The Idea of the Essence of the Number 5

The Fireplace Records, Chapter 49

The Idea of the Essence of the Number 5

Master Koin asked Monk Dogen
"Express your idea of the number 5?"
Dogen raised his five fingers.
"Very good, that's a good hand," said Koin.
Both raised five fingers and laughed.

Koin held up
his right hand;
Dogen held up
his left hand---
mirror images

The Fireplace Records: Index of Chapter Titles. 

Links to the Cloud Hands Blog Posts.

By Michael P. Garofalo. 49 Chapters as of 2/20/2026.

Zen Koans: The Fireplace Records
Koans by Mike Garofalo

Zen Koan Studies

Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans

Reading Wittgenstein

Buddhism

It should be noted that all the koans after Number 49
in the Fireplace Records are very brief poems, remarks,
questions, koans, and onions. 

Check out The Whole World is a Single Flower by 
Zen Master Seung Sahn (1927-2004). His 365 koans
are often quite brief. 

Jnana Mudra

 

The Jnana Mudra represents knowledge, insight, experience, and wisdom.  

Jnana Yoga (theistic and non-theistic) is a path of learning, reading, listening, discussing, knowing, meditating, and understanding.

For me, I interpret this hand gesture, the Jnana Mudra, as follows:

Little Finger:  Ethics, Doing Good, Avoiding Evil, Sharing, Compassion

Ring Finger:  Healthy Living, Proper Diet, Exercise, Sleep, Meditation, Rest, Respect for Body of Self and Others, Actions, Work

Middle Finger:  Improving your Mind, Refining your mind, Self-Understanding, Awareness, Know Thyself, Self-Realization

Index Finger Touching Thumb:

  Connecting with Others, Friendships, Sangha

  Interconnectivity, Connections, Interdependence, World-Life

  Zero, Emptiness, Transformations of Everything,
  Insubstantiality of Self, Death, Boundlessness

  Circle of Life, Cycles, Round and Round

  Buddhist Wheel with Eight Spokes Symbol, Eightfold Path

  Sun, Great Eastern Sun, Energy-Power, Life Giving

  

Attention

 “Do stuff.  Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead.  Pay attention.  It's all about paying attention.  Attention is vitality.  It connects you with others.  It makes you eager.  Stay eager.” -  Susan Sontag

"Attention (prosoche) is the fundamental Stoic spiritual attitude. It is a continuous vigilance and presence of mind, a self-consciousness which never sleeps, and a constant tension of the spirit. Thanks to this attitude, the philosopher is fully aware of what he does at each instant, and he wills his actions fully. Thanks to this spiritual vigilance, the Stoic always has "at hand" (procheiron) the fundamental rule of life: that is, the distinction between what depends on us and what does not." p. 84

Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault.By Pierre Hadot.  Edited with an introduction by Arnold Davidson.  Translated by Michael Chase.  Malden, Massachusetts, Wiley-Blackwell, 1995.  Index, extensive bibliography, 320 pages.  ISBN: 978-0631180333.  VSCL.

"Everywhere and at all times, it is up to you to rejoice piously at what is occurring at the present moment, to conduct yourself with justice towards the people who are present here and now, and to apply rules of discernment to your present representations, so that nothing slips in that is not objective."
- Marcu Aurelius, Meditations

The Dumpling Discourse

 The Fireplace Records, Chapter 44

The Dumpling Discourse

It was a hot day in July when Carol and Adolf met in a tea shop in Portland. They sipped iced tea and chatted about Taoism for an hour.

Adolf asked Carol, "What is beyond the Tao?" Carol answered, "Either the Dark Void or preparing hot oatmeal."

Adolf sarcastically replied, "Yunmen is direct, he says '"Dumplings.' You are caught in either/or, dualisms, and straying from the spot!" Carol said "Purported Zen Masters seldom cook."

Adolf raised his right hand, like Gutei, and gave Carol the middle finger. Carol slapped the finger of his right hand.

