Mark Foote

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Everything posted by Mark Foote

  1. Letting Go of Good and Bad

    Interesting. Lately I've had some "you know squat about ancient Egypt and your art masks suck" versus "other people have comprehensive knowledge about ancient Egypt and other people have incredibly beautiful and emotive artwork", going on. What it's really about, is the attraction I feel for what these folks have done and the repulsion I feel for my inability to do much of anything of a similarly attractive quality. All the while ignoring something about how necessity can place my awareness, and how that placement must be free for me to be fully alive in the moment. ... is a tendency to attachment to be got rid of from every pleasant feeling? Is a tendency to repugnance to be got rid of from every painful feeling? Is a tendency to ignorance to be got rid of from every neutral feeling? No friend Visakha... In this case... (a person), aloof from pleasures of the senses, aloof from unskilled states of mind, enters on and abides in the first meditation, which is accompanied by initial thought and discursive thought, is born of aloofness, and is rapturous and joyful. It is by this means that (one) gets rid of attachment, no tendency to attachment lies there. In this case... (a person) reflects thus: 'Surely I, entering on it, will abide in that plane which the (nobles), entering on, are now abiding in. From setting up a yearning for the incomparable Deliverances there arises, as a result of the yearning, distress; it is by this means that (one) gets rid of repugnance, no tendency to repugnance lies latent there. In this case... (a person), by getting rid of that joy, and by getting rid of anguish, by the going down of (their) former pleasures and sorrows, enters on and abides in the fourth meditation which has neither anguish nor joy and which is entirely purified by equanimity and mindfulness. It is by this means that (one) gets rid of ignorance, no tendency to ignorance lies latent there. (MN I 303-304, PTS vol. I p 366-367, "The Miscellany (Lesser)", attributed to the nun Dhammadinna) The fourth concentration, wherein awareness takes place freely and action of the body follows automatically out of the location of awareness, apart from habit or volition. Yearning for the incomparable Deliverances, the further states, and as a result, distress. That would be a positive, in getting rid of a repulsion from my own inabilities, I guess. Maybe if I look to extend the mind of compassion around the world, such that I experience that excellence of the heart's release that is the first of the incomparable Deliverances "the infinity of space"! Runaway black hole, drawing stars behind it:
  2. Haiku Chain

    I'm coming unglued slowly at first, then faster soon I will be soaked
  3. Haiku Chain

    from Asahi beer I get an odd sensation I'm coming unglued
  4. Dao Bums (here i am)

    I thought you said you didn't have any good pictures! All of them are good, I'm jealous!
  5. Letting Go of Good and Bad

    I think what's important are the actions I take, regardless of judgements, or maybe in spite of judgements. For me, a key part of action in the face of judgements, my own or others', is extending compassion to be receptive to what is beyond the walls and around the world. Move from the inside, informed by the outside beyond the boundaries of the senses. Especially in conflict situations. Helps to have a practice of balance.
  6. And smelt so? Pah! (Hamlet 5.1.181–184)
  7. I want to become powerful

    To develop the ch'i and sink it to the tan t'ien you must keep the ch'i with the mind. Then you will realize suppleness. The Classics say, "The mind mobilizes the ch'i and the ch'i mobilizes the body. The ch'i spreads throughout the whole body." (“Cheng Tzu’s Thirteen Treatises on Ta’i Chi Chuan”, Cheng Man Ch’ing, trans. Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo and Martin Inn, p 32) 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") I would posit that the patterns in the development of ch’i reflect involuntary activity of the body generated in the stretch of ligaments. There is, in addition, a possible mechanism of support for the spine from the displacement of the fascia behind the spine, a displacement that can be effected by pressure generated in the abdominal cavity and that may quite possibly depend on a push on the fascia behind the sacrum by the bulk of the extensor muscles, as they contract. The Tai Chi classics emphasize relaxation. For me, calm is also required with regard to the stretch of ligaments, if “automatic movement” is to be realized. The stretch of a ligament prior to strain is small (6%), and I would say that automatic movement is only initiated at the edge of the range. Cheng Man Ch’ing mentioned a Chinese description of seated meditation, “straighten the chest and sit precariously” (“Master Cheng’s Thirteen Chapters on T’ai-Chi Ch’uan”, Douglas Wile, p 21)–I think that also speaks to the necessity of calm. In my experience, “automatic” activity in the movement of breath can at times depend on the relaxation of particular muscle groups and the exercise of calm with regard to the stretch of particular ligaments. I believe that a pattern in the circulation of “automatic” activity can develop, especially when a bent-knee posture or carriage is maintained over a period of time. “Automatic” activity in the movement of breath also follows as one “lays hold of one-pointedness”, but in order to “lay hold”, carriage of the weight of the body must fall to the ligaments and volitive activity in the body must be relinquished. (A Way of Living)
  8. I want to become powerful

