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The End of Suffering, from Brad Warner s site

Hi, MeanGirl, I know from Brad's comments in his posts in the past that he doesn't always read through the comments. He admonished himself once for this, as his teacher, Gudo Nishijima, always does. You could check Nishijima's blog, if you' re interested in Brad's lineage teacher. I do think that everyone realizes the end of suffering all the time, and that the teachers who inspired me in the past were all keenly aware of this, and of their own inabilities. Like Brad, these were (and are) Soto Zen teachers, for whom the sitting practice is the teaching, in essence. I think we have a vocabulary now to express the basics of that sitting practice in words, but it s not possible have an understanding substitute for a witness of experience. The end of suffering is the witness of the place of consciousness conditioned by attraction, aversion, or ignorance, and the experience of action out of the free occurrence of consciousness that follows. If I don't experience consciousness taking place, and the involuntary action connected with that experience, then I own my suffering until I do, and prayer in one posture or another is the only approach I know. How about you?

"attunement"- comment on double-binds, from Tao Bums

What I'm trying to get at here is that when the breath depends on the free occurrence of consciousness, feeling, and impact, there is an attunement with things out of sight, out of hearing, untouched, and unrealized that transcends the limits of logic and yet includes logic, and this is our well-being.

zazen (animation)

zazen- the respiration of breath and the respiration of the cranial-sacral system coordinate the place of occurrence of consciousness; the place of occurrence of consciousness impacts the fascial structure, the stretch of fascia generates muscular activity, and the reciprocity of stretch and activity opens the ability to feel. The Bridge That Flows, by Mark Foote (from www.zenmudra.com)

Have you ever really practiced non-thinking?

I just sit on the zafu thinking about this stuff. Except when I m not thinking. The motion of the sacrum is how I sit the lotus; I don t put my mind in my left palm the way Suzuki advocated, yet I do find my mind where my little fingers touch the abdomen a lot. And the reciprocal of that, which is in the stretches around the sacrum. Those stretches do enter into the length of the breath in or out, now and then. That s all I know.

The Lancet of Seated Meditation (Zazenshin)

I went up to Sonoma Mountain Zen Center today, and the lecturer reminded the audience of advice from "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" about placing the mind in the left hand of the mudra. Chris the lecturer also spoke about Zhengjue's "The Lancet of Seated Meditation", which Chris said could be translated as "The Acupuncture Needle of Seated Meditation". Chris talked about the last lines: The water is clear right through to the bottom; A fish goes lazily along. The sky is vast without horizon; A bird flies far far away. Chris mentioned that the acupuncture needle was a reference to mind, maybe because the title is "zazenshin". I don't know if his translation information is correct, but I like to think that makes the poem title "The acupuncture mind of seated meditation". This would be what I'm talking about, the cranial-sacral respiration and the pulmonary respiration use the place of occurrence of consciousness to effect stretch and open feeling, in a kind of healing acupuncture by mind. Here's the whole poem as translated by Carl Bielefeldt, from the Stanford project (zazenshin): LANCET OF SEATED MEDITATION by Zhengjue by imperial designation the Chan Master Spacious Wisdom Essential function of buddha after buddha, Functioning essence of ancestor after ancestor -- It knows without touching things; It illumines without facing objects. Knowing without touching things, Its knowing is inherently subtle; Illumining without facing objects, Its illumining is inherently mysterious. Its knowing inherently subtle, It is ever without discriminatory thought; Its illumining inherently mysterious, It is ever without a hair's breadth of sign. Ever without discriminatory thought, Its knowing is rare without peer; Ever without a hair's breadth of sign, Its illumining comprehends without grasping. The water is clear right through to the bottom; A fish goes lazily along. The sky is vast without horizon; A bird flies far far away. Nice poem, and the curious part of it is that Zhengjue is talking about two things through the whole poem, yet the title is about the mind/healing needle of zazen.

in Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says, "make the inner like the outer" (Tao Bums)

