Taomeow

Andy Gilmore, a geometric illustration. Cubic packing forming a "fractal city"

Shiro Kasamatsu, "Rain at Shinobazu Pond" (1938)

A rat race slowed down by a rat trap. No wonder we're still busy and anxious.

El Greco is special in my book because his paintings are among the few phenomena in the world of art that kick-start synesthesia in me -- I can "hear" them. Hard to describe how a visual image can cause one to hear a sound, but that's exactly what El Greco does for me. It's not imagination. I remember visiting a museum and, just wandering around gaping at this and that, suddenly hearing a subtle but unmistakable roar in my ears -- from two rooms away lined up in an enfilade, emanating from a small painting at the end of the second one. I couldn't even see what was painted on it! It pulled me like a magnet and I almost ran across two rooms, the roar in my ears getting louder. When I approached it, turned out it was "presumed to be by an artist of El Greco school," it wasn't signed. Ha! Experts! I could tell them it was definitely an El Greco! I didn't know the word qi back then -- but even if I did, telling the experts that the qi of his paintings resonates with mine in such a way that I can't possibly mistake his brush for anyone else's wouldn't convince them.

And here's the latest scientific analysis corroborating my opinion that deforestation, which is synonymous with civilization, is the necessary and sufficient cause of our impending doom. No other factors can undo what this one has done. "We conclude from a statistical point of view that the probability that our civilisation survives itself is less than 10% in the most optimistic scenario." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-63657-6

The idea is that you dilute your digestive juices if you drink water with your meals. Also you tend to underchew your food and just wash it down with water. Both will impair proper digestion and absorption of nutrients. Cold water is the worst, in Chinese medicine it is considered to be the surest way to put out your "digestive fire" and render you unable to "cook" the food you're eating. (We do cook our food internally, with a chemical fire of substances that would actually cause a chemical burn if spilled on the skin -- e.g. a healthy stomach secretes highly concentrated hydrochloric acid -- but also with the slow steady warmth in our internal organs of digestion. Cooling them off with splashes of cold water is not unlike splashing cold water on your kitchen stove while it is turned on.) The LDT is not part of the digestive system. And in any event you don't feel compelled to drink water with your meals if it's well developed. If thirsty, you quench your thirst before starting your meal. If the meal was drying, you might drink water sometime after you finished. My cat does that. He never drinks before, during, or after meals where he gets moist food. If he had some dry food (which he only receives as a special treat, in small amounts), he'll drink some water later. To my knowledge, no mammal drinks water while eating. "A good side" -- not aware of it. Perhaps if you're more dehydrated than undernourished. And even in this case it might be better to drink enough water first, eat later. About drinking water in general not during meals -- no general rule of needing this and that amount, contrary to "health" advice that has been dispensed alongside the beginning of chlorination of municipal water supply, but never before. The need for water is individual, and differs in each individual too depending on age, climate, weather, baseline health condition, condition of particular organs, with physical exertion or with sedentary lifestyle, foods or medications taken, and so on. Henry C. Lu, author of "Chinese Food Cures," has a good chapter on the subject somewhere in that book, and advocates "slow yin fluids" as a far superior method to rehydrate in most cases (except the very mundane where you're just naturally thirsty after sweating). And obviously in specific conditions associated with water retention (Dampness) or kidney deficiency where the kidneys can't benefit from being forced to work extra hard drinking too much water is not a good idea.

No need to do any more FS calculations for the year 2020. It is known.

The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools. -- Thucydides (460 BC–395 BC)

"Never show your power level to normies unless you can manage it. Almost made same mistake myself. You can't instantly redpill a normie, it takes time." -- an anonymous /pol/ user Totally aligned with what the Protopope Avvacum told me in a dream-vision I had in my 20s. "It's no sin to speak about some affairs eloquently. About others, let's keep silent, for God gave us a discerning mind not toward many words but toward many omissions."

You asked about transmitting psychic powers, yuan qi, yuan shen, virtue, wisdom. I don't think it's possible, at least in my tradition I haven't heard of it done this way. A transmission opens the door, the cultivator has to walk through the door -- and that, after certain prerequisite/preliminary practices, is the beginning of neidan work. You can't transmit neidan work, you can only transmit the "work permit," so to speak. Unless you're a god and do it on a whim. This, too, has happened, but personally I wouldn't put all my eggs into that basket. If you meant to ask whether one can acquire those transformative "powers" for oneself rather than transmit them, then the answer is embedded in the practice and can't be extricated therefrom. Taoist practices, as a general rule, don't yield to yes/no answers about what they can do. The practice itself opens up what it can do for a given individual. Not even gods can predict it with certainty. Conceptual framework around the practices is secondary and can be formulated in many different ways. If someone says, "I can ride my bicycle across the country from New York to San Francisco," technically yes, they could, in theory. But what if they never learned to ride a bicycle to begin with, and don't even have a bicycle? To prove the statement about riding a bicycle across the country correct (or not), for them personally, there's no other way than to buy a bicycle, learn to ride it, temper the body and the spirit for difficulties ahead, and get the body on the bicycle on the road. When someone does something like this, they're usually in the news, but it can also be done completely anonymously. So, maybe there's a calligrapher out there who can transmit all those powers, but I haven't heard of such mortal.

