Taomeow

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Absolute Silence! So far away, long ago you taught me to sing

I'm very happy it's working. If you ever feel like exploring upward from the already-explored territory, I think the logical next step is to find out what your uterus thinks, feels and knows. There's a meditation for this -- OK, Dr. Rosita Arvigo, an American doctor of naprapathy, was the student and then assistant of the "last" (according to the way things stood at that time) lineage Mayan healer, Don Elijio Panti. She wrote a cool book about it, and she presently runs a farm in Belize, Ix Chel Farms, and in addition to practicing healing, sells rainforest herbs and meditation tapes. The Uterus is one of her tapes. It is pretty good, though if you decide to order and use it I would re-record a more personalized version without the 'if/then" parts (aimed at the generic woman) which interfere with the guided meditation mode. Dr. Arvigo specializes in female health, and in the Mayan tradition, that starts with the uterus. Don Elijio (who was seeing patients till he was either over or close to one hundred years old as I recall) asserted that modern women overwhelmingly have off-kilter uteri which are both the cause and the effect of many imbalances in their lives and in their physical, emotional, and spiritual health. (One thing, out of many, he attributed this state of affairs to was "shoes on sticks" -- high heels -- that misalign the uterus in relation to other parts of women's anatomy as well as to mother earth... anyway, don't let me ramble.)

I know the feeling if I've recognized it correctly from your description, but it has nothing to do with entities or sex in my case -- when I feel like that, it's a forecast for good times to come. It is connected to breathing and speaks through the lower dantien, the solar plexus, and the heart, but originates in the kidneys actually. It can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few months. Alas, I am also familiar with the opposite feeling which is a warning of impending trouble. For me this has been the most precise fortune-telling mechanism I've ever encountered so far (and I do know several non-sensory systems of divination). I think it is the voice of my yin zhi, which is that part of one's overall fivefold shen ("soul") that more or less corresponds to "the hidden will of your destiny," your unique personal Way. From your description, you might be dealing with its yang counterpart, your yang zhi. This one is more like one's "open and immediate will," desire, or short-term intent. Yang things are on the open, visible, revealed, brought to the surface compared to things yin that are hidden, invisible, ruling in much secrecy from deep inside. So... quite possibly you are dealing with something that is part of your own soul, not an-other being. This is not something to be "cured" from -- it's not a bad thing. In taoist cultivation of the better kind, one might learn to discern one's own inner energies, spirits, but first and foremost organs with much more precision than a non-cultivator who often has to "guess" instead of "know" what or who it is she's dealing with. (Wang Liping teaches some methods for this, by the way, I mean for gradually getting a more and more complete somatosensory and cognitive picture of one's own inner systems, energies, organs and spirits. He says that in modern people their own inner organs, to say nothing of their inner spirits, are sort of lumped together indistinctly so that they routinely can't physically move any of them at will, let alone discern things and forces much finer than the physical organs, let alone control them.)

Look forward to your reports -- and, most importantly, have a great time!

It's an office storm The wind of changes is fierce Time to raise a sail

May the Jade Emperor bless this endeavor of yours. Nowadays it doesn't always help even to BE Chinese -- I've Chinese friends who don't know (nor are particularly interested in) even a fraction of what my humble memory contains or what my heart is quickened by about things taoist. The world is getting so multicultural it invariably translates into non-cultural for many, or common-denominator-cultural... or I don't know what. On a Peruvian plane, next to me was a group of Finnish people traveling with a bunch of their biological Finnish and adopted Chinese kids, and those tiny Chinese girls speaking fluent Finnish in Peru seemed both weird and amazing to me... like the future of humanity or something... but what do we know about the future?.. Only that its seeds are hybridized.

The translator of the book into Russian was present at the Moscow seminar I attended. (It was the second version, the first translation by someone else was thought of as sloppy by people who read both Russian and Chinese and know WLP, and the second one was highly regarded by them.) She told me about how and why she'd undertaken the task. She is a Sinologist, an elderly, well-regarded translator of Chinese texts. On a trip to China a number of years ago, she chanced upon visiting a taoist monastery where the monks impressed her with their attitudes and abilities, so she asked them what system they were practicing. This, they told her, giving her WLP's biography! She said she spent a few years contemplating the book before translating it. The interesting part of the account is that a bunch of "professional" monks apparently know better than to consider this book a work of fiction.

