The Forces of Green

"There lies within
A hidden glen
An altar made of stone.
Creeping vine
And moss entwine
To hide this ancient throne.
Tangled thorn
Grows thick to scorn
Those who seek to enter.
For though they strive
No man alive
Shall ever reach its center.
Known as Pan,
To some Green Man,
This glen is his sacred place.
He dons his hood
Of wildwood
To hide his leafy face.
The roving clans
That raped the lands,
Cut down his beloved trees.
And so, alas
As time did pass
The Green God fell to his knees. ..."
- Kristina Peters Moone, The Green Man


"The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.
The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks."
-   Dylan Thomas, The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower

The Green Man

Lore, Legends, Tales, Celebrations, Springtime Symbols, Folk Stories and Plays
From the hypertext research notebooks of Mike Garofalo

This cabbage, these carrots, these potatoes,
these onions ... will soon become me.
Such a tasty fact!
- Mike Garofalo, Cuttings

Portrait of the Emperor Rudolph II as Autumn.By Arcimboldo, 1591, Held at the Museo Civico, Brescia. 

Yang Style Taijiquan Long Form Section I

 Yang Style Taijiquan Long Form Section I

First Section,  Movements 1-17,  List of Movements

First Section List,  Movements 1-17,  Yang Long Form 108   

    Provides a list with the number of the movement and the name of movement. In the PDF format (print only), 1 page, 16Kb.  

First Section List,  Part I,  Movements 1 - 17,  Yang Long Form 108 

    Provides a list with the number of the movement, the direction one is facing at the end of that movement, the name of the movement, and a brief description or notes about the movement.  In the PDF format (print only), 1 page, 48Kb. 

Chapter 75, Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu

Daodejing, Laozi
Chapter 75

"When people are hungry,
It is because their rulers eat too much tax-grain.
Therefore the unruliness of hungry people
Is due to the interference of their rulers.
That is why they are unruly.
The people are not afraid of death,
Because they are anxious to make a living.
That is why they are not afraid of death.
It is those who interfere not with their living
That are wise in exalting life."
-  Translated by Lin Yutang, 1955, Chapter 75


"The people suffer from famine on account of the heavy taxation put upon them.
This is the cause of their need.
The people are difficult to govern because of the overbearing of their superiors.
This is the cause of their trouble.
The people make light of dying because of the great hardships of trying to live.
This is the reason for their indifference to death.
Therefore to keep living in obscurity is better than making overmuch of it."
-  Translated by Walter Gorn Old, 1904, Chapter 75


"The taxes eaten by the ruling class
Left nothing to be eaten by the mass,
And that is why through famine they must pass.
The ruling class made such a great ado
In ruling men, that these made trouble, too,
and that is why their difficulties grew.
People make light of death in their turmoil,
And, seeking life s excess, thereby beguile
Themselves till death, made light of, claims his spoil.  
On life to set less store is therefore best,
It thus becomes a far more worthy quest
Than when  tis made one s ruling interest."
-  Translated by Isaac Winter Heysinger, 1903, Chapter 75    



"When taxes are too heavy, hunger lays the people low.
When those who govern interfere too much, the people become rebellious.
When those who govern demand too much of people's lives, death is taken lightly.
When the people are starving in the land, life is of little value,
and so is more easily sacrificed by them in overthrowing government."
-  Translated by Stan Rosenthal, 1984, Chapter 75    



民之飢, 以其上食稅之多, 是以飢.
民之難治, 以其上之有為, 是以難治.
民之輕死, 以其求生之厚, 是以輕死.
夫唯無以生為者, 是賢於貴生.
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 75


min chih chi, yi ch'i shang shih shui chih, to shih yi chi.
min chih nan chih, yi ch'i shang chih yu wei, shih yi nan chih. 
min chih ch'ing ssu, yi ch'i ch'iu shêng chih hou, shih yi ch'ing ssu. 
fu wei wu yi shêng wei chê, shih hsien yü kuei shêng. 
-  Wade-Giles (1892) Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 75


"When the nation is in want of food, it can be seen that the government officials are eating too much of the grain in excessive taxes.
And why are the people restive and hard to govern?
They are in a state of near rebellion due to the intrusive machinations of the government.
The people learn to make light of death when they strive to obtain goods and extravagant items.
They are relentlessly working to acquire more, and look to death as a release from pursuit of material gain.
In this wise it is easy to not place too high a price on life."
-  Translated by John Dicus, 2002, Chapter 75  


"The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors.
It is through this that they suffer famine.
The people are difficult to govern because of the excessive agency of their superiors in governing them.
It is through this that they are difficult to govern.
The people make light of dying because of the greatness of their labours in seeking for the means of living.
It is this which makes them think light of dying.
Thus it is that to leave the subject of living altogether out of view is better that to set a high value on it."
-  Translated by Andre von Gauthier, Chapter 75 


"El pueblo tiene hambre.
Como sus gobernantes le imponen un impuesto al grano demasiao alto,
entonces tiene hambre.

