May, 2004

Great Thunks from E- Mail
May 31, 2004

Subject: Very enthused by your book!

Dearest new friend Stuart!

Just wanted to say how much I am delighted by your book "Words From the Mouth.' "!!! I skimmed it back-to-front in my usual fashion, but was quickly dog-earing pages for closer readings and making loud enthusiastic outbursts and insisting on reading your 'Conclusion' aloud to my dear partner Judy in bed next to me (she was skimming the Internet, meanwhile, looking for background info on various Palestinians who are on an upcoming panel hosted by the Noe Valley Demo Club - she's very involved in Middle East peace groups, including a Compassionate Listening evening upcoming at the World Affairs Council in late June. What a pair we are! She's working on 'outer peace,' and I'm working on 'inner...'

You and I are both on the same frequencies in terms of the Khecari as well as other mudras, although I must confess that the classic kundalini is not something I personally have experienced. I just sort of putz along with various heart (anahata) events, sungazing yogas and occasional 'sessions' to check my cosmic coordinates. "Awe" to me manifests sometimes as an asana that combines the jalandhara and other mudras when La Pastora drops by - otherwise known as La Bella Jardinera.

http://www.raysender.com/octopus.html more or less sums up my current Mad Max overland gambol up the meadows of Mt. Meru.

Your ecstatic music group sounds fascinating - again right on my own musical tastes except that I/we do not tend to go out often to late night events. But I'll keep your June Axis Mundi on our calendar! Speaking of June, I finally have my first CD coming out of two of my Worldfood drone pieces from 1964 - I've always been a bit slow in getting my creations out (smile). When I sailed in races as a teenager, the race cannon always went off twice, once for the 'winner' and once when Ray Sender (race ender?) crossed the finish line (in last place, but always with the prettiest crew). I tended to dally around the farthest-out buoy on the race course.

My old Sixties group, the San Francisco Tape Music Center, is having a three-concert weekend at RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) in Troy, NY, the October 1 weekend that will pull together some of our old light-sound- live performance pieces as well as whatever new ones we've come up with. It should be fun, although similar to fresh peaches, I don't travel with much pleasire (I hate leaving my adorable cairn-westie at home, truth to tell).

I've announced my retirement from Noe Valley Ministry as of August 1 - either fulltime or part time, depending on how they want to structure it. I've just got to get more hours back now that I'm turning 70. I want to perfect my sun strobe gadget that puts me into indescribable eudaemonies and also build a Somatron-like vibroacoustic waterbed on which I can OM to resonate the body out to the extremities while driving a set of subwoofers under the bed with my voice. My theory is that if I can match the 'outer' and the 'inner' resonances, any sense of a separate self will dissolve. Of course putting this outdoors under a voice-activated sunstrobe.... or add the ROSHI EEG feedback device...

I'm going get a copy of your "Passions of Innocence" and also want to know what classes/seminars/workshops you might be teaching that would allow us to interact further. Can't wait!

At your lotus tootsies,

Ramon "Cultivate the rose 'Wondrous Kind Regard' that blossoms anterior to thought."

La Bella Jardinera

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May 27 2004

PJA wrote: Subject: Explicitly defining the jhanas

> > I believe there may be a barrier to explanation in translation and conceptual > structure occuring with the ecstatic states, and interpretation of what > ecstacy is...it is NOT mood.

Perhaps we need to actually describe in physical/emotional/mental detail what the possible experiences of each jhana state are like. For example, and this is only a possible example - I'm not the expert, and I'm only doing a quick five-minute version before rushing to work:

1st jhana: the heartbeat is felt as spreading first through the chest and then out to the fingertips and toes both as a rhythmic pulse and a pleasant warmth that creates joy and a sense of well-being, although thought continues. If you speak or chant, the voice resonates out through all the limbs of the body (all lateral tensions of the sort Wilhelm Reich termed body armor have dissipated).

Joy itself can be further defined as a flow of energy throughout the body - the so-called 'prana' or 'chi' from other traditions.

2nd jhana: thought ceases, joy and a sense of well-being intensify to the point where thought drops away of its own accord as the person is immersed in what could be termed a 'bubbly bath of chi". Smiles tend to occur spontaneously, and for myself, a kind of nursing movements of the tongue that a baby makes in its sleep.

