Zazen Notes RSS

Comment on Gudo Nishijima Video (Carapeto)

I was struck by Gudo's description of an awareness of the back of the neck and head, and a stretch that is engaged when the chin comes down and in. The stretch, Gudo said, is at the back of the head, and is critical to dropping mind and body. Am I remembering that right?Now from my research into cranial-sacral osteopathic theory, the stretch he's referring to is not only from the extensors along the back of the spine and neck to the mandibular bones of the skull (behind the jaw), and thence to the temporal bones, parietals, and occiput, but also to the sphenoid from the same base as the occiput but running forward and upward in the center of the skull finishing as outer portions of the eye sockets. The occiput and the sphenoid flex and extend as the volume of fluid surrounding the brain and the spinal cord (down to the tailbone) changes, ten to fourteen times a minute. Now the key point is how a stretch from the tailbone to the top of the head (one of Chen Man-ch'ing's three preliminary relaxations, by the by) facilitates dropping body and mind. I would say that this is connected to the fact that the pineal gland sits in the center of the sphenoid, and the pineal is the source of melatonin, affecting the rhythm of sleeping and waking. As John mentioned, there's a moment when we are falling asleep or when we are waking up when consciousness takes place freely with an equanimous response to sensation. Emphasis on place, there's a moment consciousness takes place. The practice I came up with for balancing the two respirations is really a practice connected with the cranial-sacral rhythm, but it's not possible to realize a hypnogogic state without allowing consciousness to be placed by both respirations. My practice, necessitated by the cross-legged posture, is to set up mindfulness of pitch, roll, and yaw wherever consciousness takes place, allow the weight of the body to rest on the ligaments and fascia that connect the sacrum to the pelvis, and realize activity and feeling out of the place of occurrence of consciousness. The movement of breath comes in because there's a moment where the breath ceases unless consciousness is allowed place in conjunction with both respirations.Comes a moment when I notice my state of mind, and I think I will explore "before and behind" with respect to the stretch and activity at the chin (and sphenoid) and at the occiput when the opportunity presents itself. Thanks, Roshi!

Visual Thinking

There are parallels to "visual thinking", attending to information coming to awareness before any discrimination of intent, in disciplines other than psychic healing. Dogen the Japanese Soto teacher emphasized "non-thinking" as the pivot of zazen, for instance (in Fukanzazengi). I myself am coming to the conclusion that the ability to sit zazen depends on the hypnogogic state (between waking and sleeping, as it were). My effort in "waking up and falling asleep", as I'm referring to the induction of the hypnogogic state, is simply to be where I am as I am where I am. In effect, there may be a reciprocity between the state of mind and the ability to feel, that opens the necessary ability to feel and the necessary state of mind to channel the future into a sense of location in three dimensions in the present, a sense of location from which action appropriate to the future can take place. Might be a sense of location in mind, or in the head anyway, some of the time.

Sitting the lotus- from the full lotus thread on Tao Bums

On sitting the lotus, here are some instructions I find very useful, every day almost:"An empty hand grasps the hoe handleWalking along, I ride the oxThe ox crosses the wooden bridgeThe bridge is flowing, the water is still."("Zen's Chinese Heritage", Andy Ferguson, pg 2, copyright 2002 Andrew Ferguson)"So he abides fully conscious of what is behind and what is in front.As (he is conscious of what is) in front, so behind: as behind, so in front;as below, so above: as above, so below: as by day, so by night: as by night, so by day.Thus with wits alert, with wits unhampered, he cultivates his mind to brilliancy."(Sanyutta-Nikaya, text V 263, Pali Text Society volume 5 pg 235, copyright Pali Text Society)In my understanding the hoe handle is the sacrum. The empty hand works as Gautama described it, "as in front, so behind: as behind, so in front"; if I am conscious of activity in the lower abdominals, I look for consciousness of activity at the sacrum. The Gautamid described the feeling of the first meditative state as like gathering soap powder that been sprinkled around the inside of a cauldron into a ball, until the ball doesn't ooze; if I look to the state of mind I have waking up or falling asleep, and I am conscious in front as behind, behind as in front, then I can allow consciousness to fall where it may and observe activity initiated by the stretch of ligaments. I have to be waking up or falling asleep to observe activity initiated by the stretch of ligaments without startling myself and interrupting the reciprocity and balance of the action, and I have to accept what I feel into my sense of location, but this is no big deal; the effort is being where I am as I am where I am, to wake up or fall asleep.I usually stretch my legs, first one and then the other, before I sit. I grab my toes or as close as I can get, and wait until I have the feeling to touch my head to my knee or whatever feels satisfactory. This usually requires specifically waiting for feeling for motion at the sacrum; the sacrum in my experience is constantly rotating forward and backward, and on other pivots as well. Yet, as behind, so before.

"Wu Wei" and impeccability, from Tao Bums

I remember Blanche Hartman from S.F. Zen Center talking about one day when she was on her way to a day of mindfulness and she buttoned her shirt backwards or something. I do revere some of the teachers I met from Japan, whom I thought had a certain grace and poise, and sometimes I think I should be concerned to practice hard and be more like them; in the end, though, I think Blanche has the right approach, to laugh at herself and be what she is.I would say that I have a compass, and that compass comes out when I feel like I'm starting to walk in circles, and I use that compass to sight the next landmark in the direction I want to go before I put it away. The compass is the cessation of volition, in speech, in inhalation and exhalation, and in perception and sensation, and the landmark is the combination of disparate elements at the instant of cessation. The landmark is always right where I am, every contact of sense including the sixth sense enters into where I am even before I know it, and the ability to feel that arises with each contact informs where I am. When I am waking up and falling asleep, I can witness the action that arises out of where I am as I am where I am. That action is wu wei.The practice I have is really so many disparate elements, and it comes to me out of necessity, although sometimes I'm the very one that is driving me to that experience of necessity. My conclusion is that I can't help being attracted to the feeling that belongs to my own well-being, and likewise I can't help being averse to the feeling that belongs to my own illness. Some would say they have a choice, but my conclusion is that I do not.

Wu Wei

It is possible to act without intent, and to do so in the course of daily life; this is wu wei to me. As soon as there's intent, there's discrimination of good and bad, and there's nothing natural about that. I think the best is to accept falling asleep with waking up, and waking up with falling asleep; too much emphasis on waking up, and we can't sleep. Too much emphasis on falling asleep, and we can't wake up. "The empty hand grasps the hoe handleWalking along I ride the oxThe ox crosses the wooden bridgeThe bridge is flowing, the water is still"(Fuxi, around 5th century C.E.)The place associated with the occurrence of consciousness flows waking up and falling asleep, the impact of place generates an ability to feel, the feeling informs the occurrence of consciousness; the habitual activity of perception and sensation ceases. Really, there's nothing I can do to wake up or fall asleep, and that leaves me right where I am.

A bowl with a dusting of soap powder- comment on Brad Warner's "Hardcore Zen"

I continue to work with the description in "The Mudra of Zen", and in "Translations of Motion in the Lotus". This morning I was able to correlate a feeling for the ilio-lumbars with relaxation in the extensors, and a certain uprightness in the area of the low back. Interesting, for me, as I have never followed the advice to "keep your back straight", in part because I don't seem to have the feeling to make that possible (yet). My take is that activity in the sartorius and gluts (caused by stretch in the ilio-tibial tract and sacro-spinous/sacro-tuberous ligaments) and similar involuntary activity in the psoas and extensors acts up the spine as the ilio-lumbars engage in inhalation and exhalation. Sitting today I recalled the Gautamid's description of the feeling of the first meditative state, like a bowl with a dusting of soap powder that is gathered, rolled and kneaded until it no longer oozes- !- my consciousness occurring in the area of the pelvis, letting the painful and pleasant feelings in and mindful of the sleepy wakefulness.

How do we inspire ourselves to sit?- comment on Brad Warner's Hardcore Zen

I, too, feel a deep sense of gratitude to the Zen teachers who came to this country, and to some of the teachers who became authorized to teach here and have kept the practice going for anyone who is interested. The real question is how do we inspire ourselves to sit the cross-legged pose for thirty minutes or forty, once or twice or several times a day? I guess one way that it's been done in the past, intentionally or not, is with the promise of the respect and authority of the title of lineage holder, and unless you can communicate very clearly why anybody would want to practice, this will be your problem. On the other hand, if you can communicate very clearly, maybe nobody would listen unless you had the title and authority. But then, if you were really trying mostly to communicate to yourself, it probably wouldn't matter.

