Polish the Pearl

Verse:
The round pearl has no hollows,
The great raw gem isn't polished.
What is esteemed by people of the Way is having no edges.
Removing the road of agreement, sense and matter are empty:
The free body, resting on nothing, stands out unique and alive."
-  Jui-yen (Zuigan, Song Am) was a Chinese Zen Master who lived from 800-900 CE. 
   Found in The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader, Edited by Nelson Foster and Jack Shoemaker, p. 182

"In life, when you encounter mean and hurtful people, treat them like sandpaper. No matter how rough they may scrub you, you end up polished and smooth."
-  Nishan Panwar

Medicine Ball Training and Exercises: Bibliography, Links, Resources .  Prepared by Mike Garofalo.  A general introduction to the use of medicine balls in exercise programs. 

I developed my own medicine ball routine called: Magic Pearl Qigong.

Magic Pearl Qigong, Part I, Movements 1-8 .   Instructions, Bibliography, Links, Handouts, Resources, Mythological Associations, Lore.  Prepared by Mike Garofalo. 

The Magic Pearl Qigong can be a very vigorous physical culture routine if you increase the weight of the ball, lower the stances, and increase the number of repetitions of each movement.  Serious Qigong Ball enthusiasts use a very light wooden ball, move slowly, stay relaxed, sink, play.  

In addition, upper body strength and athletic fitness is also be improved by practicing longer Taijiquan Forms using weapons like the saber, sword, cane, and staff.

Magic Pearl Qigong

Taijiquan Sword: Yang Style 32 Sword Form

 

32 Sword Form, Simplified, Yang Style, Taijiquan Jian.

A hypertext notebook by Michael P. Garofalo. 

This popular webpage includes a comprehensive bibliography, scores of links to webpages; an extensive listing of the names and name variations for each movement in English, Chinese, French, German, and Spanish; a detailed analysis of each posture and movement sequence with explanations and numbered illustrations and detailed instructions; selected quotations; comments on 20 Taijiquan sword techniques; a comprehensive media bibliography; a chart of performance times; recommendations for starting to learn this form at home one your own with instructional DVDs, books and practice methods; and, a comparison of the 32 and 55 sword forms in the Yang style. 

This is the standard, simplified, orthodox, 1957, 32 Taiji Sword Form, in the Yang Style of T'ai Chi Ch'uan. 

32 Sword Form Pamphlet by Geoffrey Hugh Miller.  Adapted from information and graphics found on the 32 Sword Form webpage by Michael P. Garofalo.  22 pages, 9/7/2015, PDF Format.  Excellent job by Mr. Miller.  This is a handy practice tool.  

Lusus: A Bud Sport, A Unique Offspring, A Transformation

"In botany, a sport or bud sport, traditionally called lusus, is a part of a plant that shows morphological differences from the rest of the plant. Sports may differ by foliage shape or color, flowers, fruit, or branch structure. The cause is generally thought to be a chance genetic mutation.

Sports with desirable characteristics are often propagated vegetatively to form new cultivars that retain the characteristics of the new morphology. Such selections are often prone to "reversion", meaning that part or all of the plant reverts to its original form. An example of a bud sport is the nectarine, at least some of which developed as a bud sport from peaches. Other common fruits resulting from a sport mutation are the red Anjou pear, the Ruby Red grapefruit, and the 'Pink Lemonade' lemon, which is a sport of the "Eureka" lemon."

In the photo below, foliage of a dwarf Alberta spruce (Picea glauca var. albertiana 'Conica'), with a branch showing reversion to the normal Alberta white spruce growth habit of larger leaves and longer internodes.

-  Wikipedia

Transformation

"Transformation isn’t sweet and bright. It’s a dark and murky, painful pushing. An unraveling of the untruths you’ve carried in your body. A practice in facing your own created demons. A complete uprooting, before becoming.”
-  Victoria Erickson

“Transformation literally means going beyond your form.”
-  Wayne Dyer

“Beautiful are those whose brokenness gives birth to transformation and wisdom.”
-  John Mark Green

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

  

Mystical Experience and Nature

Common Characteristics of Extrovertive Mystical States
From Mysticism and Philosophy, W. T. Stace (Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1960), p. 79

"1.  The unifying vision, expressed abstractly by the formula "All is One."  The One is, in extrovertive 
mysticism, perceived through the physical senses, in or through the multiciplicity of objects.
2.  The more concrete apprehension of the One as being an inner subjectivity in all things, described 
variously as life, or consciousness, or a living Presence.  The discovery that nothing is "really" dead.
3.  Sense of objectivity or reality.
4.  Feeling of blessedness, joy, happiness, satisfaction, etc.
5.  Feeling that what is apprehended is holy, or sacred, or divine.  This is the quality that gives rise 
to the interpretation of the experience as being an experience of "God."  It is the specifically religious 
element in the experience.  It is closely intertwined with, but not identical with, the previously listed
characteristic of blessedness and joy.
6.  Paradoxicality.
7.  Alleged by mystics to be ineffable, incapable of being described in words, etc."