3rd jhana: Sleep-nursing movements cease, but the tongue remains firmly affixed to the roof of the mouth with suction that creates a column of energy down to the 'hara' so that the whole body is now sensed as pure vibrational bliss.

I've got to go, but I'll copy this to my office e-mail and see if I can continue there. This is merely an EXAMPLE of the sort of specific, descriptive material that I think is necessary if we are ever to be able to pin down what the jhana experiences are all about.

Thank you,

Ramon

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May 29 2004

Subject: Quotes from Mind Surfing in the Now

from Mind Surfing in the Now: A Manual of Zen/Minfulness by Steve Mensing

8) CLOSE MOUTH: Comfortably close your mouth. Keep the tip of your tongue behind your upper front teeth. Swallow any saliva and let go of any air in your mouth to create a partial vacuum. For more details read chapter 2: Zen/Mindfulness Posture.

*To maintain continuous full attention we can repeatedly generate new tension in our lower abdomen. Here diaphragm muscles oppose abdominal muscles.

CHAPTER 3: ZEN/MINDFULNESS BREATHING

ALL ABOUT ZEN/MINDFULNESS BREATHING

*A straight back facilitates good breathing. Breathe from the lower abdomen, not the chest. When inhaling, the lower abdomen becomes slightly convex as it fills with air. When exhaling, the lower abdomen becomes concave.

*Breath is taken in naturally and easily by relaxing the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. At the same time allow the lower abdomen to inflate. Thediaphragm is then contracted while the abdominal muscles are tensed. This prevents chest breathing.

*Expire naturally to avoid strain. Toward the bottom of the exhale, you can contract the diaphragm to make it work in opposition to the contraction of the abdominal muscles.

*After establishing a good posture, take a deep breath, hold it, and comfortably and quietly let it go. Repeat this 3 times, breathing slowly through your nose. Breathe naturally from your belly after you do the 3 deep inhalations and exhalations. Let go of manipulating the breath. Let the breathing take care of itself. Fast, medium, or slow--it does not matter.

*As we mature in practice, our breath almost stops. Breathing becomes longer and longer, softer and softer. At times breathing appears not to be stirring.

*To get your center of gravity down in your lower abdomen, so your breathing is more abdominal, imagine your nostrils are two inches below your navel. In a minute or so let go of this visualization and let your breathing become natural.

*A sagging spine and growing thoughts give way to quickened or jerky breathing. This increases muscular tensions which saps your energy and leads to a lack of clarity.

*If you lose awareness of your breath because it becomes too fine, simply shift your awareness to your posture. More on "Breath counting" and "Following the breath" in the next chapter.

*Let go of making a technique of your breathing--just allow it to happen. Let the breathing do the breathing.

*Breathe through the nose except when stuffed up.

Breath should neither be rasping, nor restricted, neither too long or too short, too weak or too forced.

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May 17 2004

Dear S:
I very much enjoyed both your lecture and workshop at the Assacon event. Lots of good folks made it very worthwhile. I probably did not mention much about the exercises I've been putting together, but can point you to various ones on my website, such as: http://www.raysender.com/diagram3.html

This diagram, similar to one that you used, suggests the physical site in the brain for the I AM 'sense of presence' as the third ventricle - well, actually the spinal fluid itself, probably, which of course circulates throughout the nervous system.

This sense of presence then leads to the pineal, which I show crowning a posterior cross-section of the diencenphelon viewed upside-down. Wouldn't it make a beautiful temple somewhere? I just love it architecturally! http://www.raysender.com/diagram4.html

An earlier diagram I made in 1976 shows how consciousness retreats up the 'third eye' tunnel (pituitary to pineal) both in meditation and in the death experience. =http://www.raysender.com/solarold.html

The 'homo solaris' exercise is the basic one I keep returning to in my sonic meditation, and which now I refer to as "purring from the heart." http://www.raysender.com/homosolaris.html

This in turn evolved into the 'homo noeticus' version, which is basically the same exercise although sounded on a pitch.

