Pulling Onions Again

Freedom opens a few doors and closes many more. 
My mind is a sea I cannot see into; I merely skim along its surface.
I think, therefore I am a living person; dead bodies don't display thinking, just stinking.
Sometimes the present alters our interpretation of the past; most often the past surrounds and infects the present. 
Wherever I go, something new becomes me. 
Be careful not to stand up for that which will cause your downfall.    
God may be very smart, but he is a poor communicator.
What ought to be cannot be derived from what is the case, but a reasonable person ought not to ignore what is the case.  
I can admire a few great persons or heroes, but seldom have much desire to try and imitate them. 
Disrespect and contempt for the body is a common trump card for spiritualists; but, our game of life does not use trump cards. 
Nonsense can sometimes improve our sense and senses. 
Prohibitions focus our aim on better choices and actions. 
Don't sell the present short on the promises of "when." 
Most tire from hatefulness; cheerfulness is abiding.
Stubborn facts are loosened up with novelty.
A sure path to the perversion of truth is to make it a belief. 
The act, the deed, the doing are the primary considerations. 
My body gave birth to my mind, is in my mind, and my body-mind thrives in our world of lived experiences. 
Objectivity is a product of our agreements, and an important feature of my imagination. 
R. Buckminster-Fuller once suggested that "God is a verb, not a noun."  Which verb?  Pretending?  Storytelling?  Fantasizing?  Believing? 
My consciousness is a vegetable soup, and the water in the soup is what I do. 
Yes, I am just this and that; but, I am also not just that and this. 
Hearing the cat purr when we pet them gently matters far more to us than whether the cat's fur is black, white, or orange. 
If you think you are damned if you do or damned if you don't, your not thinking creatively enough. 
The ten thousand things are more enchanting than the Silent One. 
To lift the mind, move the body.  

Pulling Onions: The Quips and Sayings of an Old Gardener.  Over 840 quotes.  By Mike Garofalo

Mind Writing Slogans, Part II, by Allen Ginsberg

   II Path (Method, Or Recognition)
 
1.  "No ideas but in things." "... No ideas but in the Facts." — William Carlos Williams
2.  "Close to the nose." — William Carlos Williams
3.  "Sight is where the eye hits." — Louis Zukofsky
4.  "Clamp the mind down on objects." — William Carlos Williams
5.  "Direct treatment of the thing ... (or object)." — Ezra Pound, 1912
6.  "Presentation, not reference." — Ezra Pound
7.  "Give me a for instance." — Vernacular
8.  "Show not tell." — Vernacular
9.  "The natural object is always the adequate symbol." — Ezra Pound
10.  "Things are symbols of themselves." — Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche
11.  "Labor well the minute particulars, take care of the little ones.
      He who would do good for another must do it in minute particulars.
      General Good is the plea of the Scoundrel Hypocrite and Flatterer
      For Art & Science cannot exist but in minutely organized particulars." — William Blake
12.  "And being old she put a skin / on everything she said." — W. B. Yeats
13.  "Don’t think of words when you stop but to see the picture better." — Jack Kerouac
14.  "Details are the Life of Prose." — Jack Kerouac
15.  "Intense fragments of spoken idiom best." — Allen Ginsberg
16.  "Economy of Words" — Ezra Pound
17.  "Tailoring" — Gregory Corso
18.  "Maximum information, minimum number of syllables." ─ Allen Ginsberg
19.  "Syntax condensed, sound is solid." — Allen Ginsberg
20.  "Savor vowels, appreciate consonants." — Allen Ginsberg 
21.  "Compose in the sequence of musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome." — Ezra Pound
22.  "... awareness ... of the tone leading of the vowels." — Ezra Pound
23.  "... an attempt to approximate classical quantitative meters . . . — Ezra Pound
24.  "Lower limit speech, upper limit song" — Louis Zukofsky
25.  "Phanopoeia, Melopoeia, Logopoeia." — Ezra Pound 
26.  "Sight, Sound and Intellect." — Louis Zukofsky
27.  "Only emotion objectified endures." — Louis Zukofsky

-  Mind Writing Slogans, Part II, compiled by Alllen Ginsberg, 1926-1997. 

