Mark Foote

which way did I go? 'round the usual suspects! damn the torpedoes

Rainbow_vein, that's amazing! No so clear for me, though the last few days I have been reminded of Chen Man-Ch'ing's practice description for the stage of man, mainly: relax from the shoulders to the wrist, from the hip joint to the heel, and from the sacrum to the headtop (in the Ben Lo/Martin Inn translation, this is "relax the ligaments"; I don't think that's actually possible, as ligaments stretch and resile but it's muscles that contract and relax- nevertheless, I take the meaning as resting weight on the ligaments in such a way as to realize reciprocal activity in associated postural muscles). So your practice is very clear, as to the relationship of the movement of breath and the free movement of the sacrum. You are describing how it feels, and a big trick for me is that the sense of place as consciousness occurs can cause the stretch in existence to generate activity to align the spine and produce feeling. This is a big trick because if I put all my energy into feeling the breath or the movement of the sacrum, I will finally lose actual feeling for having directed the occurrence of consciousness to the particular place. So I think to rely instead on the movement of breath and the cranial-sacral rhythm to place consciousness, and I look to realize impact as consciousness occurs, impact and feeling. Is this natural? It is really just staying with what's happening, not a gaining practice. My posture is pretty bent, usually, so I envy you the clarity of "up the spine". I guess the reason I mentioned learning to dance is because that's where I sometimes feel an uprightness in the spine both on the inhale and the exhale, yet the feeling is intimately tied to resting the weight of my body on the sacrospinous and sacrotuberous ligaments and allowing movement from that stretch. At least, that's the way I feel it.

My dancing usually (hopefully!) gets better as I go, and better when I dance with another or with others. I learned to dance at Mabuhay gardens in San Francisco in the eighties, doing the soft slam to the garage bands Dirk Dirksen could hire (punk and new wave history, here: Mabuhay Gardens). In my estimation, the tan-t'ien concerns the pivot of weight around which the psoas and extensors reciprocate involuntarily. This reciprocation is healthy when the sacrum moves freely in the cranial-sacral rhythm, the movement of breath is relaxed, and consciousness takes place spontaneously (ji, qi, shen?). The only thing that really accumulates is the sense of place as consciousness occurs, and the place that consciousness occurs tends to favor the tan-t'ien at some point, although the continuation of the sense of place can exclude nothing and is actually not continuous- how do you like them apples!

the way then wu wei one foot, and then no other night iris, blooming

I read this and I think, yes, and yes; yes. I'm gonna be no help to myself at all, that way! Tai Chi teachers do, I think, speak of accumulating and storing chi. I never heard of ji until I came to TTB, but it makes perfect sense to me, because of the importance of the sacrum and the sacral ligaments. Chen Man-Ch'ing spoke of the chi "overflowing" the tan-t'ien and penetrating the tail-bone, then rushing up the spine to the top of the head. This, he said, should not be forced, and is the thing for which a teacher or at least another student to consult would be nice. I have read books that talk about the chi returning from the top of the head to the tan-t'ien, but my experience is that when I have a continuity of practice, there is a single-pointedness of mind that wasn't there before. For me it's important to see these practices in the context of my own suffering. If I have attachment to, aversion from, or if I ignore the place of consciousness as consciousness occurs, I suffer. If I witness dependent causation as consciousness takes place, I am freed, even though I do nothing. Ji, Chi, Shen is only a river flowing underground, and only the physician that must heal themselves need concern themselves with such, as it will ruin what most consider a normal life. So they say, and I believe it's true.

Don't know about the rest, but- "Nourish a MIND by paying attention to nowhere" I think is a description of nurturing single-pointedness of mind, place of mind as the source of action as opposed to volition in mind as the source of action. Paying attention to nowhere is also excluding nothing from awareness, that's another way of saying it. "it is something much more"- it is being realized as action out of the occurrence of consciousness, that is to say: out of the place of occurrence of consciousness, out of the impact of consciousness on the fascial stretch already in existence, and out of the feeling generated by activity caused by stretch (the fascia and ligaments can generate nerve impulses to cause associated muscles to contract to relieve their stretch, and reciprocal activity generated by the balance of the body as consciousness takes place can align the spine and joints to open particular feeling). woof, just drank up the Yangtze in one gulp...

best not tread just there best invite all things to read best take care for all

'til day break comes the light in our eyes is love dark as water deep

I like that, about being the bluejay by simple resonance. The resonance in a bluejay sings, and I think I need to recall that rock and roll can twist and shout sometimes, and produce more lyrics on the fly! Ha ha. When the sitting is just the action out of resonance, the butterfly sits, the man flies, my how the wind does blow!

