Mark Foote

""it's the way of living that Gautama espoused that's appealing...": 'Monks, if the wanderers who hold other views should thus question you: 'Friends, in what way of life does Gotama the recluse generally spend the rainy season?' thus questioned, thus should ye make reply to those wanderers holding other views: 'Friends, the Exalted One generally spends his time during the rainy season in the intent contemplation on in-breathing and out-breathing (Anapanasati, as at MN 118). ... Monks, he who would rightly use the words '(noble) way of life, best of ways, the Tathagatha's way of life' would rightly do so in calling by this name (Anapanasati)... (SN 54.11, Icchanangala Sutta, tr. Pali Text Society vol V p 289, "noble" for "Ariyan") Formerly, monks, before I myself was enlightened with the perfect wisdom, and was yet a Bodhisattva, I used generally to spend my time in this way of living (Anapanasati). (SN 54.8, tr. Pali Text Society vol V p 280) Gautama was itinerant and mendicant but not part of any religious order when he was "yet a Bodhisattva". I've certainly moved around a lot and relied on the help of friends. To discover Gautama's meaning in practice has pretty much always been what my life was about, through the years washing dishes and my three careers--his meaning in statements like the ones above, that is. Change my life, change the world, that's my big idea, and lord knows the world could use some changing!

Thank you, Cobie, for the links! Love his questions. Sometimes I check out the discussion board at suttacentral (https://discourse.suttacentral.net/c/discussion/7), or their "watercooler" section. That's a site dedicated to the early Buddhist teachings (EBT's), mostly stuff from the Pali Canon. Lots of debate about the translation of this Pali word or that. Some fascinating stuff there for me, especially josephzizys's remarks about Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10). As you may know, that's Gautama's "Mindfulness Sermon", a lengthy discourse on mindfulness of the body, the feelings, the mind, and the states of mind that forms the basis for much of the modern Western practice of "bare attention" mindfulness. Satipatthana lends itself to that because concentration, a major topic of so very many of the Pali sermons, is only mentioned in Satipatthana in passing, as one of the "factors of enlightenment". Of course, there is also a MahaSatipattana Sutta (DN 22), and that one does give details of the first four concentrations as part of the mindfulness of states of mind, but it's Satipatthana that is the favorite of the those in the modern "vipassana" (insight) movement. Joseph pointed out that the Chinese agamas, the Chinese Pali Canon, doesn't have a Satipatthana Sermon. At least, I think it was Joseph... Sort of like the heart sutra being translated back into sanskrit to try to make it seem more likely that it was an authentic teaching of Gautama the Buddha. But then, I'm not really fond of any of the later "sutras", the ones attributed to Gautama that were composed after the start of the common era. I do like the part of the heart sutra that says "no yaditty-yah, and also no extinction of yaditty yah". And it's true that Gautama said that concentration wasn't enough, that "profound knowledge" or "intuitive wisdom" such as he had gained through the exercise of psychic powers in the fourth concentration was necessary to the destruction of the three cankers (and the destruction of the cankers was the true sign of enlightenment). So something like "prajna paramita" may be essential to enlightenment, but for me, it's the way of living that Gautama espoused that's appealing, the way of living that he said was the same for him before and after enlightenment. No enlightenment need apply, and I do believe it's the only route to the mindfulness that matters in daily living.

