An Evidence of Leisure

"Today I have grown taller from walking with the trees."
-  Karle Wilson

"I like to walk about amidst the beautiful things that adorn the world."
-  George Santayana

How to Live a Good Life: Advice From Wise Persons

"I was never less alone than when by myself."
-  Edward Gibbon

"The walking stick serves the purpose of an advertisement that the bearer's hands are employed otherwise that in useful effort, and it therefore has utility as an evidence of leisure."
-  Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class

"... the brisk exercise imparts elasticity to the muscles, fresh and healthy blood circulates through the brain, the mind works well, the eye is clear, the step is firm, and the day's exertion always make the evening's repose thoroughly enjoyable."
-  Dr. David Livingstone


Currently, I am reading the books on pragmatism, Washington State, erotica, and the history of modern philosophy.  

On Desire: Why We Want What We Want  By William B. Irvine.  Oxford University Press, 2006.  322 pages. 

Walking - Quotations, Sayings, Poems, Lore

Solitude - Quotations  

Traveling, Camping and Hiking in Oregon

Pleasure, Satisfaction, Desire - Quotations



Nearly every Saturday morning, from 1998-2017, I walked four miles along a quiet paved country lane - Kilkenny Lane.  This was in a rural area about 8 miles south of Red Bluff, CA.  The photograph below, taken by Karen, was on a nice Spring day.  

Meeting Chang San-Feng on Mount Shasta

The Fireplace Records, Chapter 9

Meeting Along the Trail

"I first met Chang San-Feng above the forest, 

near the clear spring,
when gathering clouds darkened the day,
and Mt. Shasta was silent.

His long beard was black as emptiness,
ear lobes to his shoulders,
holding obsidian in his hand,
pointing to the sun,
eyes staring into infinity,
his long body clothed in silence.

We exchanged "hellos"
smiled and bowed,
a barbarian and an Immortal,
both panting from the climb,
laughing,
ten-thousand echoes
between our rocky minds.

After billions upon billions of heartbeats past
(for he must have been 888 years old),
I was so bold
as to ask the ancient one
for the sacred mantra of yore.
He lifted his whisk,
and brushed my face,
I could not speak,
my lips were stone,
ideas stopped - 
I was alone." 

-  Michael P. Garofalo, Red Bluff, California, 2003 

Gozo said, "When you meet a man of the Way on the trail, do not meet him with words or silence.  Tell me, how will you meet him?"
- The Gateless Barrier, Case 36

Layman Saihung, a good friend of Gozo, replied, "Maybe the man of Tao will greet me first with smiles and a Tai Chi hand salute. I'd smile and rattle the rings on my raised staff. How do I know he is a man of the Way?  Maybe I really don't want to meet this strange man. Maybe, no matter what I may do or not do, maybe I won't meet him. Do you enjoy befuddling me, Gozo!" 

Legends and Lore About Grand Master Chang San-Feng 

Meetings With Master Chang San-Feng 

Fireplace Records, Case 9  

One Old Daoist Druids Final Journey  

More often than not, Master Chang San-Feng and I met in my backyard garden in Red Bluff, California, from 2004-2017. He would show up and appear as a friendly old man who spoke softly and wisely.  

For example: 

After reaching for the needle at the bottom of the sea,
I looked up, one summer's eve,
to see old Chang San-Feng open the garden gate,
and join me for Tai Chi.  ...

Just his gentle voice could be heard at times, as if he was communicating through through plants or animals.  He would sometimes appear in my dreams.  

This was just one part of my Mystical Visions Training as a neophyte Daoist Druid from 2000-2010.  I also used the Voyager Tarot for interpretating artistic symbolism and mystical visions. Magikal and Shamanistic practices can also engender complex fantasies, visions, apparitions, appearances of unrealities and encouraged coincidences.  

Grand Master Chang San Feng is one of my religious fantasies.  