Here's Shunryu Suzuki attempting to explain the bit with the bridge, from his 'Whole-Body Zazen' lecture: 'The entire universe is doing zazen in the same way that your body is doing zazen. When all parts of your body are practicing zazen, then that is how the whole universe practice zazen. Each mountain and each river is going and flowing independently. All parts of the universe are participating in their practice. The mountain practice independently. The river practices independently. Thus the whole universe practices independently. When you see something, you may think that you are watching something else [outside yourself]. But, actually, you are watching your mudra or your toe. That is why zazen practice represents the whole universe. We should do zazen with this feeling in our practice. You should not say, "I practice zazen with my body." It is not so. Dogen-zenji says, "Water does not flow, but the bridge flows." You may say that your mind is practicing zazen and ignore your body, the practice of your body. 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.' That seems like some kind of explanation, and he describes something I think we can relate to (at least at times), but then he goes on the say that one should let the water flow, as that is the water's practice, and let the bridge stay and sit there, because that is the actual practice of the bridge. He had a license, so he showed some stinkin' badges, fine, alright. Never saw the quote in Dogen, either. Might as well have been, I guess.

but for 5-7-5- the light of day breaks my thought a glimpse of heaven

I think that would be Shunryu Suzuki, would it not? Interesting to put the question in terms of the professional practice of hypnosis and counseling. I remember Ed Brown echoing the question on his site at one point, too. Maybe it's like the story Dogen relates: 'The Ancestor said, “What is it that comes like this?” The Master was without means [to answer]. After attending [the Ancestor] for eight years, he finally understood the previous conversation. Thereupon, he announced to the Ancestor, “I’ve understood what you put to me when I first came: ‘What is it that comes like this?’” The Ancestor asked, “How do you understand it?” The Master replied, “To say it’s like anything wouldn’t hit it.” The Ancestor said, “Then is it contingent on practice and verification?” The Master answered, “Practice and verification are not nonexistent; they’re not to be defiled.”' (Soto Zen Text Project, © Sotoshu Shumucho 2005, “Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma”, Shobogenzo, Book 13, “Ocean Seal Samadhi”, Kaiin zanmai, translated by Carl Bielefeldt with Michael Radich) so, to say it's anything wouldn't hit it. At the same time, practice and verification are not nonexistent. There's a phenomena in the practice of zazen that is similar to hypnotic suggestion from one's own unconscious. At S.F. Zen Center, Kobun Chino Otogawa once said: "You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around." My own understanding, which I have come to years after having the experience Kobun described, is that the pulmonary respiration and the cranial-sacral respiration utilize the sense of location in the occurrence of consciousness to open feeling (and well-being is simply a matter of "knowing thus, seeing thus" as the Gautamid put it). Sometimes the sense of location in the occurrence of consciousness and the cranial-sacral respiration seem to enter into the long or short of the pulmonary respiration, and at such times things perceived beyond the boundaries of the six senses can suggest something through the unconscious that will effect action in the body. The witness of the place of occurrence of consciousness conditioned by attachment, aversion, or ignorance surely frees the place of occurrence of consciousness, if living the life of purity to make an end of suffering is the most important thing.

Nice one, M.H.! "The empty hand grasps the hoe-handle Walking along, I ride the ox The ox crosses the wooden bridge The bridge is flowing, the water is still" Fuxi, 5th century C.E. Gotta be sink, 'til the cows come home:

Ok, I don't have any stories about juices, but I thought I would offer something about sacred art. Brian Stross at U of Texas has an article at "http://research.famsi.org/aztlan/uploads/papers/stross-sacrum.pdf" (it's a PDF) titled Mesoamerican sacrum bone: doorway to the otherworld, in which he contends that some of the sacred art in Latin America depicts the sacrum, which was held in special revere by the shamans of the area. Difficult to describe things that can't really be done, yet I hold to my understanding, which is that the two respirations utilize the sense of place in the occurrence of consciousness to align the body to open feeling. The two respirations are pulmonary, and cranial-sacral (rhythmic change in the volume of fluid in the dural sac). Because the cranial-sacral rhythm pivots the sacrum on the pelvis, and the stretches of ligaments and fascia that ensue can generate involuntary activity in the muscles of the legs and pelvis, the changes in cranial-sacral rhythm can cause action in the extensors up the back of the spine to move the bones that control the cranial-sacral rhythm (nerves along the sagittal suture). Thus, the rhythm generates the movement that generates the action that moves the bones that generate the rhythm, and the whole system can feed back. This can be large, or just sufficient for a recurrent sense of the location of consciousness through feeling. My guess is that when the sphenoid is involved in (relatively) large movements of the cranial bones, the pineal gland is affected, and psychic phenomena is realized. The psychic phenomena is real, yet is by nature a dream (the pineal produces melatonin), even if it is experienced by more than one person and even if it opens the akashic record. The alien taught that you can feel anywhere, beyond the limits of the senses. I tend to focus on the location of consciousness as a thing that moves, yet this is really the experience of the ability to feel that is enabled through the use of consciousness by the two respirations, and this is not limited to the boundaries of the senses.

