| Valley Spirit Journal | ||
| February 2006 |
February |
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By Michael P.
Garofalo Red Bluff, California |
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Mike Garofalo practicing Taijiquan |
Valley Spirit Websites |
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February 1, Wednesday, 2006
Work 7:30-4 pm for CUESD. Open Room 13 computer lab. Rest at night. I was
very tired after a long and challenging day at
A New Weekly Workout Plan Monday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
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Publications Cuttings Above the Fog Pulling Onions Valley Spirit Journal Photographs Green Way Blog History of Gardening Categories
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February 2, Thursday, 2006
Today is Groundhog day. We have no grounhogs here. Plenty of gophers and moles. Work 8:30 - 1 for CUESD. Massage by Carol Borer at 2, chiropractic treatment by Dr. Webber at 3 pm. Gym: Easy weightlifting and then teach yoga from 5:30 - 6:45. I teach a softer, easier, yin style on Thursday.
"I believe the concept of "center" in Jiulong and
the Daoqiquan arts is broader than the concept of "center of gravity"
in mathematics/physics. In addition to your physical center of gravity,
the "centeredness" of your mind, your intent, and the http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JiulongBaguazhang/
I have a poem I wrote I would like to submit for inclusion on
your website: The leaves drift toward the earth like ships to land, 50Plus.Com: The Award Winning Website for Senior Canadians http://en.50plus.com/display.cfm
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T'ai Chi Ch'uan
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February 3, Friday, 2006 Walking and taijquan at dawn at home. Home chores and projects. Work for CUESD from 11-4 on EETT4 meeting, orders, website. Martial Views Native Wisdom - Warrior Quotes
"Simply speaking, drushti is sensitive awareness to that which you are doing. This has two aspects that are vital to every aspect of our practice. First it means bringing your mind to bear exactly on what you are doing. Not doing one thing while thinking another. This actually means learning not even to be thinking about what you are doing. Rather, just be doing it, feeling it. In the beginning we must think before we act. Then we act. Then think again. But we must learn to separate these two processes so hat we can act with precision and clarity, without the distraction of thought. Eventually we will learn to trust the intelligence of the body and will be able to dispense with the thinking process more and more. Then our practice becomes meditation in action." "The second aspect is to feel the effect of what we are doing. Not only at the point of the action itself, but throughout the whole structure of the body and the quality of the mind. We must feel its impact on the functioning of the body, breath and mind. We use this feedback to go deeper into the poses by making adjustments according to the four secondary techniques of asana, vinyasa, bandha and pranayama. Then through the dynamic created between our intention and our actions, a meditative awareness emerges." - Godfrey Devereux, Dynamic Yoga, 1998, p. 24 Do my Yoga 3 homework assignment.
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General Beauty Chan Poetry Cold Mountain Buddhas Concrete Poetry Earth Fitness Flowers Green Wizard Haiku History of Gardening Labyrinths Meditation Seeing Simplicity String Figures Taijiquan Trees Walking Will Power Yoga Zen Poetry |
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February 4, Saturday, 2006 Walking and taijiquan at dawn at home. Teach Taijiquan at TFFC from 10-11, and teach yoga from 11-12:15 active, vigorous, power style of yoga. Home chores and projects.
"Anyone who wants to know the human psyche will learn next to nothing from experimental psychology. He would be better advised to abandon exact science, put away his scholar's gown, bid farewell to his study, and wander with human heart throught the world. There in the horrors of prisons, lunatic asylums and hospitals, in drab suburban pubs, in brothels and gambling-hells, in the salons of the elegant, the Stock Exchanges, socialist meetings, churches, revivalist gatherings and ecstatic sects, through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body, he would reap richer stores of knowledge than text-books a foot thick could give him, and he will know how to doctor the sick with a real knowledge of the human soul."
Sensing, Thinking, Intuiting, Feeling D. T. Strain's Philosophy Blog Do my Yoga 3 homework assignment.
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Valley Spirit Journal Archives February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 2005 2004 2003 Index |
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February 5, Sunday, 2006 Walking and Taijiquan at 9 am near home. A beautiful, clear, Planting bare root trees, planting eucalyptus slips, mowing, pruning roses, taking cuttings from figs, home chores and projects.
