Taomeow

A prayer: May all topic derailers and thread hijackers taste their own medicine in real life. May they be sidetracked by whoever they talk to into discussing anything but what they want to talk about. May their explicit pleas to stick to the subject be always ignored. May they always be dragged kicking and screaming into someone else's agenda. May they stand no chance to follow through on any interest of theirs due to someone else just lying in wait to pounce on that and pound it into the ground as soon as they express it. May everyone around them be always on the lookout to prevent any chance of their learning, comprehending, sharing, mulling over, or otherwise addressing any subject of their choice. May they be dumped all manner of garbage upon as soon as they appear anywhere, may they become walking talking garbage dumpsters. May they sag under the load and crawl aimlessly in a stupor of indifference and apathy. What's the point of anything if there's no way for them to ever stick to the point?.. Amen.

Good idea, my friend. Many haiku in the chain wanted to break free. I think we had a "Mystical poetry thread" at some point but that, too, is a chain even a mystic might want to break. Sometimes nothing can restrain poetry except its own chosen restraints. The lifeguard on duty, a muscular cutie, proclaimed that he spotted a shark. The ocean spat out a hurried wet crowd. To rule us takes merely a lark. Who knows if there's really a shark?..

It is known that magic is the weapon of either the very powerful or else of the otherwise powerless. Everybody else pays cash.

Your friend's method is tried and true, but not all that secret -- which is not to say it's not efficient. The one I learned from the Polish princess is a very very rapid succession -- sort of a short sine-wave trajectory where you look sideways to the far corner, then rapidly cast your eyes down to the tip of your own nose, then at the man slightly upward (especially if he's taller, otherwise lower your head a bit to appear looking up to him). It has to be one smooth move, and -- importantly -- you need to learn to do this lightning fast so your eyes catch a quick burst of light and indeed appear to throw off a lightning. I first experimented with this in high school. It all went well till I accidentally used it on my biology teacher, whose reaction was truly scientific -- he proceeded to classify me as a "mermaid," and say and do a few other things which at the time I considered harmless enough, more on the funny side, but today they would have cost him his job, at the very least. So this has to be used with great discretion.

There's some "organized" taoism in Japan, probably not a lot -- I'd address the question to Livia Kohn, a taoist scholar who takes taoist-minded Westerners on tours to Japan with some regularity. But more importantly, taoism was a huge influence on all of Japanese culture since as early as the 7th century. There were periods in Japan's history when China was viewed by the rulers as the civilized land of advanced culture, in contrast to the "primitive" ways of the natives, and getting a Chinese education, including a taoist one, was tantamount to qualifying as a member of the refined, educated, aristocratic class. A lot of it eventually started "trickling down" to the humbler social circles. Nearly all of early taoism can be found in Japanese culture today if you dig below the surface, but of course it was modified and intermixed with the indigenous Shinto and imported Buddhism (incidentally Buddhism was imported to Japan also from China, as Chan (zen) Buddhism which some say simply means "Buddhism from China," though I'm sure there's a different translation, which I forget.)

I wonder what would happen to one's seeing ability if they were to rub an eagle's pee... no wait, eagles don't pee... well, an eagle's guano into one's eyes. Bat shit cures night blindness, by the way. (Tons of vitamin A in it, as was discovered in modern times, from all the bugs the bat eats. Vitamin A deficiency is the primary cause of night blindness.) "Modern sensibilities" are very local and very conditioned in their nature -- I was amazed to discover, e.g., that most Americans have been trained to go "eeewww" when you mention dishes made of organ meats, the most prized part of the animal throughout human history, and still valued elsewhere. Japanese women pay a lot of money for cosmetic creams with nightingale guano that whitens the skin. Chinese, for swallow's nests (yes, they eat them.) Both used to be disgusted with dairy though, and older people in Asia might still refer to cheese as "rotten milk" and be appalled by the idea of eating it.

Actually, yes, thanks for the reminder. I just encountered Vajrapani in another thread and realized that his Japanese Buddhist version, Fudo, transitioned into taoism as a fierce, wrathful protector and is invoked on occasion, much like one would hire a bodyguard.

