Mark Foote

Moved in solitude rocks on the Mojave floor nice trick to match that

Let the mind be present without an abode. (from the Diamond Sutra, translation by Venerable Master Hsing Yun from “The Rabbit’s Horn: A Commentary on the Platform Sutra”, Buddha’s Light Publishing p 60)

lord love a duck... sorry for the dupe.

I, for one, was most unhappy with my mind by my early teens. That's how I came to accept "Focus on body first and let your thoughts take care of themselves" (cited above by Apech as a part of an unpopular opinion). At seventeen, I learned how to sit zazen from the diagrams at the back of "Three Pillars of Zen". That was reminiscent of the way I initially learned judo, out of a Bruce Tegner book. When I actually started in at a judo dojo, the principal instructor called his instructing assistants over to witness me demonstrating what I had learned. Years later I found out they were highly amused, although they didn't show it at the time (fortunately. I owe them all a great debt!). My posture will never be exemplary, I'm reconciled to that. And much of what I've learned about internal arts has come out of books, still. But I agree, there's a love of life, a happiness in living that's natural, a happiness the denial of which is downright unhealthy. What I found through the seemingly unnatural practice of sitting on the floor with my legs crossed is that the body can place the mind, out of necessity. And understanding that such placement is a natural thing in the rhythm of consciousness, I have mostly reconciled with that same mind that left me so dismayed as a teenager--my mind knows what to do, about one thing. Unnatural to sit a posture that's been around since the Egyptians (you knew I'd get around to it, Apech), or... simply unpopular. You decide... From the tomb of Ptah-Hotep, 24th century B.C.E.

Ok, now the Dao Bums mini-editor decides to split! From my own writing, about the above: ... consciousness of the stretch and activity behind the lower back and in front of the contents of the lower abdomen can become consciousness of stretch and activity behind the sacrum and tailbone and in the vicinity of the genitalia. Such experience is independent of the sex of the individual, and is offered here as a recurrent condition of practice. (From the Gospel of Thomas) From my writing: ... These days... I am practicing some kind of scales, as it were. Gautama outlined the feeling of four states, the initial three and then the “purity by the pureness of [one’s] mind”, the fourth. I’ve described that “pureness of mind” as what remains when “doing something” ceases, and I wrote: When “doing something” has ceased, and there is “not one particle of the body” that cannot receive the placement of attention, then the placement of attention is free to shift as necessary in the movement of breath. The rest of the scales are looking for a grip where attention takes place in the body, as “one-pointedness” turns and engenders a counter-turn (without losing the freedom of movement of attention); finding ligaments that control reciprocal innervation in the lower body and along the spine through relaxation, and calming the stretch of ligaments; and discovering hands, feet, and teeth together with “one-pointedness” (“bite through here”, as Yuanwu advised; “then we can walk together hand in hand”, as Yuanwu’s teacher Wu Tsu advised). ("To Enjoy Our Life") When there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by "purity by the pureness of mind", then there can be "an image in place of an image". More on the state that proceeds that "purity by the pureness of mind", the state where "you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot": Gautama characterized the third state of concentration as follows: … free from the fervor of zest, (one) enters and abides in the third musing; (one) steeps and drenches and fills and suffuses this body with a zestless ease so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this zestless ease. … just as in a pond of blue, white, and red water-lillies, the plants are born in water, grow in water, come not out of the water, but, sunk in the depths, find nourishment, and from tip to root are steeped, drenched, filled and suffused with cold water so that not a part of them is not pervaded by cold water; even so, (one) steeps (one’s) body in zestless ease. (AN III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III pg 18-19) In my experience, the base of consciousness can shift to a location that reflects involuntary activity in the limbs and in the jaw and skull. The feeling for activity in the legs, the arms, and the skull is indeed like an awareness of three varieties of one plant grown entirely below a waterline. The experience does have an ease, does require equanimity with regard to the senses, and generally resembles a kind of waking sleep. (The Early Record) Gautama taught that zest ceases in the third concentration, while the feeling of ease continues: (One) enters & remains in the third (state), of which the Noble Ones declare, ‘Equanimous & mindful, (one) has a pleasant abiding.’ (Samadhanga Sutta, tr. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, AN 5.28 PTS: A iii 25; Pali Text Society, see AN Book of Threes text I,164; Vol II p 147) That’s a recommendation of the third concentration, especially for long periods. Nevertheless, I find that the stage of concentration that lends itself to practice in the moment is dependent on the tendency toward the free placement of attention. As I wrote in my last post: When a presence of mind is retained as the placement of attention shifts, then the natural tendency toward the free placement of attention can draw out thought initial and sustained, and bring on the stages of concentration. ... I practice now to experience the free placement of attention as the sole source of activity in the body in the movement of breath, and in my “complicated, difficult” daily life, I look for the mindfulness that allows me to touch on that freedom. ("To Enjoy Our Life")

