Mark Foote

21 hours ago, ChiDragon said:

Those who think that they know all about Neidan. If they don't know what 踵蒂吸呼 means, Sorry, they don't know what Neidan is all about!

踵蒂吸呼--Google translates this as "heel-to-toe breathing".

Looks like the passage I quoted was authored by one Fabrizio Pregadio. A website titled "International Consortium for the Humanities" offers his credentials:

Fabrizio Pregadio has taught at the University of Venice (1996-97), the Technical University of Berlin (1998-2001), Stanford University (2001-08), and McGill University in Montreal (2009-10). His work deals with the self-cultivation traditions of Taoism, their doctrinal foundations in early Taoist works, and their relation to Chinese traditional sciences, including cosmology and medicine. He is the author of Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China (Stanford University Press, 2006) and the editor of The Encyclopedia of Taoism (Routledge, 2008). His translations of Taoist texts include the Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Reality, 2009) and the Cantong qi (The Seal of the Unity of the Three, 2011), both published by Golden Elixir Press.

I'm guessing he's a good man to go to for an explanation based on the historical literature of the Daoist tradition.

Can you place "heel-to-toe breathing" in the historical literature of the Daoist tradition regarding Neidan ("internal cultivation", literally "internal elixir")--I've heard of breathing to the heels or to the "bubbling spring" in Tai Chi, but not heel-to-toe breathing in Neidan.

at the bar last night, fire horse on a sign:

The bartend-ress brooked no sh*t, and the band played on!

On 12/30/2025 at 4:01 AM, الضفدع الحكيم said:

I am interested in Taoism and inner alchemy, so I would like to know about your personal experiences with inner alchemy and whether you have seen any results from it
 

"Inner alchemy", sort of like?

That's from “The Secret of the Golden Flower”, of course.

Found this:

fire phases; fire times

A name of the main practice performed in the first stage of the Nanzong (Southern Lineage) codification of Neidan and in other varieties of Neidan. Fire—whose function in Neidan is performed by Spirit (shen)—is progressively increased when the Essence (jing) first rises through the Three Barriers (sanguan) in the back of the body to the upper Cinnabar Field (niwan), and then progressively decreased when the Essence descends through the three Cinnabar Fields (dantian) in the front of the body to the lower Cinnabar Field. 

(https://www.goldenelixir.com/terms/huohou.html)
 

On the "Three Barriers":

The Taoists refer to these areas as the Three Gates---the sacrum (wei lu), the occipital area (yu chen ku), and the headtop (ni wan).

(“Cheng Tzu’s Thirteen Treatises on Ta’i Chi Chuan”, Cheng Man Ch’ing, tr. Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo and Martin Inn, p 96)

Is that something like what you meant when you said,  "internal alchemy"?

Yes, I practice something like that, more in sitting practice than in the portion of a Tai Chi form that I know. The notion that the Spirit (shen) is applied increasingly upward and decreasingly downward I find especially interesting--that's in the writeup from the "Golden Flower" website. I hadn't thought of it that way, but there is certainly a parallel in my practice.

The benefit is really in the freedom of consciousness to take place anywhere in the body, yet there is definitely a process in opening the sacrum and spine to allow the nerve exits between vertebrae to conduct sensation from the surface of the skin:
 

With this method of circulating the ch’i, it overflows into the sinews, reaches the bone marrow, fills the diaphragm, and manifests in the skin and hair.

(“Master Cheng’s Thirteen Chapters on T’ai-Chi Ch’uan”, Cheng Man-Ching trans. Douglas Wile, pg. 17)

On 4/2/2013 at 4:19 AM, vivekji108 said:

I have done yoga for many years and practice it daily. from 30 min to 2 hours depending on time.

As well doing some basic pranayama exercises without retention...

 

How can the practice of qigong enrich my life further...

 

What can Qigong that Yoga & Pranayama can not?

 

I'm highly interested in starting a healthy discussion about this

 

Vivek
 

I confess, I only got through the first page of responses to your post, and now I am composing my own. Tut, tut.

