrioception-- "with no part of the body left out", a singularity in the sense of location and a freedom of the sense of location to move. More correctly, though, it's got to be all of the senses including touch "with no part left out", where "with no part left out" is the extension of the mind of compassion in the ten directions to infinity. An openness to all parts informing a singularity in the location of awareness. "Sitting shikantaza is the place itself, and things. ...When you sit, the cushion sits with you. If you wear glasses, the glasses sit with you. Clothing sits with you. House sits with you. People who are moving around outside all sit with you. They don't take the sitting posture! " (Kobun Chino Otogawa, from here) And a relinquishment of volition in activity, self-surrender the object of thought, so that when the wind blows from the realm of infinite ether the limbs can move, so to speak. Or not. I guess the relinquishment of volition is a matter of well-being, the well-being that draws us all as a source of non-material happiness, and whether or not the windy element moves the body is hardly significant. Except to me, because of the lack of doubt I experience in being drawn along. It gets complicated when people like Sasaki claim that they did their misdeeds as a matter of ishinashini, that their hand was will-less. Belief is involved, so although a lot of folks see Zen as somehow beyond reason the fact is that reason doesn't go away and belief is involved, even when volition ceases. More siginificant maybe is the way that the experience of people on the other side of the wall creating motion in the dead tree gives me some faith that it's alright to return to not knowing, because not knowing isn't necessarily not doing.

Wow, Nungali, I don't think I'll be sharing that around. Don't want anybody to get any ideas. S'interesting to me that Dan the man there seems to be holding the blade back along his forearm-- his cutting figure-eights remind me a lot of Zato-ichi's sword style (which is Shintaro Katsu's invention, if I understand correctly). Makes sense to me, though, and remind me to stay out of dark alleys in filipino neighborhoods...

in the foliage the bearcat loses its mind here, kitty, kitty! I'll leave this, but sorry for being behind the door when the page got turned!...

I have a short piece of broom handle I keep around, about 3 feet. Funny to read some other folks here also have a stick around. Yes, I know that mostly the correct defense is give them the money and put both hands in the air. I was working as a janitor at a place one time, wringing out the mop behind the store, when a guy jumped the fence and started raising something in a brown paper bag (through which I could see metal). I did the only natural thing and grabbed the barrel. And then I let go, because I realized he wasn't going to hurt anybody. He was pissed. Marched us all into the office and left us face down on the floor (yes he took the weekend receipts). I guess I was trained to do that by my judo instructor, close distance, but who's to say how to stay out of trouble. Pray for the best for everyone involved, and I do mean everyone, that is my strategy.

From the article quoted by GrandmasterP: For me, I accept the positive and substantive regardless of who's the teacher, and I look to happiness connected with well-being as my guide in practice; it's a lot like lighting a fire with a fire-stick every day, I guess. Reflection on the impermanence of all conditioned things, the truths about suffering, the lack of any abiding self-- a long time, to feel the positive in this description of characteristics. Why not just sit.

I found composing my thoughts on this site very useful in the dentist's chair this week; I'd like to thank Apech, and all the folks that keep the amazing TTB ship from running too firmly aground. And my dentist, of course, for his good work and lidocaine.

For those who don't see it, Owledge has a gif in his signature featuring a "My LIttle Ponies" pony that jumps into view and then disappears, repeatedly. I know you can turn off javascript in the browser, but I"m not aware of any browsers that block gifs (but I'd love to learn why some here don't see Owledge's signature in action). I read the transcript, rather than watch the video, so I may have missed some things. Does sound a lot like a natural DMT experience, from descriptions I've heard, and very profound indeed. Connected with the breath, in some mysterious way. " Every day is further opportunity to align one's self with the I Am and act accordingly..."-- Manitou makes it sound so straight forward, and yet unless the alignment acts with no intention there is no grace, I understand it to be this way and I hear it in what she says although the saying of it mostly confuses people. I hardly even know where I am, most of the time, much less that I'm breathing. What does this guy think he can offer me?

Like to thank Joe for inspiring me to walk through what I know again, especially to remind me of the rocking of the pelvis on the sacrum which is the relaxed action of the psoas; came in really handy today in the dentist's chair, in terms of being able to breath and relax, relax and breath.

earth clothes the coffin of one man, one life, one age; and yet, he lives on

blame JoeBlast for getting me started!