Okay… So, have your hands in the cosmic mudra, palms up, thumbs touching, and there’s this common instruction: place your mind here. Different people interpret this differently. Some people will say this means to place your attention here, meaning to keep your attention on your hands. It’s a way of turning the lens to where you are in space so that you’re not looking out here and out here and out here. It’s the positive version, perhaps, of ‘navel gazing’. The other way to understand this is to literally place your mind where your hands are–to relocate mind (let’s not say your mind) to your centre of gravity, so that mind is operating from a place other than your brain. Some traditions take this very seriously, this idea of moving your consciousness around the body. I wouldn’t recommend dedicating your life to it, but as an experiment, I recommend trying it, sitting in this posture 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 https://nyoho.com/2018/09/15/no-struggle-zazen-yojinki-part-6/) Koun Franz referred to a "base of consciousness" that can move away from the head. Gautama spoke of a "one-pointedness of mind" that was synonymous with concentration. Herein… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness. (The disciple), aloof from sensuality, aloof from evil conditions, enters on the first trance, which is accompanied by thought directed and sustained, which is born of solitude, easeful and zestful, and abides therein. (SN v 198, Pali Text Society vol V p 174; “noble” substituted for Ariyan) Gautama spoke of "determinate thought" as action, and of the result of determinate thought as "the activities": …I say that determinate thought is action. When one determines, one acts by deed, word, or thought. (AN III 415, Pali Text Society Vol III p 294) And what are the activities? These are the three activities:–those of deed, speech and mind. These are activities. (SN II 3, Pali Text Society vol II p 4) He spoke of the cessation of "action": And what… is the ceasing of action? That ceasing of action by body, speech, and mind, by which one contacts freedom,–that is called ‘the ceasing of action’. (SN IV 145, Pali Text Society Vol IV p 85) When one has attained the first trance, speech has ceased. When one has attained the second trance, thought initial and sustained has ceased. When one has attained the third trance, zest has ceased. When one has attained the fourth trance, inbreathing and outbreathing have ceased… Both perception and feeling have ceased when one has attained the cessation of perception and feeling. (SN IV 217, Pali Text Society vol IV p 146) Gautama charted a course to the cessation of "determinate thought" in action, first in the activity of speech, then in the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation, and finally in the activity of the mind in feeling and perceiving. Gautama's enlightenment was his insight into the four truths--that came out of "the cessation of feeling and perceiving". No small feat, to experience a cessation of ("determinate thought" in) feeling and perceiving--complete spontaneity of mind--but he also taught a way of living that I believe only relied on regular experience of "the cessation of inhalation and exhalation". Part of that way of living was the experience of thought in connection with an inhalation or an exhalation: 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 V 312, Pali Text Society Vol V p 275-276; tr. F. L. Woodward; masculine pronouns replaced) Much as you said, accepting the activity of the mind, with a positivity that allows for detachment.

