Mark Foote
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Posts posted by Mark Foote
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My cat just polished half the meat from a McDonald's double bacon cheeseburger. She loves that, and she's been off her feed lately, so I bought one for her.
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2 hours ago, Dainin said:
This one is highly regarded several people that I respect (I haven't read it yet though):Daoist Meditation: The Purification of the Heart Method of Meditation and Discourse on Sitting and Forgetting
https://www.amazon.com/Daoist-Meditation-Purification-Discourse-Forgetting/dp/1848192118/
"Upon abstracting (oneself) from (one's) physical body and from the outside world, (one) starts to identify, in the movement of (one's) breath, the physical automation that controls (their) life energy. (A person) continues like this until becoming a part of the air that (they) breath and reaching the understanding that (they themselves) only exist as consciousness, which is manifested as part of the autonomous mechanism of (their) breathing...
("Daoist Meditation: The Purification of the Heart Method of Meditation and Discourse on Sitting and Forgetting (Zuo Wang Lun) by Si Ma", Wu Jyh Cherng, p 28, emphasis added)In plain English:
There can 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.
(Shunryu Suzuki on Shikantaza and the Theravadin Stages)
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.
(What Shunryu Suzuki Actually Said)
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Issho Fujita holds onto his hat, at Sonoma Mountain Zen Center:
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1 hour ago, Tommy said:
That is what I am wondering. Awareness is Buddha nature? My awareness as it is now, it is comprised of thoughts and impulses. My attention drawn to those thoughts. They guide me thru my experiences and direct me to answers and actions. For example, a feeling of urgency to go to the bathroom to urinate. The feeling or sensation makes my mind think of thoughts about rushing to the bathroom. The thoughts follow the logic of finding the directions and acting in a fashion to aid it the completion of the act of urination. Of course, this could have been eating or sex or whatever there is in life. The experiences reaffirms my thoughts and actions. No wisdom, no compassion, no love ... just needs and desires. So, how do I direct the mind to dwell in Buddha nature since I have no idea what Buddha nature is (thru or by experience)?? Sorry for my confusion. And for drawing the conversation off topic.
Good question, and to my mind, that is exactly the topic.
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.
(Shunryu Suzuki on Shikantaza and the Theravadin Stages)
Any bent-knee posture held for a period of time will allow a witness. Then, it's just hold onto your hat:
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.
(What Shunryu Suzuki Actually Said)
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.
The piece that you're missing is the fact that action can come out of the free location of awareness, without what Gautama called "determinate thought". That has to be experienced to be believed.
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8 hours ago, silent thunder said:Enlightenment is a destructive process.
It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier.
Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth.
It's seeing through the facade of pretence.
It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true."
Adyashanti"Happier", maybe not, but happiness is intrinsic to the states of concentration, according to the Gautamid:
I know that while my father, the Sakyan, was ploughing, and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, aloof from pleasures of the senses, aloof from unskilled states of mind, I entered on the first meditation, which is accompanied by initial thought and discursive thought, is born of aloofness, and is rapturous and joyful, and while abiding therein, I thought: ‘Now could this be a way to awakening?’ Then, following on my mindfulness, Aggivissana, there was the consciousness: This is itself the Way to awakening. This occurred to me, Aggivissana: ‘Now, am I afraid of that happiness which is happiness apart from sense-pleasures, apart from unskilled states of mind?’ This occurred to me…: I am not afraid of that happiness which is happiness apart from sense-pleasures, apart from unskilled states of mind.’
(MN 1 246-247, Vol I p 301)
Whatever happiness, whatever joy, Ananda, arises in consequence of these five strands of sense-pleasures, it is called happiness in sense-pleasures.
Whoever, Ananda, should speak thus: ‘This is the highest happiness and joy that creatures experience’—this I cannot allow on [their] part. What is the reason for this? There is, Ananda, another happiness more excellent and exquisite than that happiness. And what, Ananda, is this other happiness more excellent and exquisite than that happiness? Here, Ananda, a [person], aloof from pleasures of the senses, aloof from unskilled states of mind, enters and abides in the first meditation that is accompanied by initial thought and discursive thought, is born of aloofness and is rapturous and joyful. This, Ananda, is the other happiness that is more excellent and exquisite than that happiness.
Whoever, Ananda, should speak thus: ‘This [the first meditative state] is the highest happiness and joy that creatures experience’–this I cannot allow on [their] part. What is the reason for this? There is, Ananda, another happiness more excellent and exquisite than that happiness. And what, Ananda, is this other happiness more excellent and exquisite than that happiness? Here, Ananda, [an individual], by allaying initial and discursive thought, [their] mind inwardly tranquillised and fixed on one point, enters and abides in the second meditation which is devoid of initial and discursive thought, is born of concentration, and is rapturous and joyful. This, Ananda, is the other happiness that is more excellent and joyful than that happiness.
Whoever, Ananda, should speak thus… And what, Ananda, is this other happiness more excellent and exquisite than that happiness? Here, Ananda, [an individual], by the fading out of rapture, abides with equanimity, attentive and clearly conscious, and [they] experience in [their] person that happiness of which the [noble ones] say: ‘Joyful lives [the one] who has equanimity and is mindful’. And entering on the third meditation [they] abide in it. This, Ananda, is the other happiness that is more excellent and exquisite than that happiness.
