Pulling Onions Again - Religion

 

Pulling Onions

By Michael P. Garofalo
Over 1,055 Sayings, One Liners, Adages, Quips, Observations
Obviously, I'm a more philosophical rather than a religions person.  

Life after death is armchair speculation; life before death requires intelligent engagement, practical actions, and the cultivation of virtues. 

To put a bigger hat on an idea─Capitalize its Key Words.

Talk of God's Commandments and Church Doctrines often gets in the way of charity, compassion, fairness, and reason.

Some former widespread "truths" are now abandoned, discarded, or irrelevant, just historical oddities. 

Non-believers can become virtuous, and devout believers can become evil; and vice-versa.  

One Book is better than none; but, more books introduce one to other facts, ideas, information, and wisdom. 

Doing well, acting well, may increase individual happiness or it may not; duties often drive us to sacrifice our contentment.  

Absolutes squirm beneath realities.  9
It is better to cultivate spiritual fruits than religious nuts.  523
I believe in "God"; I just spell It "Fiction."  756   
When the Divine knocks, don't send a prophet to the door.  48
Dogmatists are less useful than dogs.  711
Gardens are more useful than churches.  787 
The City of God does not meet any of our current building codes.  890 
God and I get along quite well, he ignores me all the time and I ignore him.  845
Perfection can be the opponent of betterment.  788
We did not come from dust, nor shall we return to dust, nor are we dust in the wind.  23
There is not much to say about the "Unknown."  3  

R. Buckminster-Fuller once suggested that "God is a verb, not a noun."  Which verb?  Pretending?  Storytelling?  Fantasizing?  Believing?  833
In general, be more specific.  79 
If the first man was created in the image of God, then it is obvious that God is mediocre and prone to evil.  786
Nothing grows in Hell.  134
The fear of the Lord is a corner stone of indoctrination and the beginning of the end of wisdom.  850 
After understanding thousands of the details, a common variety god is really quite superfluous.  725 

The root illusion is a belief in that which does not change.  451 
Roundness is the Holy Shape.  629
God may be very smart, but he is a poor communicator.  779
There is absolutely a place for Absolutes and Ideals in our rational/logical way of choosing to think about our experiences.  982
We already live in the Garden of Eden, but we now have to work to keep it growing.  136
God may have created the first garden, but, typical of Him, He got bored with trying to keep it up and make it better.  149
Say a prayer for a good harvest; but don't forget to weed and water.  288
The Bible is morally inconsistent and often morally reprehensible.  842
I never found God in my garden, but goddesses and gods and faeries dance everywhere.  492
Yes, God and Allah are both still dead, yet plenty is still not permitted and virtues and ideals still persist.  330   
Before you swear at the overgrown ivy, beware of Dionysus.  602 

The Garden of Eden is a badly painted backdrop to a lousy stage play.  860 
Even a god cannot listen to a billion prayers a day.  412
Beware of the man who speaks of God only as a father or a son.  573 
The real "miracle" is cause and effect.  584
Christians and Moslems love to lie about their own righteousness, and rant about the immorality of the non-believers in their fantasies.  986

The "eternal truths" are sometimes clearly false.  430
Have you noticed that people praying close their eyes?  People, please open your eyes and think instead.  444
If God existed it would be necessary to have a Goddess because God is just to lazy and incompetent.  471
If God gave us technology, why did he wait so long to give us a box of matches or solar power panels.  454 

What?   Another damn Garden of Eden analogy!  476
The seed idea for "God" is springtime.  596 
A God who is understood is really misunderstood ... actually no God at all.  598 
Variety, Creativity and Fertility are the Songs of the Great Goddess.  509
Hell is a silent dark world where nothing grows.  512  
Even Allah cannot alter the past; but our knowledge of the past changes each year.  549   
Is the the God of scriptures the Absolute?  Absolutely not!  996
Stop looking for the Green Man and He will appear.  601 

