Prepping For the Kill

While driving to work in Corning, there is a large old broken down Army truck along the Interstate 5 freeway.  On the side of the truck is a large sign: "PREPPERS  AMMUNITION AVAILABLE!"  What are these paranoid Preppers preparing for?  What do they need more ammunition for?  Truthfully, they are preparing to kill some innocent animals or human beings.
 
I live in a safe, quiet, rural area.  The cities near me are Red Bluff and Redding.  Both cities are ranked in the top ten most Redneck cities in California.  Rednecks, often right wing white Republicans, are a fearful and selfish lot always fretting about and Prepping for civil war, race war, Christian Defense war, or some kind or other of end of the world spiritual apocalypse.  They seem forever to be lamenting that they can't trust anyone.  They seem happier when hating somebody. 

This week, a 7th grade boy was checking out a hunting book in the library.  I asked him if he enjoyed this hunting season.  He said that he liked to shoot squirrels with his rifle.  I asked if he ate squirrels.  He said "No."  "Why do you kill them," I asked politely.  He smiled and answered, "for fun."

The sociopath that killed 9 people at an Oregon Community College last week had 14 guns in his apartment.  You know that he spent hours fondling guns and bullets, allowing his petty discontents about women fester in his sick mind as he relished the feel of his precious steel guns.  The callous deranged killer of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School had many guns in his home, and spent countless hours playing violent shoot and kill video games.  The racist murderer of 9 people at a church service in South Carolina, toyed with guns as he harbored the drug addled thoughts of a cold blooded White-Power killer.  The Colorado movie theater killer, dressed like GI Joe or some ISIS thug, loaded down with automatic weapons, bombs, tear gas, and bullet proof vests, showed his lust for gunning down 82 innocent people for no reason whatsoever.  The Columbine High boys, dressed in black like some kind of faux Matrix ninjas, murdered 12 and wounded 21 more, and shot people in the face like they were killing squirrels.  The scoundrel traitor Major Hasan screamed "Allau Akabar" as he murdered 13 and wounded 30 of his fellow soldiers, all highly trained to defend themselves, at Fort Hood.  A right-wing extremist machine gunned and killed 77 teenagers on a holiday in Norway.  How many wives and children have been shot to death by a discontented, angry, jealous, or cruel husband— a weak and pathetic man with a steel trigger on his finger?  A child arguing with and killing a neighbor child with a pistol?  And, how many people kill with guns "for fun."  Wake Up People: Over 11,000 people are murdered with a gun every year in America. 

We poured ice cold water over our heads and raised funds for the ALS victims.  5,000 unfortunate persons die of ALS each year in America.  Over 11,000 people are murdered with a gun every year in America.  How many tens of thousands more are seriously injured from gunshot wounds each year in America???  Every year, in America, over 100,000 people are shot with a gun. 

I read this week an excellent opinion piece by Paul Waldman titled  "Ben Carson Perfectly Explains the Republican Position on Guns."  These Republican candidates support a bizarre solution to this rampant gun violence: sell more guns and put more guns in more people's hands; or, Jeb Bush shrugs and says "stuff happens" and we should do nothing.

More people wearing pistols into supermarkets, churches, schools, shopping centers, bars, restaurants?  Everyone tensed and armed and fearful and untrusting and waiting and enabled to kill three people in five seconds?  No limits on guns?  Teachers and preachers with guns strapped to their waist?  Great news for the NRA, gun manufactures, bullet manufactures, holster makers, gun salesmen- all those that greedily profit from gun fetishism and killing urges.  However, not so good news for me shopping for groceries at Raley's when some drunken local redneck yokel thinks I offended his fragile honor, and, with pistol holstered and ready at hand ... bang, bang, I'm dead. Crazy!  Like that gun toting retired policeman who shot to death a man in a movie theater because the discourteous fellow spilled some popcorn on him and talked too loud. 