"The Five Frolics! I read the Bear...and loved what you wrote! The
history and spiritual meanings of the poses was fascinating. Forgive me if this
question is answered on your site - I missed that part! My question is, where
can I find out how to do the poses you named and explained? Is that located on a
different part of your site - or is this still under construction? Then about
those other four animals...will you be filling all that information in? Michael,
a thousand thank you's! Your site is fascinating and has a ton of information
and wisdom – like a puzzle. I do appreciate all the time and love you’ve put
into your site! Just thank you! Michael, you are touching so many lives!"
Nancy,
Thank you very much for the kind, generous, and
supportive
remarks. Best wishes with your work and
projects.
All of my webpages are works in progress - slow
progress.
My objective is to add something each day and
practice some
aspects of mind-body arts each day. Today,
for example,
walking, taijiquan, gardening (planting
bare root trees and some
eucylaptus slips), adding to my two blogs, and adding three
yoga postures to my glossary.
Yes, a puzzle! I love that comparison.
Therefore, someday, you will see more animal
frolics described.
For now, you will need to purchase some of
the books and/or
DVD/videos on the subject. Try Dragon Door
publications, by
Du Cane, for a starter. I list the resources on my webpages.
Yes, I'm really interested more in the myths,
allegories, psychology, history, theory, attributions, etc., of these
mind-body
arts than the actual movements and postures.
Cheers,
Work on my YogaFit Level 3 homework assignment. "The Tang Chinese equivalent for the title Vajramukti (Chinese: Chuan Fa; Japanese: Kempo) was a nominal approximation used by monks for that section of the Buddhist Vajramukti art concerned with ritualized movement practices which contained the principles of health preservation, weaponless self-defense and meditative insight." "Fearful that the Buddha might die without teaching some vital important principle, one of his disciples asked him if there was any other teaching he had not so far shown them. The Buddha replied by taking up a handful of leaves from the ground and asking the disciple whether these leaves in his hand were greater in number than the leaves on the forest they were in. When the disciple replied that there were more leaves upon the trees than those in his hand, the Buddha said so it was with his teaching. What he had shown his disciples was compared to the leaves in his hand. What he could have taught, he compared to the leaves upon the trees in the forest. The Buddha then said he did not have the clasped hand (Chinese: chuan shou) of the teacher, but rather he had the open hand (Chinese: kai shou) of a Buddha. Though there were many doctrines, he had concerned himself only with what was most important for those around him to attain enlightenment. Thus, the term "clasped hand" used here (chuan) was thought to be appropriate to describe the Vajramukti method, as its mastery was considered an esoteric and difficult to understand lineage practice, taught by a few masters to even fewer students. By comparison, the ordinary (exoteric) teaching of the Buddha was an "open-handed teaching' (Chinese: kai shou fa). The word chuan is etymologically related to the ideograph used to describe a manuscript text (also pronounced chuan) but using slightly different characters. We often find accounts of the Chinese Buddhist Sutras existing in two or more chuan for it is a term identifying a document which, have been written on manuscript paper is rolled up or folder, for protection and storage. This "turning inward to protect" action of the paper is what is meant by the title chuan for a written work. The ideography for clasped hand (chuan) also describes this same type of action in the fingers. The suffix fa was the Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit term dharma (teachings of the Buddha). Such a suffix was commonly used throughout Chinese Buddhism to represent not just the teachings themselves but all the arts, crafts, and practices associated with them. Thus it could also mean the techniques, methods, or manners of practice." - Shifu Nagaboshi Tomio (Terence Dukes), The Bodhisattva Warriors, 1994, p. 184-185
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Gardening
Air Beauty Clichés Earth Fire Flowers History Humor Green Way Blog Green Wizard History Index Jokes Months Olives Seeing Simplicity Timeline Trees Tree Lore Water Weeding |
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February 6, Monday, 2006 Walking and taijiquan at home at dawn.
A horse observes my horse stance. "Spiritual life is like
living water that springs up from the very depths of our own
experience. In spiritual life, everyone has to drink from his or
her own well."
