We have a cabin/yurt booked for a camping trip to Potholes State Park.
We will be yurt camping for three nights.
We are going as a group; with Mick, April, Karen and I.
Sightseeing, fishing, family meals, walks, campfire fun, reading, exploring ...
We will return home in Thursday.
Photos from the Internet
"We need to learn to see our physical form as a river. Our body is not a static thing; it changes all the time. It is very important to see our physical form as something impermanent, as a river that is constantly changing. Every cell in our body is a drop of water in that river. Birth and death are happening continuously, in every moment of our daily lives. We must live every moment with death and life present at the same time. Both death and life are happening at every instant in the river of our physical body. We should train ourselves in this vision of impermanence."
- Thich Nhat Hanh, You Are Here, 2001, p. 27
In many ways, Changes, cycles of birth and death, being a living-moving-acting being ... is what creates endurance, persistence, homeostasis, staying alive. When Change stops, then we die. Impermanence is indicative of being alive, existing, being real.
Bookstore Dilemma
Barnes and Noble
bookstore browsed—
the smell of new books
and coffee brewed,
tasty poetry books to peruse.
Poetry books
on fifteen shelves:
which one? which one?
My wallet wants to force a choice:
just one! just one!
Louise Gluck or Santoka Taneda
which one? which one?
Hungry to meet and hear from them;
[ignoring my wallet's advice]
I bought Both!
Books are alive and talk repeatedly.
25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works
US Highway 99 and Interstate 5
Cuttings: Haiku, Short Verses, Epigrams
Michael James Garofalo (1/10/1916-4/2/1997)
My father, Michael James Garofalo, died on this day, April 2nd, around 3 am in 1997.
He had a series of strokes, beginning in 1992, and then, due to complications from diabetes, increasing dementia, old age, inactivity, overeating, a broken hip from a fall, and congestive heart failure ... all led to his death.
In his youth, he was always strong, active, hard working, diligent, and demanding.
He built himself the three houses in which he lived, in starting in 1945.
He and my mom, June, raised three sons.
When he retired, at 62, he was the Chief Piping Engineer at the Fluor Corporation.
He was a Catholic believer. His outlook was conservative, Republican. He worked with all white men in a non-union workplace. He did not think well of people of other races and creeds. He thought all poor people were just lazy and stupid. Compassion and kindness were not high on his list of virtues. He also had a low opinion of women rights. His income was sufficient to provide for us when growing up.
I'd say he was an untreated manic-depressive. After he was 65, he resisted all my many recommendations to consult with better physicians or a counselor. He could be quite stubborn at times with not complying with medical recommendations.
He paid to send me to Catholic Schools, 1st to 12 grade. I was indoctrinated properly by nuns and priests. It was just "get good grades, study, obey, do what we say" everyday.
He liked to travel in the Western Regions and Deserts: Southern California, Nevada, Mexico, Utah, Arizona.
For more Information about my Dad.
He did not read very much. Listened to sports on the radio and right wing talk a lot. Not conversant much with modern thought, and viewed the 1960's changes a low class sinful rot. He spoke in stereotypes and racial slurs a lot. His Italian identity, was touted a lot. Also, he enjoyed bossing others around a lot.
Frankly, for me, he was hard to love or like at times very much.
I thank him for paying the way in my youth, providing for decent room and board, a good education, a safe home, and providing me with a useful inheritance from him from his final estate.
I'd say he was a decent father, a good provider, but a friend to few.
Yes, I loved my Dad - with Reservations.
A Dying Old Man is Tossed Away
By Mike Garofalo
A skinny old man of brittle bones
failing in a screwed dementia brain,
family all dead, all alone,
living in a small ratty group home,
a penniless unknown on Medicaid,
can't think straight, can't vote.
Wears a red MAGA hat
put on his unwise hairless head
by a cruel Nurse Ratched Republican
as a joke.
Millionaire heartless political renegades
with visions of fancy expensive escapades
decide that Medicaid is welfare graft so
buy votes for a pompous fat stupid Axe
Cutting the helpless brainless man
Off of Uncle Sam's Medicaid rolls.
Where will he go?
Shame, shame on American ways.
God will no longer bless America;
He is disgusted and dismayed.
"Politics can be the graveyard of a poet;
and only poetry can be his resurrection."
