Voting in the United States, 2026

 My wife and I voted by mail in Washington State, Clark County, this week. We have voted in Clark County for the past 10 years.

We support Democratic candidates and have done so for the sixty years we have both voted.

We both have been discouraged by the erratic and poor performance of the current President
and Congress. Unnecessary war, increased food prices, tariffs, uncompetent Cabinet, lies,
and destruction of White House property, his graft...

We both have faced poor health in recent weeks and this has delayed posting.

Improve Your Mood

Boost Your Mood, Pick Yourself Up
Revitalize Yourself, Banish the Blues  

Be grateful for the good in your life.   
Give yourself permission to be human.
Brighten someone’s day. 
Learn something new. 
Listen to upbeat music.
Do some exercise on a regular basis.
Simplify your life, remove clutter, and clean. 
Go for a walk. 
Enjoy sex and discover romance. 
Get organized.
Do a good deed or volunteer.  
Smile and put on a happy face. 
Indulge your senses. 
Seek and cultivate beauty. 
Take time to breathe deeply. 
Look at some old photos. 
Focus on the positive. 
Forgive yourself. 
Get some fresh air. 
Eat often and eat light. 
Begin a program of meditation or contemplation.
Talk with your physician or counselor.   
Cook and prepare a lovely and tasty meal. 
Eat something nutritious like nuts or fruit. 
Pamper yourself.
Alter your routines in some way. 
Have confidence. 
Talk with your spouse. 
Fake it till you make it. 
Sign a song out loud. 
Tap into your creative side. 
Take up a mind-body practice like Taijiquan, Qigong or Yoga. 
Inhale a calming scent. 
Sit quietly, rest, or sleep. 
Brainstorm a problem for solutions. 
Avoid bad or negative companions, and find good friends. 
Watch a good non-violent movie. 
Work in the garden. 
Cool down strong emotions. 
Take some vacation time for relaxation and retreat. 
Look on the Bright Side.
Small steps of progress are better than no steps. 
Avoid watching the news for a week. 
Don’t take yourself too seriously. 
Focus on past successes, not failures. 
Create a wish list and make one wish come true.
Explore ways to boost your self-esteem. 
Focus on what you can control and what you can change.
Get some more sunlight on your body. 
Choose your attitude and how you will react to life's events. 
Spend less, avoid shopping. 
Stop all cussing, swearing, or rude language. 
Keep a journal or express yourself in writing. 
Go easy on yourself and yield.  
Count your blessings. 
Spend some time with children. 
Take a long shower or refreshing soaking bath. 
Get relevant and accurate information. 
Chat with a friendly person or neighbor.
Things change and time heals. 
Adapt, adapt, adapt. 
Agree to disagree; you don’t need to win every argument.   
Think fast.
Consider vitamin or herbal supplements that lift mood. 
Seek professional help for serious mental health problems. 
Read something inspiring. 
Avoid comparing yourself to others, and envy is a waste of time.
Try praying or chanting. 
Evaluate and revise your goals. 
Don't sweat the small stuff. 
Pet your dog or cat and care for them. 
Get a massage.
Enjoy a non-competitive sport. 
Try fasting or staying up all night. 
Donate your stuff, your skills, or your time.   
Forgive and forget. 
Dance till you are tired. 
Punch a bag or bang on a drum. 
Stop using any recreational drugs. 
Spend some time with children. 
Abandon false ideas and unrealistic aims. 
Enjoy a refreshing drink. 
Make someone laugh. 
Allow yourself to be eccentric, and enjoy some silly thoughts.
Have a bowl of soup or a cup of tea. 
Less talking and more doing. 
Get up, dress up, and show up. 
Observe nature carefully and respectfully.
Visit your public library and borrow some beautiful books. 
Be less self-centered and selfish. 
A spiritual advisor, rituals, or religious beliefs can sometimes help.
Love expands your horizons of caring and happiness. 
Accept the fact that some things are broken and can't be fixed.
Memorize and inspirational saying, prayer, poem or quote. 
Call or visit a sick person. 
Play a game. 