I think he did mean "make", but in this sense: contact between a sense organ and a sense object results in consciousness, the occurrence of consciousness affects balance and impacts the fascial stretch in existence as consciousness takes place, the stretch of fascia generates activity that opens feeling; to make the inner like the outer is to experience feeling generated through the impact of consciousness when the object of sense is within, just as we experience feeling generated through the impact of consciousness when the object of sense is outside. To make a hand in the place of a hand is to realize feeling in the hand as consciousness of the hand impacts the stretch in existence at the moment. That our consciousness of the inner affects our awareness of the outer, and vice-versa, has to do with the station of consciousness, as the Gautamid described it. If we ignore stretch proximal to painful overextension, we lose the action generated involuntarily out of stretch; our fear of losing our balance, losing our control of our balance, is important to notice. My fear, my anxiety, important right now for me to notice. Calm helps me accept that the involuntary activity that my consciousness generates as it moves is the heart of the matter, as far as opening feeling, and I can't help moving toward more ability to feel. My breath will take me there, my spine will take me there, my consciousness is there without trying. We lose the stretch when we sleep, to some extent, can't be helped I suppose. ruminations from cow pastures in northern california, on a beautiful spring night!

from a Tao Bums discussion of moving objects with the mind

My experience is that there is only one object worth moving through mind, and that is the body. That might sound laughable, but I'm not talking about moving the body through the exercise of will by the mind. I am talking about the occurrence of consciousness causing action in the body solely by virtue of consciousness taking place. "Sometimes zazen gets up and walks around", Kobun Chino Otogawa said; "The windy element" moves the body, Buddhaghosa wrote; "to one who knows thus, sees thus, there are no illusions that mine is the doer with respect to this consciousness-informed body", the Gautamid said. "An empty hand grasps the hoe-handle Walking along, I ride the ox The ox crosses the wooden bridge The bridge is flowing, the water is still"- from Fuxi, 5th century C.E. "the bridge is flowing, the water is still"- here is a wonderful explanation of this line from a Shunryu Suzuki lecture (edited by Bill Redican): "You may say that your mind is practicing zazen and ignore your body, the practice of your body. Sometimes when you think that you are doing zazen with an imperturbable mind, you ignore the body, but it is also necessary to have the opposite understanding at the same time. Your body is practicing zazen in imperturbability while your mind is moving." Suzuki also said, "only zazen can sit zazen". Now I would say, the body practicing zazen in imperturbability while the mind is moving is zazen that sits zazen, and at such time the action of the body apart from the movement of mind is still. As Kobun said, the action of the body with the movement of mind can sometimes get up and walk. If you want to see it for yourself, then I think you have to arrive at a necessity of breath that depends on the free occurrence of consciousness, on the impact of that consciousness in the stretch already in existence, and on the feeling that is opened through activity out of impact. To arrive at our own necessity, we must witness how aversion to pain, attraction to pleasure, or ignorance of the sensation which is neither can condition the occurrence of consciousness. I am not saying to do anything.

words from Shunryu Suzuki

(from a correspondence with a friend) hope your sitting is going well. I am still inspired by our conversation, and tonight I chance upon these words from Shunryu Suzuki: "You may say that your mind is practicing zazen and ignore your body, the practice of your body. Sometimes when you think that you are doing zazen with an imperturbable mind, you ignore the body, but it is also necessary to have the opposite understanding at the same time. Your body is practicing zazen in imperturbability while your mind is moving." Tassajara, Sunday, June 28, 197 (edited by Bill Redican) (This of course is from a longer lecture, off David Chadwick's site at www.cuke.com) If that's so, then the question might be, is the mind that is moving practicing zazen like the other parts of the body? Suzuki says "Check to see that each part of your body is doing zazen independently." So the action comes out of the part in mind, and out of the mind as a part, that's how I see zazen. all for now, hope it s a good night up there.

the long and the short of inhalation and exhalation (from Brad Warner's Hardcore Zen blog)

