Mark Foote

I think the sixth image is a reference to Gautama's third concentration: … 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-lilies, 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 5.28, tr. Pali Text Society vol. III pp 18-19) My experience: The water-lilies I believe represent the influence of the legs, the arms, and the head on activity in the abdominals, and consequently on stretch in the ligaments of the spine. The feeling of a combined influence of the extremities in the abdomen could be said to be like lilies of three colors floating under the surface of some body of water. The exact influence of each extremity remains unclear (zest ceases), yet with a sense of gravity and a stretch in particular ligaments, I can arrive at an ease. Gautama declared that the sages abide in the third concentration. I remind myself that the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation tends toward coordination by the free placement of consciousness, and look for ease. (Applying the Pali Instructions) About the third concentration, Gautama said: “… by the fading out of rapture [zest], [one] abides with equanimity, attentive and clearly conscious, and [one] experiences in [one’s] person that happiness of which (it is Said): ‘Joyful (easeful) lives [the person] who has equanimity and is mindful’.” (MN 59, Vol II pg 67) The "consciousness-informed body" being the ox: I like the flute-playing. Also sort of like allowing the inflation of the air sack to displace the fascia behind specific vertebrae, whilst the three abdominals and the ligaments of the spine dance: From my latest post on my own site, beginning with a quote from a neurobiology paper: 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 Gautama’s description of the first concentration, concentration begins when a person lays hold of “one-pointedness”, something Gautama also referred to as “one-pointedness of mind”. Translated into the language of the neurobiologists, concentration begins when consciousness is retained at the “specific position in space” of “embodied self-location”. The zest and ease of the initial concentration are a result of the effortlessness of the automatic activity initiated by gravity where one-pointedness of mind takes place. To drench the entire body with the feelings of zest and ease such that “there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” ensures that the consciousness retained with “embodied self-location” can remain “one-pointed”, even as the “specific position” of “embodied self-location” shifts and moves. 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. “Embodied self-location” retained with consciousness: But wait--there's more, including the six ginzu steak knives! Gautama described the "excellence of the heart's release" through the extension of the mind of compassion throughout the four quarters of the world, above and below, all without limit, as the concentration of "the infinity of ether". Similarly, the excellence of the heart's release though the extension of the mind of sympathy was the concentration of "the infinity of consciousness", and the excellence of the heart's release through the extension of the mind of equanimity was the concentration of "the infinity of space", or "the infinity of no-thing". Bearing in mind that Gautama also said: “Lack of desire even for the attainment of the first meditation has been spoken of by [me]; for whatever (one) imagines it to be, it is otherwise” [Similarly for the second, third, and fourth initial meditative states, and for the attainments of the first four further meditative states]. (MN 113, tr. Pali Text Society vol III pp 92-94.)

Said the man whose avatar is flying on a carpet...