Qi and shen Yes. It used to be common for a patient prescribed some herbal treatments by a classical doctor of Chinese medicine to boil the piece of paper with the doctor's handwritten recipe in the same pot as the herbs. The calligraphy was part of the treatment and carried/transmitted the doctor's healing qi and intent into the brew. Interesting to compare to the handwriting of our modern doctors, the butt of many jokes. That's the level of the god of calligraphy. On that level, yes.

Alexander Krivonos, 2016

Be wary of those who want to instill a sense of guilt in you, for they crave power over you. -- Confucius

If you're afraid, don't do it. If you're doing it, don't be afraid. If you've done it, don't regret it. -- Genghis Khan

@freeform Yup, that's the right-hand-path empowered fu. The left-hand-path (which is older) involves a different set of techniques and relies on the earliest powers of taoism, the inner gods. Basically it entails four phases: Self-deification – attainment of awakened, independently existing, relatively immortal supernatural intelligence. Self-solidification – the enlightened intellect that is your own, not part of the hive bodymind. Initiation – it is a lineage art, transmission is necessary, in the shape and form of the particular lineage. Magic – using your own cultivated will (gongfu) via a spiritual technology designed to cause the universe to conform to the will of the practitioner. This one is also very advanced. And the stellar practitioner is ambidextrous.

Yes, definitely. Even the talismans that look messy (some look as though someone overturned a bowl of spaghetti on a sheet of paper and traced the imprint they left with ink) rely on a cultivated mind-intent-qi-hand-brush connection. Without having developed this conduit one can't empower the fu. On the other hand, this connection can be developed via an entirely different practice. Calligraphy is handy in many situations though, one can practice in a limited space and with limited resources, and the interesting thing is, it can go both ways -- in a practitioner of taoist arts, the sword skill and the art of calligraphy are often two sides of the same cultivated skill. You indirectly work on your calligraphy when you undertake the sword practice, and you indirectly work on your jian skill if you undertake calligraphy. The gongfu of it is to make the implement, be it the weapon or the brush, obey your will as a trained part of your body and express your intent with precision, guided by your qi that you learn to direct and let flow into the implement.

Thanks for your little review, Dawei. I haven't read Nathan's book yet but was meaning to. Will try to remember to get back to this thread when I do. (If you look at my latest "what books sit on your night stand" entries you will notice that I've been fully into external alchemy lately, taoist and otherwise, gunpowder to stars to waigong-medicinal how-to. "Leaving the world" vs. "coming into the world," the normal taoist seesaw following the energies of the world. Before taking reigns of those energies, in the ideal scenario. Or just following, as the case may be. )