From December to March, there are for many of
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Biographies Reginald H. Blyth Han Shan Sun Lu-Tang Chang San-Feng |
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February 7, Tuesday, 2006 Work from 8:30 - 4 for CUESD. Write EETT3 semi-annual report, check on www.cuesdeett3.org website. Talk with Ed about TFFC website, then teach yoga from 5:30-6:45 pm. Reading the following book: Returning to Health with Dance, Movement and Imagery. By Anna Halprin. Mendocino, California, LifeRhythm Books, 2002. Revised edition of "Dance as a Healing Art," 2000. 195 pages. ISBN: 0940795221. "As I continued teaching,
it became apparent that the experience of movement connected to feelings
generates long-buried and unknown emotions and images. When these emotions
and impages are expressed through movement, we dance. And when these
dances are connected to our lives, they bring about dramatic release and change
in our will to live."
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Mysticism Nature Mysticism Green Way Blog Green Wizard Spirituality Tree Lore Eight Trigrams Taoism Green Way Blog Taiji Classics Bagua I Ching Religion |
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February 8, Wednesday, 2006
Work for CUESD from 7:30-4:50 pm. Work on researching the new grant. Very tired and not feeling well today. I rested and slept in the evening.
Insult my Prophet and I'll Burn My House and Garden Down Thousands of Islamic worshippers have been staging marches and riots in many countries to protest some cartoons that appeared first in
a Danish newspaper in September, 2005. These very angry Moslems felt the cartoons insulted and defamed their beloved Prophet, Muhammad, Peace
Be Unto to Him. They shouted their demands for apologies from European countries, screamed until they were hoarse, rioted in the streets,
killed people, threatened non-believers, and burned a few of their buildings. An artful and ironic touch was watching screaming Moslems standing on
or burning Danish, Jewish, and American flags as they expressed their fierce anger about their religion being insulted by some cartoons.
For a good laugh see the Wide World of Whhabic Sports. For years I've had to listen to loud-mouthed militant Islamic boneheads and their pretentious clerics rant about us degenerate, infidel Americans; watch thousands of screaming Iranians and Iraqis and Saudis and Syrians stomp and burn our American flag; and watch Arabic television stations eagerly air the latest threats and insults from the murderer Osama bin Laden. Do you think I was offended and insulted? Now, turning the tables, I'm supposed to feel really sorry and be apologetic because some newspaper "cartoons" hurt the feelings and offended the religious sensibilities of some of these same fascist zealots? Holy Shit! At least I can release some of my own anger towards these militants who tell us they hate us fifty times a week by getting a good belly laugh over some simple, irreverent, Wide World of Whhabic Sports cartoons. These insufferable "religious" clowns might try laughter as a good medicine, rather than by going out for their 911 riot of the year, burning down more buildings in their own decaying cities, beheading kidnapped charity workers and newspaper reporters for a news broadcast, or dynamiting themselves and innocent children in their local mosques. These bullies put those dirty black hoods over their cruel heads for a good reason - shame. I'd better just calm down, and then add Danish cheese to my shopping list.
"It is revolting to me to breathe the same air as wafts from the exhalations of the madrasahs, or the reeking fumes of the suicide-murderers, or the sermons of Billy Graham and Joseph Ratzinger. But these same principles of mine also prevent me from wreaking random violence on the nearest church, or kidnapping a Muslim at random and holding him hostage, or violating diplomatic immunity by attacking the embassy or the envoys of even the most despotic Islamic state, or making a moronic spectacle of myself threatening blood and fire to faraway individuals who may have hurt my feelings. The babyish rumor-fueled tantrums that erupt all the time, especially in the Islamic world, show yet again that faith belongs to the spoiled and selfish childhood of our species."
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." President Bush used this approach.