El pueblo es difícil de gobernar.
Como sus gobernantes gobiernan mediante la acción,
entonces es difícil de gobernar.

El pueblo toma la muerte a la ligera.
Como se la pasan persiguiendo a la vida,
entonces toman la muerte a la ligera.

El que no tiene tiene nada que perseguir en la vida,
es más sabio que aquél que valora la vida."
-  Translated by Álex Ferrara, 2003, Capítulo 75  



"People go hungry because taxes eat their food.
Therefore, the people go hungry.
People are hard to manage because they are oppressed.
Therefore, they are hard to manage.
People laugh at death because their lives are cheapened
With the weight of expectation.
This is why they laugh at death.
Who could value life
When food is scarce, and freedom repressed?"
-  Translated by Brian Donohue, 2005, Chapter 75 


"The hunger of the people
Is from their superiors eating up so much of their tax grain
This is behind the hunger
The difficulties in governing the people
Are due to their superiors having to take action
This is behind the difficulties in government
The people come to take death lightly
Because they pursue life’s riches
This is behind their taking death lightly
Only when one does not think life a performance
Will there be skill in valuing life."
-  Translated by Bradford Hatcher, 2005, Chapter 75  



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 75, 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

One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey  

Seeking a Literary Agent and/or Publisher

I am looking for a author's agent
and/or publisher to consider my books.

Discover your commercial success
possibilities right HERE with books
by Michael P. Garofalo.

My poetry is unique, creative, direct,
experimental, philosophical, and
contemporary. Check out three of
my poetry books that are ready for
publication right now:

At the Edges of the West: Highway 101 and 1.
Docu-Poems, Haiku, Photos, TextArt

The Tick-Tock Tractatus:
Speaking of Time: The Poetic Investigations

Five Corners of Time 202 Eclectic Quintain Poems

My Daodejing Anthology and Concordance
is the very best. This Tao Te Ching anthology
is encyclopedic in scope, and well respected.

Other commercial possibilities
can be found at:

Twenty Five Steps and Beyond:
The Collected Works of Mike Garofalo 

Yes, the in-boxes of literary agents are filled
to the brim with new manuscripts to read.
And, they diligently proceed to try to 
discover value that will sell.

For a change, just open your web browser
and you will find diverse creative work and
whole books at my website.

As for reviews of my work, go here.

My 3,150+ Quintain poems at Bundled Up
(Volumes 1 -6) are designed for Ebook
publication. This is a special type of poetry
and research for which readers frequently
return. My quintain sonnets (5252, 554, 555)
are an original contribution to the genre.

I am not interested in talking to anyone
who wants me to pay them for publishing
and distributing my creative works
in paperback, hardback or Ebook formats.

I am seeking an author's agent and/or
publisher who can see the possibilities
for commercial success from my writing
and my existing books, takes the risks,
works with me on an ongoing basis,
gets them published, and takes the
lions-share of the profits.

What little money I might make will
keep my websites afloat, and the excess
will be given to charity.

I don't have the funds or the time to
actively market or promote my works
to agents or publishers. I will just let
the wide range and value of my creative
works speak for themselves, and their
commercial possibilities.

My goal is to write better and more!
Since 1998, I have published all
my creative work on my many
Internet websites and blog.

To Contact Me

Thanks, Michael Peter Garofalo

Hydrangeas

 In the Northwest, May and June are months when the Hydrangeas are in bloom, as long as it stays cool.

Sad Days for America

I will be marching with others in Vancouver, Washington, on March 28, 2026, to protest the policies of the cruel, incompetent, and immoral  Trump Republicans. 

No Kings Day Protests.

Repost from 2024:

I strongly support the ideas and platform presented by Democratic candidates. I donate to Democratic candidates in every election.

We got through the COVID epidemic under Biden/Harris/Medical Team leadership. We stayed out of the Israel/Hamas killing spree.  Unemployment is lower. Needed  conservation measures began. We supported NATO allies against Russian attacks.  Water quality improvements were initiated. More was invested in electrical power options and uses.

I do not support the anti-federal governmental policies, anti-women's rights and anti-homosexual rights agenda, denial of climate change, States Rights renewals, and Christian Moral Majority opinions of current Republicans. Republicans complain too much, want lower taxes, and have no constructive solutions for the problems our future presents. Also, Donald Trump helped stage a violent attack on the Congress, refused to concede defeat by Joe Biden, lies often, and has numerous criminal convictions for misbehaviors. His off-hand remarks are often quite offensive to many people, even a former Republican and military veteran like me. 

