Taomeow

my favorite kind of apology.

It's 20-30 years, earlier generations were closer to 20 (people had children earlier, and once they had their own children, they became a "previous generation" in the same family), nowadays in many countries it's closer to 30. Let's take an average -- 25. So 36 generations is 900 years. Now then. In spiritual and martial lineages, generations are counted if the unbroken lineage -- teacher to disciple -- is known and documented. There may have been countless generations before, that's quite possible, but they are not taken into account when someone claims such and such generation in a lineage unless they are proven, either by direct or (rarely) very convincing circumstantial evidence. E.g. I am a 13th generation Chen style lineage taiji practitioner (not "lineage holder" though -- there's a distinction I won't go into right now). The lineage is unbroken for 325 years and I can recite the 12 generations that went before name by name. If a teacher who claims to be 35th generation (of anything) can do likewise and it can be verified, his claim is legit. If not, it's either made up or in any event shouldn't be made.

Surely "middle aged white women" are fair game, character assassination hunting season open year round, and whatever they are involved in is automatically invalidated and compromised by their participation. But what exactly does it mean -- "thirsting over him in every video?.." Curious. How do they go about it?

I had to look that up. Something from a videogame, turns out. I don't think I played video games since Super Mario, and the most memorable weapons there were magic mushrooms... Another one I've never heard of. Didn't know they eat mandarin ducks, the feng shui symbol of love! My main Chinese kitchen utensil is a caidao, and it gets a lot of use. It's very versatile and in a pinch can replace 90% of kitchen equipment, from cleaver/axe to chef's knife to meat grinder to garlic press to herbs/spices pulverizer, but I didn't learn to use it in a taiji class, I watched chefs on youtube. And of course it's used as a weapon in kung fu movies whenever action moves to the kitchen. In this capacity it's practically a guillotine. Careful now. This could get you diagnosed with Phobophobia.

My taiji teacher taught us every weapon under the sun. Jian (straight sword), dao (broadsword), ji (halberd), tieshan (martial fan), gun (not the one that shoots -- a 2 meters long staff), bang (short stick), cane (two kinds) and even bodhi tree seeds... and car keys. Of course he would ran into all kinds of students and among them those with all kinds of new age deviations of their psyche which they owe to brainwashing and ignorance and woefully mistake for "peacefulness." (In my experience they are some of the least peaceful, most entitled and aggressive folks one might meet in any group.) Once an idiot made a scene about the fan being too loud and endangering her hearing! Well... it does open and close (many times in the course of the practice) with a beautiful explosive snap which is the first thing you learn about using it -- it partially serves the same purpose as some other arts' intimidating war cries like Kiai! or Uukhai! -- and partially is the beginning of learning to use it with power... besides it's strikingly beautiful to open it like that. The indoor fan practice was cancelled because of that idiot... conflict avoidance, a real high level MA personality...

Walter Molino (1915--1997). An artist who understood wild cats.

I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult? ― Hermann Hesse

If it was hard to make out many of the lyrics even for a native speaker, imagine the frustration of someone who's only learning a foreign language. I compensated by making things up. But with The Beatles, only occasionally did I have to come up with masterpieces like "a girl with colitis goes by" (couldn't make out "kaleidoscope eyes" so poor Lucy had to suffer). Mick Jagger blew my mind circa 2000 too but for another reason -- that's when I found out that "Sympathy for the Devil" was written under the influence of Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" which made an impression on him. Because it used to be my favorite book for many years, I often lamented the impossibility of an adequate translation (which is indeed impossible, because the way the language itself is used therein may well be the main protagonist of that book). So I thought it would be largely lost on anyone except native speakers, and was stoked to find out that it inspired that cool song (although Jagger's devil is grossly simplified compared to Bulgakov's complex character, but then, a rock song is not a novel, and a rocking devil doesn't have to imitate a pensive one tired of "same old same old" about us humans, after all those centuries.)

Thank you. I'll have to check them out. My rock years and my taoist years didn't coincide in time, so I could easily miss the references to the latter within the former. Even Chapter 24 was a hind sight realization -- when reading Wilhelm/Baynes for the first time, it dawned on me -- hey, it's almost verbatim that watchumacallit song! Now what was it called again?... Oh... I will forever be grateful to The Beatles for helping me study English in my teens in ways my teachers couldn't hope to. Many (not the best of course) rock bands of the time and pretty much all of them today mince words something horrible, their enunciation skills are beyond nonexistent. Besides, I eventually inherited John Lennon's therapist, and it caused me to feel deep solidarity and empathy which made his songs resonate on a different level.