Adolf got up and went to the toilet. While urinating, like Master Omori Sogen, he was suddenly awakened. While he was away, Carol left for home.

She worked in her home garden. She weeded and watered. She picked two squash. Like the Tao, she grew living beings. She went indoors and cooked some hot oatmeal. She added raisins to the mush. She ate. She smiled. Her dark blue bowl was then empty. She was ordinary and clear mined. 

Comments, Sources, Observations, Koans, Poems, Quips:

Omori Sogen, "Introduction to Zen Training" Tuttle, 2001,2020.

"What is talk transcending the Buddhas and Patriarchs?", Yunmen's translated answers "Sesame Cakes", "Rice cakes", "Dumplings."
See BOS 78, ZE 42, ENT 88, WWSF 348, BCR 77

Gutei's One Finger Zen
BCR 19, BOS 84, DSMS 245, GB 30, SOH 21

If the answer can be 'the oak tree in the courtyard,' then the answer can be 'eating oatmeal with raisins.'

Irrelevant answers are a staple spontaniety of Zen tricksters. 

Some say nonsensical Zen Koan answers are free and natural poety; however, they are often just bad poetry.

Which finger was the "one finger?"

People are Makers, Imitating the Dao - The Great Maker, Doer, Creator.  Sometimes even seeming to go Beyond the Dao.

636 Riddles, Jokes, Witticisms, Humor

Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Stories. 

Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans

Zen Buddhist Koans: Indexes, Bibliography, Commentary, Information

The Daodejing by Laozi

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings, Quips, Maxims, Humor

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

The Fireplace Records (Blog Version) By Michael P. Garofalo

The Spirit of Gardening

Feeling the Touch, Touching to Feel

"There are several basic kinds of touch that you may experience:  Intimate -- Here, your pressure receptors respond to a handshake, hug or kiss. If the person giving the touch is someone you care about, you'll probably feel warm and comforted. Your pressure sensors send the feeling of how hard the embrace is, and your brain interprets the nature of the touch as soothing.  Healing or therapeutic -- This type of touch is often associated with massage or acupuncture. Sometimes, the pressure is gentle and meant to soothe sore muscles. Other times, the pressure is deep in order to work out knots. Despite differences in severity of pressure, you likely to be aware that the outcome is healing, so your body allows you to relax.  Exploratory or inquisitive -- We all learn about the world through our sense of touch. Many people test out foods, fabrics or other objects by feeling different textures. Sometimes it's possible to rely solely on the sense of touch. This is why it's easy for you to reach into your bag and find a pair of keys without looking. You know the cold feeling of the metal key and hard smooth feel of your plastic key chain.  Aggressive or painful -- Of course, we all know that touch can also equate to pain if the pressure is too much and the intent is wrong. A handshake that's too firm can be uncomfortable instead of reassuring."

-  Psychology of Touching

"The hand is so widely represented in the brain, the hand's neurologic and biomechanical elements are so prone to spontaneous interaction and reorganization, and the motivations and efforts which give rise to individual use of the hand are so deeply and widely rooted, that we must admit that we are trying to explain a basic imperative of human life."
-  Frank R. Wilson, M.D., The Hand, p. 10

“If a thing can be said to be, to exist, then such is the nature of these expansive times that this thing which is must suffer to be touched. Ours is a time of connection; the private, and we must accept this, and it’s a hard thing to accept, the private is gone. All must be touched. All touch corrupts. All must be corrupted."
-  Tony Kushner, Homebody/Kabul

"Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together."
-  John Ruskin 

Touching

The Five Senses 

Ling Gu "Miraculous Bone" Acupressure Technique

    "Perhaps the most famous, and one of the most commonly used points of Tung Ching Ch'ang's (1916-1975) system is Ling Gu.  The name 'Ling Gu' literally means 'miraculous bone,' and without a doubt the effectiveness of Ling Gu is extraordinary.  Ling Gu is located on the back of the hand in the space between the thumb and first finger, as far back as possible at the junction of the metacarpal bones.  It is in a similar location to the conventional point He Gu LI-4, but is located closer to the wrist than He Gu. 
     In Chinese medical terms, Ling Gu frees the channels and quickens the network vessels (luo mai), clears and regulates Lung qi, frees and descends the Stomach and intestines, frees the qi and disperses stasis.  Since it has a very strong moving function it is a main point to treat many types of pain.  However, because of its strong moving function it should not be used on pregnant women.
     The list of conditions the Ling Gu point treats includes migraine, low back pain, sciatica, facial paralysis, hemiplegia (e.g., paralysis after stroke), tinnitus, deafness, menstrual disorders (irregular, scanty, profuse, absent), frequent urination, incontinence, foot pain, intestinal pain, and breathing difficulties.  I usually recommend this point for home acupressure treatment in patients with any type of headache, low back pain, sciatica or leg pain. 
     To stimulate the point, press deep into the hand using the thumb of the opposite hand.  Pressure should be strong enough to feel a numbing or aching sensation deep in the point.  Hold the pressure for several seconds and then release.  Repeat several times for the next minute or two.  Remember to stimulate the point on the opposite side of where the pain is felt.  The, be sure move the area of the pain (the Moving Qi technique).  For example, to treat right-sided back or leg pain, press into the left Ling Gu.  At the same time bend and stretch the low back, or move the leg that is painful.  Repeat this stimulation several times per day or as needed."
 -  Henry McCann, DAOM, LAc, "Tung Lineage Classical Acupuncture," Qi: the Journal of Traditional Eastern Health and Fitness, Volume 25, No. 1, Spring, 2015, pp. 26-33.


Self Massage and Acupressure

Qigong and Healing

Hand, Touching, Haptics

  

String Figures from Native Americans

 Repost from 2013:

"Take a deep breath of all the stories that live here. A re-ligious act, to be true to the origin of the word “re-ligios”- to re-tie, re-link - is to find ways to re-connect, re-turn, re-imagine.”

In the winter season, we are allowed to say,

“Ts' its' tsi' nako,
Thought-Woman, the Spider
named things and as she named them they appeared.
She is sitting in her room thinking of a story now
I'm telling you the story she is thinking.”
-  Keresan Pueblo introduction

The Hands of the Spider Woman by Lauren Rain

Strings on Your Fingers by Mike Garofalo

Spider Grandmother weaves the Grand Cosmic Web and then spins off the planets and stars in the Navaho myths.  Zuni myths say the Spider Grandmother gave the art of string figures into the hands of the children.  Spider Grandmother is a powerful earth spirit being, the primary Creatrix of the cosmos and mind, a source of boundless imagination and the creation of the new.  An archaic Goddess of Weaving is essential to a pleasant life for all our people. 

Many Stars, Son-thlani, or Spider Grandmother’s Web is one of my favorite Navaho string figures to make.  I usually do the Spider Web (Jayne SF51) string figure first, for ritual purposes, to remind myself of my debt to all the people who have helped me learn to make string figures, everyone past and present are here symbolized as the Cosmic Web of Spider Grandmother.  

The image above is of the string figure called The Apache Door (Jayne SF12) known to many string players.  A different Navaho string figure, with a criss-crossing web pattern, is called Many Stars (Jayne SF51).    

Hands, Fingers, Feeling, Touching by Mike Garofalo

Strings on Your Fingers by Mike Garofalo

2024 Update

I recently found a brand of string that works fairly well when making string figures. It is called Cora's Cotton Craft Cord Dyeable Fiber 2 mm/.08 in in diameter.  

The best string I've used for make string figures with my hands was a string used by carpenters or masons or gardeners to mark out a straight line during construction.  I'm still looking for the correct brand of string, softness, strength, thickness, flexibility, etc.