Joe Biden looks trim and fit to me. Most of the time, his speeches are just fine.  Nevertheless, he has consulted with his doctor and has now decided to not run for President again. We thank him for his many decades of governmental service to our Country. This man exemplifies respect, honor, dignity, and loyalty to his basic political views and principles.

Now, the 2024 Presidential Election, has become very interesting.

Who will be the Democratic candidates?

I need to listen and learn.

Diatonic Harmonica Studies: A Beginner's Notes, Research, Resources, Practices, and Comments

 Diatonic Harmonica Studies

A Beginner's Notes, Research, Resources and Comments

By Michael P. Garofalo

Books
Blog Posts
Blues
Chords
Chromatic Harmonicas
Discoveries
Goals
Hardware, Electronics, Software
Harmonicas
Improvisation
Internet
Links
Listening
Low Key Harmonicas
Music: Albums MP3 Videos
Musicians, Harmonica Players
Objectives
Other Harmonicas
Percussion
Positions
Progress Reports
Psychology
Quotations
Software DAWs
Teachers
Techniques, Tips

 

Vernal Equinox Celebration

Spring Equinox Celebration, March 20, 2015

Karen is headed up today to visit a sacred location at a campground by the McCloud River, in the Shasta Lake area.  She is going with four members of her Reiki Group - a Metaphysical Club with New Age and Neo-pagan roots.  

"Oh, what a catastrophe for man when he cut himself off from the rhythm of the year, from his unison with the sun and the earth.  Oh, what a catastrophic ...  This is what is the matter with us.  We are bleeding at the roots, because we are cut off from the earth and sun and starts ...  We plucked it from its stem on the Tree of Life, and expected it to keep on blooming in our civilized vase on the table."
-  D. H. Lawrence 

Spring Equinox Celebrations of NeoPaganism

Spring: Poetry, Quotes, Sayings

March: Poetry, Quotes, Sayings

The Green Man: Myths, Legends, Lore

Seasons and Months

One Old Druid's Final Journey

Taoism

The Green Man: Myths, Legends, Lore

 

Quinquatria, Roman Festival in honor of Minerva, March 19 - March 23.  Minerva is the Roman Goddess, and the Greek Goddess with similar attributes is Athena, Patron of Athens.  This ancient Goddess is associated with civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, poetry, weaving, magic, music, crafts, justice, and skills.  Her totem is the owl.  She is a virgin goddess, Pallas Athena, where she is one of three virgin goddesses along with Artemis and Hestia, known by the Romans as Diana and Vesta.  Minerva/Athna is featured on the great seal of the State of California.

Help With Arthritis

Help with Arthritis: Tai Chi, Chi Kung, Yoga, Walking, and Diet   Bibliography, links, resources, recommended books, information, quotations, tips, and research.  By Michael P. Garofalo.  

For the past six years, I have had increasing pain, discomfort, and joint problems caused by arthritis.  Osteoarthritis effects my toes, fingers, tailbone, and shoulder.

My orthopedist has recommended surgery on my right shoulder, and my podiatrist has recommended surgery on my right big toe.  Not an unusual report for a 69 year old big man.  As of yet, I have not had any surgeries to help with my arthritis. 

I don't take any oral medications specifically targeting arthritis.  I take two ibuprophen tablets approximately two times in any ten day period.

I practice t'ai chi ch'uan, chi kung, yoga, walking, and gardening. 

I favor a non-inflamatory diet with lots of vegetables, grains, seeds, nuts, fruits and salads.  For example, my breakfast each morning consists of 2/3 dry cup of half steel cut oats and half quinoa, with raisins, almonds, and butter added to the cooked grains; along with coffee and creamer.  I start with about 900 calories for breakfast.  Since I weight between 250 and 260 pounds, and am very active, I need a few more calories than smaller people. 

Hopefully, these health practices, will slow the progress of my osteoarthritis, keep me limber, allow me to be active, and ameliorate the, thus far, modest pain and discomfort.

Many experts have recommended that persons suffering from osteoarthritis practice T'ai Chi Ch'aun, particularly Sun Style Taijiquan.

My webpages on the subject of exercise might be useful to persons with this health problem:

Help with Arthritis: Tai Chi, Chi Kung, Yoga, Walking, and Diet

Qigong (Chi Kung) Exercises for Fitness and Good Health

T'ai Chi Ch'uan Exercises 

 

Tai Chi for Arthritis - 12 Lessons with Dr. Paul Lam, M.D..   Instructional DVD, 2009.  2 Discs, 300 Minutes.  VSCL. 