By Mike Garofalo
Valley Spirit Center
Red Bluff, California  

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

Ways to Lift Your Spirits (3 pages, PDF Format)

Virtues and Good Character

Fitness and Well-Being

Tick-Tock Tractatus by Mike Garofalo, Section 7

The Tick-Tock Tractatus

Speaking of Time: The Poetic Investigations

By Michael P. Garofalo

            

                
        August Offerings, Red Bluff CA, 2010, MPG

 

 

Sections

1. Time: time-space, movement, measurement

2. Past: memories, habits, fixed, specific, tradition

3. Present: now, here-now, day, duration

4. Future: maybe, planned, anticipated, uncertain

5. Passing: change, cycles, aging, growth, death

6. Beginning: renewal, starting, enthusiasm

7. Psychology: learning, experience, knowing

8. Middle: in progress, half-way, steady, living

9. Language: poetry, philosophy, ordinary

10. Silence: inexpressive, nonsense, illogical

11. Mystical: numinous, profound, intense, insightful,

12. Beauty: art, crafts, music, reading/writing

13. Social: ethics, morality, economics, manners, value

14. Philosophy: ethics, history, analysis, arguments, logic

15. History: landmark events, books/printing, memory

16. Eternity: forever, infinite, unimaginable, death

 

Preface

Key to Books Cited

Bundled Up Quintains about Time

Additional Notes

7.   Psychology: experience, learning,
      phenomenology, sense of time, personal

 

7.1
Generalities, Questions, Quips

What you see depends on when you look.
What you hear requires you to listen now.

Time is our 6th Sense.

The Specious Present extends consciousness
to include a pinch of the past,
a pinch of the future,
and the fullness of the now.

Give awareness a 5 second window
for processing perceptions.

Afraid to run out of time.
He had time on his hands, then dropped it.

Your brain works on time schedules.

"The quality of attention determines
the nature of the experience."
Joanne Kyger

BU794, GC§14

The Five Senses

 

7.2
Using vs Knowing

We knew that water was essential,
but did not know it was H2O;
We knew the sun was hot,
but had no concept of nuclear.
It works but we don't know how or why.

BU2930

History of Science

 

7.2.1
Unfolding Time

     Implicate orders of a
Underlying Reality
Unfolding Being... and the
     Explicate orders of
ordinary common things.

BU1149, GC§7

David Bohm

Net of Indra

 

7.3.1
End Game

They ran out of time
The game ended on time
They lost this time.
They all got back to the bus in time.
They will do better next time.

BU2835

 

7.3.1.1
The Game of Death

I'm too old
for any real Destiny
except for Death
creeping up to me, tagging Me:
"Your It!"

BU891, GC§36

 

7.3.1.2
Impermanence of Samsara

Samsara is Nirvana?
10,000 Things are Nothing?
Past and future are gone (Empty?).
The Present is gone in a Flash.
What's left? Samsara won't last.

BU918

 

7.3.1.3
Silent Lips

          The sting of Death,
the sharp pains of unseeing,
the final closing of the eyes,
the silent lips of emptiness...
faces lost forever in future times.

BU1246

 

7.3.2
Better Next Month

That such and such is the case
May piss me off for all the day
Why should it be this damn way?

Next month, such and such will not be the case.
I will be very pleased come that day.

BU3431

Quintain Poetry

Time Explained: Experience, Consciousness and Relativity.
By Alan Bennett, 2026.

Reading Wittgenstein 1975-

 

7.3.2.1
Timely Emotions

Emotions cluster around Immediacy.
Distant futures lack emotional density.
We feel very little about 2222 CE.
Few have any passion for far distant unrealities.
We lust after, say, Hot SEX Today! Fuck the Future!

BU3371

Emotions and Time

 

7.3.3
Take it Slow

Travel light
Even yesterday is a heavy backpack.
Travel slowly
Even tomorrow can wait---
Move on, don't hesitate.

BU2890

Time, Change, Freedom:
An Introduction to Metaphysics
By Nathan Oaklander

 

7.3.4
Differences and Distinctions

Things that look the same
are often really different---
in a web of new respects as to usage
in a web of words wedded meanings
in a different place in space/time.

BU2968

Appearances

 

7.3.5
Time Snuck By

The time sauntered by
invisibly, casually, punctually...
I barely noticed.
so busy with pressing deeds---
time flew by in a gentle breeze.

BU3083

"... time is not a linear flow, as we think it is,
into past, present, and future. Time is an
indivisible whole, a great pool in which all
events are eternally embodied and still have
their meaningful flash of super-normal or
extra-sensory perception, and a glimpse of
something that happened long ago in our
linear time."
- Frank Waters, Mountain Dialogues, 1981

 

7.3.5.1
The Time of Inner Mind

Under the Water
of my mind
an unconscious Sea
of Memories
guide me through time

Keep me on a course line
send me some signs
become conscious at times...
freedom may a fiction be
controlled by unknown destinies.

Bring the Unconscious,
Sub-Conscious, ego, and Id,
Collective Unconscious figured in—
Over the waves of Consciousness
the flotsam of Unknowns are adrift.

BU9

The Gushen Grove Sonnets

The Five Senses

 

7.3.5.2
Opportunities for Change

Aging provides
more opportunities
for becoming the person
you should
have been.

BU995

Aging Wisely

 

7.3.5.3
Bent and Twisted

My experiences at times
have not damaged or broken me;
     but, indeed,
     have bent and twisted
          my identity.

