Mark Foote

Agreed, magic. The mudra of Zen, that would be the lotus posture, no? Just a thought.

I'm hoping this is relevant to a number of recent threads, most of them about trance. I have the first second draft of a walk-through of Gautama the Buddha's first four meditative states, how they are induced, what that's about. Yes, I wrote it for myself, but I thought there might be folks here who would be interested. I close the piece with this: 'I have lately written about "Waking Up and Falling Asleep", emphasizing only the sense of location and the role of the ability to feel in the sense of location. Several people read what I had written, and said that my instructions were useful to them in getting back to sleep when they woke up too early in the morning. One person wrote me to say that he had found his sense of location shifting in his body as he lay awake in the early hours of the morning, and through staying with his sense of location he was able to return to sleep. He wrote again after several weeks to say that he had continued to have success in returning to sleep through staying with his sense of location, almost every night. He also mentioned that he tried the practice in the daytime, and discovered a profound feeling of peace in the midst of his day. What I have written here I feel is an explanation of the context of the experience that my friend had, which I also have had. The common thread in our experiences is a freedom in the location of awareness that somehow draws feeling from throughout the body into a relaxed movement of breath. The benefit to us both is being alive to our own nature, at rest or in motion. Being alive to one's own nature I would describe as the practice of zazen.' Letting Go in Action: the Practice of Zazen Lem'me know what you think! - Mark

Very interesting. Ferguson's translation puts the bridge as a "wooden bridge". Any trace of that? No mention of the ox on the bridge? Exorcist 1699, to me the poem is about non-volitive action. My friend humbleone was able to witness his mind moving around in his body, when he looked for it at 4am lying in bed. Now I would assert that at that moment his ability to move his body had been relinquished in favor of the disconnect from physical action that happens in sleep. He discovered he could also experience his mind as having location during the day, and realize a kind of peace. This is not thought, this is the experience of physical location in space associated with awareness, and there is a kind of relinquishment of activity like that before sleep associated with the experience. Can this be done in a posture of meditation, standing or seated? Yeah, sure, and postures or poses that are held for any length of time bring forward the role of the movement of breath and the role of the stretch of ligaments and the activity of muscles, even in holding still. To me, the poem describes a gradual settling into the stretch and activity of such a posture or pose, right down to the moment where the sense of location in space starts to shift while the voluntary activity of the body ceases.

I have a new piece that maybe obliquely addresses the placement and orientation of the hands and fingers: http://www.zenmudra.com/zenmudra-the-practice-of-zazen.html In particular, I am drawing on a relationship between the placement of the hands relative to the body, relaxed extension in the movement of breath, and the rhythm of stretch in the three sets of ligaments at the sacrum. I'm not an expert in mudras, not even an informed amateur, but the feeling for the dermatones along and around the parts of the body does seem to inform the alignment of the sacrum and the lower spine, if I can just let go of the activity involved. Here's a good dermatone chart, I think.

Thanks, ChiDragon, for giving it a shot, and thanks Taomeow for giving it a look. Funny story. dawei, can you put it in four lines, I'd be curious how your muse would put it. Just curious! Here's the explanation I gave to a musician over on Brad Warner's blog (hardcorezen.info), in the comments: '“The Gateless Gate Case 38, A Cow Passes Through a Window The Case Wuzu Fayan said, “For example, it’s just like a great cow passing through a latticed window. Her head, horns, and four legs have passed through. Why is it that her tail can’t pass through?” Wumen’s Commentary If in regard to this you are able to turn yourself upside down, attain one single eye, and utter a turning word, you will be able to repay the four obligations above and help the living beings of the three realms below. If you are still unable to do this, reflect again on the tail; then you will be able to grasp it for the first time. The Verse If it passes through, it will fall into a ditch; If it turns back, it will be destroyed. This tiny little tail – What a strange and marvelous thing it is!” And then there’s Foyan describing the two illnesses at his monastery, looking for an ox while riding an ox, and riding an ox unable to dismount. Better never to get on the ox, says Foyan. The empty-hand of Fuxi’s poem I describe as action generated through the stretch of ligaments. There are three sets of ligaments, roughly, that connect the sacrum to the pelvis; you can find that online, looks like links may be breaking the site today so I’ll leave it off. These three sets of ligaments support motion in the sacrum that rocks, rolls, and twists, roughly, and generate activity in the muscles of the pelvis and in the legs. The hand is the weight of the relaxed body in the movement of breath that stretches the ligaments at the sacrum and generates activity; the activity generated is actually in support of the alignment of the lower spine in the movement of inhalation and exhalation, and the ability to feel along the legs informs the alignment. Why all the anatomy; doesn’t that drop away at some point? Well, the rest of the ox passes through, but the tail does not. The first four trance states, at least, belong to mindfulness of the body, and the relinquishment of volition in action that constitutes riding the ox depends on the reverberation of pitch, yaw, and roll throughout the body from under the hooves of the ox. So to speak. You know all this intuitively, as a rock musician; the part you quoted is just my description of the source of shake, rattle and roll in a dance like that of the Bushmen, it’s stretch at the sacrum with a rhythm in three directions. If you need to see what’s happening on the cushion to try to find feeling in your legs, as I do, then my descriptions of the relationship of dermatones and the stretch and activity that aligns the spine may be useful to you, as it is useful to me. Nothing happens without everything happening, in my experience, and so I outline the entirety of the first four meditative states; the freedom of mind and movement in the location of consciousness like falling asleep is the real beginning to me. That’s a thing that can be hard to realize when your legs are twisted up in the knot handed down from India, at least for me, so I write to remind myself.' To me, the ox in Ferguson's translation and in the koan is a metaphor for the activity generated through the stretch of ligaments, although to ride the ox requires a state between waking and sleeping so that the involuntary activity doesn't cause a "hypnic jerk" (I talk about that in my piece) that ends the reciprocal stretch and activity. The bridge and the water represent a freedom in the location of awareness that precipitates action as though through hypnosis, and the cessation of voluntary activity in the body, respectively. Because it's a hynogogic thing, it's never quite the same twice, even if Fuxi's poem and Gautama's description of meditative states might make a person imagine it to be so... that's how it is in my experience, when I've had such experience, anyway. Having such experience more lately, and I feel better for it, I think.