Allen Ginsberg. "Mind Writing Slogans," copyright © 1993 by Allen Ginsberg, in
What Book: Buddha Poems From Beat To Hiphop, Gary Gach, ed., copyright © 1998, Parallax Press.]

Jnana Mudra

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Index Finger Touching Thumb:

  Connecting with Others, Friendships, Sangha

  Interconnectivity, Connections, Interdependence, World-Life

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

  Circle of Life, Cycles, Round and Round

  Buddhist Wheel with Eight Spokes Symbol, Eightfold Path

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

  

Dao De Jing, Laozi, Chapter 31

Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu
Chapter 31


"Even the finest arms are an instrument of evil,
A spread of plague,
And the way for a vital man to go is not the way of a soldier.
But in time of war men civilized in peace
Turn from their higher to their lower nature.
Arms are an instrument of evil,
No measure for thoughtful men
Until there fail all other choice
But sad acceptance of it.
Triumph is not beautiful.
He who thinks triumph beautiful
Is one with a will to kill,
And one with a will to kill
Shall never prevail upon the world.
It is a good sign when man's higher nature comes forward,
A bad sign when his lower nature comes forward,
When retainers take charge
And the master stays back
As in the conduct of a funeral.
The death of a multitude is cause for mourning:
Conduct your triumph as a funeral."
-  Translated by Witter Bynner, 1944, Chapter 31  


"So far as arms are concerned, they are implements of ill-omen.
They are not implements for the man of Tao.
For the actions of armies will be well requited; where armies have quartered, brambles and thorns grow.
Great wars are for certain followed by years of scarcity.
The man of Tao when dwelling at home makes the left as the place of honour, and when using arms makes the right the place of honour.
He uses them only when he cannot avoid it.
In his conquests he takes no delight.
If he take delight in them, it would mean that he enjoys the slaughter of men.
He who takes delight in the slaughter of men cannot have his will done in the world."
-  Translated by Ch'u Ta-Kao, 1904, Chapter 31 


"Even the finest arms are an instrument of evil,
A spread of plague,
And the way for a vital man to go is not the way of a soldier.
But in time of war men civilized in peace
Turn from their higher to their lower nature.
Arms are an instrument of evil,
No measure for thoughtful men
Until there fail all other choice
But sad acceptance of it.
Triumph is not beautiful.
He who thinks triumph beautiful
Is one with a will to kill,
And one with a will to kill
Shall never prevail upon the world.
It is a good sign when man's higher nature comes forward,
A bad sign when his lower nature comes forward,
When retainers take charge
And the master stays back
As in the conduct of a funeral.
The death of a multitude is cause for mourning:
Conduct your triumph as a funeral."
-  Translated by Witter Bynner, 1944, Chapter 31  



夫佳兵者不祥之器.
物或惡之, 故有道者不處. 
君子居則貴左.
用兵則貴右. 
兵者不祥之器.
非君子之器.
不得已而用之.
恬淡為上. 
勝而不美.
而美之者, 是樂殺人. 
夫樂殺人者, 則不可以得志於天下矣. 
吉事尚左.
凶事尚右. 
偏將軍居左.
上將軍居右.
言以喪禮處之. 
殺人之衆, 以哀悲泣之.
戰勝以喪禮處之. 
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 31  


fu bing zhe bu xiang zhi qi.
wu huo wu zhi, gu you dao zhe bu chu.
jun zi ju ze gui zuo.
yong bing ze gui you.
bing zhe bu xiang zhi qi.
fei jun zi zhi qi.
bu de yi er yong zhi.
tian dan wei shang.
sheng er bu mei.
er mei zhi zhe, shi le sha ren.
fu le sha ren zhe, tse bu ke yi de zhi yu tian xia yi.
ji shi shang zuo.,
xiong shi shang you.
pian jiang jun ju zuo.
shang jiang jun ju you.
yan yi sang li chu zhi.
sha ren zhi zhong, yi ai bei qi zhi.
zhan sheng yi sang li chu zhi.
-  Pinyin Romanization, Dao De Jing, Chapter 31  


