December 2015

We enjoyed visiting with family and friends in California, Oregon, and Washington all during this past month of December.

Karen and I just returned today to Red Bluff after being in Oregon for 8 days.  Back to our normal home and work routines.

We are both in good health and wish the same for others.

Happy Holidays to All.  









 

A Carpet of Leaves

 Frost and Tomatoes Don't Go Well Together:

Two large Raywood Ash trees in our back yard can lay down many leaves on a windy day in December. 

Long Fence Line

Looking north from our home, at the circled end of the Kilkenny Lane cul-de-sac.  The smell of eucalyptus trees is potent and unique.  There are many eucalyptus trees on my property.  The fence line separates Debbie's property to the left (west) of the fence, and Ruth's property to the right (east) of the fence; and Slade's property is to the north of Debbie and Ruth's property.  Everything is fenced.  Cattle are raised on Slade's property. 

 

Daodejing, Laozi: Indexes, Selected Translations, Resources, Bibliography

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu circa 200 BCE

Indexes Selected Translations, Bibliography, Comments, Resources.  Compiled by Mike Garofalo. 
Version 2.1, October 2015

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 1, 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   

 

Dark and Dreary Day

Sipping coffee and thinking.
I look forward to walking with my dog this morning.
John will be working on our new back door and back entrance siding.  
Mick and April arrive here this afternoon. 
Outside: 45F, overcast, drizzling, sprinking, raining, a darker world.

We have been very busy lately with traveling and having visitors.  We were in Portland for a week before Thanksgiving Day.

November was a very busy month for Karen and I.  

We have repaired the entire south side of our house and the entire back porch.  Both have been painted.

Busy with part-time employment 3 days 8 hours per week, and hope to retire from this job in 12/18.  I still teach yoga/qigong 3 hours each week.

Pulled up dying summer vegetables, raked, spread manure.  Enjoyed working outdoors when it was sprinkling.  When it really started to rain I retreated to a shed or indoors.

"From December to March, there are for many of us three gardens -
the garden outdoors,
the garden of pots and bowls in the house,
and the garden of the mind's eye."
-   Katherine S. White

Last View of Their Swing
11/26/2015, Portland
By Mike Garofalo

 















Cold nights and wind have killed all the summer vegetables. 
2015 gone for them and us.

Quotations and Poems Representing the Month of December

Stoic Philosophy: Notes and Reflections

Stoicism: Bibliography, Hypertext Notebook, Resources, Research, Themes, Reflections

Research by Mike Garofalo.  250KB, November, 2015

In the last month, I have been steadily reading Hellenistic philosophers (300 BCE - 200 CE).  I've read all of Marcus Arelius and Epictetus.  I'm now reading Seneca and Cicero.  I've read many commentaries and scholarly works about the Stoics and Greco-Roman Hellenistic Ethical viewpoints.  

I've focused recently on using Stoic practices, maxims, exercises, and skills development for improving my daily life. 

Chi Kung and Aging

The Anti-Aging Benefits of Chinese Qigong (Chi Kung) Exercises
Gentle Exercise, Breathing, and Meditation

Scientific Research  Many Reports on the Effect of Qigong on Improving the Health of the Elderly

"Qigong can do wonders to rejuvenate the elderly. In fact, more than 50 percent of the people who begin tai chi and qigong in China do so after the age of 60, when the realities of aging can no longer be pushed aside. Already, hundreds of millions of people over the age of 60 have found qigong to be uniquely effective."
-  Bruce Frantzis, Qigong for Seniors

Anti-Aging Benefits of Qigong   by Kenneth Sancier, Ph.D.

Qigong for the Elderly

"This report shows that regular qigong practice could relieve depression, improve self-efficacy and personal well being among elderly persons with chronic physical illness and depression"
-  Effect of a Qigong Program on Elderly Persons with Depression, International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Qigong (Chi Kung):  Styles,Bibliographies, Research, Resources, Links, Lessons, Benefits, Quotations.  Website by Mike Garofalo.

A review of clinical trials of t’ai chi and qigong in older adults reported in the March 2009 issue of the Western Journal of Nursing Research notes that qigong improves physical functioning, limits fall risk, alleviates symptoms of depression and anxiety, and lowers blood pressure in older adults.

"Why Every Elderly Citizen Should Do Qigong: Qigong can treat many diseases.  Qigong can prevent many diseases.  Qigong can extend life.  Qigong can improve the quality of life.  Qigong can prevent accidents."

