New Year's Eve, 2024, Reflections

Peace on Earth and Good Will to People

May family and friends have continued happiness.

How to Live a Good Life: Advice for Wise Persons

In 2025 I plan to, intend to, and will apply effort to:

Continue to enjoy playing and learning about making music with my harmonica and electric keyboard.

Write and study poetry, e.g., At the Edges of the West.

Walk over 5,000 steps per day for three months, then increase.

Go on a 4 day Yurt Camping trip each month.

Eat under 150 Grams of Carbohydrates each day.

Practice Yang Style Tai Chi Chuag each day for 30 minutes.

Text Art: Exhibit 11

Hendric N. Werkman, 1940

Lettriste Self-Portrait, Isidore Isou,  1952

Dom Sylvester Houedard

Art Modell, New Yorker Cartoonist

Oakland, California

TeXTArt

Concrete Poetry and TextArt Directory and Guide

Exhibits at the Cyber Garden Gazebo

Graphic Arts: Shape Poems: Lettrisme

Sunday TextArt Exhibits

zz by mike garofalo

nothing to say by mike garofalo

Bridges of the Northwest Coastal USA

 Bridges of the Northwest Coastal USA

Washington and Oregon

Stepping Over Epiphanies

Stepping Over Epiphanies

By Michael P. Garofalo

 

Affecting all the molecules in me
the pull of the moon and sea
feeling the call to walk the shore
Smiled, opened the door

Tides and time sent signals to me
to step nimbly over epiphanies
seen flipped over in the turning sands
Surprised, opened my hands

Waiting for nobody but me
a fleck of cold fire
flung out on this fleck of space
Sang out, loved this place

Shore pines paint a background scene
stubby short trees
swaying gently in the salty breeze
Unruffled, I found tranquility

Stunned by the crisp clean colors
savoring the scents of the sea
enchanted by the incessant singing surf
Awakened, a mystical reverie

Pointing to the ineffable realization of
insights known to me alone
Erupted up from our sensory reality
Profound, not foreknown

Such awakenings come and go
sometimes fast or sometimes slow
unpredictable visons playing peekaboo
Pausing, not thinking too

Slogging up and down the dunes
breathing hard on que
one step up, a half-step back
Stopping, quite a view

Tip toeing over bull kelp strands
stepping on broken shells
avoiding the driftwood piles ever moving
Listening, a foghorn knells

A friendly dog off-leash comes to me
seeking a gentle pat and pet
desiring a kind human face to see
Laughing, she was wet

My granddaughter and I once walked
beside a Washington dune
not very long ago it seemed to us
Remembered, gone too soon

 

The poem above "Stepping Over Epiphanies," is one of dozens of my poems
found on my webpage:

At the Edges of the West

https://www.egreenway.com/mpgss/shortpoemsmpg9sea2.htm

Travels on US Highway 101 and 1

Memories of Pacific Coast Places
West Coast Snapshots & Snippets
Delightful Coastal Spur Roads

Docu-Poem, Haiku, Short Poems, Photos,
Quatrians, Graphics, Concrete Poems

By Michael P. Garofalo

Vancouver, Washington

Face to Face with What You Are

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


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

Death: Quotes, Sayings, Lore

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

Religion of the Enlightenment

 Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic.  By Matthew Stewart.  W.W. Norton, 2014.  Index, notes, 566 pages.  

Naturalism, Deism, Atheism 

Books on Atheism, Agnosticism, Non-Religious, Freethinkers, Humanists

Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. By Susan Jacoby.  Holt, 2004.  448 pages. 

Religion in America: Percentage of People Who Are Independent of Religion

Mike' Garofalo's Experiences and Views on Religion

Pragmatism and American History

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.  By Steven Pinker.  Penguin Books, 2018, 576 pages.  VSCL. 

Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Photos Taken from the Internet:

Full, Sparkling, Everywhere, Flowing ...