"Weapons of war are omens of doom,
To be loathed by every living thing
And shunned by those who keep the Way.
Presiding at court the leader honours the left.
Resorting to war he honours the right.
But weapons are never the leader’s choice.
Weapons of war are omens of doom,
Not to be used unless compelled.
Above all, with mind and heart unstirred,
To arms give no glory:
For to glory in arms
Is to sing and rejoice in the slaughter of men.
And singers in praise of the slaughter of men
Shall not in this world gain their ends.
Thus the left is for deeds that are blessed,
The right is for deeds that bring death.
To the left the minor commander,
To the right the chief general:
Placed for the rites to honour the dead.
When the slaughter is great,
Let the leader come forth to keen for the slain;
The victory won,
To perform solemn rites in mourning the day."
-  Translated by Moss Roberts, 2001, Chapter 31  


 
"Las armas son instrumentos nefastos.
El hombre del Tao nunca se sirve de ellas.
El hombre de bien considera a la izquierda
como sitio de honor,
pero se inclina a la derecha cuando porta armas.
El sabio prefiere la izquierda.
El soldado prefiere la derecha.
Las armas son instrumentos nefastos,
no adecuados para el hombre de bien.
Sólo las usa en caso de necesidad,
y lo hace comedidamente,
sin alegría en la victoria.
El que se alegra de vencer
es el que goza con la muerte de los hombres.
Y quien se complace en matar hombres
no puede prevalecer en el mundo.
Para los grandes acontecimientos
el sitio de honor es la izquierda,
y la derecha para los hechos luctuosos.
En el ejército,
El comandante adjunto se coloca a la izquierda,
El comandante en jefe, a la derecha.
Esta es la misma disposición que se usa en los ritos fúnebres.
Esto significa que la guerra se compara a un servicio funerario.
Cuando ha sido matada mucha gente,
sólo es justo que los supervivientes lloren por los muertos.
Por esto, incluso una victoria es un funeral."
-  Translation from Wikisource, 2013, Capitulo 31

"Of all things, soldiers are instruments of evil,
   Hated by men.
Therefore the religious man (possessed of Tao) avoids them.
The gentleman favors the left in civilian life,
But on military occasions favors the right.

Soldiers are weapons of evil.
   They are not the weapons of the gentleman.
When the use of soldiers cannot be helped,
   The best policy is calm restraint.

Even in victory, there is no beauty,
And who calls it beautiful
   Is one who delights in slaughter.
He who delights in slaughter
   Will not succeed in his ambition to rule the world.

[The things of good omen favor the left.
The things of ill omen favor the right.
The lieutenant-general stands on the left,
The general stands on the right.
That is to say, it is celebrated as a Funeral Rite.]

The slaying of multitudes should be mourned with sorrow.
A victory should be celebrated with the Funeral Rite."
-  Translated by Lin Yutang, 1955, Chapter 31   

Chapter 31 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

 A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo on a Chapter of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes at least 16 different translations or interpolations of the Chapter in English, two Spanish translations, the Chinese characters for the Chapter, a Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin Romanization of the Mandarin Chinese words for the Chapter, recommended reading lists, a detailed bibliography; indexing by key words and terms for the Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization; some commentary, and other resources for the Chapter. 

Body-Mind Centering

Exploring Body-Mind Centering: An Anthology of Experience and Method.  Edited by Gill Wright Miller, Pat Ethridge, and Kate Tarlow Morgan.  North Atlantic Books, 2011, 470 pages, index. bibliography. VSCL.

Principles of Body-Mind Centering Approach

"All cells have consciousness (mind).