Gentle Yoga for Arthritis: A Safe and Easy Approach to Better Health and Well-Being through Yoga.  By Laurie Sanford and Nancy Forstbauer.  Hatherleigh Press, 2014.  112 pages.  ISBN: 978-1578264483.  

Arthritis Relief: Chinese Qigong for Healing and Prevention  By Grandmaster Yang Jwing Ming.  YMAA Publications Center, 3rd Edition, 2005.  Index, 2014 pages.  ISBN: 978-1594390333.   VSCL.  

The Immune System Recovery Plan: A Doctor's 4-Step Program to Treat Autoimmune Disease.  By Susan Blum, MD and MPH; and Michele Bender.  Foreword by Mark Hyman, M.D..  Scribner, 2013.  384 pages.  ISBN: 978-1451694970.  VSCL. 

 

God's Own Eye

                 The Fireplace Records, Chapter 31

God's Own Eye

Master Seung Sahn liked to write short enigmatic mystical poems.  He once wrote:

"Who sees the All as nothingness,
as nothing all that is,
sees everything through God's own eye.
Enlightenment is this."  (WWSF #63)

"The God who is pure emptiness
is created as form,
becoming substance, light and darkness
the stillness and the storm."  (WWSF #64)

It is quite unusual, also rare, for a Zen Buddhist to refer to the Christian God to support his own mystical theological-philosophical views.  Although, belief in and references to supernatural beings of various kinds is quite common in popular-folk Buddhism. 

Emptiness, nothingness, or the void are common themes, concepts, tropes or cliches in Zen Buddhist Koans and discussions.

Maybe Master Seung Sahn was playing on the sentences from the German Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, who once wrote: "To be full of things is to be empty of God.  To be empty of things is to be full of God. The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me."

Avalokiteshavara, a supernatural being, has a thousand hands with one eye in each hand.  Lin-Chi asked, "Which is the real eye?"  (IF 95)

The "Eye that grasps the Universe" is for Zhaozhou an Eye that is empty of defilement, free of attachments, untainted by conceptualizing, and beyond being and non-being. A clear-eyed neutral realistic objectivity--- seeing things as they are? (DSMS #291)

Yunyan contended that the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion had eyes and hands all over its' (his/her) body. Yes, we can "see" (understand/feel) our world with our hands, even with our eyes closed. (BOS #54)

Eyes, seeing, watching, observing, viewing, and overall vision are essential for surviving, learning, moving, and being-in-the-world. 

We love to use sight as a metaphor in poetry about spirituality.  Soren Kierkegaard wrote "All human speech about the spiritual is essentially metaphorical speech." Nietzsche said, "Truth is a mobile army of metaphors." 

The same Eye between God and a Person? 
Is it the same God between two million persons seeing in a spiritual way; or, are there two million Gods? How many eyes does God have? Is God blind in one eye like Sartre. Is God blind in two eyes like Ray Charles or Helen Keller? Does God have a Third Eye like yogi adepts? Is God nearsighted or far sighted and needs spiritual glasses? Are these two Transcendental Eyes looking through each other a pleasant fiction, a distorted double vision, an empty darkness, a blurred visual hallucination, an unfocused metaphor?

Now, really, does even a postulated God of Emptiness (God = Pure Emptiness) give birth to Substance, to Forms, to the realities of sunlight and darkness, man and woman, toads and ravens?  I am doubtful, even if obviously charmed. 

Maybe all this emptiness talk is just about negation. God was lonely, wanted to be creative, wanted to watch something, rejected being alone, and negated his present to create a future. So, It/He/She created ex nihilo the ordinary world. But, in this view, God is not emptiness; It/He/She is Something that rejected the emptiness of aloneness, negated his unpleasant solitude, and projected Somethings into existence. The Ten Thousand Things of Taoist ontology were born from the Dao embracing Change, rejecting and negating undifferentiated Nothingness.  

Ah ... the mysteries of ontology keep us wondering. I need a long walk!

Comments, Sources, Observations

Emptiness has little creative potency.
Somethings give birth to somethings.
Emptiness is not a metaphor for something.
Emptiness may make room for somethings to play.
"God" is maybe another metaphor, analogy, or acronym.
Emptiness is a lonely affair.

Emptiness is the subject of over 50 Zen Koans.

Meetings with Master Chang San-Feng 

Zen Master Raven

Sunyata, Emptiness, Void, Nothingness

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 by Mike Garofalo

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

The Fireplace Records  By Michael P. Garofalo

Or

Feldenkrais Techniques

A repost from February 2018:

I have taken 9 Feldenkrais' introductory 90 minute group classes from a local Feldenkrais practitioner, Christine Toscano.  I also practice this method alone at home.  I have also read a number of books on the subject.