Thought this might be of interest to other 'bums: "The contents of Topic 86 provide evidential support for an interpretation of Mencius as advocating internalist belief in the innate potential for goodness in human nature. This engages Mencius’s discussion at 3B9 in which he attacks the doctrines of Yáng Zhu¯ 楊朱 and Mò Dí 墨翟, who advocate egoism and altruism, respectively. Mencian Confucianism repudiates these act-based ethics in favor of the cultivation of character (Csikszentmihalyi 2002). This is uncontroversial, but it leads to an ongoing interpretive problem about self-cultivation. Consider Mencius’s four “sprouts” of virtues (sì dua¯n 四端) in 2A6, where he writes that “if one is without the heart (xı¯n 心) of compassion, one is not human.… The feeling of compassion is the sprout of benevolence” (Van Norden 2008, 46; see also the archer analogy at 2A7). On one interpretation of these passages, the cultivation of feelings appears to be the source of moral virtue in Mencius, making Mencius representative of what is known in philosophy as an “internalist” theory of moral motivation. This allegedly contrasts with moral motivation and cultivation as found in Analects and Xunzi. These two texts are thought to advocate a greater number of, and greater roles for, externalist sources of morality like ritual (lıˇ 禮), patterned civility (wén), and rectification of names (zhèngmíng 正名). Our evidence appears to support this interpretation of Mencius. We draw additional evidence for this interpretation from several sources in traditional scholarship. For example, Slingerland (2003) argues that Mencius is uniquely and distinctively “internalist,” and Kline (2000) that Mencius’s ethics are “inside-out,” as have others (Ihara 1991; Wong 1991). However, since Topic 86 has a high text weight in only Discourses on salt and iron, and not in our core Confucian texts, we must collect additional evidence for the internalist interpretation of Mencius before we can rest confident that it is correct." (p 20) https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56b23f391bbee0832a71e819/t/5f7904c5c8f18a2d0326c669/1601766610059/Nichols%2C+et+al.+2017+JAS+Chinese+Philosophy+Machine-Learning.pdf240311-Nichols,+et+al.+2017+JAS+Chinese+Philosophy+Machine-Learning.pdf

The Gospel of Thomas is without question the most significant book discovered in the Nag Hammadi library. Unlike the Gospel of Peter, discovered sixty years earlier, this book is completely preserved. It has no narrative at all, no stories about anything that Jesus did, no references to his death and resurrection. The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus. ... The Jesus of this Gospel is not the Jewish messiah that we have seen in other Gospels, not the miracle-working Son of God, not the crucified and resurrected Lord, and not the Son of Man who will return on the clouds of heaven. He is the eternal Jesus whose words bring salvation. Many of the sayings of Jesus in this Gospel will be familiar to those who have read the Synoptic Gospels... Other sayings sound vaguely familiar, yet somewhat peculiar: “Let him who seeks not cease seeking until he finds, and when he finds, he will be troubled, and when he is troubled, he will marvel, and he will rule over the All”. (https://ehrmanblog.org/the-gospel-of-thomas-an-overview/#) In the first century of the Common Era, there appeared at the eastern end of the Mediterranean a remarkable religious leader who thaught the worship of one true God and declared that religion meant not the sacrifice of beasts but the practice of charity and piety and the shunning of hatred and enmity. He was said to have worked miracles of goodness, casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead. His exemplary life led some of his followers to claim he was a son of God, though he called himself the son of man. Accused of sedition against Rome, he was arrested. After his death, his disciples claimed he had risen from the dead, appeared to them alive, and then ascended to heaven. Who was this teacher and wonder-worker? His name was Apollonius of Tyana; he died about 98 A.D., and his story may be read in Flavius Philostratus's "Life of Apollonius". (Randel Helms, "Gospel Fictions", p 9) Maybe someone here will know better than me, but doesn't the practice of a practicing Christian owe more to Paul than to Jesus?