Master Chang is a Taoist and Chan Buddhist, a Spirit Being, an Immortal, Offering Lots of Light, an Influencer, Creative, Pure Jing, Immense Chi, The Uncarved Pillar Reborn, Again and Again, Delighted by Samsara, Intrigued by the Inconceivable.  He is secure and tranquil in samadhi, contributing good actions-works-expressions, bravely helping others, following the Precepts.  He encourages you to work at Becoming a Gentleman with Jen, discovering and daily applying the practices of qigong and taijiquan and healthy living, being grateful, becoming enlightened, right livelihood, and living akin to the Tao. These thoughts become spiritual dictums, hwa tuo capturing mantras, for some Taoists. Recurrent streams of these key themes are flowing into the Reservoir of the Daoist Canon and seasonal Taoist living and the Buddhist Sutras and Koans.   

Why are there so many strange earthly-psycho-metaphysical-profound experiences by hikers on Mount Shasta?  Does the altitude befuddle our brains? Does the impressive scenery around this rocky mountain, and the snow all around, and the wind drive us inward into a huddled stop? Resting, sitting, breathing steadily, sipping warm thermos tea, calming down, and dealing with breathing less oxygen at 10,000 feet.  

Master Chang and I never met again on Mt. Shasta.  
  

Related Links, Resources, References

Blue Cliff Record, Case ?  Entangling Vines, Case ?

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

Zen Koans, Testing Verses, Mondos, Dialogues, Stories
Bibliography, Quotations, Notes, Resources
Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo

The Fireplace Records By Michael P. Garofalo

Day Hiking - A Good Read

I have enjoyed day hikes for over 60 years.  My day hikes have taken place mostly in California and Oregon.  I have not done any backpacking since 1973. I enjoy tent camping and taking day hikes in the area where I camp.  I take walks nearly every day of the week.  

There are many books, magazine articles, and webpages with information on walks, day hikes, and backpacking.  One book that I have found useful to read regarding day hiking is the following:

The Dayhiker's Handbook: An All-Terrain, All-Season Guide.   By John Long and Michael Hodgson.  Camden, Maine, Ragged Mountain Press, 1996.  Index, appencices, 216 pages.  ISBN: 0070291462.  An excellent guide to preparing for and enjoying long day walks in the desert, mountains, jungles, canyons and streams, in the forest and along the coast.  Practical tips and useful advice.  VSCL. 

That is me on top of North Dome in Yosemite.
Quite a challenging day hike.

Day Hiking in Oregon

Day Hiking in California, Oregon and Washington
A hypertext notebook by Mike Garofalo.

Our next camping and day hiking trip in March will be to Nehalem Bay State Park in Oregon. We are staying in a yurt at the park. I plan to take long walks on the beaches, and hike up Neahkahnie Mountain.

My favorite travel guides to the Oregon coast are:

Day Hiking the Oregon Coast: Beaches, Headlands, Coastal Trail. By Bonnie Henderson. Seattle, Washington, Mountaineers Books, 2nd Edition, 2015. Index, 285 pages. ISBN: 9781594859090. VSCL.

Coastal Oregon. By W. C. McRae and Judy Jewell. A Moon Handbook. Avalon Travel Pub., 6th Edition, 2016. Index, appendices, 260 pages. ISBN: 1631212524. I use the 3rd Edition. VSCL. 

The photograph below was taken from the top of Neahkahnie Mountain, looking south. In the middle left is Nehalem Bay. We have gone crabbing in Nehalem Bay.   

The Practice of Walking

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."
-   Henry David Thoreau
"To find new things, take the path you took yesterday." 
-   John Burroughs

"Allow walking to occupy a place of stature equal with all the other important activities in your life.  As difficult as that might seem, here's how to do it.  Make it a practice.  That's right.  Turn your walking into a vehicle for personal growth as well as for fitness.  This will add a higher level of integrity and intention to your approach because you will find that it is a way to deepen and upgrade your relationship to your body.  Instead of merely giving your legs and a good workout, you'll be practicing to relax more, to breathe better, to expand your vision, to open up your range of motion, to increase your energy, to feel and sense your body.  The list is exciting - and endless.  With all of this to look forward to, your walking program will take its place alongside everything in your life you value most, and you'll be amazed at how easy it is to schedule time for something you really love to do."
-  Katherine Dreyer, Chi Walking  

Way of Walking: Quotes, Sayings, Poems, Lore

Here is my walking path. It is a .35 mile, asphalt paved, cul-de-sac, Kilkenny Lane, in Red Bluff, California.  Kilkenny Lane moves in an east-west direction from the front of my home to Highway 99 West.  I practice Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong in the circular area in front of my house shown the foreground of this picture.  I rarely encounter a car on Kilkenny Lane.     