.. Silence hangs around Two dragons fight in the field Their blood is yellow

I got "Monkey: A Journey to the West, The classic Chinese tale of pilgrimage and adventure retold by David Kherdian" from my local library a couple of days ago and then noticed you've been reeading a version of same here, by synchronicity's grace. Mine looks like a condensed version some 200 pages long. I'm in the middle. Monkey has just been abused by Laozi, Buddha and Quan Yin, on Jade Emperor's demand. Quan Yin surprised me especially, a boddhisattva of mercy and yet she was going to throw her immaculate vase on Monkey's head from up in heaven as he was busy doing battle with a whole army of gods, and the only reason she didn't was not a fit of boddhisattvy remorse but the fact that Laozi expressed his concern that the vase might break if it hits Monkey's iron cudgel instead of his head. The Jade Emperor surprised me too -- he imprisoned one of his celestial servants Prometheus style (with flying swords rather than the eagle after his liver), not for stealing fire from the gods or any such major transgression, but for accidentally breaking a crystal cup at a banquet. The temper on him! Worse than Zeus! And Laozi -- same deal, burn the monkey in the Eight Trigrams crucible, recover the stolen elixir from his ashes! Some mercy! And Buddha -- well, he tricked Monkey monkey style and punished him with an Om Mani Padme Hum, which I never thought of as a formula for damnation! Absolutely no political correctness either, specie-al slurs all the time, you're just a beast, you're just a monkey, nevermind your cultivation, nevermind your divine origins, once a monkey, always a monkey. Sheesh!

Such a sweet pastime! Five cows offer seven cats five gallons of milk

Oh, I didn't mean to make you feel unwelcome either, CowTao, and have enjoyed your contributions! It's only that... that 5-7-5 thing... it's only about the 5-7-5 thing... not about you or anyone else personally... You mean his translator. I've seen numerous examples in translations of this structure being busted, and I confess I disapprove. We've busted so much about the haiku already. The graphic/visual expression, unavailable in alphabetic languages. The traditional artistic method (observation and contemplation, not abstract ideas). The quiet, undramatic tone of voice in which a haiku speaks. And so on. The 5-7-5 structure -- a diamond with its top and bottom facets blunt -- is all that remains. It starts, expands, tapers off -- like natural phenomena do -- this IMO is worth preserving, it's the best we can do in English to retain at least a bit of the flavor of the original thing. Just a tiny whiff... Then again, without discipline, all talk is small talk... the discipline of a structure is the surest, albeit paradoxical, road to freedom -- in life and in cultivation and in nature, and most certainly in poetry. Who am I to blow against the wind?.. If it's not 5-7-5, I ain't no game, is all. So -- carry on any which way you like, with or without my meowy contributions, and have fun.

5 7 5 please

Yet to view heaven feeds no mouths -- what's there to grill? Angel wings, at most?..

1. The longer I observe the universe the more I feel it isn't into anything BUT secrets, and 2. a quote from someone who was famous long ago: "If a man no longer has any conception of excellence above his own, his way is done, he is dead."

Going nowhere fast, joggers pass an orange tree in leisurely bloom

Maybe. Also, I've seen morality go up as vitality goes down, and so did the author of this poem: King David and King Solomon Led merry, merry lives, With many, many lady friends And many, many wives; But when old age crept over them, With many, many qualms, King Solomon wrote the Proverbs And King David wrote the Psalms!

The world my garden, if I was god I'd take pride in having made cats

"A soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the National Trust." -- John Lennon

As mists rise, art forms Lost in the mist gallery, I'm the masterpiece

There's been other observations along these lines -- in a book titled The Tipping Point, by don't remember who (a nonfiction bestseller of a decade or so ago) the author describes the clean-up of the NYC subway and the trains in the 80s (I think) followed by a drop in subway crime by, like, 90% without the addition of a single cop. It's the qi, man. Dirty enviros produce sha' qi, which adversely affects human qi. Clean ones can go either way depending on what they have been cleaned with (with toxic chemicals, still sha' qi) and with what kind of intent (slave labor, still sha' qi. Righteous indignation, holier-than-thou cleaner-than-thou attitudes, still bad. Neurotic obsessive-compulsive cleanliness - more sha' qi. Singapore style enforced cleanliness -- drop a toothpick and you go to jail -- more sha'. And so on...) Beautiful natural environments, or places cleaned with care and enjoyment -- that's shen qi. Shen qi is good for the soul. I just bought an early 20th century solid Sterling silver bowl at a thrift shop that cost me $3 -- it was so dirty that the "Sterling" stamp wasn't visible so they didn't know it was there. I felt it should be, based on the design, it seemed unlikely that something made with this kind of care could have been made out of anything cheap. It took me fifteen minutes of hard work, when I took it home, to turn it into a shining museum-quality beauty. Now I feel goodly!