In the days of the first version of the Constitution, pistols and rifles could just make one shot.  One shot, and then time to reload.  [Ben Carson could back then lead the charge to tackle the one bullet bully and save the day; then, he could go back to being the slave of some heartless white Southern plantation owner.]  Naturally, with that kind of firepower in those long ago days of only farmers in back woods settlements, there was little question about "the right to bear arms."  We live in different times.  Modern arms can rapid fire many shots in seconds.  Nearly everyone lives in a city.  It is high time to change the Constitution regarding this out of date "right."  The "Constitution" has changed many times, e.g., Christian men refused to allow all women to vote until after 1920 (19th Amendment).  Change the laws about gun manufacturing, sales, ownership, and use. 

99.99% of people flying on airplanes are not terrorists, but we have no problem with spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year trying to prevent terrorist attacks on airplanes.  What are we doing to prevent gun worshippers and assorted angry lunatics from killing over 11,000 people just last year in America?  Or, from killing millions of innocent animals "for fun."  What are we doing?  Nothing— "stuff happens."


Guns do kill people.  People kill people with guns.  People kill innocent animals with guns.  People who own and use guns do think about and fantasize about killing animals and people.  Preppers are preparing to kill people and animals and lurking foreign terrorists.  Countless video games and television shows feature killing, crimes, violence, gangs, hunting animals, and gun fun.  If that is not enough, we invent new creatures to kill: the walking dead zombies, vampires, demons, ghosts, Big Foot, space aliens, monster snakes, godzilla, mutated flies ...  Shame on America.  Cruel America.  Violence loving America.  Just last year, this hate filled, fearful, desperate, and self-loathing America had over 21,000 people put a gun to their head and blow their brains apart.  Ugly!  Unnecessary!

Some people have proposed reasonable solutions to gun control that need to be adopted.  Stop manufacturing and selling military grade weapons and machine guns.  Make gun owners and gun manufacturers pay for special insurance, just like we do for automobiles, to provide some measure of restitution to persons wounded by guns or killed by guns.  Educate children in schools about the dangers of guns, e.g., over 500 people are killed each year in American in gun "accidents."  Legislators can do something!  More important, Americans need to shed their cowboy fantasies, their gun fetishes, their worship of firearms, their perverted desires to possess more and more guns and display them in a threatening manner, and stop the celebration of killing innocent wild animals.  Some changes can be legislated, others must come from a change of heart and mind. 

Men once thought that smoking tobacco was macho cool, part of the rugged cowboy mystique.  Seeing a few wheezing and emaciated smoker friends suffering miserably and dying of emphysema or cancer in a modern hospital room, and anti-smoking public education campaigns, and restricting smoking in public locations, and warning labels, and higher taxes on tobacco ... all have resulted in fewer people smoking these days.  Why not some similar efforts at defusing our gun loving mania and murderous ways in America?

And, reduce the number of hours you waste watching television.  Television is largely a pathetic front for commercial advertising wrapped around programs featuring violence or trivial humor or celebrity worship. Watching fewer crime dramas might help reduce our urges to kill someone.  Come on people, Duck Dynasty?, dirty bearded stinky old men killing animals and drinking beer, or poor anti-social loners hunting caribou in wild Alaska ... how is this relevant to how 90% of Americans actually live.  Or, watching old rich rock stars tell us about the joys of blasting ducks apart with shotguns and being shills for the NRA is just blow-hard tiresome ted.  Wake up!  Stop feeding your violent fantasies!  Grow vegetables, garden, nuture loving kindness, cultivate decent friendships, create peace; don't daydream about sawing the antlers off a deer's bloody skull that you shot to death "for fun."  Realign your values!   


Seems like, in America, the family that kills together stays together.  Teach you children well, Papa Rifleman.  Their camouflaged bravado— really just pretending to mask their underlying defensiveness, weakness, fears, and lusts to kill something.  Sure, Donald Trump, let these kinds of gun toting folks into your church or restaurant or casino— you can really trust people that fondle automatic weapons.  They look Prepped, grossly fat from eating dead ducks and armadillos, and ready to blast away anybody who questions their sanity.  We will let Ben Carlson, that phony and unrealistic pseudo hero, rush to the front of the class when these types of folks come into the classroom Prepped to kill us all.   