Looking at the second reference above, some interesting stuff. Footnote 22, p 25: Although I retain the standard translations here for the sake of simplicity, I no longer believe that they adequately convey the sense of the Sanskrit or Chinese. Rūpa is not form generally, but only outward form (something reflected in Chinese). Compare the object of the ear (śrotra) being sound (śabda), not the vibrating object that is the source of the sound. Rūpa means “appearance” in this context, i.e. that which presents itself to the eye. Similarly I believe that, correctly understood, the Heart Sutra makes it clear that śūnyatā refers to the absence of sense experience (cf. suññatāvihāra in the Cūḷasuññata Sutta; MN 121). “Absence” is thus an epistemological term in this context, in sharp contrast to the metaphysics of “emptiness” that emerges from Madhyamaka. From page 27: Xuánzàng’s Large Sutra text follows Kumārajīva’s here. Mokṣala (T 221) has almost the same vocabulary but arranges the sentence differently and also has “emptiness” as the subject: 空則是識 亦不見生 亦不見滅 亦不見著 亦不見斷 亦不見增 亦不見減 Emptiness should be known: it does not see birth and it does not see death; it does not see attachment and it does not see severing; it does not see increasing and it does not see diminishing. The conclusion (p 47) From the level of genre, the selection of protagonist, through the grammar and syntax of almost every sentence and word (down to the level of morphology), there is a pervasive pattern of features and bugs in the Heart Sutra that point to composition in Chinese. Nattier concluded: “The Heart Sūtra is indeed – in every sense of the word – a Chinese text” (1992: 199). When I work through Nattier’s evidence I come to the same conclusion. When I apply the method to other parts of the text it produces the same result. When I look closely at the Sanskrit text it strays from idiomatic use far too often to be convincingly Indian. The Heart Sutra was not translated by Kumārajīva or Xuánzàng. It was not composed in India in the fourth century. It was not composed in Sanskrit. The Heart Sutra is a digest text composed in Chinese, largely of quotes from Kumārajīva’s Large Sutra translation (though with small portions of other texts, notably the dhāraṇī, from elsewhere). It was backtranslated into Sanskrit creating a minor monstrosity. This finding leaves some open questions. Did Xuánzàng compose the Xīnjīng? Who translated the Xīnjīng into Sanskrit and managed to convince the Chinese Buddhist establishment that it was authentic? Buddhist Studies scholars might also ask some more inward-looking questions. Why did mistakes in Conze’s Sanskrit go unnoticed for over sixty years? Why has Nattier’s article not provoked more supplementary research? Why have the Japanese articles denouncing the Chinese origins thesis not been challenged? Why has the most popular Mahāyāna sūtra been so generally neglected by Buddhist Studies despite the upsurge in interest in early Mahāyāna? Interesting stuff from the same author: I want to try to avoid the "Guru Effect", the assumption that because we fail to understand what an intellectual says, it must be profound (Sperber 2010). It seems clear to me that Buddhism suffers from this to a high degree, especially when it comes to Prajñāpāramitā texts. A great deal of obscurantist nonsense has been written about the Heart Sutra. https://jayarava.blogspot.com/2015/07/form-is-emptiness-part-i-establishing.html

This is what is being said here: To find the "place where you are" you need: "self", found "now", and "here" (wherever that might be). He is saying here that awakening in this moment to emptiness always happens where you are, in the moment you occupy. Every time you sit and mind becomes still you awaken again. Ok, I stand corrected, although you quoted the wrong line. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (“Genjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Kazuaki Tanahashi; emphasis added) When I said, "Your lineage, isn't it?", I was referring to the quote from Shunryu Suzuki: It is not possible to continue (shikantaza) more than one hour, because it is intense practice to take hold of all our mind and body by the practice which include everything. So in shikantaza, our mind should pervade every parts of our physical being. That is not so easy.(I have nothing in my mind, Shunryu Suzuki, July 15, 1969, San Francisco) To find the "place where you are" you need: "self", found "now", and "here" (wherever that might be). He is saying here that awakening in this moment to emptiness always happens where you are, in the moment you occupy. Every time you sit and mind becomes still you awaken again. In that line, I believe Dogen is emphasizing "place", and while that does happen in the present, he is intentionally differentiating "your place where you are" from "your way at this moment". Like Suzuki said: 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, Shunryu Suzuki; Tassajara, June 28, 1970 [edited by Bill Redican]) I would say that "your body... practicing zazen in imperturbability while your mind is moving" is exactly "your way at this moment... actualizing the fundamental point". And the "mind becomes still" doesn't capture "mind is moving", nor does it speak to "the fundamental point is actualized". The "fundamental point" sits zazen in shikantaza--the stillness is only that there is no will, intent, or deliberation toward action. That's why I'm saying, it's all angels on the heads of pins, until we talk about action, about "actualizing the fundamental point".