whitewash completed silhouettes brandished about everywhere, stark moon

I'll take the High way until I reach the fork, where my mind is made up

from head to my toes, falling; toes to my head, stretch nothingness handed

I myself had a heart arryhtmia, which I believe I inherited from my father. One day at the park as I was walking, I discovered I couldn't walk more than about four steps uphill without feeling like I had run the 660. When I finally took myself to the family practitioner, they took my pulse and discovered it was about 133, did an EKG which confirmed arrythmia, and sent me to the emergency room. All this led after about 6 months to an ablation, where they go in through the leg veins with four catheters and zap nerves on the heart wall to interrupt the feedback that causes the arrythmia. Spent one night in the hospital because they worked on both chambers, and I'm good again, I don't have to take the digitalis that my father used for the last twenty years of his life. For the most part, I can't sleep on my left side now, because the heart beat is very loud if I do. Seems like I have more feeling in the vicinity of the heart. I see a cardiologist, had an EKG last time around and everything is fine. Sometimes I am more aware of my heart now, and sometimes I wonder about the rhythm; what I do is take a quick pulse. It's amazing that the heart can seem arrythmic to me, and yet the pulse is just fine. Of course, this is just one condition, and as everyone here on the forum says, there are 'way too many variations; Western science is pretty good at diagnosing many of them. My favorite practice lately, stay with the mind, and realize that the location of mind moves. It may go to your heart, it may go to your imbalance, it may go to your balance, it may feel like you are viewing the world from the back of your head, it may be that you are absorbed at a dark area roughly located at the tan-t'ien and shifting, it may be the seat of your pants, it may be a bluejay outside the window. Something like that, without exclusion.

Somewhere in his books, Uchiyama reveals that he did three shots of whiskey every night to get the feeling back in his legs. I still have no idea how anybody can do what they do at Antaiji, sitting sesshin with 14 fifty-minute periods a day I think I read?

Last time I saw Kobun (unusual Zen guy, wanted to be called Kobun without any honorific), he was concluding three week-long sesshins back-to-back. Someone asked him if he had any pain or numbness in the lotus, and he replied that he never did (of course, his father was a Zen teacher, and Kobun first started sitting at age seven). Kobun noted that he did have pain in seiza, sitting on the knees. So it can be done, that's my take. The motion at the sacrum allows the weight of the body to trigger reciprocal innervation in the ligaments that connect the sacrum to the pelvis; that would be the sacro-iliac, sacro-spinous, and sacro-tuberous ligaments. Motion is generated at the sacrum, at the hips, down through the legs, back up the legs and the spine, forward and back between the extensors and the psoas, and in the movement of breath. In the end, the place of occurrence of consciousness sits the lotus, and it moves if you let it so that everything sits the lotus, without exception; attachment, aversion, and ignorance can be observed to condition the place of occurrence of consciousness, and the witness allows the end of a suffering.

When I was in college, I went to hear Kobun Otogawa speak at the Santa Cruz zendo. In one of his lectures, he said, "take your time with the lotus". Of course, it seemed like he was speaking to me personally; he had a great presence when he spoke. There was nobody out there who could teach me that, and mostly it was not the focus of intent from the teachers I did go to hear. I believe the posture is the practice, and my posture was particularly bad (still not all that good!)- how do you change that, no one could tell me. So why not a forum for people who are looking for ideas, exploring arcane mysteries, and genuinely concerned with self-improvement if not saving the planet as a whole? Shaking, I don't know so much about, but the suggestion to sit a different posture sounds good to me. One of the mysteries that I think I stumbled onto is that there are two ligaments that support the lower spine from the pelvis, the ilio-lumbar ligaments. In "Anatomy of Movement" by Calais-Germain, there's a picture of how one pair of ligaments supports the 4th lumbar vertebrae from the pelvis as the spine stretches forward, and another pair of ligaments supports the 5th lumbar vertebrae from the pelvis as the spine leans backward. I believe these are fundamental to the support of the lower back in inhalation and exhalation, and to the freedom of motion of the sacrum in the cranial-sacral rhythm as the breath moves in and out (that, to my mind, is why the practice of the Gautamid before and after his enlightenment was centered on mindfulness in connection with inhalation and exhalation). Action comes out of fascial stretch, reciprocal action out of stretch is what keeps us upright, and shaking is an extreme reciprocal action out of stretch; look to realize the stretch and activity side-to-side, as well as forward-and-back and clockwise-counterclockwise, that helps me although I seldom shake.

alienated myself with that last thought- huh, can't hardly think straight