                       
[Unquestionably, rants like the above include some exaggerations and sharp rhetoric.  Many Red Bluff and Redding folks are decent, honest, kind, and trustworthy.  Not all gun owners think about killing animals or other people.  Self-defense does have a legitimate place in our lives; rarely, thankfully.  There are a few Republicans like Gabby Giffords that support some gun control measures.  Nevertheless, I still stand by my main points: many people have an excessive and dangerous gun loving addiction, we encourage and pleasure ourselves with violence excessively, and we lack the will and courage to self-change and public-change away from this trend towards fear-hate, stockpiling guns, killing animals, and a bang bang your dead macho but unmanly bravado.]

Rooting and Centering

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  

 

Which are More Numerous: The Living or the Dead?

"Alexander captured ten of the Gymnosophists who had done most to get Sabbas to revolt, and had made the most trouble for the Macedonians. These philosophers were reputed to be clever and concise in answering questions, and Alexander therefore put difficult questions to them, declaring that he would put to death him who first made an incorrect answer, and then the rest, in an order determined in like manner; and he commanded one of them, the oldest, to be the judge in the contest. The first one, accordingly, being asked which, in his opinion, were more numerous, the living or the dead, said that the living were, since the dead no longer existed. The second, being asked whether the earth or the sea produced larger animals, said the earth did, since the sea was but a part of the earth. The third, being asked what animal was the most cunning, said: "That which up to this time man has not discovered." The fourth, when asked why he had induced Sabbas to revolt, replied: "Because I wished him either to live nobly or to die nobly." The fifth, being asked which, in his opinion, was older, day or night, replied: "Day, by one day"; and he added, upon the king expressing amazement, that hard questions must have hard answers. Passing on, then, to the sixth, Alexander asked how a man could be most loved; "If," said the philosopher, "he is most powerful, and yet does not inspire fear." Of the three remaining, he who was asked how one might become a god instead of man, replied: "By doing something which a man cannot do"; the one who was asked which was the stronger, life or death, answered: "Life, since it supports so many ills." And the last, asked how long it were well for a man to live, answered: "Until he does not regard death as better than life." So, then, turning to the judge, Alexander bade him give his opinion. The judge declared that they had answered one worse than another. "Well, then," said Alexander, "thou shalt die first for giving such a verdict." "That cannot be, O King," said the judge, "unless thou falsely said that thou wouldst put to death first him who answered worst." These philosophers, then, he dismissed with gifts...
— Plutarch, Life of Alexander the Great, "The Parallel Lives", 64-65. 


The Master once proposed a riddle: "What do the artist and the musician have in common with the mystic?"
Everyone gave up.
"The realization that the finest speech does not come from the tongue," said the Master.

Riddles - Google Search

Yi Jin Jing Chi Kung

I have done some research on Muscle and Tendon Changing Qigong, Yi Jin Jing Qigong, and have documented my findings on a webpage:  Yi Jin Jing Qigong.

I recommend the following Yi Jin Jing Qigong resource:  

Yi Jin Jing: Chinese Health Qigong.  Compiled by the Chinese Health Qigong Association.  Beijing, China, Foreign Languages Press, 2007.  95 pages, charts, includes an instructional DVD.  ISBN: 9787119047782.  $20.00 US.  VSCL.  "Qigong is an aspect of traditional Chinese medicine that involves coordinating breathing patterns with physical postures to maintain health and well-being. Yi Jin Jing/ Tendon-Muscle Strengthening Exercises is an accessible, fully-illustrated guide to a particular qigong exercise that focuses on turning and flexing the spine.  Based on the twelve traditional routines of Yi Jin Jing, the exercises covered in the book feature soft, extended, even movements that invigorate the limbs and internal organs. In particular, practice of the Yi Jin Jing exercises improves flexibility, balance and muscular strength, and has a beneficial effect on the respiratory system. Each routine is described step-by-step and is illustrated with photographs and key points. The authors also point out common mistakes and offer advice on how to correct these.  Complemented by an appendix of acupuncture points and accompanied by a DVD, this book will be of interest to Qigong and Tai Chi practitioners at all levels, students of martial arts and anyone interested in Chinese culture." - Singing Dragon.  