Storing Ch'i in the Tan-T'ien (Response to Drew Hempel, from The Tao Bums)

I guess the question for us both is how the chi comes to be "stored" in the tan-t'ien. Chunyi Lin seems to encourage you to think the long sitting will work the trick for you; his remark about looking at how long someone can sit the lotus to see if they've mastered energy says it all, in that regard. I realize that there can be a feeling of absorption occasioned by impact when consciousness occurs in the vicinity of the tan-t'ien, and this is a pleasant thing, which informs my sense of location along with the feeling of near-pain occasioned by other impact of consciousness at stretches away from the tan-t'ien. I think I have a natural affinity for this feeling of absorption, and that affinity constitutes the storing of ch'i at the tan-t'ien in the parlance of Chinese martial arts. We'll see!

Autogenic training and Nishijima's SNS-PNS balance

Element, thanks for the link on autogenic training: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogenic_training)Some great history there. I didn't use the "warm" patter but I sure used the "arm is heavy", etc. bit, for self-hypnosis in high school!Bloke, yer right, well-put, Nishijima doesn't elaborate on how his understanding can be applied. Then again, we know that it's not really possible to apply any understanding in practice; as the ancestor put it, it's not that there's no practice, it's that practice is undefiled, meaning to me there can be no intent.Having said which, I wonder if the use of "warm" in autogenic training is intended to engage SNS- I read that SNS can constrict blood vessels, which would affect warm/cold- whereas the "arm is heavy" in autogenic training is to engage PNS (PNS is responsible for "rest and digest" activities)?I have mentioned before that the mainstay of my practice, when such exists, is reciprocal innervation of agonist/antagonist muscle pairs through activity associated with the occurrence of consciousness. Consciousness occurs in connection with sense organ and sense object, that is the Gautamid's teaching (and the continuity of consciousness is illusory). There is impact associated with consciousness, and as a result of impact feeling, that's also the Gautamid's teaching. When the pleasant and painful enter back into the place of occurrence of consciousness, then the hypnogogic state becomes sufficient to sustain an awareness of reciprocal innervation- that's the best explanation I have. I put it this way, with regard to Dogen's "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"- is it not consciousness, impact, and feeling that breathes at the sight of blossoms? That would be the two aspects of the autonomic nervous system attaining balance right there, impact and breath, through the place of occurrence of consciousness (with respect to the senses).

The Meaning of the Ankh (reply on Tao Bums)

I still think the ankh represents the cranial-sacral rhythm. The "ankh purification" (second illustration) is a beautiful depiction of how the cranial-sacral rhythm is controlled by the nerves on the sagittal suture, and extends fluidly throughout the body. Thank you for that.The Egyptians seem to have understood that connection between the cranial-sacral rhythm and the movement of breath:and the relationship between ligaments of the sacrum (Isis Nephthys, first illustration), the cranial-sacral rhythm, and the free movement of consciousness. Also, as I understand from my friend John, the importance of the hypnogogic states. They had the most amazing depictions of the relationship between human kinesthesiology, the cranial-sacral rhythm, the pulmonary rhythm, and consciousness; most folks find it anathema to associate the spirit with the body, and look for some other explanation. I love that quote in Gospel of Thomas about being amazed at the riches in such poverty, to me that's what it means:"(29) Jesus said: If the flesh came into existence because of the spirit, it is a marvel. But if the spirit (came into existence) because of the body, it is a marvel of marvels. But as for me, I wonder at this, how this great wealth made its home in this poverty." Gospel of Thomas saying 29

Storing chi at the tan-t'ien, from Tao Bums

I notice piriformis highlighted on that last set of illustrations. For me, accumulation of chi in the tan-t'ien is a reference to the consciousness that occurs naturally in the vicinity of the tan-t'ien, and sometimes that consciousness almost seems like it's continuously at the tan-t'ien but I don't believe it is just that. It's an inclusive thing, around the tan-t'ien. Reciprocal innervation of the piriformis muscles, from the femur to the sacrum on either side, results from the "hammocking" of the hips from the pelvis described in Calais-Germain's "Anatomy in Movement", which in turn stretches the ligaments associated with the piriformis muscles and generates piriformis activity. I think that activity also comes out of the stretch of the ilio-tuberous ligaments from the sacrum to the front sides of the pelvis, in the motion of yaw at the sacrum. Anyway, the piriformis rotates the sacrum around the vertical axis, and I believe generates activity in the extensors up the back of the spine in three sets to the temporal bones and the parietals. The movement of the parietals affects the nerves that control the volume of cranial-sacral fluid in the skull and down the spine into the sacrum. The changes in the fluid volume cause flexion and extension of the sacrum, and of the sphenoid bone in the skull, in the middle of which sits the pineal gland. But as to how consciousness or the heart-mind occurs naturally in the vicinity of the tan-tien, that is falling down while waking up or falling asleep, and never hitting the ground; the action of being upright is generated in the stretches engendered in falling down, directly. Does awareness at the tan-t'ien seem more natural and come more often to me now in the lotus? Yes, but storing this depends on the natural attractiveness of a state of absorption in the body, not on something I do. Has to be something I just can't help because it is my own wellness that I'm feeling, no?

response to "The Full Lotus", "sex energy", on Tao Bums

There can be a sexual energy connected with the balance forward in the lower abdomen; Kegels with the pubo-coccygeus would be connected with that. There are three motions at the sacrum, pitch, roll and yaw, that translate into three stretches in the ilio-sacral, sacro-spinous and sacro-tuberous ligaments respectively. The pitch motion, forward and back, not only stretches the ilio-sacral ligaments allowing the sacrum to move to a lower horizontal pivot on the pelvis, but stretches ligaments connected with the pubo-coccygeus muscles, and generates activity in these muscles that carries into the pubic bone and the rectus muscle of the lower abdomen. The external oblique, internal oblique, and transversus abdominals have ligamentous connections to the rectus, and these connections are of equal mass at a point about two inches below the navel. I'm still learning about "as before, so behind; as behind, so before" but I think it has to do with these stretches and the activity that results. Fuxi's poem is a great guide for me:"The empty hand grasps the hoe handle walking along, I ride the oxthe ox crosses the wooden bridgethe bridge is flowing, the water is still"The practice of "as before, so behind; as behind, so before" is I think connected with the first line. The second line would be about the stretches and activity from the stretch of the sacro-spinous ligaments, side-to-side. The third line would be similarly the stretches and activity from the sacro-tuberous ligaments, out of the motion of yaw at the sacrum (on the diagonals). Last line concerns action solely from the place of consciousness as it occurs and the cessation of action through the exercise of volition. All the steps are linear, and simultaneous, so I might as well just be where I am, and hope to "tower up like a mile-high wall and see that there aren't so many things". Shunryu Suzuki said all a person can do about the practice is to be grateful. He also said, "only zazen can sit zazen". Kobun Chino Otogawa said, "you know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around!"- this experience is still my only light.

How I sit the lotus (from "Tao Bums")

I stretch both legs, first one then the other; I just wait until I can grab my toes and then ease a stretch on the hamstring until I feel I can breathe. I suspect it's years of half-lotus on both sides that now enables me to get into the lotus, but there are specific coordinations that I call to mind to stay in the lotus and relax. The hamstrings and the quads reciprocate activity out of stretch, and that puts a stretch on the ilio-tibial tract. Stretch in the tract generates activity in the sartorius muscles that pivots the pelvis on the hips, left and right; with that pivot and stretch in the ilio-tibial tract, activity will be generated in the gluts that also pivots the pelvis left and right on the hips. Not volitive activity, activity generated by the stretch of ligaments and fascia that translates into different motions. The left and right pivot of the pelvis on the hips puts the balance forward in the lower abdomen, and that slight stretch generates activity in the obturators that extends the hips slightly from the pelvis. This allows the activity of the legs from the soles of the feet to travel up the back of the spine to either side of the skull and the top of the head in inhalation; the return from the top of the head to the soles of the feet depends on the free movement of the mind , technically the free occurrence of consciousness, and the stretch and activity occasioned as consciousness takes place for the complete exhalation. That's because it's really about the generation of the cranial-sacral rhythm by nerves at the sagittal suture, so the real return is in the motions of the sacrum and the way the rhythm extends through the body. In short, it's the sense of place, the one that moves in falling asleep (and in waking up, although that's harder to see). That's the source of the action. The more you see it, the more you can rest in it, and so you gain it. That's how I sit in the lotus. Why it took so long to be where I am, I can't say!

