Mark Foote

So true, that translation can make all the difference. I am fond of the Pali Text Society translations of the first four Nikayas, and of the Cleary brothers translations of so many Ch'an texts. I would have been able to begin with these texts, without these translations. F. L. Woodward of the Pali Text Society translates the two feelings that are characteristic of the first concentration as "zest and ease". Others have translated these terms as "joy and bliss". I'd be lost, without Woodward. Sometimes, though, the off-beat translation speaks to me. I like Nishijima's translation of a line in Dogen's "Genjo Koan" about birds and fish: …each one realizes its limitations at every moment and each one somersaults (in complete freedom) at every place… ("Genjo Koan", Nishijima-Cross) Nobody else translates it that way.

If you get right down to it, it's the history of mathematics in the first half of the twentieth century. The mathematicians of the day were keen to put all of mathematics on an axiomatic basis. Sort of like, Euclid's Geometry, Redux--set up some axioms, and all of the known mathematical truths of the day would fall out as theorems. Along comes Kurt Godel, who demonstrates with logic and the properties of prime numbers that if your axioms are consistent, you cannot generate all that is known to be true in mathematics from them, and if you can generate all that is known in mathematics from a set of axioms, then you can also generate contradictory "truths" from those axioms. IMHO, the two-truths doctrine is just accepting a set of axioms about reality that yield contradictions, and regarding that as inevitable. Nah. There's a whole school of mathematics that rejects the law of the excluded middle (if it's not x, then it must be y). The reason most mathematicians are not eager to sign up as "intuitionists", as that school is called, is because it's not possible to generate all the beautiful results of modern mathematics from the logic the intuitionists are willing to accept. To me, the beauty of the teaching in the first four Nikayas is that there is an outline of a way of living, a way of living that Gautama said: … if cultivated and made much of, (the concentration) is something peaceful and choice, something perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living too. (SN 54.9, tr. Pali Text Society vol. V p 285) Gautama declared it to have been his way of living before his enlightenment, as well as after (same chapter, different sermons). He is intentionally taking the emphasis off enlightenment, probably because of the incident recorded in the same chapter where scores of monks a day "took the knife", or committed suicide. Seems Gautama had preached on the virtues of mindfulness of the ugly aspects of the body, just before he took a three day retreat, and the monks got hysterical. When Gautama returned, his attendant Ananda said, "it were well, Lord, if the Lord were to teach some other method of gnosis." The result was a lecture on the concentration that "is something peaceful and choice", which he called either "the concentration on inbreathing and outbreathing" as in the chapter above, or "the (mind-)development that is mindfulness of inbreathing and outbreathing", if you prefer MN 118 (Anapansati). Just finished a post titled "The Diamond Trap, the Thicket of Thorns"--all about that practice, if you're interested. Not about two truths.

Finished a post that I think gives a better explanation of this. I'll quote the part I think is particularly relevant, then give a link to the post in case you're interested in the context. In the mindfulness of Gautama’s most famous sermon (Satipatthana, MN 10), the mindfulness of feelings consisted of a mindfulness of the pleasant, the painful, and the neither-pleasant-nor-painful. In the mindfulness that was Gautama’s way of living, however, the mindfulness of feelings consisted of a mindfulness of feelings of zest and ease, feelings that he also identified as belonging to the first concentration (SN 54.1, tr. PTS vol. V p 279; SN 48.10; tr. PTS vol. V p 174). In my experience, the feeling of ease associated with concentration is the feeling of ease that arises from activity of the body by virtue of the location of consciousness. Activity of the body can follow automatically as the location of consciousness leads the balance of the body. Automatic activity of the body by virtue of the location of consciousness has a feeling of ease, and initially a feeling of energy (or “zest”) as well. Gautama spoke of the extension of the feeling of ease, an extension such that “there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this… ease”. He used the words “steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses” to describe how the feeling of ease pervades the body, indicating that the feeling is accompanied by a fluid sense of gravity. The extension Gautama described maintains an openness of the body to the placement of consciousness at any point, and to ease through automatic activity of the body by virtue of the location of consciousness at that point. (The Diamond Trap, the Thicket of Thorns) Maybe a better explanation of "one-pointedness", from the same post: Modern neuroscience now includes the study of the “bodily self”: 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; https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3403-09.2010) The “self (that is) localized at a specific position in space” is commonly associated with consciousness. The Indian sage Nisargadatta spoke about “the consciousness in the body”: 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. (Gaitonde, Mohan [2017]. Self – Love: The Original Dream [Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s Direct Pointers to Reality]; ISBN 978-9385902833) The specific position in space of “the consciousness in the body” is often assumed to be fixed somewhere behind the eyes. Zen teacher Koun Franz suggested that the location is not fixed: … as an experiment, I recommend trying it, sitting in this posture (legs crossed in seated meditation) and trying to feel what it’s like to let your mind, to let the base of your consciousness, move away from your head. One thing you’ll find, or that I have found, at least, is that you can’t will it to happen, because you’re willing it from your head. To the extent that you can do it, it’s an act of letting go–and a fascinating one. (“No Struggle [Zazen Yojinki, Part 6]”, by Koun Franz, from the “Nyoho Zen” site, parenthetical added) Franz spoke about “letting go” to allow the “base of consciousness” to move away from the head. Gautama spoke about “making self-surrender the object of thought” in order to “lay hold of one-pointedness”: Herein… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness. (SN 48.10; tr. Pali Text Society [PTS] vol. V p 174) Laying hold of “one-pointedness” is having the experience of embodied self-location wherever consciousness takes place. Consciousness can be fixed in place by the exercise of will, as Gautama explained: That which we will…, and that which we intend to do and that wherewithal we are occupied:–-this becomes an object for the persistence of consciousness. The object being there, there comes to be a station of consciousness…. But if we neither will, nor intend to do, nor are occupied about something, there is no becoming of an object for the persistence of consciousness. The object being absent, there comes to be no station of consciousness. (SN 12.38; tr. PTS SN vol. II p 45; “persistance” in original) A surrender of the exercise of will, of intention and deliberation, is necessary to allow the “base of consciousness” to move away from the head, to allow a laying-hold of “one-pointedness”. (ibid)