@joeblast, Sitting this morning and thinking about the psoas. I know Ida Rolf emphasized the psoas: "According to Ida Rolf, the psoas is one of the most significant muscles of the body." (from here). It's great to have somebody that's interested in the anatomy on Tao Bums. What I understand from what I've read is that the psoas has no attachments to the pelvis, but rather synovial bursa that allow it to slide. Here's an image that's interesting in a lot of ways, as this informs me about the parts that are expected to receive sliding muscles in the anatomy of the pelvis (though why they have placed iliopsoas on the hip instead of the "ilio" I don't know): The motion I feel in connection with the psoas is a relaxed rocking of the pelvis on the hips, and this motion seems to naturally open the ligaments that hold the sacrum to the pelvis, for motion forward and back. The other principal motions of the sacrum seem connected with the obturators, which are described in "Anatomy in Motion" as hammocking the hips away from the pelvis and so opening a roll side to side, and with the sartoriius, tensors, gluts, and piriformis for motion on the diagonals. Here's a shot of the obturators and piriformis: You can kinda see where Calais-Germain got the bit about the obturators (and gemelli) hammocking the hips away from the pelvis. That allows a side to side that stretches the sacro-spinous ligaments that attach the sacrum to the sit-bone and the stretch can generate involuntary, reciprocal muscular activity in relief of stretch. The hamstrings and quads I think stretch the ilio-tibial tract (wide fascial band)-- found the connection from the quads to the ilio-tibial tract in one of Doc Cailliet's books, "Low Back Pain Syndrome". That stretch supports a turning of the pelvis from the sartorious muscles, and action in the tensors, gluts, and piriformis muscles. Here's a shot of sartorius and tensors in relation to tensor facia lata: and one for the piriformis: Bottom line, three motions of the sacrum, pitch, yaw, and roll, stretching three sets of ligaments, ilio-sacral, sacro-spinous, and sacral tuberous (also note the ilio-lumbar ligaments, vertical support between the pelvis and L4, horizontal support between the pelvis and L5): Stretch in the three sets of ligaments generates reciprocal muscular activity in the pelvis and legs and throughout the body; movements of inhalation accent support in the vertical ilio-lumbar ligaments, movements of exhalation accent support in the horizontal ilio-lumbar ligaments. Now a lovely poem, from 5th century China, that takes off from the ol' broom handle above: The empty hand grasps the hoe handle Walking along, I ride the ox The ox crosses the wooden bridge The bridge is flowing, the water is still Fuxi To me, this is all about relaxed, involuntary, reciprocal muscular activity in response to the stretch of the three sets of sacral ligaments, stretch occasioned by the freedom of the location of awareness to shift and move in space in three dimensions. A sense of place in three dimensions and freedom in the sense of place to move opens an ability to feel through the involuntary activity generated out of stretch in the movement of inhalation and exhalation, both waking up and falling asleep. "When you arrive at last at towering up like a wall miles-high, you will finally know that there aren't so many things." ("Zen Letters: the Teachings of Yuanwu", translated by Cleary & Cleary pg 83)

My inspiration, Kobun Chino Otogawa, said he never had pain or numbness in the lotus. He started sitting at 7 or 8 years old, son of the abbot of a Zen temple in Japan, and I know he sometimes sat three 7-day sesshins in a row. He said he did have pain in seiza. Don't know what to say about the abs. I have a pot belly, but I always have had, even when I was the second most physically-fit guy in my high school class (the coach was keeping track of everything for his masters or phd or something). I only sit once or twice a day, usually 30-40 minutes in the morning, and a short sit before bed. The support for the back I think comes from everywhere, including the fascial envelope under the skin. Sort of like a Buckminster Fuller dome. It's usually simultaneous with my experience of a singular sense of place that is free to move. That's always with me, I guess, yet I experience it as waking up or falling asleep to right where I am.

invisible, now the goddess in the moon; still, she has no rival

New waves turn the shore new reeds whip the wind and sand old tea in a cup

Jack Kornfield talks about his experience: This, after he speaks of the ways in which therapy helps heal some things maybe a little better then meditation. Not saying there isn't gnosis and freedom, as it were, just saying not knowing and being is without trace.

The question concerns the exercise of will, and the answer given by the Zen teacher is that at first you must exercise your will, and there will be pain. I'm not saying this is wrong, but I am suggesting that maybe it doesn't have to be this way. It's my belief that if I had known when I started out what I know now, I could have avoided the pain. I chose, however, not to exercise will to sit through the pain, because I know myself pretty well, and I was pretty certain that I would only injure myself in the attempt. Instead, I took my time with the lotus, which is what Kobun Chino Otogawa advised people to do in one of his lectures. Kobun said he did not have pain or numbness in the lotus (and he said that after the third of three 7-day sesshins). He started sitting when he was 8, and was the son of the abbot of a Zen temple in Japan. He said he did have pain in seiza. The information that has been most important to me is not really directly connected to the posture; I wrote it up in a one page essay for some folks, here: waking up and falling asleep. Nevertheless, that is how I am able to sit without the exercise of making a buddha out of a tile (it's the sense of location that includes everything that moves). “Mind,having no fixed abode, should flow forth” These are the words that Huineng heard from the Diamond Sutra in the marketplace when his zither got plucked. Other possible translations and their source: ‘…Robert Aitken says, “One tradition states that this moment occurred at the lines: ‘Dwell nowhere and bring forth the mind.” Sekida says it was, “Without abiding anywhere, let the mind work.” Shibayama says it was the line, “No mind, no abode, and here works the mind.” (These are all from commentaries on Mumonkan case #23′”)