On the full lotus, from "Tao Bums"

I'm not well-educated in Taoist lore and practice. . I have taught myself to sit in the lotus. I sit 40 minutes in the morning, and maybe 20 at night. My understanding would be that the two autonomic respirations, pulmonary and cranial-sacral, use the sense of place in the occurrence of consciousness to effect reciprocal innervation in the fascia and muscles of posture. This just means that the stretch in the fascia on one side of the body generates nerve-impulses to contract muscles to relieve the stretch, which causes stretch in the fascia on the opposite side; so there's a back and forth of muscle activity that's not generated from the cerebral cortex, it's coming out of the reciprocal stretch of fascia and ligaments. The two respirations can place the occurrence of consciousness to effect activity out of balance, and that activity creates an alignment of the spine that opens feeling in real time. That's my practice when I think of it. Lately I'm focused on the hypnogogic state in sitting, the place where feeling becomes continuous even in the face of involuntary muscular activity and stretch that always borders on painful in three directions. I had to learn to feel three pivots at the sacrum, I have to learn to feel the reciprocity between the extensors on two sides behind and the psoas on two sides in front around the tan-t'ien. Here's a great thing from Shunryu Suzuki someone posted on Warner's Hardcore Zen blog, about "have to learn"'s:"That is the most important thing for me: to stand on my feet and to sit on my black cushion. I don't trust anything but [laughs] my feet or my black cushion. This is my friend, always. My feet is always my friend. When I am in bed, my bed is my friend. There is no Buddha, or no Buddhism, or no zazen. If, you know, you ask me, "What is zazen?" you know, my answer will be, "To sit on black cushion is zazen," or "To walk with my feet is my zazen." To stay at this moment on this place is my zazen. There is no other zazen."That's from Chadwick's shunryusuzuki.com site, the lecture of July 6th 197 . Here's the way I feel it, on a good day- ha ha!-"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. This being where we are with each thing, even before we know it, is shikantaza."Can't sit two hours in the lotus, and mostly I don't know that I ever will, but this transmission is consciousness from sense organ and sense object, impact, and feeling as it really is, and it's right where my mind as in heart-mind is now.

Shunryu Suzuki, "Don't Spend Your Time in Vain"

"I don't know why, you know, I am [laughs] in Tassajara [laughs]. Not for you or for myself, or not even for Buddha or for Buddhism. I am just here laughs . I cannot- You know, I don't feel so good if-even when I think I have to leave Tassajara in two-three weeks, I don't feel so good. I don't know why [laughs]. I don't think that is just because you are my students. I don't think so. I do not have any particular person whom I love so much [laughs]. I don't know why I have to be there. I have not much attachment to Tassajara. It is not because of I attach to Tassajara.Hmm. Anyway, I am not seek [partial word]-I am not, you know, expecting anything in future or in term of monastery or Buddhism. But I don't want to, you know, live-I don't want to live in the air. I want to be right here. I want to stand on my feet, you know. The only way to stand on my feet is when I am Tassajara I should be at Tassajara [laughs]. That is the reason why, you know, I am here. I want to be here. That is the most important thing for me: to stand on my feet and to sit on my black cushion. I don't trust anything but [laughs] my feet or my black cushion. This is my friend, always. My feet is always my friend. When I am in bed, my bed is my friend. There is no Buddha, or no Buddhism, or no zazen. If, you know, you ask me, "What is zazen?" you know, my answer will be, "To sit on black cushion is zazen," or "To walk with my feet is my zazen." To stay at this moment on this place is my zazen. There is no other zazen.When I am really standing on my feet I am, you know, not lost. So, for me, that is, you know, nirvana, for me. So there is no need to travel, to cross, you know, mountain or river, for me. I am right here on the dharma world. So I have no difficulty to cross mountain and river. That is how, you know, we do not waste our time. Moment after moment we should live on this moment, right here, without sacrificing this moment for the future."Excerpt from David Chadwick's "Suzuki Roshi Transcripts", July 6th, 1970.

How continuity enters practice- (a letter to a friend, rethought)

I'm thinking about how continuity enters practice, continuity being really a state of trance or a stream of thought. Question to me is, how does the witness of my attraction to thought enter into my sense of place?- without my intervention, I remind myself. The feeling that attracts me is not mine, the edge of thoughts is not mine, action out of place is not done. Meditation on impermanence, detachment from feeling, cessation, relinquishment- I certainly feel when I'm thinking, waking or falling asleep, and I'm mightily attracted to that ability to feel.

Why the cross-legged posture?

Why the cross-legged posture?- because place in the occurrence of consciousness is utilized by the pulmonary and cranial-sacral respirations to impact stretch and open feeling, and the ligaments that guide place into pitch, roll, and yaw and an ability to feel are most intimately those that attach the sacrum to the pelvis. The lotus on the cushion (or a tree root, back in the day) dictates that the cranial-sacral rhythm place consciousness so as to open feeling throughout the senses, all six. The opening of feeling allows the free occurrence of consciousness with respect to placement, waking up or falling asleep. The free occurrence of consciousness is the cessation (of volitive action) of perception and sensation. One thing after another.

Comment on Brad Warner's blog entry, "Sitting In Chairs Is Not Zazen"

I can say that for me, I feel lucky to have inadvertently allowed the place of mind to develop enough feeling to accept the activity of the lotus; it's more about the free movement of mind than the lotus, but I could never have found the relationship between the witness of aversion and attraction and the free occurrence of mind without the lotus, and in particular without feeling for activity out of pitch, yaw, and roll at the sacrum.

The feeling of mind

I've read that animals think in pictures. Also read that the followers of Gautama, the monks, were admired for being just like wild animals. Lately I am cognizant of the feeling of mind, of thought. I sit and I sometimes relax into the activity of the posture, and toward the end of the sitting especially there's a definite feel to the edge of the stretch I find myself in. Sometimes I notice there's a feel to the edge of the thoughts I find myself in, I'm not too good at calming myself down but maybe the visual thinking is like that (and the wild kingdom)?

Letter to a friend, about "Remembering Kobun"

I did finally finish my paper on Kobun Chino Otogawa. I hope it reads well for you, when you get the chance; nothing about mindfulness as a practice, but the root is the same:Kobun on Zazen I'm still working on the lotus, and this writing for me is a part of that; not everybody's cup of tea, but I hope it interests you.

from a letter to a friend

You know I'm big on waking up and falling asleep lately, but I can say that it helps me to encourage forward and back between the hamstrings and quads for stretch in the ilio-tibial band, and stretch in the ilio-tibial band can cause the sartorius and gluteus to turn the pelvis. About then I think, well, really all this action can be generated by the sacrum, and where's the forward and back and side-to-side at the sacrum? And a dollar eighty, gets a cup of coffee.

The difficulty of practice, a note to Apech- from Tao Bums

I understand what you are saying about the difficulty of an intentional practice. I was doing a set of shape-mind (xing-yi) exercises that I learned from a book for a long time, and then last fall I just stopped doing them. I still rely on the sense of location in consciousness, and relaxation. I remind myself that if I stay with consciousness and let myself relax, feeling will open up. I remind myself about how aversion, attraction, or ignorance can condition the place of occurrence of consciousness, and I look for it, to calm myself. If I discover I have cut off the breath, I look for the pitch, yaw, and roll that every thing is showing me. That's about it for my practice, now.

email to Adam Tebbe, editor of Sweeping Zen

I just read the interview with Scott Edelstein, which I enjoyed- interesting to hear the news, as it were. I used to go hear Kobun speak at the Santa Cruz zendo in the 70's, when I was a student at UCSC. One thing I remember Kobun said was "take your time with the lotus". I have finally learned to sit the lotus, although my feet can be a little numb when I get up; hopefully I can find my way to sit without pain and numbness, as he did. Heard him acknowledge that at a sitting at Jikoji in the early part of this century: he never had pain or numbness in the lotus; seiza he said was difficult for him, but not the lotus. I think another way to approach zen in this country is to focus on the lotus. In the end, we can wake up or fall asleep to the location of consciousness, and either way when we relax into the activity that's present, we open an ability to feel. In my case, I gradually developed feeling that enabled me to sit the lotus; not bad, for waking up or falling asleep! As to how we teach this, the only trick is to notice that attraction, aversion, or ignorance of the particular of feeling can condition the subsequent place of occurrence of consciousness; such a witness frees the occurrence of consciousness.I myself studied a lot of things, to discover waking up or falling asleep was all I was doing in the lotus, and that everyone and everything around me was doing it too.