Let me confess, I've only ever read a few passages from GF. I played with hypnosis a lot as a teenager, both with hypnotizing others and with autohypnosis. I met a Zen teacher in the early '70's, listened to a few of his lectures but never tried to be a formal student. By then I was sitting half-lotus for at least short intervals daily, but the period length at the local Zen Center where I went for the lectures was 40 minutes, so I started aiming for that. In the '80's, that same Zen teacher closed a lecture at S. F. Zen Center by saying: "You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around." I had exactly that experience in 1975, in a room off the Golden Gate Park panhandle in San Francisco--I'm guessing it was partly from exposure to the Zen teacher, just like when I took judo and everybody in the dojo picked up the master teacher's favorite throw. Kind of an osmosis thing. The difficulty was in integrating that experience back into my daily life. Now when I sit down on the cushion, I open myself to a particular experience: The presence of mind can utilize the location of attention to maintain the balance of the body and coordinate activity in the movement of breath, without a particularly conscious effort to do so. There can also 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. (Common Ground) That necessity is not simply the necessity for breath: There’s a frailty in the structure of the lower spine, and the movement 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. (A Way of Living). I believe the location of attention that shifts and moves is what Mencius described as the "heart-mind"--I believe it was Mencius who said, "seek the release of the heart-mind". I would put that another way: When “doing something” has ceased, and there is “not one particle of the body” that cannot receive the placement of attention, then the placement of attention is free to shift as necessary in the movement of breath. When a presence of mind is retained as the placement of attention shifts, then the natural tendency toward the free placement of attention can draw out thought initial and sustained, and bring on the stages of concentration: … there is no need to depend on teaching. But the most important thing is to practice and realize our true nature… [laughs]. This is, you know, Zen. (Shunryu Suzuki, Tassajara 68-07-24 transcript from shunryusuzuki.com) (Shunryu Suzuki on Shikantaza and the Theravadin Stages) The experience of the heart-mind, of the mind that moves, is in a sense "other-worldly"--action proceeds from the location of the heart-mind, and not by will or volition. The difficulty is that most people will lose consciousness before they cede activity to the location of attention–they lose the presence of mind with the placement of attention, because they can’t believe that action in the body is possible without “doing something”... (ibid) Sounds like scopolamine.

As to what it means: you could do worse, than to read my PDF A Natural Mindfulness. Not by much, but you could. I'll try for the Reader's Digest version. Gautama spoke of laying hold of “one-pointedness” in the induction of the first “trance”: Herein… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness. (The disciple), aloof from sensuality, aloof from evil conditions, enters on the first trance, which is accompanied by thought directed and sustained, which is born of solitude, easeful and zestful, and abides therein. (SN V 198, Pali Text Society vol V p 174; “noble” substituted for Ariyan) I have described the experience of “one-pointedness of mind” as something that can occur in the movement of breath: The presence of mind can utilize the location of attention to maintain the balance of the body and coordinate activity in the movement of breath, without a particularly conscious effort to do so. There can also 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. In my experience, the “placement of attention” by the movement of breath only occurs freely in what Gautama described as “the fourth musing”: 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. (AN III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III p 18-19, see also MN III 92-93) The “pureness of mind” refers to the absence of any intention to act. Suffusing the body with “purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind” is widening awareness so that there is “not one particle of the body” that cannot become the location where attention is placed. Gautama's description of the feeling of the "third musing" went as follows: … free from the fervor of zest, (one) enters and abides in the third musing; (one) steeps and drenches and fills and suffuses this body with a zestless ease so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this zestless ease. … just as in a pond of blue, white, and red water-lillies, the plants are born in water, grow in water, come not out of the water, but, sunk in the depths, find nourishment, and from tip to root are steeped, drenched, filled and suffused with cold water so that not a part of them is not pervaded by cold water; even so, (one) steeps (one’s) body in zestless ease. (AN III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III p 18-19, see also MN III 92-93, PTS p 132-134) I wrote: In my experience, the base of consciousness (the placement of attention) can shift to a location that reflects involuntary activity in the limbs and in the jaw and skull. The feeling for activity in the legs, the arms, and the skull is indeed like an awareness of three varieties of one plant grown entirely below a waterline. The experience does have an ease, does require equanimity with regard to the senses, and generally resembles a kind of waking sleep. (The Early Record, parenthetical added) About that "ease": Gautama spoke of suffusing the body with “zest and ease” in the first concentration: “… (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 III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III p 18-19, see also MN III 92-93, PTS p 132-134) Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey a sense of gravity, while the phrase “not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” speaks to the “one-pointedness” of attention, even as the body is suffused. If I can find a way to experience gravity in the placement of attention as the source of activity in my posture, and particular ligaments as the source of the reciprocity in that activity, then I have an ease. ("To Enjoy Our Life") The striking thing to me about my experience on the cushion these days is that I am practicing some kind of scales, as it were. Gautama outlined the feeling of four states, the initial three and then the “purity by the pureness of [one’s] mind”, the fourth. I’ve described that “pureness of mind” as what remains when “doing something” ceases, and I wrote: When “doing something” has ceased, and there is “not one particle of the body” that cannot receive the placement of attention, then the placement of attention is free to shift as necessary in the movement of breath. The rest of the scales are looking for a grip where attention takes place in the body, as “one-pointedness” turns and engenders a counter-turn (without losing the freedom of movement of attention); finding ligaments that control reciprocal innervation in the lower body and along the spine through relaxation, and calming the stretch of ligaments; and discovering hands, feet, and teeth together with “one-pointedness” (“bite through here”, as Yuanwu advised; “then we can walk together hand in hand”, as Yuanwu’s teacher Wu Tsu advised). ("To Enjoy Our Life")

