Mark Foote

I'm still a fan of Crumb. The remarks I read in the article predate Trump's civil conviction for defaming E.Jean Carroll, and Trump's truly absurd re-election in spite of what he did to Carroll and god knows who else--Crumb thought it was all talk, in that interview. As to his own behavior, I suspect he has learned that jumping on women is unacceptable since those interviews. Likely to cost him dearly at some point, if he hasn't. Crumb makes fun of American sexuality, of American prejudice, bigotry, and hypocrisy, in a wicked way. He gets into dark places--as far as I'm concerned, he goes there alone, but when he's on, I do think he's brilliant. Crumb did a great set of cartoons on Trump, I thought, guess he wised up a bit about that.

Here we are, without a controversy in the world, and yet in our concern for Annnon... Are Trix for kids? I say no, Trix ain't walkin', Trix ain't walkin' no more!

"The purpose of my life is to stay connected to this presence"--I like that, and Forest of Clarity's "Surrender seems to be a large part of it. It is not always clear what is being surrendered." "Making self-surrender the object of thought, one lays hold of one-pointedness, one lays hold of concentration"--from Gautama's description of the first concentraiton. Self-surrender I would say is the surrender of will or intent, initially with regard to the activity of the body, and finally with regard to the mind. I would say that the surrender of will or intent with regard to the activity of the body in the movement of breath is the purpose of seated meditation. The sacred texts I find useful have something to say about that surrender, as does the kinesiology of the last century. A good description but without instruction, from Forest of Clarity's post: Loss and more loss Until one reaches non-action With non-action, there is nothing one cannot do Many are just gifted at according with their own nature in the relinquishment of will, healers and shamans among the indigenous cultures around the world. Not me. l I was in my thirties when I threw in the towel and went to UCSF's library (that's a medical campus). Forest of Clarity's quote disparages knowledge, but I believe knowledge that can serve in the surrender of willful activity is a good thing. Here's yet another great description IMHO: They said to Him: Shall we then, being children, enter the Kingdom? Jesus said to them: When you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer and the outer as the inner and the above as the below, and 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, when you make eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place of a foot, (and) an image in the place of an image, then shall you enter [the Kingdom]. (The Gospel According to Thomas, coptic text established and translated by A. Guillaumont, H.-CH. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah ‘Abd Al Masih, pg 18-19 log. 22, ©1959 E. J. Brill) One more? So he abides fully conscious of what is behind and what is in front. As (he is conscious of what is) in front, so behind: as behind, so in front; as below, so above: as above, so below: as by day, so by night: as by night, so by day. Thus with wits alert, with wits unhampered, he cultivates his mind to brilliancy. (SN 51.14; tr. Pali Text Society vol V p 235)

Robert Crumb sez:

I've always been a Doubting Thomas, looking to stick my fingers in the spear holes to confirm the special guru status, you know. I have met Zen teachers who did impress me mightily. Of course, in the Soto Zen tradition that came to Northern California in the form of Shunryu Suzuki, Kobun Chino Otogawa, and others, chants listing the names in the lineage are recited daily, and praise for Buddha, dharma, and sangha as well, but guru yoga I think not so much. Gautama didn't become an other-worldly figure until a long time after his death, probably about the time they started making statues of him instead of just footprints. I heard Kobun speak on a number of occasions, and sat with him through a part of a sesshin. As with most of the teachers who trained in Japan, I was genuinely impressed. American teachers, not so much. It's apparently my curse and my blessing to have to figure things out from books a lot. I'm ok with that. It's possible I picked up one thing from Kobun, but I'll never know. One day I decided I was going to try to be aware of every breath I took, all day long. Sometime in the early afternoon, I was sitting at a desk, and my awareness of my breathing got me up and walked me to the door of my room. Maybe ten years later, I heard Kobun close a lecture at S. F. Zen Center with "you know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around." Took me a long time to integrate that experience into my life. What impressed me about the Japanese Zen teachers was that they seemed to have had a similar experience--again, not so much the American teachers. Didn't help me sit the lotus, though. Now I find Gautama's teachings in the Pali sermons and modern kinesiology to be my teachers, and I'm back to sitting 40's in my sloppy half-lotus. I've been trying to figure out what to say to a neighbor who wants to sit with me. Maybe I will tell him to observe where his mind goes, as he breathes in and as he breathes out. I’ll probably tell him that the longer he sits, the more interesting that gets, within limits.