Defining Enlightenment, from "The Tao Bums" Discussion

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." (lecture by Dr. John Crook, from the Western Chan Fellowship site)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)

Certifying Zen

A friend of mine took me to hear Kobun Chino Otogawa speak at the Santa Cruz Zen Center in about 1971. Kobun had a way of saying things where I thought he was speaking to me, and he was describing what I had to do (or not do) in order to be on-time or in time with my life. There was this sense of the future coming on, and although he could have no idea of what that would be, when he spoke he was time (if I may). Sometimes I wonder at that sense of imperative I felt when Kobun spoke. I know others who feel the same way about being in the presence of Shunryu Suzuki.If we are talking about a religion, then I guess we have teachers and temples, and certification. If we are talking about action that accords equally with the past, present, and future, I'd like to see somebody certify that.

'Zazen', from "The Mudra of Zen"

Dogen said: "To study the way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self."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.This being where we are with each thing, even before we know it, is shikantaza.

On the effectiveness of mudras (response on Tao Bums)

When I finally sat down to write something about zazen, I wrote an essay about "the mudra of zen". I didn't know what I was going to say about that, but I wrote anyway. As it happens, I still use the practice I wrote about even today, six years later. And yet, it's an oddball thing!So here it is. As consciousness occurs, we have a sense of our location in space. This sense is keyed to the three motions possible in space; these motions are pitch, yaw and roll, just like with an airplane: (pitch) (yaw) (roll)As regards the mudra commonly employed in Soto Zen practice, here's what I wrote:"If the little fingers leave the abdomen, awareness of the forward and backward motion wherever consciousness takes place and relaxation of the activity of the body in awareness can restore the little fingers to the abdomen.If the elbows lose their angle from the body, awareness of the side-to-side motion wherever consciousness takes place and relaxation of the activity of the body in awareness can restore the angle. If the shoulders lose their roundedness, awareness of the turn left and right wherever consciousness takes place and relaxation of the activity of the body in awareness can help restore the round to the shoulders."(from The Mudra of Zen)
So that's a bit different, it says that the correct mudra just depends on an awareness of pitch, yaw, and roll wherever consciousness takes place and relaxation of the activity of the body in awareness. The trick is the recognition that consciousness moves, and has place, and activity follows out of that sense of place even in the absence of volition, yet this is as simple as a feeling for pitch, yaw, and roll where I am right now. And I have that feeling without trying, but I think it's also possible to bring mindfulness of this feeling forward to good effect, especially in relationship to our form/posture/carriage at the moment. ("At the Zendo" by Clay Atchison, by permission)

what we're debating here

Do we accept that anyone who wants to master a wisdom tradition must study under a lineage master? That's what we're debating here, to my way of thinking.People are writing and speaking about the wisdom traditions. The more I read what the real scholars have to say, the more I realize how much was borrowed, how much was improvised, how much missed the mark in what the masters had to say. The Gautamid taught the meditation on the unlovely, and scores of monks a day "took the knife" while he was on retreat; does that sound like his teaching was on the mark from the day of his enlightenment? (Pali Text Society, "Samyutta Nikaya", Volume 5, Chapter on In-Breathing and Out-Breathing).Dogen borrowed most of his meditation manual "Fukanzazenji" from a Chinese manual, and rewrote it something like 40 times; did he feel it was important, and imperfect? (thanks, Carl Bielefeldt, "Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation", from the Koroku Fukan zazen gi; pg 175, copyright 1988 Regents of the University of California)Have the words evolved over the years? I would say; the writings of Yuanwu and Foyan in 12th century China are particular favorites of mine. The master-disciple relationship that characterizes Eastern wisdom-tradition training has little to do with the forms that are taught, or the scriptures that are passed down, or the rituals associated with the tradition. The Eastern traditions generally teach the form as the embodiment of the tradition, and then they go on to claim that there is something outside the form that must be transmitted from master to disciple. For example, in the Soto tradition they teach the posture and form of zazen and commend everyone to shikantaza as the way (see "Shobogenzo-zuimonki", sayings recorded by Koun Ejo, translated by Shohaku Okumura, 2-26, pg 107-108, copyright 2004 Sotoshu Shumucho), and then they state that Zen Buddhism cannot be mastered without a master-disciple relationship with a lineage teacher. The difficulty is in the description of shikantaza, in teaching the posture and form of zazen as the movement of mind, as Shunryu Suzuki alluded to when he said:"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 1970, from www.cuke.com "Whole-Body Zazen)My contention is that we can teach the fundamentals of the movement of mind, it's the same as waking up and falling asleep, and that with a little help from the peculiarly American discipline of cranial-sacral osteopathy we can teach the meaning of "pure hit-sit" (literal translation of shikantaza). As Issho Fujita says, we sometimes assume particular poses and postures as a reflection of our state of mind; what, then, is the state of mind that is inherent in the lotus posture? Or any other posture we find ourselves in? I don't know if I'm the only one in the U.S.A. who had to teach himself how to sit the lotus. Sometimes I think that; folks I know either could sit the posture, or gave up on it, but nobody actually learned it. It's not perfect, my lotus, but I like doing it for 30 or 40 minutes in the morning. I like doing it because I understand there's really nothing to do, as I said in "Waking Up and Falling Asleep" (see "The Mudra of Zen", bottom of page):"There's really nothing I can do to practice waking up and falling asleep, other than to accept being where I find myself at the moment. The beautiful part of it is, that's exactly the practice of waking up and falling asleep."Is waking up and falling asleep zazen? If so, do we need a lineage holder to teach us how to wake up and fall asleep? If not, then where will you find it (this zazen)?

Waking Up and Falling Asleep

As I listen to the lectures at the Zen Center, I keep thinking that I too want to offer something about a practice that we all share. I'm referring to a practice that everybody already knows intimately, even if they don't usually think of it as a practice: waking up and falling asleep.For me, waking up and falling asleep is one practice, and that practice is about a sense of physical location. Odd as it might sound, when I realize my physical sense of location in space, and realize it as it occurs from one moment to the next, I wake up or fall asleep as appropriate.This is useful, when I wake up in the middle of the night and need to go back to sleep, or when I want to feel more physically alive in the morning. This is also useful when I want to feel my connection to everything around me, because my sense of place registers the contact of my awareness with each thing, as it occurs. Just before I fall asleep, my awareness can move very readily, and my sense of where I am tends to move with it. As I wake up, the same thing is true, although I sometimes overlook it; my sense of where I am tends to move as my awareness moves. At these times, I realize that my ability to feel a sense of place is made possible in part by the freedom of my awareness to move.I sometimes overlook the movement of my awareness because I attach to the feelings that arise in a particular instance of awareness, or I am averse to the feelings, or I ignore them. The result is that I lose my ability to feel the movement of awareness. At such a moment, I have the opportunity to witness first-hand the connection between attraction, aversion, or ignorance and the loss of my ability to feel. As I experience such a witness, my ability to feel returns to me, and with it my sense of the movement of awareness.To me, what we do at the Zen Center is all about regaining a sense of place in our lives, about living life from exactly where we are. When we live our lives from exactly where we are, we make space for others to live their lives from exactly where they are, and in the process we discover the real connection between us all; this is the connection that depends on our ability to feel rather than on appearances, and so permits us to act appropriately even in the midst of our changing circumstances.There's really nothing I can do to practice waking up and falling asleep, other than to accept being where I find myself at the moment. The beautiful part of it is, that's exactly the practice of waking up and falling asleep.copyright 2011 Mark A. Foote

On the Egyptian 'akh'

