Mark Foote

Zen teacher Kobun Chino Otogawa once said, "nobody masters zazen" (can't quote you a reference at the moment). To me that says, "nobody masters breath concentration." About Vipassana: Gautama taught that there are persons who are freed "both ways", and persons who are freed solely through "intuitive wisdom". "Both ways" would be through both concentration and "intuitive wisdom". Nevertheless, the eight-fold path for the learner and the ten-fold path for the adept that Gautama taught both include "right concentration" among the elements. I think you could say that although Gautama acknowledged there were those who were freed through "intuitive wisdom" alone, he didn't teach a path to "intuitive wisdom" alone. Satipatthana Sutta is often cited as the method of Vipassana, and Satipatthana includes only a passing reference to concentration, it's true. However, there's also a Mahasatipatthana Sutta, a "greater" or "larger" Satipatthana Sutta, that does include a description of the four initial concentrations. "Right concentration" includes "one-pointedness of mind": And what… is the (noble) right concentration with the causal associations, with the accompaniments? It is right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right mode of livelihood, right endeavor, right mindfulness. Whatever one-pointedness of mind is accompanied by these seven components, this… is called the (noble) right concentration with the causal associations and the accompaniments.” (MN III 117; Pali Text Society vol III p 114; “noble” substituted for Ariyan; emphasis added) Modern Buddhists don't agree on what "one-pointedness of mind" is, exactly. I would say look for the mind to move away from the head in the moments before falling asleep, then allow for that same freedom of movement in seated meditation. ... making self-surrender the object of (one's) thought, (one) lays hold of concentration, (one) lays hold of one-pointedness. (SN 48.10, Pali Text Society vol V p 174; parentheticals paraphrase original) 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. (“Whole-Body Zazen”, lecture by Shunryu Suzuki at Tassajara, June 28, 1970, edited by Bill Redican) The way I experience "one-pointedness": There can… come a moment when the movement of breath necessitates 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. That would be why nobody masters breath concentration.

I believe some of them do. The practice of prayer or meditation in different traditions is interesting. Most seem to involve bending the knees.

This thread is sapping and impurifying my precious bodily fluids!

"Watching your thoughts" is not exactly the practice that Gautama recommended and practiced as his own way of living: Aware of mind I shall breathe in. Aware of mind I shall breathe out. (One) makes up one’s mind: Gladdening my mind I shall breathe in. Gladdening my mind I shall breathe out. Composing my mind I shall breathe in. Composing my mind I shall breathe out. Detaching my mind I shall breathe in. Detaching my mind I shall breathe out. (SN 54.1; Pali Text Society vol V p 275-276) I've already mentioned (above) that in my opinion, there is no traditional Buddhist "insight meditation", at least not as far as the early Buddhist texts. There are people who are freed from the desire for sensual pleasures, for renewing existence (becoming), and for delusion (for ignorance), who were freed by means of "intuitive wisdom", but Gautama did not teach a path to "intuitive wisdom" alone. He taught a way of living (the arising of mindfulness in the four fields) that embraced the cessation of volition in action of body, speech, and mind (in concentration). "Just sitting" is the experience of action of the body in inhalation and exhalation in the absence of volition.

For those who laughed at my comment. Please pay close attention to this: Ref: https://www.verywellhealth.com/diaphragmatic-breathing-how-to-benefits-and-exercises-5219974 Doing diaphragmatic breathing might be a good "preparatory practice for shikantaza"--I do think it's true that: for most people it is rather difficult to sit, you know, just to sit. (“The Background of Shikantaza”, Shunryu Suzuki; San Francisco, February 22, 1970; transcript from shunryusuzuki.com)

But usually in counting breathing or following breathing, you feel as if you are doing something, you know– you are following breathing, and you are counting breathing. This is, you know, why counting breathing or following breathing practice is, you know, for us it is some preparation– preparatory practice for shikantaza because for most people it is rather difficult to sit, you know, just to sit. (“The Background of Shikantaza”, Shunryu Suzuki; San Francisco, February 22, 1970; transcript from shunryusuzuki.com) Not to repeat myself, but: Dogen wrote: When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (“Genjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi) “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. ("Take the Backward Step") That's shikantaza, and the zazen that sits zazen. Zazen doesn't sit zazen when you are doing something.