    I began to think I was reading a piece composed by AI.
  9. I want to become powerful

    My husband is a spear fisherman and he can hold his breath underwater for almost four minutes. He was trained to do so in a manner similar to how they train Navy Seals. They are able to do relaxation techniques and override their body’s impulse to panic. I’m not sure if everyone can accomplish this or if they are outliers. But one important point that I think fits into the topic here. They have to be wary of something called shallow water blackout. They will hold their breath without the panic response literally until they pass out underwater, and drown (even if they are only sitting on the bottom of a pool with a foot or two of water above them). (“The Case of the Suffocating Woman”, posted on Slate Star Codex April 5, 2017 by Scott Alexander; http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/04/05/the-case-of-the-suffocating-woman/; commenter “liz”, April 5, 2017 at 10:41 am) When we ask what it is which senses this suffering, we have to understand that the one who is breathing in and out, in and out, doesn’t suffer. But it does sense suffering. (Kobun Chino Otogawa; “Embracing Mind”, edited by Cosgrove & Hall, p 48) Kobun died in Switzerland, when he went into a shallow landscape pool after his five-year-old daughter, Maya, who had somehow fallen in and was drowning. I spoke to the guy who owned the property with the pool, and he shook his head in disbelief that Kobun had actually drowned, because the pool was only about three feet deep. Kobun once ended a talk by saying, “You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around.” It’s my belief that it was in fact zazen that went into the pool after Maya, and that it was the one who does not suffer (but nevertheless senses suffering) that remained under the surface by her side. (All of the above, from my Post: The Case of the Suffocating Woman)
  10. I want to become powerful

    Undoubtedly true, but still seeming somewhat unfortunate for those whom the gods hail upon.
  11. It's a fascinating question, IMHO. The Zen tradition in particular likes to point to an unbroken transmission of the teaching, from Gautama the Shakyan to Kashyapa and down through the ages. The Denkoroku, written by one of Dogen's dharma heirs, purports to trace that transmission, but there is a point in the record where an assumption of person-to-person transmission is made but no name is provided. Actually, there's a story in the "sermon of the decease" (Pali Canon) about what happened after Gautama's death, and there Kashyapa is said to have received the bowl and robe after Gautama's death. The bowl and robe apparently went to China with Bodhidharma, but was no longer transmitted after the Sixth Patriarch. Seems that people were willing to kill to obtain the robe and bowl at that point, so the tradition was discontinued. Here's where the "unpopular opinion" thread lives on! In my opinion, when Gautama said "the cessation of inbreathing and outbreathing", he meant the cessation of "determinate thought" in inbreathing and outbreathing. Habit and volition with regard to the activity of the body in inbreathing and outbreathing only really cease when the location of awareness becomes the source of activity--awareness acts by virtue of location alone, as awareness shifts and moves (or not). That's "just sitting". Those who can "just sit" with aplomb are considered enlightened, for the most part. No amount of description amounts to the experience. The experience is really very much a physical thing, and being in the presence of someone who "just sits" with aplomb can be helpful--the experience can "rub off", as it were. Gautama described "purity by the pureness of mind" as a characteristic of the fourth concentration, that's "just sitting". Gautama's enlightenment, meanwhile, was associated with his attainment of the cessation of ("determinate thought") in feeling and perceiving, a whole other level of experience--the cessation of "doing something" in feeling and perceiving, the action of the mind. HIs enlightenment consisted of his insight into the four truths, and in particular into the dependent origination (and cessation) of suffering. Gautama said that until a person attained enlightenment, they must work at moral behavior, but afterward the tendency toward anything but moral behavior would be "cut off" like a palm tree reduced to a stump. Now it happens that for Gautama, sexual intercourse was a fatal failing, grounds for expulsion from the Order. The teachers who have been the most influential in my life were all married (Zen teachers). Draw your own conclusions.
  12. But does a dog have buddha-nature? (couple of famous cases about that)
  13. Looking again and again at the imperceptible mind, You come to know your own undeluded nature. May you abide undiluted by artificial fixation without wavering, just like space. (A short Mahamudra prayer composed by Shamar Rinpoche, and in his own handwriting, June 18, 1987; Halscheid, Germany) That, from the forward of the book.
  14. How do you stop the leakage?