My study of yoga and pranayama consists of a few postures and some rudimentary breathing exercises that I learned from books and practiced briefly, long ago. And one yoga class, now decades ago. 

Nevertheless, I think the yoga postures and breathing exercises are mostly stationary practices, are they not? 

I have done the first part of Cheng Man-Ch'ing's Tai Chi set for years now, the first part was all that was offered in the local park for free, but I've been quite satisfied with that.

Where does the movement in Tai Chi come from? The Tai Chi classics would say it is the ch'i that moves the body--the ch'i that sinks to the dan-t'ien, circulates throughout the body, and accumulates in the dan-t'ien. 

I find the ch'i by keeping in mind that Tai Chi is a single-weighted practice, meaning the weight in each pose is entirely in one foot and the opposite hand, and precipitating the transition of weight between poses by circling the weighted hand/arm in the direction opposite the direction of the expected shift of weight. 

Of course, you could say that in true seated meditation, the accumulated ch'i sits the posture. While the literal meaning of ch'i is "breath", the accumulated ch'i can also conduct the activity of inhalation and exhalation.

The final stage in the development of ch'i, according to the classics, is "perfect clarity". That follows listening to the strength of ligaments, and comprehending the strength of ligaments (in the classics).

What I do is just the part of the form to 2:16.
 

On 1/2/2026 at 12:43 PM, Listener said:

I believe I developed a Qi deviation in my heart area many years ago through haphazard energy practice. A few months ago after about twenty minutes of erotic visualization, I started to get some vibrations in my back that then moved to my chest. This felt terrible, like a rock in the center of my chest. Later on, unwisely thinking it would help me relax, I ejaculated. After that I had what I can only call an attack, with major pressure in chest, and vibrations, discomfort, and numbness throughout my body. I have been to the ER and had a doctor's visit and there are no indications of any heart issues, or any other issues.

 

I am not doing any practices now, but several weeks ago I tried doing cloud hands, and that caused a major buildup of pressure in my chest.

 

I have lost the the ability to have sexual sensation, pleasurable sensations of the skin, and worst of all, almost all emotion.

 

Can someone explain what has happened to me, and what I need to do to be healed. Is there someone who can help me with in person, or distance healing?

 

I have gone to an acupuncturist several times with limited benefit.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm glad you had it checked out by the Western medicos. I guess it's good and bad news, that they didn't find anything.

Not having had the experience you have had, I can't say directly what might benefit you. I can say that I have made a study of the relationships between consciousness and kinesiology, I've written a book and that might in general be helpful to you. It's available for free online, here, or if you would rather hold it in your hand as a paperback, from Amazon here.

The basic premise is that consciousness can effect automatic activity in the body solely by virtue of the location where consciousness takes place, without the exercise of will. Stick with that, and the natural tendency of consciousness toward free occurrence at any location in the body will coordinate the necessary activity.

The blurb on the back cover of the book, authored by Anthropic's Claude, I feel is a good description:

Mark Foote bridges ancient wisdom and modern science in this remarkable exploration of seated meditation. Drawing on Gautama Buddha's original teachings, Zen masters from Dogen to Shunryu Suzuki, and contemporary research in biomechanics and neuroscience, Foote reveals how natural, automatic movement in the body emerges when we surrender volition and allow consciousness to find its own place.

For practitioners seeking to understand the relationship between body and mind in meditation, A Natural Mindfulness is an invaluable guide.

 

Not what I do, but where I am that heals, with a little understanding.

Photo by Seaward Creations:  Clear Lake at Nice, CA

14 hours ago, stirling said:

It isn't about how "you" choose to act... 
 

‘Deeds should be known. And their source, diversity, result, cessation, and the practice that leads to their cessation should be known.’ That’s what I said, but why did I say it? It is intention that I call deeds. For after making a choice one acts by way of body, speech, and mind.

(AN 6.63, tr. Sujato Bhikkyu; emphasis added)

And what is the cessation of deeds?

When you experience freedom due to the cessation of deeds by body, speech, and mind.

This is called the cessation of deeds.