"The word 'akh' as a verb means 'to be effective' and the 'akh' as an entity was seen as a shining being who could come and go as it pleased. This means that the akh was not impelled by the forces of the universe to follow a set path but had achieved a state of freedom and ability to act in any situation." ("Pyramid Texts of King Unas Part 1" copyright Apepch7, contributed article on The Tao Bums site)I'm suggesting that the free movement of awareness that is experienced in waking up and falling asleep is the "akh". I'm also suggesting that we don't see this all the time because we are attached, averse, or ignorant of the sense of location associated with the movement of consciousness. I would also say that action that is precipitated by the sense of location without the exercise of volition is action which occurs from a state of freedom (and is appropriate, regardless of situation); as Kobun Chino Otogawa said, "you know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around."When the sun is in the void, the sun is in its place (and moving?), even though it is unseen. I'll have to reread the text, about whether there is a death and rebirth involved- is a connection to the entirety of creation implied, during the passage thru the void? You'd think I'd remember these things.Checking the text:"By tuning in to, or joining the sun's journey through the Dwat the Egyptianssought the same power of eternal rebirth that the sun had. They understood this to be the key to immortality albeit in the spiritualized form called the 'akh'." (Ibid)That's exactly my experience, by tuning into the sense of location of awareness even as I am falling asleep, I realize that my awareness moves, and when I tune in to that movement waking up I discover that this is a source of action beyond volition.

from a letter to a friend

I went up to Sonoma Mountain Zen Center today, Roshi Kwong was speaking, and it was pretty good. He mentioned that it's possible to breathe into the sitting and sit longer, but he advised not to continue if injury seemed imminent. I've been experiencing a variation on that, which is that the extent of the breath and the place in consciousness can continue the activity of the sitting, maintain and deepen the stretch of the sitting- without direction, almost as though in hypnosis. I guess that's the same thing he was talking about.

2nd Life, The Online Sangha, and zazen

Zazen is a peculiar practice. On the one hand, it's been associated with the cross-legged posture since the Gautamid first described the practice of setting up mindfulness. On the other hand, we have statements like "only zazen can sit zazen" (Shunryu Suzuki, to Blanche Hartman I believe, as recounted on cuke.com) and "you know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around" (Kobun Chino Otogawa, in a lecture in the 80's at S.F. Zen Center). So is zazen something we do, or something that only happens in a cross-legged posture? Not exactly, it would seem.This opens the door to 2nd Life practice.In my own experience, I have come to understand practice this way: we not only have a pulmonary respiration (the ins and outs of which formed the basis of the Gautamid's practice of setting up mindfulness), but also a cranial-sacral respiration (a change in the fluid volume of the cerebral-spinal fluid that causes flexion and extension throughout the body, especially in the bones of the skull and at the sacrum); the two respirations place the occurrence of consciousness to cause the balance of the body to impact the current stretch in our fascial envelope, and thereby generate activity that aligns the body and opens feeling. Attachment, aversion, or ignorance of the particulars of feeling skews the subsequent placement of consciousness, while the spontaneous witness of how attachment, aversion, or ignorance skews the placement of consciousness frees the subsequent placement of consciousness.What has this to do with virtual reality, or with traditional zazen practice in the cross-legged posture? here it is in the words of Dogen:"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 107-108, copyright 2004 Sotoshu Shumucho)"They attained the way through their bodies"; I'm not saying it isn't important to think, that joy in thinking isn't a good thing, or that it's possible to communicate through a computer without some physical activity (even if it's just a movement of the eyes, as I guess it is in some cases). I am saying that there's confusion about this point even among some teachers, so it's important to encourage the exploration of the relationship between the two involuntary respirations necessary to life, consciousness, and the happiness of well-being itself. Can this be done in virtual reality, where the physical activity is so minimal? Yeah, sure; the usual medium is the upright physical posture, though, because it's much easier to see involuntary reciprocal activity out of stretch.

the cessation that the Gautamid described

If the extent of inhalation and the extent of exhalation guide the stretch and activity we feel, we fall headfirst into feeling beyond knowing sometimes; is this the cessation that the Gautamid described as part of his practice, both before and after enlightenment? right there, in front of us the whole time?

Muho of Antaiji takes a swing at Brad of 'The Truth About Hardcore Zen'

I'm still mulling over the significance of the abbot of Antaiji misrepresenting the sentiment of Brad's letter, and casting aspersions on Brad's teacher for mentioning physiology. That was quite a long diatribe about masturbation versus family life, as well; very interesting attempt to establish a Catholic norm as a Buddhist standard. Personally I have respect for the Gautamid as a teacher of zazen, but not as a teacher of social norms. The Cannon makes clear he was a bit of a misogynist, and of course the Order split after his death over the question of whether or not an arahant could have a wet dream. Masturbation meant you went to the bottom of the food line; having children as a monk was out of the question.I think in the West we are obliged to speak to the happiness that the Gautamid associated with meditative states; if zazen is just hard reality training, or is described that way, then the dream that I and many others have of the lotus becoming a more common practice in the West will remain unrealized. Could be that no amount of insightful description will convey how the practice is associated with happiness, and I should read more of the gentleman's talks I suppose, but I'm guessing Brad is closer to such description than the Abbot at the moment.

'At some point within Buddhism do you lose the structure?'- manitou, on Tao Bums

I was up at Sonoma Mountain Zen Center the other day, and Issho Fujita gave a presentation on the stretches involved in zazen. He ended by pointing out that we put our hands on our heads when we wonder what to do or what to think about something; we cross our hands over our heart when we seek humility; what, he asked, is the mind that goes with the posture of zazen? When we sit, we experience that mind, he said.The Gautamid started out teaching the four fields of mindfulness, the seven factors of enlightenment, the four truths, and the eight-fold path. In my estimation, something changed after the suicide of many of his monks due to the meditation on the unlovely, which he also taught (it's in Samyutta Nikaya volume 5 in the chapter on "the intent concentration on in-breaths and out-breaths"). When he came out of retreat and realized the situation, he described his practice before and after enlightenment as "concentration on in-breaths and out-breaths", and he said this was a thing that was lovely in and of itself, and a pleasant way of life too. Notice that he no longer is directing his monks to the unlovely as a means for the recognition of impermanence, nor is he advocating striving for enlightenment in some other way. Of course, the concentration on in-breaths and out-breaths he described involves in part the experience of impermanence, detachment, cessation, or relinquishment in connection with the breath in or out, yet the emphasis is markedly changed. He also describes the experience of sense organ, sense object, consciousness, impact, and feeling with respect to each of the senses as a way wherein fevers of the mind and body gradually diminish, and the eight fold way, the factors of enlightenment, and all the rest can develop and come to fruition (Majjhima-Nikaya, Pali Text Society volume 3 pg 337-338, copyright Pali Text Society). This too represents a different emphasis than that of the earlier teachings, at least it does to me.When the Gautamid died, he said, "everything changes- work out your own salvation". He told the monks they didn't have to observe all the rules anymore, just the principal three, but nobody could say which three he meant with any certainty so they went on observing them all. So at what point do I lose the structure? I think only out of a necessity at the moment, as that necessity is realized. As Shunryu Suzuki said, it's a mistake to think you can sit zazen- only zazen can sit zazen. I would say, it's a mistake for me to think that I can lose the structure. It helps me to know that the Gautamid's practice concerned mindfulness connected with in-breaths and out-breaths; it helps me to know that the anatomy behind that is the support for the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebrae provided by the ilio-lumbar ligaments, and to know that this support is crucial to the free movement of the sacrum in the cranial-sacral rhythm. It helps me to know that it's about consciousness that occurs because of contact between a sense organ and a sense object, it's about impact in the fascial structure as a result of consciousness, and it's about an ability to feel that follows out of activity generated by impact. Most of all, it helps me to know that aversion to the particular of feeling, attraction to the particular, or ignorance of it can condition the subsequent occurrence of consciousness; I can witness the conditional nature of consciousness for myself, and experience the cessation of volitive activity in perception and sensation as a result of such a witness. There's a certain happiness in this that draws me as a necessity, at any given moment.

"to be actualized by the myriad things" (Dogen)

It's my perspective that the two respirations, cranial-sacral and pulmonary, utilize the place of occurrence of consciousness to impact the fascial structure and open the ability to feel as necessary. There is a stretch in existence as consciousness takes place: the stretch of sitting, standing, walking, or lying down, for example. The occurrence of consciousness leads the balance of the body to impact the stretch that is already in existence when we wake, until the moment when the occurrence of consciousness ceases to impact the stretch in existence, and we sleep. To realize the ability to feel necessary to the extent of each movement of breath is "to be actualized by the myriad things" through the placement of consciousness; consciousness takes place spontaneously, and the impact and activity associated with the place of occurrence of consciousness aligns the body to allow feeling as necessary to the movement of breath.

on dreaming- from the Castaneda thread, on Tao Bums

For the most part I believe waking and sleeping is the same effort. As I reflect on dreaming, I realize that maybe the same effort that's involved in waking and sleeping can be a part of dreaming. We realize the place as the place is what is, single-pointed yet inclusive past what can be known. If we see our hands, or travel out of body, the effort is still only this?- my guess, since I can't claim to have done either. Just the occasional lucid dream. Sweet dreams!