I just finished a piece on the first four jhanas, and I would characterize them as a natural part of human nature, and the Gautamid's description as pretty amazing but hard for most of us to make sense of. I'm hoping that taking notes has allowed me to see it a little bit better. My notes, as it were, are here: http://www.zenmudra.com/zenmudra-the-practice-of-zazen.html A thread that I started to announce the piece is here: http://thetaobums.com/topic/27984-letting-go-in-action-the-practice-of-zazen/ hope it hits you right.

I appreciate the history as I know none of it. Can you give a translation of the poem, or a link or reference to a translation that you feel is more accurate? Thanks much!

malikshreds, thanks for giving it a try. The piece is organized as an instruction in the practice of zazen, but the practice of zazen that Shunryu Suzuki referred to when he said: "only zazen can sit zazen!" or that Kobun Chino Otogawa referred to when he said: "you know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around." That practice of zazen, like the practice of Tai-Chi, is about a calm and relaxation that moves beyond comfort and beyond happiness, just by virtue of the place we find ourselves in. If you feel you need to understand something in your practice, I'm pretty sure you will find it in this piece; outside of practice, it's not really useful at all. Ok, the truth is, you would be right if you said there was no real organization in the piece. These are my instructions to myself, and I had to follow what I needed to hear next, as far as the organization. I make a leap of faith to assume that others will experience the same necessity in their practice, when they really get down to being where they are with all their senses.

you frack in LA on the beach, you get sandy parts that bump and grind

Thanks for the writing, that's a very positive love-story! It's great to read of your mutual happiness, and I wish you the best. Am I alone in harboring a deep suspicion of Taoist sexual techniques? Probably. Somehow I am thinking that something like the practice of Tai-chi is maybe a better place to learn about ch'i and human nature than a practice specific to sexual energies. I like the practice Jesus recommended in the Gospel of Thomas, "...when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female (not) be female..." the whole verse and my take on it, here.

3rd draft, I deleted the lines quoted above. Here's a better sample of what the piece is about: "In a poem from the fifth century C.E., the Buddhist monk Fuxi elaborated on how relaxed extension stretches the ligaments between the sacrum and the pelvis, and how gravity generates activity in the legs and in the pelvis that frees the experience of location and turns off volitive activity in the movement of breath: 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 ('Zen's Chinese Heritage', Andy Ferguson, pg 2) 'The ox crosses the wooden bridge' describes an effect of the rhythm of stretch and activity as the weight of the entire body rests in the ligaments that connect the sacrum and pelvis: each step of an ox on a wooden bridge reverberates to the headtop and throughout the body of any rider, from the spine to the surface of the skin, and the same is true for the individual whose weight rests in three directions between the sacrum and pelvis. The phrase 'the bridge is flowing' could be said to describe a moment before sleep when the location of awareness seems to shift in place in the body, while 'the water is still' could describe the cessation of volitive activity in the body at that same moment. For most people, the loss of volitive control in the activity of the body is associated with falling, and as a consequence many people experience a 'hypnic jerk' or sudden muscular contraction as they begin to fall asleep. Fuxi suggests that an awareness that shifts location freely in the body can come about as a matter of course, as the ability to feel informs the sense of location and the weight of the relaxed body generates stretch and activity in the movement of breath. He depicts a process of gradual stages whereby a muscular contraction is avoided, at the moment when a shift in the location of awareness with a cessation of volitive activity registers in the sub-consciousness. Although Fuxi outlines the stages of a process, and the process may be said to be gradual, the transition from a waking state to a state between waking and sleeping must be said to be sudden, marked by a sense of location that can shift and a cessation of any voluntary activity in the body." I'd like to thank everybody on Tao bums for the inspiration that their heart-felt words have provided me, and for the good sentiments that many people have expressed toward what I've written; it's been a great help!

is recycles now like circus clowns scooping poop nothing is wasted you define "wasted" by the ounce lines on the glass they're a British thing

remove adhesive plant face slowly, thoroughly slur imprecations

hocus pocus, all magick is afoot, look sharp through the chimney, pop!

thanks, pythagoreanfulllotus! I'll check the link.

and now: my next trick nothing up my sleeve. Get this- abracadabra!

wake to sheets in mouth foot in hand, breath on couch, baked half- could have sworn whole!

the clear, beaten path leads down to the lake- at dusk, the deer move in groups

what a glorious day night comes, just the backward step to shine the light in

the balance of life a hard rain, lightening, thunder starry night above

this moment it is back in the present again what was I doing?

true agape love doesn't look like anything it's here; only here

distracting the flow funneling the furrowed brow original face

walking up the street waltzing down the avenue round and round they go

only to go splat have I chewed this nasty stuff what's the point, really?