Gardening and Celebrations in September

Temperatures in Red Bluff, California, will continue to be high in the daytime (85F-95) and lowering in the night (53F-60F).  It is too hot to plant any trees or shrubs.  Watering will be essential.  We start our pruning cycle.  

This month I will add an electrical outlet and a water feature to the front yard sitting area.  We enjoy sipping our coffee and reading or listening to music while sitting in our front yard garden in the early morning hour.

We gather plants from the garden and create art for the Autumn Equinox Celebration.  

September - Poems, Sayings, Quotations.  Compiled by Mike Garofalo.

The Autumn Equinox Celebrations:  Mabon

Months of the Year

September Gardening Chores

Removing dead and non-productive vegetable crops. 
Apply manure and compost to clay soils.  
Planting crops for late autumn harvest:  cabbages, peas, fennel,
     cauliflower, lettuce, Swiss chard, onions, leeks, Chinese peas, and endive.  
Drying peppers and squash.
Start new strawberry beds.  
Dig up and divide garlic, perennials, iris, daylilies,  bulbs and onions.
Keep watering properly even as the weather begins to cool.  
Clean up all dead fruit.  
Fruit trees fed and sprayed with tonics. 
Seed lawns with rye grass for winter color.  
Remove any dead shrubs or trees.   
Dig holes for planting trees and shrubs.  
Purchase potted trees and shrubs for planting in autumn.  
Continue to mulch trees and shrubs.
Raking fallen leaves and add to compost pile.  
Purchase bulbs from nurseries.  
Feed lawn with slow release fertilizer. 
Remove spent blooms from roses.  
Weed vegetables and shrubs, mow lawns.  
Start to prepare sheds, tools, and equipment for Winter weather.
Repair roofs.  

A Gentle Path of Spiritual Progress

"1.  Mellowness of mind
2.  A healthy, balanced life
3.  An unobstructed, undefeated spirit
4.  Loving people and rendering service
5.  Unifying the body and mind
6.  The rich emotion of enjoying simple relationships and things
7.  Frequent self-examination of one's personal and public life
8.  Avoidance of obsession or extravagance
9.  Humility
10.  Constantly collecting the floating emotions that take you out of your center"
-  Hua-Ching Ni, The Gentle Path of Spiritual Progress, 1990, p. 108 

I use two books by the noted Taoist Master Hua-Ching Ni with translations and commentary about the Tao Te Ching, and find them very useful.  

My Tao Te Ching Concordance has been useful to many people. 

Lifestyle Advice from Wise Persons

The Good Life 

Chapter Index to the Tao Te Ching

Ask About a Truth You Should Seek

"Don't cling to your own understanding.  Even if you do understand something, you should ask yourself if there might be something you have not yet fully resolved, or if there may be some higher meaning yet.
Although a suspicious mind is bad, still it is wrong to cling to what you shouldn't believe in, or fail to ask about a truth you should seek.
Even if you have thoroughly studied the stories of the ancients and you sit constantly like iron or stone, as long as you are attached to yourself you cannot find the Way of the enlightened, ever.
Although the Way is complete in everyone, realization of the Way depends on a combination of conditions.
Tenacious opinionation is not transmitted by your parents; it is just that you have tacitly come to believe in opinions for no reason other than that over time you have picked up what people say.
Whether or not beginners are imbued with the spirit of the Way, they should carefully read and study the sagacious teachings of the scriptures and treatises.
Once having understood, you should read the teachings of the sages many times.
Truth is not greater or lesser, but people are shallow or deep."

-  Japanese Zen Grand Master Dogen, 1200-1253
   Translated by Thomas Cleary

"Do you want to study Zen?
You must let go.
Let go of what?
Let go of the four elements and five clusters,
Let go of consciousness conditioned over incalculable time.
Focus on right where you stand;
Try to figure our what the reason is.
Keep on pondering ...
Suddenly the flower of mind will bloom with enlightenment,
illuminating the whole universe."

-  Chien-ju, Studying Zen
The Pocket Zen Reader.  Edited and translated by Thomas Cleary.   p. 104

"Zen practice in the midst of activity
is superior to that pursued within tranquility."
Hakuin, 1688-1769

The Pocket Zen Reader.   Compiled and translated by Thomas Cleary.  Shambhala Pocket Classics.  Boston, Shambhala, 1999.  218 pages.  ISBN: 157062447X.  VSCL.  

Zen Buddhism: A Reading List

Yoga Postures Anatomy

I regularly use these two books in my study of yoga.  They are both well organized, well illustrated, and highly informative.  Both are excellent reference tools, and explain yoga postures from an anatomical and scientific perspective.