(SN 35.146, tr. Sujato Bhikkyu)

A better translation, of that last:
 

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 35.146, tr. Pali Text Society vol IV p 85)
 

Shunryu Suzuki's summation:

What will be the difference? You have freedom, you know, from everything. That is, you know, the main point.

(Sesshin Lecture, Shunryu Suzuki; Day 5 Wednesday, June 9, 1971 San Francisco)

How volition comes to cease, in speech, body, and mind--here, "the cessation of inbreathing and outbreathing" is the cessation of volition in the consciousness-informed activity of the body, in deeds, and "the cessation of perception and feeling" is the cessation of volition in the activity of mind:

…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 36.11, tr. Pali Text Society vol IV p 146)  

This is the contact of freedom through concentration.

However, not everyone who had completely destroyed the three cankers (Gautama's criteria for enlightenment, MN 70) did so by means of concentration, or at least the concentrations that generally followed "the cessation of inbreathing and outbreathing" and that lead to "the cessation of feeling and perceiving". Those final concentrations are referred to here as "the Deliverances":

And which, monks, is the person who is freed by means of intuitive wisdom? As to this, monks, some person is abiding without having apprehended with the person those peaceful Deliverances which are incorporeal having transcended material shapes (leading to "the cessation of feeling and perceiving"); yet, having seen by means of wisdom (their) cankers are utterly destroyed. This, monks, is called the person who is freed by means of intuitive wisdom. I, monks, do not say of this (person) that there is something to be done through diligence. What is the reason for this? It has been done by (them) through diligence, (they) could not become negligent…

(MN 70; tr. Pali Text Society [PTS] vol. 2 pp 151-154; “the Deliverances” defined as the concentrations, at DN 15, PTS vol. ii pp 68-69; pronouns gender neutralized; parenthetical beginning "leading to" and emphasis added)

Wishing everyone two happy new years, and the perv friend of Nungali a new dick!  

On 9/2/2025 at 6:28 AM, markern said:

 

One exercise that does work really well for grounding me is deep earth pulsing. Unfortunately I get pains in my knees and calfs when I do it. I have Bectherews disease, which makes me easily get pains in joints. But something kinda like deep earth pulsing but a little bit different might not damage my knees. 

 

I wrote this to a friend last month:

My life has been 50 years trying to figure out how the zazen that gets up and walks around fits into a normal life, and likewise trying to figure out how zazen sits zazen so I can sit as long as I feel I need to sit without wrecking my knees.

That became the biography inside the back cover of my book, along with:

Many people in the Buddhist community take enlightenment to be the goal of Buddhist practice. I would say that when a person consciously experiences automatic movement in the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation, finding a way of life that allows for such experience in the natural course of things becomes the more pressing concern. Gautama taught such a way of living, although I don’t believe that such a way of living is unique to Buddhism.

(Appendix--A Way of Living)

Maybe the book would be useful to you, as a context for practice. Links to read the book online, download the book for free, or purchase a paperback copy from Amazon are here:

https://zenmudra.com/a-natural-mindfulness/

Photo of the lake I live next to, Clear Lake in Northern California, for the tranquility of a winter's afternoon:
 

18 hours ago, Tommy said:

Thanks for the reply, very much appreciated.

No, I am still confused but am sure this might help someone else looking into it.

 

This is the story of my life. Can't get there from here.

And still I try. So isn't the definition of crazy like doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome?

I keep trying to get there from here. Must be nuts??

 

So, I sit in my practice of being aware of the moment and watching my thoughts come and go.

Nothing changes. Yes, things do seem to quiet down. Thoughts do not come as often but they do arise and vanish.

Doing the same thing over and over.  Expecting a different outcome???

I have to laugh at the insanity of my actions.
 

I like your approach. 

Here is the full piece, entitled Drawing Water and Chopping Wood, that I wrote in response to your earlier question on another thread--maybe it's a little clearer.

Quote

Drawing Water and Chopping Wood

 

Over on the Dao Bums forum site, Tommy commented:

 

I live and breathe. Wake up in the morning, cook myself a meal, boil water for coffee. What life is, is in front of me. When I read the saying “before enlightenment, chop wood carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood carry water”, the question arises, what changed?