"...where we are sits, stands, and moves beyond doubt."

Dogen said: "To study the way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self."We forget ourselves in our habitual activity, and we also forget ourselves in activity that is generated without any intent. As consciousness takes place, we realize an ability to feel. When our experience of our ability to feel acquires continuity, we can lose ourselves in "being where we are" (the famous Zen master Yuanwu advised a student in a letter, "just be where you are, 24/7"). In my experience, the continuity of the ability to feel is really only the fluidity of changes in the alignment of the body, in response to the occurrence of consciousness and the necessity of breath at the moment. Gautama the Buddha described consciousness as a phenomena that only occurred out of contact between a sense organ and a sense object. The continuity of consciousness he described as an illusion, similar to the illusion of the existence of fire independent of fuel; when a forest fire leaps between the tops of trees, he said, an illusion of the existence of fire independent of fuel is created, yet the truth of the matter is that fire only burns when there is fuel. Similarly, he said, consciousness only exists because of contact between a sense organ and a sense object, and can be described as "eye consciousness", "ear consciousness", "nose consciousness", "tongue consciousness", "touch consciousness", or "thought consciousness". For one who observes sense organ, sense object, consciousness, impact, and feeling with regard to each of the senses, he said, the eight-fold path to the end of suffering and all the factors of enlightenment develop and go to fruition. In this instance, I believe the impact Gautama referred to is the impact of the occurrence of consciousness on the balance of the body and on the stretch associated with that balance; from impact comes activity that affects the alignment of the spine, and the ability to feel. Dogen described his practice as "shikantaza"- literally "pure hit sit" or "just hit sit". The focus here is on the instance of feeling that results from the impact of the occurrence of consciousness on the stretch inherent in balance. In contrast, the Gautamid described his practice before and after enlightenment as "the development of mindfulness that is mindfulness of in-breaths and out-breaths". Each particular in his statement of this practice was framed in the context of mindfulness of inhalation, or mindfulness of exhalation. In my experience, the occurrence of consciousness, the impact of the occurrence of consciousness on fascial stretch, and the ability to feel realized through such impact only make possible a continuity of feeling out of a necessity of breath; therefore, as far as forgetting the self, to me the practice of Dogen and the practice of Gautama the Buddha are one and the same.Simply by being where we are as we are, we can come to forget ourselves, as Dogen suggested. I would say this experience is a lot like hypnosis: when an awareness of the necessity of a particular movement of breath comes forward, the free occurrence of consciousness and the relaxation of activity can allow our posture (or even our gesture or carriage) to be realized in the continuity of feeling. We forget ourselves out of necessity, and where we are sits, stands, and moves beyond doubt.

the breathing techniques..are they supposed to help you achieve a certain state of mind

The point of what I wrote is that sometimes a physical posture or a set of movements can provide those fresh eyes to see things as they are. I walk a lot, and it helps me to get down to empty, so the bigger picture can emerge.Sounds like you are up against it with family, and friends aren't much help; I can sympathize with your desperation, sometimes the breathing is just there for me and the mind and the stretch I have come to learn follow.

response to 'why does it happen to me', from Tao Bums

The Gautamid, later referred to as the Buddha, I think was clear in the Pali Cannon in stating that action born of intent is the source of karma. Now the difficulty is that rather the intent is for good or for evil or for neither, the result is nevertheless karma if there is intent. Making waves, as it were. The Gautamid taught that intention gives rise to a station of consciousness, from which the graspings ultimately emerge (grasping after self with regard to body, feeling, mind, habitual activity, or consciousness). The existence of the graspings is synonymous with suffering; "my body, my feeling, my mind, my routine, my consciousness". The practice the Gautamid said was his own, both before and after enlightenment, was the intent concentration on in-breaths and out-breaths. At the same time, he described this practice as a thing satisfactory in and of itself, without regard to any attainment. His practice began, he said, with sitting down cross-legged, holding the body erect, setting mindfulness in front, and being mindful of inhalation, mindful of exhalation.It comes down to this: there are physical practices of prayer, in the lotus, on the knees, doing the Sufi zikir or dancing, doing Tai-Chi, and these practices focus attention on action that arises from the stretch of ligaments without the exercise of volition. The extent of the movement of breath in and the extent of the movement of breath out guides the extent of the stretch and activity appropriate in the instant. The place of occurrence of consciousness is the embodiment of stretch and breath, and the impact of the occurrence of consciousness on the fascial stretch aligns the spine and allows feeling throughout the body and to the surface of the skin. When we witness how the place of occurrence of consciousness can be conditioned by attachment, aversion, or ignorance, the witness frees the occurrence of consciousness. There's nobody there, the only real practice is the one that's necessary to breathe and stretch and feel at the moment, and somehow I need the lotus to find the intuition of my heart.

seeing true nature- from Ted Biringer's Flatbed Sutra blog

I had to read that first sentence a few times: "According to Buddhism all suffering is due to a gap between our views about reality and the way reality truly is." Also the second and subsequent sentences! Ha ha!Now I would say according to the Gautamid suffering is the five groups of grasping, and again per the Gautamid the origin of suffering is ignorance. The cessation of suffering is the cessation of ignorance, and the eight-fold path leads to the cessation of ignorance.Ready to jump on me, buddy? I bet you are! -In the lecture on the six-fold sense field in Majjhima Nikaya (three), we discover that the experience of sense organ, sense object, consciousness, impact, and feeling with regard to each of the six senses completes the eight-fold path. In Samyutta Nikaya in the chapter on "intent concentration on in-breaths and out-breaths", we find that the Gautamid's practice before and after his enlightenment keyed on mindfulness of in-breaths and out-breaths, and included as the second part of the practice mindfulness of the length of the particular movement of breath (didn't Dogen's teacher contradict the wisdom of this instruction?).In my practice, the length of the particular movement of breath informs the extent of physical stretch and reciprocal activity through the place of occurrence of consciousness, and there is feeling. It's sufficient to be where I am 24/7, and yet I agree with you: a witness of the placement of consciousness conditioned by ignorance, aversion, or attraction frees the place of occurrence of consciousness, and hence "seeing true nature" is a natural part of well-being that is to be expected in daily life.

response to question by Idquest, from Tao Bums

"Does that mean you focus on skin on exhale only or on both inhale and exhale (sorry but your last paragraph is a bit hard for me to uderstand).Thanks."Focus on the occurrence of consciousness, the impact of the occurrence of consciousness on the fascial stretch in existence as consciousness occurs, and the ability to feel opened by activity generated by the fascial stretch. That sounds pretty heavy-handed, yet it's really a matter of being able to realize the inhalation or exhalation at the moment, as the autonomic nervous system intends the inhalation or exhalation to be. Chen Man-Ch'ing in "Thirteen Chapters" (the Wile translation, page 17) says, "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." So I would say look to the reciprocal activity generated by the stretch of sinews (ligaments and fascia can generate nerve signals to cause muscular contraction to relieve their stretch), look to pitch, yaw, and roll where awareness takes place (informed by the structure of the body, no doubt), let the ability to feel allow the movement of breath to be realized, let the occurrence of consciousness and impact open the ability to feel throughout the body to the surface of the skin.From the Pali Suttas, where Gautama describes the feeling of the fourth of the inital meditative states:"... it is as if (a person) might be sitting down who had clothed (themselves) including (their) head with a white cloth; there would be no part of (their) whole body not covered by the white cloth. Even so, ... (a person), having suffused this very body with a mind that is utterly pure, utterly clean, comes to be sitting down; there is no part of the whole body that is not suffused by a mind that is utterly pure, utterly clean." (PTS Majjhima Nikaya III 134, parentheticals paraphrase original).Now the rupa jhannas are marked by increasing equanimity of mind, and this is the purity that the Gautamid refers to. I remind myself to include each thing in the possibility of awareness, yet realize the activity out of the current sense of place in consciousness, and use that activity out of stretch to allow a natural breath. The equanimity follows with a witness of how attachment to the content of feeling, aversion to the content of feeling, or ignorance of the content of feeling can condition the subsequent place of occurrence of consciousness; the witness frees the occurrence of consciousness to take place anywhere in the body, on the skin, outside. Sort of like the mind just before falling asleep, when it moves freely- at least that's my experience of it.

