What are you practising for?

[Mark Foote]

On 2/18/2026 at 12:31 PM, steve said:

Someone asked me this question about a year ago and, without thinking much about it, what came out was... 

I am practicing for my death. 
 

 

 

That was my big concern, from high school through college and on beyond. Then zazen got up and walked around, and I had a different concern--from the back pages of my book:

 

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.

From the Pali sermons:

 

… the (one) who makes mindfulness of death become thus:  “Were I to abide mindful as I munch and swallow one morsel…”; and (the one) who thinks thus:  “Were I to abide mindful of (Gautama’s) word as I breathe in and out or out and in, much would be done by me”—those (persons) are said to live earnestly; keenly they make mindfulness of death become for the destruction of the cankers (the defilements, "asavas").

(AN 6.19, tr. Pali Text Society vol III p 219, parenthetical added)

 

 

Gautama speaking to his son, Rahula:

 

Mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing, Rahula, is of great fruit, of great advantage. And how, Rahula, if mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing is developed, how, if it is made much of, is it of great fruit, of great advantage?
 

As to this, Rahula, (a person) who is forest-gone or gone to the root of a tree or gone to an empty place, sits down cross-legged, holding (their) back erect, arousing mindfulness in front of (them)...

(thence follows Gautama's description of the mindfulness of inbreathing and outbreathing, as in Anapanasati MN 118)
 

Mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing if developed thus, Rahula, if it is made much of thus, is it of great fruit, of great advantage. When, Rahula, mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing has been developed thus, has been made much of thus, then those which are the  last in-breaths and out-breaths are also stopped only when they are known, not when they are unknown.

 

(MN 62, tr. Pali Text Society vol II p 97; gender neutralized)

 

 

I have summarized the actionable elements of Gautama's mindfulness of inbreathing and outbreathing, :
 

 

1) Relax the activity of the body, in inhalation and exhalation;

2) Find a feeling of ease and calm the senses connected with balance, in inhalation and exhalation;

3) Appreciate and detach from thought, in inhalation and exhalation;

4) Look to the free location of consciousness for the automatic activity of the body, in inhalation and exhalation.

 

(Applying the Pali Instructions)
 

 

There's a trick connected with the feeling of ease in his mindfulness, that's in Just to Sit.

 

Skipping death in favor of "the  last in-breaths and out-breaths are also stopped only when they are known, not when they are unknown", ha ha!  

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 06:05 PM by Mark Foote

[Taomeow]

Modern "civilized" society and lifestyles drastically limit free will. There's too many things they force me to do whether I want to or not.

 

Whatever it is, from bureaucratic quagmires every step of the way, to obligatory consumerism -- being forced to own certain things whether I want to or not (like a car, a phone, insurance-registration-permit-license-certificate-three forms of ID-proof of this and that and snowballing every year) to a mountain of things I am forced to do whether I want to or not (where do I begin?) to endless do this don't do thats I'm forced to learn, remember, pay attention to, keep my awareness on, and on and on -- 

 

whatever it is that my life is about, no one forces me to practice anything.  Which is exactly why I choose to.  There's other things in my life no one forces me to do -- which is, I suspect, the main reason I do them.  There's some anti-coercion instinct built into my very being, and everything that is done out of this or that kind of superimposed unnatural necessity rather than a natural biological human necessity, has always felt alien, damaging, eroding, destructive to my humanity.  The only thing I can do to counteract that endless assault is divert my attention away from it whenever and wherever possible, and invest it into something no ghouls mandate and no zombies obey.   

[RiverSnake]

Eternity.