String Figures Bibliography

 

Strings on Your Fingers

String Figures, String Tricks, String Catches, Rope and Twine Knots
String and Rope Designs, Knotting, Cat's Cradle Games with String
Northwest American Indian String Figures Research
String Figures and Storytelling Performances by Michael P. Garofalo
Version 3, 2021

 

With Open Arms

For an excellent presentation on how the various parts of our bodies influence other parts and interact with our nervous/brain system read "The Embodied Mind" by Thomas R. Verny, M.D., 2021. Chapter 8 deals with the impact of our hearts on on our personality, energy levels, hormonal levels, alertness, emotions, etc., pp. 134-159.

A question:  Does the Heart Chakra govern, control, energetically interact with, or involve both arms?  

In the above artwork, from the cover of "Wheels of Life" by Anodea Judith, 1987, the Heart Chakra zone of the body is highlighted in a green color.  One would infer from the artwork that the arms are in the zone of the Heart Chakra.  In Anodea Judith's chart of correspondences for Chakra Four she lists parts of the body: lungs, heart, arm, hands. 
It would make sense from the point of view of the fact that most labor, work, productive activity involves the arms and hands.  We often work hard and long for those we love.  We hug those we love.  I like to welcome yogis, taoists, and druids with open arms.  I love to move my arms about gracefully in yoga, chi kung, and tai chi postures an know this helps my heart and lungs, the zone of the fourth chakra.  

The Chinese speak of mind-heart (hsin) and human nature (hsing) from Menicus.  

心

Hsin literally means "heart." It means mind, not the deluded mind of the ignorant but the Buddha-mind. Hsin is the mind that merge with the all-encompassing One Mind.

  

There is a Middle Dan Tien in chi kung theory.  It is in the heart area.  

Citta, a Pali word, refers to one's state of mind, emotional state, one's heart-mind, the quality of mental processes as a whole, heart-mind field of consciousness.

Tantric Yoga
Heart Chakra, Metta, Heart-Mind, Loving Kindness

The Sounds of One Hand

             The Fireplace Records, Chapter 41

The Sounds of One Hand

Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769) was dedicated to help others attain insight, good behavior, generosity, and enlightenment. He was famous for his outstanding calligraphy and ink paintings. He composed many essays and sermons on Buddhism. 

One koan he frequently used to help his students was "What is the sound of one hand?" 

The Sounds of One Hand

Hakuin's cane struck the shoulders of his sleeping student.

The infant raised one hand and cried out.

He reached out and handed the child a book.

He slapped his hand on the table and said "No!"

The drummer's stick hit the snare drum.

He cut his hand with the sharp knife and cried out.

The soldier's severed hand rotted in the mud.

The pupil composed himself and then extended one hand forward.

The student slapped Hakuin's face.

The sound of silence in one hand.

The mother patted her hand on her daughter's shoulder

His hand made a fist.

He shook the hand of his rival.

He handed the beggar a $20.00 bill.

He dreamt that his one hand was stuck in the rocks.

He felt pain in his one hand thrust into the ice cold water.

He held the burning cigarette in his left hand.

The judge struck his gavel on the desk to return order in the court.

Her beautiful hand gently touched his face as he smiled.

The soccer players exchanged high-fives after one scored a goal.

He extended his hand to help up the old woman who had fallen down.

They lovers held hands and gently kissed.

He slurped the Mizo soup from the spoon in his right hand.

He clapped one hand on his knee to applaud the child singing.

The Dragon's claws scratched the Pearl that he grasped in his fist.

Hakuin's dragon cane clicked on the hardwood floor as he walked out.

Comments, Sources, Observations, Koans, Poems, Quips:

Now I understand the difference between reality and Reality.
If when clapping both hands a sound is heard; what is the sound of the one hand?
Making a sound or hearing a sound; which came first?
Did you hear the sound of one hand from the front or from the back?
Many sounds can be made with one hand.
You must do something to make a sound with one hand.
The sound of one hand is "one hand."

The moving hand and its sound are simultaneous.
The still hand is silent.