From Scholars of Chinese Medicine COVID-19 and the Yellow Emperor : Is it possible an ancient Chinese system of climate analysis predicted a pandemic (Part 2) As previously stated, it is not the purpose of this article to outline the workings of this system in its entirety. However, a basic overview will be given of the Five Movements and the Six Qi. The Five Movements 五運 The character 運, here translated as “Movements,” contains within it concepts difficult to communicate in a single word. The primary character component depicts a covered chariot accompanied by the walking radical (1). In this specific context, it refers to how the constellations move around the Pole Star over the course of a year, or one of the five seasons. There are five different houses which periodically emerge as the ruling aspect of each year or individual season. Much like the Ten Heavenly Stems 天干, the conceptual basis of the Five Movements 五運 are the Five Elements 五行 - Wood 木, Fire 火, Earth 土, Metal 金 and Water 水 (2). The Five Movements correspond to the five sectors of the sky influenced by the Five Elements, namely the Cinnabar Heaven 丹天, the Yellow Heaven 黅天, the Blue Heaven 蒼天, the Clear Heaven 清天 and the Dark Heaven 玄天 (3). Each year is divided into five separate steps designated as being host and guest periods. The language of musical notes is used to express this (4). The Host Movements 主運 of time correspond five periods of seventy-three days to the same seasonal Elements every year, only differing in whether they are minor or major tones that year. The Elements relating to the Visitor Movements客運 change every year, beginning with whichever element is the Central movement 中運 for the year. From this we can start to determine which of the various elements are excessive and deficient during the course of the year. The language used to describe these celestial motions employs many political words, phrases and metaphors. Implicit in this choice of vocabulary is the notion that these cosmic movements resonate to the earth and influence the climate and humanity in a way similar to imperial decrees. From the first lines of Su Wen 69, it is quite clear one of the most important aspect of Five Movements and Six Qi system is which of the Five Elements governs the Central movement for the year and if it is marked by excess 太過 or inadequacy 不及. We are told in Su Wen 66 “the government of each of the Five Elements may be marked by either great excess or inadequacy. Thus when (a cycle) commences and (a specific element) moves in the direction of surplus, it will be followed by a depletion; when it moves in the direction of depletion, it will be followed by a surplus. If one has knowledge of these comings and goings, the Qi can be predicted”. “為五行之治，各有太過不及也。故其始也，有餘而往，不足隧之，不足而往，有餘從之，知迎知隧，氣可與期.” Similar sentiments arise in Su Wen 70 which states. “The Five Movements recur and diminish, differing in their rise and fall. Harm and benefit follow one another.” “ 五運迴薄，盛衰不同，損益相從." Yin Yang philosophy is also an integral basis to this system. We are explicitly told in Su Wen 66: “The Yin and Yang of the Five Movements, these are the Dao of Heaven and Earth. They are the guiding principles of the ten thousand things and the parents of all change. They are the basis and origin of life and killing, and the seat of divinity.” “五運陰陽者，天地之道也，萬物之綱紀，變化之父母，生殺之本始，神明之府也.” Thus as the swing of the elements from excess to insufficiency and back again adheres to the principles of Yin and Yang, we can begin to see the fundamental basis of this system is Yin Yang and Five Element theory。 Although these theories may see simplistic upon first glance, their interactions on several different physical and temporal planes allow the development of a theory that can begin to account for climatic complexity. (1): The character for “cloud” 雲 is probably related etymologically. (2): The cycle of correspondence between the Five Elements and the Ten Heavenly Stems begins with the Wood Element (Wood 木, Fire 火, Earth 土, Metal 金 and Water 水), whereas the cycle of correspondence between the Five Element and the Five Movements begins with the Earth element (Earth 土, Metal 金, Water 水, Wood 木, Fire 火). (3): The location of these five sections of sky are determined based on the Twenty Eight Lunar Mansions 二十八宿. (4): Jue Zhi Gong Shang Yu 角徵宮商羽, respectively representing the Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water Elements.

Qi Baishi, "Aliens," sometime before 1957

A samurai walking his warrior cat, by Noguchi Tetsuya

I doubt anyone in Russia knew any feng shui at the time the picture was painted (1899) -- perhaps with the exception of some resident Chinese. In the tale they were used as night lights around the supernatural Baba Yaga's residence ("a hut on chicken legs," incidentally, which also responded to specific voice commands -- not just in this particular tale but in all others featuring this protagonist. You had to say, "Hey, hut, turn your back to the forest and your front to me," and it did. Or vice versa.) But when Vasilissa was given one of the skulls and took it home to the evil stepmother and her two evil daughters (with a nod to Cinderella), it did vaporize them. And she lived happily ever after.

Do you know the folk tale this picture illustrates? For an extremely ancient story dating back to pre-history it's got uncanny technology in it. The skulls can switch from emitting bright light out of their sockets to projecting military grade lasers. The gate to Baba Yaga's domain is opened and closed by motion sensors. Inside she operates three pairs of autonomous hands that go about cleaning like a Roomba and apparently also demolish all the trash on the molecular level (Baba Yaga explains it without explaining, by stating that she doesn't like to take the trash out of the house -- a play of words on the proverb "to take the trash out of the house" which means to reveal controversies and secrets to the outside world.) And Vasilissa herself is in possession of a magical doll, the deathbed gift from her mother. Also without an explanation of its origin but with operation instructions: the doll has to be fed, and then voice commanded to perform any task, which it accomplishes with uncanny speed and efficiency, like a very advanced robot. When Baba Yaga discovers its existence, questions Vasilissa and gets a response that the doll is "a blessing from her mother," she kicks Vasilissa out immediately (without harming her) muttering that "those who have been thus blessed are not welcome here." Apparently she is wary of the alien technology superior to what she herself is in possession of. At least that's how I read it today -- when I first read it at the age of about 5, I had no idea. All of it was just chalked up to "magic." Most people would still read it on the level of that 5-year-old today . But I've since developed a few doubts that all those magical fairy tales have nothing whatsoever to do with Arthur C. Clarke's assertion that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."