After a while, this turned into a litttle sidebar: http://www.raysender.com/godsname.html

and that into a brief article "Snore your way to Nirvana" http://www.raysender.com/snore.html

The O-BE-ATA Project was explained on the one-pager I gave you, but can also be accessed here at http://www.raysender.com/obeata.html

In a separate e-mail I'm sending you information about the event my wife Judith (who dances around my eccentricities) and I are sponsoring this coming May 24.

Always standing under the waterfall of Her Blessings,

With much appreciation for your input,

Ramon (Ray) Sender

P.S. If I'm not over-inundating you, the following essay more or less explains my gambol up Mt. Meru, generally avoiding 'paths' as ecologically wearing down the turf. http://www.raysender.com/octopus.html

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May 16 2004

Brother R wrote:
> the idea of getting somewhere in an astonishingly short time is also > a short cut idea.

Short cuts take us 'off the path' and across the meadow. Paths can be understood as 'worn-out' parts of meadow from too many creatures following each other blindly for safety's sake.

I like short cuts, and I think Mother Nature likes them too. I think Mama has built in some short cuts for us, bless her, and I'm interested in collecting them all in one spot. For this reason, I started:

http://www.raysender.com/obeata.html

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May 14 2004

Subject: Remain in the heart of Self-Awareness-Love-Bliss. Never turn towards the world

P Wrote

#1. TURNING INWARD:

630. Having felt the sun's fierce heat,
the wise one stays in the shade,
and those who know the fire raging in the world,

#2. AWARENESS WATCHING AWARENESS:
862. Losing the false ego in awareness,
and firm abidance as awareness, is true clarity.
#3. ENCOURAGEMENT, THE GOAL:
974. Unbroken Self-Awareness
is the true bright path of devotion or love.
Knowledge of our inherent nature,
as indivisible supreme Bliss,
wells up as love.
1186. Uninterrupted and whole minded concentration on Self-Awareness,
our true, non-dual Being,
this is pure, supreme silence, the goal;
Not the lazy mind's inertia,
which is but a state of dark illusion.

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May 14 2004

Thanks for the web selections regarding the baptism. I use to make selections exactly like you.
I'd like to add some info, not presented there:

The symbol of the Christians was the fish, as a symbol of the baptized ones.

In the Orthodox Church, baptism is performed only by immersion (3 times).

The Baptism was traditionally performed during the coldest period of the winter. This indicates that the practice originated in northern areas, not in Israel.

"Baptize in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in running [literally, "living"] water. But if you do not have running water, Baptize in other water; and if you cannot Baptize in cold water, in warm water. But if you do not have either, pour water three times on the head in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Didache VII.1-3, in The Apostolic Fathers, ed. Kirsopp Lake [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1912], pp. 318-320).

Baptism was not found only in Judea. The worshippers of Mithra also baptized themselves. Christianity replaced the Mithraism in Europe and that's why almost all Mithraic rituals, including the Baptism are to be found into the Christianity.

An account of Epiphanius says that, on the night of the fifth of January, approximately at cock-crow, a statue of Aion was brought by torchlight out into the open from a subterranean sanctuary dedicated to Kore. To the accompaniment of pipes and tambourines the statue was carried seven times round the temple and then returned to its place. According to Epiphanius this ceremony signifies that on that night Aion was brought into the world by Kore. The Time-god was born, and this conception is closely related to the Modena scene of Mithras's birth as Time-god.

In Ancient Greek, as well as in Koine, baptizo means bouto ("to dip into water," "to immerse"), and baptisma means boutegma (a derivative of bouto), that is, "immersion."

The earliest documents of The Church, written around 125 C.E. show that baptism followed about two years of preparation. If you went to church, you sat through The Word of God, and then left before communion, until you were baptized. Adults were baptized in the nude, facing East, and in cold water whenever possible. Whole families - babies, slaves, and adults were baptized together. This was part of the early Lenten disciplines.

In texts relatively old, baptism is presented as an "illumination" (fwtismoV) of which Jesus, needless to say, is the sun. [13] A baptismal hymn quoted in the Epistle to the Ephesians (v, 14), and more completely by Clement of Alexandria {Protreptikos, viii, 84), contained the following apostrophe:
Awake, thou sleeper,
rise up from among the dead,
And he who is Christ the Lord shall enlighten thee,
the sun of the resurrection
Begotten before the dayspring
giving life by his beams.