I once accidentally spooked a pit bull into thinking I was going to attack it. (That's the second of my MA dog stories). I was standing on some rocks on the beach, close to the edge of the water, talking to the owners of a very grumpy looking pit bull. The folks and the dog had their backs (or behinds, as the case may be) to the ocean while I was facing it. The ocean was stormy, and suddenly I saw a humongous wave coming in and realized that in a second it will get us all soaked head to toe, and jumped up and back, out of the way. The dog who didn't see the wave and was of a suspicious unfriendly disposition to begin with jumped up and forward almost simultaneously, as high as me, so that its eyes momentarily appeared at level with mine, and its open maw slightly below them. Time stood still. Me and the pit bull were suspended in the air, looking each other in the eye, exchanging telepathic messages. "You lulled my suspicions and suddenly jumped to attack me, so I'm going to bite your face off or go for the throat, trying to decide which." "No, no, no! Can't you see I was jumping up and back, not up and forward? I wasn't attacking you, I was trying to avoid that big wave behind you which you are about to feel on your hide. But if you try to go ahead with your bite plan, I'll kick you in the groin even before it reaches you." And then the wave descended on the dog and its owners, in slo-mo. And I saw understanding in the pit bull's eyes -- "Oh... OK, now I see. That was close though. Don't suddenly jump around me or mine ever again. I am faster and much stronger, and your kick would have been ignored in any event." "OK, you were mighty convincing. Glad we were able to diffuse the situation." Its maw closed with a loud snap. Time took off again, the moment of being suspended in the air passed, we both landed on the wet stones simultaneously. The upward-backward jump was a reversed version of Chen style Fair Lady I was practicing days earlier just to see if it could be done that way. If I knew I would provoke the pit bull I'd much rather get wet of course... so an unforeseeable real-life situation can also be a lesson, in more ways than one.

Ah, OK, got it. My sympathy re your encounter with a mean dog. I've heard several stories about sneaky little dogs biting people's legs from behind with no provocation and no warning. I did defend a little dog from a coyote on one occasion using Chinese MA -- the encounter happened in the park which was almost empty on a weekday except for me and a friend with whom we were practicing jian forms. I stepped in between a very large coyote and a little dog whose stupid owner was about to become an ex dog owner. The only practice swords allowed in the park are wooden, but the coyote got the message just fine. (Try prying food out of the mouth of a wild animal and you'll know what kind of look it gave me. Shudder. )

What exactly does this mean in response to Mark's stories illustrating the utility of martial training in real life? As for me, I have three dog stories, no bears or sharks so far, but I live in a city full of dogs, all kinds of dogs and all kinds of owners. There's 6,000 reported cases of dog attacks in our city every year. There's only been 20 shark attacks since 1926. Only one fatal bear attack in CA in 1986. Good MA training is about realistic situations where the skills it hopes to have you internalize have nothing to do with fantasies of violence -- and can occasionally come in handy against the reality of violence. Not shaking of fear and not feeling helpless should such an encounter take place is an excellent start. Violent individuals are often like unruly dogs -- they attack when they smell fear. If you don't freeze and don't lose the ability to think clearly when threatened, allowing you to make decisions rather than have someone else make them for you, you've got a serious advantage over those with no hands-on training, albeit victory in a hypothetical brawl is not guaranteed, nor sought far as I know my fellow taijiquanistas with a martial slant. A tuned-up body and a trained mind aren't useless assets, IMO.

If I'm not missing something, in all of the history of rock music only one guy attempted to tackle something taoist before you -- Syd Barrett. Pink Floyd lost everything when he was lost. I guess the I Ching-LSD combo was Chapter 65 -- "The Point of No Return."

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The media (including social media) sensationalize the hell out of everything. It's their disgusting job (or an equally disgusting hobby.) It was no biggie for some, nasty enough for others, like most of life's unexpected difficulties. The exodus part with many hours of alternating between standing in traffic and crawling with traffic seems like the most "nothing is worth it" part to me personally, but then I've had my share of brutal speeding tickets so I may not be the best judge of the virtue of pointless patience. The thing is, carnivals, express yourself and let it all hang out whole-community events happened with planned regularity not only for all tribal folks but even during what we call "the Dark Ages" in the civilized world, there was this understanding that a need to loosen up, get free and creative and let go of tight control builds up amidst the strictest restrictions and limitations of the daily life. And, at the same time, letting off this pressurized steam from time to time facilitates better "handling" of those daily austerities in the default world. Something like BM, ideally, should have been an event inclusive of everyone who is able and willing, free to participate in (gulp), ubiquitous, regular, much much smaller, and not confined to one of the most inhospitable environments on earth. It used to be this way for centuries. So I can understand the nostalgic vibe in those who long to experience it, it's in our blood. But -- I hope those who are into this particular event will forgive me -- things we have as substitutes, this one including, fall way short IMO. Then again, for some folks it's better than nothing ever of this nature. By the way, I'm not particularly clear on why burning an innocent man should be perceived as a celebration of anything. Or a guilty one for that matter.