"The hand is the cutting edge of the mind."  - Jacob Bronowski

“We leave traces of ourselves wherever we go, on whatever we touch.”
-  Lewis Thomas

Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769) painted a Dragon Staff with a horsehair whisk attached. He would give this painting to his lay students who passed the Zen koan, "What is the sound of one hand clapping."

Magic Pearl Qigong

Dragon Qigong

Staff, Cane, Stick, Whisk

Hands, Fingers, Touch, Feeling, Manipulation

Sounds, Listening, Silence, Hearing

636 Riddles, Jokes, Witticisms, Humor

Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Stories. 

Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans

Zen Buddhist Koans: Indexes, Bibliography, Commentary, Information

The Daodejing by Laozi

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings, Quips, Maxims, Humor

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

The Fireplace Records (Blog Version) By Michael P. Garofalo

Falling Down, Then Sitting

I was cheerfully and energetically walking with my dog, Bruno, on Sunday morning (9/10).  The weather was cool and overcast, almost foggy. We both had spirit and liveliness in our quick walking pace. The evergreen pines were impressive borders to our morning jaunt, and many deciduous shrubs and trees added a few autumn colors to delight our views.  

Suddenly, a large black cat jumped out from some shrubs and scrambled directly in front of our path.  Bruno, predictably, lunged in pursuit of his longstanding DNA enemy. I gathered my strength and balance and controlled his aggressiveness via the leash. We walked another ten feet.  Then Bruno suddenly turned in front of me and ran into my legs. I quickly lost my balance and fell forward on to the asphalt street.

I injured my left knee, right hand, right shoulder, and overall sense of well-being.  Blood dripped from my hand and bruised knee. I slowly assessed the damage, and gradually returned to standing, supported by my cane.  We slowly and carefully walked back home.

Karen helped me bandage and treat my wounds.  I applied ice to my bruised knee. I rested and hoped for the best.

I had a scheduled a yurt camping trip to Pacific Beach State Park on the Southwestern Washington Pacific coast, from 9/11-9/14. I was quite disappointed that I could not go camping because of my leg injuries from the Sunday fall.  I lost the $150.00 I had spent on the Yurt reservations.

Now, for three days, I have been sitting, resting, doing some gentle massage and rehab movements for my bruised knee, icing, and reading.

Multiple injuries to my right hand, and arthritis, have resulted in permanent impairment, pain, and weakness in my dominant right hand. 

Injuries to my legs have resulted in fewer problems and more rapid recovery.  

I've been reading many books on 20th Century history.  I particularly enjoyed "The Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails" by Sarah Bakewell. The extreme challenges and choices of Europeans living from 1910-1960 are very disturbing to read about. Bakewell tells the story via the lives of many French and German intellectuals of that era. Eric Hobsbawn's "The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991" chronicles the influences of socialism, fascism, communism, capitalism, and the devastating Wars, and the Cold War, during that time period. 

I had anticipated adding reports, photographs, and poems about my yurt camping trip to Pacific Beach after I returned on Thursday (9/14). 

In the remaining three months ahead in 2023, I have scheduled Yurt camping beach trips to Nehalem Bay, Grayland, and Cape Lookout. Each month, I yurt camp four days and three nights at a State Park along the ocean shores. Hopefully, I will be physically able to enjoy these local adventures and retreats to the Pacific Coast in 2023 and 2024.

Lake Quinault

Ocean Shores State Park

Memories of Pacific Coast Places: Highway 101 and 1

Reports from Yurt Camping Retreats at the Ocean from 2021

Yurt Camping

The Roshi's Clapping Cell Phone

The Fireplace Records, Chapter 19

The Roshi's Clapping Cell Phone

"What is the sound of one hand clapping? asked Hakuin Ekaku in 1740.

Thousands of monks and householders have introspected this famous Zen Koan Case since 1740.  They pounded on tables with one hand, tapped their staff against the floor with one hand, and came up with many wordy replies to reveal the sound of one hand clapping.  

