Tuesday, March 24, 2026

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. 

Quintain Poetry: Quintain Sonnet (555)

 555 quintain + quintain + quintain


15 lines, stanzas with rhyme schemes or free verse

Mike Garofalo Quintain Sonnet Examples 555
Examples: # 92, 932, 933, 939, 1513, 1931, 2006, 2049, 2077, 2099,
# 2131, 2175, 2243, 2254, 2576, 2853, 2925


John Ashbury, A Picture of J. A. in a Prospect of Flowers

Robert Bly:
The Poem
The Chinese Peaks
The Rainy September

Hilda Doolittle (H.D.):
Time has an end you say

William Everson, Jacob and the Angel


Mike Garofalo (555):
Alternatives of Two #2049
Best Way Forward # 2214
The Bloodless Sea #92
The Bottom Line #2175
Criteria for Action #2735
The Day My Religion Started to Die 
#2340
Double Visions #933
The Event: Number 16; She Was Fire #2788
A False Call to Men 
# 2506
Feathers in the Weeds 
#2243
Flotsams of Unknowns 
#2303
The Hanford Radioactive Blues # 2254
Here & Now @ 
#2374
Packed Into Anxiety 
#1968
Playing with the Table Box 
#2035
The Pleasures of Masochistic Conundrums 
#932
Quintains At a Minimum #2576
Running Out of Time 
#1513
Sand in my Face #2926
So What If? 
#1964
A Titled Quintain is a Sextet #2077
Bundled Up: Quintain Sonnets: Volume 5
We Spoke Softly 
# 2589
The West Edge Tour 
# 2925
Will Cherished Ideals Survive 
#2229

 

Philip Larkin:
Compline
Hard Lines
The Returning I
Song With a Spoken Refrain
Success Story
Young Woman's Blues

D. H. Lawrence:
Come Spring, Come Sorrow #2853
Turned Down # 2973

Audre Lorde, Love Poem

Marianne Moore, Feed Me, Also, River God

Howard Nemerov:
Date with the Rabbi
First Snow
To the Mannequins
The Vacuum

The Wheel King #2541

Octavio Paz:
Walking Through the Light #2099

Arthur RimbaudThe Poor Man Dreams #2209

Christina Rosetti, By the Sea

 

William Stafford:
Entering History
Fixers
For a Lost Child
Freedom
The Gift
Haycutters
Ice Fishing
Jeremiah at Miminagish
A Life, a Ritual
A Memorial to My Mother
Midwest
My Mother Was a Soldier
No Praise, No Blame
Over the North Jetty
Right to Die

Security
Stereopticon
Vocation
The Wanderer Awaiting Preferment
Watching the Jet Planes Dive
Whispered in Winter
Witness

Diane Wakoski, Belly Dancer

W. B. Yeats:
The Mother of God
Remorse for Intemperate Speech #2710
The Road at My Door
The Rose of the World
The Stare's Nest in My Window

 

The Gushen Grove Sonnets

Bundled Up: 3,500+ Quintains
By Michael P. Garofalo

 

Monday, March 23, 2026

Quintain Poetry: Quintain Sonnet (554)


 554 quintain + quintain + quartet


14 lines, stanzas with rhyme schemes or free verse

Mike Garofalo Quintain Sonnet 554 Examples:

# 2654, 2663, 2763, 2764, 2765, 2767, 2768, 2769, 2771

Julian Bell:
An Epistle on the Subject Of # 2983

Mike Garofalo:
Dream Time of a Body-Mind # 2768
Five Elements Embracing
 # 2763
Flowers in the Skagit Valley # 2767
Here and Gone # 2663
Ice Crystal Streaked # 2771
Mountains Melted # 2764
Pointing in What Direction? # 2769
Radiate the Inner Smile #2654
Waiting: Then Suddenly # 2765


Soil, sea, sun, rain, sky ...
Five Elements embracing,
Intertwined in mind.
Unfathomable Matrix;
Scaffolds on scaffolds

Grounded in Otherness.
Below sky, gardener, bees, soil,
seeds, leaves, stems, roots, water...
Below wet cells embraced,
Below atoms dancing on Energy...