"Crape myrtle, brilliant red, bursting forth;
Hiding the garden.
Some days, only the Garden, entire, serene;
Yet, hiding from sight, shy, single plants.  
Seeing Both, seldom, but as One: 
Sweat poured from my startled brow,
Dripping on the dry earth,
And all became Sunshine
And shadows of surprise unraveling."    
-   Michael P. Garofalo, Above the Fog

"What is divinity if it can come
Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
Shall she not find in comforts of the sun,
In pungent fruit and bright, green wings, or else
In any balm or beauty of the earth,
Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?
Divinity must live within herself:
Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;
Grieving's in loneliness, or unsubdued
Elations when the forest blooms; gusty
Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights;
All pleasures and all pains, remembering
The bough of summer and the winter branch,
These are the measures destined for her soul."
-    Wallace Stevens, Sunday Morning, 1915

 

"Speaking of today, I do not consider it intellectually respectable to be a partisan in matters of religion.  I see religion as I see other basic fascinations as art and science, in which there is room for many different approaches, styles, techniques, and opinions.  Thus I am not formally a committed member of any creed or sect and hold no particular religious view or doctrine as absolute.  I deplore missionary zeal, and consider exclusive dedication to and advocacy of any particular religion, as either the best or the only true way, as almost irreligious arrogance.  Yet my work and life are fully concerned with religion, and the mystery of being is my supreme fascination, though, as a shameless mystic, I am more interested in religion as feeling and experience that as conception and theory."
-  Alan Watts, In My Own Way, p. 61, 1972

Nature Mysticism: Quotations, Links, Books, Resources
Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo

 

Chen Taijiquan Broadsword Routine

Chen Style Tai Chi Chuan Saber (Dao, Broadsword) Form.  23 Movement Form.

This 23 Movement Single Broadsword (Dao) Form was Created by Chen Zhaopei (1893-1972), 18th Generation Chen Style Taijiquan Grandmaster, in the 1930's. 

Chen Style Taijiquan Broadsword Form, List of 23 Movements (PDF)

Chen Style Taijiquan

Chen Taijiquan Old Frame First Form


Chen Tai Chi Broadsword Form.  Instructional DVD by Sifu Ken Gullette.  "Sifu Gullette takes you into the Chen Tai Chi Broadsword Form in a way that no other DVD or VCD does. Ken's experience with the broadsword, both as a tournament champion and teacher, adds a new level of information that martial artists around the world have come to expect from him.  For centuries, this form had only 13 movements. In the 1930's Chen Zhaopei added 9 more to create the form that's practiced today by the Chen family. This is the form that Sifu Gullette learned from Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang's students, Master Ren Guangyi and disciples Jim and Angela Criscimagna.  In this DVD, you'll see the complete form with front and rear views. You'll get individual instruction on each movement in the form--step by step--with an emphasis on the internal body mechanics. You'll also learn the fighting applications for each movement. In a special section, you'll also learn basic broadsword techniques that can be used in any style of martial arts -- blocks, deflections, cutting techniques, stances, plus you'll learn how to use a scabbard in combat."

  

   "The Chen-style Single Broadsword Routine is a kind of the Chen-style Taiji short weapons.  There are thirteen movement in the routine, so it is called the 'thirteen broadswords.'  From 1930 to 1938, the famous Taijiquan master, the Chen-Family descendent of the eighteenth generation, Chen Zhaopei had added nine movements at the basic of original routine during teaching Taijiquan in Nanjing city.  So it became the popular Taiji Single Broadsword routine in Chenjiagou village.
    The Chen-style Taiji Single Broadsword routine is short and refined, the usages of the forms are clear.  There are thirteen kinds of rolling, closing, pricking, blocking, cutting, hacking, scooping, cross-cutting, twisting, shaking, supporting, slicing and tilting.  They really reflect the characteristics of the Chen-style Taiji Single Broadsword, combining hardness and softness in harmony, equaling stress the quickness and slowness, dodging and transfers, relaxing and nimble, springing and shaking, sticking to each other without being separated, twine to neutralize the force.  It remains the momentum of liking a fierce tiger and cutting forcefully to the Hua Mountain.  It's short weapon, but it can be used as a long weapon."
-   Chen Zenglei, Chen Style Taijiquan, Sword and Broadsword, 2003, p. 322   