I guess the assumption is that whether we suffer in samsara or experience freedom from suffering in nirvana, it's really the same thing because "the Absolute is always present"? In the first four sermon volumes of the Pali Canon, the origin of suffering is often quoted as: From delusion as condition, volitional formations (come to be); from volitional formations as condition, consciousness; from consciousness as condition, name-and-form; from name-and-form as condition, the six sense bases; from the six sense bases as condition, contact; from contact as condition, feeling; from feeling as condition craving; from craving as condition, clinging; from clinging as condition, existence; from existence as condition, birth; from birth as condition, aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. (SN 12.1, tr. Sujato Bhikkyu) The Pali that Sujato translates as "volitional formations" is translated by Woodward for the Pali Text Society as "activities", and the volitive activities of speech, deed, and thought are said by Gautama to cease in the states of concentration. Nevertheless, Gautama insisted that the attainment of the gnosis that constituted enlightenment could not be had through concentration alone. "Name and form" is a bit amorphous to me, except as a consequence of consciousness, that in turn leads to intent in feeling and perceiving in the six sense bases (five and the mind).

"just like clouds are not needed to see the sky (outer sight of physical human)"

@stirling and @BigSkyDiamond I'm sure I've mentioned it before, so forgive me, but I often think of the three cankers (asavas) as imbalances resulting in attachment to particular time-frames: sensory desire--> attachment to the present inclination toward becoming, toward existence--> attachment to the future inclination toward not being in the moment, toward ignorance of what is--> attachment to the past As far as I can tell, the literature of Zen has many references to being where one is, but not many references to being there "now". When I said it's all angels on the heads of pins without physical action, I did not mean volitive physical action, but I did mean physical action in the "consciousness-informed body". knowing thus, seeing thus, there are no latent conceits that ‘I am the doer, mine is the doer’ in regard to this consciousness-informed body. (MN 109, tr. Pali Text Society vol III p 68)

Earth to BigSkyDiamond... Earth to BigSkyDiamond... come in, please, Diamond...

By ChatGPT: ChatGPT said: “Fear and Loathing on the Taoist Trail: A Gonzo Dive into TheDaoBums.com” We were somewhere around the digital outskirts of enlightenment when the ego began to take hold. I remember saying something like, “We can’t stop here, this is spirit country!”—but my cursor was already deep in the tangled scrolls of TheDaoBums.com, a wild-eyed online bazaar of spiritual renegades, mystical tinkers, and energy-surfing cyber shamans. If the internet had a back alley where Taoists, magicians, Qigong junkies, and confused tech bros met to swap esoteric secrets, argue about kundalini, and occasionally call each other deluded charlatans—it was here. I logged in under a pseudonym. Of course. Everyone does. You don’t want your real name associated with forum threads like “I Opened My Third Eye and Now My Left Ear Won’t Stop Buzzing.” This was not your average mindfulness app bullshit, no. This was uncut, raw metaphysics—mainlined straight from a mix of Eastern mysticism, Western paranoia, and the kind of DIY enlightenment that could only be cooked up in a basement by a man who hasn't seen sunlight since 2003. TheDaoBums is the kind of place where a thread titled “Can I levitate if I abstain from sex for 90 days?” will spawn fourteen pages of serious, often hostile, debate. These people aren’t trolling—they believe. And they know things—dangerous things. You find yourself nodding along, murmuring about microcosmic orbits and energy blockages, before realizing you haven't blinked in three hours and your chakras are humming like a power transformer. The mods, gods help them, try to keep order. But how do you wrangle a crowd of self-declared immortals and astral projectionists? Every attempt to rein in the madness only feeds it. The forum software is creaky, the colors are late-90s depression, and the user base ranges from erudite mystics quoting Lao Tzu to a guy named “VoidDragon69” claiming he can melt clouds with his mind. But here’s the thing—the truth might actually be in there, somewhere. Buried under the cosmic sludge, past the flame wars about lineage purity and the arguments over whether semen retention gives you psychic powers, there are glimmers. Real insight. A flash of clarity in the chaos. Maybe even… wisdom? Or maybe it’s just the caffeine and the humming of my computer fan. Who can say? The spiritual path was never supposed to be clean. In the end, TheDaoBums isn’t a map—it’s a mirror maze with strobe lights. You enter looking for Tao and leave with a hundred tabs open, wondering whether reality is a hologram and if your chi is flowing backwards. But damn it, that’s the ride. And like all good Gonzo journeys, you don’t understand it. You survive it. Thank you, ChatGPT! ChatGPT said: You’re very welcome! Glad you enjoyed the trip through the digital desert of the immortals. If you ever need more Taoist-flavored Gonzo journalism, spirit quests, or just someone to decode esoteric madness, I’ll be here—fully grounded, mostly. Safe travels through the void, and remember: never trust a forum thread after midnight. 🌀