I wouldn't presume to speak for ऋषि but maybe he's just drawing a parallel -- to illustrate that people worshipped all kinds of destroyer gods everywhere? I don't see what else they might have in common, but I only know the Chinese version of the Japanese version of Vajrapani -- Budo, aka Fudo Myo-o, a borrowing into taoism (made necessary by the fact that taoism didn't have its own god fierce enough and terrifying enough when the purpose was to deter meddlers in the taoist's undertakings.) I've given Budo some money when I encountered him in the Tang dynasty museum in Xi'an. Greetings, wrathful god.

Urea, a component of urine, is widely used in dermatological preparations today, both cosmetic and prescription topicals, to rehydrate, promote wound healing, remove dead tissues, etc.. In folk remedies, it is obtained by storing urine in a container for two to four weeks, which concentrates it, gives it a most foul odor (if you haven't changed your kitty's litter for too long, you'll get the idea of how bad it can smell when it gets older), but also retains all the hormones that synergize with the action of urea, and is used externally for the same purpose. For internal consumption, there's a whole bunch of naturopathic protocols, usually people start with just one drop administered under the tongue and move on to two drops, etc., very gradually, up to something like 50 ml I think, no one is advised to drink "all of it." I've also heard from a special forces dude that they are instructed to pee on a wound if there's nothing else immediately handy to disinfect it and also for pain relief. The pain relief for burns specifically is nothing short of miraculous -- if you ever suffer a kitchen burn and are not too squeamish to experiment, pee on it and see for yourself. The pain relief is immediate, and the healing is fast. I expect a modern adult's (or dog's) urine to be not exactly what it used to be in a healthier, less toxic environment (though even then a child's urine was often preferred in folk medicine, for its purity). I suspect it's for the same reason that I've personally observed near-miraculous effects of homeopathic remedies on small children but never on adults (with the exception of a couple remedies used for acute trauma, which still work perfectly well on adults). I used to know a sculptor in LA whose creations were made out of various metals -- he experimented a lot with oxidizing the surface of the finished work with all kinds of chemical agents toward some interesting visual effects. He came up (don't know if it was his own idea though) with his favorite method that produced most stunning surfaces -- he would immerse the statuette in a container of urine for a month or two, shaking it from time to time, and it would develop this unique patina the likes of which I hadn't seen. He called it "peetina."

Don't be. I'm not an equal opportunity offender and this is not an equal gender representation board, so if I made public every dirty joke that went through my mind (most based on the reversal of the roles proposed by Drew, i.e. on a female cultivator experimenting on unsuspecting male subjects in a public place), I could easily give medical student syndrome to 99% of the bums. Of course I still remember the younger glory days when it was no joke... and no cultivation was needed to mess up any unsuspecting male subject by just quickly performing a certain eye movement trick I learned from a Polish princess, a protagonist of a 19th century novel, who pretty much destroyed three empires by using it.

It was sounded prematurely. Should have waited for all those jokes I kept making in my mind but was reluctant to share. E.g. the one about a woman who sits in full lotus at a McDonald's and practices energetic projection of P at a D -- priapism at a distance. Well, too late now. I spoiled the punch line.

As I always say (repeating after the I Ching), to and fro goes the way. I've read Wild Ivy: The Spiritual Autobiography of Zen Master Hakuin, by the most renowned and influential teacher of Japanese Zen Buddhism (and author of many koans, including the famous "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" which I always thought of as an indirect hint at Houtian-Xiantian dynamics, i.e. taoist to the core), and apparently zen was killing him (physically -- his devotion to practice undermined his health and brought him to the brink of death) until he met a taoist recluse who healed him, taught him taoist meditation and restored his vitality, which Hakuin promptly used to revitalize the stagnating, lethargic Rinzai practice and make it into one of the three definitive zen schools. He mentions that he practiced taoist meditation for the rest of his life as instructed by his teacher, but kept it to himself.