Yoga Anatomy  By Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews.  Published by Human Kinetics, Champain, Illinois, Second Edition, 2011.  Copyright by The Breathe Trust 2007, 2012.  Various indexes: by muscles, joints, position in English, position in Sanskrit, bibliography, 276 pages.  ISBN: 1450400248. VSCL.  An outstanding reference book on the anatomy of yoga!  

Hatha Yoga Illustrated: For Greater Strength, Flexibility and Focus  By Martin Kirk and Brooke Boon.  Photographs by Daniel DiTuro.  Champaign, Illinois, Human Kinetics, 2006.  Suggested readings, resources, index by Sanskrit name, index by English name, 233 pages.  ISBN: 0736062033.   VSCL.  Practical, informative and well organized information. 


My Hatha Yoga Postures List is in alphabetical order by both the English and Sanskrit names for many common Hatha Yoga postures for beginning and intermediate yoga students.  The list includes coding for the kind of yoga posture, e.g., balancing, standing, supine, backbend, etc.  For each posture, the list includes reference to descriptions in yoga textbooks, including the two books mentioned above.  The list also includes some Chi Kung postures that I teach in many of my yoga classes.  My Hatha Yoga Postures List is now 14 pages long, in a PDF format, print only, at Version 6, 10/1/2012.  I also have prepared numerous one page Study Lists that might be useful to yoga students and beginning teachers.   
 


           

Old Age Keeps Calling

"In reality,
as in dreams,
I expect no visitor-
but old age
keeps calling."

- Ryokan, 1753-1831, Japanese Zen master, poet and eccentric hermit

Sky Above, Great Wind: The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan  Translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi.  Boston, Shambhala, c 2012. Bibliography, notes, 249 pages.  9781590309827.  VSCL. 

  
Yoga Grandmaster, B.K.S. Iyengar,
14 December 1918 – 20 August 2014

A Singing Bird Will Come

 

About 20 wild Guineafowl visit our front yard every few days looking for food.  They are a noisy group of big birds.   

"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come."
-  Chinese Proverb  

"I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs."
-  Joseph Addison   

Birds: Quotes and Sayings.  Compiled by Mike Garofalo.  

The Spirit of Gardening  Over 3,500 quotations arranged by over 150 topics. 

 

Dao De Jing Concordance and Index

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter Index and Electronic Concordance

Indexing and research by Michael P. Garofalo, Librarian of Gushen Grove, Valley Spirit Center, Red Bluff, California.  

All 81 Chapters of the Daodejing are Indexed

Searchable by English language terms, Spanish language terms, Romanized Chinese (Wade-Giles and Pinyin) terms.  I use the word 'terms' in my Chapter Index to loosely refer to: keywords, themes, phrases, chapter titles, subjects, topics, words, nouns, verbs, adverbs, or adjectives.  I tend to favor inclusiveness, related meanings, interrelated concepts, and generality when including Terms in this index; reflecting the fascinating complexity of translating and reinterpretation.  

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

English Language Translators' Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

A Catalyst for Deeper Awareness.

"Putting facts by the thousands,
into the world, the toes take off
with an appealing squeak which the thumping heel
follows confidentially, the way men greet men.
Sometimes walking is just such elated
pumping."
-   Lyn Hejinian, Determination

"Every day, in the morning or evening, or both, take a walk in a safe and peaceful environment for less than an hour.  The can be a great fountain of youth.  Choose a place to walk that has no kind of disturbance.   Walking done in a work environment and when your mind is busy is different; it is not as nutritious as the walking you do for yourself in the morning or evening in a quiet, peaceful, and safe place."
-  Master Hua-Ching Ni, Entering the Tao, 1997, p. 135

"Walking is the natural recreation for a man who desires not absolutely to suppress his intellect but to turn it out to play for a season." 
-  Leslie Stephen  



"The interior solitude, along with the steady rhythm of walking mile after mile, served as a catalyst for deeper awareness.  The solitude I found and savored on the Camino had an amazing effect on me.  The busyness of my life slowly settled down as the miles went on.  For a good portion of my life I had longed for a fuller experience of contemplation, that peaceful prayer of the heart in which one is able to look intently and see each piece of life as sacred.  Ten days into the journey, totally unforeseen, the grace of seeing the world with startling lucidity came to me.  My eyes took in everything with wonder.  The experience was like looking through the lens of an inner camera – my heart was the photographer.  Colors and shapes took on nuances and depths never before noticed.  Each piece of beauty appeared to be framed: weeds along roadsides, hillsides of harvested fields with yellow and green stripes, layers of mountains with lines of thick mist stretching along their middle section, clumps of ripe grapes on healthy green vines, red berries on bushes, roses and vegetable gardens.  Everything revealed itself as something marvelous to behold.  Each was a work of art.  I noticed more and more details of light and shadow, lines and edges, shapes, softness, and texture.  I easily observed missed details on the path before me – skinny worms, worn pebbles, tiny flowers of various colors and shapes, black beetles, snails, and fat, grey slugs.  I became aware of the texture of everything under my feet – stones, slate, gravel, cement, dirt, sand, grass.  I responded with wonder and amazement.  Like the poet Tagore, I felt that everything “harsh and dissonant in my life” was melting into “one sweet harmony”."
-  Joyce Rupp  