Mrs. Toscano recommended we read Chapter 5 of the book by Norman Doidge, M.D., "The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity," (Penguin Books, 2016). The chapter covers the life and work of Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984).  He was a Ph.D. engineer, kudo master, movement therapist, author, and healer. The chapter discusses some of the core principles of his theory and methods as follows:

"1. The mind programs the functioning of the brain.
2. A brain cannot think without motor function.
3. Awareness of movement is the key to improving movement.
4. Differentiation: making the smallest possible sensory distinctions between movements - builds brain maps.
5. Differentiation is easiest to make when the stimulus is smallest.
6. Slowness of movement is the key to awareness, and awareness is the key to learning.
7. Reduce the effort whenever possible. Relax.
8. Errors are essential, and there is no right way to move, only better.
9. Random movements provide variation that leads to developmental breakthroughs.
10. Even the smallest movement in one part of the body involves the entire body.
11. Many movement problems, and the pain that goes with them, are caused by learned habit, not by abnormal structure." 

Awareness Through Movement.  Easy-To-Do Health Exercises to Improve Your Posture, Vision, Imagination and Personal Awareness.  By Moshe Feldenkrais.  HarperOne, Reprint edition, 2009.  192 pages.  ISBN: 978-0062503220.  VSCL. 

Awareness Heals: The Feldenkrais Method for Dynamic Health.  By Stephen Shafarman.  Da Capo Lifelong Books, 1997.  224 pages.  ISBN: 978-0201694697.  VSCL. 

The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity.  By Norman Doidge, M.D..  Penguin Books, 2016.

Change Your Age: Using Your Body and Brain to Feel Younger, Stronger, and More Fit.  By Frank Wildman, Ph.D..  Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2010.  240 pages.  ISBN: 978-0738213637.  VSCL. 

Embodied Wisdom: The Collected Papers of Moshe Feldenkrais.  Edited by Elizabeth Beringer.  Foreword by David Zemach-Bersin.  North Atlantic Books, 1st Edition, 2010.  256 pages.  ISBN: 978-1556439063.  VSCL.  

March Gardening Chores

A repost from March 9, 2015:  

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA

USDA Zone 9

 

Typical Weather for Our Area   Normally, in March, we have daytime high temperatures of 64ºF, nighttime low temperatures of 42ºF, and we get 2.7 inches of rain.

Red Bluff Gardening Notebooks of Karen and Mike Garofalo

March:  Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore

Spring Equinox Celebrations

Spring:  Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore

Gardening:  A Somaesthetic Practice


March Photographs by Karen Garofalo

March Gardening Chores in Red Bluff

Browsing and ordering from seed and garden catalogs.
Planting potted trees and shrubs.  
Placing cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas or indoors.
Pruning and mulching dormant trees and vines. 
Repairing and sharpening tools.
Fertilizing with 16-16-16 or manure. 
Planting seeds in containers in the greenhouse.
Planting some vegetable starts in the ground.
Watering as needed.
Removing deadwood from trees and shrubs. 
Moving bulbs. 
Raking up fallen twigs and branches.
Weeding around the base of small trees and shrubs.
Mowing and weeding as needed.
Cleaning and repairing drip irrigation lines. 
Making up To Do lists. 
Spring Cleaning inside the house. 
Spraying dormant trees and shrubs. 
Painting fences and art objects as needed. 
Bringing spring flowers indoors to enjoy. 
Developing Spring Resolutions for personal improvements. 
Fixing up lawn mowers and other power tools for outdoor work.   
Sharpening and oiling hand tools. 
Home improvement projects. 
Roto-tilling and double digging as needed. 
Updating March and Spring webpages. 
Reading, reading, reading.


Karen Garofalo took all the photographs shown below at our home in Red Bluff, California.

Cultivating Taste

Repost from October 2022

I have been reading books by and about John Dewey (1859-1952).  I favor many of the positions of the American Pragmatist philosophers.  

The mind-Body arts and disciplines I practice and write about are useful for maintaining fitness and good health, helping with self-defense at a number of levels, encouraging oneself and others to be peaceful and calm, reducing anxieties and tension, balancing internal forces, opening one up to interesting cultural and philosophical Eastern traditions, and having a dignity and beauty associated with their practice.  I judge them to be "good," and exemplars of "good taste."  They seem right and noble to me, based on broader judgments as to value, and not just my personal preferences or habits.       