All levels of physiological organization (e.g., tissues, systems) have consciousness that can be experienced directly.

As we begin to make all systems more conscious,
they become more accessible. 

We can transmit to each other the embodiment.
of the group's shared learning.

The mind of the body system (e.g., bones, muscles, organs,
nervous system) is reflected in the room when that system.
is touched.  

It is possible to create, evoke, and titrate resonance.

Support precedes movement.

Embodiment can initiate movement; movement can
initiate embodiment.

The is a difference between the map of the body
and the territory of the living person's somatic experience."

Somatic Intelligence

I have learned and benefited greatly from reading and studying the following three books:

Awakening Somatic Intelligence: The Art and Practice of Embodied Mindfulness    By Risa F. Kaparo, Ph.D.  Berkeley, California, North Atlantic Books, 2012.  Index, 368 pages.  ISBN: 978-1583944172.  Subtitle: Transform Pain, Stress, Trauma, and Aging.  VSCL.  

Philosophy in the Flesh : The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought.  By George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.  Basic Books, Perseu Books, 1999.  Index, bibliography, 624 pages.  ISBN: 0465056741.   "The mind is inherently embodied.  Thought is mostly unconscious.  Abstract concepts are largely metaphorical."  VSCL.

Mindfulness Yoga: The Awakened Union of Breath, Body, and Mind.   By Frank Jude Boccio.   Boston, MA, Wisdom Publications.  Index, bibliography, notes, 340 pages.  ISBN: 0861713354.  VSCL.   

Somaesthetics, Body-Mind Practices, Embodiment Arts:  Quotations, Facts, Information, Bibliography, Resources

Valley Spirit Yoga

Qigong (Chi-King) Mind-Body Practices

Oulipos Coordinates Conceptualized by Mike Garofalo

Oulipos Coordinates Conceptualized

 

I. Punctuated Still-Life

 

                                    &&&&&
                           $$$$$
                  ;;;;;

                             @@@@@

 

#####	Counted	#####
.....	Asserted	.....
?????	Questioned	?????
!!!!!	Exclaimed	!!!!!
,,,,,	Paused	,,,,,

 

Compare with four pages of random punctuation
marks by Elizabeth Clark, Between Worlds.

 

II. Hidden Codes

A1 B2 C3 D4 E5
F6 G7 H8 I9 J10
K11 L12 M13 N14 O15

16P 17Q 18R 19S 20T
21U 22V 23W 24X 25Y
               Z26

Compare with six pages of meaningless codes
by Vito Acconci, Removal.

 

III. We/We/We

we see
we want
we steal
we lie
we use AI

Compare with twelve pages of brief phrases
beginning with the word 'my' by
Charles Bernstein, My/My/My.

 

IV. Counting Down

six, sixty, six hundred,
five thousand, five million,
four billion, four trillion,
Three, Two, One
Zero

Compare with ten pages of words for numbers
by Claude Closkey, The First Thousand Numbers

 

V. What?

ArE swbath blaZe muteRing empty RocKet
reD ciTIzenS As he desiBA Ntecello golD
comPlaining FocusDownnn Ulla FideNtia
is KelPt stOne CSChUrch btone threadI
mi sPirghi ch'iO gU di pietro Negator' D'usura

Compare with seven pages of misspelled, invented,
and highlighted Non-Words by John Cage,
Writing Through the Cantos.

 

VI. Seeing Three Ways

 

Winter	North	Today
Spring	East	Future
Summer	South	Past
Fall	West	Now
Year	Space	Time

 

 

Compare with thousands of concrete poems,
text art, calligrammes, ASCII Text art,
and graphic messages as found in the
Index to Concrete Poetry by Mike Garofalo.

 

Reference Sources:

Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual
Writing, 656 pages, 2011. Edited by Craig Dworkin.

Artifice and Indeterminacy: An Anthology of New Poetics,
392 pages, 1998. Edited by Christopher Beach.