Raftery Me Rafteiri, the poet, full of hope and lovewith eyes without light, silence without pain,going down my journey with the light of my heart,faint and weary at the end of my way;now see me facing the Wallplaying music for empty pockets'. ("Antoine Ó Raifteirí (also Antoine Ó Reachtabhra, or Anthony Raftery; 30 March 1779 – 25 December 1835)[1] was an Irish language poet who is often called the last of the wandering bards." --Wikipedia)

…And again, Ananda, [an individual], not attending to the perception of the plane of no-thing, not attending to the perception of the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, attends to the solitude of mind that is signless. [Their] mind is satisfied with, pleased with, set on and freed in the concentration of mind that is signless. [They] comprehends thus, ‘This concentration of mind that is signless is effected and thought out. But whatever is effected and thought out, that is impermanent, it is liable to stopping.’ When [the individual] knows this thus, sees this thus, [their] mind is freed from the canker of sense-pleasures and [their] mind is freed from the canker of becoming and [their] mind is freed from the canker of ignorance. In freedom is the knowledge that [one] is freed and [one] comprehends: “Destroyed is birth, brought to a close the (holy)-faring, done is what was to be done, there is no more of being such or so’. [They] comprehend thus: “The disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of sense-pleasures do not exist here; the disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of becoming do not exist here; the disturbances there might be resulting from the canker of ignorance do not exist here. And there is only this degree of disturbance, that is to say the six sensory fields that, conditioned by life, are grounded on this body itself. [One] regards that which is not there as empty of it. But in regard to what remains [one] comprehends: 'That being, this is.' Thus, Ananda, this comes to be for [such a one] s true, not mistaken, utterly purified and incomparably highest realisation of emptiness. ("Lesser Discourse on Emptiness", Culasunnatasutta, tr. Pali Text Society MN III 121 vol III p 151-2; emphasis added)

Ok, not wild, but beautiful--at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden:

I can't say, about what happens after death, if anything. Lately I've been fascinated to discover, that Gautama taught concentrations including one that he claimed was the attainment that set him apart from his teachers, but declared enlightenment to be something apart from any attainment in concentration. A "perfect wisdom", a "profound knowledge"--he first associated these with the fourth initial concentration, then with the final signless concentration, then averred that such "wisdom" or "knowledge" was not automatic even with the final attainment in concentration. But to return to the question of the self. Right now, I am writing about something from the field of neurobiology: 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; https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3403-09.2010) I write about it in this context: A surrender of the exercise of will, of intention and deliberation, is necessary to allow the “base of consciousness” to move away from the head, to allow an experience of “embodied self-location” wherever consciousness takes place. What I'm realizing is that some people are very good at allowing an experience of "embodied self-location" wherever consciousness takes place. Especially a handy talent to have for an athlete, as the automatic response of the body follows from embodied self-location. I believe that there are enumerable people for whom the sense of self is a strength, because they associate it with "embodied self-location". They have a freedom of consciousness, consciousness can take place anywhere in the body and produce activity in the body and mind in a way that's natural and healthy. It's only the folks who get lost in their heads and can't "leap out of the diamond cage", as Yuanwu put it, who need to learn to be truly selfless. And for them, all the books are a thicket of thorns that must, as Yuanwu also said, be swallowed with care.

indoctrination cow pies in a pasture of words stepping lively now

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

Saddened. I love how the Sufis celebrate the return to the One, I will think of Blue Eyed that way.

ancient

Sounds pretty much right to me, not that I have any authority to say so. Reading your remarks, I'm thinking, "one hand clapping, the kind of dull thud you get when the thoughts come to an end, and you find awareness broadening out involuntarily." I've heard some Zen teachers give readings of the koans that I knew for a fact were wide of the mark, but then--they were Soto teachers. Maybe Rinzai teachers know better than to stick their necks out!