The gardener is a priestess, the garden her temple and followers, gardening her liturgy.  603 
Religion is intimate with awe, anxiety, fear, danger, and death.  608 
Avoid dogmatists, they often end up treating you like a dog.   623 
What good is All Powerful and All Wise "God" or "Allah" who can supposedly count every hair on your head, but can't find
a house for a homeless family, stop terrorists, get rid of the alcoholic thief next door, or save your citrus trees from frostbite?   681

Mother Nature is always pregnant.  702
It is best to shut one's mouth in face of the sacred.  719   
Create your own garden, the god's certainly won't.  736 
That something is eternal is unverifiable; it is one premise.  746  
If there is a "Divine Lawgiver," then He/She/It seems a rather poor judge and inconsistent.  978
Ordinary reality is good enough for most sensible people; a "higher" calling is answered by few.  759 
Don't kid yourself: seeing is not necessarily believing.  761 
To many the sun is a god and the earth is a goddess; and, our imaginations are boundless.  762 

To save some time, don't let them get a foot in the door.  795 
I may not be able to precisely define religious nonsense, but I know it when I hear it.  791 
I think, therefore I am a living person; dead bodies don't display thinking, just stinking.  826 
Disrespect and contempt for the body is a common trump card for spiritualists; but, our game of life does not use trump cards.  829 
Is the the God of scriptures the Absolute?  Absolutely not!  996 
A sure path to the perversion of truth is to make it a belief.  841 
The Bible is morally inconsistent and often morally reprehensible.  842
God is not dead─ he never existed in the first place.  887 

"Just believe" is the weakest argument for adopting an opinion.  888 
Seeing the "Big Picture" is just viewing a pleasant painting created by your imagination.  846
I have faith that science will help explain our world; but, I don't "believe in" or worship science.  908
Some questions just dissolve─when our spell is broken.  921 
Spinoza's God was Nature─by definition.  937 
Rather than seeking an answer we sometimes need to stop asking the question.  938 

I am not a marionette in the Hands of Deus (or Zeus, Yahweh, Allah, God, Shiva, Coyote, Great Father, etc.)  940 
Beliefs tend to channel the mind, wonder opens it up.  953 
If you are seeking certainty, the search will likely be tiresome and futile.  955 

Back Home and Reading to Go

 I unloaded my Ford Escape and put away all of my Yurt camping gear on Thursday and Friday.  
Delighted to shower.
Read and watched television.

Hoping to recover from my cold symptoms: coughing, sneezing, blowing my runny nose, mucous mostly thin and clear, no temperature, no chills, not super energetic.  

Update my calendar.
Clean up and rearrange my home office.  
Prepare for social events.
Gardening around the house.
Reserve Yurt in May 2023.  

Sports: Warriors/Knicks on Friday, USC/UCLA on Saturday.

"A goal without a plan is just a wish."

What does in mean to plan? 
How do we use tools to accomplish our plans?  

Time to get busy.  

• 
  

Pe Ell, Washington

Report from Thursday, November 17, 2022

Today I drove from Grayland Beach State Park to Tokeland, Raymond, Pe Ell, Vader, then onto to Interstate 5 South from the Cowlitz River Bridge Crossing to Longview, Kalama, Woodland, Ridgefield, and Vancouver.  A three hour drive, including sightseeing stops, breakfast and coffee sipping, and bathroom stops.     

The 29 mile country drive south from Pe Ell to Vader is spectacular.  The autumn colors of yellow, rusts, grays, browns, golds and the contrast with the lush evergreens was a driver's delight.  It was a clear day on a quiet and rather empty winding country road.  I marveled at the beauty.  Fields of 4' foot high berries, open grain fields, fenced cattle or dairy farms, small lumber mills, ranch homes, a bit distant from a city like Centralia.  

Report from October 7. 2021

Today I drove from Twin Harbors to Raymond, Pe Ell, Vader, Longview, and Vancouver.  

Beginning of high tide in Willapa Bay, cloudy, light rain, cool.  