The Marginalization of Poetry: Language Writing
and Literary History, 187 pages, 1996.
By Bob Perelman.

Slouching Into Incoherence

Bundled Up: 3,700 Quintain Poems, Volumes 1-8

Quintain Poem: Time Sits on the Windowsill

Time Sits on the Windowsill

By mpgarofalo

8.5.4.1

Excepts from:

The Windows of Time

5. The Windowsill Talks to the Sun

Time sits on the windowsill like a tired coin,

sunlight counts its edges and forgets to return,

I fold my day into the pocket of my shirt---

the stitches hum with singing seconds,

and somewhere a minute yearns to be born.

Daybreak on the windowsill,

a thin coin of light

counts the rooms awake 

with an indifferent hand.

The kettle remembers,

steam writes a small apology.

The street folds its shadow

into a single neat crease.

And, we catch and hold

of whatever the morning offers.

April sighs through a curtain of mist,

Hiding every secret that time has missed,

On a windowsill where the shadows sleep.

Dusty books humming a soft blue tune,

Counting the eyes of a springtime moon.

Time folds the day like a weathered map,

Resting its paper head in my evening's lap.

Near a windowsill carved from ancient light

I sew a protest patch into Time's sleeve;

Where small, shy clocks never take their leave.

The windowsill was layered in dust and light,

the books kept count when no one looked,

a clock loosened its grip and dripped minutes,

we borrowed a moment worn by our fingers,

while time stood nearby, pretending not to notice.

4. The Glass Eye

A river made of hours erodes the fragile days.

The marrow of the century all dissoled away.

Duration twists in the shadow of a rusted gate.

A clock falls and breaks its face.

Time looked out the window and cried.

Liquid centuries erode the heavy bones.

Mirrors of duration turn to stand alone.

As April unravels time across the neon sky;

The weight of Abstract blinds Geometric eyes.

And Hours petrify into absolute colorful zero.

A skin of silver glass

forgot its fixed lifelong frame.

The window opened wide

to speak an unnamed name.

Transparency subverts the static

opague laws of sight;

Where shattered seeing bleeds

a sharp geometric knife.

The inverted eye dissolves into

a bottomless month's delight.

The window opens inward

to dissolve a frozen rooom,

The awakened eye dissolves

into a boundless noon;

To free the trapped eternities

within a clear glass eye.

Pure emptiness winds its clocks

across a vacant sky.

The silent pendulum was stopped

halted in its flowing stride.

3. Time Gazes Out the Window

Time looks out the window, humming...

remmbering vast oceans that never existed.

Tree rings become tomorrow’s maps. 

Hours drift upward like a smoky new geometry.

The future folds itself into an unnamed date.

A tired bokeeper stares out the window

counting the light into small, obedient coins. 

The kettle remembers the hour before it sings.

The calendar peels itself away, slow as skin,

keeping the fingerprints of what we almost did.

Time glances out the window, listens to the rain

practice its multiplying arithmetic on the street.

Dust lifts from the old chair in invisible flocks.

Morning is released from the clock’s cold hands,

while memory buttons its coat against the dawn.

2. Time Leaves the Window Behind

Time loosens her sandals in the garden,

she rests among rosemary and rocks.

A breeze turns the pages of the afternoon,

and in each moment the leaves are briefly lifted

before settling back into the long green now.

Time stands on the lawn like statue of steel,

peering through the glass at the lamp’s bright eye.

The rug inside unspools a river of dark thread,

where the chairs are briefly islands in quilts,

and the house is a secret folded into the hours.

1. Time Is A Word

April comes between March and May,

somewhere in the Spring Season it prayed.

Verbs telling time in a web of words,

e.g., just needed 'ed' for a phoneme, say.

Words love to embrace other words,

sometimes free of any thing anyway.

Nature does not say "April", we do;

Nature shows 'April' in tenuous ways.

To be human is to speak often

of years, seasons,

months, weeks, and days.