    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”, November 4th 1965, Los Altos; emphasis added) Suzuki doesn't explain, but I do, here. In brief: The mind is “concentrated in the breathing” when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention. If the presence of mind continues the placement of attention by the movement of breath, then the role of the mind is clear–that’s the way I read the transcript. ... When the location of attention can shift anywhere in the body as a function of the movement of breath, and the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation follows solely from the location of attention, there is a feeling of freedom.
  15. More Unpopular Opinions

    I think of cessation in connection with the activities: 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) …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) Conditioned by ignorance activities come to pass; conditioned by activities consciousness, conditioned by consciousness name-and-shape, conditioned by name-and-shape sense, conditioned by sense contact, conditioned by contact feeling, conditioned by feeling craving, conditioned by craving grasping, conditioned by grasping becoming, conditioned by becoming birth, conditioned by birth old age-and-death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow, despair come to pass. Such is the uprising of this entire mass of ill. But from the utter fading away and ceasing of ignorance [comes] ceasing of the activities; from ceasing of activities ceasing of consciousness; ... from ceasing of birth old age-and-death, grief, lamenting, suffering, sorrow, despair cease. Such is the ceasing of this entire mass of ill. (SN II 2, Pali Text Society Vol II pg 2) A lovely lecture from a woman of the Order--not Gautama, but I think insightful (the editors of Majjhima have Gautama agreeing with what she said after the fact, of course): ... is a tendency to attachment to be got rid of from every pleasant feeling? Is a tendency to repugnance to be got rid of from every painful feeling? Is a tendency to ignorance to be got rid of from every neutral feeling? No friend Visakha... In this case... (a person), aloof from pleasures of the senses, aloof from unskilled states of mind, enters on and abides in the first meditation, which is accompanied by initial thought and discursive thought, is born of aloofness, and is rapturous and joyful. It is by this means that (one) gets rid of attachment, no tendency to attachment lies there. In this case... (a person) reflects thus: 'Surely I, entering on it, will abide in that plane which the (nobles), entering on, are now abiding in. From setting up a yearning for the incomparable Deliverances there arises, as a result of the yearning, distress; it is by this means that (one) gets rid of repugnance, no tendency to repugnance lies latent there. In this case... (a person), by getting rid of that joy, and by getting rid of anguish, by the going down of (their) former pleasures and sorrows, enters on and abides in the fourth meditation which has neither anguish nor joy and which is entirely purified by equanimity and mindfulness. It is by this means that (one) gets rid of ignorance, no tendency to ignorance lies latent there. (MN I 303-304, PTS vol. I p 366-367, "The Miscellany (Lesser)", attributed to the nun Dhammadinna) Just throwing that out there, to cement my unpopularity. Is cessation a natural thing? Of course! Then again: ... 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)
  16. More Unpopular Opinions