After years of study with Hakuin, after satisfactory revealing the spiritual and psychic impact of the koans, after achieving enlightenment, and after following the Dharma Path thereafter, Hakuin would award his close friend/student, his Dharma heir, with a painting of a whisk and dragon staff.

 

Of course, the mind does the clapping itself, patting ourselves on the back with one hand, cheering us on, applauding our daily efforts.
Bravo! With one hand or two hands clapping, no matter, show your respect and appreciation for all our good work.  

Haikuin painted with one hand, and applauded his student's efforts and achievements.   

My Roshi has a Apple cellphone.  His ring tone is the sound of clapping. Naturally, he holds the phone with one hand.  

I applaud his Dharma efforts!  He needs a pat on the back.  

A Student's Considerations:

Different centuries, different ideas and things at hand.
Applaud, clap for, cheer on the good efforts of everyone.  
Talking is the father of metaphors.
Practical realists would say that a single hand makes no clapping sound; but, poets and mystics favor playing with entangling expressions. And,
we all hear the sound and know the direct meaning of a pat on the back.
Occasionally, the wrong answer is revealing in new ways. 
Even if a pat on the back is not forthcoming, keeping working.      

Related Links, Resources, References

Koans:

Virtue Ethics

Gratitude

Time Movement Change Transformation Mortality

Process Philosophy

Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Dialogues.

The Daodejing by Laozi    Best? 

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

Taoism

Buddhism

Fireplaces, Stoves, Campfires, Kitchens, Pots, Firewood

Chinese Art

Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong

Meditation Methods

Zen Koan Books I Use

Koan Database Project

Brief Spiritual Lessons Database Project: Subject Indexes

Sparks: Brief Spiritual Lessons and Stories

Matches to Start a Kindling of Insight
May the Light from Your Inner Fireplace Help All Beings
Taoist, Chan Buddhist, Zen Buddhist, Philosophers
Catching Phrases, Inspiring Verses, Koans, Meditations
Indexing, Bibliography, Quotations, Notes, Resources
Research by Michael P. Garofalo

The Fireplace Records
By Michael P. Garofalo

The Art of Little Trees

I have enjoyed growing plants in pots since I was a child.  We still grow many small tomatoes in pots in our back yard in the summer.  Here is a display of one of our bonsai.  

When I was a teenager in 1960, I used the Montebello Library and their bonsai art books.  Many of the bonsai photos, back then, were in black and white.  Now there are many bonsai books in full color.  The worked from 1962-1968 for the City of Commerce Public Library in East Los Angeles.  

The Montebello Library housed the Asian-Pacific Resource Center back in 1998.  The Montebello Library is a Regional Library of the County of Los Angeles Public Library System.  

I was employed by the Country Library in 1974 as a reference librarian at the old Compton Library; and, many years later, after promotions and successes, I decided to retire in 1998 from my position as the Regional Administrator of East Region of the County Library.  I moved to Red Bluff, California, and in 1999 became the District Librarian and Technology and Media Services Supervisor for the Corning Union Elementary School District (K-8, 2,300 students) and worked till 70 years of age. 

I held many thousand's of books and many media products in my hands, and boxes of these inanimate objects, from 1963-2017.  

I believe that millions of minds were informed, entertained, educated, persuaded, uplifted, and prepared to pass along and act on our common culture starting in 1962, and back then our talk about what our "future" was to be in 1963-1998 in East Los Angeles.  '

Hands, Touching, Moving, Feeling, Manipulating on Command

A Hypertext Notebook by Mike Garofalo  

Holding a book
reading
2019
Vancouver
WA

Deep Wisdom Within Our Very Flesh

"The human body is not an instrument to be used, but a realm of one's being to be experienced, explored, enriched and, thereby, educated."
-  Thomas Hanna

"There is deep wisdom within our very flesh,  if we can only come to our senses and feel it."
 -  Elizabeth A. Behnke

