Sketch

I'd say it grows from fictional sources - from the "Thou Art God" Martian gnosis in "Stranger in a Strange Land", through to the Green Lantern and Thors Hammer, protagonists instantly realizing "The power was in YOU all along", all the Chosen Ones, it's all confusing lines all wiggy waggy.

A relevent question is - what kind of work do you do with your hands?

The thing in my chest that is not a heart holds clutching pain neither pulses nor spins it wants to control all of my intentions it wants control I hold a pen I hold a blade I hold it and it turns unlucky, graceless, beholden. My rootless right hand seeks to be the only fixed point holding it all together. Forcing guitar strings to do what I want taking the notes, ripping, plucking, never letting them go, throwing them like lawn darts (letting go like selfless arrows from a self bow) put down this compound of compounds, a mechanical release to trigger a mechanical release, to make the wheels turn and maybe send an arrow downrange after all this archery ( A mechanical release is a device used in compound archery so that the arrow can be released by squeezing a trigger, allowing the archer to let the arrows go with no feeling of release.)

Verse Twenty Five Things are a mixture. Start with the sky and earth and something will grow. Lonely! Oh so Alone! Standing erect, unchanging. A guardian. Like the sky’s own mother. I don’t know the name - Let’s call it the Trail, or by calling it anything, let’s call it a Trail Marker. Because it is strong, we’ll call it big. It’s big, so we can call it “Something that will pass away” It will pass away, so we can call it “ Far away” If it is far away, we can call it “accounted for”. Therefore the Trail Marker marks something large. Bigger than any one viewpoint could take in. The sky is big. Bigger than any one viewpoint could take in. Earth is big . Bigger than any one viewpoint could take in. The government is also big - Bigger than any one viewpoint could take in. There are at least four great domains, four categories of things that are bigger than any one viewpoint could take in and politics is certainly one of them. People’s laws represent the laws of earth; The laws of earth represent the laws of the universe; The universal laws of nature are what the Trail Marker is meant to indicate. Because what we’re calling “The Trail” Is just what’s there.

Verse Twenty Four Stretching out one toe Is not standing. Taking a step is not walking. The person looking is not seeing themself. The person who exists is not obvious. The self centered person does not last longer. Those who seek themselves seek nothing. Following the trail is like this as well. Telling me that there’s a buffet is useless - we can all see the table full of food. Could be good, could be a problem, The road doesn’t go to those places.

Verse Twenty Three Hope speaks to one’s self So the fluttering of wind does not cease. Sudden rain does not last all day What person can tell me why this is so? Heaven and Earth cannot stay the same forever So what about people? So people who are following the Trail Are the same, are part of the trail. The moral person IS morality. A loser is lost. For a person following the trail, The trail is fun. For a moral person, morality is fun. For losers, losing is fun. If a person hasn’t done something, They don’t understand.

Verse Twenty Two An instructional Poem like this that Says it all Is a complicated undertaking! The rules for following something as simple sounding as ‘The Path” are twisted rulers for straight lines. Empty spaces follow the rules for filling up. Harmful things follow the rules for helpful things. A scarcity mindset follows the rules for getting too much stuff. Hug the person you should emulate . I’m serious here; find someone you love , Someone you have learned from, Hold them. Learn from that experience. There’s no formula to go under; Without seeing what’s coming next, Without making anything happen; Without merit, without credit, Without sympathy or pity, If a grown person will not fight, then even Heaven can’t fight them. There’s an instructional poem like this hidden in old place names that should be heeded. How can you pay attention to lies? Go back to honesty and sincerity. “Hug the the person you should emulate ” is a real give away as to the Identity of “The Sage”.

Verse Twenty One The quality that accomplishes everything lives in a hole that the path goes past. The path is because things are. The mind reels, it gets confused. I can’t make it out. I can’t tell what it is. It could even be an elephant, Or just about anything else. It’s indistinct, vague but there is something there. Deep! Deeper than you expected, Deep! Quiet, amazingly quiet. It has a lot of fine detail It has so much detail, It is tempting to assume that it must mean something. From ancient times until now, the wise rule to follow is not what people in general think. I can’t keep up with the trends - Oh well, I guess I just miss out.

Vermilion ink certainly isn't cheap.

A word I like is "Peristalsis".

This and chapter thirteen are my favorite "mistranslations" - I see a narrative connection, a young Li Er had an opportunity at the tea plantation on Mount Li, things blew up - "The Kettle Came To Boil" - and now he stands in the marketplace, pondering. We also see another glimpse of his wise teacher, the matriarch of his family, the grandmother of his children. If I wrote a novel about Lao Tzu, this would be the frame.