"Well, a vast number of our moral perceptions also are certainly of this secondary and brain‑born kind. They deal with directly felt fitnesses between things, and often fly in the teeth of all the prepossessions of habit and presumptions of utility. The moment you get beyond the coarser and more commonplace moral maxims, the Decalogues and Poor Richard's Almanacs, you fall into schemes and positions which to the eye of common‑sense are fantastic and overstrained. The sense for abstract justice which some persons have is as eccentric a variation, from the natural-history point of view, as is the passion for music or for the higher philosophical consistencies which consumes the soul of others. The feeling of the inward dignity of certain spiritual attitudes, as peace, serenity, simplicity, veracity; and of the essential vulgarity of others, as querulousness, anxiety, egoistic fussiness, etc‑-are quite inexplicable except by an innate preference of the more ideal attitude for its own pure sake. The nobler thing tastes better, and that is all that we can say. “Experience” of consequences  may truly teach us what things are wicked, but what have consequences to do with what is mean and vulgar?"  ....


"The word "taste" has perhaps got too completely associated with arbitrary liking to express the nature of judgments of value. But if the word be used in the sense of an appreciation at once cultivated and active, one may say that the  formation of taste is the chief matter wherever values enter in, whether intellectual, aesthetic or moral.  Relatively immediate judgments, which we call tact or to which we give the name of intuition, do not precede reflective inquiry, but are the funded products of much thoughtful experience. Expertness of taste is at once the result and the reward of constant exercise of thinking.  Instead of there being no disputing about tastes, they are the one thing worth disputing about, if by "dispute" is signified discussion involving reflective inquiry.  Taste, if we use the word in its best sense, is the outcome of experience brought cumulatively to bear on the intelligent appreciation of the real worth of likings and enjoyments.  There is nothing in which a person so completely reveals himself as in the things which he judges enjoyable and desirable, Such judgments are the sole alternative to the domination of belief by impulse, chance, blind habit and self-interest. The formation of a cultivated and effectively operative good judgment or taste with respect to what is aesthetically admirable, intellectually acceptable and morally approvable is the supreme task set to human beings by the incidents of experience."
-  John Dewey, The Construction of Good in the Quest for Certainty, 1929

These Dear Friends of the Buddha Mind

 2675.

These Dear Friends of the Buddha Mind

          I never
     grasped emptiness
or hiked around Mt. Sumeru,
or patted Chao-chou's dog,
or teased Nansen's cat,

blocked the Bodhidharma's uppercut,
or slept in Han Shan's dirty hut,
or borrowed Wendy Johnson's garden rake
or rode the Ox through the Gateless Gate,
or solved any of Rinzai's riddles,

I never, ever
suffered the Great Doubt,
looked for sticks in Yun-men's crapper,
or broke Tassajara bread with Shunryu Suzuki,
or minded the flapping flag for Hui-neng the sage,

or heard Jiyu-Kennett move her whisk in Mt. Shasta's shade,
or chanted on Mt. Tamalpais with Whalen, Ginsberg and Snyder,
or saw Dogen's True Eye open just a little bit wider.
     I never did.
     Nope, never!

Not in 55 lifetimes.
               Yet, it seems like I did.
Yep, dayinanddayout,
appearances notwithstanding,
Reality appeared just So.

This I know:
Their Heritage
Is in my Heart,
Their Myths mine,
These Dear Friends of the Buddha Mind.

 

2676.

 

 

Poetry by Michael P. Garofalo

Quintains: Volumes 1 -6

Give Up Learning

The Fireplace Records, Chapter 11

The student asked, "How can I best pursue the Buddhist Way?"

The Master said, "Don't give up learning."  

The student said, "But don't all the masters in the sets of Chan koan collections tells us not to think, not to read, not to have intellectual or literary quibbles, to let go of body and mind, to free yourself from the tainted worship of scriptures, to stop reasoning using only dualistic logical viewpoints, to introspect and intuit, to give up the pursuit of knowledge and scholarship, to stop judging between right and wrong, to focus on emptiness?"

The Master said, "It is true that for the illiterate person listening and seeing are more fundamental in their lives than other learning methods.  Cutting Nansen's cat in half, hitting a student hard with a cane, or yelling at someone are dramatic teaching encounters. However, I only know now how that person thought or acted or chose not to think or felt by reading what some scholar historian wrote down about them.  In some ways, "The Buddha" is just a bunch of footnotes on awakened and compassionate living."

The Master continued, "Increasing your learning is like adding gathered firewood to cut up and dry for later use.  Then, when you need wood for cooking or heating you will have some resources at hand.  To learn more by studying scriptures or introspecting koans is like adding a new log to a new fire in the Fireplace of Your Spirit.  I still believe that guided book learning is very beneficial when pursuing the Buddhist Way.  Indeed, other methods for "learning" are possible, but book learning appeals strongly to some people and is an effective method for helping them become more like the Buddha."