"He who feels it, knows it more."-  Bob Marley  

 "The hand is the cutting edge of the mind."
-  Jacob Bronowski


'The Heavenly Level is the function of feeling."
-  Cheng Man-ch'ing

"No matter how closely we look, it is difficult to find a mental act that can take place without the support of some physical function."
-  Moshe Feldenkrais  

"I would have touched it like a child
But knew my finger could but have touched
Cold stone and water.   I grew wild,
Even accusing heaven because
It had set down among its laws:
Nothing that we love over-much
Is ponderable to our touch."-  W. B. Yeats  

Touching, Feeling, Sensation: Quotations

The Five Senses

Bodymind Theory and Practices, Somaesthetics

Self-Massage 

(Originally posted on 4/3/16.)

Hands and Touching

"The hand is the cutting edge of the mind."
-  Jacob Bronowski

"The mind has exactly the same power as the hands: not merely to grasp the world, but to change it."

-  Colin Wilson 

"By rubbing up against the world, I define myself to myself."
-  Deane Juhan

"The upper limb is the lightning rod to the soul."
-  Robert Markison

“We leave traces of ourselves wherever we go, on whatever we touch.”
-  Lewis Thomas

Hands and Touching:  http://www.egreenway.com/reason/touch.htm

"When things get out of control, we say they are out of hand. When we want to take control, we try to get a grip, or get a handle on things. When we are missing a view of fundamental reality, we say we are out of touch. When we are likely to say something, truthful, but possibly embarrassing, our mothers tell us to sit on our hands. This last one describes the interesting relationship between the hands and speech. Stifle the hands and the mouth is mute, but the body, its weight squirming on restrained hands, hints of things ready to pop from the mouths of babes. So which came first? The intelligent use of the hands? I would say so, hands down. If the hands have the power to restrain speech, we know where they fit the hierarchy in relation to the brain.

    Educators like Froebel, Otto Salomon, and Felix Adler made it quite clear that the education of the hands was a direct means of social liberation, not just for the lower classes, but for all. It wasn't a conspiracy. They were very clear about their objectives. Froebel's kindergartens were shut down for a time by the Kaiser. Could it be that the Kaiser and rulers of other nations had not yet figured out how to disguise their intentions? There are at this point countless confirmations of the fact that all human expressions of intelligence both in art/craft and the written/spoken word are rooted in the hands. One is the insight that the study of metaphor provides. Another is Susan Goldin-Meadow's study of gesture at the University of Chicago. Still another is the baby signs movement in which children are being taught sign language first, before speech and realizing a major advancement in verbal skills as a result.

    There are at this point countless confirmations of the fact that all human expressions of intelligence both in art/craft and the written/spoken word are rooted in the hands. One is the insight that the study of metaphor provides. Another is Susan Goldin-Meadow's study of gesture at the University of Chicago. Still another is the baby signs movement in which children are being taught sign language first, before speech and realizing a major advancement in verbal skills as a result."
-  Doug Stowe, The Hands as Metaphor

Taiji Cane - Gene Burnett

Taiji Cane, Tai Chi Chuan Cane/Stick/Staff/Zhang
Bibliography, Links, Styles, Instruction, Notes, Resources
By Mike Garofalo

"Gene Burnett teaches T'ai-Chi in Ashland, Oregon, and has been teaching since 1985. He was certified to teach T'ai-Chi by Andrew Dale, chief instructor of the Xin Qi Shen Dojo in Seattle, Washington.  
He combines traditional Chinese principles of health, balance and self-defense with a Western, psychological, Bioenergetic approach in an on-going exploration of the body/mind connection."

Water Study Chi Kung with Gene Burnett

Gene Burnett teaches a two part cane form which can be used in partner practice.  He said that Andrew Dale created this interesting and valuable cane form, and it was based on an Aikido short staff form.  

I do not know how to do this cane form.  I am attracted to the types of strong offensive strikes.  You would need to be trained, practiced, calm, gentle, trusting, and follow formal rules for "safe' partner practice of this cane form.  