BU3528

How to Live a Good Life
Advice from Wise and Respected Persons

 

7.3.5.4
Who Am I?

my identity
exists for me
resting on the shoulders
of my memories
substantially

BU3131

Personal Identity

Identity

 

7.3.5.5
A Conscience for the Future

The Id is only Present Tense Alive,
focused on immediate needs
and drives flowing bodily, incessantly,
facing only nowness craving sensuality---
The Super-Ego, Conscience, has future schemes.

BU3355

Freudian Psychology

Conscience

 

7.3.5.6
Perspectives Towards Time

Past-positive: In the good old days...
Past-negative: My childhood was painful...
Present-hedonistic: I want some fun now...
Present-fatalistic: Que Sera, Sera
Future-options: Here is the schedule for tomorrow...
Transcendental-future: We want to go to Heaven...

The Time Paradox, p. 30-69

BU1575

Oulipos Quintain Museum

Time Research

 

7.3.6
Appear and Disappear

Time is an idea about
how objects/things interact,
move from place to place,
appear and disappear untraced,
are at our hands for work and play.

BU3022

Time - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time, 2018

Time Research

Reism Reism is the doctrine that only things exist.

 

7.3.6.1
subjective/objective?

Our naive perceptions of Time,
Sequenced cause-effect Directionality,
Time headed south for sleepy entropy--
Was this merely my subjective Kantian processing;
or is it true of Nature's own activities?

BU3146

- Immanuel Kant

Kantian Space and Time

Kant holds that we can't have any experience
unmediated by our internal mental temporal
modes of being and understanding. Time is
constructed by our minds.

Reism Reism is the doctrine that only things exist.

 

7.3.7
Heartbeats of Time

The ticking of the metronome:
It's a lie told by a machine.
My heartbeat
     is a truth
          told by my body.

BU3192

Felt Time, by Marc Wittmann, 2017

Time and Free Will, Henri Bergson, 1910

Living in Time, by Barry Allen, 2023

Henri Bergson (1859-1941)

 

7.3.7.2
Stretched Tight

between
two eternities
     my brief life
               is stretched
tight

 

BU1503, BU978

CHB: Time

- Being and Time, by Martin Heidegger

Time is our 6th Sense.

Five Senses

 

7.3.7.3
What to Defer

Live Now in this moment
Cultivate presence within Today.
But, unwise to act exclusively
Within pleasures only of today---
Deferment of pleasure... time to delay.

BU3349

Bundled Up: Volume 2

 

Table of Contents

Face to Face with What You Are

"You find a flower half-buried in leaves,
And in your eye its very fate resides.
Loving beauty, you caress the bloom;
Soon enough, you'll sweep petals from the floor.
Terrible to love the lovely so,
To count your own years, to say "I'm old,"
To see a flower half-buried in leaves
And come face to face with what you are."
-  Han Shan, circa 630 CE 
Translated by Peter Stambler, Cold Mountain Buddhas


"The pathos of death is this, that when the days of one's life are ended, those days that were so crowded with business and felt so heavy in their passing, what remains of one in memory should usually be so slight a thing.  The phantom of an attitude, the echo of a certain mode of thought, a few pages of print, some invention, or some victory we gained in a brief critical hours, are all that can survive the best of us.  It is as if the whole of a man's significance had now shrunk into a mere musical note or phrase, suggestive of his singularity─happy are those whose singularity gives a note so clear as to be victorious over the inevitable pity of such a diminution and abridgment."
-  William James, A Memorial Address for Ralph Waldo Emerson

Death: Quotes, Sayings, Lore

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

Michel de Montaigne's Essays - Still Worth Reading

Lately, I have enjoyed rereading the interesting essays by Michel de Montaigne.  I read the essays for the first time in 1963, and now, as an old man, I still appreciate their insights, skepticism, readability, humanism, range, humor, irony, ideas and opinions, and their relevance for me.  Montaigne's writing style is conversational, engaging, and enduring.  

I have never visited France.  However, I have watched the Tour de France bicycle race each summer on television for the past 15 years.  The television coverage is outstanding with beautiful helicopter and ground camera visuals.  It is like taking an actual tour of different areas in France every year.  This year, the tour started later in the summer, and all the spectators are wearing masks because of the cronovirus pandemic.  

Michel de Montaigne   (1533-1592, French Essayist) 

How to Live, or A Life of Montaigne; In One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer.  By Sarah Bakewell.  New York, Other Press, 2010.  Index, bibliography, notes, 399 pages.  An outstanding biographical and intellectual history study.  VSCL. 

The Complete Essays of Michel de Montaigne.  By Charles Cotton.  Translated from the Latin into English in 1685.  I prefer the Kindle Edition.  1981 pages.  2018.  VSCL. 

The Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne.  Translated by Donald M. Frame.  Everyman's Library, 2003.  1392 pages.  Unfortunately, this translation is only available in a heavy hardbound volume with smaller print; with no e-book options.  Originally published in 1957.  VSCL. 

Me, Myself, and I: What made Michel de Montaigne the first modern man?  By Jane Kramer.  

Virtues and Vices: Notes, Quotes, Sayings, Links, Good Reads.  By Mike Garofalo.  

Transmission of Light: Buddhist Biographies by Keizan

Transmission of Light (TOL)

53 Biographies of Buddhist Patriarchs, Leaders, Legends, Thinkers, Famous Ones
Written by Zen Master Keizan (1268-1325). Title: Denkoroku.
Indexed by Michael P. Garofalo. First Draft on March 30, 2023.
Source for Biographies: Transmission of Light: Zen in the Art of Enlightenment. Translated by Thomas Cleary, 1990, 207 pages.

Alphabetical List of the Biographies in the Transmission of Light (TOL) Collection. PDF, 3 pages.

List of Biography Cases by Case Numbers in the Transmission of Light (TOL) Collection. PDF, 2 pages.

Subject Index to the Biographies in the Transmission of Light (TOL) Collection. PDF, 3 pages.

Books I Use in My Research and Study of Koan Collections

Zen Master Keizan Information 

Koan Database Project 

Subject Index to 1,001 Zen Buddhist Koans

 

Assumptions Guide the Way

                       The Fireplace Records, Chapter 26

Assumptions Guide the Way

Frank and Mary were discussing metaphysical doctrines one bright summer afternoon. They sipped ice tea as they pondered issues related to idealism and realism.

Frank supported the idealist view, wherein the Conscious Presence of his current experiences is the main criterion for judging phenomena. The real or what exists depends on his direct and immediate consciousness of same. His body and external objects are in some way figments of his imagination, and many common-sense beliefs are the delusions of dualistic thinking.

Mary supported a realist view, dualisms, existence of objects in the world, and the reality of her and others human bodies. She assumed and supported scientific methods (e.g., logic, inference, precise measurements, mathematics, experimentation, probability, provisional theories, worldwide verification, collaborative work, peer evaluation, and pragmatic considerations, etc.) for discovering truth and using the results in technological applications.  Personal consciousness and personal experiences/gnosis, for her, had a limited value when it came to issues of veracity and knowledge.

Mary said, “You are always talking about how your Conscious Presence or Immediate Awareness reveals to you that Constant Change is the Primary Fact. My conclusions are different. An object like my body or the Douglas Fir trees in my back yard or furniture in my office do not change very much at all from day to day. Trees and furniture stay in the same locations. My height and weight and appearance stay pretty much the same each day at the gross level of everyday dealings. My molecular and atomic bodily interior changes quite a bit each day, however I am not aware of these changes unless facing illness. If things constantly change like you contend, and this is unquestionably revealed in your immediate consciousness/experience, then this would be madness.”

Frank said, “If you don’t have consciousness of something, then you know nothing about It. You are bound in unrealistic and delusive dualistic thinking.  All the great Yogis, Philosophers, and Zen Masters know this to be clear and true.  Read the “Transparency of Things” by Rupert Spira to get correctly informed.”

Mary said, “It is a matter of assumptions. I assume the scientific realists or materialists viewpoints because they are practical, efficient, useful, widely accepted, logically consistent, and in accord with common sense. I once read the “Transparency of Things.” An unconvincing repetition of vague and questionable pronouncements. No index, no bibliography, no notes, no scholarship standards, no inter-subjective verification. There, his Conscious Presence, sounds a lot like a spiritual soul (Atman) freed from his body, mind, and Others and resting in a awesome startling mystical Oneness. He does not even have a Deity (Brahma, God the Father, Allah, etc.) to have a Conscious Presence of the world to keep it in existence (e.g., as for Descartes, Berkeley, Hegel, or Green) while he sleeps in unconsciousness. In my view, just warmed over transparent Advaita Vedanta obscurantism.”

Frank said, “I know what I know directly, immediately, personally.  I don’t need the fanciful presuppositions of science to confirm the Experience of Conscious Presence.  It is beyond petty distinctions of right or wrong, good or bad, this or that, true or untrue. Human experience is God (the Divine, the Awesome, the Profound, the Real) gradually made manifest. Once you abandon your dualistic thinking, and your own imaginative and ungrounded deluded thinking, you might see the Light and experience deep awakening and enlightenment.”

Mary said, “We have different assumptions and thus follow different paths to understanding and knowing, and reach different conclusions. Nevertheless, we can both agree that the day is warm, the iced tea refreshing, and the garden looks to be flourishing. Is this not just awesome for one's soul? 