I was very impressed with the many farms along WA 6 from Raymond to Pe Ell along the Willapa River Valley.  This river meets the Willapa Bay at Raymond.  The first 20 miles east of Raymond on WA6 follows the Willapa River Valley.  A flat country drive with rolling hills on the sides.

After mile 20 you climb a ridge and then drive down into one of the valleys of one of the forks of the Chelais River.  You continue down into the small village of Pe Ell.  

The drive on three back country roads from Pe E ll to Vader was very beautiful.  The green fields and cattle grazing were a spectacular sight to behold.  This area was part of the Chelais River drainage basin which eventually empties into Grays Harbor at Aberdeen.    

I look forward to returning in the autumn season for the fall leaves displays.  

Vader Farms Images

Four Days in Grayland, Part I     Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay: A Traveler's Hypertext Notebook and Guide 

Four Days in Grayland, Part II    Grayland Beach: A Camper's Hypertext Notebook, Studies, and Comments  

Raymond, Washington

Report from Wednesday, 11/16/2022:  

Report from 10/20/21:  

Raymond

Raymond  Population 2,975  Pacific County  WB  Junction of US101, WA 6, and WA 105. 
The largest town on the east side of Willapa Bay and largest city in Pacific County. 
Raymond is 35 miles north of Naselle, 56 miles west of Centralia, and 25 miles south of Aberdeen. 
Raymond and South Bend are both on the banks of the Willapa River.  

Raymond Images  WB  

Raymond:  Carriage Museum   Willapa Seaport Museum    Harbor/Docks    Sightseeing    Paddling    

Raymond:  Willapa River  Images   WB  There is a north and south fork of the Willapa River in Raymond.  

Raymond:  Steamboats of Willapa Bay   There is a huge Weyerhaeuser lumber mill in Raymond.  Logging trucks are everywhere and the logs are piled high at the mill.  

Many fish canneries are in or near South Bend and Raymond.  There are numerous commercial and public docks in the area. 

Raymond Timberland Library

The small town has a large ACE hardware store, banks, churches, supermarket, fast food outlets.  Old buildings go back to the 1870's.  South Bend, six miles to the west, has a a few stores, shops, and hospital.  

Raymond:  Willapa Paddle Adventures   Paddling canoes or kayaks on the many Willapa Bay rivers is very popular. 

Raymond:  Willapa Hills State Park Trail   56 miles east to Centralia.  River biking trail from Raymond to South Bend. 

Numerous rusted metal sculptures along the roadway in Raymond.  

Willapa Bay Hypertext Notebook by Michael P. Garofalo

Four Days in Grayland

Parts I - IV

By Michael P. Garofalo

 

Shore Pines and Roaring Surf

 Report from 11/15/2022:

Report from 10/19/21:

Enjoyed the fish and chips from Merino's Seafood Market in Westport.
Got books from the Westport Timberland Library.
Walked the docks of Westport.  
Relaxed at my picnic day campsite at Grayland Beach.
Beachcombing, walking, listening, looking.

Four Days in Grayland

Parts I - IV

By Michael P. Garofalo

 

Willapa Bay, Washington

Report from November 14, 2022:

Mick and April are joining me on this trip.  They are staying in a Yurt from 11/12-11/16.  I am staying from 11/14-11/17.  

Previous Report from October 18, 2021:

I enjoyed the drive from Vancouver to Westport.  Here is my online tour guide for this driving trip.

Today was a very nice day with wide fairly clear views.  I encountered little traffic on WA 4.  I pulled off at my favorite viewpoint rest stops for the Columbia River before Skamokava.  Inland WA4 and US101 was covered with plantation reforestation and with many beautiful large trees in their fading autumn yellow-brown rusted leaves, and the scarlet-green-brown fading leaves of the wild berry vines.  

Then BAM!!  A sough wandering under 101, and vast stretches of wild grasses and then grand views of Willapa Bay all the way to South Bend.

Willapa Bay Hypertext Notebook by Michael P. Garofalo.