Later appeared the holy water for sprinkling, instead of baptism by immersion as given in the Bible (Acts 8:35-38; Rom 6:3-5)

Best Wishes

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

from Mind Surfing in the Now: A Manual of Zen/Minfulness
by Steve Mensing

CLOSE MOUTH: Comfortably close your mouth. Keep the tip of your tongue behind your upper front teeth. Swallow any saliva and let go of any air in your mouth to create a partial vacuum. For more details read chapter 2: Zen/Mindfulness Posture.
*To maintain continuous full attention we can repeatedly generate new tension in our lower abdomen. Here diaphragm muscles oppose abdominal muscles.

CHAPTER 3: ZEN/MINDFULNESS BREATHING
ALL ABOUT ZEN/MINDFULNESS BREATHING
*A straight back facilitates good breathing. Breathe from the lower abdomen, not the chest. When inhaling, the lower abdomen becomes slightly convex as it fills with air. When exhaling, the lower abdomen becomes concave.
*Breath is taken in naturally and easily by relaxing the diaphragm and abdominal muscles. At the same time allow the lower abdomen to inflate. Thediaphragm is then contracted while the abdominal muscles are tensed. This prevents chest breathing.
*Expire naturally to avoid strain. Toward the bottom of the exhale, you can contract the diaphragm to make it work in opposition to the contraction of the abdominal muscles.
*After establishing a good posture, take a deep breath, hold it, and comfortably and quietly let it go. Repeat this 3 times, breathing slowly through your nose. Breathe naturally from your belly after you do the 3 deep inhalations and exhalations. Let go of manipulating the breath. Let the breathing take care of itself. Fast, medium, or slow--it does not matter.
*As we mature in practice, our breath almost stops. Breathing becomes longer and longer, softer and softer. At times breathing appears not to be stirring.
*To get your center of gravity down in your lower abdomen, so your breathing is more abdominal, imagine your nostrils are two inches below your navel. In a minute or so let go of this visualization and let your breathing become natural.
*A sagging spine and growing thoughts give way to quickened or jerky breathing. This increases muscular tensions which saps your energy and leads to a lack of clarity.
*If you lose awareness of your breath because it becomes too fine, simply shift your awareness to your posture. More on "Breath counting" and "Following the breath" in the next chapter.
*Let go of making a technique of your breathing--just allow it to happen. Let the breathing do the breathing.
*Breathe through the nose except when stuffed up.
Breath should neither be rasping, nor restricted, neither too long or too short, too weak or too forced.
-=-=-=-=-=

1 May 2004
Perhaps we need to describe in physical/emotional/mental detail what the possible experiences of each jhana (absoprtion) state are like. For example, and this is only a possible example -- I'm not the expert and I'm only doing a quick five-minute version before rushing to work:
1st jhana: the heartbeat is felt as spreading first through the chest and then out to the fingertips and toes both as a rhythmic pulse and a pleasant warmth that creates joy and a sense of well-being, although thought continues. If you speak or chant, the voice resonates out through all the limbs of the body (all lateral tensions of the sort Wilhelm Reich termed body armor have dissipated).
Joy itself can be further defined as a flow of energy throughout the body - the so-called 'prana' or 'chi' from other traditions.
2nd jhana: thought ceases, joy and a sense of well-being intensify to the point where thought drops away of its own accord as the person is immersed in what could be termed a 'bubbly bath of chi". Smiles tend to occur spontaneously, and for myself, a kind of nursing movements of the tongue that a baby makes in its sleep. "One Taste is the taste of your own tongue."
3rd jhana: Sleep-nursing movements cease, but the tongue remains firmly affixed to the roof of the mouth with suction that creates a column of energy down to the 'hara' so that the whole body is now sensed as pure vibrational bliss.
I've got to go, but I'll copy this to my office e-mail and see if I can continue there. This is merely an EXAMPLE of the sort of specific, descriptive material that I think is necessary if we are ever to be able to pin down what the jhana experiences are all about.
Thank you,
R