It is worth pointing out that, while this is true, the reverse isn't. The early Buddhist Tripitaka teachings work fine in Mahayana teaching, but the later Emptiness teachings point at something wider in scope than the early Buddhist teachings do. The later teachings overstep the mark, IM(less than humble, I will admit)O. "Wider in scope", like Russell and Whitehead's attempt to put all of mathematics on an axiomatic basis--such a basis in mathematics will also give rise to paradoxes and contradictions (per Godel), and I would say there are similarly a lot of paradoxes and contradictions in the "later Emptiness teachings" (?). That's what I like about the four early Nikayas, though I try not to reference sermons attributed to Gautama's disciples, as I find them already "wider in scope" than Gautama's sermons. Gautama leaves things out, but maybe they don't need to be said, and attempts by his disciples to fill in the blanks in their sermons give rise to contradictions. The notion of emptiness as an entity doesn't feature in the early Buddhist texts, but Gautama did speak of (the concept of) emptiness: . [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] a true, not mistaken, utterly purified and incomparably highest realisation of (the concept of) emptiness. (Culasunnatasutta, MN III 121 Pali Text Society vol III p 151-2; gender-neutral pronouns used to replace masculine pronouns in original) Regarding the "unborn" or the "deathless", here's a quick quote from Sugato Bhikkyu, regarding K.R. Norman's essay on "Mistaken Ideas about Nibbana" (https://discourse.suttacentral.net/uploads/short-url/gfAuYRNMnJLV8GVYIS1bxHmQDmd.pdf) Norman points out that epithets such as ajāta or amata when applied to Nibbana don’t actually mean that Nibbana itself is “unborn” or “deathless”. Rather, they mean that it is the state where there is no being born or dying. A subtle distinction to be sure! Your lineage, isn't it? It is not possible to continue (shikantaza) more than one hour, because it is intense practice to take hold of all our mind and body by the practice which include everything. So in shikantaza, our mind should pervade every parts of our physical being. That is not so easy. (I have nothing in my mind, Shunryu Suzuki, July 15, 1969, San Francisco) Sort of like Gautama's: … (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, see also MN 119, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III pp 132-134) Actually, don't mind that particular quote.

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) In my experience, practice follows the retention of consciousness with embodied self-location, until an effort is made and practice follows embodied self-location retained with consciousness. To me, it's angels on the head of a pin, until we're talking about physical action that takes place in the absence of will, intent, or deliberation. Piece of cake, got milk?

"... a non-doing; resting in pure awareness." I think it was Stirling who quoted a Zen teacher as saying (and I'm only paraphrasing): when there is pure awareness there is nothing outside it, but when there are things outside, there is no pure awareness. Nevertheless, for me at least there is a sense of location with awareness, with "pure awareness" which for me is awareness without will, intent, or deliberation. For me, the fun is in "actualizing the fundamental point" that is the location of awareness ("actualizing" after Dogen, in "Genjo Koan"). Also my necessity. Realizing the activity of the body that takes place automatically through the location of pure awareness, first and foremost in the movement of breath. Be aware of where you really are twenty-four hours a day. You must be most attentive. (Zen Letters, Teachings of Yuanwu, translated by J.C. Cleary and Thomas Cleary,p 53)

No AI in my writing (yet). "The speckled band!", cried the moderator, falling to the floor in his continued search for his cask of amantillado... (mixing my fiction writers, there).