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 35

Daodejing, Laozi
Chapter 35   


"One who holds fast to the Great Symbol
Gains the whole world
Bestows purest peace
Serenity and bliss.
Yet the hasty wayfarer
Attracted only by outer characteristics
Tastes Tao and is not aware of it
Sees Tao and does not perceive it
Listens to Tao and does not hear it.
But whoever
Grasps and holds it
Amid impermanence
Is grasped by the permanent
And attains duration."
-  Translated by K. O. Schmidt, 1975, Chapter 35



"Reside in the center
where understanding does not require words or images,
and folk will come to you to be taught
how to be serene.
Where there is good music and food
people stop to rest and regain their energy.
But though the Tao seems unmelodious or even bland
it is an inexhaustible source of refreshment."
-  Translated by Crispin Starwell, Chapter 35


"To him who holds to the Great Form all the world go.
It will go and see no danger, but tranquility, equality and community.
Music and dainties will make the passing stranger stop.
But Tao when uttered in words is so pure and void of flavor
When one looks at it, one cannot see it;
When one listens to it, one cannot hear it.
However, when one uses it, it is inexhaustible."
-  Translated by Ch'u Ta-Kao, 1904, Chapter 35 


"The owner of the biggest image attracts the whole world.
When all who come have been safely settled,
The world will then be peaceful.
Melodious music and delicious food
Can only attract passers-by.
But the Way is, when put into one's mouth, tasteless,
When looked at, colorless,
When listened to, uninteresting,
And, when used, limitlessly bountiful."
-  Translated by Liu Qixuan, Chapter 35 


執大象, 天下往.
往而不害, 安平大.
樂與餌, 過客止.
道之出口, 淡乎其無味.
視之不足見.
聽之不足聞.
用之不足既. 
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 35


zhi da xiang, tian xia wang.
wang er bu hai, an ping tai.
le yu er, guo ke zhi.
dao zhi chu kou, dan hu qi wu wei.
shi zhi bu zu jian.
ting zhi bu zu wen.
yong zhi bu zu ji.
-  Pinyin Romanization, Daodejing, Chapter 35 

"Hold the Great Symbol
and all the world follows,
Follows without meeting harm,
And lives in health, peace, commonwealth.
Offer good things to eat
And the wayfarer stays.
But Tao is mild to the taste.
Looked at, it cannot be seen;
Listened to, it cannot be heard;
Applied, its supply never fails."
-  Translated by Lin Yutang, 1955, Chapter 35 

"Apprehend the inimitable conception, you attract the world;
coming it receives no harm, but it tranquil, peaceful, satisfied.
Like transient guests, music and dainties pass away.
The Tao entering the mouth is insipid and without flavour;
when looked at it evades sight;
when listened for it escapes the ear.
Yet, its operations are interminable."
-  Translated by C. Spurgeon Medhurst, 1905, Chapter 35 


"The owner of the biggest image attracts the whole world.
When all who come have been safely settled,
The world will then be peaceful.
Melodious music and delicious food
Can only attract passers-by.
But the Way is, when put into one's mouth, tasteless,
When looked at, colorless,
When listened to, uninteresting,
And, when used, limitlessly bountiful."
-  Translated by Liu Qixuan, Chapter 35 

"El Tao carece de forma y aroma;
No puede ser visto ni oido,
Y su aplicación no puede ser agotada.
Si ofreces música y comida
Los extraños se detienen a tu lado;
Pero si estás de acuerdo con el Tao
La gente del Mundo te mantendrá
En seguridad, salud, compañía y paz."

-  Translated by Antonio Rivas Gonzálvez, 1998, Capítulo 35 


"If you offer music and food
Strangers may stop with you;
But if you accord with the Way
All the people of the world will keep you
In safety, health, community and peace.
The Way lacks art and flavor;
It can neither be seen or heard,
But its benefits cannot be exhausted."
-  Translated by Peter Merel, 1992, Chapter 35

"Hold fast the idea of "The Great,"
Then all men will be drawn to you.  
They will come to you and receive no hurt,
But rest, peace and great calm.
When you provide music and exquisite food
The traveller will stay with you gladly.
When the Tao flows out from you to him
By his palate he does not detect its savour,
By his eye he cannot perceive it,
By his ears he cannot hear it,
But in using it he finds it to be inexhaustible." 

