Month: May 2012

The lotus so far has taught me how a particular balance is struck:  the sartorius muscles rotate the pelvis; rotation in the pelvis extends the hips; extension of the hips generates activity in the piriformis muscles; activity in the piriformis muscles rotates the sacrum contrary to the pelvis and a balance is struck. I can find the sartorius muscles, I can relax at the hips, I can pick up the activity of the piriformis muscles and I can realize a balance.

Having said that, I would hasten to add that for me the central practice is the location of the mind in space:  this takes the form of “where is consciousness taking place, how does the occurrence of consciousness open the ability to feel?”.

My study now is just about sitting 40 minutes in the morning in the lotus without pain or numbness. Folks that start in the posture early, like about 7 years old, seem to be able to do this pretty well, but I didn’t start sitting at all until eighteen, and it took me 30 years from there to get to the lotus. Still, I don’t have much pain now, and most mornings I get up with a minimum of numbness in the upper foot. The clear feeling for the activity of sartorious and for the sink with extension that catalyzes activity in piriformis seems to be a turning point for me, but it’s not something I can take hold of:  I rely on the location of mind in the lotus to open an ability to feel these things.

I would say that nobody really teaches the practice that is the heart of the Soto school; mostly, they just stagger around mumbling “I encourage you to practice zazen wholeheartedly” to the walls.

That is probably why the teachers who brought the teaching West had to be impressive. They had a mouthful of marbles, and could not express the true Tao in words because Lao Tzu clearly ruled that out. Of course, the cultures that embraced Lao Tzu, Ch’an, and Zen wound up stuck in a medieval world, until the materialists demonstrated that it actually is possible to describe some subtle relationships in words that can be communicated and as a consequence manufacture heavy arms, after which these cultures raced to embrace the description of relationships for the manufacture of heavy arms.

We in the West, not seeing any need for Eastern wisdom when in fact we could overcome many of the sources of suffering through the description in words of subtle relationships of nature and when in fact we could pillage the natural resources of the countries that embraced indigenous traditions or wisdom traditions to abet our material addiction, never applied our ability to describe in words the subtle relationships of nature to the relationships at the heart of the Eastern wisdom traditions.

Now I would say a description of the practice of zazen can be made in words. This was the first thing that Dogen tried to do when he got back to Japan, and to me the high point of the civilization of China that occurred just prior to Dogen’s arrival there.

Right now my description is that the pulmonary and cranial-sacral respirations cause consciousness to take place where the feeling and impact that result “…(can cause) physical anxieties to decrease, and mental anxieties to decrease, and bodily torments… and mental torments… and bodily fevers to decrease, and mental fevers to decrease… (so that such a one) experiences happiness of body and happiness of mind.”

Very similar to balanced ANS-PNS and very much the heart of the practice of zazen, to me. I’m impressed that Houdini knew how to be one with the unconscious processes of the body and mind, until his balance and his breathing could be one inside that coffin. Kids, don’t try this at home, and here comes the stick if you try this at the zendo- whack!

“Zen in everyday life is keeping the precepts”- I think a lot of Zen teachers are on board with that, I think Reb Anderson’s “Warm Smiles from Cold Mountain” is about that in the context of Richard Baker’s departure from SF Zen Center.

Some would say that the precepts have more to do with zazen than the revelation of metaphysical truths.

I would say that the truths that matter with regard to zazen have to do with the hypnogogic states and the way consciousness takes place. I think there are experiences that matter in learning to sit 30 or 40 minutes in the lotus (or half-lotus), for those of us for whom the posture did not come naturally, and these are crucial to the perception of impermanence and the relinquishment of self in Western society. And that would be the working ingredient of the precepts (the perception of impermanence and the relinquishment of self), both for yours truly, and for our materialist culture.

For example, as to how “the empty hand grasps the hoe handle” in Fuxi’s poem, I would say the sartorious muscles naturally fall into a rhythm that turns the pelvis, and that turn opens and extends the hips, which generates reciprocal activity in the piriformis muscles to rotate the sacrum in the opposite direction. In particular, the activity in the piriformis muscles (you’re partially sitting on them in the lotus) cannot be done, but relaxing into the action of sartorius and allowing sink at the hips is a part of waking up and falling asleep to the location of consciousness. The action of the piriformis is entirely without conscious effort, and that’s why the hand that grasps the hoe handle (the sacrum) is empty. Like the flywheel of a watch, sartorius rotates the pelvis, and piriformis naturally rotates the sacrum into that movement to balance the body.

What’s that got to do with the precepts! What does the spontaneous occurrence of mind have to do with anything! Why can’t we just wake up, who decided we should ever have to sleep, for crying out loud!