Verse Twenty Don’t worry about learning everything. Phase geometry, where is Azerbaijan? What is the difference between “Ah” and “Ah”? What is the difference between good and evil? Just because everyone else is afraid, doesn’t mean you need to be afraid. A crowd of people can be an empty, desolate place. Everyone so busy busy, making sure they have two When I only have one. So much fun, like Disneyland, Literally, like a holiday in Chuntai in the springtime. I stand alone, and it signifies nothing. It seems like I haven’t grown up. According to many people, I am the one who is obstinate, And , worse, vulgar. I am alone, and different from most people. I wonder what my Mother-in-law is cooking tonight?

Verse Nineteen Abandon the idea of absolute wisdom And the people will benefit a hundred times - or twice that. Abandon absolutes of right and wrong, and of goodness, And families will treat each other with more love and respect. Abandon the absolute ideal that your skills are primarily there to make a profit from, And no one will be able to rip you off . Just putting this into words isn’t enough; so pay attention, think about it, consider this as a rule. Keep it plain. Keep it simple. The examples here are undyed silk, and a piece of wood with bark And maybe a little branch still on it, Uncarved, unprocessed. Be less selfish.

I am, by nature, far less fond of Confucius, or of the drive to civilize. But I see what you mean.

Verse Eighteen When people stopped following the Trail, They lost their way. They came up with the ideas of “Kindness” and “Benevolence”. When wisdom and intelligence are on display, So are lies and hypocrisy. It’s natural for members of a family to love and support one another. When this is upset, families are in turmoil, and we hear about how important the family unit is, family values, filial piety, honor your father and your mother, whatever a society chooses to call it, when you start hearing these terms being used, it’s no good thing. Same thing at the political level - when you start to hear about patriotism and loyalty, you know the wrong people are running the country. If they were handling things the correct way, those topics would never come up. 道

I am mainly testing my ability to follow directional arrows through related material and use the shared terminology in a way that is at all meaningful in relation to communicating my understanding and my experience.

The Vampire Bush Be wary on your walks Remembering this Spring Our footfalls left Far less disturbed Those jealous spirits Ours displace Think not lest you imagine Strange things where Brambles grow Be wary on your walks Remembering each Spring Our footfalls left Far less disturbed Those jealous spirits Ours displace Think not that you imagine strange things where Brambles grow

This also fits the sense of the Golden Elixer put forth in Scott Park Phillips' books, which emphasize the proprioceptive sense of inhabiting the space around the body.

Out of the books I'm drawing on my (limited) comprehension of, I may be thinking of the terms as explained in Damo Mitchell's "Comprehensive Guide". Maybe another way to put it would be in terms of a performance situation; there's the script, the blocking, and the rehearsal - and then there's what happens on opening night. Also drawing on the image from TCM of the Ming Men, located between the kidneys, as the "gate where destiny enters the body"

Out of the books I'm drawing on my (limited) comprehension of, I may be thinking of the terms as explained in Damo Mitchell's "Comprehensive Guide". Maybe another way to put it would be in terms of a performance situation; there's the script, the blocking, and the rehearsal - and then there's what happens on opening night.

If iI'm grasping this at all - any genuine, meritorious activity is liable to have a positive effect on ming, but if I put time into speculating about the content of ming, that would impede xing - which in turn, would alter the actual content of ming. or - Ming unfolds in front of me all the time, regardless of whether it's a fixed track or constantly changing. Again, speculating about this very notion can impede xing as it travels through the "gate" presented by ming. Or - I'm not understanding the terms in context.

Verse Seventeen When people are in charge of anything, they should try to understand what it’s like from the other guys perspective. At the very best, they won’t even realize you’re there. A few people will notice you when you make mistakes. Some of those will understand. If you do kind of a crappy job, they’ll start to worry. Do a super crappy job and they’ll hate you, they’ll make fun of you, what do you expect? If you don’t understand cause and effect, You can’t teach anybody anything, and you sure can’t put it into words. At this point I imagine the author pausing and taking a deep breath before he says “You see, my words are valuable - I shall not waste them”. “Act wholeheartedly And be satisfied.” “That’s what I call”, says our author, “ going with the force of nature.”

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm fascinated by a literary location that would be a perfect venue for such meals - a restaurant opened by a time traveler in Dong Yue's 1640 novel "Tower Of Myriad Mirrors - a Suppliment to Journey to the West". Basically a fan fiction in which Monkey comes unstuck in time. Too much fun.

My time exploring the language has me convinced that you are correct, that instructions on breath and movement are the key level of meaning, and that there are levels of meaning that only unfold relative to particular experiences within the context of breath and movement/stillness.

Send that table a round of drinks, on me.