Mark Foote

we've got it right here the secret of happiness it's nothing at all

Thanks, Red Pheonix, I enjoyed the video! Also, thanks, Prince..., for the description of your experience and your school. I always wanted to practice pushing hands, maybe someday. I did a little Tai-Ch'i in the park with a local instructor in Chen Man-Ch'ing's lineage, and some Hsing-Yi exercises I learned out of a book. Mostly I just sit the lotus in the mornings for 40 minutes or so. This morning I was reflecting on this: That's the Egyptian god Hapi on both sides, one foot on each side of what appears to be a representation of the sacrum, four reeds running from the feet through the center of the column and upward, two gripped like ropes by the gods, two supporting the platform on which are symbols that I believe belong to the king, or alternatively: My study concerns the ilio-lumbar ligaments, which are in two sets, the first from either side of the pelvis to the fourth lumbar vertebrae running vertically, and the second from either side of the pelvis to the fifth lumbar vertebrae running horizontally. I find the ligaments to the fourth vertebrae tend to engage in inhalation, and the ligaments to the fifth lumbar vertebrae tend to engage in exhalation. Now, when the movement of breath engages the ilio-lumbar ligaments, there's a feeling like the action on a swing in a playground connecting the leverage of the spine with the feeling for the legs and the seat of the pants. In sitting, the feeling in the legs is returned through the ilio-lumbar ligaments to the lower spine, and activity generated by stretches in the legs is balanced by activity generated by the stretches of the ligaments that connect the pelvis to the rib cage, through the abdomen. In particular, there's a point where the fascia and ligaments associated with the internal, external, and transversus abdominals meet in equal measure at the rectus, and that's just below the belly-button. The stretch in the fascia and ligaments of the abdominals can be felt in the shoulders and arms, and on exhalation I believe the weight and leverage of the arms helps the stretch of the ilio-lumbar ligaments to the fifth lumbar vertebrae- hence the gods holding the reed on either side of the Djed. This morning I was feeling the role of the fascia and ligaments that connect the neck muscles to the skull, looking for a counter-rotation of the sacrum to the rotation of the pelvis, and I had a sense of height at the tan-tien over the sit-bones and of activity in the piriformis muscles under the pelvis. I looked for my sense of place like waking and sleeping, and was struck by a connection between the freedom of mind and the entire fascial envelope supporting the movement of breath.

it is light as gold bright and solid as sunlight cat's paw on my arm

free will; mindfulness Winnie the pooh, honey bee passing train sunk low

I think I read a post where Taomeow advised that the real lotus was the one where your arms wrap around behind your back and grab the toes. Knowing that's beyond me (probably in this lifetime), I never tried. Odd part to me is that you could sit 90 minutes in the lotus, but placing the feet close to the pelvis (and higher on the thighs) did damage to your knee, especially since you did it gradually. I don't seem to sit more than 50 minutes. I'm right-handed, and the left knee is definitely a whole different ball of wax than the right, even just when I stretch my legs (which I do one at a time, sitting on the floor, grabbing my toes and bringing my head to my knee). I believe this has to do with pivots and stretches at the sacrum. Here's my guide, lately: The pose of the goddess on the right interests me. I find a similar posture but with the left foot over the right thigh helpful when I am between sitting intervals in the lotus; it uncorks something, and after I watched a Tibetan lama deliver a lecture for an hour in the same pose, I have to believe it's also good for meditation. My assumption is that the djed pillar represents the relationship between the mechanisms of the cranial-sacral respiration and the hypnogogic occurrence of consciousness, and in particular the base of the djed represents the sacrum and the ligamentous attachments of the sacrum to the pelvis. The goddesses are the embodiment of the first line of Fuxi's poem, from 5th century China: And here's the practice I describe in "The Mudra of Zen": When I wrote "Translations of Motion in the Lotus", I noted that the reciprocal innervation between the extensors and the psoas muscles is engaged as the translations of motion culminate in the movement of the skull bones, affecting the cranial-sacral rhythm. I now conclude that the movement of the skull bones also affects the pineal gland and the production of melatonin, perhaps making the hypnogogic state more fluidly accessible with the attendant freedom of movement of the sense of location. That sense of location opens feeling, and somebody with a lot of feeling drew those baboons ascending the hills with their palms in the air!

