Seeing, Recognising & Maintaining One's Enlightening Potential II: Open Tradition Edition

[Thrice Daily]

After looking further in. I really only need to stick to the five seasons to regulate. Might be worth a look if you haven't already. The Solar Cycles are interesting though to get familiar with for more subtle intentions that may fit on a bi weekly basis.

[Mark Foote]

On 11/15/2024 at 11:07 AM, stirling said:

 

"Will" is just this, your response in this moment, colored and conditioned by the circumstances you are experiencing, and not yours. Will is impersonal. This is how things are in my experience. 

 

 

 

How to reconcile the zazen that gets up and walks around with the exercise of will?  For years, I tried to let zazen act, only.

I understand the mechanism of that action a little better now:

 

From “Genjo Koan”:

 

When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point.

 

(“Genjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Tanahashi)

 

 

Given a presence of mind that can “hold consciousness by itself” (Nisargadatta's advice for meditation), activity in the body begins to coordinate by virtue of the sense of place associated with consciousness.  A relationship between the free location of consciousness and activity in the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, “practice occurs”.  Through such practice, the placement of consciousness is manifested in the activity of the body.

 

The second line in Genjo Koan about "actualization", and my explanation:

 

When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point…

(ibid)

 

 

“When you find your way at this moment”, activity takes place solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. A relationship between the freedom of consciousness and the automatic activity of the body comes forward, and as that relationship comes forward, practice occurs. Through such practice, the placement of consciousness is manifested as the activity of the body.

 

There’s a third line about actualization in “Genjo Koan”:

 

Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent.

 

(ibid)

 

 

Activity of the body solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness can sometimes get up and walk around, without any thought to do so.

 

Action like that resembles action that takes place through hypnotic suggestion, but unlike action by hypnotic suggestion, action by virtue of the free location of consciousness can turn out to be timely after the fact.

 

(The Inconceivable Nature of the Wind, edited)

 

 

Over time I discovered that my beliefs could also become the source of "will-less" action, very much like hypnotic suggestion.  The moral of that story is to be completely honest about one's beliefs, and strive to ground them on reality, because one's actions will surely follow.  

My understanding is that the contemplation of a cessation of habit and volition, of will, in the activity of inhalation and exhalation was a part of the observations/thoughts that made up Gautama's way of living, before and after his enlightenment. I've summarized the actionable elements of his mindfulness for myself:
 

1) Relax the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation;

2) Find a feeling of ease and calm the senses connected with balance, in inhalation and exhalation;

3) Appreciate and detach from thought, in inhalation and exhalation;

4) Look to the free location of consciousness for the automatic activity of inhalation and exhalation.

 

Mindfulness at some level is a necessity of breath, but in my experience to remain mindful requires the inclusion of the cessation of habit and volition in inhalation and exhalation in mindfulness--in more substantive terms, the inclusion of the experience of automatic activity of inhalation and exhalation solely by virtue of the location of consciousness. 

 

Occasionally, comes a feeling that the necessity of breath is connected to things that lie outside the boundaries of the senses, and zazen may get up and walk around, yet the extension of compassion that makes that possible is not inherently a part of the mindfulness of daily living.

"Making self-surrender the object of thought, one lays hold of concentration, one lays hold of one-pointedness."  Self-surrender is the surrender of action by habit or volition, by will.  Gautama said that he returned to that first characteristic of concentration after he lectured, presumably one-pointedness, and that would imply that the mindfulness that made up his way of living was the thought initial and sustained of the first concentration.
 

Edited November 17 by Mark Foote

[forestofclarity]

Quote

Profound, peaceful, stainless, lucid, and unconditioned‍—
Such is the nectar-like truth I have realized.
Were I to teach it, no one would understand,
So I will silently remain in the forest.

I have discovered the supremely sublime and astonishing absolute,
The ineffable state, untainted by language,
Suchness, the sky-like nature of phenomena,
Completely free of discursive, conceptual movement.