Sorry for the derailing: where is this from and what does it mean? As to "where it's from". You must strive with all your might to bite through here and cut off conditioned habits of mind. Be like a person who has died the great death: after your breath is cut off, then you come back to life. Only then do you realize that it is as open as empty space. Only then do you reach the point where your feet are walking on the ground of reality. ("Zen Letters: Teachings of Yuanwu", translated by J.C. and Thomas Cleary, p 84) Wikipedia: "Yuanwu Keqin (1063–1135) was a Han Chinese Chan monk who compiled the Blue Cliff Record." The "Blue Cliff Record" is a famous compendium of Zen "cases". The quote from Wu Tsu, I took from Yuanwu's commentary on a case in the "Blue Cliff Record": ‘Hsueh Feng taught the assembly saying, “On South Mountain there’s a turtle-nosed snake. All of you people must take a good look.”’ … When Hsueh Feng speaks this way, ‘On South Mountain there’s a turtle-nosed snake,’ tell me, where is it? ... My late teacher Wu Tsu said, “With this turtle-nosed snake, you must have the ability not to get your hands or legs bitten. Hold him tight by the back of the neck with one quick grab. Then you can join hands and walk along with me.” (The Blue Cliff Record, tr. Cleary Cleary, “Twenty-second Case: Hsueh Feng’s Turtle-Nosed Snake”, p 144, 151) Regarding "one quick grab", I wrote: I’m bound to be bitten by Wu Tsu, if I take his advice to mean there’s something I should do. It’s about realizing a cessation of “doing”, but I think I might run into him, in the stretch of ligaments. (Common Ground)