Alright, I like to talk to myself, it's true. Here I am, doing so again in the disguise of a comment on comments on comments. My experience has been this: at some point in my practice, the long and the short of inhalation and exhalation enters in. It's taken me a lot of years and a lot of luck to discover that the "cross-legged" posture is more about the cranial-sacral rhythm than the pulmonary rhythm, but having found that out I still discover that there is a moment where the apprehension of the character of the specific movement of breath enters in. To my mind, this is in fact the most difficult aspect of the Gautamid s practice to discover in my own experience (even though in the "intent concentration on in-breaths and out-breaths" he goes on to describe mindfulness of impermanence, detachment, cessation, and relinquishment). I can't speak to the context of Dogen s remarks, or those of his teacher, but I can say that as in hypnosis, only the positive and substantive suggestion makes it for me on some level. The Gautamid was remarkable for saying positive, substantive things about the relationships that matter, and many Zen teachers who no doubt were (are) saints in their own right have been content to be the left hand to his right, and speak mostly in "no" and "not". I myself have found the vocabulary I needed to learn to sit the lotus in the literature of cranial-sacral therapy, in the facts of anatomy, and in the teachings in the sutta volumes of the Pali Canon. In that vocabulary, the place of occurrence of consciousness is dictated largely by the needs of the pulmonary and cranial-sacral respirations. Gudo Nishijima speaks of SNS and PNS, the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system; turns out one of these concerns the heart and lungs and chest area, and the other concerns the sacrum and cranium (and the guts). I wish Gudo were able to explain his theory more completely, but I can understand that he cannot (at least I haven't seen the explanation, if he has it). At any rate, the key for me is that the place of occurrence of consciousness can precipitate action in the body, the sense of place in the contact of the six senses has impact on the fascial stretch throughout the body as consciousness takes place, and the impact of the sense of place on the stretch can open feeling to the surface of the skin throughout the body. The other difficulty in the Gautamid's teaching is his use of the word impact, as in the sermon on the six-fold sense field in majjhima nikaya. Kobun Chino said that the literal meaning of the components of the word shikantaza is something like "pure hit sit", and I believe this "hit" is the impact in the fascial stretch of the occurrence of consciousness(and activity is initiated by that stretch, without the exercise of volition), and this accords well with the Gautamid's teaching.

"... it takes a LONG TIME ..." (from Warner's Hardcore Zen blog)

Matt Simonsen said: "it's just that, for almost all of us, it takes a LONG TIME, and doing "the basics" (zazen) a LOT, to fully ACCEPT that this is all there is!" I'd like to point out that Shunryu Suzuki said, "only zazen can sit zazen", and Kobun Chino Otogawa said "you know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around". Yes, the lotus will force a person to recognize the cranial-sacral rhythm at the sacrum, and involuntary action generated by the stretch of ligaments; yes, it's possible to recognize that the location of consciousness affects the posture, and through the posture the ability to feel; nevertheless, there's still nothing that can be done to move a person one iota closer to a witness of how attachment to the pleasant or aversion to the unpleasant conditions the occurrence of consciousness. Fortunately such a witness is an every day thing.

Has anyone come anywhere close to 'the end of all suffering' even after decades of practice?