This meaning cannot be understood through words;
Rather it is comprehended through reaching their limit.
Yet when sentient beings, whom previous victorious ones took under their care,
Hear about this truth, they develop confidence in it.

 

-- the Buddha, Lalitavistara Sutra, recollecting his moment of enlightenment

[old3bob]

1 hour ago, forestofclarity said:

 

-- the Buddha, Lalitavistara Sutra, recollecting his moment of enlightenment

 

and what happened later to change things?  (rhetorical question)

[dwai]

On 11/14/2024 at 7:38 PM, Shadow_self said:

True Wisdom is also a siddhi of sorts   Thats something thats been proven to be abundantly clear to me  

That is the only Siddhi, rest are all parlor tricks of varying degrees. 

[dwai]

The mind is a mirror in which we see the reflection of our Self -- that's the seeing and recognizing part.

The dust of life settles on this mirror gradually and obscures the image.  So we clean the mirror every day -- that's the maintaining part. 

Is it necessary to keep cleaning the mirror after seeing and recognizing it? The question arises "Who is recognizing, and who is cleaning/maintaining? Who knows if the image is clear or obscure?"  That one doesn't (need to) do anything. 

[Ascetic]

45 minutes ago, dwai said:

The mind is a mirror in which we see the reflection of our Self -- that's the seeing and recognizing part.

The dust of life settles on this mirror gradually and obscures the image.  So we clean the mirror every day -- that's the maintaining part. 

Is it necessary to keep cleaning the mirror after seeing and recognizing it? The question arises "Who is recognizing, and who is cleaning/maintaining? Who knows if the image is clear or obscure?"  That one doesn't (need to) do anything. 

How do we make the mental work we do permanent? Especially if it is not included in what opening chakras would clear

Edited November 21 by Ascetic

[dwai]

2 hours ago, Ascetic said:

How do we make the mental work we do permanent? Especially if it is not included in what opening chakras would clear

What will opening chakras clear? 

[Mark Foote]

3 hours ago, dwai said:

The mind is a mirror in which we see the reflection of our Self -- that's the seeing and recognizing part.

The dust of life settles on this mirror gradually and obscures the image.  So we clean the mirror every day -- that's the maintaining part. 

Is it necessary to keep cleaning the mirror after seeing and recognizing it? The question arises "Who is recognizing, and who is cleaning/maintaining? Who knows if the image is clear or obscure?"  That one doesn't (need to) do anything. 
 

 

 

In physical terms, activity of the body solely by virtue of the location of consciousness is regulated by the stretch of ligaments and fascia.  Ligaments in particular stretch and resile, especially waking and sleeping, and each day the relationship of freedom in the location of consciousness to the stretch of ligaments and the activity of the body changes. 

I've written about the fourth jhana:

 

Things can shift from activity of the body coordinated by the free placement of consciousness, to activity that takes place solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness.  Here’s Gautama’s description of the fourth concentration:

 

Again, a (person), putting away ease… enters and abides in the fourth musing; seated, (one) suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind. … just as a (person) might sit with (their) head swathed in a clean cloth; even so (one) sits suffusing (their) body with purity… 

(AN III Book of Fives, The Fivefold, The Five-Limbed, Pali Text Society vol. III p 18-19)

 

... In some sermons, Gautama offered a variation on his metaphor for 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 III 119 Pali Text Society vol. III p 134)

 

 

In the fourth concentration, ease in the nerve exits between vertebrae along the sacrum and spine provides an ability to feel right to the surface of the skin all over the body, such that “there is not one particle of the body” that cannot receive the placement of consciousness.

 

(Applying the Pali Instructions)

 

 

With regard to the description of the fourth concentration:

 

Gautama made clear through his choice of words (“not one particle… that is not pervaded”) that the mind can remain one-pointed, even as the body is suffused with “purity by the pureness of mind”.
 