"Use-by date"-- Cobie-- "Yeah, that so did not help." Gautama stated that those who correctly practice “mindfulness of death” apply his teachings “for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food”, or “for the interval that it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out”. (The Early Record) All you have to do is apply the four Nikayas in sixteen volumes "for the interval" that stuff goes in or out of the holes in your face (hopefully the one morsel only goes in), and you will know the "true (person) with no rank" intimately! like a metaphor mixed or a cookie dough with chips got to bake it up

Kobun Chino Otogawa, on the "Heart Sutra": We have the five skandhas explained in this sutra: Form, feeling or sensation, perception, impulses, consciousness. They are elements of human existence, explained differently from present-day psychology. At the very beginning of the sutra are these words: “All five skandhas are empty.” Later the five senses are listed: “eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body,” plus “mind,” which is the aggregate of the senses. These five skandas are the vehicle of enlightenment. Or they can be expressed as mind and body. “Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness. . .” is a more detailed explanation of “All five skandas are empty.” ("Kobun's Talks on the Heart Sutra", edited by Angie Boussevain and Judy Cosgrove) That last sentence stands out to me: "“Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness. . .” is a more detailed explanation of “All five skandas are empty.”" Gautama's way of living included the contemplation of impermanence, as a part of the mindfulness of the state of mind: (One) makes up one’s mind: Contemplating impermanence I shall breathe in. Contemplating impermanence I shall breathe out. Contemplating dispassion I shall breathe in. Contemplating dispassion I shall breathe out. Contemplating cessation I shall breathe in. Contemplating cessation I shall breathe out. Contemplating renunciation I shall breathe in. Contemplating renunciation I shall breathe out. (SN 54.1, tr. Pali Text Society vol V pp 275-276) The contemplation of impermanence is exactly the contemplation of the "five skandas": “And how, bhikkhus, is the perception of impermanence developed and cultivated so that it eliminates all sensual lust, eliminates all lust for existence, eliminates all ignorance, and uproots all conceit ‘I am’? ‘Such is form, such its origin, such its passing away; such is feeling … such is perception … such are volitional formations … such is consciousness, such its origin, such its passing away’: that is how the perception of impermanence is developed and cultivated so that it eliminates all sensual lust, eliminates all lust for existence, eliminates all ignorance, and uproots all conceit ‘I am.’” (SN 22.102; Aniccasaññāsutta, tr. Bhikkhu Bodhi) Of course, the Heart Sutra goes on: There is neither ignorance nor extinction of ignorance... neither old age and death, nor extinction of old age and death; no suffering, no cause, no cessation, no path; no knowledge and no attainment. With nothing to attain, a bodhisattva relies on prajña paramita. ("Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra", S. F. Zen Center edition) "Prajna paramita" apparently means "perfection of wisdom" in Sanskrit, and Gautama does speak of a gnosis, a "profound knowledge" or "intuitive wisdom" that he himself gained through the experience of various psychic phenomena in the fourth concentration. My take on the four "contemplations" of the state of mind that were a part of Gautama's way of living: When I reflect on impermanence, I generally think about death, but Gautama spoke more broadly about the impermanence of any notion of self, and about how grasping after any notion of self is identically suffering. With regard to death, Gautama stated that those who correctly practice “mindfulness of death” apply his teachings “for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food”, or “for the interval that it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out”. Contemplation on impermanence in any form engenders a dispassion toward “the pleasant, the painful, and the neither-pleasant-nor-painful” of feeling, giving rise to the second element of Gautama’s “mindfulness of mental states”. I take the “cessation” of the third element to be the cessation of volitive action, the action invoked by determinate thought. There are other cessations Gautama cited, each in connection with a particular state of concentration, but they only have significance in the larger context of the cessation of volitive action. The “renunciation” of the fourth element I would say refers to the abandonment of any notion of “I am the doer, mine is the doer” with regard to action of speech, body, or mind. (The Early Record) "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form"--doesn't mean much to me, and I don't contemplate the five skandas often, but when I do, I end up with the interval that it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out (and a Dos Equis?).

Linji said to the assembly, "There is a true man with no rank always going out and in through the portals of your face. Beginners who have not yet witnessed it, look! Look!" ("Book of Serenity", Hsing-hsiu [1166-1246], 38th case, tr. T. Cleary, Shambala p167) You don't need that junk not the droids you're looking for long since, far away