The Student's Considerations

Logic requires both true and false. 
Seek the true, valid, accurate, sensible, reasonable, practical,
   most probable, beautiful, fair, and useful.
Face the false and deal with it. Know what is false. 
There are limits to reasoning and limits to introspection. 
Figure it out in terms of your life choices today. 
Stupidity and ignorance won't necessarily lighten
   your worries or troubles. 
Learning takes a lifetime of effort.
There are a number of ways to learn.
Book learning, scholarship, spiritual literature,
   writing, reading, research, comparisons, and
   intellectual endeavors are good ways to learn
   for some people on a spiritual quest.  

    

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter 20

"Give up learning, and put an end to your troubles.
Is there a difference between yes and no?
Is there a difference between good and evil?
Must I fear what others fear? What nonsense!
Other people are contented, enjoying the sacrificial feast of the ox.
In spring some go to the park, and climb the terrace,
But I alone am drifting, not knowing where I am.
Like a newborn babe before it learns to smile,
I am alone, without a place to go.
Others have more than they need, but I alone have nothing.
I am a fool. Oh, yes! I am confused.
Others are clear and bright,
But I alone am dim and weak.
Others are sharp and clever,
But I alone am dull and stupid.
Oh, I drift like the waves of the sea,
Without direction, like the restless wind.
Everyone else is busy,
But I alone am aimless and depressed.
I am different.
I am nourished by the great mother."
-  Translated by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English, 1989, Chapter 20  

"Get rid of "learning" and there will be no anxiety.
How much difference is there between "yes" and "no"?
How far removed from each other are "good" and "evil"?
Yet what the people are in awe of cannot be disregarded.
I am scattered, never having been in a comfortable center.
All the people enjoy themselves, as if they are at the festival of the great sacrifice,
Or climbing the Spring Platform.
I alone remain, not yet having shown myself.
Like an infant who has not yet laughed.
Weary, like one despairing of no home to return to.
All the people enjoy extra
While I have left everything behind.
I am ignorant of the minds of others.
So dull!
While average people are clear and bright, I alone am obscure.
Average people know everything.
To me alone all seems covered.
So flat!
Like the ocean.
Blowing around!
It seems there is no place to rest.
Everybody has a goal in mind.
I alone am as ignorant as a bumpkin.
I alone differ from people.
I enjoy being nourished by the mother."
-  Translated by Charles Muller, 1891, Chapter 20  

"Cease learning, no more worries
Respectful response and scornful response
How much is the difference?
Goodness and evil
How much do they differ?
What the people fear, I cannot be unafraid

So desolate! How limitless it is!
The people are excited
As if enjoying a great feast
As if climbing up to the terrace in spring
I alone am quiet and uninvolved
Like an infant not yet smiling
So weary, like having no place to return
The people all have surplus
While I alone seem lacking
I have the heart of a fool indeed so ignorant!
Ordinary people are bright
I alone am muddled
Ordinary people are scrutinizing
I alone am obtuse
Such tranquility, like the ocean
Such high wind, as if without limits

The people all have goals
And I alone am stubborn and lowly
I alone am different from them
And value the nourishing mother"
-  Translated by Derek Linn, 2006, Chapter 20 

唯之與阿, 相去幾何.
善之與惡, 相去若何.
人之所畏, 不可不畏.
荒兮其未央哉.
衆人熙熙.
如享太牢.
如春登臺.
我獨怕兮其未兆, 如嬰兒之未孩.
儽儽兮若無所歸.
衆人皆有餘, 而我獨若遺.
我愚人之心也哉, 沌沌兮.
俗人昭昭.
我獨昏.
昏俗人察察.
我獨悶悶.
澹兮其若海.
飂兮若無止.
衆人皆有以.
而我獨頑似鄙.
我獨異於人,而貴食母.
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 20

wei chih yü a, hsiang ch'ü chi ho.
 shan chih yü wu, hsiang ch'ü jo ho.
 jên chih so wei, pu k'o pu wei.
 huang hsi ch'i wei yang tsai.
 chung jên hsi hsi.
 ju hsiang ta lao.
 ju ch'un têng t'ai.
 wo tu p'o hsi ch'i wei chao, ju ying erh chih wei hai.
 lei lei hsi jo wu so kuei.
 chung jên chieh yu yü, erh wo tu jo yi.
 wo yü jên chih hsin yeh tsai, t'un t'un hsi.
 su jên chao chao.
 wo tu hun.
 hun su jên ch'a ch'a.
 wo tu mên mên.
 tan hsi ch'i jo hai.
 liu hsi jo wu chih.
 chung jên chieh yu yi.
 erh wo tu wan ssu pi.
 wo tu yi yü jên, erh kuei shih mu.
 -  Wade-Giles Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 20  

 