 

Grandmaster Sun Lu Tang (1861-1933)

"When a modern day "New Age" practitioner of tai chi speaks of the art as being "good for his health and a way to align his energy with the energy of the Tao," that viewpoint came largely from Sun Lu Tang. Or when pa kua practitioners walk the pa kua circle on a California beach and talk of how "pa kua forms are physical embodiments of the I-Ching," their ideas derive largely from Sun Lu Tang. Or when modern day practitioners of xing yi opine that "the five forms of xing yi interact like the five basic elements in Taoist cosmology," they to owe their thinking largely to Sun Lu Tang."
- Elisabeth Guo and Brian L. Kennedy, Sun Lu Tang: Fighter, Scholar and Image Maker.

Sun Style Taijiquan: Bibliography, Links, Resources, Quotes
By Michael P. Garofalo

Walking: A Fountain of Youth

A cornerstone of my weekly fitness practices is walking.  

Looking east on Kilkenny Lane near Red Bluff, California.  I walk 3.6 miles on this cul de sac lane, four days each week, in the morning.  I walk at daybreak on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning throughout the entire year.  

The photographs on this post were taken in early November.  It is one of my favorite  seasons for walking in the morning. 

Occasionally, a car might use this country lane, and I move to the side of the road.  It is a very safe, peaceful, and quiet place.  

Sometimes I listen to my MP3 player while I walk.  Sometimes I walk in silence.   

Sometimes I take my dog, Bruno, for a walk.  Most often, I walk alone.  


"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

 

Looking to the northeast on Kilkenny Lane.  Mt. Lassen (10,000 feet) in the distance is capped with a little snow.  These photos were taken in the Autumn.   

"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  

`

Looking west on Kilkenny Lane.  The red leafed autumn colors are from Raywood Ash trees. The Yolly Bolly mountain range (7,000 feet) is to the west of the North Sacramento Valley. 

So, see you on the road.  You are welcome to join me on Kilkenny Lane for walking and Taijiquan.    


"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 or Chi Kung or Philosophy 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  

Early Mornings Are Cool

"Heat lingers
As days are still long;
Early mornings are cool
While autumn is still young.
Dew on the lotus
Scatters pure perfume;
Wind on the bamboos
Gives off a gentle tinkling.
I am idle and lonely,
Lying down all day,
Sick and decayed;
No one asks for me;
Thin dusk before my gates,
Cassia blossoms inch deep."
-  Po Chu-i (772-864), Autumn Coolness
   Translated by Howard S. Levy and Henry Wells 

"To enrich the earth I have sowed clover and grass
to grow and die. I have plowed in the seeds
of winter grains and various legumes,
their growth to be plowed in to enrich the earth.
I have stirred into the ground the offal
and the decay of the growth of past seasons
and so mended the earth and made its yield increase.
All this serves the dark. Against the shadow
of veiled possibility my workdays stand
in a most asking light. I am slowly falling
into the fund of things. And yet to serve the earth,
not knowing what I serve, gives a wideness
and a delight to the air, and my days
do not wholly pass. It is the mind's service,
for when the will fails so do the hands
and one lives at the expense of life.
After death, willing or not, the body serves,
entering the earth. And so what was heaviest
and most mute is at last raised up into song."
-  Wendell Berry 

October: Quotes, Sayings, Lore

October Gardening Chores
Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley, California, USA