- Translated by Isabella Mears, 1916, Chapter 35 

Chapter 35, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

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

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List


A Philosopher's Notebooks 

Rooting, Sinking, Connecting and Centering in Taijiquan

The characteristic manifestations, aspects, and qualities of "Rooting" in Taijiquan and Qigong to be cultivated through body-mind-spirit practices are as follows:

Maintain an upright posture, head lifted, chin tucked, back straight;
Keep the head, torso, and hips in a relatively straight "plumb" line;
Draw energy (Qi) up from the earth (Di 地) and allow energy to flow down into the earth through the "bubbling well" point on the bottom of the front pad of your foot (the Yong Quan acupoint KI-1);
Sink the body weight through the legs and feet into the Earth; 
Stay balanced and relaxed (sung) while moving gracefully;
Keep the kneecaps over the center of the foot in settled positions;
Imagine roots branching out and down 3 feet or more into the earth from the "bubbling well" point on your foot with roots that are deep, strong, and flexible;
Develop an improved proprioceptive awareness of the skills needed for the specific activity;
Maintain a steady feeling state of being centered, stable, fixed, and strong in your position;
Resist pushes from others by sinking into the Earth and holding a fixed, strong, stable, and settled stance and footwork;
When pushing others use the earth, your feet, and your legs to generate leverage and power;
Connect with the Earth, relate to Earth energies, integrate with the Powers of the Earth, feel the Earth's Forces;
Keep a calm, grounded, relaxed, and centered mind;
Don't be so stiff and locked you cannot move with some fluidity and grace in response to situations and others;
Align the postures with the path of least resistance (wu wei) in the body;
Rooting is a feeling state and sensation-motor skill and less an intellectual concept;
Maintain postures and footwork while moving that prevent you from loosing balance, slipping, or falling;
Breathe easily, deeply, and effortlessly through the nose;
Be aware of one's footing, i.e., uneven surfaces, slippery or wet surfaces, poorly fitting or inappropriate shoes, hazards, etc.;
Avoid practicing when ill, uneasy, rushed or upset; 
Maintain one's central equilibrium (Zhongding) in the postures and movements.  

The characteristic manifestations, aspects, and qualities of "Central Equilibrium" (Zhongding 中定) in Taijiquan and Qigong to be cultivated through body-mind-spirit practices are as follows: 

Maintain an upright posture, head lifted, chin tucked, back straight;
Keep the head, torso, and hips in a relatively straight "plumb" line;
Maintain dynamic stability, be stabilized within, be centered, be settled;
Develop an improved proprioceptive awareness of the skills needed for the specific activity;
Be calm, still and settled in one's mind and emotions;
Allow one's body to sink and settle into the ground;
Keep the kneecaps over the center of the foot in settled positions;
Direct bodily energy (Qi, Chi) downward into the earth;
Relax (Sung), loosen, untense, and unlock the joints of the body;
Avoid wobbling, getting out of balance, or straining.  

Rooting and Centering.  By Mike Garofalo.  

T'ai Chi Chuan

Qigong



"In all qigong practice it is very important to be rooted. Being rooted means to be stable and in firm contact with the ground. If you want to push a car you have to be rooted; the force you exert into the car needs to be balanced by the force into the ground. If you are not rooted, when you push the car you will only push yourself away and not move the car. Your root is made up of your body's sinking, centering, and balance.
    Before you can develop your root, you must first relax and let your body "settle." As you relax, the tension in the various parts of your body will dissolve, and you will find a comfortable way to stand. You will stop fighting the ground to keep your body up and will learn to rely on your body's structure to support itself. This lets the muscles relax even more. Since your body isn't struggling to stand up, your yi won't be pushing upward, and your body, mind, and qi will all be able to sink. If you let dirty water sit quietly, the impurities will gradually settle to the bottom, leaving the water above it clear. In the same way, if you relax your body enough to let it settle, your qi will sink to your dan tian and the bubbling wells (yongquan, K-1, 湧泉) in your feet and your mind will become clear. Then you can begin to develop your root.
    To root your body you must imitate a tree and grow an invisible root under your feet. This will give you a firm root to keep you stable in your training. Your root must be wide as well as deep. Naturally, your yi must grow first because it is the yi that leads the qi. Your yi must be able to lead the qi to your feet and be able to communicate with the ground. Only when your yi can communicate with the ground will your qi be able to grow beyond your feet and enter the ground to build the root. The bubbling well cavity is the gate that enables your qi to communicate with the ground.  
    After you have gained your root, you must learn how to keep your center. A stable center will make your qi develop evenly and uniformly. If you lose this center, your qi will not be led evenly. In order to keep your body centered, you must first center your yi and then match your body to it. Only under these conditions will the qigong forms you practice have their root. Your mental and physical centers are the keys that enable you to lead your qi beyond your body.
    Balance is the product of rooting and centering. Balance includes balancing the qi and the physical body. It does not matter which aspect of balance you are dealing with; first, you must balance your yi, and only then can you balance your qi and your physical body."
-  Grandmaster Yang, Jwing-Ming  

The Human Body and Religion

I am always keenly interested in our understanding, appreciation, and uses of our human bodies.  Somatics and mind-body arts practices are one focus of my research and writing.  My own opinions about a philosophy of living one's life, and enjoying the use of our bodies are, generally, non-religious, Epicurean, skeptical, and philosophical.  