 

"Walk," Joy Replied

"People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle.  But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth.  Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes.  All is a miracle."
-   Thich Nhat Hanh

"Now shall I walk
or shall I ride?
"Ride," Pleasure said:
"Walk," Joy replied.
-   W.H. Davies

"The Road goes every on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And wither then?  I cannot say."
-   J. R. R. Tolkein, Lord of the Rings

"... in the distant woods or fields, in unpretending sprout-lands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even in a bleak and, to most, cheerless day, like this, when a villager would be thinking of his inn, I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related, and that cold and solitude are friends of mine. I suppose that this value, in my case, is equivalent to what others get by churchgoing and prayer. I come home to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home. I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are, grand and beautiful. I have told many that I walk every day about half the daylight, but I think they do not believe it. I wish to get the Concord, the Massachusetts, the America, out of my head and be sane a part of every day."
-   Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 1857 

Ways of Walking: Quotes, Sayings, Poems, Lore   Complied by Mike Garofalo

Walking - A Small Rebirth of Well-Being

"When my neighbor walks the dogs, he performs a ritual act of sacer simplicitas, to use the church Latin: "sacred simplicity."  Walking the dog is in truth a ritual of renewal and revival on an intimate scale - a small rebirth of well-being on a daily basis."
-   Robert Fulghum, From Beginning to End

"For someone who walks regularly, their body is better able to deliver oxygen to all systems, including the brain, because they’ve improved their cardiovascular function. Not surprisingly, regular walkers report better mental clarity and ability to focus. Creativity is enhanced because walkers have the ability to relax their mind and let it wander around while they’re walking. Outdoor strollers can have the benefit of beautiful scenery as well as just seeing things from a different perspective, which stimulates creative thought and the imagination.  Whether you want to improve your body, your mind or both, the benefits of walking should encourage you to make the time to do it."
-  Mental Benefits of Walking, Creating a Good Life

"Although the vast majority of walkers never even think of using a walking staff, I unhesitatingly include it among the foundations of the house that travels on my back."
-   Colin Fletcher, The Complete Walker III

"Today I know there is nothing beyond the farthest of far ridges except a sign-post to unknown places.  The end is in the means - in the sight of that beautiful long straight line of the Downs in which a curve is latent - in the houses we shall never enter, with their dark secret windows and quiet hearth smoke, or their ruins friendly only to elders and nettles - in the people passing whom we shall never know thought we may love them.  Today I know that I walk because it is necessary to do so in order to both live and to make a living."
-  Edward Thomas,  A Fellow Walker  

Ways of Walking:  Quotations, Sayings, Poems, Lore  

The Good Life

Mike Garofalo in 1984
Rock Creek Basin, Mt. Starr (12,870')  
Sierra Nevada, CA 

Afoot and Light Hearted

"Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road. 

The earth, that is sufficient; 
I do not want the constellations any nearer;
I know they are very well where they are; 
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.  

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens; 
I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go; 
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them; 
I am fill'd with them, and I will fill them in return.) 
  You road I enter upon and look around!
I believe you are not all that is here; 
I believe that much unseen is also here."
-   Walt Whitman, "Song of the Open Road," Leaves of Grass, 1890. 

Ways of Walking: Quotes, Poems, Sayings


 Hiking in Death Valley, California, 1988
 

A Morning on Úytaahkoo or the "White Mountain"

Karen and I have been working at home all this week on home improvement and gardening projects.  Temperatures in the North Sacramento Valley have consistently been up to a high of 104F in the afternoon and down to a low of 65F in the early morning. 