USDA Zone 9

Typical Weather for Our Area

Red Bluff, California.  Natural History Studies at our Home and Gardens

The Spirit of Gardening

Removing dead and non-productive vegetable crops. 
Ordering seed and garden catalogs.
Start planting seedlings for the Winter Garden. 
Removing dead fruit and branches to burn pile. 
Remove all peppers in case of frost.
Adding and turning manure into the soil. 
Put all tools up under cover in the sheds. 
Reduce watering as temperature drops.
Watering plants as needed.
Being attentive to the effects of the cold dry winds. 
Planting potted trees and shrubs in the ground.
Placing cold sensitive potted plants in protected areas or indoors.
Planting new bulbs and moving old bulbs.
Prune and mulch perennials. 
Cutting dead branches and limbs from trees. 
Research new material for this webpage. 
Storing and repairing tools.
Fertilize with 20-9-9 or 15-15-15. 
Trees without leaves need little or no watering.
Picking pumpkins, squash, colored corn, and other crops for Thanksgiving decorations.
Finish all digging and construction projects before the first rain.
Bring in wood and kindling to rain free storage areas.
Repair roofs on sheds and house.
Mow lawns and use cuttings in mulch pile. 
Clean up Sacred Circle Garden. 
Clean and repair gutters. 
Close up evaporate coolers and cover. 
Add fallen leaves to the compost pile.
Be prepared for chilling frosts.
Collect seeds from plants.
Start pruning berry vines.  

Keep in mind that trees and shrubs planted in the spring and summer use a significant amount of their resources for above-ground growth. Since root growth is favored during the dormant season, it’s best to install landscape plants in the fall. It has been demonstrated that shrubs and trees planted during the fall suffer less environmental stress than those planted in the spring or summer."
 -   Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott


All photographs of our garden are by Karen Garofalo.

 

My Current Reading List

“Don’t just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents.”
-  Epictetus, The Art of Living 

My current reading list includes the following:

Stoicism and the Art of Happiness.  By Donald Robertson.  New York, McGraw Hill, 2013, 2015.  Index, bibliography, notes, 245 pages.  Series: Teach Yourself: Philosophy and Religion.  ISBN: 139781444187106.  VSCL.  

Meditations.  By Marcus Aurelius.  Translated by Martin Hammond.  Illustrated by Coralie Bickford-Smith.  Introduction by Diskin Clay.  Hardcover Classics.  New York, Penguin Classics, Reissue Edition, 2015.  416 pages.  ISBN: 978-0141395869.  VSCL.

Stoicism Today: Selected Writings.  By Patrick Ussher.  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.  202 pages.  Volume 1.  ISBN: 978-1502401922.  VSCL.  

From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present.  By Professor Jacques Barzun.  New York, Harper Perennial, 2001.  912 pages.  ISBN: 978-0060928834.  VSCL.   

Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault  By Pierre Hadot.  Edited with an introduction by Arnold Davidson.  Wiley-Blackwell, 1995.  320 pages.  ISBN: 978-0631180333.  VSCL.  

I am going to participate in the Stoic Week online workshop from November 2nd to November 8th, 2015.  You can sign up for the free workshop starting on October 26th.  The theme of the Stoic Week workshop for 2015 is: Modern-Day Meditations on Marcus Aurelius.  


How to Live a Good Life

Notebooks of an Old Philosopher 

Virtues 

  

Chen Style Taijiquan Reading

The Essence of Taijiquan.  By David Gaffney and Davidine Siaw-Voon Sim.  CreateSpace Publishing, 2012.  Interviews, bibliography, 288 pages.  ISBN: 978-1500609238.  VSCL.  

Chen Style Taijiquan: The Source of Taiji Boxing.  By Davidine Siaw-Voon Sim and David Gaffney.  Berkeley, CA, North Atlantic Books, 2002.  Index, charts, 224 pages.  ISBN: 1556433778.   Provides an excellent introduction to Chen style Taijiquan history and legends, outlines the major forms, discusses the philosophy and foundations of the art, and gives very good information on training methods, push hands, and weapons.  Very well written, highly informative, and a unique contribution to the field.  Essential reading for all learning the Chen style of Tai Chi Chuan.  The Hand Forms (Taolu) are described on pp. 110-141.  [Sim & Gaffney 2002]  VSCL.  

Gaffney and Siaw-Voon Sim are advanced Chen Taijiquan teachers.  They studied for many years with Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang in China, and with many other top Chen Taijiquan teachers.  They are very knowledgeable and highly skilled in Chen Taijiquan.  

I have been rereading "The Essence of Taijiquan."  Highly informative!  Excellent information on Taijiquan training principles, methods, and progression.  Strong emphasis upon training for combat skills.  Interesting observations about everyday life in the Chen village, ancestor respect and rituals, and overcoming the repression of the Maoist Cultural Revolution.