"Everything changes, work out your own salvation"--last words of Gautama the Shakyan Some real stuff: The frailty of the lower spine emerged with studies made in the 1940’s, studies that established that the discs of the lumbar spine cannot, on their own, withstand the pressure of lifting significant weight. In the 1950’s, D. L. Bartelink concluded that pressure in the “fluid ball” of the abdominal cavity takes load off the structure of the spine when weight is lifted (“The Role of Abdominal Pressure in Relieving the Pressure on the Lumbar Intervertebral Discs”; J Bone Joint Surg Br. 1957 Nov; 39-B(4):718-25). The pressure in the “fluid ball” is induced by activity in the abdominal muscles, and Bartilink was able to establish that in weight lifting, the pressure induced is proportional to the weight lifted. Bartelink theorized that animals (as well as humans) make use of pressure in the abdominal cavity to protect the spine, and he noted that breathing can continue even when the abdomen is tensed: Animals undoubtedly make an extensive use of the protection of their spines by the tensed somatic cavity, and probably also use it as a support upon which muscles of posture find a hold… Breathing can go on even when the abdomen is used as a support and cannot be relaxed. (ibid) In the 1980’s, Gracovetsky, Farfan and Lamay suggested that in weight lifting, the abdominals work against the extensor muscles of the spine to allow the displacement of the fascial sheet behind the sacrum and spine: If this interpretation is correct, it would partly explain why the abdominal muscles work hard during weight-lifting. They apparently work against the extensor muscles. Furthermore their lever arm gives them considerable effect. In fact, we propose that the effect of the abdominal muscles is two-fold: to balance the moment created by the abdominal pressure (hence, the abdominal muscles do not work against the weight lifter) and to generate abdominal pressure up to 1 psi, which would help the extensors to push away the fascia. It is essential that the supraspinous ligament and the lumbodorsal fascia be brought into action to permit weight lifting without disk or vertebral failure. … It must be kept in mind that in some circumstances ligament tension may reach 1800 lb., whereas no muscle can pull as hard. (Gracovetsky, S., Farfan HF, Lamay C, 1997. A mathematical model of the lumbar spine using an optimal system to control muscles and ligaments. Orthopedic Clinics of North America 8: 135-153; bracketed added) Dr. Rene Cailliet summarized these findings: In the Lamy-Farfan model the abdominal pressure is considered to be exerted posteriorly against the lumbodorsal fascia, causing the fascia to become taut…. thus relieving the tension upon the erector spinae muscles. (“Low Back Pain Syndrome”, ed. 3, F. A. Davis Co., pp 140-141) Farfan, Lamay and Cailliet referred to the “lumbodorsal fascia”. That fascia is now more commonly referred to as the “thoracolumbar fascia”. There may be another factor at work in the stretch of the thoracolumbar fascial sheet. Behind the sacrum, the fascia can be stretched rearward by the mass of the extensor muscles as they contract. As H. F. Farfan noted: There is another peculiarity of the erector muscles of the spine. Below the level of the fifth lumbar vertebra, the muscle contracts in a compartment enclosed by bone anteriorly, laterally, and medially. Posteriorly, the compartment is closed by the lumbodorsal fascia. When contracted, the diameter of the muscle mass tends to increase. This change in shape of the muscle may exert a wedging effect between the sacrum and the lumbodorsal fascia, thereby increasing the tension in the fascia. This may be one of the few instances where a muscle can exert force by pushing. (“Mechanical Disorders of the Low Back”, H. F. Farfan;1973 Lea & Febiger; p 183) Farfan mentions a “wedging effect” on the “lumbodorsal fascia” caused by the mass of the extensor muscles as they contract. The extensor muscles run in two sets behind the spine, one on either side of the vertebral column, and the wedging effect of the extensors on the thoracolumbar fascial sheet can therefore alternate from side to side. That is likely the source of the commentary made by Ch’an teacher Yuanwu in case 17 of “The Blue Cliff Record”: … Hsiang Lin said, “Sitting for a long time becomes toilsome.” If you understand this way, you are “turning to the left, turning to the right, following up behind.” (“The Blue Cliff Record”, Yuanwu, tr. Cleary & Cleary, ed. Shambala, p 114)