Whoever, Ananda, should speak thus… And what, Ananda is the other happiness more excellent and exquisite than that happiness? Here, Ananda, [an individual], by getting rid of happiness and by getting rid of anguish, by the going down of [their] former pleasures and sorrows, enters and abides in the fourth meditation which has neither anguish nor happiness, and which is entirely purified by equanimity and mindfulness. This, Ananda, is the other happiness that is more excellent and exquisite than that happiness.
“Whoever, Ananda, should speak thus: ‘This [the fourth meditative state] is the highest happiness and joy that creatures experience’-this I cannot allow on [their] part. What is the reason for this? There is, Ananda, another happiness more excellent and exquisite than that happiness. And what, Ananda, is this other happiness more excellent and exquisite than that happiness? Here, Ananda, a [person], by wholly transcending perceptions of material shapes, by the going down of perceptions due to sensory impressions, by not attending to perceptions of difference, thinking: “Ether is unending’, enters and abides in the plane of infinite ether. This, Ananda, is the other happiness that is more excellent and exquisite than that happiness.
…[a person], by wholly transcending the plane of infinite ether and thinking: ‘Consciousness is unending’, enters and abides in the plane of infinite consciousness… …[a person], by wholly transcending the plane of infinite consciousness, and thinking: ‘There is no thing’. enters and abides in the plane of no-thing… …[a person]. by wholly transcending the plane of no-thing, enters and abides in the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception.
…[a person], by wholly transcending the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception. enters and abides in the stopping of perceiving and feeling. This, Ananda, is the other happiness that is more excellent and exquisite than that happiness.”
(MN I 398-400, Vol II p 67-69)
“…What do you think about this, reverend Jain: Is King Seniya Bimbisara of Magadha, without moving his body, without uttering a word, able to stay experiencing nothing but happiness for seven nights and days?”
“No, your reverence.”
“What do you think about this, reverend Jain: Is King Seniya Bimbisara of Magadha, without moving his body, without uttering a word, able to stay experiencing nothing but happiness for six nights and days, for five, for four, for three, for two nights and days, for one night and day?”
“No, your reverence.”
“But I, reverend Jain, am able, without moving my body, without uttering a word, to stay experiencing nothing but happiness for one night and day. I, reverend Jain, am able, without moving my body, without uttering a word, to stay experiencing nothing but happiness for two nights and days,, for three, four, five, six, for seven nights and days.”
(MN I 94, Vol I p 123-124)
Gautama also said that whatever one imagines a particular state of concentration to be, it is otherwise, and that the states are attained by "lack of desire, by means of lack of desire".
Strange!
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On 3/28/2024 at 10:48 AM, Apech said:
I am a little mercurial but I do appreciate your ideas. I think at one time I would easily agreed with you - but maybe it’s my age but now I am quite conscious of the bad in the world (not just extremes but the general degeneration of order) and have found increasingly that battling against it is important for us.
We can end this destructive conflict, and bring order to the universe!
Obi-wan never told you, what happened to those vegetables...-
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7 hours ago, Taomeow said:It must be the beer...
An off-key voice in the night:
"It must have been love!"
It must have been loveor, it must have been moonglow,
way up in the blue
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2 hours ago, Taomeow said:Cats are obligatory carnivores. Aside from this being a much-ignored axiom, there was this study with cat diets done by Francis Pottenger, MD, in 1932-1942. Of the thousands of cats divided into groups they fed different diets, the only diet they found adequate (resulting in perfectly healthy cats with perfectly healthy posterity) consisted of 2/3 raw meat, 1/3 raw milk, supplemented with cod liver oil. All cats that received versions of different diets (with cooked meat, pasteurized milk, or some combo of raw and cooked/pasteurized) fared much worse. And that was the era before commercial cat food, so those cats didn't eat what today's cats eat: corn, wheat, soy, artificial preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, carbohydrate fillers (aka cellulose, which deer and goats can digest but cats can't), sweeteners, vegetable oils, and something the labels call "animal digest" which is cattle manure.
A long time ago, I did an internship working with patents, and saw many that were for chemicals designed to make what cats wouldn't normally eat attractive to them. Complex neuroscience behind each of those! Best scientific minds working on fooling cats, compromising their health and shortening their lives.
I dropped by Mickey D's the other day to pick up a double bacon cheese burger for the cat. She likes the bacon and beef from the sandwich.
I take the breading off a couple chunks of the sweet and sour pork and shred 'em, she loves that.
She'll eat cream cheese, if I make small pieces out of some.
Likes chicken, but not fresh-cooked, for some reason. Needs a day in the refrigerator. Tonight she gets a little of the salmon, her favorite (aside from the double bacon cheese burger).
Oh, and she eats canned catfood too. A little bit of expensive cans...
Sophie the cat.
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7 hours ago, liminal_luke said:... What I would like to stop doing is saying "Luke, you know squat about ancient Egypt and your art masks suck. You must be a horrible person."