My understanding is that the four truths concerning suffering only apply when suffering exists. The Gautamid described suffering as "in short, the five groups of grasping", so when there is suffering, then the origin of suffering is grasping in the five groups, the cessation of ignorance leads to the cessation of grasping, and the path that leads to the cessation of ignorance is the eight-fold path. The point I'm making here is that the expectation is never that suffering goes away altogether, or is overcome. The Gautamid's enlightenment was recognizing suffering, the origin or suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path, and these truths apply when suffering exists. That s my understanding. I guess I could cite as evidence the fact that the Gautamid described his practice before and after enlightenment as "the intent concentration on in-breaths and out-breaths" (samyutta nikaya vol 5). He didn't turn a corner and stop practicing, after his enlightenment; he didn't claim to have made an end of suffering at some point in his life. When he brought the five ascetics into the order, he said, "come, live the life of purity to make an end of suffering", so the question is really how you live the life of purity. The three poisons he could dispense with at will, yet he said that after he spoke to his disciples he returned to "that sign of concentration in which I ever abide"; that means he left his sign of concentration when he spoke, and any temporary extinction of suffering he might have attained through concentration. In paranibana sutta he describes his condition in his old age as like a cart, kept rolling through the assistance of rope ties and temporary fixes everywhere, due to its rickety nature. In the sermon on the six-fold sense fields in majjhima nikaya, he states that anyone, knowing and seeing as it really is sense organ, sense object, consciousness out of contact between sense organ and sense object, impact due to consciousness, and feeling associated with impact has already purified action of body, speech, and livelihood, and in such a one the other elements of the eight-fold path and all the factors of enlightenment can be expected to develop and reach fruition. As I wrote somewhere below, everyone realizes consciousness, impact, and feeling with regard to sense as it really is in the course of a day; the significance of the realization is hidden, until an end of suffering is necessary.

THE END OF SUFFERING IS POSSIBLE FOR YOU (from Brad Warner s Hardcore Zen blog)

Hey to Brad & all, As you know, Dogen opens "Fukan zazen gi" by wondering why, if the whole being is far beyond defilement, anyone could believe in a method to polish it. I think you've left that out of your discussion, and that's the hardest part of Buddhism to comprehend, which is why it was Dogen s question on the way to China and the first thing he sought to address when he got back. That is, if the end of suffering is accessible to all and a part of daily life, then why a practice like zazen? I wrote toward this question in my "unauthorized and incomplete guide to zazen", and the answer I found was that our postural activity comes largely out of the stretch of fascia and ligaments, yet the activity out of stretch doesn't begin until the stretch is almost uncomfortable. So if we are averse to the painful (or attached to the pleasant, or ignorant), consciousness no longer takes place spontaneously, no longer occurs where it needs to occur in order for the activity of the body to balance naturally, and we experience a separation from ourselves and everyone else that is suffering. A key point being that everyone can and does witness activity out of the impact of consciousness on stretch, and everyone can and does experience the ability to feel generated by impact, but only those who seek an end to suffering realize the significance of the experience. yers truly, Mark

Connecting the upper thighs and the perineum (from Tao Bums)

The process (connecting the upper thighs and the perineum) is difficult to describe, because the fundamental is the occurrence of consciousness, and how the occurrence of consciousness resounds in the stretch of the fascia. The lion is totally relaxed, and enters into motion totally relaxed, because the action comes out of feeling generated by the impact of consciousness on stretch. The lion does not intentionally stretch, yet the presence of stretch is evident in the relaxed, tenacious movement of the lion. The top of the thighs and the perineum, myself I look for the stretch from the sacrum to the sit-bones to generate activity in the obturators, which rocks the pelvis side to side on the hip bones. The obturators run under the pelvis, and can lift the pelvis off the hips slightly as they contract. I look for stretch in the sacro-tuberous ligaments running diagonally from the sacrum to the lower front of the pelvis, and activity in the piriformis from the upper legs to the sacrum as a result. There is also activity in the PC as a result of this, and likewise as a result of the pivot of the sacrum on the wings of the pelvis. Fundamentally the place of occurrence of consciousness and the stretch occasioned by the place of occurrence develop feeling. I confess my mind is not in the tan-tien that much. I do practice a lot with sensing the coordination of the motion of the sacrum in the muscles of the abdomen where my little fingers touch, doing the mudra of soto zen; side to side, diagonally from the thighs, and up from the pelvis, both little fingers on the lower abdomen.

what I needed to learn myself was how to let it all fall together (from Tao Bums)