Anyone in Vancouver, Washington, want to learn and practice this cane form?  Write me.  


Gene Burnett offers many instructional videos on the Taiji Cane on Utube.  

The Wonderful Hands of Tai Chi

Tai Chi's "Wonderful Hand."
Chang Cheung-hsing's "Message of His Discovery of the General Theory of Tai Chi Ch'uan."

"Totally Yin with Yang is "Soft Hand".
Totally Yang without Yin is "Hard Hand".
10% Yin with 90% Yang is "Hard Rod Hand".
20% Yin with 80% Yang is "Combat Hand".
30% Yin with 70% Yang is "Rigid Hand".
40% Yin with 60% Yang may be classified as "Good Hand".
Only 50% Yang beautifully matched with 50% Yin, without being partial to either Yin or Yang, is regarded as "Wonderful Hand".
The execution of "Wonderful Hand: is an expression of Tai Chi.
When all images and forms are completely neutralized, things once again return to their original state of "nothingness." "
- Cloud Hands, Inc. Tai Chi Chuan: The Technique of Power, p 75. By Cloud Hands Inc., 2003. 290 pages. ISBN: 0974201308. VSCL.

My teacher, Sifu Knack, once spoke of "Blood Hand." It is when you punch so hard that the blood of your opponent is on your fist.


Hands, Touching, Grasping

Push Hands in Tai Chi Chuan

Knowing Things Through Touching

One has eyes everywhere and knows things through touching.


"Even if one becomes blind one can still use the hands to touch the nose.
One has eyes everywhere and knows things through touching.
This is the spirit of one's heart, containing the heaven's and earth.
One can see without eyes and listen without ears.
If one is able to calm down and not be agitated by desires,
one can know that one can return to the place where one comes from."
-  Saints and Sinners Reach the Same Goal Chapter, Verses 13-18
   "Translating the Xi Sui Jing" by Kevin Siddons and Hongyan Chen
   Qi - The Journal of Traditional Health and Fitness
   Autumn 2017, Volume 27, No. 3, p. 34

Hands On: Touching, Feeling, Grasping


"Touch has a memory"
-  John Keats

Push Hands, Sensing Hands

Cloud Hands: Taijiquan

One Broken Finger at a Time

Yesterday, unfortunately, I broke my right ring finger and bruised the end of that finger.   

We taped it to my right middle finger.  We have been applying ice to the finger.  

I will go to a local Urgent Care clinic today for an examination, X-rays as needed, and a recommendation.  

A unhandy setback that will slow me down.    

Even the Ring Finger Remembers

“The body uses its skin and deeper fascia and flesh to record all that goes on around it.  Like the Rosetta stone, for those who know how to read it, the body is a living record of life given, life taken, life hoped for, life healed.  It is valued for its articulate ability to register immediate reaction, to feel profoundly, to sense ahead.
        
     The body is a multilingual being.  It speaks through its color and its temperature, the flush of recognition, the glow of love, the ash of pain, the heart of arousal, the coldness of non-conviction.  It speaks through its constant tiny dance, sometimes swaying, sometimes a-jitter, sometimes trembling.  It speaks through the leaping of the heart, the falling of the spirit, the pit at the center, and rising of hope.

     The body remembers, the bones remember, the joints remember, even the little finger remembers.  Memory is lodged in pictures and feelings in the cells themselves.  Like a sponge filled with water, anywhere the flesh is pressed, wrung, even touched slightly, a memory may flow out in a stream.

     To confine the beauty and the value of the body to anything less than this magnificence is to force the body to live without its rightful spirit, its rightful form, its right to exultation.  To be thought ugly or unacceptable because one’s beauty is outside the current fashion is deeply wounding to the natural joy that belongs to the wild nature.”

-      By Clarissa Pinkola Estés,  Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, 1996  


Body-Mind Practices, Somaesthetics

The Five Senses

Touch, Skin, Feeling, Hands, Tactile