    A very unpopular question.
  17. Took me a lot of years, of always having it in mind and sitting mostly half-lotus. Dennis Merkel, Zen teacher who at one point in time was associated with the L. A. Zen Center, says he sat half-lotus for a couple of decades, then full-lotus for a couple, and now Burmese for a decade or so (ankles on the ground, one leg in front of the others). He has transmission in both the Rinzai and Soto traditions, if I understand correctly. I should confess, when I did that five-day sesshin at Jikoji Zen Center, they pretty much alternated 40- and 30- minute sittings, and I had to uncork my lotus at about 35 minutes every time on the 40 minute sittings. Very embarassing, but I was determined not to hurt my knees, and I consistently felt something in my knees at about 35 minutes. Last I heard, the periods at L. A. Zen Center sesshins are 35 minutes, except for one initial 50 minute sitting--guess I'm not the only one. Maybe a couple of years after that five-day sesshin, I began to feel something in my knees when I was out walking, and I decided to forget about the lotus and 40-minutes and just go with a sloppy half-lotus for 25 minutes. My knees returned to normal. Lately I sit beyond 25 minutes a lot, in the half-lotus (or Burmese, if my ankle falls off the opposite calf, as it seems to do with the right leg up). Seems like I have to finish the time I feel is mandatory, before I can "just sit". But my sitting has changed. I have a better idea, how to turn over the reins: 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. 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. I don't know what Apech means by "look at your mind", but that's what I'm doing--looking at the location of my awareness, instead of the contents. 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 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”. Turn it around, let the "where" not the "who" act past 20 minutes or so (sooner if you can), and your knees will thank you. Issho Fujita, demonstrating a relationship between "one-pointedness of mind" and the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation in zazen: Shunryu Suzuki, describing to his students how they could avoid pain in their legs in sitting: 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”, Shunryu Suzuki; August Sesshin Lecture; San Francisco, August 6, 1969) Dogen: When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. ("Genjo Koan", tr Tanahashi) The "where", as the source of the activity of the body from outbreath to inbreath, and from inbreath to outbreath: When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point… (ibid) ... the Blessed One addressed the monks. "Whoever develops mindfulness of death, thinking, 'O, that I might live for a day & night... for a day... for the interval that it takes to eat a meal... for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up four morsels of food, that I might attend to the Blessed One's instructions. I would have accomplished a great deal' — they are said to dwell heedlessly. They develop mindfulness of death slowly for the sake of ending the effluents. "But whoever develops mindfulness of death, thinking, 'O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food... for the interval that it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out, that I might attend to the Blessed One's instructions. I would have accomplished a great deal' — they are said to dwell heedfully. They develop mindfulness of death acutely for the sake of ending the effluents. (AN 6.19 PTS: A iii 303; Maranassati Sutta: Mindfulness of Death (1) tr Thanissaro Bhikkhu)
  18. I was unsatisfied with my mind, in high school. In my senior year, a friend pointed me to the illustrations of zazen in the back of "The Three Pillars of Zen", by Kapleau, and I started to try to sit cross-legged on the floor for five or ten minutes at a stretch. A few years later, another friend took me to hear the lectures of a Zen teacher from Japan. Sitting was still very uncomfortable for me after about twenty minutes, but I persevered. The advice I got from that teacher was "take your time with the lotus". At one point I could sit about 35 minutes in the lotus, did so through a five day sesshin, but now I only sit a sloppy half-lotus, and often only for 25 minutes. Pretty much have sat in the mornings when I first get up, and at night before I go to bed, for all of my adult life now. The sitting has been the teacher, in my life, and I'm grateful every day.
  19. The Idiots Way

    Ok, that is actually different from what I said, when I said: But does the action of the body, and possibly of the mind, proceed from the experience of "just is" without departing the experience? That's the real test. You quote Thinley Norbu Rinpoche's commentary on the Ngondro from the treasure texts of Dudjom Lingpa: So therefore, the pure way of abiding in unconditioned wisdom and the way that appearances manifest are evenly pure. This is called the wisdom of eveness. He does not say that the way of abiding in unconditioned wisdom and the way that appearances manifest are the same thing, he only says they are evenly pure. That's the distinction I'm trying to make: they are separate, although I don't experience (or I haven't experienced) the complete separation that he seems to describe.
  20. More Unpopular Opinions

    I'm honored, but were you responding to: Let's get SO unpopular! Or were you responding to: As (one) dwells in body contemplating body, ardent… that desire to do, that is in body, is abandoned. By the abandoning of desire to do, the Deathless is realized. So with feelings… mind… mental states… that desire to do, that is in mind-states, is abandoned. By the abandoning of the desire to do, the Deathless is realized. (SN V 182, Pali Text Society V p 159) I'm guessing you were actually responding to Gautama the Shakyan, and in particular to Gautama's emphasis on a cessation of the desire "to do". I'm talking about how action can take place in the absence of volition, that to me is the verification part of "practice and verification". You're talking about how the lack of desire results in a particular state of mind, as far as I can tell. Here's a more modern treatment--notice that there is an action that is taking place, and the emphasis is on the action, even though desire has presumably been abandoned and a wide-open state of mind has presumably been realized: 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) "Blown out"--necessity in the movement of breath places attention, and the activity of the body follows solely from the location of attention (which is not fixed). The only good thing Buddhaghosa ever wrote: The air element that courses through all the limbs and has the characteristic of moving and distending, being founded upon earth, held together by water, and maintained by fire, distends this body. And this body, being distended by the latter kind of air, does not collapse, but stands erect, and being propelled by the other (motile) air, it shows intimation and it flexes and extends and it wriggles the hands and feet, doing so in the postures comprising of walking, standing, sitting and lying down. So this mechanism of elements carries on like a magic trick… (Buddhaghosa, “Visuddhimagga” XI, 92; tr. Bhikku Nanamoli, Buddhist Publication Society p 360)
  21. The Idiots Way