Reverse breathing

Reverse breathing: the ilio-lumbar ligaments (yellow) engage in the movement of breath. The autonomic respirations coordinate through the place of occurrence of consciousness (illustrated with a gyroscope) to cause action that opens the nerve channels between vertebrae; thus, the place that consciousness occurs has impact and opens feeling, through the body to the surface of the skin and in the senses.We all know what it feels like to stretch, and how close stretch can be to pain; a lot of my practice is learning what is stretching at the moment, and how to relax and allow stretch and activity to reciprocate as consciousness takes place. The length of the movement of breath can be a guide to healthy stretch and the subsequent involuntary activity, both with the breath in and with the breath out. With that in mind, the impact and feeling as consciousness takes place in inhalation tends to result in reciprocal activity that draws upward and inward, while the impact and feeling as consciousness takes place in exhalation tends to result in activity that sinks downward and forward. This is my experience, when the length of the movement of breath guides the stretch and activity as consciousness occurs, and I believe this is because the ilio-lumbar ligaments from the pelvis to the 4th lumbar vertebrae engage on the inhalation (they are vertical), and the ilio-lumbar ligaments from the pelvis to the 5th lumbar vertebrae engage on the exhalation (they are horizontal). When the length of the movement of breath guides the stretch and activity as consciousness occurs, reverse breathing is already taking place, even though each breath is completely natural.

Response to Chunyi Lin interview, on Tao Bums

I am an amateur at Tai-Chi, and at sitting the full lotus, and at being a "love radiator" as Chunyi Lin puts it, yet even an amateur can say that we have two struggles here: one is to heal ourselves, which is how the interview opens, and the other is to find the words and actions to communicate the means of healing to others. Even though we are talking about "unproveable" realities, I believe we can find a Western vocabulary to describe relationships that demonstrate these realities exist. This is like physicists discovering the existence of habitable planets thousands of light years away by examining perturbations in the orbits of their stars; the planets themselves are unobservable, but their existence is demonstrated in the effect they have on the stars we can track. I have no intention of practicing reverse breathing. That doesn't mean I don't do reverse breathing some of the time, especially in the lotus or on the dance floor, and maybe it's useful to some people to very deliberately start out to do reverse breathing some of the time. I look to see how the place that my consciousness occurs has impact and opens feeling, in the instant. I recognize that there's a stretch in existence throughout the fascial structure of my body as consciousness takes place, and that the autonomic respirations coordinate through the place of occurrence of consciousness to cause action that opens the nerve channels between vertebrae; thus, the place that consciousness occurs has impact and opens feeling, through the body to the surface of the skin and in the senses.We all know what it feels like to stretch, and how close stretch can be to pain; a lot of my practice now is learning what is stretching, and how to relax and allow stretch and activity to reciprocate as consciousness takes place. The length of the movement of breath can be a guide to healthy stretch and the subsequent involuntary activity, both with the breath in and with the breath out. The recognition that aversion to pain, attachment to pleasure, or ignorance of neutral sensations can condition the subsequent place of occurrence of consciousness is vital to me, as this recognition precedes a witness that is itself the end of suffering at the moment. The natural mind, as it were, has within it the end of suffering; we are all healers, and I think it's important to let ourselves be healed rather than to set out toward any particular breathing.

isolating the motion of the sacrum

In my experience, the lotus is about isolating the motion of the sacrum. I like John Upledger's explanation of that motion, based on his own research and the theories of cranial-sacral osteopathy: the skull bones, the spine, and the sacrum flex and extend with changes in the fluid volume of the dural fluid (ten cycles a minute, Upledger says here: An Interview with Dr. John Upledger, D.O., O.M.M.).Isolating the motion of the sacrum is important, because the fundamental postural activity is generated by the stretch of the ligaments that connect the sacrum to the pelvis. There are ligaments between the sacrum and the wings of the pelvis, ligaments between the sacrum and the sit-bones (the sacrospinous ligaments), and ligaments between the sacrum and the front underside of the pelvis on the left and on the right (the sacro-tuberous ligaments). Stretched ligaments can generate muscular activity to relieve their stretch, without any exercise of volition; when the ligaments are paired there's a phenomena called "reciprocal innervation" that arises as ligaments alternate stretch and activity from side to side. The way to generate feeling for stretch and activity is to attend to the place of occurrence of consciousness, as necessary to realize the breath in or the breath out, and relax.

what I am as where I am

I think for me there is no path without personal necessity, and somewhere inside I have always believed that mindfulness depends on the necessity of mindfulness. In the Gautamid's teaching, the "setting up of mindfulness" always began: "sitting down cross-legged and holding the body upright, (one) sets mindfulness in front (an odd translation?); mindful (one) breathes in, mindful (one) breathes out". To me, this means in particular that only through realizing my personal necessity to hold the body upright, to set mindfulness in front, and to mindful breathe in, mindful breathe out can I actually realize mindfulness in my daily life. This is like juggling three balls, which I'll bet you've done, not like the mindfulness practice most Vipassana teachers in this country prescribe; at least, that's how it feels to me, when I discover that I have the need to feel what I am as where I am. I strongly disagree with the notion that the description of a practice given to beginners is of no consequence, that a dumbed-down version can be given because a beginner cannot appreciate the real thing, or worse yet the assumption that no real description can be made. We have the record of the efforts of the ancestors to make such a description, over and over again. This is my quarrel with most of the teachers and practices I hear about, that they do not take seriously the need to make plain the practice in which they engage, and they do not feel a responsibility to make consistent the understanding they put forward with the experience of the beginner. It doesn't have to be simple, it just has to be verifiable, you know?

response to Rainbow_Vein on Tao Bums

...the last few days I have been reminded of Chen Man-Ch'ing's practice description for the stage of man, mainly: relax from the shoulders to the wrist, from the hip joint to the heel, and from the sacrum to the headtop (in the Ben Lo Martin Inn translation, this is "relax the ligaments"; I don't think that's actually possible, as ligaments stretch and resile but it's muscles that contract and relax- nevertheless, I take the meaning as resting weight on the ligaments in such a way as to realize reciprocal activity in associated postural muscles).So your practice is very clear, as to the relationship of the movement of breath and the free movement of the sacrum. You are describing how it feels, and a big trick for me is that the sense of place as consciousness occurs can cause the stretch in existence to generate activity to align the spine and produce feeling. This is a big trick because if I put all my energy into feeling the breath or the movement of the sacrum, I will finally lose actual feeling for having directed the occurrence of consciousness to the particular place. So I think to rely instead on the movement of breath and the cranial-sacral rhythm to place consciousness, and I look to realize impact as consciousness occurs, impact and feeling. Is this natural? It is really just staying with what's happening, not a gaining practice.My posture is pretty bent, usually, so I envy you the clarity of "up the spine". I guess the reason I mentioned learning to dance is because that's where I sometimes feel an uprightness in the spine both on the inhale and the exhale, yet the feeling is intimately tied to resting the weight of my body on the sacrospinous and sacrotuberous ligaments and allowing movement from that stretch. At least, that's the way I feel it.

asleep/awake, from Tao Bums

The asleep/awake thing I still believe is the placement of consciousness by the two autonomous respirations. Sense organ/sense object-consciousness-impact-feeling is the placement of consciousness by the two autonomic respirations, with perhaps different emphasis of sense waking or sleeping, and the in-between hours are the traditional times of practice. If I can follow the movement of awareness and relax, I can fall asleep; if I can follow the movement of awareness and relax, I can wake up. The mind is a sense, yet having a thought-stream is like having a dream; we recognize waking up when the thought-stream or the dream is over, even if we are still in our mind or physically asleep. My hope is that the more I recognize the stretch I am in as consciousness occurs, and the more I can accept the feeling associated with that stretch and relax into the activity, the more readily I wake up and fall asleep. There's a funny goal, isn't it? The discontiguous moment of feeling is the continuity, in a very real sense; goals can obscure the discontiguous moment of feeling, yet the experience of well-being may sometimes return to us through luke-warm placemarks of understanding and feeling. Doesn't it seem so?