I enjoyed eating at the River View Restaurant along the Willapa River docks in South Bend.  I watched one chef tending a big 6 foot long steel steamer.  He added wood logs and used a flame torch to arouse the fire.  Then he placed many fresh Willapa Bay Oysters on the huge steel grill.  He closed the top of the steamer and talked amicably with a passing walker for a few minutes.  The cook looked Nordic, and the walker looked Indian-Asian.   Then, the big man, went back to tending his steamer oysters, and he added some magical pasting for local flavor.  

I enjoyed two oysters, and a bowl of clam chowder.  Memorable eating and seeing!  Two women and a man at a nearby table ordered a dozen oysters and more for their feast of the day.  

The word for oyster in the Chinook Jargon was chet'-lo, or jet'-lo.    
Clams were called o'-na, luk'-ut-chee, la-kwit'-chee.
Water or River called chuck

Native peoples, speaking different languages, lived for thousands of years along the Willapa River, the Chelais River, the Cowlitz River, the Naselle River, the Lewis River, and the Columbia River.  

Here are the books I have been reading about Willapa Bay:

Coast Country: A History of Southwest Washington.  By Lucile McDonald.  Long Beach, Midway Printery, 1989.  Index, 183 pages.  TRLS = Timberland Regional Library System, WA [I pick up my reserved books and videos as the Westport Branch of the TRLS.].   

Shoalwater Willapa.,  By Douglas Allen.  Snoose Peak Publishing, South Bend, WA, 2004.  Index, notes, sources, 286 pages.  TRLS.  

Telling Our Stories: Voices of Grays Harbor.  By students of the Evergreen State College, Grays Harbor Campus.  Gorham Printing, Centralia, WA, 2012.  155 pages.  TRLS.  

A Tidewater Place: Portrait of the Willapa Ecosystem.  By The Willapa Alliance, Long Beach, WA, 1993.  Color photographs and text, 50 pages.  TRLS.  

Willapa Bay Estuaries   There are many estuaries at the mouths of the various rivers that flow into Willapa Bay, and the Bay itself is an estuary. 

"Willapa Bay is a major estuary on the Pacific Coast and at mean high tide encompasses approximately 70,400 acres (28,500 hectares). An estuary is defined as the area near the mouth of a river, or rivers, in the case of Willapa Bay, where oceanic tidal waters and freshwater currents collide and mix. Biologically, estuaries are among the most productive environments on earth and provide important habitat for a large variety of organisms. This high productivity is due basically to physical and biological processes unique to estuaries. Dissolved organic nutrients from detrital (dead plants and animals, and excrement) material enter the estuary from inflowing rivers. Saltwater pushed along the estuary bottom by the incoming tide brings in other nutrients of marine origin. Currents and tides circulate fresh and salt water, distributing and, to a certain extent, trapping dissolved and suspended matter. Deposition of these substances fertilizes the estuary and plant life flourishes. This plant life includes grasses, rushes, sedges  of estuarine marshes, benthic algae (diatoms), epi-benthic algae, and eelgrass on intertidal sediments. Some plants are fed upon directly by fish and wildlife but most die and enter the food chain in the form of detritus or partly decomposed plant material. This detritus, suspended in the water and deposited on the bottom, is a high-quality food for consumers because of its high nutritional value. A number of studies have shown that many species of fish and invertebrates feed wholly or partially on detritus. Therefore, detritus feeders are the critical link between plant production and the production of higher consumers. Consequently, the ultimate ecological value of primary production in marshes occurs when detritus of marsh plant origin enters the food web of the estuary."  Willapa Estuary

"An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environments and are an example of an ecotone. Estuaries are subject both to marine influences such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water and to riverine influences such as flows of freshwater and sediment. The mixing of seawater and freshwater provides high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world."