"Mary!" said Frank, surprised.  "Your soul!?"

Mary slapped Frank on the back.  "You Zen Masters love to quibble."

 

 A Student's Considerations:

Be clear about assumptions and definitions before the discussion.
Learn how to select useful assumptions.
For an illogical person, conclusions don't follow from assumptions.
Don't abandon the quest for reasonable explanations.
The "Mystical One" may be profound, but passes awareness quickly.
Enjoy being in awe, but don't hang on too long. 
Iron Grindstone Liu's Logic can take away our rough edges of stupidity.
Consider Sartre's assumption "Existence Precedes Essence."
Look outside to awaken, look inside to wander in memories.

Related Links, Resources, References

Transparency of Things.  By Rupert Spira.

Awakening the Other Way.  By Marcel Eschauzier.

 
Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.  By Dach Keltner.  Penguin 2023.  Excellent overview, well researched, practical advice.  FVRL. 

The Psychology of Awe

Koans: BOS 60, BCR 24, OM 13  Iron Grindstone Liu is a famous female Zen Master.

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

The Daodejing by Laozi  

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

Subject Index to 1,001 Zen Buddhist Koans

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

Subject Index to 1,001 Zen Buddhist Koans

A Wise Use of Your Time

I find it interesting to consider the topic of whether or not some activity is a “waste of time.”

There are numerous articles on the Internet on the topic of what to do to prevent wasting your time. For example, Theresa Griffith wrote a short article titled "Top 20 Time Wasters and the Top 5 Worthwhile Activities." Dozens of books provide practical suggestions on the topic of 'time management.' The 'time wasters' are important to consider.

Everyone has personal opinions about what, for them, is unpleasant and something they want to avoid. Doing something they dislike is, for them, a “waste of time.” Many other people find the exact same activity pleasurable and not a waste of time. For examples: For many, gardening is not pleasurable and a waste of time; for others, a creative and physical joyfulness. Walking in the woods for hours is a delight for some; and an unpleasant waste of time for others. Some folks want to repair and upgrade automobiles for hours; for many others, that is just a technical and greasy job for the paid local mechanic.  Praying and attending church services are essential activities for many; and yet considered by many others as a waste of their time.  Watching sports for many hours on television is a top priority for many; and a boring waste of time for may others.  The old saying about "one man's meat is another man's poison" applies to more that debates between vegetarians and meat eaters. 

Efficiency is indeed important in many aspects of life and employment. Consistently doing something the wrong way at work would be considered a “waste of time,” and a likely cause for dismissal. Some problems are seemingly impossible to solve, and trying to do so might be considered a waste of time.
However, efficiency should not always be the primary criterion to use in judging. What about effectiveness, aesthetics, goodness, pleasures, etc.

Personal dissatisfaction about “excessive” amounts of time spent on a single activity, and avoiding or neglecting some other more important personal priorities and objectives, might trigger the judgment about that activity being a waste of time. Any activity carried to excess in this fashion is indeed a squandering your limited temporal resources.

Sometimes some of our behaviors are an addiction or compulsion, and of very limited benefit or injurious to us or others. We realize we are wasting and loosing time, but cannot control ourselves.

After our daily work and chores are completed, and we have completed our commitments and responsibilities, then we might relax, enjoy ourselves, and "waste" some time. It was not time wasted, but time used for personal pleasures.  

It is best for us to be very careful in our judgments about what we consider a "waste of time" for ourselves and/or others.  

"I am not an arbiter of taste, and it is not my place to tell you what to read, listen to, or watch.  I just want you to be aware that the decisions you make about all this affect your moods and emotions better and worse.  I urge you to make them mindfully."
-  Dr. Andrew Weil, Spontaneous Happiness, p 155.

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, Chapter 60

Daodejing, Laozi
Chapter 60 

"Governing a large state is like boiling a small fish.
When the empire is ruled in accordance with the way,
The spirits lose their potencies.
Or rather, it is not that they lose their potencies,
But that, though they have their potencies, they do not harm the people.
It is not only they who, having their potencies, do not harm the people,
The sage, also, does not harm the people.
As neither does any harm, each attributes the merit to the other."
-  Translated by D. C. Lau, 1963, Chapter 60  

"The state should be governed as we cook small fish, without much business.
Bringing the Tao to the governing of the Kingdom will give rest to the shades of the dead.
Not that the Spirits will be inactive, but they will cease to trouble the people.
But what is of more importance, the wise ruler of the people will not hurt them.
And in so far as they do not interfere with one another, their influences conspire to the general good!"
-  Translated by Walter Gorn Old, 1904, Chapter 60 

"Rule a great state in the way one would fry little fish,

Without gutting or scraping, consider the good of the whole,

Let the empire be ruled in accord with the rule of the Tao

And the spirits of those who are gone will not seek to control.