Religious views of the body-mind are a serious impediment to scientific and pragmatic progress. 


"Two thousand years of Christian discourse—anatomy, medicine, physiology, or course, but also philosophy, theology, and aesthetics—have fashioned the body we inhabit.  And along with that discourse we have inherited Platonic-Christian models that mediate our perception of the body, the symbolic value of the body's organs, and their hierarchically ordered functions.  We accept the nobility of heart and mind, the triviality of viscera and sex (the neurosurgeon versus the proctologist).  We accept the spiritualization and dematerialization of the soul, the interaction of sin-prone matter and of luminous mind, the ontological connotation of these two artificially opposed entities, the disturbing forces of a morally reprehensible libidinal humanity ... All have contributed to Christianity's sculpting of the flesh.

Our image of ourselves, the scrutiny of the doctor or the radiologist, the whole philosophy of sickness and health—none of this could exist in the absence of the above mentioned discourse.  Nor could our conception of suffering, the role we allot to pain and therefore our relationship with pharmacology, substances, and drugs.  Nor could our conception of suffering, the role we allot to pain and therefore our relationship with pharmacology, substances, and drugs.  Nor could the special language of practitioner to patient, the relationship of self to self, reconciliation of one's image of oneself with a ideal of the physiological, anatomical, and psychological self.  So that surgery and pharmacology, homeopathic medicine and palliative treatments, gynecology and thanatology, emergency medicine and oncology, psychiatry and clinical work all obey Judeo-Christian law without any particularly clear understanding of the symptoms of this ontological contamination.

The current hypersensivity on the subject of bioethics proceeds from this invisible influence.  Secular political decisions on this major issue more or less correspond to the positions formulated by the church.  This should be no surprise, for the ethos of bioethics remains fundamentally Judeo-Christian.  Apart from legislation on abortion and artificial contraception, apart fro these two forward steps toward a post-Christian body—what I have elsewhere called a Faustian body—Western medicine sticks very closely to the church's injunctions.

The Health Professionals' Charter elaborated by the Vatican condemns sex-change operations, experiments on the embryo, in vitro fertilization and transfer, surrogate motherhood, medical assistance with reproduction, but also therapeutic cloning, analgesic cocktails that suspend consciousness as life comes to an end, therapeutic use of cannabis, and euthanasia.  On the other hand, the charter praises palliative care and insists on the salutary role of pain.  These are all positions often echoed by ethical committees calling themselves secular and believing themselves independent of religious authority." 

-  Michel Onfray.  Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.  Translated from the French by Jeremy Leggatt.  New York Arcade Publishing, 2005, 2011.  ISBN: 10161145008X.  Annotated bibliography, 246 pages.  VSCL.  A lucid, strong, well reasoned, insightful, and stylish presentation.  Excellent explication of the French and European writing on atheism, anti-clericalism, irreligion, deconstruction of religions, and anti-fascism.  His detailed knowledge of religious customs and ideas is very impressive.  I agree with Professor Onfray's assessment about the negative influences of the three monotheistic religions surveyed; as I do with the dynamic and robust critiques of religion by Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris. The above quote is from p. 47 or Professor Onfray's book.  


When my mother, June, was dying of colorectal cancer, she spent her final days comfortably in a hospice.  When she died my superstitious Catholic father said many times that the hospice killed her, that the hospice practiced euthanasia, that the hospice was sinful and evil.  No matter how much I explained hospice care to him, he would not listen.  It is no wonder my mother did not want to see my father at the end.  I concluded that that he would rather have seen her suffer more, believing that suffering was good for the soul.  He was often a mean and rigid macho man, lacking loving-kindness and compassion. 

When I was 12 years of age, I was told by my priest confessor that masturbation was a mortal sin, evil, unnatural, and inspired by the devil; and, that I would go directly to hell for eternal horrific punishment if I continued to masturbate.  I knew that that masturbation was pleasant, harmless, disease free, legal, and entirely private.  I could not understand how if I should murder somebody I would go to hell, and if I masturbated I would go to hell.  These church rules and penalties regarding masturbation seemed to me arbitrary and absurd.