I have learned to be very cautious when anyone says to do something, and especially with regard to the breathing. My preference is instruction that describes reality and emphasizes self-surrender, not because an intentional approach is wrong (can't get away from it, really), but just because what I needed to learn myself was how to let it all fall together. Relearn the way I hold myself upright, the way I set mindfulness in front, from the inside out. I never was any good at intuitive mathmatics in school, only at strict axiomatic proof (which I realize has its limitations); I couldn't find anybody who could actually teach me how to sit the lotus, although they were clearly masters themselves. Sigh. So I prefer an explanation of the essential relationships, in the terms I can experience, to allow nature to work its magic.

is enlightenment obtained with the body, or the mind- part 2 (from Tao Bums)

Here are some lines from the Stanford project (at zazen shin), translating Dogen's words, and here Dogen continues the story about polishing a tile: Daji said, "How can you produce a mirror by polishing a tile?" Nanyue replied, "How can you make a buddha by sitting in meditation (zazen)?" Daji asked, "Then, what is right?" Nanyue replied, "When someone is driving a cart, if the cart doesn t go, should he beat the cart or beat the ox?" Daji had no response. Nanyue went on, "Are you studying seated meditation or are you studying seated buddha?" "If you re studying seated meditation, meditation is not sitting or reclining." "If you re studying seated buddha, buddha is no fixed mark." "If you re studying seated buddha, this is killing buddha." "If you grasp the mark of sitting, you re not reaching its principle." In Dogen s Manuals of Zen Meditation, at least the first edition, Bielefeldt offered "if you re studying seated meditation, meditation is not sitting still", which I kind of prefer. I love Bielefeldt s book, because it makes clear that Dogen rewrote his zazen instructions many times, and borrowed much of his original content from a Chinese manuscript. Still amazing. Of course Dogen got the famous bit about dropping mind and body from his teacher in China. Yet his description of shikantaza says "attained the way through their bodies". My understanding is that the necessity of breath and the necessity of the cranial-sacral respiration move consciousness to effect carriage and posture; to move the cart, is about the place of occurrence of consciousness. Place in the occurrence of consciousness creates an impact on the stretch already in existence in the body as consciousness takes place. The impact generates activity (not sitting still), and the activity generates ability to feel; the sound of water or the sight of blossoms is about an ability to feel, hence "attained the way through their bodies".

is enlightenment obtained with the body, or the mind (from Tao Bums)

well, here's a quote from Dogen, just to stir things up: When we let go of our minds and cast aside our views and understandings the Way will be actualized. One sage clarified True Mind (Reality) when he saw peach blossoms and another realized the Way when he heard the sound of tile hitting a bamboo. They attained the way through their bodies. Therefore, when we completely cast aside our thoughts and views and practice shikantaza, we will become intimate with the way. This is why I encourage you to practice zazen wholeheartedly. "Shobogenzo-zuimonki", sayings recorded by Koun Ejo, translated by Shohaku Okumura, 2-26, pg 1 7-1 8, copyright Sotoshu Shumucho) Maybe we are talking two different things here, I don t know. I don t really know too much about enlightenment, but as far as shikantaza, I can feel that. Intimate with the way, that sounds good... the matter of life and death, how can that be resolved through the body, my friends would ask (and they do).

How important is it to have one's back completely (as much as possible) straight during meditation? How important are these postures anyway? (from Tao Bums)