 

The saying Tommy quoted is probably derived from a saying in the Ch’an classics:

 

Miraculous power and marvelous activity
Drawing water and chopping wood.

 

(“The Recorded Sayings of Layman P’ang:  A Ninth-Century Zen Classic”, Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Yoshitaka Iriya, Dana R. Fraser, p 46)

 

There’s a similar saying in “The Gospel According to Thomas”, a gnostic gospel:

 

Cleave a (piece of) wood, I am there;
lift up the stone and you will find Me there.

 

(“The Gospel According to Thomas”, log 77; coptic text established and translated by A. Guillaumont, H.-CH. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah ‘Abd Al Masih, p 43)

 

Sometimes people hold their breath in cleaving wood, or in lifting a heavy bucket or stone. Moshe Feldenkrais observed that some people hold their breath when getting up out of a chair, and he put forward a way to avoid that:

 

…When the center of gravity has really moved forward over the feet a reflex movement will originate in the old nervous system and straighten the legs; this automatic movement will not be felt as an effort at all.

 

(“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 78)

 

Feldenkrais stipulated that:

 

… 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.

 

(ibid, p 76)

 

The paired sayings highlight moments when the weight of the body combines with a singular location of consciousness to cause “reflex movement” in the action of the body.

 

“Reflex movement” can also be engaged to sit upright, as the weight of the body combines with a singular location of consciousness.

 

In Gautama’s teaching, a singularity in the location of consciousness follows “making self-surrender the object of thought”:

 

… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness.

 

(SN 48.10, tr. Pali Text Society vol V p 174; “noble” substituted for Ariyan)

 

In my experience:

 

…“one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts.

 

(Just to Sit)

 

Gautama declared that feelings of zest and ease accompany one-pointedness, at least initially. He prescribed the extension of such “zest and ease”:

 

… (a person) steeps, drenches, fills, and suffuses this body with zest and ease, born of solitude, so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded by this lone-born zest and ease.

 

(AN 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original)

 

As I wrote recently:

 

Words like “steeps” and “drenches” convey that the weight of the body accompanies the feelings of zest and ease.

 

The weight of the body sensed at a particular point in the body can shift the body’s center of gravity, and a shift in the body’s center of gravity can result in “reflex movement”.

 

“Drenching” the body “so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded” with zest and ease allows the weight of the body to effect such “reflex movement” wherever “one-pointedness” takes place.

 

In falling asleep, the mind can sometimes react to hypnagogic sleep paralysis with an attempt to reassert control over the muscles of the body, causing a “hypnic jerk”. The extension of a weighted zest and ease can pre-empt the tendency to reassert voluntary control in the induction of concentration, and make possible a conscious experience of “reflex movement” in inhalation and exhalation.

 

(ibid)

 

There can also come a moment when the feelings of zest and ease cease, yet “one-pointedness” and the conscious experience of “reflex movement” in inhalation and exhalation remain. At such a time, said Gautama:

 

… 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 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original)

 

The “pureness of mind” that Gautama referred to is the pureness of the mind without any will or intention to act in the body.

 

There is a feeling of freedom, when the activity of inhalation and exhalation is “reflex movement” regardless of where “one-pointedness” takes place.

 

Zen teachers demonstrate the relinquishment of “voluntary control” of the body in favor of the free location of “one-pointedness of mind”, and they do so constantly. Reb Anderson observed such demonstrations in the actions of Shunryu Suzuki:

 

… I remember (Suzuki’s) dharma talks and I remember him in the zendo—that was wonderful teaching. I remember him moving rocks—wonderful teaching. I remember seeing him eat—that was wonderful teaching. He was teaching all the time in every situation. But when he couldn’t sit anymore and couldn’t walk anymore, he still taught right from there.

 

(Reb Anderson, from a 1995 recording)

 

Shunryu Suzuki moved some heavy stones by himself at the Tassajara Monastery, in part I believe as a demonstration for his students:

 

Alan Marlowe is 6’4″ and he often used to work moving rocks with Suzuki Roshi. There was one large rock that Alan couldn’t move. Alan and Suzuki Roshi tried to move the rock together and they couldn’t. Alan said that what they needed was a block and tackle and more people. Suzuki Roshi told Alan to go away. “I want to work alone.” So Alan went to take a bath and when he returned the rock was moved and Alan found Suzuki Roshi asleep in his cabin. He also found vomit all over the floor. Suzuki Roshi slept for three days.