 
"My own experience of śaktipāta occurred at the age of 16 through meeting a powerful and loving meditation master.  It was not the product of wishful thinking, because I didn't even want to be there, at least on the level of the conscious mind.  My mother had persuaded me to take a two-day meditation retreat and I had acceded because I wanted the reward she was offering me; I had neither expectation nor hope that anything particularly magical would happen.  And indeed, the whole thing was fairly boring, though in the final meditation of the weekend, I did make a grudging effort to be fully present in the warm, dark stillness of the meditation room.  It was nice, but nothing special, until I opened my eyes and walked outside.  I was astonished to discover that the whole world had apparently changed.  Everything was more vivid and real, and almost sparkling.  Not only that, I was feeling an incredible energy in my heart, and it was flowing palpably between my heart and the hearts of everyone else I could see.  I call it "energy" for lack of a better word; it was a tangible power or force, not a passive feeling, and it had the nature of exquisitely pure love.  It was connecting the hearts of all the people around me, coursing freely in a kind of web or grid of power, entirely independent of whether the people liked each other or not.  Then I noticed it was really everywhere; the very air around me seemed thick with it; it was undoubtedly the most "real" thing in reality, though not perceptible with any of the five senses!  It was astonishing, and I was never the same, now that I knew this power, this love beyond anything I had ever imagined, was a real possibility in human life."
-  Christopher D. Wallis, Tantra Illuminated, 2012, p.323


Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition  By Christopher D. Wallis, M.A.  Illustrations by Ekabhumi Ellik.  Woodlands, Texas, Anusara Press, 2012.  Index, endnotes, bibliography, three appendices, 506 pages.  ISBN: 978-1937104016.  VSCL.  In 2012, the author was a Ph.D. candidate in Sanskrit at the University of California, Berkeley.  This book takes as its exemplar and focal point the lineages of nondual Śaiva Tantra most clearly typified by the Kaula Trika lineage.  Written for the educated lay reader.  The author shares his personal life, his spiritual life, his practices, his yoga, within this tradition of Tantra.   

Tantra: Path of Ecstasy  By Georg Feuerstein (1947-2012), Ph.D.  Boston, Shambhala, 1998.  Index, bibliography, notes, 314 pages.  ISBN: 157062304X.  VSCL.  An excellent introduction to Tantra, and a great starting point for readers.  I own, and have read and reread in the last ten years nearly all of the books by Dr. Georg Feuerstein.  If my understanding is correct, Dr. Feuerstein personally followed the path of Vajrayana Buddhism, a Tibetan Buddhist tradition, a lineage of Tantric Buddhism.  


"Tantra's body-positive approach is the direct outcome of its integrative metaphysics according to which this world is not mere illusion but a manifestation of the supreme Reality.  If the world is real, the body must be real as well.  If the world is in essence divine, so must be the body.  If we must honor the world as a creation or an aspect of the divine Power (shakti), we must likewise honor the body.  The body is a piece of the world and, as we shall see, the world is a piece of the body.  Or, rather, when we truly understand the body, we discover that it is the world, which in essence is divine."
-  Georg Feuerstein, Tantra: The Path of Ecstasy, p. 53  


Somaesthetic Practices and Theory

Tantra: Bibliography, Quotations, Links, Resources

Nature and Spirituality 

 

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, Chapter 13

Dao De Jing, Laozi 

Chapter 13

"Let favor and disgrace be warnings
let honor and disaster be your body
and why should favor and disgrace be warnings
favor means descending
to gain it should be a warning
to lose it should be a warning
thus should favor and disgrace be warnings
and why should honor and disaster be in your body
the reason we have disaster
is because we have a body
if we didn't have a body
we wouldn't have disaster
thus who honors their body as the world
can be entrusted with the world
can be encharged with the world."
-  Translated by Red Pine, 1996, Chapter 13, Taoteching

Ho-Shang Kung says, "Those who gain favor or honor should worry about being too high, as if they were at the edge of a precipice.  They should not flaunt their status or wealth.  And those who lose favor and live in disgrace should worry about another disaster."

Ssu-Ma Kuang says, "Normally a body means disaster.  But if we honor and cherish it and follow the natural order in our dealing with others and don't indulge our desires, we can avoid disaster." 

Huang Yuan-Chi says, "We all possess something good and noble that we don't have to seek outside ourselves, something that the glory of power or position cannot compare with.  People need only to start with this and cultivate without letting up.  The ancients said, 'Two or three years of hardship, ten thousand years of bliss.' "

Lao-tzu's Taoteching  Translated by Red Pine (Bill Porter).  Provides a solid verbatim translation and shows the text in Chinese characters.  Includes around 10 brief selected commentaries for each Chapter of the Taoteching, drawn from commentaries in the past 2,000 years.  San Francisco, Mercury House, 1996, Second Edition, 184 pages.  An invaluable resource for brief commentaries.  Chapter 13, pp. 26-27. 