Deeper and deeper below
Into What?
A Plenitude, a sacredness.
Emptiness in full bloom.
- Mike Garofalo, #2763


Quintain Sonnets

Quintain Research

Bundled Up: 3,500 Quintains
Volumes 1 -6
Add Free Webpages




Harmonica: This Land is Your Land

 

Harmonica: This Land is Your Land

Woody Guthrie wrote the song “This Land is Your Land” in 1940.
My harmonica teacher, Luke, says “it was a critical response to the song God Bless America.”

Key of C.  Chords: C7 F C G G7

Woody Guthrie (1912-1967)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie

 

This Land is Your Land

4    -4   5  -5   -5  

This land is your land

 -5    4  -4  5   5

This land is my land

 3   4 5 -4 -4  -4  -4  4   -4   5  5

From California to the New York island

 4    4   -4  5  -5 -5 

From the redwood forest 

 -5 -5   4    -4    5  5

To the Gulf Stream waters

 -4   -4  -4   -3   3  -3  -4   4

This land was made for you and me




 

Sunday, March 22, 2026

The Forces of Green


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



"The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks."
-   Dylan Thomas, The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower



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







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



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





Yang Style Taijiquan Long Form Section I

 Yang Style Taijiquan Long Form Section I

First Section,  Movements 1-17,  List of Movements


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

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


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

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













Saturday, March 21, 2026

Chapter 75, Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu

Daodejing, Laozi
Chapter 75

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



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



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




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




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



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



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



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



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

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

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

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




"People go hungry because taxes eat their food.
Therefore, the people go hungry.

People are hard to manage because they are oppressed.
Therefore, they are hard to manage.

People laugh at death because their lives are cheapened
With the weight of expectation.
This is why they laugh at death.

Who could value life
When food is scarce, and freedom repressed?"
-  Translated by Brian Donohue, 2005, Chapter 75 



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




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

Chapter 75, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

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

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey  




Seeking a Literary Agent and/or Publisher

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

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

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

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

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

Five Corners of Time 202 Eclectic Quintain Poems


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

Other commercial possibilities
can be found at:

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

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

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

As for reviews of my work, go here.

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

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

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

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

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

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


To Contact Me

Thanks, Michael Peter Garofalo




Friday, March 20, 2026

Hydrangeas

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












Sad Days for America

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

No Kings Day Protests.

Repost from 2024:

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

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

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

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


Now, the 2024 Presidential Election, has become very interesting.
Who will be the Democratic candidates?
I need to listen and learn.



Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Vernal Equinox Celebration

Spring Equinox Celebration, March 20, 2015

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

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



March: Poetry, Quotes, Sayings

The Green Man: Myths, Legends, Lore

Seasons and Months

One Old Druid's Final Journey

Taoism




 

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



Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Help With Arthritis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Qigong (Chi Kung) Exercises for Fitness and Good Health

T'ai Chi Ch'uan Exercises 






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

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


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

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






Monday, March 16, 2026

God's Own Eye

                 The Fireplace Records, Chapter 31


God's Own Eye


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Comments, Sources, Observations

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

Emptiness is the subject of over 50 Zen Koans.

Meetings with Master Chang San-Feng 

Zen Master Raven

Sunyata, Emptiness, Void, Nothingness


Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Stories. 

Subject Index to 1,975 Zen Buddhist Koans

Zen Buddhist Koans: Indexes, Bibliography, Commentary, Information


The Daodejing by Laozi

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

The Fireplace Records  By Michael P. Garofalo




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Sunday, March 15, 2026

Feldenkrais Techniques

A repost from February 2018:

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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







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Saturday, March 14, 2026

March Gardening Chores

A repost from March 9, 2015:  

Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA

USDA Zone 9

 

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

Red Bluff Gardening Notebooks of Karen and Mike Garofalo

March:  Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore

Spring Equinox Celebrations

Spring:  Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Lore

Gardening:  A Somaesthetic Practice


March Photographs by Karen Garofalo


March Gardening Chores in Red Bluff

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


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