BU4001

The Tick Tock Tractatus
Speaking of Time: The Poetic Investigations

Bricks in the Wall

Repost from 2019.

We all need good education that provides us with facts, information, ideas, insight, and wisdom.  We need education that provides us with the skills and methods for learning more and expanding our knowledge and skills base.  We need education grounded in science, reason, and practical insights.  We need education in ethics, right living, respect, and tolerance.  We need to be educated on how to become peaceful, productive, and profound persons.   We need education to help us reach our maximum potential. 

What we don't need is "education" that is indoctrination, learning for slavish service to one particular viewpoint, learning grounded in corrupted views of history, mean spirited, hateful  towards others that don't believe or think our way, that turn us into conforming robots, that make us into another brick in the wall of some antiquated ideology.  "We don't need no thought control!"  

I was sent to Roman Catholic Schools from the 1st to the 12th grade from 1950-1963.  I could tell many unpleasant stories about the "education" that I and others received from the nuns and brothers and priests in these Catholic "schools."  Yes, thanks to their rigorous drilling methods of teaching I learned to read, write, and do mathematics in the elementary grades.  Yes, I learned how to obey, conform, submit, and defer.  Yes, I learned the Catholic version of history, and how all non-believers are destined for hell, that we are all inherently sinful by nature, and how only a human sacrifice (Jesus) could soften the heart of a strict Father God and make the world right again.  Yes, I learned how I was supposed to believe and not question Church authority.  Yes, indeed, I learned about fear and guilt. 

 
However, thanks to reading many good books (i.e., Zen, American Transcendentalists, Taoism, great philosophers, natural sciences, history, etc.) in my local public library during my high school years, and getting a good college education at California State University at Los Angeles, I was able to knock down the ugly Catholic Wall that had been forced upon my mind and spirit in my youth.   I knocked down my own "Berlin Wall" of indoctrination, kicked the bricks of the Dark Ages aside, and was liberated in 1964.  

I learned early that, for me, being a good person, being happy, being productive, being high minded, and being truly "spiritual" had nothing to do with the strange doctrines and ideology of Christianity or Islam.  

So, for me, in some ways, Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" is kind of an anthem for me. 

Another Brick in the Wall

Pink Floyd
1979

"We don't need no education
 

We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey teacher leave them kids alone
All in all it's just another brick in the wall
All in all you're just another brick in the wall
We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey teacher leave us kids alone
All in all you're just another brick in the wall
All in all you're just another brick in the wall." 

The Poetic Investigations: Time: The Tick-Tock Tractatus by Mike Garofalo

The Tick-Tock Tractatus

Speaking About Time: The Poetic Investigations

By Michael Peter Garofalo, mpgarofalo, .m.p.g.

            

 

 

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

Bundled Up: Quntain Poems, Volumes 1-8

 Bundled Up

By Mike Garofalo

 

Bundled Up:

Quintains, Tankas, Pentastichs, and Onions
Quintain Sonnets, TextArt
Gogyohkas, Limericks, Wakas, Quintets
Remarks, Epigrams, Commonplaces, Seeings
Ad Free Webpages, Translation Menu

Quintain Poetry By Mike Garofalo

Bundled Up, Volume 1
Wakas, Quintillas, Tankas, Quintets
Quintain Poems 1 - 1,000

Bundled Up, Volume 2
Gogyohkas, Limericks, Wakas
Rhymes, Remarks, Listenings, Insights
Quintain Poems 1,000 - 1,500

Bundled Up, Volume 3
Rhymes, TextArt, Epigrams
Quintain Poems 1,500 - 2,000

Bundled Up, Volume 4
Remarks, Rhymes, Seeings, Onions
Quintain Poems 2,000 - 2,500

Bundled Up, Volume 5
Quintain Sonnets, Time, TextArt, Koans, Remarks
Quintain Poems 2,500 - 3,000

Bundled Up, Volume 6
Quintain Sonnets, Time, Language, Thought
Quintain Poems 3,000 - 3,500