S:C, you had nothing to do with that site, it was simply the first thing presented in the search results. Odd that Google doesn't recognize that clicking on that link will give a Google warning, and place that site a lot further down in the search results. Can I say that I admire you responding to everybody's two cents, as you did there. Makes us all feel appreciated, whether we deserve to feel that way or not... About the cessation of "doing something". Shunryu Suzuki said: 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, Sunday, February 22, 1970, San Francisco; transcript from shunryusuzuki.com) Regarding the difference between "the cessation of doing" and "the cessation of breath"--keep in mind that Gautama defined "action", or "the activities", in terms of "determinate thought": …I say that determinate thought is action. When one determines, one acts by deed, word, or thought. (AN III 415, Pali Text Society Vol III p 294) And what are the activities? These are the three activities:–those of deed, speech and mind. These are activities. (SN II 3, Pali Text Society vol II p 4) And what… is the ceasing of action? That ceasing of action by body, speech, and mind, by which one contacts freedom,–that is called ‘the ceasing of action’. (SN IV 145, Pali Text Society Vol IV p 85) …I have seen that the ceasing of the activities is gradual. When one has attained the first trance, speech has ceased. When one has attained the second trance, thought initial and sustained has ceased. When one has attained the third trance, zest has ceased. When one has attained the fourth trance, inbreathing and outbreathing have ceased… Both perception and feeling have ceased when one has attained the cessation of perception and feeling. (SN IV 217, Pali Text Society vol IV p 146) The meaning of "inbreathing and outbreathing have ceased" can therefore be read: "(determinate thoughts in) inbreathing and outbreathing have ceased". Not that the breathing has ceased, but that "doing something" with regard to the activity of the body in inhaling and exhaling has ceased. Moshe Feldenkrais spoke of upright posture in which both "doing something" through the exercise of volition and "doing something" simply by virtue of habit have ceased: …good upright posture is that from which a minimum muscular effort will move the body with equal ease in any desired direction. This means that in the upright position there must be no muscular effort deriving from voluntary control, regardless of whether this effort is known and deliberate or concealed from the consciousness by habit. (“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 76, 78) What Gautama taught was a way to sit down and arrive at the cessation of "doing something" with regard to the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation. Suzuki referred to that as "just sitting", or shikantaza. Gautama further taught a way of living that involved regular experience of the cessation of "doing something" in daily life--he described that way of living as "something perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living, besides." Gautama also taught that there are states of concentration that lead to the cessation of "doing something" with regard to actions of feeling and perceiving (that's mentioned in the quote above, about the gradual ceasing of the activities). That would be the ceasing of "determinate thought" in feeling and perceiving, the cessation of habit and volition in activity of the mind. That's the attainment associated with Gautama's enlightenment, his insight into the four truths.

Interesting, is this a scenario you have consciously created or did the scene just happen? I'm just relating the symbols in your dream to my experience in sitting. The fruit that drops on the table--a one-pointedness of mind that can shift location and a sense of gravity that pervades the body are the fruit and the table to me. There's no eating the fruit. The striking thing to me about my experience on the cushion these days is that I am practicing some kind of scales, as it were. Gautama outlined the feeling of four states, the initial three and then the “purity by the pureness of [one’s] mind”, the fourth. I’ve described that “pureness of mind” as what remains when “doing something” ceases, and I wrote: When “doing something” has ceased, and there is “not one particle of the body” that cannot receive the placement of attention, then the placement of attention is free to shift as necessary in the movement of breath. The rest of the scales are looking for a grip where attention takes place in the body, as “one-pointedness” turns and engenders a counter-turn (without losing the freedom of movement of attention); finding ligaments that control reciprocal innervation in the lower body and along the spine through relaxation, and calming the stretch of ligaments; and discovering hands, feet, and teeth together with “one-pointedness” (“bite through here”, as Yuanwu advised; “then we can walk together hand in hand”, as Yuanwu’s teacher Wu Tsu advised). In the months since I wrote my friend, I’ve had some time to reflect. There are some things I would add, on my practice of “scales”. Gautama spoke of suffusing the body with “zest and ease” in the first concentration: “… (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 III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III p 18-19, see also MN III 92-93, PTS p 132-134) Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey a sense of gravity, while the phrase “not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” speaks to the “one-pointedness” of attention, even as the body is suffused. If I can find a way to experience gravity in the placement of attention as the source of activity in my posture, and particular ligaments as the source of the reciprocity in that activity, then I have an ease. ("To Enjoy Our Life")

Puts me in mind of a song: Relax your mind, relax your mindMake you feel so fine sometimeSometime you got to relax your mindWhen the light turns greenPut your foot down on the gasolineSometime you got to relax your mindWhen the light turns redPut your foot down on the brake insteadSometime you got to relax your mindWhen the light turns blueWhat in the world are you gonna doSometime you got to GF your mind (Jim Kweskin, with slight alteration) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=963_5AiDk94