Strictly speaking, you don't invoke gods in taoism, you invite them. Invocations are for something lesser, spirits, or even impersonal forces of nature. Gods are invited not unlike the way you would invite honored guests -- not just, hey, come on over, and by the way I need a favor. More like, greetings, I've prepared a feast, a banquet just for you, would love for you to attend. Your above choice of who to invite is a bit ambitious. These deities seldom concern themselves with the affairs of humans, with the rare exception of exceptional humans and, occasionally, exceptionally devout and/or successful (or extraordinarily lucky) practitioners of immortalist internal alchemy. Generally though, they are more for veneration without expecting or asking any favors. If you know and admire them, are in awe of them, you can offer your altruistic devotion, is all. If you need help in some human endeavors, however, choose a deity with a known interest in human affairs. But choose wisely. E.g., Quan Yin (who is a taoist goddess of mercy with a Buddhist counterpart as a bodhisattva) is reputed to often intervene, but chiefly on behalf of women, children, the oppressed and the powerless -- if you ask her for more money or a better career, she is likely to ignore you. Unless it is in service of your family, in which case she will listen to a man as well and might grant what he is asking for. If you want success with your business, to move ahead in your career, up the social ladder and the like, the popular deity you could invite is Guanyu (aka Guandi). So, a bit of research would help zero in on a deity most likely to accept the invitation due to you and him or her sharing some common interests.

Taoism is actually the closest you can come to an ecclesiastical democracy, complete with local governments -- gods of particular villages, cities, rivers and mountains -- and even with the right of the constituents to impeach this local government if it's inefficient, indifferent to the people and not particularly helpful when asked for help. In situations when this right was claimed, the village could stop making offerings, kick the statue of the god out of the temple, and shop around for a better god. The bureacratic aspect permeates some taoist schools but not all. The daoshi is not necessarily a "certified member of the bureacracy" but invariably a professional, initiated, educated and practicing (all three components must be verifiable, but it's not about bureacracy, it's about safeguarding against fraud from self-appointed masters and mystics). He or she is sometimes, but nowhere near always, initiated, educated and practicing as a monk or priest, but most schools are not monastic and many have no bureacratic position for a priest. (An aside: the internet is awash in hogwash and this site is part of the internet.) As for taoist gods, they come in all varieties, and if you know how to approach them, you don't need a middle man. Most lay people will approach a popular deity who has a reputation of lending his or her ear to people's pleas on their own, but for particular tasks which require professional expertise they will hire a professional. A priest or monk will be typically summoned for events that call for a particular ritual -- rite-of-passage, consecration of a site, marriage, funeral, major holidays and exorcisms are among such activities. But a taoist can also practice magic, I Ching studies and divination, art and literature, medicine, martial arts, fortune telling, geomancy, etc., be an expert cook or an author of cookbooks, a philosopher, astronomer and astrologer -- an empirical scientist of taoism. A taoist scientist may or may not employ gods in his or her pursuits. It's not a subject that yields to meaningful generalizations because it is so vast. If you ask about a particular god or goddess, you can get an answer about their approachability and whether approaching them is a wise choice for a lay person. I have rotated gods I want to focus on and hope to be noticed by depending on my needs of the moment. My current altar god is Kui Xing (with an eye on Wenchang Wang but no decisive approach yet.)

I don't think they needed to poach for this -- rhinos die a natural death too. It's not taoist priests who endangered them. You could make enough candles to last you a lifetime and have some leftover horn powder for your successor from just one horn of one deceased rhino, all you need is a tiny pinch. Of course in a drug culture (a specter haunting the world) of today it has become a recreational drug, more efficient than Viagra and more expensive than cocaine, so one might want to look for different methods regarding ghosts. There's plenty, of course. But the use of urine (not just dogs', and not just animal) is present in this or that form in all magical and medical traditions, including modern medicine which resorts to urine lab tests to tell if you have diabetes and a whole host of other disorders, and the pharmaceutical industry that has made trillions of dollars by its own magical transformation of pregnant mare urine into the drug Premarin used for oral contraception.

What's the rationale for holy water? We are in the realm of supernatural happenings, so rational theories are superseded by empirical observations. You either see ghosts, or you don't. You either exorcise them, or they exorcise you (which is the usual outcome with haunted places -- the ghosts exorcise the intruders.) In taoist magic, a time-honored method to see ghosts is to use powdered rhinoceros horn. You don't rub it into your eyes, you mix it with candle wax and burn the candle at a location where you suspect ghost activity. A professional exorcist, in a typical case, will then catch the ghost into his or her gourd vessel, plug it with a cork, and then dispose of it in a suitable manner: release it in a more appropriate location, facilitate its transition to wherever it needs to be, dismantle it with talismanic or ritual power, or, if it's a harmful demonic thing, eat it and transform it into useful nutrients.

