Mark Foote

or just let it grow; it'll come out, anyway might as well let it

the bear awakens trips out into spring, groggy sniffs and pads along sniffs and pads along down the draw toward the creek in the place, at home

along eternal way in the old cemetery not much left to see

When I finally sat down to write something about zazen, I wrote an essay about "the mudra of zen". I didn't know what I was going to say about that, but I wrote anyway. As it happens, I still use the practice I wrote about even today, six years later. And yet, it's an oddball thing! So here it is. As consciousness occurs, we have a sense of our location in space. This sense is keyed to the three motions possible in space; these motions are pitch, yaw and roll, just like with an airplane: As regards the mudra commonly employed in Soto Zen practice, here's what I wrote: "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. 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. If the shoulders lose their roundedness, awareness of the turn 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." (from The Mudra of Zen) So that's a bit different, it says that the correct mudra just depends on an awareness of pitch, yaw, and roll wherever consciousness takes place and relaxation of the activity of the body in awareness. The trick is the recognition that consciousness moves, and has place, and activity follows out of that sense of place even in the absence of volition, yet this is as simple as a feeling for pitch, yaw, and roll where I am right now. And I have that feeling without trying, but I think it's also possible to bring mindfulness of this feeling forward to good effect, especially in relationship to our form/posture/carriage at the moment. ("At the Zendo" by Clay Atchison, by permission)

egrets stretch and glide out over the water- fresh on the heels of love

spring comes to the pond frogs bellow, geese honk and fly egrets stretch and glide

This is the ruination of a life, as well, when zazen gets up and walks around. Might be walking around for a long time! Mothers, don't let your sons read hieroglyphs on pyramid walls- make 'em grow up to be lawyers, and doctors, and such...

(removed dupe)

carp heads surfacing mouths moving, whiskers and eyes pond fronds, dark and green

Yo!, right on, Mr. Saltveit! Do we accept that anyone who wants to master a wisdom tradition must study under a lineage master? That's what we're debating here, to my way of thinking. People are writing and speaking about the wisdom traditions. The more I read what the real scholars have to say, the more I realize how much was borrowed, how much was improvised, how much missed the mark in what the masters had to say. The Gautamid taught the meditation on the unlovely, and scores of monks a day "took the knife" while he was on retreat; does that sound like his teaching was on the mark from the day of his enlightenment? (Pali Text Society, "Samyutta Nikaya", Volume 5, Chapter on In-Breathing and Out-Breathing). Dogen borrowed most of his meditation manual "Fukanzazenji" from a Chinese manual, and rewrote it something like 40 times; did he feel it was important, and imperfect? (thanks, Carl Bielefeldt, “Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation”, from the Koroku Fukan zazen gi; pg 175, ©1988 Regents of the University of California) Have the words evolved over the years? I would say; the writings of Yuanwu and Foyan in 12th century China are particular favorites of mine. The master-disciple relationship that characterizes Eastern wisdom-tradition training has little to do with the forms that are taught, or the scriptures that are passed down, or the ritual associated with the tradition. The Eastern traditions generally teach the form as the embodiment of the tradition, and then they go on to claim that there is something outside the form that must be transmitted from master to disciple. For example, in the Soto tradition they teach the posture and form of zazen and commend everyone to shikantaza as the way (see “Shobogenzo-zuimonki”, sayings recorded by Koun Ejo, translated by Shohaku Okumura, 2-26, pg 107-108, ©2004 Sotoshu Shumucho), and then they state that Zen Buddhism cannot be mastered without a master-disciple relationship with a lineage teacher. The difficulty is in the description of shikantaza, in teaching the posture and form of zazen as the movement of mind, as Shunryu Suzuki alluded to when he said: "Sometimes when you think that you are doing zazen with an imperturbable mind, you ignore the body, but it is also necessary to have the opposite understanding at the same time. Your body is practicing zazen in imperturbability while your mind is moving." (Tassajara, Sunday June 28 1970, from www.cuke.com: Whole Body Zazen) My contention is that we can teach the fundamentals of the movement of mind, it's the same as waking up and falling asleep, and that with a little help from the peculiarly American discipline of cranial-sacral osteopathy we can teach the meaning of "pure hit sit" (shikantaza). As Issho Fujita says, we sometimes assume particular poses and postures as a reflection of our state of mind; what, then, is the state of mind that is inherent in the lotus posture? Or any other posture we find ourselves in? I don't know if I'm the only one in the U.S.A. who had to teach himself how to sit the lotus. Sometimes I think that, because folks I know either could sit the posture, or gave up on it, but nobody actually learned it. It's not perfect, my lotus, but I like doing it for 30 or 40 minutes in the morning. I like doing it because I understand there's really nothing to do, as I said in waking up and falling asleep: "There's really nothing I can do to practice waking up and falling asleep, other than to accept being where I find myself at the moment. The beautiful part of it is, that's exactly the practice of waking up and falling asleep." Is waking up and falling asleep zazen? If so, do we need a lineage holder to teach us how to wake up and fall asleep? If not, then where will you find it (this zazen)?