"According to T'ai Chi and Qigong enthusiasts, the discipline can prevent many ailments, including high blood pressure, tuberculosis, and diabetes, and US scientists agree that T'ai Chi can offer some important fitness benefits, particularly for older adults." 
-  Modern Maturity, V. 35 June/July 92 p. 60-62

Qigong (Chi Kung): Recommended Reading, Bibliography, Resources, Links, Quotations.  Research by Mike Garofalo, Qigong Instructor

"The average person uses only five to ten percent of his or her 15 billion brain cells; yet studies show that Qi Gong activates 90 percent of the human brain by suffusing it with stimulating bioelectric currents.  This results in significant memory improvement, learning, and enhancement of the physiological functions controlled by the brain.  Studies also show that practicing Qi Gong increases the level of essential neurotransmitters in the blood.  Deficiency of these elements can cause Parkinsons, Alzheimer’s, chronic depression, and insomnia."
-  Lee Holden

According to the February 2009 issue of The Journal of Nursing, “evidence-based research supports the argument that qigong improves cardiovascular-respiratory function and lipid profile, decreases blood sugar, and relieves anxiety and depression.”

An Evidence-Based Review of Qi Gong by the Natural Standard Research Collaboration, 2010

The Healing Promise of Qi: Creating Extraordinary Wellness Through Qigong and Tai Chi.  By Roger Jahnke, O.M.D..  Chicago, Contemporary Books, 2002.   Index, notes, extensive recommended reading list, 316 pages.  ISBN: 0809295288.  VSCL.  
 
The Way of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing.  By Kenneth S. Cohen.  Foreword by Larry Dossey.  New York Ballantine Books, 1997.  Index, notes, appendices, 427 pages.  ISBN: 0345421094.  One of my favorite books: comprehensive, informative, practical, and scientific.  VSCL.  

We Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving Day!!

T   hanks for time to be together, turkey, talk, and tangy weather.
H  for harvest stored away, home, and hearth, and holiday.
A  for autumn's frosty art, and abundance in the heart.
N  for neighbors, and November, nice things, new things to remember.
K  for kitchen, kettles' croon, kith and kin expected soon.
S  for sizzles, sights, and sounds, and something special that about.
    That spells THANKS for joy in living and a jolly good Thanksgiving.                 
-   Aileen Fisher, All in a Word

"They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty.  For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercising in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion.  All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).  And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc.  Besides they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.  Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.”
-   William Bradford, 1621 

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln, declared the last Thursday of November to be
a National Day of Thanksgiving.

November: Quotations, Saying, Poetry

Months and Seasons

Neo-Pagan Holidays

Broadsword From in Chen Taijiquan

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

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

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

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

The Real Purpose of Philosophy

     "True philosophy doesn't involve exotic rituals, mysterious liturgy, or quaint beliefs.  Nor is it just abstract theorizing and analysis.  It is, of course, the love of wisdom.  It is the art of living a good life.  As such, it must be rescued from religious gurus and from professional philosophers lest it be exploited as an esoteric cult or as a set of detached intellectual techniques or brain teasers to show how clever you are.  Philosophy is intended for everyone, and it is authentically practiced only by those who wed it with action in the world toward a better life for all.
     Philosophy's purpose is to illuminate the ways our soul has been infected by unsound beliefs, untrained tumultuous desires, and dubious life choices and preferences that are unworthy of us.  Self-scrutiny applied with kindness is the main antitdote.  Besides rooting out the soul's corruptions, the life of wisdom is also meant to stir us from our lassitude and move us in the direction of an energetic, cheerful life.
     Skilled in the use of logic, disputation, and the developed ability to name things correctly are some of the instruments  philosophy gives us to achieve abiding clear-sightedness and inner tranquility, which is true happiness.
     This happiness, which is our aim, must be correctly understood.  Happiness is commonly mistaken for passively experienced pleasure of leisure.  This conception of happiness is good only as far as it goes.  The only worthy object of all our efforts is a flourishing life.
     True happiness is a verb.  It's the ongoing dynamic performance of worthy deeds.  The flourishing life, whose foundation is virtuous intention, is something we continually improvise, and in doing so our souls mature.  Our life has usefulness to ourselves and the people we touch.
     We become philosophers to discover what is really true and what is merely the accidental result of flawed reasoning, recklessly acquired erroneous judgments, well-intentioned but misguided teachings of parents and teachers, and unexamined acculturation.
     To ease our soul's suffering, we engage in disciplined introspection in which we conduct thought experiments to strengthen our ability to distinguish between wholesome and laxy, hurtful beliefs and habits."
-  Sharon Lebell, The Art of Living, 1997, p 84



Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness  By Epictetus.  An new interpretation, rephrasing, reorganization, and interpolation by Sharon Lebell.  Harper One, 1997.  126 pages.  ISBN: 978-0061286056.  This interesting and valuable text is unconventionally arranged.  There are no references to the standard numbered sections in the classic texts attributed by Arrian to Epictetus: Enchiridion or Discourses.  It is a useful popular handbook that captures the spirit of Epictetus and Stoic principles.  $8.44 paperback.  VSCL. 

