Mark Foote

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Posts posted by Mark Foote

  6. Posted

    It was always there,

    Out of your sight, out of mind,

    Wellspring never runs dry.

     

    wellspring never dry

    say the cat's eyes, as he sits

    purring in the sun

     

    (our cat is losing weight and likely dying of kidney failure)

  10. Posted

    Devastation near!

    Grab your Red Suitcase! Run! Run!!

    Left, right, up, down... duck!!!

     

    Left, right, up, down... duck!!!

    quick, quick- you mean, duck as verb?

    raised Mad, lowered dead

  19. Posted · Edited by Mark Foote

    Checking the quote CowTao posted I find the following:

     

    The word Prajnaparamita comes through in its Sanskrit form. This means "Perfection of insight", the highest, clearest, most straightforward or most important insight. This word insight does not just refer to an intellectual insight like the solving of a mathematical equation. It is not to do with words. This is explicit in Roshi Kennets version which says "Deepest wisdom of the heart which is beyond discriminative thought". In other contexts the word Prajna means no thought, something which is insight.

     

    I'd like to put forward a slightly different way of seeing this. I think what I have to say has to do with enlightenment, but so do all the things people have mentioned on this thread.

     

    I wrote a description of zazen, and I'm going to quote it here because I can't think of a way to say it any better, and this is my starting point:

     

    "Simply by being where we are, we can come to forget the self. The sense of place engenders an ability to feel, and each thing we feel enters into the sense of place- even before we know it."

     

    Two things I'd like to point out about that description; the first is that the sense of place is associated with the occurrence of consciousness, and the second is that the sense of place engenders an ability to feel because our sense of location in space (our sense of place) is intimately connected with our sense of balance, and our sense of balance creates activity and alignment that generates an ability to feel.

     

    Which came first, Gautama the Buddha's experience of being with each thing, even before he knew it, or what he taught as the four truths about suffering? Like all of you, I'm sure, I would say neither; somehow they are part and parcel of the same experience and for me, descriptions like "beyond discriminative thought" and "no thought" go too far.

     

    We are talking about an absorption. Consciousness takes place with contact between a sense organ and a sense object, the impact of the place of consciousness on fascial stretch produces activity that generates an ability to feel, and the spontaneous ability to feel allows the free occurrence of consciousness. This is an everyday occurrence for everyone. The enlightenment part is the witness of how aversion, attraction, or ignorance of what is felt conditions the occurrence of consciousness; this witness is spontaneous, and frees the occurrence of consciousness. This is also an everyday occurrence for everyone.

     

    The practice as I understand it consists of relaxation and calm in the experience of a sense of place, and in the experience of the impact and feeling associated with that sense of place. A witness of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and a way leading to the cessation of suffering becomes part of the practice, which is of course just ordinary life, as each thing we feel enters into the sense of place.

     

    Maybe my favorite quote from Yuanwu (12th century China) is:

     

    "When you arrive at last at towering up like a wall miles high, you will finally know that there aren't so many things."

     

    (Zen Letters, Teachings of Yuanwu; trans. by Cleary & Cleary, page 83, copyright 1994 by J. C. Cleary and Thomas Cleary)

    • Like 1

  20. Posted · Edited by Mark Foote

    Lost my paper train of thought down the Tao Bums sink... oh well!

     

    Maybe the tan-t'ien is the place where the sense of pitch, yaw, and roll associated with consciousness gets its bearing; seems like my mind ends up in the tan-t'ien more when I look to set up mindfulness of my dynamic in three dimensions.

  21. Posted

    ah

     

    so this is the only way to creat the 'true dan-tien'. hm. wish I could have those "methods" obviously, if it's not such a natural thing to have a 'real dan-tien' since it needs to be created.

     

    I like that first description, Non- like Chen Man-Ch'ing in "Thirteen Chapters" (the Wile translation, page 17): "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." Chen says that the way to get the ch'i to sink to the tan-t'ien is to relax the entire body, then relax the chest.

     

    Myself, I focus on reciprocal innervation, the way the activity generated by fascial stretch tends to balance from side to side and shift around in the body. If I relax, I can recognize the effect of aversion and attachment on the occurrence of consciousness, and let the sense of location effect activity. I agree that there is a relaxation associated with the chest, though I experience it as a necessity to engage support from the pelvis vertically up the spine on inhalation, and from pelvis horizontally on exhalation, just in order to realize the particular movement of breath as it takes place. I play with that every sitting, just about, and with the reciprocation between the extensors and the psoas.

     

    Here's what I keep in mind, helps me to throw things away and relax:

     

    "Simply by being where we are, we can come to forget the self. The sense of place engenders an ability to feel, and each thing we feel enters into the sense of place- even before we know it."

     

    Like Foyan said, two sicknesses, looking for a mule while riding a mule, and riding a mule unable to get off. Better not to get on the mule, he said; mind with the tan-t'ien (as Chen Man-ch'ing recommended for health), if the mind is with the tan-t'ien- otherwise, mind where the mind is.

     

    I'm pretty good on paper! ;)

  23. Posted · Edited by Mark Foote

    Fleeting, like the wind,

    thoughts, effervescing upward,

    To break the surface.

     

    to break the surface

    one more feeling- to lie still,

    nothing much is said

     

    (talkin' out of my head again!- nice to hear from CowTao, Taomeow, mYTHmAKER, strawdog65, like old friends- thank you, Sean! :) )

  24. Posted · Edited by Mark Foote

    Do you feel my thoughts?

    Consciousness intermingled,

    One part of the whole.

     

    One part of the whole

    moves like every other- (ah!)

    from the place of all

  25. Posted · Edited by Mark Foote

    Thanks Mark! Nicely written. I've been doing a "double wake-up" the past few mornings because my first experience upon waking has been something like "ugh" so I sort of backtrack and change it before I actually do get up so that "ugh" does not become the color of the day.

     

    Dan Ariely (sp?) has a weird experiment about this stuff in one of his latest irrationality books. It's weird because he openly admits to manipulating (ok, he calls it "priming") people into the required experimental condition. As an aside, I wonder if he wonders about how ethical (or just plain weird or kooky) that is?

     

    Anyway, I guess my double-wake-up is sort of cheating with respect to the terms you put down in your writing. Yeah, a kind of avoidance. But who knows what my "ugh" idea/feeling comes from in the first place? It could be something really pointless and unimportant.

     

    Pointless killing the day because I have some strange desire for acceptance of everything. That in itself is sort of weird. A desire for acceptance! What do you think? I'm not a skilled enough notation meditator to reach back into the sequence preceding my waking up to figure it out. I can do it ok if I'm awake already, just not through the transitions so I can't say if it is really "the same" as falling asleep.

     

     

    Hi, Kate, hope folks don't mind if we stroll sideways along the thread; upside down, perhaps! I too feel like these mornings as winter finally becomes spring are especially challenging, there's a nice word for it.

     

    Mostly I am looking for a freedom of awareness before I fall asleep, yet I also find I can't really shake off sleep without a freedom of awareness. I have to let go, but it's not a letting go I can do, I'm sure you know what I mean- when it's challenging, it's challenging!

     

    Returning right-side up for a moment, the utility of the tan-t'ien is in the sense of pitch, yaw, and roll wherever consciousness takes place; that is rooted in the tan-t'ien I think, even if the mind is not with the tan-t'ien, as Chen Man-ch'ing prescribed it should be for the most benefit. This morning I finally recalled the ability to feel, an ability moving like a path under the feet of my consciousness, and it was good.