ShenLung

That is wonderful! Some time ago, there was a question regarding sinus pressure, and sinking qi and ocular massage were recommended as well - this clears me up quickly, when I remember to do it, and not wallow in self pity for being 'ill'. Very interesting to observe, that the same technique can be effective for the relief of pressure, in two different bodily systems. My approach is very instinctive, making me leery of attempting to teach .. but it is nice to see the learned scholars arrive at similar conclusions. "Opening, loosening", instructive qi, open flow - one does not desire to recirculate the stagnation at the heart of the blockage - purging breath at intervals. One of the difficulties in using qigong for self care is, when the physician does not feel inclined to work, the patient is doubly burdened!

Source: Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh Wabi-Sabi "Taken from the Japanese words wabi, which translates to less is more, and sabi, which means attentive melancholy, wabi-sabi refers to an awareness of the transient nature of earthly things and a corresponding pleasure in the things that bear the mark of this impermanence." I also like Silent Thunder's description 🐉

Ignite Inner Fire! I'll leave the way I came in: In Wabi-Sabi!

in Wabi-sabi these pearls are so delicious! Ignite inner fire!

Aside from an odd haiku or so, I have not posted in a while .. the duties of a dragon are as they are. Naturally, I am no Dragon, but a tamer of dragons, and those duties have kept me otherwise occupied. I had lost myself in one particular role, and forgotten that I had others to play. Today, while I was about aiding one lost soul and planning another rescue via the aid of one the Age's mighty warriors, I found myself distracted, by a loose rail, along a steep cliff, just behind one of those ubiquitous convenience stores that dot the landscape. I noted the hazard, for a drunk stumbling his way along after making an evening purchase at the establishment would be sure to find an unhappy fate, if the problem was not addressed. After assuring that the attention of the responsible party was called, I made my way down to the bottom of the cliff - the other errand involved awaiting a tow truck, and I wanted to observe the workings of nature in this small oasis that I had spied from atop the escarpment: A small pocket of unkept woods, with a little creek running through it. Though the path down was quite steep, my feet remained as sure as ever. I was surprised to see that, though the skies had let no water fall for several days, there was still some flow within the creek. I sat beside a small pool there, and waited to see who would show up. I saw a few crayfish emerge from their rocks, and make their way across the sandy bottom, underneath dragonfly nymphs .. too many to count. I saw no fish, and no snakes .. was there a relationship there? I saw no frogs, either, but a few water boatmen skated across the surface, and damselflies, with their neon blue bodies paused to look on the scene with me The ecosystem was small, without many complexities, and few resources .. but tucked away in a place that was too awkward for developers to use, it thrives. I stood, and took in the qi of the place .. simple, innocent, but hardy and enduring. As I had taken the path down, I wanted to climb back up off of it, and pick up some of the trash that I had seen on the way down - there was far more there than I could carry away, I hadn't brought a bag with me. As I turned towards the path near the top, I saw a 'frog' beside the way .. and what had been attached to him. There is a certain Dragon that has been causing much trouble about the garden, and we are attempting to transmute him to stone .. there is a risk involved, that those with eyes that see evil and lips that persecute their fellows may find those stones within their hearts. Instruction in the way can be of aid to them. The tow truck was paid for from the celestial treasury - or, rather, the driver felt no desire to charge for the service, but I like to embellish, just a tiny bit. I took a few pictures of this keychain and fob, sans keys, that had been discarded there, beside the Way.

So to each there own Integral to the design Not imperfection

Rests on her laurels, when unity is achieved; Yet rust never sleeps.

Although the truth of ancient Earth civilizations is, unfortunately largely speculative, there are some facts that I find particularly intriguing: In order to develop "astronomy", it was necessary to first develop writing, mathematics, and agriculture, and then spend over sixty thousand years occupying the same geographic space to record the raw data. No civilization in the past five thousand years has come close to this achievement, obviously - no civilization in recorded history has lasted so long. We could, I suppose, grant those ancient prehistoric humans the benefit of supercomputers, and shorten the data collection time to thirty thousand years, allowing them to extrapolate the precession of equinoxes that they had not literally observed, but the fact of their output is unmistakable: an advanced human civilization in existence at the very least, twenty thousand years before the end of the last ice age.

A boat in a bowl Like a mind without focus Has nowhere to go

With mind still and clear Ultimate truth realized: Compassion is all

Adrift and unknown Even the cherry blossom Still follows the way

Ah my sweet repose Rain drumming on my windows Blown by the north wind

I went to the store yesterday to stock up on supplies, but the only thing left on sale was bacon …. I should have consulted the calendar Happy New Year, Bummers!

We still call schooling Words, repeated endlessly Where are our own thoughts?

Dao is the study of existence as it is; there is no dogma, only the journey to uncover the truth. What is, Is.