Thank you. That was a weird read for a taijiquanista. They describe two types of difficulties one typically sees in two types of beginners, which to a blunt teacher fall into two categories -- "stiff as a board" vs. "'limp as a wet noodle." And the article presents them as a spectrum of the norm. Whereas the real norm would be... ack, they don't have a word for it. Sung. Relaxed but not limp, soft outside and structurally sound/solid/hard (not stiff) inside, "flexible steel needle wrapped in cotton." It's not something that ought to come as a feature of design. Sung allows one to choose whether to feel heavy or light to someone else. If I am practicing push-hands with a 300 lb guy who is not as experienced, he won't be able to move me even an inch, let alone pick me up. ( I weigh 130 lb.) I can use his muscle tone to send him flying though -- he feels light as a feather to me because I can take over (we call it "borrow") his strength precisely because my own muscles are not committed to any which tone and react to the immediate input with higher or lower tone, as needed. OK, don't let me talk shop.

I come from the steppe and forest. Nothing even remotely resembling a natural chair in that environment. Are you saying people of the mountains invented chairs? I know it's from "elevated" position of the ruler, too busy/lazy to dig for references though, so, won't assign myself homework and let you off the hook in peace. Ah, the blessings of civilization. Complete with the blessing of being blissfully unaware of what the lifespan of people before its advent really was. I know this is just one thing entirely made up, out of many we're told about our prehistoric past, and the figure floats freely too -- many "experts" assert the lifespan was 20 years, 30 tops. Many others will bust out "24" or "36." I've seen many versions when they talk prehistory. They base age assessment on the condition of bones. In a modern person, bones as healthy as what they observe in prehistoric skeletons happen to correspond to the age of 20-40, so voila. The thought that it's an older person with disease-free bones would be too self-defeating I guess for purposes of counting civilization's blessings. I guess the ability to squat and be comfortable is also the outcome of "almost no muscle tone?" And very low stances in taijiquan, ditto? A standing meditation in chin-to-toes Phoenix pose, ditto?.. What exactly does "muscle tone" mean? If you mean tightness, limited mobility in the limbs, then yes, having that will be in the way of the lotus or a squat of a low stance let alone the Phoenix. But if you mean being able to do any of these is somehow a sign of some kind of weakness, I have to disagree. I'm not sure I even understand this "muscle tone" thing -- do you mean something cosmetic, as in bodybuilding, for a particular look? Far as I've been able to discern, strong healthy muscles have no "tone" until they work. They are relaxed. But maybe we're talking about different things. Well, anyway. I was merely talking about what works for me in response to the question about pillows for the sitting meditation. Chairs don't. And a plastic mat from Walmart I haven't tried. Maybe that's the secret to floating one inch over your seat, who knows, but I'm not really interested in floating, I'm more into rooting.

Ah, that's a million dollar question with a trillion dollar answer. It is found on the tablets from the temple library at Nippur (presently property of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology). It is titled "Debate between sheep and grain." Here's how the story goes: It begins at a location designated "the hill of heaven and earth" (the Sumerian for which is "Edin") and from the context it's clear that it's not a dwelling on earth but the abode of the gods. Then at the point where the heavens rest upon the earth, the god An creates the cattle-goddess, Lahar, and the grain goddess, Ashnan, to feed and clothe the Annunaki, who in turn made man. Lahar and Ashnan are created in the "duku" or "pure place" and the story further describes how the Annunaki create a sheepfold with plants and herbs for Lahar and a house, plough and yoke for Ashnan, describing the introduction of animal husbandry and agriculture. The story continues with a quarrel between the two goddesses over their gifts which eventually resolves with Enki and Enlil intervening to declare Ashnan the victor. The story rings so many bells... I've seen pictures of Native American hunter-gatherers who were still around at the time of the early age of photography, featuring them in the company of their wolf friends. Just hanging out together, not for domestication and not for eliciting services but because it's normal and natural for nearly all animals (and in all likelihood humans who remain fully connected with nature) to befriend members of a different species on occasion, to care for someone else's young if some mishap left them orphaned, or even (gasp) just out of curiosity, choice, chancing upon a playmate when young and open to playing with everything in the world, enjoying it and sometimes forming a bond. It looks like that was the situation, not of domestication but of just hanging out together as pals or as a parent-kid duo or brothers or sisters. Now that we have youtube and are not limited to the dog-eat-dog rendition of inter-animal relations we've been fed for decades by Discovery channel and the like, there's a gazillion videos to testify to the fact that animals interact as friends all the time. Even those who under different circumstances would eat each other. Or those who would never encounter each other in nature. There's cats raising rats, dogs raising ducklings, a dog and an elephant spending all their time together (one of them standing guard near the hospital for weeks when the other one is taken ill), a trio comprised of tiger, bear and lion who are like brothers, a rooster meeting the school bus every day to jump into his human girl's arms, a cat and an owl frolicking together all the time, geese and swans playing with fishes and feeding them from their own trough, a crow raising, feeding and protecting a stray kitten, and on and on. I love those videos. I've probably seen hundreds over the years. So I'm guessing, some of us used to hang out with wolves on an individual case by case basis, without turning this into a business relationship. On the other hand, at least some hunters may have figured out some kind of cooperation with animals that did turn into a business relationship, who knows. Birds of prey may have been employed long before dogs in this capacity (still are in some parts of the world)... still, no one seems to have selectively bred them to create a species of servants. That comes with agriculture.