I had some excellent experience on jury duty, sitting in a chair. Two things are important to me, sitting in a chair: sit on the edge of the chair, as I believe you describe (a chair with four legs solid on the floor); then, one foot flat on the floor with the knee at about a 90 degree angle, and the ball of the other foot resting on the floor under your tailbone, approximately. I sit this way all day at the computer, and have done so for the last twenty years. My back is not straight, especially the lower back, for the most part. Workman's comp came out to review it at one place I worked (management requested it, they were nervous), and they said fine. I can find absorption in this posture, which to me is like talking to the one who made this shell and letting it take me wherever. So to speak. Cranial-sacral theory provides an excellent explanation of the importance of the crossed-legged postures, as far as I'm concerned, and that would be: they isolate the motion of the cranial sacral system at the sacrum so that it's apparent. Activity in meditation is involuntary, but for me it's important to remember that the fascia and ligaments can generate muscular activity without conscious intention, as they stretch. Allopathic and cranial-sacral medicine both use dermatones, the areas on the skin where the nerves from the spine end up, as a means for diagnosing spinal dysfunction; standard testing is to run a pin head down the leg or arm, and see where there's a lack of feeling, and there are charts that will show you between which vertebrae the nerves are pinched if you have a lack of feeling in a particular location. What this says to me is that if you have feeling to the surface of the skin all over the body, your head, neck, and spine are aligned pretty much correctly, regardless of how it looks. At the same time, it's my belief that in the lotus, motion of the cranial-sacral system at the sacrum results in activity in the muscles of the legs and pelvis, as feeling is opened or extended throughout the lower body. That activity ultimately returns to the bones on either side of the skull through the extensors, which travel in three sets behind the spine to the temporal bones on each side of the skull behind the jaw. As the temporals move the parietals on either side of the crown of the head, and the nerves that determine the cranial-sacral fluid volume rhythm respond to pressure at the saggital suture, it's possible that a feedback develops in the cranial sacral rhythm. John Upledger talks about "still points", when the cranial-sacral rhythm appears to cease momentarily, and the fascial support for the body rearranges subtley; he found that maintaining a slight extension on the bones of the skull was conducive to still points, but the individual's own psychie and need were the real determining factors. We all have anxiety around falling down, especially backwards. Look for motion side to side, around, and forward and back wherever consciousness occurs; that's a sense of a physical place, the "wherever consciousness occurs", which the zen masters aver we should attend to 24/7. Relax the activity in the three directions. Let it sink, if you feel good with it, remember that the stretch that generates activity doesn't necessarily feel pleasant, but it doesn't have to go all the way to painful if you can relax the associated activity and let the mind move. Single-weighted postures have a built-in activity from the stretch involved as well. & blah blah blah as somebody so eloquently said!

can someone recommend some stretching program to get closer to full lotus? (from Tao Bums)

I thought my experience would translate into progress at the lotus, but after a lot of years, I decided I would have to figure it out, instead. So here s the story: as Carl Bielefeldt translated a master s words in the first edition of Dogen s Meditation Manuals, "seated meditation is not holding still". The fascia and ligaments of the body can generate muscular activity, involuntarily, if they are stretched sufficiently. Since the muscles and fascia are basically in pairs, the action of posture is fundamentally the reciprocal innervation of muscular tissue as the stretch of fascia alternates from side to side. The basic stretches you are interested in for the lotus are the stretches of the fascia that connects the sacrum to the pelvis; the sacrum moves, forward and backward, side to side, and around with the changes in volume of the fluid in the dural sac, surrounding the brain and the spinal cord all the way down to the sacrum. The fascia that connect the sacrum to the sit bones stretches, and generates activity side to side; the fascia that connects the sacrum to the forward undersides of the pelvis generates swivel activity left and right; and the fascia that connects the sacrum to the wings of the pelvis stretches and generates motion forward and back. Watch the motion of the sacrum, relax and look for feeling as the location of the occurrence of consciousness leads the motion of the body, in the legs and throughout the body. The presence of feeling is the correct alignment of the spine, and you will have to open a bit to pleasant and unpleasant feelings with the occurrence of consciousness in order to realize the stretch that generates the activity of the lotus. Thanks.

straighten the clothes and sit precariously

The Tai-Chi teacher Cheng Man-Ching mentioned an ancient Chinese description of meditation in one of his books: straighten the clothes and sit precariously. When I sit, I remind myself that the two respirations (pulmonary and cranial-sacral) utilize the occurrence of consciousness to coordinate the activity of posture, and that relaxation and calm can allow the sense of location in the occurrence of consciousness to open nerve-connections to the surface of the body. The activity generated by the sense of location in the occurrence of consciousness is involuntary, and the more I relax and accept the activity, the more precarious my posture feels. This for me is the meaning of the saying.