More stranger things. This rare and pretty little flower, Paris Japonica, is genetically 50 times more complex than us humans. Its genome is comprised of 149 billion base pairs, making it 50 times the size of the human genome (3 billion) and the largest ever found. It has difficulty tolerating pollution. Complex life forms are always at a greater risk of extinction. Two things I wonder about. How much wisdom embedded in nature might completely -- and forever -- escape our notice simply because we are too primitive to understand what it's about, what it's for, what's going on on the inside of a creature we can't possibly comprehend by taking it apart and studying each dead fragment separately, anymore than a 2-months-old can comprehend calculus in her dad's head or even imagine its existence. (Luckily, she also has no ability to crack her dad's head open and study its pieces under the microscope in order to classify what he is.) And how much of that wisdom was still available to us when we lived as part of nature and were as humble as we should have remained.

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From what I heard, the main problem with staying there was not so much the mud as the, pardon me, shit. Once port-a-potties were full to beyond capacity, vehicles that are supposed to move them in and out couldn't/weren't allowed to. 73 thousand people with no place to answer nature's call... survival of the fitted, i.e. those who thought of taking with them a bucket with a fitted lid. Those who walked the six miles outta there asserted that the main problem was that it wasn't just mud but clay which sticks to itself in layers, is very slippery, and is irritating to the skin due to its high alkalinity. Of course someone young and strong, or not so young but strong and healthy, would still do well should they want to walk out. My friend, who used to be a heavyweight wrestler before switching to taiji decades ago, has had some serious knee issues, and his weight has been, well, considerable all his life, so I don't think he would walk out of there with ease, even though his taiji skill is extraordinary. But of course I get what you're driving at. A general lack of mental, physical, emotional and intellectual sturdiness is one of the signs of our dark times.

A taiji friend of mine goes every year. We've been out of touch for quite a while, and then he wrote me just to renew the connection and plan a get-together, and among other options pitched BM to me -- with so much enthusiasm that I actually asked the I Ching if maybe it's time for me to overcome my own lack of enthusiasm for arid climates, large crowds, and zero control over noise level and finally give it a try. The I Ching told me something about getting stuck in the mud. I thought it was her metaphorical way to say "no," turned out it was literal. This is the second time she gave me an answer that was to be taken literally. The first time it was about getting stuck in a flood. Hope people there will complete the adventure without major mishaps.

It's true that they both look like uber villains, but appearances are deceptive. Knorozov was a kind and generous man, someone who would, e.g., give his colleagues and students his most valuable possessions as gifts, because "who wants to get as a present something the giver doesn't value." In the most unlikely place at the most unlikely time, Stalin's Russia, he was exploring ancient shamanism and his own life had many twists and turns that look like classical quests of a shaman on his way to knowledge and power. As a scientist he was a brilliant trailblazer in several directions, and the deciphering of the Maya script that brought him fame and recognition was, in his own assessment, a rather minor accomplishment within his broader work scope. What Asya the cat thought about it was never documented though.

There's several monuments of him and his cat here and there, this one is in Yucatan, Mexico:

I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician. — Charlie Chaplin.

Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity. ― Thomas Sowell

Some teachers, some books, some articles, some seminars -- and the powers of integration to arrive at a more or less coherent taoist picture of how energies of the world and its qi work on the level of the human being. I'm a believer in starting with the basics and trying to master those to the extent your "way" might take you. If you gain a good systematic grasp of taoist fundamental notions, you would be able to answer questions of this kind (and many, many others) for yourself, but it's something that comes in increments, gradually. I think one possible source for a beginner to take a bird's view of what taoist fundamentals are about would be Eva Wong's "Shambala Guide to Taoism." For a deeper and more detailed overview of the basics specifically related to the body's health/unhealth and how "it all" works, Ted Kapchuk's "The Web That Has No Weaver." And of course taking up a taoism-related/derived practice and learning from a competent teacher would be invaluable.