 

(David Chadwick links page, Cucumber Project on cuke.com)

 

The activity may have been the same for Suzuki before and after his “enlightenment”, but I would say his intention was different:

 

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.

 

(Breathing; Shunryu Suzuki; November 4th 1965, Los Altos; emphasis added)

 

What will be the difference? You have freedom, you know, from everything. That is, you know, the main point.

 

(Sesshin Lecture, Shunryu Suzuki; Day 5 Wednesday, June 9, 1971 San Francisco)

 

In Gautama’s parlance:

 

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 35.146, tr. Pali Text Society vol IV p 85)

 

I don't know about you, but a lot of anatomy passes through my mind as "one-pointedness" shifts. I finished a book, that has enough of that to be worth a look, IMHO. Free to download here, or you can get a paperback to hold in the hand here.

On 12/20/2025 at 5:06 AM, Haribol said:

 

"In the Pauline symbol of Christ, the highest religious experience of West and East touch each other. Christ, the hero laden with suffering, and the Golden Flower, which opens in the purple hall of the jade city: what an opposition, what an unimaginable difference, what a historical abyss! A problem suited to be the masterpiece of a psychologist of the future."

 

--from Paul Jung's commentary on "The Secret of the Golden Flower"

 

Miraculous power and marvelous activity
Drawing water and chopping wood.
 

(“The Recorded Sayings of Layman P’ang:  A Ninth-Century Zen Classic”, Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Yoshitaka Iriya, Dana R. Fraser, p 46)

 

There’s a similar saying in “The Gospel According to Thomas”, a gnostic gospel:

Cleave a (piece of) wood, I am there;
lift up the stone and you will find Me there.
 

(“The Gospel According to Thomas”, log 77; coptic text established and translated by A. Guillaumont, H.-CH. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah ‘Abd Al Masih, p 43)

 

Sometimes people hold their breath in cleaving wood, or in lifting a heavy bucket or stone. Moshe Feldenkrais observed that some people hold their breath when getting up out of a chair, and he put forward a way to avoid that:

…When the center of gravity has really moved forward over the feet a reflex movement will originate in the old nervous system and straighten the legs; this automatic movement will not be felt as an effort at all.

(“Awareness Through Movement”, Moshe Feldenkrais, p 78)

Feldenkrais stipulated that:

… 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.

(ibid, p 76)

The paired sayings highlight moments when the weight of the body combines with a singular location of consciousness to cause “reflex movement” in the action of the body.

“Reflex movement” can also be engaged to sit upright, as the weight of the body combines with a singular location of consciousness.

In Gautama’s teaching, a singularity in the location of consciousness follows “making self-surrender the object of thought”:

… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness.

(SN 48.10, tr. Pali Text Society vol V p 174; “noble” substituted for Ariyan)

In my experience:

…“one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts.

(Just to Sit)

(Drawing Water and Chopping Wood)

There's more, in Drawing Water and Chopping Wood--Paul Jung can stop holding his breath.

On 12/23/2025 at 4:49 PM, Tommy said:

T
That statement still confuses me. Cause if I try to do the right thing then it is me doing more wrong.

So, if I do the wrong thing then it is still me doing more wrong. How can that be right?

Sorry about the confusion.