"Favor and disgrace would seem equally to be feared;

Honor and great calamity, to be regarded as personal conditions of the same kind.

What is meant by speaking thus of favor and disgrace?

Disgrace is being in a low position after the enjoyment of favor.

The getting that favor leads to the apprehension of losing it, and the losing it leads to the fear of still greater calamity.

This is what is meant by saying that favor and disgrace would seem equally to be feared.

And what is meant by saying that honor and great calamity are to be similarly regarded as personal conditions?

What makes me liable to great calamity is my having the body which I call myself;

If I had not the body, what great calamity could come to me?

Therefore he who would administer the kingdom, honoring it as he honors his own person, may be employed to govern it,

And he who would administer it with the love which he bears to his own person may be entrusted with it."

-  Translated by James Legge, 1891, Chapter 13 

"Favor bodes disgrace; it is like trembling.

Rank bodes great heartache.

It is like the body.

What does 'Favor bodes disgrace; it is like trembling' mean?

Favor humiliates.

Its acquisition causes trembling, its loss causes trembling.

This is what is meant by 'Favor bodes disgrace; it is like trembling.'

What does 'Rank bodes great heartache, it is like the body' mean?

I suffer great heartache because I have a body.

When I have no body, what heartache remains?

Therefore who administers the empire as he takes care of his body can be entrusted with the empire."

-  Translated by D. T. Suzuki and Paul Carus, 1913, Chapter 13 

"Dread glory as you dread shame.

Prize great calamity as you prize your body.

What does this mean:

"Dread glory as you dread shame"?

Glory comes from below.

Obtain it, you are afraid of shame;

Lose it, you are still afraid of shame.

That is why it is said;

"Dread glory as you dread shame."

What does this mean:

"Prize great calamity as you prize your own body"?

We who meet with great calamities, meet them because we have a body.

If we had not a body what calamity could reach us?

Therefore he who honours the kingdom as his body can govern the kingdom.

He who loves the kingdom as his own body can be trusted with the kingdom."

-  Translated by Isabella Mears, 1916, Chapter 13  

"Favor and disgrace are things that startle;
High rank is, like one's body, a source of great trouble.
What is meant by saying favor and disgrace are things that startle?
Favor when it is bestowed on a subject serves to startle as much as when it is withdrawn.
This is what is meant by saying that favor and disgrace are things that startle.
What is meant by saying that high rank is, like one's body, a source of great trouble?
The reason I have great trouble is that I have a body.
When I no longer have a body, what trouble have I?
Hence he who values his body more than dominion over the empire can be entrusted with the empire.
He who loves his body more than dominion over the empire can be given the custody of the empire."
-  Translated by D. C. Lau, 1963, Chapter 13   


寵辱若驚.
貴大患若身.
何謂寵辱若驚.
寵為下.
得之若驚.
失之若驚是謂寵辱若驚.
何謂貴大患若.
身吾所以有大患者為吾有身.
及吾無身.
吾有何患.
故貴以身為天下若可寄天下.
愛以身為天下, 若可託天下.
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 13


ch'ung ju jo ching.
kuei ta huan jo shên.
ho wei ch'ung ju jo ching.
ch'ung wei hsia.
tê chih jo ching.
shih chih jo ching shih wei ch'ung ju jo ching.
ho wei kuei ta huan jo.
shên wu so yi yu ta huan chê wei wu yu shên.
chi wu wu shên.
wu yu ho huan.
ku kuei yi shên wei t'ien hsia chê k'o chi t'ien hsia.
ai yi shên wei t'ien hsia, chê k'o t'o t'ien hsia.
-  Wade-Giles Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 13


"Los santos decían: "Alabanzas y culpas causan ansiedad;
El objeto de la esperanza y el miedo está en tu interior".
"Alabanzas y culpas causan ansiedad"
Puesto que esperas o temes recibirlas o perderlas.
"El objeto de la esperanza y el miedo está en tu interior"
Pues, sin un Ego, no pueden afectarte la fortuna o el desastre.
Por tanto:
El que observa al Mundo como se observa a sí mismo es capaz de controlar el Mundo;
Pero el que ama al Mundo como se ama a sí mismo es capaz de dirigir el Mundo."
-  Translated by Antonio Rivas Gonzálvez, 1998, Tao Te Ching, Capítulo 13

"Accept honors and disgraces as surprises,

Treasure great misfortunes as the body.