Chen T'ai Chi Ch'uan:  Forms, Bibliography, Weapons, Links, Resources


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.  

Roads Go Ever On

As I walk 3.6 miles in the morning, four days each week, I enjoy the interplay of all the senses and the kinesthetic exuberance of the flowing movement.  The scenery along my safe rural walking path is beautiful and changing with the seasons.  While walking, I mostly am just walking, and sometimes thinking, reflecting, contemplating, or meditating.  These experiences are something I treasure.  Walking is beneficial for my heart, and helps me keep my diabetes under control.  Walking is an integral component of my regular Sadhana ... my "spiritual" practices.  

"If you want to know if your brain is flabby, feel your legs." 
-  Bruce Barton   

"Think with your whole body."
-  Taisen Deshimaru

”If you want to find the answers to the Big Questions about your soul, you’d best begin with the Little Answers about your body.”
-  George Sheehan

"Isn't it really quite extraordinary to see that, since man took his first step, no one has asked himself why he walks, how he walks, if he has ever walked, if he could walk better, what he achieves in walking .. questions that are tied to all the philosophical, psychological, and political systems which preoccupy the world."
-  Honoré de Balzac, Theorie de la Demarché   

Walking: Quotations, Sayings, Facts, Lore, Poetry.  Compiled by Mike Garofalo.   

Somatic Practices for Health, Well-Being and Mindfulness

"Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains of the moon.

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
An horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known."
-  J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Stand Up and Move

A typical American watches and average of 34 hours of television each week.  A few people don’t watch television and, of course, many people watch television more than 40 hours a week.  It has been reported that children aged 2-11 watch over 24 hours of TV per week, while adults aged 35-49 watch more than 33 hours a week. The average American watches more than five hours of television every day. Once we pass 65, the typical person watches more than seven hours a day.

 

Sitting and watching television for five to seven hours each day?? ... how tiresome.  And, sitting for long periods is very bad for your health.  Even more, most television programs and their incessant commercials are, for me, just boring, repetitious, and tiresome. 

So, a secret revealed:  You will get, on the average, 21 hours of “free” time every week by not sitting and watching more than 2 hours of television each day.  Even better, turn off your television for a month and you will get 136 hours of free time in that month.  And, another benefit is that by not sitting you will improve your health. 

"A monk asked Hsiang Lin, "What is the meaning of the Patriarch's coming from the West?"
Hsiang Lin said, "Sitting for a long time becomes tiresome."

-  The Blue Cliff Record, Case 17, Translated by Thomas Cleary and J. C. Cleary, 2005, p 110




Standing Meditation

Walking Meditation

Gardening

Ways of Walking

Taijiquan Moving Meditation

It's Over When It Ends

Yogi Berra, baseball hall of fame player, coach and manager died Tuesday at the age of 90.  He won 10 World Series championships with the New York Yankees, an 18 time All Star player, and was a three time American League Player of the Year.  He took 21 teams to the World Series as a player, manager, or coach.  He also served in the Navy during World War II.  He was a decent and humorous fellow, and many Americans, especially Italian-Americans and New Yorkers, held him in very high regard.  

Yogi was also known for his humorous stories, jokes, quotes, misquotes, and malapropisms, to wit:

"You can observe a lot by just watching.
It ain't over 'til it's over.
I’ts like déjà vu all over again.
The future ain’t what it used to be.
We made too many wrong mistakes.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
You should always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise, they won’t come to yours.
A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore. 
Nobody goes there anymore.  It’s too crowded.
You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.
You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.
It gets late early out here.
Baseball is 90 percent mental.  The other half is physical.
I can’t think and hit at the same time.
I knew the record would stand until it was broken. 
We have deep depth.
If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.
I usually take a two hour nap from one to four.
I want to thank everyone for making this day necessary.
Never answer an anonymous letter. 
Pair up in threes. 
If people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.
You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there. 

His wife of 65 years, Carmen, once asked Yogi where he wanted to be buried, in St. Louis, New York or Montclair.  "I don't know," he said. "Why don't you surprise me?"