 

Let me just confuse you more:

As to this… right view comes first. And how… does right view come first? If one comprehends that wrong purpose is wrong purpose and comprehends that right purpose is right purpose, that is… right view. And what… is wrong purpose? Purpose for sense-pleasures, purpose for ill-will, purpose for harming. This… is wrong purpose. And what… is right purpose? Now I… say that right purpose is twofold. There is… the right purpose that has cankers, is on the side of merit, and ripens unto cleaving (to new birth). There is… the right purpose which is [noble], cankerless, supermundane, a factor of the Way. And what… is the purpose which is on the side of merit, and ripens unto cleaving? Purpose for renunciation, purpose for non-ill-will, purpose for non-harming. This… is right purpose that… ripens unto cleaving. And what… is the right purpose that is [noble], cankerless, supermundane, a component of the Way? Whatever… is reasoning, initial thought, purpose, an activity of speech through the complete focussing and application of the mind in one who, by developing the [noble] Way, is of [noble] thought, of cankerless thought, and is conversant with the [noble] Way–this… is right purpose that is [noble], cankerless, supermundane, a component of the Way.

(MN 117, tr. Pali Text Society vol III pp 113-121)
 

In other words, you can't get there from here.

On 12/23/2025 at 4:49 PM, Tommy said:

 

I know that this is probably more of my ego talking, ...

So, I am a helpless sinner, incapable of doing the right thing.

And only by allowing Jesus within and giving it over to Jesus, does the right thing get done.

Why?

 

Does giving myself to Jesus dissolve me of the responsibilities of my actions? Do I become free to do what I believe Jesus would have me do?
 

"Why?" is difficult to explain. I think of it as engaging my whole being, instead of pushing myself around from the left hemisphere. 

And how does one engage one's whole being? 

Herein… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness. 

In layman's terms:

…“one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts.
 

(Just to Sit)
 

Holding any bent-knee posture for a period of time will yield a movement of breath that necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location. Hello, Jesus!  
 

Find the seat and put on the robe, and afterward see for yourself.
 

("Zen Letters, Teachings of Yuanwu", tr. Cleary and Cleary, p 65)

 

Alternative method for finding Jesus:

Cleave a (piece of) wood, I am there;
lift up the stone and you will find Me there.
 

(“The Gospel According to Thomas”, log 77; coptic text established and translated by A. Guillaumont, H.-CH. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah ‘Abd Al Masih, p 43)

More on that in Drawing Water and Chopping Wood. Lots of nice quotes about freedom, too!

On 12/23/2025 at 4:49 PM, Tommy said:

 

If God created me in his image then why am I lesser than Jesus in terms of doing right?

Was I made defective that Jesus needs to handle me and my actions??

When people were going to stone the woman for adultery, Jesus said let those who have not sinned cast the first stones.

I wondered why Jesus did not throw the first stone. Was Jesus a sinner too??

I know that wasn't the point of his story.
 

What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin' to make His way home?

(One of Us, Joan Osbourne)

On 12/23/2025 at 4:49 PM, Tommy said:

 

I know that I am no where near the level of Jesus in mind or spirit.

But, I do not like to look upon people as lesser than what God intended.

Maybe that is my mistake.

So, the confusion lives on in me.
 

The gift IMHO is the animal ability to return reason to the fire, but humans have a hard time acknowledging that they are animals.

Nevertheless, I have hope:

As a master of Zen archery, Kobun was asked to teach a course at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. The target was set up on a beautiful grassy area on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Kobun took his bow, notched the arrow, took careful aim, and shot. The arrow sailed high over the target, went past the railing, beyond the cliff, only to plunge into the ocean far below. Kobun looked happily at the shocked students and shouted, "Bull's eye!!"

(Anecdotes by Joan Halifax Roshi, https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/otokawa.html)

 

On 12/23/2025 at 1:02 PM, bradley said:

 

he is MonSanta

spent, he's left the phosphate mine 

Christmas dinner's near

 

Christmas dinner's near

all good wishes, a grand day

and now, gentle tunes
 

On 12/17/2025 at 11:41 AM, Apech said:

when we all shine on

bringing up that black gloss on

someone else’s shoes.

 

someone else's shoes
are on my feet; they look good,
I think I'll keep them

15 hours ago, Apech said:

Happy shortest day everyone!

Happy longest night!

On 11/14/2025 at 5:30 PM, Tommy said:

I live and breathe. Wake up in the morning, cook myself a meal, boil water for coffee. What life is, it is in front of me. When I read the saying before enlightenment, chop wood  carry water. after enlightenment, chop wood carry water, the question arises what changed?.
 