Last question first, never heard of Mrs. Byron's four questions. I googled and found them, interesting. By the way, I would not go to the website "thework.com" for the questions--within a few seconds, I got a screen saying my version of the Chrome browser needing updating, and informing me that if the update did not start directly, I should click a button prominently displayed on the page. Chrome updates automatically, so this was clearly bogus, the button an invitation to malware hell. My latest post (on my own site) is not intended to be a rejection of the examination of emotions, far from it, although it might read that way. I guess for me, the question is more how to proceed to open my experience, of emotions, of dreams, and of daily living. Here's the post: One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular. (Carl Jung: The Philosophical Tree; Collected Works 13: Alchemical Studies. Paragraph 335) Shunryu Suzuki described the true practice of seated meditation as “just sitting”, meaning that “doing something” in the act of sitting has ceased. I believe, as Gautama the Buddha said, that the cessation of “doing something” in speech, body, or mind is a contact of freedom. I don’t think the integration of childhood memories, pre-speech memories, and inured emotional responses can take place apart from that cessation of “doing something” in the body and mind and that contact of freedom. I practice more now, as I see that the cessation I experience in “just sitting” helps to provide a sense of timing in my life, a sense of timing that seems related to a whole beyond what I can know. I’m not looking to become enlightened, or to make the darkness conscious. … time, just as it is, is being, and being is all time. (Dogen: “Uji (Being-Time)”; “The Heart of Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō”, tr by Waddell, Norman; Abe, Masao. SUNY Press. 2001. p 48) (The Practice of Time)

A nice translation: “Wonder of wonders! All sentient beings inherently possess the wisdom and virtues of the tathagata. But because of delusion and attachment, they are unable to actualize these qualities.” (translation from: https://www.ctworld.org.tw/english-96/html/01_3Periods.html) The source is not cited in the above link, but I see that on another site, the source is referred to as the "Garland Sutra". I assume that's the Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra. From Wikipedia: The Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra was written in stages, beginning from at least 500 years after the death of the Buddha. One source claims that it is "a very long text composed of a number of originally independent scriptures of diverse provenance, all of which were combined, probably in Central Asia, in the late third or the fourth century CE." Japanese scholars such as Akira Hirakawa and Otake Susumu meanwhile argue that the Sanskrit original was compiled in India from sutras already in circulation which also bore the name "Buddhavatamsaka". So, no, I don't believe Gautama the Shakyan ever said that, although it's a lovely sentiment. Meanwhile, as far as being able "to actualize these qualities": When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. (Dogen, "Genjo Koan", tr Tanahashi)

What a profound dream! I follow a progression like this in my sitting, for awhile now. I drive, I'm at a tree with a trunk, there's a man and woman in the active and receptive aspects of my effort, there's a taste of action by virtue of the placement of attention rather than volition, then there's no trunk but just a recognition of something that I have already partaken of. Forgive me if you've already read this, from a post of mine last fall: Although attention can be directed to the movement of breath, necessity in the movement of breath can also direct attention, as I wrote previously: 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. There’s a frailty in the structure of the lower spine, and the movement 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. ... Foyan (12th-century Chinese Zen teacher) spoke of “looking for a donkey riding on the donkey”. The degree of “self-surrender” required to allow necessity to place attention, and the presence of mind required to “lay hold” as the placement of attention shifts, make the conscious experience of “riding the donkey” elusive. (Shunryu) Suzuki provided an analogy: If you are going to fall, you know, from, for instance, from the tree to the ground, the moment you, you know, leave the branch you lose your function of the body. But if you don’t, you know, there is a pretty long time before you reach to the ground. And there may be some branch, you know. So you can catch the branch or you can do something. But because you lose function of your body, you know [laughs], before you reach to the ground, you may lose your conscious[ness]. (“To Actually Practice Selflessness”, August Sesshin Lecture Wednesday, August 6, 1969, San Francisco; “fell” corrected to “fall”; transcript from shunryusuzuki.com) Suzuki offered the analogy in response to the travails of his students, who were experiencing pain in their legs sitting cross-legged on the floor. In his analogy, he suggested the possibility of an escape from pain through a presence of mind with the function of the body. The difficulty is that most people will lose consciousness before they cede activity to the location of attention–they lose the presence of mind with the placement of attention, because they can’t believe that action in the body is possible without “doing something”: ... When a presence of mind is retained as the placement of attention shifts, then the natural tendency toward the free placement of attention can draw out thought initial and sustained, and bring on the stages of concentration: … there is no need to depend on teaching. But the most important thing is to practice and realize our true nature… [laughs]. This is, you know, Zen. (Shunryu Suzuki, Tassajara 68-07-24 transcript from shunryusuzuki.com) (Shunryu Suzuki on Shikantaza and the Theravadin Stages)