How about group sex at a distance? I'll join both of you? Any other takers? Let's all have fun! No wait... this already came to pass here on TDB, with different participants. And here I am thinking I'm the first one to whom it occurred. Nevemind. I'll keep minding my own o business.

Different strokes. The axis of gravity and ground reaction force (GRF) are real after all, we are not immaterial, not exempt from biomechanics. Methinks it's a good idea to figure out what position is not only subjectively comfortable or uncomfortable to someone who's been sitting in a conditioned way all their lives, i.e. adjusting the body mechanics to the culturally/socially imposed ways to sit. Of which chairs is a major one -- originating from thrones, i.e. the ruler's desire to position his own body above other bodies (which were, before kings on thrones, normally sitting on the ground level). Eventually someone business savvy figured out that everyone will buy a replica of this superiority-establishing contraption in order to feel "elevated above others," and started making and selling chairs. And in no time all "others" also wanted to be elevated and not be looked down upon by their neighbor. There's no other reason for the proliferation of chairs -- our anatomy is not a product of sitting on chairs in nature, there aren't any. So, cross-legged is perfectly comfortable for someone who's always been sitting like that -- and no, they don't get blood clots from sitting in the position developed in the womb and then just maintained throughout life -- while for someone who's always been sitting on chairs it poses some challenges to overcome, due to all the weakened anatomy and physiology peculiarities brought about by chair sitting. Overcoming them gradually is a good idea IMO. Overdoing that might cause a lifelong aversion or god only knows what kind of deviations, so I'm not a proponent of prolonged sitting in a position that does not come naturally -- nor of berating it because it disappointed me personally when I invested into it and god shit for return. Don't invest in it. Just do it a bit at a time and see if it might start growing on you -- see if your back feels better, your joints more open, your mobility and flexibility and fluidity in space outside meditation may have improved. Is all. That's a good criterion of the usefulness of your sitting position -- not whatever you think in your spiritually advanced head. I find that in any sitting position except for the full lotus, maintaining the vertical axis effortlessly and not sagging into a stupor (which may be mistaken for meditation by some) is way easier with a firm thinnish pillow under the butt. In lotus, however, the axis is straightened out by itself, naturally and reliably, by just assuming this position on the flat ground. Any pillows I experimented with in combo with the lotus only throw it off. So, pillow for any other position, no pillow for lotus would be my verdict. My sitting pillow for non-lotus sitting is buckwheat, and the color is black out of personal feng shui considerations. If you don't know yours, the color doesn't matter much, but if you do, any color that you know is not one of your personal lucky ones might subliminally bother you. This pillow I made myself because I am a believer in customizing whatever you're going to be using in conjunction with your body whenever possible. Most of the waking hours it's usually impossible (car seats be damned... though it may be a good thing that you can't really sit in your deep meditation pose when driving. )