apologies for thread busting! as I pursue it I burst out laughing, at beams from a UFO from a UFO to a WIFI coffee shop for tea, and biscuits

I remember a friend telling me that they sat zazen with John Daido and his students, and my friend had a cold, so she blew her nose- Daido thundered "let it run!", something like that. When I took judo in high school, my teacher was known for his gentle style. Seems funny, since judo translates as "gentle way", but most judo teachers don't emphasize the point. My teacher, Moon Watanabe, used to say "it's easy to hurt the man, it's hard to be gentle" or words to that effect. The local branch of the main judo organization actually sent at least one student to my teacher, so that my teacher could teach him to be more gentle. I like your description of what it's about, Taomeow. That said, I've never wanted to be hard-style in my practice, and I think it is a matter of choice in some respects. I liked the fact that Kobun Chino Otogawa, who I used to go hear lecture, was one of the first to ask for and receive permission not to use the stick on beginners at Eiheiji, when he was in charge of practice. Kobun helped the Americans who had been sent to Japan, who had dental problems and problems with their knees, and Shunryu Suzuki heard about it and invited Kobun to help set up the Tassajara monastery- that's how Kobun came to the U.S.A., and against the wishes of his teacher. The thing that I find so inspiring about Taoism and Tai-Ch'i is the very emphasis on softness overcoming hardness. If the teacher is really including the entire U.S.A. and the world in their zazen, where is the need to make the people in the room do this or do that to learn to sit, where is the faith in action without a trace?

a sign of our own a cow held by tractor beams from a UFO (saw this on the way to Taos, NM- a road sign intended to be a caution about cows on the road- someone had drawn in a flying saucer with lines extending down to the cow, and I thought it was "the" sign of our times)

I don't know exactly what Wang Liping means by requiring that a person "not move", but let me hope that he refers to not exercising volition in the posture. One of my favorite translations was Carl Bielefeldt's "Dogen's Meditation Manuals", first edition, where he quoted Nanyue: "If you're studying seated meditation, meditation is not sitting still." Later on, Bielefeldt redacted this to: "If you're studying seated meditation, meditation is not sitting or reclining." (Zazen Shin tranlation, Carl Bielefeldt, Stanford Soto Zen Text Project) Point being that when I'm able to relax into the activity that is present in the lotus, activity that is present by virtue of the stretch of ligaments, then I can let my mind go and incorporate what I feel in my overall sense of location. The overall sense of location sits with feeling, and I wake up or fall asleep to the fact. Nothing I actually do, which is why "meditation is not sitting or reclining" is true, but I think "meditation is not sitting still" is better because it rebuts trying to hold still, which is simply more voluntary activity and stifling to the reciprocal innervation necessary to open feeling. I suppose it could be said that necessity is the only real teacher in regards to these things, and the feeling of well-being you had has left a memory in the fascial tissue of your body that will draw you as a necessity to experience that again. Nothing that need be done about that, either: "If you're studying seated buddha, buddha is no fixed mark." (Ibid)

just love all that chrome you can see your reflection fifty years ago

confused but it's less likely to rain if I'm not bring on cats and dogs!

You guys are really inspiring, as was Drew. Difficult to do nothing this morning; that's not surprising in the lotus, I suppose, but everything comes out of nothing or I'm nowhere. Some days I want to do something and it's not the same as waking up and falling asleep, and I watch my mind and wonder. The stretch comes out of absorption, but I can't make that happen. Nothing to do, tum de dum...

that light's electric that shines from within the heart without words, knowing

I tried tonight to explain to someone how waking up could be falling asleep. The Tibetans sit in a wooden box when they are on retreat, so I've heard, so that they sleep sitting up. I slept sitting up in an easy chair for about six months a long time ago, but I keep that experience close; to fall asleep sitting up, I looked to wake up, to be where I was from moment to moment and feel. Sometimes now in the lotus, when I have trouble staying alert, I look to fall asleep. Same thing. Either way, there's a stretch involved, and if the stretch no longer initiates action reciprocally to sustain a balance, I wake up. In the lotus, I can only cat-nap very briefly before I wake up. In the easy chair, I could sleep a couple of hours, then I would shift position and go back to sleep for another two hours. I guess the lotus is a level of challenging stimulation, or even the Burmese posture or half lotus. Or even sleeping sitting up in an easy chair...