An excerpt from something I'm writing for my own site. In one of the sermons of the Pali Canon, Gautama the Buddha described “seven (types of) persons existing in the world”. The first two were “the one who is freed both ways”, and “the one freed by means of intuitive wisdom”: And which, monks, is the person who is freed both ways? As to this, monks, some person is abiding, having apprehended with the person those peaceful Deliverances which are incorporeal having transcended material shapes; and having seen by means of wisdom his cankers are utterly destroyed. I, monks, do not say of this (person) that there is something to be done through diligence. What is the reason for this? It has been done by (them) through diligence, (they) could not become negligent. And which, monks, is the person who is freed by means of intuitive wisdom? As to this, monks, some person is abiding without having apprehended with the person those peaceful Deliverances which are incorporeal having transcended material shapes; yet, having seen by means of wisdom (their) cankers are utterly destroyed. This, monks, is called the person who is freed by means of intuitive wisdom. I, monks, do not say of this (person) that there is something to be done through diligence. What is the reason for this? It has been done by (them) through diligence, (they) could not become negligent… (MN 70 [Pali Text Society pp 151-154]; more on “The Deliverances”, DN 15 Mahanidanasutta, Pali Text Society DN ii section 35 pp 68-69; pronouns replaced) “Those peaceful Deliverances which are incorporeal”, Gautama taught as a set of five concentrations. They generally followed a set of four “corporeal” concentrations, four concentrations that culminate in the cessation of volition in the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation. The “incorporeal” concentrations, meanwhile, were said to culminate in the cessation of volition in the activity of the mind in feeling and perceiving. The three “cankers” are given as “sense-pleasures”, “becoming”, and “ignorance” (MN III 121, PTS Vol. III pp 151-2). As to what is “destroyed” in the two types of persons who are “freed”, the roots of the craving for sense-pleasures, the roots of the craving “to continue, to survive, to be” (Sujato Bhikkyu, “What is Bhava (becoming)”, discourse.suttacentral.net), and the roots of the craving for what is delusion are destroyed. In the sermon on the types of persons in the world, Gautama went on to list five types for whom “there is (yet) something to be done through diligence”. The five have one thing in common: they have all “seen by means of wisdom”, yet their cankers were not “utterly destroyed”. Consequently, “there is (yet) something to be done through diligence” for them. There are schools of modern Buddhism that regard concentration as an ancilliary practice in the attainment of wisdom, as a useful precursor to the attainment of insight. In the sermon above, Gautama acknowledged that there are indeed those who are “freed by means of intuitive wisdom” without experience of the five “incorporeal” Deliverances, but so far as I know he did not teach a path to such a freedom. The paths that he did teach, eight-fold for the learner and ten-fold for the adept, both included “right concentration” among the elements. I'm not saying that the practice taught as Vipassana is not useful, nor that it doesn't have roots in the accepted practice of some modern schools of Theravadin Buddhism (principally in Myanmar). I'm only saying that persons who have "seen by means of wisdom" may still have "something to be done by diligence". Myself, my study has been solely for the reconciliation of activity of the body by virtue of the location of consciousness with my everyday life, and I believe in his description of his way of living--which Gautama described as "… something peaceful and choice, something perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living too" (SN 54.9, Pali Text Society SN vol. V p 285)--I have that reconciliation. “Don’t ever think that you can sit zazen! That’s a big mistake! Zazen sits zazen!” (Shunryu Suzuki to Blanche Hartman, here)

myriad choices ceasing the action of choice peace in the valley

Vipassana?

A different skill involving the wall: Sitting shikantaza is the place itself, and things. …When you sit, the cushion sits with you. If you wear glasses, the glasses sit with you. Clothing sits with you. House sits with you. People who are moving around outside all sit with you. They don’t take the sitting posture! (“Aspects of Sitting Meditation”, “Shikantaza”; Kobun Chino Otogawa; http://www.jikoji.org/intro-aspects/) My explanation: There can… come a moment when the movement of breath necessitates 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 the free location of consciousness is accompanied by an extension of the mind of compassion, there can be a feeling that the necessity of breath is connected to things that lie outside the boundaries of the senses. "People who are moving around outside", on the other side of the wall, can affect the placement of awareness in the body, even if their presence doesn't register in the senses directly. The location of awareness can become the sole source of the activity of the body--habit and volition in inhalation and exhalation can cease, yet the people moving around outside are a part of the activity of the body.

This, 'cause attending the free location of consciousness makes me happy--from my own site: On a forum site I frequent (Dao Bums, in fact!), someone wrote: Even if you have no identity, you still exist. As what? The spirituality that I follow would say “as existence”, or “as pure consciousness”. I was reminded of Nisargadatta, a famous teacher who lived in India in the last century: 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. (1) “The consciousness should give attention to itself”—in thirteenth-century Japan, Eihei Dogen wrote: Therefore, …take the backward step of turning the light and shining it back. (2) That’s a poetic way to say “the consciousness should give attention to itself”. I used to talk about the location of consciousness, but a friend of mine would always respond that for him, consciousness has no specific location. As a result, I switched to writing about the placement of attention: There can… come a moment when the movement of breath necessitates 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. (3) In his “Genjo Koan”, Dogen wrote: When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. (4) Given a presence of mind that can “hold consciousness by itself”, 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. Dogen continued: When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (4) “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. I sit down first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and I look to experience the activity of the body solely by virtue of the free location of consciousness. As a matter of daily life, just to touch on such experience as occasion demands—for me, that’s enough. 1 Gaitonde, Mohan [2017]. Self – Love: The Original Dream [Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s Direct Pointers to Reality]. Mumbai: Zen Publications. ISBN 978-9385902833 2 “Fukan zazengi” Tenpuku version; tr. Carl Bielefeldt, “Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation”, p 176; © 1988 The Regents of the University of California 3) see “Appendix–A Way of Living” 4) “Genjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi, from “Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen”, p 69, © San Francisco Zen Center ("Take the Backward Step") What's missing for a lot of people, and for me when I started out, is the experience of the relationship between the free location of consciousness and the cessation of habit/volition in the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation. I think it helps, to know what I'm looking for when I sit down (or stand up and dance!).

Sometimes the extension on the images is something other than jpg. I think Dao Bums only uploads jpg, probably only links to jpg too.

I did not realize at first that there is actually a down-vote option in the emoji responses now. wow. Don't think I'm going to use that, except in jest. I have to wonder whose idea it was, and who had to agree to it to make it happen. I wonder who they are The folks who really run this site And I wonder why they run it With such emoji slights What are their names and on what streets do they live? I'd like to ride right over this afternoon and give Them a piece of my mind about peace for Dao kind Peace is not an awful lot to ask (apologies to David Crosby)

most rice-flies, ever a week later, mostly gone deafening silence