- Langston Hughes
The Fireplace Records, Chapter 10
One afternoon, Master Hakuin said "I once read that Master Gaofeng Yuanmiao preached that there are three requirements for the study of Zen. The first is a great root of faith. The second is a great ball of doubt. The third is a great tenacity of purpose. A man who lacks any of these is like a three-legged kettle with one broken leg."
Layman Mujiang, replied to Hakuin saying, "There are always more than three."
Hakuin asked "More?"
Mujiang said, "How about being able to sit still quietly for many hours?"
Hakuin said, "I doubt it."
Mujiang said, "How about reciting the sacred scripture or Names more?"
Hakuin said, "I doubt it."
Mujian said, "You will never give up the quest for Buddhahood, will you Master Hakuin."
Hakuin said, "I doubt it."
Layman Mujiang's Verse:
Grab hold of the Koan by one of its Three Limbs:
Have faith in the Buddha's Hands;
Heal the bruises of Doubts;
Hold on tightly, keep your grip, Persist.
The Three gives birth to the Ten Thousand Things.
Somehow/someway changing by profound and decent ways.
Doubts hinder many and spur a few to act.
Plant the great Root of Faith deep in good soil. Water it daily.
Big Doubts, little doubts, Great Doubts, minor doubts.
I don't know, doubting it, maybe so, hypothetical, provisional.
I can't see the Big Harbor because of the dense fogs.
I doubt the fog will lift this morning.
Japanese Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku (1868-1769) was extremely influential in reviving the practice of using koans/mondos/verbal encounters/stories in his Rinzai Zen Buddhist training program and with his priestly work with rural workers. He stresses the direct interaction between a master koan teacher and a koan student, face to face dialogues, regular one on one testing, interaction, and evaluation.
Hakuin Ekaku was an accomplished artist and calligrapher. He also emphasized good fitness and health practices to prepare the body for the rigors of Zen training.
Hakuin believed that quiet sitting or simple daily activities combined with the contemplation of koans was a very effective practice for imparting Buddhist wisdom teachings (Dharma) and inducing enlightenment.
Hakuin thought about and he experienced personal realization, or kensho, or satori, or enlightenment, or interpenetration of suchness at the intersection of the Fundamental Point, or fully understood his authentic changing selfhood by using koan practice while sitting or gently moving.
You can Contemplate your Assigned Koan: absorb it, mull over it, get frustrated by it, doubt it, think about it, meditate on it, discard it, cuss it, sink into it, respect it, analyze it, confound it, introspect it, leap over it, word tail it, kick it around, not-think it, hear its messages, swallow it and spit it out, submerge with it, cherish it and hate it, study it diligently, become one with it, keep it first in mind, squeeze all the insight from it, be surprised and amazed by it, catch it with a capping phrase, reflect on it, huatou keypoint at it, laugh at it, reflect on it, cry over it, stop analyzing it, grab it by the throat, don't let it go.
Persist in Contemplating your Assigned Koan until your deeper intuitive understanding occurs, or you are somehow/someway changed in profound and decent ways, or you have chosen to work/study another koan, or you just try and try again like a dog begging for extra treats, or you somehow/someway graduate to a new awareness of our precious lives, or you quit doing koan practice, or ...
You might find that "something should take place not unlike the cat springing upon the mouse or the mother hen hatching her eggs, then in a flash great livingness surges up. This is the moment when the phoenix escapes from the golden net, when the crane breaks the bars of its cage."
- Ruth Fuller Sasaki, The Zen Koan, 1965, p. 42
Cloud Dragon: The Joan Sutherland Dharma Works
Joan Sutherland Koan Collections
Gates: Miscellaneous Koans Joan Sutherland
Gateless Gateway Joan Sutherland
The Blue Cliff Record Joan Sutherland and John Tarrant
"Sometimes our practice is something like this. We don’t know how much our understanding is limited. That is why you have to study koans. Koans will open up your mind. If you understand your way of life more objectively, you will understand what you are doing."
- Suzuki Roshi
Hakuin, Self-Portrait, 1767
He gently touches his ceremonial whisk;
he frowns, he seems displeased
about something or someone.
Maybe his stomach is upset.
Maybe that great ball of doubt
is stuck in his soul.
Pulling Onions Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo
Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans
Fireplaces, Stoves, Campfires, Kitchens, Pots, Firewood
"I love science, and it pains me to think that so many are terrified of the subject or feel that choosing science means you cannot also choose compassion, or the arts, or be awed by nature. Science is not meant to cure us of mystery, but to reinvent and reinvigorate it."