Bundled Up, Volume 7
Quintains, Delight, Strangeness, Things
Quintain Poems 3,500 - 4,000

Bundled Up, Volume 8
Experimental, Surreal, Conceptual
All types of Poetry 4,000 - 4,500

 

Quintains - Research

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

The Gushen Grove Sonnets

Bandon, Oregon

 

Yi Jin Jing Qigong (Muscle-Tendon Transformations)

 

Yi Jin Jing

The Yi Jin Jing Qigong is a popular qigong exercise set from China. "Yi Jin Jing Qigong" means "Muscle and Tendon Transforming Exercises."

In most cases, this qigong regimen consists of 12 movement sequences. There are some versions of the Yi Jin Jing with many more movements (22, 49, 108, 216). Some of the longer versions of the Yi Jin Jing include movements from the Eight Section Brocade Routine, the Animal Frolics Routines, the Louhan Routine, or the Bone Marrow and Brain Washing Routine.

Most people practice a 12 movement version of the Yi Jin Jing that was described in a book published by Pan Weiru in 1858 called "Essential Techniques for Guarding Life." Also, Wang Zuyuan published a book in the 1880's titled "Illustrated Exposition of Internal Techniques" that described the same qigong routine as did Pan Weiru. 

Names of the Yi Jin Jing Qigong Movements
Opening Form
1. Wei Tuo Presenting the Pestle 1
2. Wei Tuo Presenting the Pestle 2
3. Wei Tuo Presenting the Pestle 3
4. Plucking Stars on Each Side
5. Pulling Nine Cows by Their Tails
6. Showing Talons and Spreading Wings
7. Nine Ghosts Drawing Sabers
8. Sinking the Three Bodily Zones
Three Plates Falling on the Floor
9. Black Dragon Displaying Its Claws
10. Tiger Springing On Its Prey
11. Bowing Down in Salutation
12. Swinging the Tail
Closing Form

Some claim that the Yi Jin Jing was created by the famous Zen Patriarch Bodhidharma (Da Mo) around 520 CE, and refined over centuries by Shaolin monks, while others argue for an even more ancient Daoist lineage.

There are numerous instructional DVDs available now for the 12 movement verion of the Yi Jin Jing. I like the instructional book and DVD by the Chinese Health Qigong Association:

Yi Jin Jing: Chinese Health Qigong. Compiled by the Chinese Health Qigong Association. Beijing, China, Foreign Languages Press, 2007. 95 pages, charts, includes an instructional DVD. ISBN: 9787119047782. VSCL. "Qigong is an aspect of traditional Chinese medicine that involves coordinating breathing patterns with physical postures to maintain health and well-being. Yi Jin Jing/ Tendon-Muscle Strengthening Exercises is an accessible, fully-illustrated guide to a particular qigong exercise that focuses on turning and flexing the spine. Based on the twelve traditional routines of Yi Jin Jing, the exercises covered in the book feature soft, extended, even movements that invigorate the limbs and internal organs. In particular, practice of the Yi Jin Jing exercises improves flexibility, balance and muscular strength, and has a beneficial effect on the respiratory system. Each routine is described step-by-step and is illustrated with photographs and key points. The authors also point out common mistakes and offer advice on how to correct these. Complemented by an appendix of acupuncture points and accompanied by a DVD, this book will be of interest to Qigong and Tai Chi practitioners at all levels, students of martial arts and anyone interested in Chinese culture." - Singing Dragon.

For a good book on the theory of the Yi Jin Jing, read Qigong: The Secret of Youth: Da Mo's Muscle/Tendon Changing and Marrow Brain Washing Classics. By Yang, Jwing-Ming, Ph.D., 1946-. An Advanced Qigong Regimen for the Serious Practitioner. Boston, Massachusetts, YMAA Publication Center, 2000. Second Edition 2000, First Edition 1989. Index, appendices, charts, 312 pages. ISBN: 1886969841. VSCL.