    Is that different from what I said?
  22. The Idiots Way

    But does the action of the body, and possibly of the mind, proceed from the experience of "just is" without departing the experience? That's the real test.
  23. More Unpopular Opinions

    I think about these things a lot... if the cat brings me a rat, I will be sure to place it between my teeth, in hopes that the Jabberwocky will pass go and proceed directly to community chest. But seriously. Some voodoo fun from the Zen tradition: In the Yagyu-ryu (a school of swordsmanship), there is a secret teaching called “Seikosui”. Yagyu Toshinaga, a master of the Yagyu-ryu, taught that it was especially important to concentrate vital energy and power in the front of the body around the navel and at the back of the body in the koshi (pelvic) area when taking a stance. In other words, he means to fill the whole body with spiritual energy. In his “Nikon no Shimei” (“Mission of Japan”), Hida Haramitsu writes: “The strength of the hara alone is insufficient, the strength of the koshi alone is not sufficient, either. We should balance the power of the hara and the koshi and maintain equilibrium of the seated body by bringing the center of the body’s weight in line with the center of the triangular base of the seated body.” … we should expand the area ranging from the coccyx to the area right behind the navel in such a way as to push out the lower abdomen, while at the same time contracting the muscles of the anus. … It may be the least trouble to say as a general precaution that strength should be allowed to come to fullness naturally as one becomes proficient in sitting. We should sit so that our energy increases of itself and brims over instead of putting physical pressure on the lower abdomen by force. (“An Introduction to Zen Training: A Translation of Sanzen Nyumon”, Omori Sogen, tr. Dogen Hosokawa and Roy Yoshimoto, Tuttle Publishing, pg 59, parentheticals added) I believe in Gautama's teaching, the "brims over" described above is a feeling that belongs to the second concentration: … imagine a pool with a spring, but no water-inlet on the east side or the west side or on the north or on the south, and suppose the (rain-) deva supply not proper rains from time to time–cool waters would still well up from that pool, and that pool would be steeped, drenched, filled and suffused with the cold water so that not a drop but would be pervaded by the cold water; in just the same way… (one) steeps (their) body with zest and ease… (AN III 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III p 18-19) Wait for it...
  24. More Unpopular Opinions

    It's good to be able to relinquish activity and the identification of self with an actor. Sometimes that might involve reflection on impermanence, and some detachment from the pleasant and unpleasant--maybe even from the neutral of sensation. (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 V 312, Pali Text Society Vol V p 275-276; tr. F. L. Woodward; masculine pronouns replaced, re-paragraphed) I know, I know--get outta here!
  25. More Unpopular Opinions

    Got an unpopular take on that for you, old3bob (I'm expanding, Apech!). In the chapter on inbreathing and outbreathing in Samyutta Nikaya V, there's an account of the time Gautama went on retreat for three weeks, and only the monk who brought his food was allowed near him. When he came back from the retreat, he noticed there were fewer monks than when he left. He asked his attendant Ananda about it, and Ananda reminded Gautama that before he left, Gautama had advised the monks to practice the meditation on the unlovely (aspects of the body). Consequently, said Ananda, as many as a score of monks a day had begun "taking the knife". Gautama had Ananda gather the monks, and he taught them what he said was his own way of living--basically, a particular set of thoughts connected with the four arisings of mindfulness. But get this--that way of living, he said, was "a thing perfect in itself, and a pleasant way of living besides" (no enlightenment necessary). What I understand from that teaching is that I can knock myself out, looking to turn a corner and be a different person, or I can accept a way of living marked by thoughts initial and sustained, which is something like the way I live now. Well--he observed such thought with the placement of awareness by necessity ("one-pointedness of mind"), and in connection with an inbreath or an outbreath. He did so "most of the time", and "especially in the rainy season"--that's how it was for Gautama. The only thing I really need to master is the ability to arrive at the cessation of habit and volition in the activity of breath, such that I can experience cessation in daily living, when the occasion demands--to master "just sitting", as it were. 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. Shunryu Suzuki said: To enjoy our life– complicated life, difficult life– without ignoring it, and without being caught by it. Without suffer from it. That is actually what will happen to us after you practice zazen. (“To Actually Practice Selflessness”, August Sesshin Lecture Wednesday, August 6, 1969, San Francisco) 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")