"Estuaries are a happy land, rich in the continent itself, stirred by the forces of nature like the soup of a French chef; the home of myriad forms of life from bacteria and protozoans to grasses and mammals; the nursery, resting place, and refuge of countless things."  -  Stanely A. Cain

Four Days in Grayland, Part I    
Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay: A Traveler's Hypertext Notebook and Guide 

Four Days in Grayland, Part II   
Grayland Beach: A Camper's Hypertext Notebook, Studies, and Comments 

Four Days in Grayland, Part III   
Photographs, Blog Posts, and Notes from 2021-2022  

Four Days in Grayland, Part IV   
Reflections of a Beachcomber:  Poetry, Short Essays, Commentary, Quotations   

The Four Days in Grayland Series began in September, 2021.

Michael Delmer Garofalo

 He was born in Downey, East Los Angeles, in 1980.  Karen delivered with some difficulty, but our son and mom were doing well.  We returned to our little home in Bell Gardens.  Alicia went to first grade at Bandini Elementary, across the street from 2315 Couts Ave., where I grew up with my brothers in the 1950's. 

He married April Scott.  They lived in Portland, and since 2016 in Vancouver, WA.

He has been a restaurant and catering manager in Vancouver, Washington, since 2015.  

Mick and April help us at our home in Vancouver, WA.  

Birthday Fun for Mick in 2022!
This year, in 2022, Mick, Karen and I went out for Japanese food at KungFun Noodle next to Home Depot.  On 11/9, we enjoyed a wide array of dishes and drinks for $140.00.  Then, we hosted a birthday party for Mick at our house on Saturday, 11/12.  Karen and Mick made Chinese food.  Then, I met with Mick and April at Grayland Beach State Park for Yurt camping on Monday afternoon 11/14.  

Eight Section Brocade Chi Kung and the Eight Trigrams

Sequence C:  Trigrams, Bagua, and Eight Section Brocade (Ba Duan Jin) Exercises Correlations

Soft Qigong (Rou Gong), Inner Qigong (Nei Gong); Slow Pace, Gentle, Soft, At Ease, Relaxed (Sung), Rooted/Sunk, Yin Style

             

Eight Section Brocade Exercise	I Ch'ing Trigram	Parts of the Body Affected
1.  Pressing Up to the Heavens with Two Hands	South, Summer Ch'ien, Qián, Heaven, Sky, Air Intense Yang Lion	Heart, Small Intestine, Stomach, Lungs (The Triple Warmer)
2.  Drawing the Bow and Letting the Arrow Fly	Southwest, Mid-Summer Sun, Wind Yang Phoenix	Kidneys, Spleen, Waist, Eyes, Legs
4.  Wise Owl Gazes Backward	West, Autumn K'an, Water Yang-Yin Snake	Lungs, Immune System, Large Intestine
5.  Big Bear Turns from Side to Side	Northwest, Mid-Autumn Ken, Gèn, Mountain Yin-Yang Bear	Heart, Waist, Legs
3.  Separating Heaven and Earth	North, Winter K'un, Earth Intense Yin Unicorn, Qilin	Spleen, Kidneys, Bladder, Pancreas
8.  Shaking the Body	Northeast, Mid-Winter Chen, Zhèn, Thunder Yin Dragon	Immune System, Calves, Feet
6.  Punching with Angry Gaze	Spring, East Li, Fire Yin-Yang Hawk, Falcon	Liver, Gallbladder, Blood, Eyes
8.  Touching Toes then Bending Backwards	Southeast, Mid-Spring Tui, Lake Yang-Yin Monkey	Kidneys, Waist, Legs, Back

The above three charts were proposed in 2005 by Mike Garofalo, in his webpage on the Eight Section Brocade.  See also Mike's webpage on the Eight Trigrams.  

In 2014, Christina Barea-Young and Peyton Young provided another set of associations for the Eight Section Brocade movements with the Eight Trigrams in Qi Magazine (Volume 24, No. 2, 2014, p. 48).  

