Mark Foote

spark of creation dark and empty in the sun luminous at night

In Tai-chi they talk about tenacious strength, as opposed to muscular strength. I think this has to do with the angonist-antagonist pairings of muscle groups/ligaments & fascia. Sinking into the posture stretches the fascia and the fascia generates nerve impulses to cause muscles to contract to relieve the stretch. The "reciprocal innervation" from side to side as ligaments stretch, contract muscles for relief, stretch on the other side, and contract muscles for relief I suspect strengthens the ligaments and fascia over time. That would be another reason it takes a lot of years once we let go of using strength to develop the coordination and posture that supports "putting the cranial-sacral rhythm into the breath"; let me see if I can find that picture of Isis and Nefertari to add. Ah, here it is:

Thanks, Cloudhand, 3bob, and Kate, for your thoughts. Kate, I agree about the neural changes. Yuanwu and Foyan, two 12th century Chan teachers, both talk about an interval of twenty to thirty years after the initial settling-in before an individual can be of any use to others. I think that's about building neural pathways. For myself, I started writing thinking I had something to offer others, and then I slowly realized it was really about offering to myself. This morning I find I am excited about my letter to John, which is the basis of this thread, and as a consequence the focus on the place the mind comes to rest is barely with me. Slowly, I recall everything I've ever written about the posture, and I return to the thing I wrote in my first essay on the web, "the mudra of zen"; motion in three directions, reflected in the activity where the little fingers touch the abdomen, and in the stretch behind the sacrum that allows the cranial-sacral rhythm to move the sacrum forward. Over and over, the same aspects of coordination, and to let the mind be the tool of the two rhythms is still a leap; there's something about the amygdala, the emotional brain, that requires a great deal of experience in connection with balance and activity I think. I love the book "emotional intelligence", by Daniel Goleman; here's an article on the amygdala that I found (scanning quickly) if you're interested: oxfordjournals amygdala article I'd also like to alert everybody to my animation of the relationships I describe in my letter to John; that would be here: animation, "The Bridge is Flowing" 'morning, all.

Saturday night chills rolling through the bones in waves freakin' stumble step

pedestrians pass lotus-patterned underwear holding up the world

face says no, it's you deja vu, yet again- splat against the glass, full

two guys up in an airplane, one parachute- the plane engines sputter, stop. Both guys look at the parachute. First guy says to second, "here, you take it"- "but what about you?" queries the second. First guy picks up 100' extension cord and says to second, "don't worry about me, it's bound to hang up somewhere before I hit the ground." (can't write this morning!)

A quick google reveals that I probably had this backwards, there are Native American languages that have a noun-verb ratio of 1-17 (Mohawk- contrast that with English, where the ratio is 1-1), but not the other way around. I myself find it useful to regard consciousness as only existing in connection with sense and sense object. I find that useful because I can accept discontinuities in my awareness more readily when I accept that consciousness is a fire that only burns in connection with fuel. I give myself permission to experience where I am as I am, in effect.

I read in Doug Ward's "The Great Dragon's Fleas" that a lama advised him to spy on the mind, follow the mind. For me the sense of place as consciousness occurs is the agency, is the doer, if I can relax and follow. Except it's not like following a deer through the countryside, unless the deer and its surroundings appear simultaneously and not entirely with continuity, kind of jumping about. Crazy horse. Aren't there some native American languages where there are no verbs, just place words?

menders of haikus bend syntax and twist branches tightly woven braids

I think he did mean "make", but in this sense: contact between a sense organ and a sense object results in consciousness, the occurrence of consciousness affects balance and impacts the fascial stretch in existence as consciousness takes place, the stretch of fascia generates activity that opens feeling; to make the inner like the outer is to experience feeling generated through the impact of consciousness when the object of sense is within, just as we experience feeling generated through the impact of consciousness when the object of sense is outside. To make a hand in the place of a hand is to realize feeling in the hand as consciousness of the hand impacts the stretch in existence at the moment. That our consciousness of the inner affects our awareness of the outer, and vice-versa, has to do with the station of consciousness, as the Gautamid described it. If we ignore stretch proximal to painful overextension, we lose the action generated involuntarily out of stretch; our fear of losing our balance, losing our control of our balance, is important to notice. My fear, my anxiety, important right now for me to notice. Calm helps me accept that the involuntary activity that my consciousness generates as it moves is the heart of the matter, as far as opening feeling, and I can't help moving toward more ability to feel. My breath will take me there, my spine will take me there, my consciousness is there without trying. We lose the stretch when we sleep, to some extent, can't be helped I suppose. ruminations from cow pastures in northern california, on a beautiful spring night! (Kate, hope you forgive me that I follow that out, even though you asked to postpone)

wonderful on the side wonderful above, below gone, gone, sutta blues

that Man shall be chained or freed, by his own nature like the weeds blooming

(nice splice!) delicious Tao buns fresh and warm, buttered with eggs mmmmm, so good, so bad! (newcomers, please note that you can help us by starting your poem with the last line of the preceding haiku- that's how we get to know and love one another, on the haiku thread!)

fart till kingdom come still more where that came from. Soup. goin' to be rainin'...

something felt within moves without- eye of Horus with a touch of dust

things were sodden heaps the smell of mold, everywhere the nest of humans

(thanks, CowTao, for picking me up) an amazing blend my morning cup of coffee- cold in the garage

A one-hit wonder Won it one wonderful day A wonderful day clouds of spring, lightning day and night, lost in plain sight a wonderful day (hey, soaring crane, do you still have it?- ha ha!)

a one-hit wonder not one, not two at the pass clouds of spring, lightning

I don't notice one eye tearing when I sit. Sometimes I notice that I feel like I need to drink water or choke, suddenly, and sometimes I notice people coughing as my mind drifts around the room. Usually I can add an awareness around the bottom of my ribs to overcome the choke thing, and I'm so accustomed to the coughing when my mind drifts I don't pay it much heed anymore. You'd think I'd knuckle down so my mind wouldn't drift, wouldn't you!- don't know. Loneliness, go out and find a friend. Don't expect anything from anyone; I think it's expecting something that makes us lonely, like expecting to win makes us a little depressed when we lose. Can't expect to exclude anything and find everything, so the mind goes, and ya gotta dance to sit sometimes. and above all, to thine own self be true... urk, what's that I see before me, a dirk?

gunslingers abound in the heart of the mountains not one at the pass

I wish all the regulars would post a photo from time to time- thanks, Witch! ok, ok- here's one of me (& thanks for what you do, good luck with the show): yers, MF