"We wake up this morning to see video on CNN showing rampaging Muslims around the world. In Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Rim .. Muslim Mobs spreading mayhem. It seems that these mighty mad Muslims are rioting and firing their ever-present AK-47s into the air because of cartoons. Yup ... this latest epidemic of Muslim outrage comes to us because some newspapers in Norway and Denmark published some cartoons depicting Mohammed. Admit it, this turban/bomb thing could be the next big fashion hit on the Muslim street! Muslim outrage huh. OK ... let's do a little historical review. Just some low lights:
Come on, is this really about cartoons? They're rampaging and burning flags. They're looking for Europeans to kidnap. They're threatening innkeepers and generally raising holy Muslim hell not because of any outrage over a cartoon. They're outraged because it is part of the Islamic jihadist culture to be outraged. You don't really need a reason. You just need an excuse. Wandering around, destroying property, murdering children, firing guns into the air and feigning outrage over the slightest perceived insult is to a jihadist what tailgating is to a Steeler's fan. I know and understand that these bloodthirsty murderers do not represent the majority of the world's Muslims. When, though, do they become outraged? When do they take to the streets to express their outrage at the radicals who are making their religion the object of worldwide hatred and ridicule? Islamic writer Salman Rushdie wrote of these silent Muslims in a New York Times article three years ago. "As their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies, why are they not screaming?" Indeed. Why not?"
Author and source of quote unknown. Circulated by Intenet email among "outraged Amercians" thinking, writing, and observing the Muslims rioting in their streets, threatening death to non-believers and newspaper publishers. It was only time before the Islamic screamers found the Danish flag. A flag with a Christian cross! Now they have a "Hated Trifecta" for ritual burnings at their weekly community rioting games: a Jewish flag with the Star of David, a U.S. flag, and a Danish flag with a Christian Cross. Burn baby Burn!!
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Indexes Quotes - Gardening Taijiquan Months Zen |
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February 9,
Thursday, 2006
Work for CUESD from 8:30-4 pm. "Yoga teaches us
to cure what need not be endured, and endure what cannot be cured." Gym after work: pilates class with Tonya, then teach yoga from 5:30-6:45 pm. Peaceful warriors have the patience to wait until the mud settles and the water clears. They remain unmoving until the right time, so the right action arises by itself. They do not seek fulfillment, but wait with open arms to welcome all things. The strongest of all warriors are these two: Time and Patience. You must learn to live in the present and accept yourself for what you are now.
What you lack in flexibility and agility you must make up with knowledge and constant practice.
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Search Amazon Wikipedia |
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February 10,
Friday, 2006
Gym at 6:30: weightlifting, 7:30 taijiquan with Kevin, 8:30-9:15 spin with Tonya. Walking and Taijiquan at home along Kilkenny Lane. YogaFit Level III homework.
Christian and Islamic Charity: helping those that believe the same as you do and have the same ethnic-racial heritage as you, and having the patience to persecute those who don't share your beliefs. Christian and Islamic Family Values: the male prophet and male clerics tell men what to do, and the father is the head and fist of the family; women and children are to be quiet, do their chores, and obey the fathers; all families in their society should be forced by public law to do what the male clerics decide. Ecumenical Movement: all Christian denominations temporally suspend their traditional animosity toward each other, form a coalition, draft a common political platform, and attempt change secular laws so that all infidels and non-believers will be forced to follow the lifestyle rules set by the Christian clerics. Prophet: the ancient words of a man, interpreted by clerics, that are to be believed without question while setting aside common sense, and are used by clerics to rally people to persecute, torture, and kill other people that the clerics dislike.
I've been reading the following book: Offering from the Conscious Body: The Discipline of Authentic Movement. By Janet Adler. Rochester, Vermont, 2002. 242 pages. ISBN: 0892819669. MGC. Exploring the dynamics between the Mover, the Inner Witness, and the Outer Witness.