...about full lotus

(Response to the thread "What is so special about full lotus?" posted by effilang, in the Discussion Forum on Tao Bums) This morning a second question has occurred to me, and that is: why do they sit 40-50 minutes in the lotus, when most hatha yoga postures are only assumed briefly? My answer would be, because we work loose, first the sacrospinous ligaments, then the sacro-tuberous ligaments, and finally the sacro-ilial ligaments. We work loose by settling in and accepting the stretch that already exists as consciousness takes place, relaxing as we breath in and out. When we have feeling over the surface of the whole body, then the impact of consciousness and feeling sits, the hit in "just hit sit", or shikantaza. Equanimity toward pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings is a part of this. Equanimity and relaxation in the face of the involuntary reciprocal innervation of muscle pairs around the pelvis and the sacrum and throughout the body takes a little time to come on, after the humdrum of our daily habit. I would remind everybody of Cheng Man-Ching`s description of the fourth stage in the development of chi: chi penetrates to the skin and hair. Likewise, the Gautamid described the fourth of the initial jhanas as purified equanimity, the cessation of volition in in-breaths and out-breaths, and as feeling like "a strip of cloth wrapped around the head and the entire body". For me, I walk on my feet sitting down, until I feel the exchange between my upper legs and my sacrum under the pelvis, kind of the forward angles of "the ox crosses the wooden bridge". With luck I can let go and ride the wind, as it were. The wind gets up, when it`s time; that`s how it goes for me, and I usually sit between 30 and 50 minutes. A little numb in the top foot when I get up. Answering questions people don`t ask, for myself, of course! Thank you; Mark

...about full lotus

(Response to the thread "What is so special about full lotus?" posted by effilang, in the Discussion Forum on Tao Bums) Hi, effilang (hey, bums), Are you familiar with cranial-sacral osteopathy? Allopathic medicine has yet to acknowledge that there is a significant respiration in the changes of fluid-volume in the dural sac (around the brain and spinal cord and all the way to the tailbone), but I think Sutherland was onto something. Upledger convinced me, through his writings. ok, cut to the chase, the volume of fluid changes in the tissue sack that surrounds the brain, according to Upledger about 14 times a minute. Pressure changes in a closed system are instantaneous throughout the system, per hydraulics. The spine flexes and extends with the changes in fluid, and the arms and legs rotate inward and outward. The sacrum pivots on the pelvis, forward and back, side to side on the diagonals, and even around the vertical axis of the spine. The sphenoid and occiput in the skull flex and extend. The nerves that control the changes in fluid volume are in the sagittal suture, at the top of the skull. When you sit the lotus, you isolate the movement of the sacrum on the pelvis. You can observe the stretches in the ligaments between the sacrum and the sit-bones of the pelvis, between the sacrum and the tuberosities of the pelvis in front on either side, and between the sacrum and the pelvis. You can observe actions in the muscles of the legs and pelvis that occur involuntarily as a result of these stretches, and the reciprocity of actions between paired muscles. You can observe action initiated by the cranial-sacral rhythm through the stretch of ligaments between the sacrum and the pelvis. "The empty hand grasps the hoe-handle Walking along, I ride the ox The ox crosses the wooden bridge The bridge is flowing, the water is still." Fuxi, approx. 500 C.E. Yes, consciousness is the bridge, yet the right amount of openness to feelings of pain and the right amount of detachment from the pleasant is necessary if we are to sink and realize our involuntary motion; I myself needed a way to say, yes, this is part of the stretch in existence as my consciousness occurred just now, so that I could relax and stay open. I can sit the lotus, usually 30-40 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night. Sometimes my feet go to sleep, less so as I realize that I belong to these respirations and this consciousness, they do not belong to me. So to speak. I think my explanation is more straightfoward at the website below my signature; thanks, all, have a good night- yers Mark