where dimes are kindness, quarters are some kind of love I think I'll stay home

Slopping Hogs Is No Fun There aren’t many jobs less fun than slopping hogs. But it has to be done. If someone doesn’t slop the hogs, then calamity will strike: NO BACON. What could be worse than that? My friend, Leon Drennan, grew up on a 160 acre Kentucky farm. They raised hogs, cattle, and a few small crops (including tobacco). Leon’s first job on the farm was hog slopping. One step up from hog slopping was feeding the calves. It was a big day when his father trusted him enough to move from the pig pen to the calf pen. He had earned that trust by doing a great job at slopping hogs. And that is the same way any of us get out of the pig pen—we earn our way out. If you or someone you know is stuck in the pig pen, the way out is: Quit complaining. Be grateful you have a job. https://hard-lessons.com/slopping-hogs-is-no-fun/ No bacon! Aack! Blech! The cat loves bacon!

& short films?

Also go to whore did Ikkyū Sōjun, bless him patriarchy sucks patriarchy sucks egg, to use Twain's expression need a brave new world

As in, "category theory"? The second fundamental concept of category theory is the concept of a functor, which plays the role of a morphism between two categories C1 and C2: it maps objects of C1 to objects of C2 and morphisms of C1 to morphisms of C2 in such a way that sources are mapped to sources, and targets are mapped to targets... (Wikipedia, "category theory") Sounds right to me. The relationships involved in "one hand clapping" don't morph onto the relationships of "two hands clapping", they express fundamentally different relationships. I'm with Dylan, though: "well, I don't think it's likely to happen; the sound, of the one hand clapping..."

From the piece I'm currently writing for my own site: The mindfulness that was Gautama’s way of living was composed of sixteen observations and contemplations, each to be made in the course of an inhalation or exhalation. I have summarized what I consider to be the actionable elements of that mindfulness: 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 the body, in inhalation and exhalation. Why the emphasis on breath? As I wrote previously: There’s a frailty in the structure of the lower spine, and the necessity of breath can place the point of awareness in such a fashion as to engage a mechanism of support for the spine, often in stages. The key to detaching from thought is to appreciate thought--I can usually do that, even if I only appreciate that I still have a mind that thinks, regardless of what I think of the contents! Something else you might find useful, also from my current write: In Gautama’s most famous sermon (Satipatthana, MN 10), the mindfulness of feelings consisted of mindfulness of the pleasant, the painful, and the neither-pleasant-nor-painful of feelings. In the mindfulness that was Gautama’s way of living, the mindfulness of feelings consisted of a mindfulness of feelings of zest and ease, feelings that he identified as belonging to the first concentration. In my experience, the feeling of ease associated with concentration is the feeling of ease associated with activity of the body by virtue of the location of consciousness. Activity of the body can follow automatically as the location of consciousness leads the balance of the body. Automatic activity of the body by virtue of the location of consciousness has a feeling of ease, and initially a feeling of energy (or “zest”) as well. Gautama spoke of the extension of the feeling of ease, an extension such that “there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this… ease”. He used the words “steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses” to describe how the feeling of ease pervades the body, indicating that the feeling is accompanied by a fluid sense of gravity. The extension Gautama described maintains an openness of the body to the placement of consciousness at any point, and to ease through automatic activity of the body by virtue of the location of consciousness at that point accompanied by a sense of gravity. Regarding the location of consciousness: Modern neuroscience now includes the study of the “bodily self”: 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; https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3403-09.2010) The “self… localized at a specific position in space” is commonly associated with consciousness. The Indian sage Nisargadatta described the self as “the consciousness in the body”: 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]; ISBN 978-9385902833) The “specific position in space” of the “consciousness in the body” is often assumed to be fixed somewhere behind the eyes. Zen teacher Koun Franz suggested that the location is not fixed: … as an experiment, I recommend trying it, sitting in this posture (legs crossed in seated meditation) and trying to feel what it’s like to let your mind, to let the base of your consciousness, move away from your head. One thing you’ll find, or that I have found, at least, is that you can’t will it to happen, because you’re willing it from your head. To the extent that you can do it, it’s an act of letting go–and a fascinating one. (“No Struggle [Zazen Yojinki, Part 6]”, by Koun Franz, from the “Nyoho Zen” site, parenthetical added)

If I understand correctly, the teacher Joshu answered the question "yes" on one occasion, and "no" on another.

The local scene--nothing happening, so boring!

that pustulous zit will remain when worlds are gone Away, scullion! (“Away, you scullion! you rampallian! you fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe.” ― Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part Two)

Leaves only one, none Who sits like a wall miles-high? ghost of Christmas past