Why say: "Accept honors and disgraces as surprises"?

Honors elevate (shang),

Disgraces depress (hsia).

One receives them surprised,

Loses them surprised.

Thus: "Accept honors and disgraces as surprises."

Why say: "Treasure great misfortunes as the body"?

I have great misfortunes,

Because I have a body.

If I don't have a body,

What misfortunes do I have?

Therefore treasure the body as the world,

As if the body can be entrusted to the world.

Love the body as the world,

As if the body can be entrusted to the world."

-  Translated by Ellen Marie Chen, 2000, Chapter 13

"You are in everything. 

 Everything is in you. 

 Create hope and fear and you throw away the Dao. 

 Create happiness and sorrow and you will collapse. 

 Keep your feet on the ground. 

 Love everything as you love yourself. 

 Then everything is within your reach."

 -  Translated by Ray Larose, 2000, Chapter 13

"Honor and dishonor both move us
Because we are troubled by having a self.
Why do we say that honor and dishonor move us?
Because honor lifts us upward
And dishonor lowers us downward,
Thus, when we are honored we are moved.
When we are dishonored we are also moved.
That is why honor and dishonor are both said to move us.
Why do we say that the great trouble is having a self?
Because we have great trouble simply because we have a self.
If we are selfless, then where is the trouble?
If we identify our self with the world,
Then within our self there is the world.
If we love the world as we love our self,
Then within our self there is only the world."
-  Translated by Chang Chung-Yuan, Chapter 13

 
"The honor and the disgrace are like emotional impacts.
The disaster is regarded as the threat to life.
What does it mean by "The honor and the disgrace are like emotional impacts?"
The honor is awarded to subordinates.
When the honor is obtained, people are thrilled;
when the honor is lost, people are depressed.
So they are emotionally impacted.
What does it mean by "The disaster is regarded as the threat to life?"
The reason we feel threatened because we care too much about ourselves.
If we are selfless, who can threaten us?
To those who can sacrifice themselves for the world, we can trust them with the world.
To those who love the people more than themselves, we can handle the ruling power."
-  Translated by Thomas Zhang, Chapter 13    

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

  

Chapter 13, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu.  Complied by Mike Garofalo.  

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

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

A Daoist Druid's Final Journey 

An Old Philosopher's Notebooks

Dao De Jing by Laozi, Chapter 12

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter 12


"The five colors combined
the human eye will blind;
The five notes in one sound
the human ear confound;
The five tastes when they blend
the human mouth offend.

Racing and hunting will human hearts turn mad,
Treasures high-prized make human conduct bad.

Therefore,
The sage attends to the inner and not to the outer.
He abandons the latter and chooses the former."
- Translated by Paul Carus, 1913, Chapter 12 

"The meaning of the verses quoted in Chapter 12 carries out the principle enunciated in Chapter 11. The utility of things, as well as the worth of life, is attained not by having everything in completion and in fullness, but by selecting some parts and omitting others, by moderation and by discrete elimination. Together, all the colors blind you, while a discrete selection will make a picture. Together, all the notes just make noise, while a few of them in proper succession make a melody. Together, all the tastes mixed together are offensive, but a choice of them is pleasant. Such is Lao-Tzu's method of teaching that the form of things is more important that the substance. The phrase 'he attends to the inner and not to the outer: reads in a literal translation 'acts on the stomach, not acts on the eye'. The outer and the inner are called in Chapter 38 the flower and the fruit, the former being more show, while the latter is the true import of life."
- Paul Carus, 1913

The Teachings of Lao-Tzu: The Tao Te Ching. Translation, commentary, and notes by Paul Carus, 1913. New York, St. Martin's Press, 2000. ISBN: 0312261098.  D.T. Suzuki worked and studied with Paul Carus around 1905 in Illinois, and translated together the Tao Te Ching.   