The longstanding mistreatment of women by religious authorities and religious rules is also completely unsatisfactory to me.  Dr. Ben Carson, for example, a recent secular Republican political candidate, believes our laws should be changed so that any woman who is impregnated by a rapist or through incest should not be allowed to have an abortion even if she chooses to do so.  Reflect also on how women are oppressed and mistreated under the domination by Islamic men.  

I was not surprised to read that the Catholic Church, Islam, and Mormons still all object to vasectomies.  Religions supported and encouraged slavery for centuries.  Religions significantly slowed the progress in anatomy for many centuries by refusing to allow post-mortem autopsies.  Large families are encouraged by religions (more paying believers in the long run I suppose) despite the grueling poverty of overpopulation.  Examples of the pernicious effect of religion on medicine, psychology and public health can, unfortunately, be multiplied with ease.  

The fact that people hold antiquated and false views about bodily functions is not so troublesome as the fact that their religious leaders want to force everybody to accept, obey and follow their nonsensical opinions.  These religions do not favor freedom of thought and action, scientific investigation, and freedom of expression.  Most sensible and modern 'social church goers' simply quietly ignore and disregard most of these outmoded ideas about bodily functions and behaviors pandered by their priests and preachers, if they can do so without being harmed by the local religious police enforcers.  


I have never gone to any church since I was 16, after I left Catholic high school.  What a wise move on my part to abandon the silly rules, anti-scientific opinions, fables, myths, superstitions, and authoritarianism of organized religions.  A good life is much easier to live and enjoy, without the burdens of religious twaddle.  


"The source of man's unhappiness is his ignorance of Nature. The pertinacity with which he clings to blind opinions imbibed in his infancy, which interweave themselves with his existence, the consequent prejudice that warps his mind, that prevents its expansion, that renders him the slave of fiction, appears to doom him to continual error."
-  Baron d'Holbach, The System of Nature

 
"The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life. It is still more humiliating to discover how a large number of people living today, who cannot but see that this religion is not tenable, nevertheless try to defend it piece by piece in a series of pitiful rearguard actions."
-  Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, 1930 

Like a Dragon Whirling in the Clouds

"It is easier to leave a circle than to enter it.
The emphasis is on the hip movement whether front or back.
The difficulty is to maintain the position without shifting the centre.
To analyze and understand the above situation is to do with movement and not with a stationary posture.
Advancing and retreating by turning sideways in line with the shoulders, one is capable of turning like a millstone, fast or slow, as if whirling like a dragon in the clouds or sensing the approach of a fierce tiger.
From this, one can learn the usage of the movement of the upper torso.
Through long practice, such movement will become natural."
- Yang Family Old Manual, The Coil Incense Kung

"The East Asian Dragons are often associated with water, rain, vapors, fog, springs, streams, waterfalls, rivers, swamps, lakes, and the ocean.  Water can take many shapes and states, and Dragons are shape shifters and linked with transformation, appearing and disappearing, changing into something new.  Water is found in three states, depending upon the surrounding temperature: a solid (ice, snow), a fluid (flowing liquid), and a gas (fog, vapor, steam).  Since rainfall is often accompanied by thunder and lightening (thunderstorms and typhoons), the Dragon is sometimes associated with fire; and, since hot water and steam are major sources of energy in human culture, this further links the Dragon with the essential energy of Fire.  The Dragon is thus linked with the chemical and alchemical transformative properties of two of the essential Elements, both Water and Fire.  Dragons are generally benign or helpful to humans in East Asia, but their powers can also be destructive (e.g., flooding, tsunami, typhoon, lightening, steam, drowning, etc.).  There are both male and female Dragons, kinds or species of Dragons, Dragons of different colors and sizes, and mostly good but some evil Dragons.  Some Dragons can fly, some cannot fly; most live in or near water, a few on land.  The body of a Dragon combines features from many animals, representing the many possibilities for existential presence.  The Dragon in the East has serpentine, snake, or eel like movement qualities: twisting, spiraling, sliding, circling, swimming, undulating, flowing freely like water."  [See: The Dragon in China and Japan by Marinus De Visser, 1913] 

Dragon Chi Kung features exercises that involve twisting, turning, screwing, spiraling, curving, wiggling, undulating, spinning, sinking down and rising up, swimming, circling, swinging, or twining movements are often associated with snakes, serpents and dragons.  There are many Qigong sets and specific Qigong movements that have been called "Dragon" forms, sets, or exercises.  Baguazhang martial arts feature much twisting, turning and circling; and, also include many "Dragon" sets and movements.  Silk Reeling exercises in Chen Style Taijiquan include twisting, twining, circling, and screwing kinds of movements. 