Let me take it a step further. Unless and until we can write a "manual of meditation" that our friends and neighbors can actually use, we are likely headed toward deep do-do. To me, there's a thread here; I look at the teachings we have access to now (and we are so amazingly fortunate to have both the living and the dead traditions opened as never before), and they don't manage to do what Western science has done. Break the relationships down into a language that any intelligent person can prove for themselves, and then build on. I looked right away to the stretches originally associated with Taoism, and the eight brocade is a meditation manual; so were the sutta volumes of the Pali cannon, in places; there was a seated meditation manual written in China around 12th century CE, which Dogen used to write his Fukanzazenji. Folks are trying to put it into words, in a way that will convey something that everybody can use. Ok, so the thing can never be completely described in words, and as Godel proved the whole of mathematics cannot be put on an axiomatic basis unless the axioms also produce contradictions. Even so, we have the relationships of mathematics, we have some amazing descriptions of relationships that are fundamental to human well-being from all recorded history including the walls of the pyramids. We can take this to another level. Of course, I haven't succeeded in communicating a description of the relationships that are fundamental to human well-being directly to any one yet, either. But I keep trying! Here's one you might like (Apech,you've already seen it): Waking up and Falling Asleep Thanks, Stigward, for an interesting and engaging discussion; I learned a lot, already.

Whoa, what a question! I've had several interesting dreams lately: in one, under cover of darkness I moved out of the apartments above Hamburger Mary's in the South of Market, San Francisco- key turned in, cut loose and moving not sure where (I lived there in the '80's). This morning, at the end of my sitting, I felt like I was sleeping awake and it was ok to be that way. I think that's what the dream of Hamburger Mary's was about, leaving off my effort and accepting the human condition and the place I'm in (which is fundamentally homeless). That was effortless a lot of the time in childhood, but now I know that everything else is there as well, at the place I am sleeping awake. What a homecoming that is, for me. Childhood without the trauma.

"The word 'akh' as a verb means 'to be effective' and the 'akh' as an entity was seen as a shining being who could come and go as it pleased. This means that the akh was not impelled by the forces of the universe to follow a set path but had achieved a state of freedom and ability to act in any situation." - Pyramid Text by Apech I'm suggesting that the free movement of awareness that is experienced in waking up and falling asleep is the "akh". I'm also suggesting that we don't see this all the time because we are attached, averse, or ignorant of the sense of location associated with the movement of consciousness. I would also say that action that is precipitated by the sense of location without the exercise of volition is action which occurs from a state of freedom (and is appropriate, regardless of situation); as Kobun Chino Otogawa said, "you know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around." When the sun is in the void, the sun is in its place (and moving?), even though it is unseen. I'll have to reread the text, about whether there is a death and rebirth involved- is a connection to the entirety of creation implied, during the passage thru the void? You'd think I'd remember these things. Checking the text: "By tuning in to, or joining the sun's journey through the Dwat the Egyptians sought the same power of eternal rebirth that the sun had. They understood this to be the key to immortality albeit in the spiritualized form called the 'akh'." That's exactly my experience, by tuning into the sense of location of awareness even as I am falling asleep, I realize that my awareness moves, and when I tune in to that movement waking up I discover that this is a source of action beyond volition.

lest it go unheard the frogs cranked it up; I stood, wet of rain in nose wet of rain in nose achy legs, thick in the throat worth it for one dance

all along the way the wind gusted and blew fits can I fly, can I

muddy, up he stands weaves, bleeds, and then disappears creek sounds, empty sky

may I have this dance out under the stars, tonight creek sounds, rotting leaves

Mahatma Gandhi would enjoy children's laughter anytime of day

Wow, thanks a lot. I know it will be hard to interest my friend in this, and the pharmacological giants will not be funding that larger study anytime soon, but it's amazing nonetheless. As my friend has found out, just when you most want to trust that you will be taken care of, that's the time that you have to be the most vigilent with regard to your own care.

I've been helping a friend who has Parkinson's as she switched from a dopamine agonist to levadopa. Without the meds she is stiff and in pain, I suspect her transition was made more difficult because her body must have adjusted to the agonist (ropinirole), and without it she was in dopamine deficit. My notion. I'll presume you are talking about some way to produce dopamine naturally, Taomeow, as the pill form leads eventually to dyskinesis!

We ARE the people of the Third World now, Blasto- no matter how much virtual money Wall Street manufactures to disguise the fact! That's why we're here at Tao Bums; we might have to (shudder) live with each other like the rest of the world, soon, and this means we will have to master equanimity and joy and oneness with other people's problems. Ok, ok, with their wonders and miracles too, but ya gotta wonder if we're ready for this! My suburban neighborhood is all about the single family home. $30/gallon sounds pretty good! Is this the one the DOD is already helping finance?