San Niang is a kind of adverse energy usually discussed by the decent ones among feng shui masters -- if memory serves, it's part of Xuan Kong (space-time) FS. Briefly: 3, 7, 13, 18, 22, 27 days of every LUNAR month are San Niang afflicted. I've noticed though that the adverse energy starts coming in with the moonrise, not with the change of the calendar date, and lasts a while after sunset the next day, receding gradually like the tide. (I am very aware of this energy because, well, I'm very sensitive to the basic amoeba-style life-related stimuli, pain/pleasure. With a mindful practice, simply paying attention, anyone will eventually notice that these days are conductive to things not going smoothly, to assorted mishaps, blunders, accidents, aggravations... Besides, I've noticed that they work like a kind of space-time trap, imagine a hole in the road where things tend to slip-slide under their own weight... all the important stuff that shouldn't be undertaken on these days tends to get scheduled smack on one of these unless you watch it like a hawk and don't let it. Whatever new and significant you start on one of these days is likely to turn into a pain in the ass. Example: and acquaintance bought a car on a San Niang day. The car proved a lemon; the owner somehow, uncharacteristically -- he's generally a responsible adult -- forgot to register it in time and missed a deadline or two whereupon he got invited to appear in court, whereupon he somehow missed the court appearance too and now a warrant has been issued for his arrest! Worse yet, I know a lady who got married on one of those days... yikes... Potentially still worse: don't get sick on one of those days, and if you do, treat whatever ails you diligently, no slacking, it will tend to linger if it's a San Niang afflicted affliction.) As for the waxing/waning moon, that's basic magic of absolutely all traditions, you don't "eliminate" when energy is surging, and you don't "increase" when it is decreasing. So, e.g. -- no strength/muscle building routines on the waning moon, this is a good time for "emptying" practices. And vice versa.

Good rules. Here's some of mine that aren't on the list: Observe San Niang days and don't start anything new, challenging or dubious on one of those. Watch the phases of the moon in general, do decreasing practices and increasing practices accordingly. Do long-distance practices (tapping into anything that isn't right here in space or right now in time) on the 14th, 15th, 16th days of the lunar calendar. No practice at top yang times (1--3 pm). When falling off the wagon and non-practicing for reasons you're tired of analyzing and arguing with yourself about, do artwork. If you hate a chore, treat it as a practice and do it as though it's sacred. When in doubt, ask the I Ching. Try to remember that if you really want results, you need courage. Easy practices bring moderate success. Difficult ones are transformative. Impossible ones are what it's all for -- to make the impossible possible.

The yarrow stalks method takes at least 30 minutes to get the hexagram with the fastest going, while with the coins you can be done in one tenth of the time. I do coins for less important questions and yarrow stalks for more important ones. The yarrow stalks I have, I made myself, having come across a flowering meadow just when I thought I should start using this method, and no sooner. (I tried buying them online a couple of years earlier and was appalled by the price or something, in any event I probably wasn't ready then, I had lots of questions I wanted answered fast at the time, and the I Ching and the yarrow both knew it. In the ancient tradition, by the way, it is the yarrow plant that is considered the oracle, the I Ching is more like an interpreter for its pronouncements. It's a diviner's plant, much like parsley is a midwife's plant and mandrake, a sorcerer's plant. Plants have relationships with people based on common interests.) The funniest thing I ever did with the I Ching was when a door-to-door salesman came peddling an AT&T wireless package -- phone, internet, TV all on one plan -- and the deal was, you know those pushy high-pressure sales deals, you have to decide right now, right meow, or else you're not getting all those wonderful discounts and perks and shit. I never buy anything this way, but the guy was working so hard, putting his heart and soul into his sales pitch, and the economy sucks and I know he needs this lousy job and it's not his fault, so I told him, OK, I'll give you a chance. I'll ask the oracle if I should take this deal. If she approves, I'll take it. I solemnly produced the I Ching which I keep wrapped in pink silk the way you're supposed to, unfolded it with much ceremony, took out funky-looking coins (Russian, incidentally), and did a spectacular performance of a reading in front of the salesman's goggled eyes. Then I read the changing line I got -- "drudgery, no harvesting" (I use the Eranos I Ching, discussed earlier in a thread started by Mal I think) -- and explained to the guy that the reading is against my getting the plan and so, sorry, no deal, the oracle spake. He was actually thrilled to have had this crazy diversion in his own "drudgery" and told me he won't forget this day for as long as he lives!

Shamanic medicine, which was a theory-practice blend, no split. It was born in matrilineal societies and these don't use left-brain theory-vs.-practice dichotomy. When patriarchy came (or rather, as I have reasons to believe, was brought about, by alien way), theory and practice first experienced their step-by-step separation. We've moved far along this road since then (or rather, I've reasons to believe, were moved, by alien way). Sigh...