 

Not only not seek, but spirits will harm not the people,

Not only not harm, but, because of the rule of the sage,

Who harms not, these twain, not seeking to injure each other,

Will therefore in virtue together unite and engage."
-  Translated by Isaac Winter Heysinger, 1903, Chapter 60

治大國若烹小鮮. 
以道蒞天下, 其鬼不神.
非其鬼不神.
其神不傷人.
非其神不傷人.
聖人亦不傷人. 
夫兩不相傷.
故德交歸焉. 
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 60  


zhi da guo ruo peng xiao xian.
yi dao li tian xia, qi gui bu shen.
fei qi gui bu shen.
qi shen bu shang ren.
fei qi shen bu shang ren.
sheng ren yi bu shang ren.
fu liang bu xiang shang.
gu de jiao gui yan.
-  Pinyin Romanization, Daodejing, Chapter 60 


"Governing a large country
is like frying small fish.
Too much poking spoils the meat.
When the Tao is used to govern the world
then evil will lose its power to harm the people.
Not that evil will no longer exist,
but only because it has lost its power.
Just as evil can lose its ability to harm,
the Master shuns the use of violence.
If you give evil nothing to oppose,
then virtue will return by itself."
-  Translated by J. H. McDonald, 1996, Chapter 60  


"Governing a great state,
Is like cooking small fish.
If you rule the world by Tao,
The ghosts (kuei) will lose their spiritual (shen) power.
Not that the ghosts lose their spiritual power,
But their spiritual power will not harm the people.
Not that their spiritual power will not harm the people,
But neither does the sage harm the people.
Since both are harmless,
Te flows back and forth [without impediment]."
-  Translated by Ellen M. Chen, Chapter 60  


"Se debe gobernar un gran Estado
tal como se fríen los pececillos, con cuidado
para que no se desentrañen.
Si se gobernara el mundo con el Tao,
el mal no tendría poder.
No porque el mal careciera de poder,
sino porque éste no dañaría a los hombres.
El mal no dañaría a los hombres,
y tampoco el sabio los dañaría.
Si no se atacaran mutuamente, unirían sus Energías
y así ambos aumentarían su Poder."
-  Translation from Wikisource, 2013, Tao Te Ching, Capítulo 60


"Ruling a large kingdom is indeed like cooking small fish.
They who by Tao all that is under heaven
Did not let an evil spirit within them display its powers.
Nay, it was not only that the evil spirit did not display its powers;
Neither was the Sage's good spirit used to the hurt of other men.
Nor was it only that his good spirit was not used to harm other men,
The Sage himself was thus saved from harm.
And so, each being saved from harm,
Their “powers” could converge towards a common end."
-  Translated by Arthur Waley, 1934, Chapter 60  

Chapter 60 of the Tao Te Ching

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching

English Language Translators' Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List 

Catching the Sun

The United States needs to intensify its implementation of solar energy electrical power production as have Germany and China.  The near future is obvious!

I will begin studying renewable energy topics during in the next eight months.  

Solar Energy - Wikipedia


Catching the Sun.  Documentary film, 73 Minutes, 2015.  
Filmmaker: Shalini Kantayya.  Wikipedia article. 

Heart Surgery

Karen has undergone many recent heart tests. Today she will have a coronary angiogram done by
Dr. Harada at Legacy Hospital in Vancouver, WA.

She had a stent implanted.  She seems to be recovering well. She will likely come home tomorrow.

Very Worrisome!

Backyard Birds

 Karen Garofalo has taken many fine photographs of the many kinds of birds that visit our backyard bird feeders and bird bath.

We took care of our daughter's two
brown dogs for a week.

Dao De Jing, Laozi, Chapter 14

Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu

Chapter 14


"Look for It, you won't see It: It is called 'fleeting'.
Listen for It, you won't hear It: It is called 'thin'. 
Grasp at It, You can't get It: It is called 'subtle'.
These three lines
       are about something that evades scrutiny.
Yes, in it everything blends and becomes one.

Its top is not bright
Its underside is not dim.
Always unnameable, It turns back to nothingness. 
This is the shape of something shapeless
The form of a nothing
this is elusive and evasive. 
Encountering It, you won't see the front
Following It, you won't see Its back.