A key aspect of the bodily self is self-location, the experience that the self is localized at a specific position in space within one’s bodily borders (embodied self-location). (Journal of Neuroscience 26 May 2010, 30 (21) 7202-7214) I find that there is no pause between the movements of breath, provided I allow action born out of "embodied self-location. The key for me is to be present with the "specific position in space within one’s bodily borders" of self-location from one moment to the next, and to "drench" the body with the ease associated with autonomic activity such that "there is no point (in the body) that is not pervaded" with that weighted ease. At some point, consciousness retained with the embodied self-location becomes embodied self-location retained with consciousness, and the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation is solely by virtue of the location of consciousness. That last is Gautama's fourth concentration. He provided a metaphor for the feeling of the fourth concentration: … it is as if (a person) might be sitting down who had clothed (themselves) including (their) head with a white cloth; there would be no part of (their) whole body that was not covered by the white cloth. (MN 119, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III p 134) If you prefer Daoism, that would be "manifests in the skin and hair" as described in the Tai Chi classics: With this method of circulating the ch'i (Tai Chi), it overflows into the sinews, reaches the bone marrow, fills the diaphragm, and manifests in the skin and hair. ("Master Cheng's Thirteen Chapters on T'ai-Chi Ch'uan", Cheng Man-Ching trans. Douglas Wile, pg. 17)

Dumb got nothin' to do with it! How's this, something I wrote previously but my words, explaining the meaning of Gautama's "one-pointedness" and "lays hold of one-pointedness": In my experience, “one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts. The self-surrender required to "stay connected to this presence" can be a surrender of activity in the body, and if you remain present with consciousness in that surrender, you will find that the activity of the body becomes purely a function of the location of consciousness in the body. And that location shifts and moves, naturally. The extension of ease is helpful to me in allowing activity of the body to become purely a function of the location of consciousness. I wake up to the location shifting and moving in the surrender of activity as I sit, or as I walk or dance.

Many teachers just emphasize "mind", or consciousness, as here: You are not your body, but you are the consciousness in the body, because of which you have the awareness of “I am”. It is without words, just pure beingness. Meditation means you have to hold consciousness by itself. The consciousness should give attention to itself. (Gaitonde, Mohan [2017]. Self – Love: The Original Dream [Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s Direct Pointers to Reality]) Let the mind be present without an abode. (from the Diamond Sutra, translation by Venerable Master Hsing Yun from “The Rabbit’s Horn: A Commentary on the Platform Sutra”, p 60) You are right, self-surrender plays a vital role, as here where Gautama described the induction of the initial concentration: … the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness. (The disciple), aloof from sensuality, aloof from evil conditions, enters on the first trance, which is accompanied by thought initial and sustained, which is born of solitude, easeful and zestful, and abides therein. (SN 48.10, tr. PTS vol V p 174; parentheticals paraphrase original; “initial” for “directed”, as at SN 36.11, tr. PTS vol IV p 146) To "hold consciousness by itself", as Nisargadatta prescribed, is to lay hold of "one-pointedness". To stay connected, Gautama advised the extension of the feelings of zest and ease of the first concentration: … (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease. (AN 5.28, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III pp 18-19) I'm writing about that now: Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey that the weight of the body accompanies the feelings of zest and ease. The weight of the body sensed at a particular point in the body can shift the body’s center of gravity, and a shift in the body’s center of gravity can result in what Moshe Feldenkrais termed “reflex movement”. Feldenkrais described how “reflex movement” can be engaged in standing up from a chair: …When the center of gravity has really moved forward over the feet a reflex movement will originate in the old nervous system and straighten the legs; this automatic movement will not be felt as an effort at all. (“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 78) “Drenching” the body “so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” with zest and ease allows the weight of the body and “one-pointedness” to effect “reflex movement” in the activity of inhalation and exhalation. In falling asleep, the mind can sometimes react to hypnagogic sleep paralysis with an attempt to reassert control over the muscles of the body, causing a “hypnic jerk”. The extension of a weighted zest and ease can pre-empt the tendency to reassert voluntary control in the induction of concentration, and make possible a conscious experience of “reflex movement” in inhalation and exhalation. Gautama said that he always returned to one-pointedness after he lectured, that he constantly abided in "that first characteristic of concentration". Speaking of staying connected to presence!