@Walker Thank you for your comments. I don't have many objections -- indeed I'm not a great in-depth expert on Buddhist teachings... not so much "yet" as "in the foreseeable future too" since I do have my hands full with what-not taoist and proto-. Albeit not entirely clueless either, and yes, prone to forming my very own and not too often quite orthodox opinions. In my defense, I present them as my opinions, not as some orthodox teachings. There's only three varieties of Buddhism I had some hands-on experience with -- Dzogchen (that was before taoism), zen (that's not entirely unrelated to taoism, and exactly the product of cross-pollination rather than manipulation you pointed out) and a chant of a Buddha name that I was given by ayahuasca, to my surprise (but then, she's nothing if not full of surprises). The choice of that particular Buddha was also a bit of a shocker, though it made sense in hind sight. It just so happens that any "enlightenment" modality that casually marginalizes or even maligns all things yin, the "endarkenment," falls short of what I'm after. I know "sun worship" is not strictly about the sun, of course -- what I think it is though is... well, it is in opposition to all things not yang. The pursuit of the "pure land" leaves the "impure" this-here land out in the cold. The "light of consciousness (or awareness or what not) that permeates everything" leaves no room for something I happen to naturally perceive as sacred -- "deep dark impenetrable mystery" no one should have surveillance powers over. If mother nature wanted everything to be revealed, we would have ultrasonic eyesight, not machines, or else transparent bellies to spy on the fetus. And, yes, ultimately it boils down to what resonates.

I'm not sure there's an exact "when" -- could have been gradual or periodic, I don't remember if I have this info anywhere, would have to look. However, there's some plausible modern astronomical explanations as to "how" and "why" they could become invisible -- which also seem to confirm the accuracy and reliability of the early Chinese star maps. There was a possible black hole discovered that seems to be tugging Alioth (in the handle of the Dipper) back and forth, and also an invisible star next to Alcor (also in the handle), named Alcor B, a red dwarf that orbits Alcor A. There are some charts where Alcor is not labelled at all, as it is “overshadowed” by its neighbor Mizar, with which it shares a position. Both stars were used as a common test of eyesight — being able to distinguish “the rider from the horse” — among ancient people. One of Galileo’s colleagues observed that Mizar itself is actually a double, the first binary star system resolved by a telescope. Many years later, the two components Mizar A and B were themselves determined each to be tightly orbiting binaries, altogether forming a quadruple system. Now, Alcor, which is near the four stars of the Mizar system, also has a companion.

This is probably my first post in this section. Hello, venerable Buddhists. Came across these lines by accident and thought, damn, I don't understand this at all... but I better watch out for those brahmans. And I thought taoists -- some of them -- can be callous. But this is like something I would expect to give pause even to a Maoshan sorcerer. Or to one of those "inhumane" sages who "regard humans as straw dogs." Can someone explain what is meant by this passage -- I traced it down to Pakinnakavagga (alternative translation: Buddharakkhita), part of the Dhammapada: 294-295 Having killed mother and father, two warrior kings, the kingdom and its subjects — the brahman, untroubled, travels on. Having killed mother and father, two learned kings, and fifth, a tiger — the brahman, untroubled, travels on.

Ack... I'm talking astronomy of the original taoism not modern astronomy and refurbished taoism. Check out, e.g., Isabelle Robinet's Taoist Meditation: The Mao ShanTradition of Great Purity. You will find some of the esoteric magical techniques used by taoists that draw upon invisible stars surrounding the Big Dipper (the two currently invisible, earlier visible stars I mentioned -- you must have missed it -- that are still found on the older Chinese astronomical maps, located at each side of the "handle" of the Dipper -- but there's more): In the taoist texts under consideration here, the stars of the Big Dipper constellation are surrounded by a network of stars which cast a “black light” or “light that does not shine.” These stars are inhabited by female deities who are invoked in many authentic magical and alchemical taoist practices. They are called obscure names in line with their invisible nature: “(She Who) Hides by Transformation and Escapes into the Origin,” “(She Who) Changes Her Body and Transforms Her Brilliance,” “(She Who) Hides Her Traces and Disperses Her True Form.” These deities are the “Nine Yin of the Lord Emperor.” Celestial counterparts to the nine subterranean obscurities, they assist in the transformation and multiplication of the adept, in his “concealment within the eight directions,” and in the “hiding (of his) body and the closing up (of his) light.” I know about the swastika (obviously -- that image is all over the internet) but I can also dance the Steps of Yu based on the Big Dipper and involving nine steps (not eight, not seven) -- on the ground or on the palm of my hand. I use these as my personal signature I burn into all my taiji weapons that have wooden parts.