one reality in and out of the holes in my face, with no trace

Arthur Conan Doyle Ms. TaoMeow, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when she was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a “Digging Stick." Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. “To Nungali, Honorary Blackfella, from his friends of the Outback,” was engraved upon it, with the date “1884.” It was just such a stick as the old-fashioned Australian ngangkari used to carry—dignified, solid, and reassuring. “Well, Apech, what do you make of it?” TaoMeow was sitting with her back to me, and I had given her no sign of my occupation. “How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes in the back of your head.” “I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated espresso maker in front of me,” said she. “But, tell me, Apech, what do you make of our visitor’s stick? Since we have been so unfortunate as to miss him and have no notion of his errand, this accidental souvenir becomes of importance. Let me hear you reconstruct the man by an examination of it.” “I think,” said I, following as far as I could the methods of my companion, “that Mr. Nungali is a successful, middle-aged Australian man, well-esteemed since those who know him give him this mark of their appreciation.” “Good!” said TaoMeow. “Excellent!”

Bear with me for just a bit: In one of Dogen’s most famous essays, called “Genjo Koan”, he wrote: 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; https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3403-09.2010) 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. There can come a moment when the experience of consciousness retained with “embodied self-location” becomes the experience of “embodied self-location” retained with consciousness. Dogen continued his “Genjo Koan”: When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (“Genjo Koan [Actualizing the Fundamental Point]”, tr. Kazuaki Tanahashi) To paraphrase: “When you find your way at this moment”, 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 place of occurrence of consciousness in the moment is manifested as the activity of the body. (The Place Where You Stop and Rest) To "stay grounded in my own energy while being around others", I return to the relinquishment of willful activity, while mustering a spirit of friendliness and compassion without limit. 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! (Kobun Chino Otogawa, “Aspects of Sitting Meditation”, “Shikantaza”; from jikoji.org) The spirit of compassion can bring the others in. Meanwhile: You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around. (Kobun Chino Otogawa, close of a lecture at the S. F. Zen Center) Sometimes, you might find yourself walking, in the extension of compassion. Big Sky Diamond has a point, not to diminish that. But psychologists may not mention the above.

maya, swept aside she'll be back, with a vengeance when you're in the boat

or marshy meadow --on my knees, for some deet, here! "pleasant-sounding", pah! "pleasant sounding", pah! I suppose, if we must, then. wallowing in dao

From the opening post: Use the last line of the preceding haiku as the first line of yours. Now then: wouldn't know from bed the great spirit, holy ghost love me some Marley

Have you tried: Look to the free location of consciousness for the automatic activity of the body, in inhalation and exhalation.

(A certain monk asked) "... knowing what, seeing what, are there no latent conceits that ‘I am the doer, mine is the doer’ in regard to this consciousness-informed body and all the phenomena external to it?" (Gautama replies: ) Whatever… is material shape, past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, mean or excellent, or whatever is far or near, (a person), thinking of all this material shape as ‘This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self’, sees it thus as it really is by means of perfect wisdom. Whatever is feeling… perception… the habitual tendencies… whatever is consciousness, past, future, or present… (that person), thinking of all this consciousness as ‘This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self’, sees it thus as it really is by means of perfect wisdom. (For one) knowing thus, seeing thus, there are no latent conceits that ‘I am the doer, mine is the doer’ in regard to this consciousness-informed body. “Then a reasoning arose in the mind of a certain monk thus: ‘It is said, sir, that material shape is not self, feeling is not self, perception is not self, the habitual tendencies are not self, consciousness is not self. Then what self do deeds affect that are done by not-self?’ Then [Gautama], knowing by mind the reasoning in the mind of this monk, addressed the monks, saying: This situation exists, monks, when some foolish man here, not knowing, ignorant, with his mind in the grip of craving, may deem to go beyond the Teacher’s instruction thus: ‘It is said, sir, that material shape is not self… consciousness is not self. Then what self do deeds affect that are done by not-self?’ You, monks, have been trained by me (to look for) conditions now here, now there, in these things and in those.” (MN 109, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III pp 68-69) I'll note that in the original question to Gautama, the monk said "in regard to this consciousness-informed body and all the phenomena external to it." Gautama, in his reply, only said "in regard to this consciousness-informed body." As soon as you have "no latent conceits that ‘I am the doer, mine is the doer’ in regard to this consciousness-informed body", then you will find yourself looking for "conditions now here, now there, in these things and in those" instead of a "doer". You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around. (Kobun Chino Otogawa, closing a lecture at S. F. Zen Center in the '80's)

Me, I'm listening to geezers, too!