Asked for two paragraphs based on the above, Google AI said: Enlightenment is something we are already doing, something we already have, right now in this very moment. If you think of it as a goal to be reached, a peak to climb, then you miss the whole point—because a striving mind is a mind that is not at peace. Actually, your practice itself, the simple act of sitting down and breathing, is the very realization of your Buddha nature. It’s easy to get hung up on the idea of some profound experience or special insight, but that's just the ego fooling you into believing there’s a reward waiting. The awakening isn’t a trophy you earn; it’s the honest, messy process of just doing what needs to be done. So don’t waste your time looking for a spiritual high. The true path is right here in the mundane, everydayness of your life. Suzuki would tell you that the very difficulties you encounter—the annoying thoughts, the distractions, the aching knees—these are the place where you establish your practice. There is no "there" to get to. The moment you stop seeking enlightenment as something external to be acquired, you find that it has been here all along, inseparable from the simple reality of just being you. The composure you’re looking for isn’t found in a quiet mind, but in a mind that accepts all the waves it creates. It picked up on your use of the second person, how about that! Asked for two paragraphs based off this text: Google AI Mark Foote nearly choked, had to give me a paragraph preamble before it coughed up some profound garbage: To emulate the style of the provided text, the response will focus on the precise, technical, and body-centered language used by the author, rather than the more conversational tone of the prior examples. The content will explore the physiological aspects of meditation, drawing parallels between refined states of awareness and physical sensations. Here are two paragraphs written in a similar, anatomical-focused style: Concentration and the body The second concentration, which builds upon the first's cultivated joy and happiness, further stabilizes the physiological response by quieting the gross movement of attention. As the mental faculty refines its grasp, this allows for a softening in the deep psoas and piriformis musculature, releasing their habitual grip on the pelvic basin and sacral base. This newly established quietude in the hip and spinal nerve plexi extends upward, allowing a more profound relaxation and opening along the ventral surface of the torso. The resultant unbinding of the body’s core—free from the constant micro-tension of a restless mind—creates the very physical and energetic condition required for deeper, sustained stability. The ability to feel this internal loosening, this subtler shift, depends on a trained somatic literacy, an attentiveness that reaches to the periphery and deep into the core. A sustained, non-discursive presence of mind, in concert with the sensory feedback from the breath's movement, is necessary to maintain this stability. As the focus of attention ceases to grasp at or reject mental contents, the physiological system is likewise freed from the cycles of contraction and release. This integrated process allows the meditator to bypass the intellect's typical analysis and apprehend the unfolding experience through a unified field of bodily sensation. me: thank you, that was fun! AI: The writing is enjoyable. It was a fun challenge to capture the different tones, from the casual conversation of Zen practice to the more precise, body-focused language of the meditation experience. Please share other creative ideas, if there are any!

give me all you got West Coast weather, wind and rain batten the hatches

"There is Awareness, here"--where is the here, where awareness is? When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. (“Genjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Kazuaki Tanahashi) Neuroscientists describe “your place where you are” as your “embodied self-location”: A key aspect of the bodily self is self-location, the experience that the self is localized at a specific position in space within one’s bodily borders (embodied self-location). (Journal of Neuroscience 26 May 2010, 30 (21) 7202-7214) Dogen’s “Genjo Koan” can be paraphrased in terms of “self-location”: When you find the “specific position in space” where you feel your bodily self to be, activity in the body begins to coordinate by virtue of that place. A relationship between the place of “embodied self-location” and activity in the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, practice occurs. Through such practice, the point that is the “specific position in space” of embodied self-location is manifested in activity. The first thing that Gautama realized as his enlightenment unfolded was: “Udayin, as an emerald jewel, of all good qualities, might be strung on a thread, blue-green or yellow or red or white or orange coloured; and a [person] with vision, having put it in [their] hand, might reflect; ‘this emerald jewel... is strung on a thread, blue-green... or orange-coloured’–even so, Udayin, a course has been pointed out by me for disciples, practising which disciples of mine know thus: This body of mine... is of a nature to be constantly rubbed away... and scattered, but this consciousness is fastened there, bound there....” (MN 77, tr. Pali Text Society, vol II p 217)

My take: The movement of breath can necessitate the placement of attention at a certain location in the body, or at a series of locations, with the ability to remain awake as the location of attention shifts retained through the exercise of presence. When a presence of mind is retained as the placement of attention shifts, then the natural tendency toward the free placement of attention draws out thoughts initial and sustained, and brings on the stages of concentration. To become aware of the placement of attention, willful activity in the body must be abandoned, even in the face of a stoppage of breath: Be like a person who has died the great death: after your breath is cut off, then you come back to life. (“Zen Letters: Teachings of Yuanwu”, tr. J.C. and Thomas Cleary, p 84) The “great death” is an adherence to the abandonment of activity in the body, regardless of the consequences. The idea, however, is not to die of suffocation, but to relax and discover the automatic activity of the body that occurs through the placement of attention, to “come back to life”. … there is no need to depend on teaching. But the most important thing is to practice and realize our true nature… [laughs]. This is, you know, Zen. (Shunryu Suzuki, Tassajara 68-07-24 transcript from shunryusuzuki.com)

Wrote a post just for you, ol3bob: "The Place Where You Stop and Rest" Starts like this: In one of his letters, twelfth-century Ch’an teacher Yuanwu wrote: Actually practice at this level for twenty or thirty years and cut off all the verbal demonstrations and creeping vines and useless devices and states, until you are free from conditioned mind. Then this will be the place of peace and bliss where you stop and rest. Thus it is said: “If you are stopping now, then stop. If you seek a time when you finish, there will never be a time when you finish.” (“Zen Letters: Teachings of Yuanwu”, tr. Cleary & Cleary, Shambala p 99) In my teenage years, I became keenly aware of the “creeping vines” of my mind. I read a lot of Alan Watts books on Zen, thinking that might help, but I soon found out that what he had to say did nothing to cut off the “creeping vines”. I was looking for something Shunryu Suzuki described in one of his lectures, though I didn’t know it at the time: So, when you practice zazen, your mind should be concentrated in your breathing and this kind of activity is the fundamental activity of the universal being. If so, how you should use your mind is quite clear. Without this experience, or this practice, it is impossible to attain the absolute freedom. (Thursday Morning Lectures, Shunryu Suzuki; November 4th 1965, Los Altos; emphasis added)