I find these kinds of correlations, associations, and relational charts quite inconsistent between various authors.  Yoga, Western Esoteric Magic, and Qigong have many of the same kind of charts and tables of correlations; again, with considerable inconsistency between various "masters."  Other than the "traditions of specific esoteric schools", I find the associations rather arbitrary and fanciful, primarily aids to remembering clusters of ideas, poetic devices, magical-metaphysical lore, and lacking in much pragmatic-scientific meaningfulness.  Contrast these charming and pre-scientific tables with the modern and justifiably famous "Periodic Table of the Elements" for a real lesson in an objective and empirical approach to understanding the world.  Nevertheless, these clusters of ideas may stimulate the imagination, and are fun for playing thought games.  


"The names of the 108 Forms are each symbolic and signify concepts removed from the literal  physicality of the object - horse, tiger, bird, and so forth.  Each name has its separate allusion, and metaphorically may connote an aspiration, a philosophical attitude towards self and  conduct, a turn of mind, a sense of being, some thought about life and spirit.  The true meanings are revealed when the T'ai-Chi Ch'uan exponent has advanced to that stage of experience comprehension where he can utilize the implication of the philosophical  intentions, and where the symbols can be part of his growing consciousness.  This happens only when the mind and body have "changed" and absorbed the reasons for mental, emotional, and physical unity."
-   Sophia Delza, The T'ai Chi Ch'uan Experience, 1996, p. 24

 
The above long chart is more readable on my Eight Section Brocade webpage, 441 KB, last updated on June 20, 2014. 

 

 

Sit Quietly: Focus and Forget

"Teach us to care and not to care.
Teach us to sit still."
- T.S. Eliot

"You are sitting on the earth and you realize that this earth deserves you and you deserve this earth.  You are there - fully, personally, genuinely."
-  Chogyam Trungpa

"Remain sitting at your table and listen. 
Do not even listen, simply wait, 
be quiet still and solitary. 
The world will freely offer itself 
to you to be unmasked, 
it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy 
at your feet."
-  Franz Kafka


"Sit quietly
focus and forget
rest with the great achievement.
The ancient child asks
"what is the great achievement?"
It is beyond description in any language
it can only be felt intuitively
it can only be expressed intuitively. 
Engage a loose, alert, and aware
body, mind, and sound
then look into the formless
and perceive no thing.
See yourself as a sphere
small at first
growing to encompass
the vastness of infinite space. 
Sit quietly
focus and forget then
in a state of ease and rest
secure the truth of the great achievement.
Employing the truth will not exhaust its power
when it seems exhausted it is really abundant
and while human art will die at the hands of utility
the great achievement is beyond being useful.
Great straightness is curved and crooked
great intelligence is raw and silly
great words are simple and naturally awkward. 
Engaged movement drives out the frozen cold
mindful stillness subdues the frenzied heart.
Sit quietly
focusing
forgetting
summon order from the void
that guides the ordering of the universe."
-  Tao Te Ching, Chapter 45, Translated by John Bright-Fey, 2006



"There are many matters and many circumstances in which consciousness is undesirable and silence is golden, so that secrecy can be used as a marker to tell us that we are approaching the holy."
-  Gregory Bateson, Angels Fear




Sitting in the Garden

Zuowang Meditation

Spirituality and Nature

Autumn Garden Mosaic

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting
and autumn a mosaic of them all."
-   Stanley Horowitz

"There is a harmony
In autumn, and a lustre in its sky,
Which through the summer is not heard or seen,
As if it could not be, as if it had not been!"
-   Percy Bysshe Shelley  

"The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly
changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools."
-   Henry Beston, Northern Farm

Autumn- Quotes, Sayings, Lore

November - Quotes, Sayings, Lore  

39F degrees this morning, clear, blue skies, needing rain and snow.  Too cold for me to walk early in the morning, I wait till about 10 am to do so.  I've been fighting a chest cold, so I take extra care to stay warm and not over exert myself.  

We have been improving our winter vegetable garden.  We set up a cold frame on Friday and moved the frost tender plants inside. 

Here are a few photos that Karen took in our back yard.