I believe the ox-herding pictures were originally eight, in China. The last two, the blank slate and the marketplace scene, would therefore be later additions. Speaking of uncertainty as to what constitutes the light... Tommy, I'll bet you could relate to my latest post--here's the first part of it, and a link: “The Place Where You Stop and Rest” In one of his letters, twelfth-century Ch’an teacher Yuanwu wrote: Actually practice at this level for twenty or thirty years and cut off all the verbal demonstrations and creeping vines and useless devices and states, until you are free from conditioned mind. Then this will be the place of peace and bliss where you stop and rest. Thus it is said: “If you are stopping now, then stop. If you seek a time when you finish, there will never be a time when you finish.” (“Zen Letters: Teachings of Yuanwu”, tr. Cleary & Cleary, Shambala p 99) In my teenage years, I became keenly aware of the “creeping vines” of my mind. I read a lot of Alan Watts books on Zen, thinking that might help, but I soon found out that what he had to say did nothing to cut off the “creeping vines”. I was looking for something Shunryu Suzuki described in one of his lectures, though I didn’t know it at the time: So, when you practice zazen, your mind should be concentrated in your breathing and this kind of activity is the fundamental activity of the universal being. If so, how you should use your mind is quite clear. Without this experience, or this practice, it is impossible to attain the absolute freedom. (Thursday Morning Lectures, Shunryu Suzuki; November 4th 1965, Los Altos; emphasis added) I began to try to sit zazen, based on the illustrations in the back of “Three Pillars of Zen”, by Philip Kapleau. Zazen is almost always taught to beginners as sitting with a straight back and paying close attention to inhalation and exhalation. With regard to the straight back, Moshe Feldenkrais wrote: “Sit straight!” “Stand straight!” This is often said by mothers, teachers, and others who give this directive in good faith and with the fullest confidence in what they are saying. If you were to ask them just how one does sit straight or stand straight, they would answer, “What do you mean? Don’t you know what straight means? Straight is straight!” Some people do indeed stand and walk straight, with their backs erect and their heads held high. And of course there is an element of “standing straight in their posture. If you watch a child or an adult who has been told to sit or stand straight, it is evident that he agrees that there is something wrong with the way he is managing his body, and he will quickly try to straighten his back or raise his head. He will do this thinking that he has thereby achieved the proper posture; but he cannot maintain this “correct” position without continuous effort. As soon as his attention shifts to some activity that is either necessary, urgent, or interesting, he will slump back to his original position. (“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 66) For many years, whenever I sat at a zendo with a teacher who walked the room during a sitting, the teacher would invariably stop behind me and correct my posture. I generally couldn’t maintain their correction to the end of the sitting. With regard to close attention to inhalation and exhalation, Shunryu Suzuki described such attention as only a “preparatory practice”: … usually in counting breathing or following breathing, you feel as if you are doing something, you know– you are following breathing, and you are counting breathing. This is, you know, why counting breathing or following breathing practice is, you know, for us it is some preparation– preparatory practice for shikantaza because for most people it is rather difficult to sit, you know, just to sit. (The Background of Shikantaza, Shunryu Suzuki; San Francisco, February 22, 1970) Shikantaza, or “just sitting”, is emphasized in the Soto school of Zen Buddhism, the school to which Shunryu Suzuki belonged. (“The Place Where You Stop and Rest”)

must you encourage him..

A friend suggested this, last night. I do love Boz Scaggs:

human nature. Hats off to Nungali and Jung for already complifying "human nature", but I thought I'd give everyone else a chance.

My thanks to all the Dao Bums, for the inspiration. New post: “The Place Where You Stop and Rest”

The water is clear right through to the bottom; A fish goes lazily along. The sky is vast without horizon; A bird flies far far away. ("Lancet of Seated Meditation", Hongzhi Zhengjue [by imperial designation the Chan Master Spacious Wisdom], tr. Carl Bielefeldt, "Dōgen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation", p 200)

have a cup of tea I'm sick of tea, can't we have all the forms filled out

emptiness is form from one moment to the next have a cup of tea

My abbreviation of Gautama's four "arisings of mindfulness"--he was even harping on about the four arising just before he checked out: 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. What has that got to do with the "profound knowledge", or "intuitive wisdom", that Gautama cited as the essential ingredient of enlightenment--bearing in mind that enlightenment to Gautama implied the complete destruction of the craving for sense-pleasures, the craving “to continue, to survive, to be” (tr. “bhava”, Bhikkyu Sujato), and the craving not “to be” (the craving for the ignorance of being)? Not a lot, since Gautama said the mindfulness that was his way of living was his way of living before he was enlightened as well as afterward. Everything to do with "stopping", though, in my opinion. A unique aspect of Gautama's teaching was that he separated "stopping" with regard to habit and volition in inhalation and exhalation from "stopping" with regard to habit and volition in feeling and perceiving, and taught that the former preceded the latter. Nevertheless, as I am writing now: In one of his letters, twelfth-century Ch’an teacher Yuanwu wrote: Actually practice at this level for twenty or thirty years and cut off all the verbal demonstrations and creeping vines and useless devices and states, until you are free from conditioned mind. Then this will be the place of peace and bliss where you stop and rest. Thus it is said: “If you are stopping now, then stop. If you seek a time when you finish, there will never be a time when you finish.” (“Zen Letters: Teachings of Yuanwu”, tr. Cleary & Cleary, Shambala p 99) ... When the body rests from volition, so does the mind, even in the midst of activity. In my experience, that is how the “creeping vines” of the mind come to be cut off.