The Realms of the Dragons

Dragon Qigong
 

Dragon Staff

Swinging Arms Exercises

Magic Pearl Qigong

Leaping Over the Dragon's Gate

Dragons: Bibliography, Links, Quotes, Notes

Reducing Carbohydrate Eating

Personal Goal: I have found that if I eat under 140 grams of carbohydrates each day, and under 1,500 calories, I can keep my blood sugar at between 130 and 160. 

Here are some ideas I use for reducing the amount of carbohydrate grams in my daily eating:

Choose non-starchy green vegetables.  Reduce or avoid starchy vegetable foods like potatoes, rice, corn, beets, peas, etc.

Significantly reduce or eliminate eating breads, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, pastries.  Avoid processed grains. 

Keep a daily food log journal.  Increase your awareness and track exactly what you do eat and when; and, correlate it with blood sugar testing results. 

Use a calorie, fat, and carbohydrate counter information book.  I use The NutriBase Complete Book of Foot Counts (2001) which for 40,000 food products provides information on serving size, calories grams, protein grams, carbohydrate grams, sodium grams, fiber grams, fat grams, and cholesterol grams.  Also, I can easily find food information on the Internet.  Also, read food labels carefully.  Learn what foods have higher carbohydrates, and a higher glycemic index. 

  

Stop drinking sugary drinks or fruit juices.  Use non-sugar sweeteners sometimes.  Avoid sugars and sweets like candy. 

Choose low carbohydrate “snacks” (small portions) like nuts, cheese, or fruits. 

Avoid high fat and salty foods because they add calories and result in binging, e.g., potato chips, bagel chips, pizza.

Drink plenty of water each day.  Stay hydrated! 

Reduce or eliminate drinking whole milk, shakes, lattes.  Some dairy products can be high in carbs. 

Eat some high-quality protein at each meal. 

Eat foods with a lower glycemic index. 

Choose baked or broiled foods, and reduce fried foods. 

Limit portions, reduce total caloric intake, and use restraint in eating.  Stay under 1,500 calories each day until I weight 225 pounds. 

Develop strategies and tactics for following a healthy eating pattern for a Type 2 diabetic. 

Consult with my doctor, dietitian, and related health professionals. 

Develop a personal dietary program that I can stick to, maintain, and not diverge from for long term benefit. 

Don’t smoke marihuana [legal in Washington State] because it typically results in more hunger and overeating, not exercising, elevated blood sugar, and some loss of self-control in sticking with your eating program.  You just don’t care about dieting when you are in a euphoric mood. 

Be aware of the potential negative complications of reducing carbohydrate intake for a diabetic, e.g., ketosis.  There are medical cautions about severe carbohydrate reduction, and increased eating of fats and proteins.  Strive for balance, be sensible, and research this topic.  However, I must do what I need to do to get my blood sugar to range from 130 to 160, and my body weight down 20 pounds to 225 pounds. 

“The current national standard for recommended daily intake for carbohydrates is 130 grams/day. Anything below that can be considered a reduced-carbohydrate diet, although Americans typically eat two to three times that amount in a day. The benefits of carbohydrate reduction seem to be continuous; as carbohydrates are reduced, health benefits usually increase. However, for those addressing health concerns such as diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, and abnormal lipids, there is usually a threshold effect. In other words, dietary carbohydrates don’t have to be eliminated, just lowered to the point that an individual is able to achieve his or her health goals.”
- Reducing Carbohydrates: A Key to Better Health

Diabetes and Caloric Restriction

Daodejing Chapter 34

 Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter 34

"All-pervading is the Great Tao!
It may be found on the left hand and on the right.
All things depend on it for their production, which it gives to them, not one refusing obedience to it.
When its work is accomplished, it does not claim the name of having done it. 
It clothes all things as with a garment, and makes no assumption of being their lord.  
It may be named in the smallest things.
All things return to their root and disappear, and do not know that it is it which presides over their doing so.
It may be named in the greatest things.
Hence the sage is able to accomplish his great achievements.
It is through his not making himself great that he can accomplish them."
-  Translated by James Legge, 1891, Chapter 34   



"The great way flows, such as it may left and right.
All things on earth depend on it for existence, and it never declines,
Meritorious accomplishments yet anonymous.
Clothes and supports all things on earth yet doesn't master.
Always without desire befits the name small.
All things on earth return here, Why?
Not being their master befits the name great.
Because of its ultimate non-self, it becomes great.
Hence it can accomplish its greatness."
-  Translated by Carl Abbott, 2012, Chapter 34  