fresh grass. mmmmm. wholesome. let me ruminate on that all cuddly, am I

"I'm sorry, the bum you've invoked is not available at this time. Press your luck to speak to some other Laosy bum, albeit one who doesn't sit more than 50 minutes at a stretch and who doesn't experience anything of climactic proportions while doing so." Urk, you rang? So on the flexibility front, maybe try the lotus on a Flyer: I remember sailing down the parking lot at my local high school with an old sheet on a flexi in the wind, that was really something. but really, here are some instructions I find very useful, every day almost: In my understanding the hoe handle is the sacrum. The empty hand works as Gautama described it, "as in front, so behind: as behind, so in front"; if I am conscious of activity in the lower abdominals, I look for consciousness of activity at the sacrum. The Gautamid described the feeling of the first meditative state as like gathering soap powder that been sprinkled around the inside of a cauldron into a ball, until the ball doesn't ooze; if I look to the state of mind I have waking up or falling asleep, and I am conscious in front as behind, behind as in front, then I can allow consciousness to fall where it may and observe activity initiated by the stretch of ligaments. I have to be waking up or falling asleep to observe activity initiated by the stretch of ligaments without startling myself and interrupting the reciprocity and balance of the action, and I have to accept what I feel into my sense of location, but this is no big deal; the effort is being where I am as I am where I am, to wake up or fall asleep. I usually stretch my legs, first one and then the other, before I sit. I grab my toes or as close as I can get, and wait until I have the feeling to touch my head to my knee or whatever feels satisfactory. This usually requires specifically waiting for feeling for motion at the sacrum; the sacrum in my experience is constantly rotating forward and backward, and on other pivots as well. Yet, as behind, so before.

'One significant finding of modern studies is that a person's brain seems to commit to certain decisions before the person becomes aware of having made them. Researchers have found delays of about half a second (discussed in sections below). With contemporary brain scanning technology, other scientists in 2008 were able to predict with 60% accuracy whether subjects would press a button with their left or right hand up to 10 seconds before the subject became aware of having made that choice.[6] These and other findings have led some scientists, like Patrick Haggard, to reject some forms of "free will".' (from Wikipedia, "Neuroscience of free will")

red americas some kind of balance at work lost in the stampede

A friend of mine was telling about some research to that effect, I see Wikipedia has an article on the neuroscience of free will and as soon as they are done with their protest I intend to look it up.

Thanks, Steve, thanks for the questions they were all right on. I thought about this as I went over the hills to fetch my supper, and the central question I guess is about choice. The practice I have, is really so many disparate elements, and it comes to me out of necessity, although sometimes I'm the very one that is driving me to that experience of necessity. My conclusion is that I can't help being attracted to the feeling that belongs to my own well-being, and likewise I can't help being averse to the feeling that belongs to my own illness. Some would say they have a choice, but my conclusion is that I do not. Let's see if we can tip the boat!

I remember Blanche Hartman from S.F. Zen Center talking about one day when she was on her way to a day of mindfulness and she buttoned her shirt backwards or something. I do revere some of the teachers I met from Japan, whom I thought had a certain grace and poise, and sometimes I think I should be concerned to practice hard and be more like them; in the end, though, I think Blanche has the right approach, to laugh at herself and be what she is. I confess, that what I wrote might not make any sense to someone coming to it cold. I am playing with the relationship of several things, among them the hypnogogic state (between waking and sleeping) which I'm referring to as "waking up and falling asleep", the roll of a sense of location in "waking up and falling asleep", and the cessation of volition in perception and sensation through a sense of location in "waking up and falling asleep". I would say that I have a compass, and that compass comes out when I feel like I'm starting to walk in circles, and I use that compass to sight the next landmark in the direction I want to go before I put it away. The compass is the cessation of volition, in speech, in inhalation and exhalation, and in perception and sensation, and the landmark is the combination of disparate elements at the instant of cessation. The landmark is always right where I am, every contact of sense including the sixth sense enters into where I am even before I know it, and the ability to feel that arises with each contact informs where I am. When I am waking up and falling asleep, I can witness the action that arises out of where I am as I am where I am. That action is wu wei.

vapor to the sky mysteriously solid white billowing clouds