Learned a lot today, just from a brief reading of Wikipedia entries under "Filioque" and related topics. Thanks to you, Cobie, and snowymountains. Cobie, how come you know so much about the topic? The outcomes, with regard to the world's faiths, don't speak well for mechanisms of transmission (so to speak). Science has its usefulness, in standardizing methodology and especially in predicting physical outcomes. Religion as the science of arriving at the deathless, not so much.

Photo by Bob Edwards. Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco California

For snowymountains:

Yes, I just thought that was an interesting follow-on from the article you linked. I wonder what differences there are in the practice of Christianity, between the two churches. Nothing to do with the best translation of "The Golden Flower", of course.

On July 16, 1054, Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cerularius was excommunicated from the Christian church based in Rome, Italy. Cerularius’s excommunication was a breaking point in long-rising tensions between the Roman church based in Rome and the Byzantine church based in Constantinople (now called Istanbul). The resulting split divided the European Christian church into two major branches: the Western Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. This split is known as the Great Schism, or sometimes the “East-West Schism” or the “Schism of 1054.” The Great Schism came about due to a complex mix of religious disagreements and political conflicts. One of the many religious disagreements between the western (Roman) and eastern (Byzantine) branches of the church had to do with whether or not it was acceptable to use unleavened bread for the sacrament of communion. (The west supported the practice, while the east did not.) Other objects of religious dispute include the exact wording of the Nicene Creed and the Western belief that clerics should remain celibate. These religious disagreements were made worse by a variety of political conflicts, particularly regarding the power of Rome. Rome believed that the pope—the religious leader of the western church—should have authority over the patriarch—the religious authority of the eastern church. Constantinople disagreed. Each church recognized their own leaders, and when the western church eventually excommunicated Michael Cerularius and the entire eastern church. The eastern church retaliated by excommunicating the Roman pope Leo III and the Roman church with him. While the two churches have never reunited, over a thousand years after their split, the western and eastern branches of Christianity came to more peaceable terms. In 1965, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I lifted the longstanding mutual excommunication decrees made by their respective churches. (https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/great-schism/)

Seriously, though: ... a good [person], by passing quite beyond the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, enters on and abides in the stopping of perception and feeling; and when [such a person] has seen by means of wisdom [their] cankers are caused to be destroyed. And… this [person] does not imagine [him or her self] to be aught or anywhere or in anything. (MN III 42-45, Vol III pg 92-94) I don't expect to get there (conscious experience of feeling and perceiving in the absence of volition). As I wrote in my most recent post: Shunryu Suzuki described the true practice of seated meditation as “just sitting”, meaning that “doing something” in the act of sitting has ceased. I believe, as Gautama the Buddha said, that the cessation of “doing something” in speech, body, or mind is a contact of freedom. ... I practice more now, as I see that the cessation I experience in “just sitting” helps to provide a sense of timing in my life, a sense of timing that seems related to a whole beyond what I can know. (The Practice of Time) "A whole beyond what I can know"--that's more of a "self" than Gautama acknowledged, I'll admit, but it's really not about a "thing" but about action. As Dogen put it: Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. (Genjo Koan, tr Tanahashi)