"The five colors cause man's eyes to be blinded.
The five tones cause man's ears to be deafened.
The five flavors cause man's palate to be cloyed.
Racing about on horseback and hunting cause man's mind to be maddened.
Hard to obtain merchandise cause mankind to do wrong,
So the Sage concerns himself with the abdomen and not the eyes.
Therefore, he rejects the one and chooses the other."
- Cheng Man-ch'ing, 1981, Chapter 12


"Color's five hues from the eyes their sight will take;
Music's five notes the ears as deaf can make;
The flavors five deprive the mouth of taste;
The chariot course, and the wild hunting waste
Make mad the mind;
And objects rare and strange,
Sought for,
Men's conduct will to evil change.
Therefore the sage seeks to satisfy the craving of the belly,
and not the insatiable longing of the eyes.
He puts from him the latter, and prefers to seek the former."
-   Translated by James Legge, 1891, Chapter 12  


"The five colors
blind our eyes.
The five notes
deafen our ears.
The five flavors
dull our taste.
Racing, chasing, hunting,
drives people crazy.
Trying to get rich
ties people in knots.
So the wise soul
watches with the inner
not with the outward eye,
letting that go,
keeping this."
-  Translation by Ursula K. Le Guin, 2009, Chapter 12  


"An excess of light blinds the human eye; an excess of noise ruins the ear; an excess of condiments deadens the taste.
The effect of too much horse racing and hunting is bad, and the lure of hidden treasure tempts one to do evil.
Therefore the wise man attends to the inner significance of things and does not concern himself with outward appearances.
Therefore he ignores matter and seeks the spirit."
-  Translated by Dwight Goddard and Henri Borel, 1919, Chapter 12 


"The fives colours confuse the eye,
The fives sounds dull the ear,
The five tastes spoil the palate.
Excess of hunting and chasing
Makes minds go mad.
Products that are hard to get
Impede their owner's movements.
Therefore the Sage
Considers the belly not the eye.
Truly, “he rejects that but takes this”."
-  Translated by Arthur Waley, 1934, Chapter 12 



"Five excessive colors make people blind;
five excessive sounds make people deaf;
five excessive flavors rob people's taste;
racing and hunting make people mad;
and rare goods make people steal.
Thus a Sage ruler took care of people's basic-needs (stomachs),
not their excessive-desires (luxuries).
Thus he eliminated desires and supplied needs."
-  Translated by Tang Zi-Chang, Chapter 12 

"Los cinco colores ciegan el ojo.
Las cinco notas ensordecen el oído.
Los cinco sabores empalagan el paladar.
La carrera y la caza enloquecen la mente.
Los objetos preciosos tientan al hombre a hacer el mal.
Por eso, el Sabio cuida del vientre, y no del ojo.
Prefiere lo que está dentro a lo que está afuera."
-  Translated into Spanish by Alfonso Colodrón from the English translation by
    John C. H. Wu, 1993, Tao Te Ching, Capítulo 12  

"wu se ling ren mu mang.
wu yin ling ren er long.
wu we ling ren kou shuang.
chi cheng tian lie, ling ren xin fa kuang.
nan de zhi huo, ling ren xing fang.
shi yi sheng ren wei fu bu wei mu.
gu qu bi qu ci."
-  Hanyu Pinyin Romanization, Daodejing, Chapter 12

  "Iridescent colours cause blindness.
 Beautiful music causes deafness.
 Delicious food causes loss of taste.
 Racing and hunting cause madness.
 Rare goods tempt people to rob and steal.
 Therefore the sage only wants to feed the people rather than to dazzle them.
 That's why he goes for the former and turns down the latter."
 -  Translated by Jiyu Ren, 1985, Chapter 12 

"The five colours blind the eyes of men.
The five tones deafen their ears.
The five flavours vitiate their palates.
Galloping and hunting induce derangement of the mind.
Objects that are difficult of attainment lead them to incur obstacles or injury.
Thus the Sage cares for his inner self, and not for that which his eye can see;
for which reason he discards the latter and preserves the former."
- Translated by Frederic Henry Balfour, 1884, Chapter 12

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

  
Chapter 12, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu.  Complied by Mike Garofalo.  

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

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List     
A Daoist Druid's Final Journey  

An Old Philosopher's Notebooks