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Webmaster Notes PostNuke WordPress CMS: GWR |
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February 11,
Saturday, 2006
Walking and Taijiquan in the early morning. Teach taijiquan and yoga at TFFC. Home chores and projects. YogaFit Level III Homework. "Those who
meditate will learn almost anything more easily and quickly." The Diversity Ethic by D. T. Strain
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Qigong Eight Section Brocade Wild Goose Cloud Hands Blog Five Animal Frolics Standing Meditation Breathing Links T'ai Chi Ch'uan Relaxation (Sung) Silk Reeling Bibliography Eight Trigrams Taoism |
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February 12,
Sunday, 2006
Karen and I took a
driving tour today. We drove to Chico, Oroville, Marysville,
Vital Breath of the Dao: Chinese Shamanic Tiger Qigong (Laohu
Qigong). Links send to me recently: Power
Music - Music for Fitness since 1987
Senior 50 Plus - Canada
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Months Winter January February March Spring April May June Summer July August September Autumn October November December Index |
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February 13,
Monday, 2006
Walking and Taijiquan practice - 90 minutes. Home chores. Gym: weightlifting: lat pulldowns, leg curls, tricep pressdowns, back hyperextensions; 6 sets x 8-12 reps with very heavy weights. Spin class for 40 minutes with Nichole. My brother Paul's birthday - 58. We talked tonight. The Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga. The Authoritative Presentation - Based on 30 Years of Direct Study under the Legendary Yoga Teacher Krishnamacharya. By Srivatsa Ramaswami. New York, Marlowe and Co., 2005. Index, glossary, 265 pages. ISBN: 1569244022. MGC. Includes a 60 minute audio CD with chants of yogasutras and important Sanskrit mantras.
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Blogs Valley Spirit Journal Photographs Cloud Hands Blog Green Way Blog CUESD Info/Zone Blog |
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February 14,
Tuesday, 2006
Taijiquan and Qigong in early morning: 30 minutes. Work from 8:30 - 4 for CUESD. Reading First meeting, EETT3 grant report, and new SCVP grant writing. Gym 4:30-7. Weightlifting: Bench Press, Incline military press, reverse leg curls and Roman Chair lifts. Teach yoga class. Emphasis upon throat chakra - Vishuddha.
Toward a Psychology of Awakening by John Welwood.
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Photography Valley Spirit Photos Home Gardens |
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February 15,
Wednesday, 2006
Taijiquan and Qigong in early morning: 30 minutes. Work for CUESD from 7:30-4 pm. Rest in the evening.
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Michael
P. Garofalo Brief Biography Resume Internal Arts Practices Work Yoga Instructor Home Gardens Websites |
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February 16,
Thursday, 2006
Work for CUESD from 8:30-4 pm. SCVP planning meeting, act as master of ceremonies for 6th grade spelling bee competition. Gym: drink tea and relax, teach yoga.
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February 17,
Friday, 2006
Walking and taijiquan in the morning for 90 minutes. Take Rowdy dog to vet. Work for CUESD from 11-4: RFG grant budget, EETT3 mid-year report.
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February 18,
Saturday, 2006
Walking and taijiquan in the morning. Misty rain. Gym: Teach Yang style taijiquan from 10-11, and then teach yoga from 11-12:15. Work on Karen's computer. Shop at Home Dport, get gas and supplies.
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February 19,
Sunday, 2006
Walking and taijiquan in the morning. Home chores and gardneing projects all day.
"Some Guiding Principles for Integral Practices and Institutions That Support Them. They promote a simultaneous development of our various faculties. They generally require mentors, rather than a single guru. They require a strong and developing autonomy. They are facilitated by personal traits that promote creativity in general. Though they encourage individual autonomy, they require surrender at times to transformative agencies beyond ordinary functioning. They require patience and the love of practice for its own sake. They utilize inherited all-at-once responses, or psychosomatic compliance for high-level change. They utilize the manifold changes catalyzed by images and altered states. They enlist more that one mediation to achieve particular outcomes. They surpass limits by negotiation rather than force. They depend upon improvisation. They utilized images of unity. They require and facilitate conscious transitions between different states of consciousness. They depend on a developing awareness that transcends psychological and somatic functioning. They orient all our capacities and somatic processes toward the extraordinary live arising in us." - Michael Murphy, The Future of the Body: Explorations Into the Further Evolution of Human Nature, 1992, pp. 579-586.
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February 20,
Monday, 2006
Euphoric Oneness and Ecstatic Embodiment!
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February 21,
Tuesday, 2006
Euphoric Oneness and Ecstatic Embodiment!