"Leave off fine learning! End the nuisance
Of saying yes to this and perhaps to that,
Distinctions with how little difference!
Categorical this, categorical that,
What slightest use are they!
If one man leads, another must follow,
How silly that is and how false!
Yet conventional men lead an easy life
With all their days feast days,
A constant spring visit to the Tall Tower,
While I am a simpleton, a do-nothing,
Not big enough yet to raise a hand,
Not grown enough to smile,
A homeless, worthless waif.
Men of the world have a surplus of goods,
While I am left out, owning nothing.
What a booby I must be
Not to know my way round,
What a fool!
The average man is so crisp and so confident
That I ought to be miserable
Going on and on like the sea,
Drifting nowhere.
All these people are making their mark in the world,
While I, pig-headed, awkward,
Different from the rest,
Am only a glorious infant still nursing at the breast."
-  Translated by Witter Bynner, 1944, Chapter 20 


"Renounce knowledge and your problems will end.
What is the difference between yes and no?
What is the difference between good and evil?
Must you fear what others fear?
Nonsense, look how far you have missed the mark!

Other people are joyous,
as though they were at a spring festival.
I alone am unconcerned and expressionless,
like an infant before it has learned to smile.

Other people have more than they need;
I alone seem to possess nothing.
I am lost and drift about with no place to go.
I am like a fool, my mind is in chaos.

Ordinary people are bright;
I alone am dark.
Ordinary people are clever;
I alone am dull.
Ordinary people seem discriminating;
I alone am muddled and confused.
I drift on the waves on the ocean,
blown at the mercy of the wind.
Other people have their goals,
I alone am dull and uncouth.

I am different from ordinary people.
I nurse from the Great Mother's breasts."
-  Translated by John H. McDonald, 1996, Chapter 20 



"Suprime el adoctrinamiento y no habrá preocupaciones.
¿Qué diferencia hay entre el sí y el no?
¿Qué diferencia hay entre el bien y el mal?
¡El dicho “lo que otros evitan, yo también deberé evitar”
cuán falso y superficial es!
No es posible abarcar todo el saber.
Todo el mundo se distrae y disfruta,
como cuando se presencia un gran sacrificio,
o como cuando se sube a los jardines de una torre en primavera.
Sólo yo doy cabida a la duda,
no copiando lo que otros hacen,
como un recién nacido que aún no sabe sonreír.
Como quien no sabe a dónde dirigirse,
como quien no tiene hogar.
Todo el mundo vive en la abundancia,
sólo yo parezco desprovisto.
Consideran mi mente como la de un loco
por sentir umbrías confusiones y críticas.
Todo el mundo brilla porque solo las luces buscan,
sólo yo me atrevo a transitar por las tinieblas.
Todo el mundo se conforma con su felicidad,
sólo yo me adentro en mi depresión.
Soy como quien deriva en alta mar,
voy contra la corriente sin un rumbo predestinado.
Todo el mundo es puesto en algún uso;
sólo yo soy un ermitaño intratable y aburrido.
Sólo yo soy diferente a todos los demás
porque aprecio a la Madre Naturaleza que me nutre."
-  Translation from Wikisource, 2013, Capitulo 20  


"Give up learning, and you will be free from all your worries.
What is the difference between yes and no about which the rhetoricians have so much to say?
What is the difference between good and evil on which the critics never agree?
These are futilities that prevent the mind from being free.
Now freedom of mind is necessary to enter into relation with the Principle.
Without doubt, among the things which common people fear, there are things that should be feared; but not as they do, with a mind so troubled that they lose their mental equilibrium.
Neither should one permit oneself to lose equilibrium through pleasure, as happens to those who have a good meal or view the surrounding countryside in spring from the top of a tower with the accompaniment of wine, etc.).
I, the Sage, seem to be colourless and undefined; neutral as a new-born child that has not yet experienced any emotion; without design or aim.
The common people abound in varied knowledge, but I am poor having rid myself of all uselessness and seem ignorant, so much have I purified myself.
They seem full of light, I seem dull.
They seek and scrutinize, I remain concentrated in myself.
Indeterminate, like the immensity of the oceans, I float without stopping.
They are full of talent, whereas I seem limited and uncultured.
I differ thus from the common people, because I venerate and imitate the universal nourishing mother, the Principle."
-  Translated by Derek Bryce, 1999, Chapter 20 

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 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 20, 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

One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey  

Related Links, Resources, References

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

Song Dynasty, China, 960-1279  

Subject Index to the Cases of the Gateless Gate Koan Collection

Brief Spiritual Stories, Dialogues, and Encounters
Zen Buddhist Koan Collections
Bibliography, Quotations, Notes, Resources
Research by Michael P. Garofalo

The Fireplace Records By Michael P. Garofalo

25 Steps and Beyond:
The Collected Works of Mike Garofalo