Keep to the Tao of the ancients
And so manage things happening today.
The ability to know the ancient sources,
this is the main thread of Tao."
-  Translated by Michael LaFargue, 1992, Chapter 14 



"When you're sitting, trying to get in touch with the Softness, the One important thing, it evades your grasp─like a spirit that appears here, then there, then is gone.  You think you see it, then it recedes into nothing.  This is the only way to describe the presence that is formless.  But in this practice we achieve a oneness.  And we come in contact with the deep sources of all things, the ancient sources that enable us to handle whatever comes to us today."  ...  "I take "know the ancient sources" of things to mean gaining an intuitive understanding of the deep truth about affairs.  (As often, "ancient" serves to express what we more commonly express by images of "depth" or "Origin."  (Note that here Tao is not the name of the ancient source that one knows, but of the practice by which one comes to know it.)  It seems very unlikely that "these three" refers to the three different things mentioned [i.e., seeing, listening, grasping] which "become one."  It makes more sense to suppose that "these three" refers to the three line saying, which is about a presence or mental quality incapable of being grasped through close mental scrutiny.  in this mental space everything is Merged, "blends and becomes one."  This observation is a partial basis for my solution to the puzzle about the meaning of Chapter 1, reading literally "these two, merged."  That is, it refers to the previous two-line saying in Chapter 1, which is (partly) about the state of "not desiring," which identifies with a mentally Still state called t'ung/"The Merging.""
-  Michael LaFargue  


The Tao of the Tao Te Ching.  A Translation and Commentary by Michael LaFargue.  State University of New York Press, 1992.  Detailed glossary, extensive bibliography, 270 pages. This translation is based on the oldest version ( 168 BCE) of the Tao Te Ching found in King Ma's tomb - the famous Magwandali manscript.  81 Chapters arranged in a topical order by the author.  Chapter 14, pp. 80-81. 


The Tao and Method: A Reasoned Approach to the Tao Te Ching.  A translation and commentary by Professor Michael LaFargue.  New York, SUNY Press, 1994.  640 pages.  Detailed index, bibliography, notes, and tables.  An essential research tool. 

"What you don't see when you look
is called the unobtrusive.
What you don hear when you listen
is called the rarefied.
What you don't get when you grasp
is called the subtle.
These three cannot be completely fathomed,
so they merge into one:
above is not bright, below is not dark.
Continuous, unnameable, it returns again to
     nothing.
This is called the stateless state,
the image of no thing;
this is called mental abstraction.
When you face it you do not see its head,
when you follow it you do not see its back.
Hold the ancient Way
so as to direct present existence:
only when you can know the ancient
can this be called the basic cycle of the Way."
-  Translated by Thomas Cleary, 1991, Chapter 14


"Looked at, but cannot be seen -
That is called the Invisible (yi).
Listened to, but cannot be heard -
That is called the Inaudible (hsi).
Grasped at, but cannot be touched -
That is called the Intangible (wei).
These three elude our inquiries
And hence blend and become One.

Not by its rising, is there light,
Nor by its sinking, is there darkness.
Unceasing, continuous,
It cannot be defined,
And reverts again to the realm of nothingness.

That is why it is called the Form of the Formless,
The Image of Nothingness.
That is why it is called the Elusive:
Meet it and you do not see its face;
Follow it and you do not see its back."
-  Translated by Lin Yutang, 1955, Chapter 14  




視之不見名曰夷.
聽之不聞名曰希.
搏之不得名曰微.
此三者不可致詰.
故混而為一.
其上不皦其下不昧.
繩繩不可名.
復歸於無物.
是謂無狀之狀.
無物之象.
是謂惚恍.
迎之不見其首.
隨之不見其後.
執古之道.
以御今之有.
能知古始.
是謂道紀.-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 14


shih chih pu chien ming yüeh yi.
t'ing chih pu wên ming yüeh hsi.
po chih pu tê ming yüeh wei.
tz'u san chê pu k'o chih chieh.
ku hun erh wei yi.
ch'i shang pu chiao ch'i hsia pu mei.
shêng shêng pu k'o ming.
fu kuei yü wu wu.
shih wei wu chuang chih chuang.
wu wu chih hsiang.
shih wei hu huang.
ying chih pu chien ch'i shou.
sui chih pu chien ch'i hou.
chih ku chih tao.
yi yü chin chih yu.
nêng chih ku shih.
shih wei tao chi.
-  Wade-Giles Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 14


"We look for it but do not see it:
    we name it "subtle."
We listen for it but do not hear it;
    we name it "rare."
We grope for it but do not grasp it;
    we name it "serene."
These three cannot be fully fathomed,
Therefore,
They are bound together to make unity.
Of unity,
its top is not distant,
its bottom is not blurred.
Infinitely extended
and unnameable,
It returns to non-entity.
This is called
"the form of the formless,"
"the image of nonentity."
This is called "the amorphous."
Following behind it,
    you cannot see its back;
Approaching it from the front,
    you cannot see its head.
Hold to the Way of today
    to manage the actualities of today
    thereby understanding the primeval beginning.
This is called "the thread of the Way.""
-  Translated by Victor H. Mair, 1990, Chapter 14 


