doc benway

About 30 years ago, my wing chun shifu got a recipe and ingredients for dit da jow (primarily for acute injury but of some value for more chronic conditions) from his teacher (WIlliam Cheung). We cooked it on a hot plate for about 3 weeks I think and stored it in a cool, dark place for about 3 months before starting to use it. It was powerful stuff. I had so many injuries in those days I was able to do some controlled testing of it. I saved it for a few years but eventually ran out. What I have now my taiji shifu imports from Taiwan. Not quite like the home brew but I still use it regularly with good results.

Much appreciated! The knee is generally fine but when running it tends to limit me to about 2-3 miles, it varies considerably. It gets very tight along the front and lateral side and if I try to push through the pain it can give way. When it acts up I simply alternate walk/jog and its easily manageable. I did have a bad episode with it a few years ago which was most likely a torn meniscus, though I did not do any imaging or seek medical treatment. I used some topical medicine recommended by my shifu (dit da jow from Taiwan) and it recovered over about 6 weeks. I will give your recommendation a try, thanks very much. PS - I'm also fond of Saint-Emilion Gran Cru wines, along with Pomerol, my favorite of the Bordeaux's. I've become increasingly enamored of wines from eastern Washington state - cabernets and syrahs in particular. Although, truth be told I rarely drink anymore. My brother is visiting next week so it will be an alcohol heavy 10 days! Gotta start doing some preparation...

What a pleasant surprise! Thank you in advance to Apech and another heartfelt thank you to all who are still putting in time to keep this place humming.

Working from home today, a rare treat, which gave me the chance to go for a morning jog as it was a balmy 5C and the sun was out. First time I've run outside in a few weeks due to weather but I was unfortunately interrupted by right knee pain.

I decided not to finish Hurricane Season, I've learned that life is too short to read books I'm not enjoying. Currently in the middle of There, There by Tommy Orange and really impressed by his writing. I would like to read The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Burgakov. I cannot read Russian and trying to decide which English translation to buy. Leaning towards the one by Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor.

When thinking about Christmas, I often crave medieval and renaissance music

0.0018% of the world's population died today

I'll bite. Transcending transcendence for me is to go beyond the conceptual, to go beyond metaphors, descriptions, even God. Not recalling the past or planning the future, not changing anything at all in this present moment is the view, the meditation, and the conduct. The immediacy and vividness of this very moment is authentic, unfabricated, and unbounded, full of potential; and yet nothing can be said about it that does not try to define or reduce it to something our conceptual mind can grasp. However we try to describe it is not it, that's why it is often described as unimputable. The only way to do it justice is .... shhhh.... leave everything be just as it is and simply be just as you are. Nothing can be added or taken away from this present moment.

My routine is very flexible and varies with my mental and physical state and with the season. I run 5K about twice weekly and, depending on weather, walk the same distance once or twice weekly. I practice xingyi and bagua about three days per week. I practice taiji form about 5 days per week. I practice shiba luohan qigong on days I do not run and I practice ba duan jin after running, xingyi, and bagua. I find the ba duan jin to be a wonderful restorative and nourishing practice, it seems to help me heal and avoid damage from physically demanding activity, particularly with respect to my spine. Shiba luohan qigong seems to be a wonderful source of strength, balance, and confidence but it's a bit too much for me on days I engage in other vigorous exercise. When I trained seriously in the neijia, I didn't really get to the point where I felt my xingyi and especially my bagua skill were worth much from a practical application perspective but as a fitness regimen both are wonderful and I'm very grateful to have learned and studied enough to make them my own. Another observation is that taijiquan form practice, done very slowly and with deep stances, is deceptively powerful in terms of maintaining fitness and building strength. It may not seem like much is happening in the body at times but the effects are profound. Meditation is now an integral part of my life. I try to engage in some formal sitting practice daily but as I am able to integrate it into more and more of my daily activity, the need for a lot of time on the cushion has diminished. I do still engage in meditation support practices a few days a week (tsa lung, trul khor, and tummo). I practice standing meditation whenever I practice xingyi, bagua, or taiji. My neijia teacher strongly emphasized the value of standing before and after taiji form practice (minimum of 5 minutes, more is better) and of course it is a critical aspect of xingyi and bagua training. I think standing meditation offers amazing benefits (physical, mental, spiritual) that are often overlooked or under-appreciated because we don't spend enough time with it.

All of life is taken as the path, every experience possible in every moment is the starting point and we can choose to practice or not, provided we remember - this is the role of mindfulness. The basic stillness practice I shared above can be applied anytime, anywhere. It's particularly good in the face of distractions related to the body, to physical sensation and tactile experience. Ultimately it gives us a sense of refuge where we can find strength and peace under any conditions, once we've developed some mastery. In the beginning, when the flame of meditation is weak, we must protect it and practice under favorable conditions - quiet room, comfortable seat, no disturbances, supportive sangha. When we have some skill we can bring our practice off the cushion and into our lives under supportive conditions - reciting mantras, circumambulation, listening to music, appreciating art and connecting with nature, etc... As our clarity and stability get stronger, we can begin practicing in more challenging circumstances - eating, interacting with others, sex, working, even during illness, etc... Eventually, the winds of disturbance actually feed the flame and our practice is consistent and strong, hopefully strong enough to allow us to be fully aware as we transition through death.

As to the OP, I do think it is interesting to consider our neurological system as an antenna of sorts, or perhaps a conduit, that allows us to connect to and express the creativity and potential of something far deeper and greater than what we generally consider ourselves to be. When I read 1 Kings:29 what I take away is the invitation and the opportunity for us to get in touch more fully with what is beyond our perceived boundaries and live from that place rather from the place of our self-imposed limitations.

Neurons are not fat cells. Neurons do use a specialized form of fat and protein, myelin, for insulation of their extremely long appendages, but neurons and adipocytes have completely different structure and function.

My nickname at home is the energizer bunny.

Thank you, I do both practice and teach this technique regularly. For the most part now I bypass the steps I described (and there are two other doors that can be used in a similar way as well) but the doors are still very useful when the mind is agitated, drowsy, or easily distracted.

I'm in a bit of a reading frenzy lately, mostly fiction. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami was very sweet and well written, his only foray into "normal" fiction, nothing surreal or fantastical just a Murakami style love story. Erasure by Percival Everett was interesting. It was the inspiration for the film American Fiction. The book within the book was a bit of a sickening slog, by design, and almost put me off but I'm glad I finished it. The ending was perfect. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr was an engaging and clever story about a story and how it stretches across millennia, impacting the lives of multiple characters. The Vegetarian by Han Kang was unique and unpredictable, she won the Nobel in Literature this year - highly recommended. In the middle of listening to Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kamerer right now - beautiful book of indigenous and botanical wisdom. It's nice to hear it narrated by the author, it gives a feeling of intimacy which works well with the subject matter. Also in the middle of Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor - a brutally poetic, stream of consciousness tale about the death of a bruja in a fictional, impoverished town in Veracruz, Mexico told from 4 different perspectives. Reminiscent of Rashomon by way of Faulkner or Joyce. Nearly at the end of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, the slow read that began on 1/1/24 - a chapter a day for a year. It's been a wonderful experience overall though the book certainly has its ups and downs. The repetitive, pedantic criticism of historians gets a little tiresome but Tolstoy's craft is undeniably brilliant. I only wish I could read the original Russian.