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:
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1 minute ago, Mark Foote said:from Asahi beer
I get an odd sensation
I'm coming unglued
I'm coming unglued
slowly at first, then faster
soon I will be soaked
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On 3/26/2024 at 7:49 AM, Taomeow said:
Solitude embraced.A tea rose in a bottle
from Asahi beer.
from Asahi beer
I get an odd sensation
I'm coming unglued
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On 3/25/2024 at 3:22 PM, Maddie said:
I thought you said you didn't have any good pictures! All of them are good, I'm jealous!
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9 hours ago, liminal_luke said:
I find myself in need of an attitude adjustment. It no longer works for me to think of people as good or bad. For sure there are people who are better than others at particular tasks. Some of us are stronger or smarter or more beautiful than our peers. But I´m not sure that any of that makes anybody better, more worthy of drawing breath. What if everybody is equal? What if I stopped seeking praise or fearing judgment? Just stopped. This morning I´m wondering how my life would change if I just dropped this whole business of ranking the value of people (including, most especially, myself) altogether.
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.-
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7 hours ago, Apech said:There are more things in heaven and on earth ...
And smelt so? Pah!
(Hamlet 5.1.181–184) -
On 12/18/2022 at 10:39 AM, ChiDragon said:
... The goal is "sink chi to the dantian(氣沈丹田)" level.
... It took me awhile to accomplish "sink chi to the dantian(氣沈丹田)." It was fastening ("fastening"--"fascinating"?) when I had accomplished that the first time.
... There are a lots of wild stories about "sink chi to the dantian(氣沈丹田)." One can only do it right by knowing its real definition. Otherwise, one just going in circles and practicing something in the blind and accomplish nothing.
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.
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On 12/8/2022 at 12:11 PM, Cobie said:
@Mithras I cannot understand what you write. I read the first post you made (10 February 2020) and that one is understandable. So I think maybe you now have an underlying medical problem (e.g. aphasia/receptive dysphasia) worth checking out. Be well.
I began to think I was reading a piece composed by AI.
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On 12/7/2022 at 1:12 PM, liminal_luke said:
In the power-over-oneself department, I'm intrigued by this: https://www.breathholdwork.com/. Not so much in order to increase my breath hold time per se (I'm no freediver) but for the meditative possibilities. The guy whose offering a course is Erwan Le Corre, founder of Movnat. Could be interesting...If I become powerful, I'll let ya know...
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)
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On 12/1/2022 at 5:40 PM, Mithras said:
A sneeze would be transformed into the hail of gods if observed correctly.
Undoubtedly true, but still seeming somewhat unfortunate for those whom the gods hail upon.
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On 3/20/2024 at 9:01 PM, idiot_stimpy said:
I was reading recently whereby someone stated it was impossible to gain enlightenment without transmission from a lineage.Is it possible to awaken without transmission? Can you wake up by reading the cheat codes in a book as opposed to learning them from a living teacher?
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.-
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8 hours ago, old3bob said:
so we can say cats have Buddha nature or Taoist nature....
But does a dog have buddha-nature? (couple of famous cases about that)
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On 3/18/2024 at 5:11 AM, Apech said:My post above is what happened when I was 19. It was much later in my 40's that I discovered that what I had been doing accorded with the Mahamudra meditation approach. It was either good karma or a happy accident.
If you are not familiar with Mahamudra I can recommend this book, which explains everything about how to do this.
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.
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On 3/18/2024 at 12:29 PM, Elysium said:
Excuse me for the lack of detail in the title, frankly didn't know what to put there.I am just observing that there is a gargantuan amount of energy wasted via thoughts and perhaps also movements that is not needed. The latter, I am not sure, but the former, certainly.
Pretty sure there should be time left for mind to ruminate, or even monkey around, but 24/7? I believe thats counterproductive. But tell me if I am wrong, I am asking here for a reason.
So the question arises, how do we get a laser focus? Aside from the obvious answers meditation and always trying to stay in control, can't think anything else.
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.
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On 3/17/2024 at 9:33 PM, stirling said:Cessation is what there is when all other trappings of "self", models, thoughts, etc. is dropped - what naturally arises. It is what is left when everything else contrived or constructed is missing. It naturally arises of its own accord, and is ALWAYS available, all one must do is pull the plug on all of systems, models, thoughts, and doing. This is accomplished by just taking the energy out of the doing.
I'm not disagreeing with the Buddha, but emphasizing that what we are talking about isn't special, difficult to accomplish, or complicated in any way... it is inherently simple... too simple to believe it could be what it truly is.
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)
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37 minutes ago, Nungali said:Newsagent : " Are you going to buy that magazine or not ?"
A very unpopular question.
Education - advice
in General Discussion
Posted · Edited by Mark Foote
Must be a lot of businesses that could use someone with computer skills, spread-sheet skills, statistical skills, which I'm guess you have. Maybe take a break and travel a bit, if you can afford it.
The discouraging thing about the new digital age is the lack of personal contact in interviewing and hiring. Build your interpersonal networks, while you're in school. All just a guess on my part, I've been very fortunate and people have been very kind, and I've managed to get by in several capacities. The people are the main thing.