"When you look, it isn't there
 Listen and you cannot hear it
 It seems to be beyond your reach
 Because you are so near it
 This single source of everything
 Appears to be an empty image
 Though it cannot be understood
 You can see its naked visage
 Follow it to nothingness
 Approach it where you have no face
 From nowhere to infinity
 This vacant image leaves no trace
 From never to eternity
 This naked face is what you are
 An empty, vacant, open door
 Forevermore ajar"
 -  Translated by Jim Clatfelder, 2000, Chapter 14   


"Se le llama invisible porque mirándole no se le ve.
Se le llama inaudible porque escuchándole no se le oye.
Se le llama impalpable porque tocándole no se le siente.
Estos tres estados son inescrutables y se confunden en uno solo.
En lo alto no es luminoso, en lo bajo no es oscuro.
Es eterno y no puede ser nombrado, retorna al no-ser de las cosas.
Es la forma sin forma y la imagen sin imagen.
Es lo confuso e inasible.
De frente no ves su rostro, por detrás no ves su espalda.
Quien es fiel al Tao antiguo domina la existencia actual.
Quien conoce el primitivo origen posee la esencia del Tao."   
-  Translation from Wikisource, 2013, Tao Te Ching, Capítulo 14


"Look at it: nothing to see.
Call it colorless.
Listen to it: nothing to hear.
Call it soundless.
Reach for it: nothing to hold.
Call it intangible.
Triply undifferentiated,
it merges into oneness,
not bright above,
not dark below.
Never, oh! never
can it be named.
It reverts, it returns
to unbeing.
Call it the form of the unformed,
the image of no image.
Call it the unthinkable thought.
Face it: no face.
Follow it: no end.
Hold fast to the old Way,
we can live in the present.
Mindful of the ancient beginnings,
we hold the thread of the Tao."
-  Translated by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1997, Chapter 14 


"Look, it cannot be seen,
So it is called invisible.
Listen, it cannot be heard,
So it is called soundless.
Touch, it cannot be caught,
So it is called elusive.
These three cannot be examined,
So they unite into one.  
Above it there is no light,  
Below it there is no darkness.
Endlessness beyond description.
It returns to non-existence.
It is called the shapeless shape,
The substance without form.
It is called obscurely evasive.
Meet it and you do not see its beginning,
Follow it and you do not see its end.
Hold on to the ancient Way to master the present,
And to learn the distant beginning.
This is called the unbroken strand of the Way."
-  Translated by Stefan Stenudd, Chapter 14


"Looking for it, it cannot be seen -
Being formless, it is called Yi, the invisible.
Listening to it, it cannot be heard -
Being soundless, it is called Hsi, the inaudible.
Grasping at it, it cannot be reached -
Being subtle, it is called Wei, the intangible.
These three; imperceptible, indescribable -
Mystically united and elusively perceived
as an undefinable oneness.

As the oneness ascends - no light appears.
As the oneness descends - no darkness is perceived.
Unceasingly, continually, form eluding definition,
Evasively reverting to spirit - to nothingness.
The form of formlessness.
The image of imagelessness.
The oneness remains nameless.
Meeting it, it has no part which is front.
Following it, it has no behind.

Encompassing the ancient Tao,
Present affairs are mastered.
Knowing the primal nature of mankind
and the universe,
Is to know the essence of Tao."
-  Translated by Alan B. Taplow, 1982, Chapter 14 


 "Plainness is that which cannot be seen by looking at it.
 Stillness is that which cannot be heard by listening to it.
 Rareness is that which cannot be felt by handling it.
 These, being indiscernible, may be regarded as a Unity of the Tao.
 It is not bright above nor dark beneath.
 Infinite in operation, it is yet without name.
 Issuing forth it enters into Itself.
 This is the appearance of the Non-Apparent, the form of the Non-Existent.
 This is the unfathomable mystery.
 Going before, its face is not seen; following after, its back is not observed.
 Yet to regulate one's life by the ancient knowledge of Tao is to have found the path."
 -  Translated by Walter Gorn Old, 1904, Chapter 14

A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo for each one of the 81 Chapters (Verses, Sections) of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes over 25 different English language translations or interpolations for that Chapter, 5 Spanish language translations for that Chapter, the Chinese characters for that Chapter, the Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin transliterations (Romanization) of the Mandarin Chinese words for that Chapter, and 2 German and 1 French translation of that Chapter.  Each webpage for each one of the 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching includes extensive indexing by key words, phrases, and terms for that Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization.  Each webpage on a Chapter of the Daodejing includes recommended reading in books and websites, a detailed bibliography, some commentary, research leads, translation sources, a Google Translate drop down menu, and other resources for that Chapter.   

Chapter 14, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

A Daoist Druid's Final Journey  

An Old Philosopher's Notebooks