- Robert Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
"In the end, it's probably impossible to tease out whether the heads or tails of science, the theory or the experiment, has done more to push science ahead." (DS, p36).
"It is theory that decides what we can observe."
- Albert Einstein
"Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object."
- Charles Sanders Pierce
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
The modern sciences of physics and chemistry have discovered or synthesized 118 Elements. This fascinating subject can be studied through the graphical model of the Periodic Table of Elements first conceived in 1869 by the Russian chemist, Dmitri Medneleev. Read the "Disappearing Spoon" for the fascinating story of the Table of the Elements.
"Yield, and maintain integrity.
To bend is to be upright;
to be empty is to be full.
Those who have little have much to gain,
but those who have much
may be confused by possessions.
The wise man embraces the all encompassing;
he is unaware of himself, and so has brilliance;
not defending himself, he gains distinction;
not seeking fame, he receives recognition;
not making false claims, he does not falter;
and not being quarrelsome,
is in conflict with no one.
This is why it was said by the sages of old,
"Yield, and maintain integrity;
be whole, and all things come to you"."
- Translated by Stan Rosenthal, 1984, Chapter 22
"Acepta y serás completo,
Inclinate y serás recto,
Vacíate y quedarás lleno,
Decae, y te renovarás,
Desea, y conseguirás,
Buscando la satisfacción quedas confuso.
El Sabio acepta el Mundo
Como el Mundo acepta el Tao;
No se muestra a si mismo, y así es visto claramente,
No se justifica a si mismo, y por eso destaca,
No se empeña, y así realiza su obra,
No se glorifica, y por eso es excelso,
No busca la lucha, y por eso nadie lucha contra él.
Los Santos decían, "acepta y serás completo",
Una vez completo, el Mundo es tu hogar."
- Translated by Antonio Rivas, 1998, Chapter 22
Poetry, Anthologies, Indexes
Studies, Blog, Guides, Travel
Ethics, Art, Koans, Spirituality
US Highway 99 and Interstate 5
Cuttings: Tercets, Haiku, Epigrams
Daodejing: Indexes, Concordance, Anthology
727 Riddles, Jokes, Brain Teasers
Haiku - North Sacramento Valley
At the Edges of the West, Volume 1
At the Edges of the Fertile West, Volume 2
The Wreck Ahead Comes Into View
The Raven Broke Open the Magical Clam
Pulling Onions: 1,000 One Liners
Meetings with Master Chang San Feng
Memories of Pacific Coast Places
One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey
Uncle Mike's Cellphone Poetry Series
Fireplace Records Koan Collection
Epigrams, Quips, Sayings: 1,000 One Liners
Tao Te Ching: Concordance, Anthology
Zen Buddhist Koans: Research, Indexes
Blooming Onions Pulled from the Mind-Ground
Monthly Observations and Poetry
Neo-Pagan Spirituality Studies
Cuttings: Haiku and Tercets (1998-2016)
Transitions: Haiku and Tercets (2017-2024)
Stopping to See: Haiku and Tercets (2025-)
A Gift of Dried Garlic Flowers
the scissors of my decisions
more to come ...
Mike Garofalo lives in Vancouver, Washington,
Orchards & Five Corners Neighborhoods
Northeast Clark County.
He is available for public readings or gigs
in Vancouver, Portland, south to Salem,
and north to Olympia.
He writes, reads and studies Poetry.
His hobbies include: gardening,
web publishing, walking adventures,
harmonica playing, yurt camping,
reading, playing, studying, blogging,
Taijiquan, writing, string figures,
exploring the Northwest USA.,
research studies and local trips.
He has been web publishing since
1998 at Green Way Research.
Mike is 80 years of age.
He has a decent, pleasant, and
friendly speaking voice.
He is a big tall elderly gent.
Best to send him email to:
mpgarofalobooks@gmail.com
At the Edges of the West, Volume 1
Highway 101 and Hwy 1
25 Steps and Beyond: Collected Works
This document was last edited, revised,
reformatted, added to, relinked,
changed, improved, or modified
by Mike Garofalo
on March 27, 2025.
Translated by Thomas Cleary and J. C. Cleary. Foreword by Taizan Maezumi
Roshi. Boston, Shambhala, 2005.
Glossary, biographies, bibliography, 648 pages. ISBN: 9781590302323.
Case 60, p. 341-346. "Yun Men's Staff Turns Into a Dragon."
.
By Andy
Ferguson, 2000, p. 262
"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