An evenness in the nerve exits between vertebrae along the sacrum and spine is effected by a freedom of location in the one-pointed consciousness identified with the self in the body. The prior three jhanas involve particular patterns of coordination between the location of consciousness and stretch and resile in the ligaments of the pelvis, sacrum, and spine, patterns of coordination that effect the stretch and resile of ligaments necessary to open the related nerve exits and realize feeling throughout the body.

 

 

Edited November 22 by Mark Foote

[Ascetic]

1 hour ago, dwai said:

What will opening chakras clear? 

I’m not sure, things that it should but not leading the way towards self-desires to be fulfilled. Certain practices seem to be excluded out of the scope of spiritual remedies ever addressing them.

[forestofclarity]

Quote

 

The phenomena we see are curious and surprising — but the most marvellous thing of it all we do not realise and that is that one, and only one, illimitable force is responsible for:

 

(a) All the phenomena we see,

 

(b) The act of our seeing them.

 

Do not fix your attention on all these changing things of life, death, and phenomena. Do not think of even the actual act of seeing them or perceiving them but only of that which sees all these things. That which is responsible for it all. This will seem nearly impossible at first, but by degrees the result will be felt. It takes years of steady, daily practice, but that is how a Master is made. Give yourself a quarter of an hour a day. Keep your eyes open, and try to keep the mind unshakenly fixed on That Which Sees. It is inside yourself. Do not expect to find that “That” is something definite on which the mind can be fixed easily; it will not be so. Though it takes years to find that “That” the results of this concentration will soon show themselves — in four or five months’ time — in all sorts of unconscious clairvoyance, in peace of mind, in power to deal with troubles, in power all round — always unconscious power. I have given you this teaching in the same words as the  Masters give it to their intimate chelas. From now onwards let your whole thought in meditation be not on the act of seeing nor on what you see, but immovably on That Which Sees.

 

 

Ramana Maharshi as related to Frank Humphreys 

 

Also: 

 

Quote

Ramana: Gaze at your own real nature. It is immaterial whether the eyes are open or closed. Everywhere there is only the one, so it is all the same whether you keep your eyes open or closed. If you wish to meditate, do so on the "I" that is within you. It is the Self. Because it has no eyes, there is no need either to open or close the eyes. When you attain Self-knowledge, there will no longer be any ideas about the world. When you are sitting in a room, whether the windows are open or closed, you are the same person, in the same state. In the same way, if you abide in the Reality, it is all the same whether the eyes are open or closed. It matters little whether external activities go on or not.

 

trans. Natarajan

[Sherman Krebbs]

 

Quote

 

Objection:  If, as you maintain, virtue and sin are ultimately realized as nonexistent, whereas conventionally the cause and effect of actions is accepted as nondeceptive, this is neither correct in terms of reasoning, nor is it established as the Great Completeness. 

 

Response: All bon-phenomena are asserted as being natural, spontaneous occurrences, so the three poisons are also not established, and action, virtue, and wrongfulness are not asserted, either. Therefore, we do not distinguish between ultimate and conventional. This [making of distinctions] is the position of a lower vehicle. " 

 

Objection: Because you maintain that the cause and effect of virtue and wrongfulness do not exist, you would be a Nihilist Tirhika.

 

Response: We would not. Nihilist Tirthikas do not realize the principle of sameness in the two, virtuous and wrongful actions; they maintain that virtuous and wrongful actions do not exist at all.  I however, having unerroneously realized the principle of sameness, realize the fruit primordially without depending on the cause and effect of virtuous and wrongful actions. That is I realize there there are no causes or effects not included in mindnature. Hence the convention, "These do not exist"

 

- Authenticity of Open Awareness: A Collection of the Essential Reasonings. 92.2-93.1

 

Few quotes I read about bön spontaneous presence, which I think is a complement to dependent arising.  I don't have a great understanding between the two, other than dependent arising is more like a chain of occurrences, where as under spontaneous presence, all things arise from the same base.   This was from a book "Unbounded Wholeness" by  Ann Klein and Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.