I decided to go hiking today on the south facing slopes of Mt. Shasta.  I left early this morning a drove north on Interstate 5 up to Mt. Shasta City.  This is a lovely drive from about 300 feet above sea level in Red Bluff up thorough the Shasta-Trinity National Forest to 3,600 feet in Mt. Shasta City. It is about a 200 mile round trip drive from Red Bluff to Mt. Shasta City. 

I plan to hike from Bunny Flat (6,950 feet) up to Horse Camp Lodge (8,000 feet).  There is little snow left on Mt. Shasta this summer.  Mountain hiking is always a good physical challenge for my overall conditioning and for my feet. I do, however, intend just to sit many times in the shade and observe the mountain scenery.  

Afterwards, I will spend some time in the Mt. Shasta City for a late lunch and shopping at some New Age stores.  This is a popular tourist town in the summer months.  Then, I will spend some time in the shade along the Sacramento River near Dunsmir.

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like falling leaves."
-  John Muir 

"My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing."
-  Aldous Huxley 

Mt. Shasta, California: Notes, Quotes, Photographs by Mike Garofalo.

Strange, unusual, and "other-worldly" events do happen on Mt. Shasta:

"I first met Chang San-Feng above the forest, 
near the clear spring,
when gathering clouds darkened the day,
and Mt. Shasta was silent.
His long beard was black as emptiness,
ear lobes to his shoulders,
holding obsidian in his hand,
pointing to the sun,
eyes staring into infinity,
his long body clothed in silence.
We exchanged "hellos"
smiled and bowed,
a barbarian and an Immortal,
both panting from the climb,
laughing,
ten-thousand echoes
between our rocky minds.
After billions upon billions of heartbeats past
(for he must have been 888 years old),
I was so bold
as to ask the ancient one
for the sacred mantra of yore.
He lifted his whisk,
and brushed my face,
I could not speak,
my lips were stone,
ideas stopped -
I was alone."
-  Michael P. Garofalo, Meetings with Master Chang San-Feng

 

 

Walking in the Landscape of the Mind

Because of my recent medical problems, I have not been actively walking since July of 2011.  I used to walk a minimum of 4 miles in the morning four days each week, and take longer hikes during the year.  I greatly miss this wonderful bodymind activity.  Walking and hiking have been an important part of my long life of 66 years.  I am hoping my podiatrist gives me the green light to resume walking outdoors and spin cycling indoors starting on February 1, 2012.  

Hiking involves such aspects of consciousness as determination, willpower, planning, strength, focus, endurance, adventure, and danger.   Just taking a long walk can also be an adventure for the mind, as well as an exercise of willpower. 

 

"The rhythm of walking generates a kind of rhythm of thinking, and the passage through a landscape echoes or stimulates the passage through a series of thoughts. The creates an odd consonance between internal and external passage, one that suggests that the mind is also a landscape of sorts and that walking is one way to traverse it. A new thought often seems like a feature of the landscape that was there all along, as though thinking were traveling rather than making."
- Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

 

"Thoughts come clearly while one walks."
- Thomas Mann

 

"Walking inspires and promotes conversation that is grounded in the body, and so it gives the soul a place where it can thrive.  I think I could write an interesting memoir of significant walks I have taken with others, in which intimacy was not only experienced but set fondly into the landscape of memory.  When I was a child, I used to walk with my Uncle Tom on his farm, across fields and up and down hills.  We talked of many thing, some informative and some completely outrageous, and quite a few very tall stories emerged on those bucolic walks.  Whatever the content of the talking, those conversations remain important memories for me of my attachment to my family, to a remarkable personality, and to nature."
-   Thomas Moore, Soul Mates

  Ways of Walking

Walking Quotations

Way of the Short Staff

In the above photograph, I am standing on top of North Dome in Yosemite National Park.  Behind me is Half Dome.  My brother Philip and I hiked 12 miles round trip to get to the top of North Dome just four years ago in August.  A very memorable hike for us.  I am now planning a 2012 summer trip to the Olympic National Park in Washington, and making campground, lodge and motel reservations.