T'ai Chi Ch'uan Yang Style

Yang Family Style Tai Chi Chuan Traditional Long Form
By Michael P. Garofalo.
This webpage provides a list and brief description of the 108 movements of the Yang Style Taijiquan Long Form divided into five sections for teaching (.html and .pdf versions available). The webpage includes an extensive bibliography on the subject, scores of Internet links, historical notes, and quotations. 120Kb.

The Yang Long Form discussed on this webpage conforms to the form developed by Yang Cheng-Fu (1883-1936) and documented in books by Bu Fu Zongwen (1903-1994) and Yang Zhenduo. The numbering of the movements varies from author to author, but the essential sequence and moves remains the same.

Doing some research on the Yang style of T'ai Chi Ch'uan (85 and 24). Two books have caught me eye:

Mastering Yang Style Taijiquan.  Bu Fu Zongwen (1903-1994).  Translated by Louis Swaim.  Berkeley, California, North Atlantic Books, 1999.  Glossary, bibliography, 226 pages.  Translations of many Tai Chi classics are included.  A list of the 85 movement long form and detailed notes and descriptions of each movement are provided.  251 movement analysis illustrations.  Over 76 of the illustrations are traced and drawn from photographs of Yang Cheng-Fu.  Detailed descriptions of the long form, pp. 26-162.  Push hands information.  Yang Tai Chi essentials.  ISBN: 1556433182.  I have found this to be an excellent book!  This book was first published in 1963 in China as "Yang Shi Taijiquan".  An informative introduction and good translation by Louis Swaim.  VSCL.    
 
Taijiquan.  By Li Deyin.  London, Singing Dragon, 2004, 2008.  In English.  402 pages.  ISBN: 9781848190047, 1848190042.  Includes a complimentary DVD.  Includes descriptions, with photographs, of the 81 Yang Taijiquan form, Simplified 24 Taijiquan, Competition 42 Taijiquan, Competition 42 Taiji Sword, and the 32 Taiji Sword.  The Yang long form (81 Steps) includes photographs of Li Yulin performing the Yang long form in 1931.  Li Yulin and Li Jinglin, under the supervision of Yang Chengfu, were preparing a book on the subject later published under the title "Textbook of Taijiquan."  The 81 form is described in detail in this new book by Li Deyin.  

Awareness of Unity

"For the Eastern mystic, all things and events perceived by the senses are interrelated, connected and are but different aspects or manifestations of the same ultimate reality.  Our tendency to divide the perceived world into individual and separate things and to experience ourselves as isolated egos in this world is seen as an illusion which comes from our measuring and categorizing mentally.  It is called avidya, or ignorance, in Buddhist philosophy and is seen as the sate of a disturbed mind which has to be overcome.

'When the mind is disturbed, the multiplicity of things is produced, but when the mind is quieted, the multiplicity of things disappears.'

Although the various schools of Eastern mysticism differ in many details, they all emphasize the basic unity of the universe which is the central feature of their teachings.  The highest aim for their followers - whether they are Hindus, Buddhists or Taoists - is to become aware of the unity and mutual interdependence of all things, to transcend the notion of an isolated individual self and to identify themselves with the ultimate reality.  The emergence of this awareness - known as 'enlightenment'- is not only an intellectual act but is an experience which involves the whole person and is religious in its ultimate nature.  For this reason, most Eastern philosophies are essentially religious philosophies."

-  Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics, 25th Anniversary Edition, p. 24  


   In my experience, life is rightly characterized as diverse, complicated, varied, rich in multiplicity, saturated with the 'ten thousand things.'  Personally, I find little need to seek or to find or to have the "experience of unity."  This state of "unification," when actualized, is in most cases rather fleeting.  It may be profound, but no more so that the beauty of complexity and the fascinating reality of diversity.  I do not find the experience of the multiplicity of things distressing, disturbing, or disheartening.  

Just because all of the eggs today are in one basket does not make the colored basket more real or more interesting or more valuable than the eggs.  

Ignoring the facticity of the complexity of the natural and mental realms seems to me a more serious ignorance, not very sensible, and ultimately unwise.  I long ago gave up on any quest for "enlightenment" (in Hindu or Buddhist terms) and prefer the ordinary state of mind grounded in a world that is not simple, not one, not unified, complex, and rich in details.  To claim that our normal experience of complexity and variety is an "illusion" or "ignorance (avidya) seems to me a form of incorrect judgment.  