Stoicism: A Hypertext Notebook by Mike Garofalo

Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life  By A. A. Long.  Clarendon Press, 2004.  328 pages.  ISBN: 978-0199268856.   

The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius  By Pierre Hadot.  Translated by Michael Chase.  Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1998.  Index, notes, 351 pages.  Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Series.  ISBN:  978-0674007077.  VSCL.  

The Shortest Answer

"The shortest answer is doing."
-  George Herbert

"No one is wise by birth.  Wisdom results from one's own efforts."
-  Krishnamacharya    

"Will is character in action."
-  William McDougall 

Will Power: Quotes, Sayings

Stoicism

How to Live a Good Life 

Not a Clean Glass of Water to Drink

I watched an interesting Netflix documentary about the inventor Dean Kamen called Slingshot.  Slingshot is a unique, relatively inexpensive, water purification system.  The lack of pure drinking water is the major worldwide issue of the 21st Century.

Governor Jerry Brown of California has issued a directive that home owners in California can only water their yards once a week in 2016.

"We're all downstream."
-  Jim and Margaret Drescher

"In order for something to become clean, something else must become dirty."
-  Imbesi's Conservation of Filth Law

"By 2025, at least 3.5 billion people - about half the world's populations - will live in areas without enough water for agriculture, industry, and human needs...  Worldwide, water quality conditions appear to have degraded in almost all regions with intensive agriculture and in large urban and industrial areas."
-   World Resources Institute, October 2000

The Water Project

Water - Quotations 

Seeing into the Core

"A friend's son was in the first grade of school, and his teacher asked the class, "What is the color of apples?"  Most of the children answered red.  A few said green.  Kevinn, my friend's son, raised his hand and said white.  The teacher tried to explain that apples could be red, green or sometimes golden, but never white.  Kevin was quite insistent and finally said, "Look inside."  Perception without mindfulness keeps us on the surface of things, and we often miss other levels of reality."
-  Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation

"It takes a little talent to see clearly what lies under one's nose, a good deal of it to know in which direction to point that organ."
-  W. H. Auden    

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."
-  Edgar Degas   

The Five Senses

Vision, Perception, Observing, Seeing

 

Lovely To See You Again

Music from the Moody Blues, 1969.

"A wonderful day for passing my way.
Knock and my door and even the score
With your eyes.

Lovely to see you again my friend.
Walk along with me to the next bend.

Dark cloud of fear is blowing away.
Now that you're hear, you're going to stay
'cause it's

Lovely to see you again my friend.
Walk along with me to the next bend.

Tells us what you've seen in faraway forgotten lands.
Where empires have turned back to sand.

Wonderful day for passing my way.
Knock and my door and even the score
With your eyes.

Lovely to see you again my friend.
Walk along with me to the next bend."

Wild Goose Qigong Exercise System

Dayan (Wild Goose) Qigong Exercises

Bibliography, Links, Quotes, Notes, List of Movements
Research by Mike Garofalo

The Wild Goose Qigong form is one long continuous sequence of movements, much like a Taiji form.  There are many aspects of the Wild Goose Qigong system as presented by Dr. Bingkun Hu of San Francisco.  

"Wild Goose Qigong claims that “there are no intentional movements without awareness. Wild Goose Qigong advocates “wu-wei” (or “doing nothing”) and “tuo-yi” (“reduce one’s awareness to the minimum”). A good example is Wild Goose-1 (the first 64 Movements). We often tell our beginning learners that the movements in this set of qigong are supposed to describe the daily activities of a wild goose. There are three parts to this qigong.  Part One is “The Goose Wakes Up”. It stretches itself, it brushes up its wings and shakes them. It plays innocently.  A made-up story is even included: “Then the goose looks at the moon, which is reflected in the water and tries to scoop it up."  Part Two is “The Flying Goose”.  Flapping its wings, the care-free wild goose skims over a smooth lake.  It looks at the water and dips down to drink the water.  Then the goose is playing with he “qi”.  It tries to grasp the qi.  It holds and rotates the qi-ball.  It pushes out the dirty qi, and tries to receive the fresh qi from its lower back.  In Part Three, the goose is first flying up into the sky. Now it is flying over the water.  Then it is looking for some food.  After that, it is looking for its nest. At last, the goose goes to sleep.  When beginning, learners are encouraged to be pre-occupied with the daily activity of an innocent wild goose, when they are imagining that they are “flapping their wings” beside shimmering lake under a full moon, their heart beat will be naturally slow down, and their mind will gradually be quieting down too. At the same time, they will be more responsive to the instructor’s words on how to relax themselves through the shifting of body weight. Wild Goose Qigong is a medical qigong. We practice it because of its health benefits. When we have better qi flow, our blood circulation will improve. We will have more oxygen supply to our brain. Our mind will be more alert. We will get stronger, and we will have more physical strength, etc.."
-   Bingkun Hu, Ph.D., A Safe and Delightful Approach to Good Health