"The Great Tao (the Laws of the Universe) is universal like a flood.
How can it be turned to the right or to the left?
All creatures depend on it, and it denies nothing to anyone.
It does its work,
But it makes no claims for itself.
It clothes and feeds all,
But it does not rule them
Thus, it may be called "the Little."
All things return to it as to their home,
But it does not rule them 
It may be called "the Great."
It is just because it does not wish to be great
That its greatness is fully realized.
The Complete Thinker would not control the world;
They are in harmony with the world."
-  Translated by John Louis Albert Trottier, 1994, Chapter 34  

"The great Dao flows everywhere.
It goes to the right and it goes to the left.
Myriad beings depend on it to survive,
But it does not interfere with them.
It facilitates but does not gloat.
It nourishes everything, but does not exert control.
Dao has no goal and appears to be insignificant.
Nevertheless, everything relies on it for sustenance, but it exerts no control.
Such action seems to be magnificently great.
Dao has no intention to be great, yet it attains greatness."
-  Translated by Han Hiong Tan, Chapter 34

"The great Tao pervades everywhere, both on the left and on the right.
By it all things came in to being, and it does not reject them.
Merits accomplished, it does not possess them.
It loves and nourishes all things but does not dominate over them.
It is always non-existent; therefore it can be named as small.
All things return home to it, and it does not claim mastery over them;
therefore it can be named as great.
Because it never assumes greatness, therefore it can accomplish greatness."
-  Translated by Ch'u Ta-Kao, 1904, Chapter 34

大道汎兮其可左右. 
萬物恃之而生而不辭. 
功成不名有. 
衣養萬物而不為主.
常無欲, 可名於小.  
萬物歸焉而不為主, 可名為大. 
以其終不自為大.
故能成其大. 
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 34

ta tao fan hsi ch'i k'o tso yu.
wan wu shih chih erh shêng erh pu tz'u.
kung ch'êng pu ming yu.
yi yang wan wu erh pu wei chu.
ch'ang wu yü, k'o ming yü hsiao.
wan wu kuei yen erh pu wei chu, k'o ming wei ta.
yi ch'i chung pu tzu wei ta.
ku nêng ch'êng ch'i ta.
-  Wade-Giles Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 34
  


"Natural Perfection
Ren Ch'eng

The Great Tao is all pervasive;
It could be on your right or on your left.
The ten thousand things depend on it for growth,
And it never lets them down.
It achieves success but is not possessive.
It enfolds and nourishes the ten thousand things,
Yet it does not claim ownership.
Always desireless and covetous of nothing,
It could be termed small.
But as the ten thousand things return to it,
And it does not care to be their lord,
It could be termed great.
Thus the Sage never in life tries to be great,
And for this very reason becomes truly great."
-  Translated by Henry Wei, 1982, Chapter 34  

"The great Tao flows unobstructed in every direction.
All things rely on it to conceive and be born,
and it does not deny even the smallest of creation.
When it has accomplished great wonders,
it does not claim them for itself.
It nourishes infinite worlds,
yet it doesn't seek to master the smallest creature.
Since it is without wants and desires,
it can be considered humble.
All of creation seeks it for refuge
yet it does not seek to master or control.
Because it does not seek greatness;
it is able to accomplish truly great things."

-  Translated by John H. McDonald, 1996, Chapter 34  

"El Tao Eterno penetra todo. 
Está presente a la izquierda y al la derecha.
Y gracias a Tao, todas las almas aparecen, siguen viviendo y siguen desarrolándose.
Aungue Tao es tan grandioso y realiza actos tan grandes, no desea la gloria para para Sí.
Tao educa con amor a todos los seres, no ejerce violencia sobre ellos
     y no insiste en que las personas cumplan Sus deseos.
Tao es Grande, aunque no insiste en esto.
Las personas razonables anhelan alcanzar a Tao, al Grande."
-  Translated by Anton Teplyy, 2008, Capítulo 34

"Great Tao is all-pervading,

At once on left and right

It may be found, and all things wait

On it for life and light.

 

No one is refused the gift,

And when the work is done

It does not take the name of it,

Nor claim the merit won.

 

All things it loves and nurses,

But does not strive to own,

Has no desires, and can be named

With the tiniest ever known.

 

All things return home to it,

But it does not strive to own,

And can be named with the mightiest,

For it is the Tao alone.

 

And thus the sage is able

To accomplish his great deeds,

To the end he claims no greatness,

And his great work thus succeeds."
-  Translated by Isaac Winter Heysinger, 1903, Chapter 34

Chapter 34, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index
Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index
Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices
Taoism: A Selected Reading List

A Philosopher's Notebooks