No doubt, trying to simplify one's life has its benefits, reducing sensory overload can reduce stress, and not becoming overly infatuated with novelty can be helpful; but, pushing on this strange path towards the "enlightenment" or "realization" of a pure and uncluttered "Unity" can produce its own distressing and disturbing predicaments for a person.  

Many philosophers, ancient and modern, have made a sharp distinction between appearances and Reality, the many and the One, the phenomena and the Noumena, and multiplicity and Unity.  For me, it is muddled thinking to call all of our experiences "just fleeting illusions" and fabricate a true realm of being outside of our personal and social and practical experiences.  Indeed, we can't "see" in any ordinary sense of "see," the cells, molecules, atoms, and the subatomic particles that constitute the objects of our macro-cosmic world; but, this in no way means the multiplicity of objects in our ordinary environment are in any way "illusions."  The meaning of "objects" is much more complicated, varied in linguistic usage, and functional in many practical contexts.  Again, complexity is closer to the truth.  

"I, who make no other profession, find in myself such infinite depth and variety, that what I have learned bears no other fruit than to make me realize how much I still have to learn.  To my weakness, so often perceived, I owe my inclination to coolness in my opinions and any hatred for that aggressiveness and quarrelsome arrogance that believes and trust wholly in itself, a mortal enemy of discipline and truth."
- Michel de Montaigne, "Of Experience," 1588

Our selves are, to Montaigne, "wavelike and varying" - ondoyant et divers. 


Complexity and Diversity 

Nature Mysticism:  Resources, Quotes, Notes

Gardening and Mysticism

Temple Chi Kung Exercise Set

The Temple Qigong (Chi Kung) form consists of nine exercises.  It was popularized by Grand Master Marshall Ho'o (1910-1993) of Los Angeles, California.  It is also referred to as the Nine Temple Exercises, or the Marshall Ho'o Temple Exercises.  

My webpage on Temple Qigong provides a bibliography, links, the names of the movements, and an explanation of each movement.  

Standing Meditation, Resting Position: Wuji

1.   Turning the Prayer Wheel

2.   Rotating the Knees

3.   Crossed Arm Rotation

4.   Picking Fruit

5.   Swinging the Leg

6.   Leg Bounce

7.   Retreat and Advance   

8.   Grinding Corn

9.   Polishing the Mirror

Closure: Collecting and Storing Energy 

Marshall Ho'o wrote a book 1968 which included an explanation with photographic illustrations of the Temple Qigong set.  The black and white photos in that book were of poor quality and the editing was unsatisfactory.  An instructional DVD also teaches this form.  

"Dr. Ho'o was instrumental in the certification of acupuncture in the State of California. He was the first Tai Chi Master to have been elected to the Black Belt Hall of Fame.  He was Dean of the Aspen Academy of Martial & Healing Arts, on the faculty of California Institute of the Arts, and taught Tai Chi and Acupressure at many educational institutions.  In 1973, he created a series for KCET public television, in Los Angeles, teaching Tai Chi.  He was a consultant to Prevention Magazine's The Doctor's Book of Home Remedies.  A Chinese American, Dr. Ho'o was America's first Tai Chi Chuan Grandmaster.  His influence is far-reaching in both the fields of healing and martial arts."
-  The Lineage, Teachers of Two Birds Tai Chi

Tai Chi Chuan  By Marshall Hoo.  Burbank, California, Ohara Publications, Inc., 1986, 1993.  111 pages.  ISBN: 0897501098.  VSCL.  The Nine Temple exercise set is briefly described in this book on pages 18-42.  Each movement is clearly illustrated by four to eight clear black and white photographs of a woman doing the form.  The Taijiquan is the Standard 24 Form in the Yang Style. 

Tai Chi Chuan: The 27 forms by Marshall Hoo .   Instructional DVD, released in 2005, by Marshall Ho'o.  Black Belt Videos, 90 minutes.  Includes the Nine Temple Qigong.