Study Tai Chi Chuan and Chi Kung with Mike Garofalo

The Ways of Walking: Quotations, Facts, Methods, Spirituality, Meditative

• Ways of Walking
• Walking Meditation
• Walking Quotations
• Walking Bibliography
• Circle Walking: Bagua
• Walking the Labyrinth
• Garden Walking
• Walking Qigong
• Walking Staff  

Drushti: Sensitive Awareness

"Simply speaking, drushti is sensitive awareness to that which you are doing. This has two aspects that are vital to every aspect of our practice. First it means bringing your mind to bear exactly on what you are doing. Not doing one thing while thinking another. This actually means learning not even to be thinking about what you are doing. Rather, just be doing it, feeling it. In the beginning we must think before we act. Then we act. Then think again. But we must learn to separate these two processes so that we can act with precision and clarity, without the distraction of thought. Eventually we will learn to trust the intelligence of the body and will be able to dispense with the thinking process more and more. Then our practice becomes meditation in action."

"The second aspect is to feel the effect of what we are doing. Not only at the point of the action itself, but throughout the whole structure of the body and the quality of the mind. We must feel its impact on the functioning of the body, breath and mind. We use this feedback to go deeper into the poses by making adjustments according to the four secondary techniques of asana, vinyasa, bandha and pranayama. Then through the dynamic created between our intention and our actions, a meditative awareness emerges."

- Godfrey Devereux, Dynamic Yoga, 1998, p. 24 

Yoga:  Posture Lists, Research, Reading Lists, Notes   By Mike Garofalo

Meditation

Mike Garofalo's Yoga Classes in Red Bluff, California 

 

Chen Taijiquan, Old Frame, First Form

Chen Style Taijiquan, Old Frame First Form, Lao Jia Yi Lu
By Michael P. Garofalo.  

This webpage includes a detailed bibliography of books, media, and articles.  Extensive selection of Internet links. 
List of movement names in English, Chinese characters, Chinese Pinyin, French, German, and Spanish; and citations for sources of the movement names. 
Detailed list of DVDs and videos available online.
Extensive notes on the author's learning the Old Frame, First Routine, Lao Jia Yi Lu; and on learning Chen Style Taijiquan. 
Record of performance times of this form by many masters. 
Breakdown by sections of the form, with separate lists for each section.  General information, history, facts, information, pointers, and quotations.  

Work, Learning, Cultivating Mind-Body

I am now back working for the Corning Union Elementary School District.  I work 3 days each week as the Technology and Media Services Supervisor.  I enjoy helping students, teachers, and support staff in our five schools.  I manage school library services and supervise the staff working at our five school libraries, am an active member of the textbook and consumables curriculum materials management team, maintain websites, and have written and did budget management for many grants that have brought in $4,500,000.00 for our schools.  The work seems a worthwhile contribution to our communities.

School begins on Wednesday for our 2,200 students at six schools.  

I hope to remain employed for 4 more years and retire at the age of 72.  My home and car will be paid for in 3 years.


I now have somewhat less time for reading, mind-body practices, writing, gardening, etc.  My blog posts will decrease in size somewhat. 

Lately, I've been reading Zen Buddhist literature, mostly by the Japanese Zen Master Hakuin, and the Prajnaparamita Sutra.  I first read Zen literature when I was 14 years of age.  I am not a "religious believer."  However, I do enjoy Zen influenced poety, art, gardening, dialectics, practices, and literature.  The charming twisted, clever, and humorous manners of Zen Masters makes me smile, lifts my spirits, and sometimes even sends a thunderbolt of kensho through my dancing mind.

Essays in Zen Buddhism: Third Series  By D. T. Suzuki, 1870-1966.  Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki.  Foreword by Christmas Humphreys.  York Beach, Maine, Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1953, 1985.  Index, 396 pages.  ISBN: 0877280762.  VSCL.  Essays on Chinese Zen, Bodhisattva ideal, and a commentary on the the Prajnaparamita Sutra. 

Mother of the Buddhas: Meditation on the Prajnaparamita Sutra   Translation by Les Hixon.  Foreword by Robert A. F. Thurman.  Wheaton, Illinois, Quest Books, 1993.  Index, 265 pages.  ISBN:  0835606899.  VSCL.  