The question inspired me, and I wrote a post in response--I can post the whole thing here, but it's a bit long for that (not that my posts aren't long anyway):

Drawing Water and Chopping Wood

 

Hopefully a better answer. I didn't address the fact that the Zen saying emphasizes enlightenment, but the enlightenment referred to is not enlightenment as Gautama described it--I take that up in One Way or Another.

18 hours ago, zerostao said:

Showing my age,,,

 

 

I recognize these dance steps! I see these people, and I dance with them every weekend, at the local native American casino.

39 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

 

Do you mean "where is this place" or "why am I not in this picture?"  
 

where is this place, please...

37 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

 

Do you mean "where is this place" or "why am I not in this picture?"  
 

On 12/16/2025 at 8:53 AM, Apech said:

 

when ripe, the fruit falls

full soft pear and satsuma

juice, lips, tongue, sweet now.

 

juice, lips, tongue, sweet now

and not a kiss to be had

anywhere--but then

anywhere--but then

everywhere--come, get your share

when we all shine on

 

On 12/12/2025 at 6:50 PM, Taomeow said:

 

Where am I!?

 

11 minutes ago, Trunk said:

I've updated edited my little zhan zhuang primer to include relevant external video links of both Damo Mitchell and Sifu Matsuo, to address the circulation~stagnation (and tissue development & energetic refinement) issues, re: zhan zhuang.  And edited my own text a bit.

Damo's video short made me chew on this.  Good.  
 

Love Cleary's translation at the bottom of your primer:

Carrying vitality and consciousness,
embracing them as one,

can you keep them from parting?

"Carrying vitality" implies a sense of weight--here's something from a piece I'm writing now, slightly edited:

Moshe Feldenkrais observed that people sometimes hold their breath just to get up out of a chair, and he outlined a way to avoid that:

…When the center of gravity has really moved forward over the feet a reflex movement will originate in the old nervous system and straighten the legs; this automatic movement will not be felt as an effort at all.

(“Awareness Through Movement”, © 1972, 1977 Moshe Feldenkrais, p 78)

Feldenkrais stipulated that:

… 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.

(ibid, p 76)

“Reflex movement” can also be engaged to sit or stand, as the weight of the body combines with a singular location of consciousness.

In Gautama’s teaching, a singularity in the location of consciousness follows “making self-surrender the object of thought”:
 

… the (noble) disciple, making self-surrender the object of (their) thought, lays hold of concentration, lays hold of one-pointedness.

(SN 48.10, tr. Pali Text Society vol V p 174; “noble” substituted for Ariyan)
 

In my experience:

…“one-pointedness” occurs when the movement of breath necessitates the placement of attention at a singular location in the body, and a person “lays hold of one-pointedness” when they remain awake as the singular location shifts.

(Just to Sit)

As to "... embracing them as one, can you keep them from parting?":
 

As Gautama said, there can also come a moment when:

… 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 5.28, tr. PTS vol. III pp 18-19, parentheticals paraphrase original)

The “pureness of mind” that Gautama referred to is the pureness of the mind without any will or intention to act in the body.

There is a feeling of freedom, when the body is suffused with “purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind” and the activity of inhalation and exhalation is “reflex movement” regardless of where consciousness takes place.

The experience can be recalled in standing and in daily life through an overview of the body taken at the close of the seated experience, the "survey-sign" of the concentration.
 

There are some details of anatomy and of fascial support for the vertebrae of the sacrum and spine that might interest you, here:  A Natural Mindfulness (hardcopy through Amazon).

9 hours ago, Keith108 said:

Pat's friday burnt ends

Round and round, eating, shitting

Cold morning, train horn
 

Cold morning, train horn

blow, whistle freight train--take me

far on down the track

1 hour ago, Taomeow said:

Everybody knows paper newspapers are in decline -- but this article appeared last Friday in the San Diego Union Tribune both in its paper version delivered to subscribers and the digital online version.

 

The article itself is in Latin (not the first, second, or 100th most spoken language around here), and its title seems to clash with the editors' attempt at classically educating the readers, if that's what they had in mind.