response to question, from cat on Tao Bums

You are welcome to post my comments anywhere you feel is appropriate. I confess, I copied them to my blog. I believe in the vocabulary I have developed to describe these things (of course, it's bits and pieces of the Pali Cannon, Tai-Chi teachings, and cranial-sacral theory, so I'm just the collector of it), and I have come to understand that I have to realize it fresh every time I sit, and every time I write it down. That means I have to encounter my personal necessity very physically, very emotionally, and very intellectually in order to communicate to myself and others, at the moment. So to speak. So if I think I done good, I copy it to my blog, because ultimately I am writing to myself and I might need to refer to it. Hope you don't mind.As to consciousness rooted in the body and the heart, I certainly have benefited from Goleman s "Emotional Intelligence", where he describes the way the amygdala charges memories with adrenalin and then can override our learned behaviour patterns when something comes up that matches the memory. In order to experience the place that consciousness occurs as moving, I have to deal with a fear of falling, and the thing I do with my consciousness and my body as a consequence of that fear conceals the movement of consciousness and the involuntary activity of the body that keeps me upright. I realize you are perhaps talking about responding more from emotion than intellect to your circumstance, but that's all I can say about it with regard to sense organ sense contact-consciousness-impact-feeling.I don't think it has to do with a trigger (people collapsing next to me when I am practicing intensely). In both instances I described, I was looking to develop feeling for activity generated by weight on the sacro-spinous and sacro-tuberous ligaments. There is a balance in anything like this, between looking for feeling and experiencing the free occurrence of consciousness, and at some point the free occurrence of consciousness is the activity of the reciprocal muscle pairs and we step beyond volition. That is how a person develops what the masters refer to as tenacious strength, rather than muscular strength; the ligaments and fascia generate activity at a certain level of stretch, and the stretch and activity reciprocate between the paired ligaments and between paired ligaments around the body. I have years of experience letting go and allowing my body to walk on, so to speak.Having said that, I have to add that to really let go is to experience a continuity, and the continuity for me is in the whole she-bang: sense organ/sense contact-consciousness-impact-feeling.

consciousness conditioned by ignorance, attachment, or aversion

As to the witness of the place of consciousness conditioned by ignorance, attachment, or aversion, this is as constant as the experience of suffering in our lives; the trick is to recognize a sense of location as consciousness occurs, and to do that it's necessary to accept that consciousness is not continuous. Hence the great wisdom of the Gautamid's teaching, that consciousness only exists with respect to sense organ and sense contact, and has no existence apart from that. Somewhere in the Pali Cannon he gives an example of a forest fire, where the flames leap from tree top to tree top on the wind and the fire seems to have an existence apart from the fuel that it burns. Nevertheless, he says, without fuel there is no fire, so this is an illusion, and similarly without the experience of sense organ-sense object there is no consciousness. It's not necessary in my experience to look for consciousness to appear like an object under a strobe light; for me, it's more like my thought ends, or whatever I was occupied with ends, and very naturally I have a sense of my presence. Underlying this presence is a sense of pitch, yaw, and roll, just like a pilot flying a plane by the seat of their pants; all I have to do is try to follow the place my awareness occurs a little bit to realize the connection with balance, and location in space. If I can relax into this sense of place in awareness, it moves; if I get lucky, then I can notice that my aversion to pain, my attraction to pleasant sensations, and my ignorance of feeling can skew the place my awareness occurs. The witness is the release, that restores the spontaneous occurrence of awareness.There's no doer in any of this, really.

hypnosis + 'the most important thing'

There's a phenomena in the practice of zazen that is similar to hypnotic suggestion from one's own unconscious. At S.F. Zen Center, Kobun Chino Otogawa once said: "You know, sometimes zazen gets up and walks around." My own understanding, which I have come to years after having the experience Kobun described, is that the pulmonary respiration and the cranial-sacral respiration utilize the sense of location in the occurrence of consciousness to open feeling (and well-being is simply a matter of "knowing thus, seeing thus" as the Gautamid put it). Sometimes the sense of location in the occurrence of consciousness and the cranial-sacral respiration seem to enter into the long or short of the pulmonary respiration, and at such times things perceived beyond the boundaries of the six senses can suggest something through the unconscious that will effect action in the body. The witness of the place of occurrence of consciousness conditioned by attachment, aversion, or ignorance surely frees the place of occurrence of consciousness, if living the life of purity to make an end of suffering is the most important thing.

from Hardcore Zen comments

There was once a sense of revolution here around San Francisco, and a strange melding of African-American, Asian-American, Native American, and Anglo-American influences. A bop and beat culture with Taoist and Buddhist influences, that understood that Native Americans had the right idea about the land, and was determined to bring Western science into the mix. The psychedelics made a transformation of culture seem imminent. The appearance of amazing teachers from the East made the transformation of culture seem imminent. The advent of rock 'n roll and punk rock made the transformation of culture appear imminent. The transformation of culture depends on people having fun, and yet it also depends on people learning how to stretch into fun. The carrot here is people that can demonstrate fun consistently, like Brad Warner (and apparently Zero Defex?), like Nina Hartley, like Kobun's successor Vanja Palmers on the dance floor (ok, haven't seen it but I'm sure it's true), while also demonstrating a proclivity for stretch. That is contagious. Brad is writing to demonstrate the peculiar fun of experiencing a lack of self in a posture of prayer, sexual or otherwise.

Last time I saw Kobun

Last time I saw Kobun (unusual Zen guy, wanted to be called Kobun without any honorific), he was concluding three week-long sesshins back-to-back. Someone asked him if he had any pain or numbness in the lotus, and he replied that he never did (of course, his father was a Zen teacher, and Kobun first started sitting at age seven). Kobun noted that he did have pain in seiza, sitting on the knees.So it can be done, that's my take. The motion at the sacrum allows the weight of the body to trigger reciprocal innervation in the ligaments that connect the sacrum to the pelvis; that would be the sacro-iliac, sacro-spinous, and sacro-tuberous ligaments. Motion is generated at the sacrum, at the hips, down through the legs, back up the legs and the spine, forward and back between the extensors and the psoas, and in the movement of breath. In the end, the place of occurrence of consciousness sits the lotus, and it moves if you let it so that everything sits the lotus, without exception; attachment, aversion, and ignorance can be observed to condition the place of occurrence of consciousness, and the witness allows the end of a suffering.

comment, Warner's "Hardcore Zen"

"all bozos on this bus"- David Chadwick's byline. I made comments on Gudo Nishijima's blog because I believe like him that there can be a fusion of Western and Eastern sciences. I got a very cordial response, even a request that I help Brad, and then what I felt was disinterest. Gudo didn't respond to the ideas I put forward, except to say that he didn't follow links to other sites. Can't blame him, I wish him well.Gudo talks about balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous systems, yet I have yet to find any elaboration of his meaning beyond a vague description of the two systems. I myself am convinced that the sense of place in consciousness as consciousness occurs serves the two autonomic respirations, the pulmonary and the primary (cranial-sacral osteopathy refers to the changes in fluid volume of the dural fluid as the primary respiration). This is actually very similar to Gudo's sympathetic and parasympathetic, in that the one is centered around the sacrum, lower abdomen, and skull, and the other around the chest. The balance for me is really just the place of mind when consciousness occurs spontaneously, and when the place consciousness occurs is conditioned by ignorance, attachment, or aversion, a witness of how the place of consciousness is conditioned serves to free the occurrence of consciousness.As far as the physics, the sense of place leads the balance of the body, and generates reciprocal innervation in the fascia and ligaments that stretch when we sit or stand, or even just breathe. The sense of place is sufficient to the appropriate action of posture. As far as the spiritual, there is a phenomena connected with the movement of breath that enables the contact of sense to extend beyond our physical limitations, seemingly. I think it's possible to write the meditation manual that Dogen set out to write when he came back from China; he stole most of it (see Bielefeldt's "Dogen 's Meditation Manuals"), and he didn't have enough science. Neither do we, but thanks to John Upledger we are close!

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 MEDITATIONby Zhengjueby 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-handleWalking along, I ride the oxThe ox crosses the wooden bridgeThe 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-handleWalking along, I ride the oxThe ox crosses the wooden bridgeThe 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