The Zen Doctrine of No Mind: The Significance of the Sutra of Hui-Neng (Wei-lang).  By D. T. Suzuki.  Edited by Christmas Humphreys.  Boston, Weiser Books, 1969, 1972.  Index, 160 pages.  ISBN: 0877281823.  VSCL.   

Sacred Circle Gardens

I've put together a webpage on the subject of Sacred Circles.

This webpage provides links, bibliographic citations, resources, quotations, notes, and comments on medicine wheels, henges, labyrinths, neopagan sacred circles, holy circles, the symbolism and myths about circles and spheres, sacred circle gardens, the four elements, and related topics.

This webpage includes information and photographs of our sacred circle garden at our home in Red Bluff, California.

Those folks who walk the circle in labyrinths, walking meditation or baguazhang might find some of the information in sacred circles to be of interest to them.

Here are a few pictures from our sacred circle garden.  They were all taken a few years ago.

Wisdom from the Goddess

Nine Heart Paths to Healing and Abundance

Joy
Self-Control
Generosity
Peace
Faithfulness
Patience
Kindness
Gentleness
Love
-  Karen Speerstra, "Sophia: The Feminine Face of God: Nine Heart Paths to Healing and Abundance," 2011


Last week, I began reading two books about the Goddess of Wisdom, Sophia.  In my spiritual imagination, I need both a Goddess and God, Yin and Yang, Earth and Sky.  The Dao is both feminine and masculine, and neither. 

Sophia: The Feminine Face of God: Nine Heart Paths to Healing and Abundance  By Karen Speerstra.  Nine Heart Paths to Healing and Abundance.  Studio City, California, Michael Wise Productions, 2011.  Index, bibliography, 340 pages.  ISBN: 9781611250046.  VSCL.  

 
Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom, Bride of God  By Caitlin Matthews.  New Revised Edition.  Wheaton, Illinois, Quest Books, Theosophical Publishing House, 2001.  Index, bibliography, notes, 430 pages.  ISBN:  0835608018.  VSCL. 

Lifestyle Advice from Wise Persons

Goddess, Earth Mother, Devi, Tara, Sophia

One Old Druid's Final Journey 

Lugh's Day Gone By

“Under the summer sun,
thirty birds feeding
on figs.

Young tree branches
sagging so low -
ripe peaches.

Still in the shade,
on wet soil,
a black dragonfly. 
 
An old mind
surprised by seeing
a purple fairy at sunset,
dancing to the crickets’ tunes,
leaping as guinea hens screech,
wary of the bats,
hovering to say,
“Lugh’s Day, Lugh’s Day.”

Crackling fires
glowing
under the full moon.

Peace in the Valley.”
- Mike Garofalo, Lugh’s Fairy   

Lammas, Lughnasadth, Mid-Summer Festival: A NeoPagan Summer Celebration

Above the Fog: Short Poems by Mike Garofalo 

Cuttings:  Haiku by Mike Garofalo



"All paganism is at bottom a worship of nature in some form or other, and in all pagan religions the deepest and most awe-inspiring attribute of nature was its power of re-production. The mystery of birth and becoming was the deepest mystery of nature; it lay at the root of all thoughtful paganism, and appeared in various forms, some of a more innocent, others of a most debasing type. To ancient pagan thinkers, as well as to modern men of science, the key to the hidden secret of the origin and preservation of the universe lay in the mystery of sex. Two energies or agents, one an active and generative, other a feminine, passive, or susceptible one, were everywhere thought to combine for creative purposes; and heaven and earth sun and moon, day and night, were believed to co-operate to the production of being. Upon some such basis as this rested almost all the polytheistic worship of the old civilization; and to it may be traced back, by stage, the separation of divinity into male and female gods; the deification of distinct powers of nature, and the idealization of man's own faculties, desires, and lusts; where every power of his understanding was embodied as an object of adoration, and every impulse of his will became an incarnation of deity."
-   A.T. Jones, Ancient Sun Worship and Its Impact on Christianity

Precious and Magical Water

Every morning I walk out in my back yard and check the irrigation ditch that runs through my property.  Every thirty or forty days or so in the dry months the ditch will be filled with flowing water.  The rancher to the southwest breeds horses and rancher to the northwest raises cattle.  They irrigate their large fields to raise wheat and other grains to feed their animals.  Some of the overflow runs through the ditch to a nearby creek.  

Numerous neighbors, including myself, have dug small ponds which capture this water and provide water for wildlife and for human enjoyment. 
 
I pump water out of this ditch and irrigate our trees and shrubs.  We will sometimes have six hoses running at the same time, and move them around every forty minutes or so.  Over the last fourteen years I have put in many white PVC pipes underground to bring this treasured water to where it is need. 

 "If there is magic on the planet, it is contained in the water."
-  Loren Eisley

"A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself."
- Laura Gilpin

The Spirit of Gardening

Water