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February 22,
Wednesday, 2006
Euphoric Oneness and Ecstatic Embodiment!
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February 23,
Thursday, 2006
Walking and taijiquan in the morning. Home chores and projects. Teach yoga 5:30-6:45 pm.
"Take great care if you go to the Denmark, the forbidden country. This
is a very dangerous country; beware while you are among the infidels. Take great
care that your body and spirit are not being poisoned with forbidden
substances. Its very soil is heavily contaminated and dangerous to walk on for us holy men. One never knows if this is just faked satire, or really is fundamentalistic Islamic pulpit drivel. Knowing of the Islamic fundamentalist's dietary fetishes, it is probably the latter. Oh No! Oh No! .... Now we can expect more typical expressions of outrage from these angry fundamentalist Pork Haters: ABC News break! Six people were killed and 12 seriously injured in Turin, Italy, today when an Islamic fundamentalist terroist blew himself up in a Chinese restaurant. The terrrorist, screaming he was from the Death to Swine Brigade, was outraged by the restaurant serving sweet and sour pork to some Arab tourists. CNN News break! Jimmy Dean, kidnapped by fundamentalist Sunni Muslim terrorists of the Down with Pigs faction, was shown pleading for his life on video today. Fearful and crying, surrounded by black hooded Jihadi homeboys, Mr. Dean begged for his mid-west U.S. plants to stop producing pork sausage. He said he will be beheaded in a week if the Down with Pigs terrorist group demands are not met. Al Jazirra News break! A agricultural science professor from Iran University confirmed his research findings that the more nearly non-existent and and much cleaner goat and sheep feces are far more beneficial to the sandy soil of the Middle East than the excessive and dirty shit of infidel swine. University Vice-President for Internal Affairs, Iman Abu Laban, praised the report. CBS News break! Three 4H children and forty piglets were killed in an explosion at a County Fair in Indiana. A bomb had been placed in a Farmer John ham that was to be given given away as a prize at the fair. The fundamentalist Muslim terrorist group, Kill All Pig Eaters, quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, and said it was also in reprisal for the 9% Jewish capitalist ownership of the Farmer John Company. Syrian News Network breaking news: Forty buildings were burned in an improverished Damascus neighborhood, and 5 people killed, when infuriated fundamentalist Muslim rioters were violently protesting Danish blue cheese and Danish smoked ham being served as part of a diplomatic luncheon in their former occupied territories in Lebanon. Enough .... if possible, forgive and forget. After 9/11 in New York it
ain't easy! Peace.
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February 24,
Friday, 2006
Walking and taijiquan in the morning. Home chores and projects. Lunch and shopping in Redding. Native Wisdom - Warrior Quotations
The strongest of all warriors are these two - Time and Patience. – Leo Tolstoi
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February 25,
Saturday, 2006
Walking and Taijiquan in the early morning. Teach Taijiquan from 10-11 and yoga from 11-12:15 at TFFC. Home chores and projects all afternoon.
"Do nothing with the body but relax. Yoga of the Mahamudra: The Mystical Way of Balance. By Will
Johnson. Rochester, Vermont, Inner Traditions, 2005. 151
pages. ISBN: 0892816996. MGC. Another book by Will Johnson that deals with some of the same issues: Aligned, Relaxed, Resilient: The Physical Foundations of Mindfulness. By Will Johnson. Boston, Shambhala, 2000. 137 pages. ISBN: 1570625182. For more information: Institute for Embodiment Training 6688 Grandview Road, Duncan, British Columbia, V9L 5Y7, Canada The Ninefold Path of Embodiment, by Will Johnson 1. Gazing at the Beloved 2. The Farzji Dance Troupe 3. Sitting Meditation 4. Mindfulness Practice 5. Bodywork 6. Exercise and Nutrition 7. Samantabhadra/Samantabhadri Circle 8. Water Monkeys 9. Sacramental Plants
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February 26,
Sunday, 2006
Walking and taijiquan. This frequent activity of mind usually take 90 to 100 minutes. Home chores and projects. Rain expected today. We finished all pruning, cleanup, mowing, scattering fertilizer, burning brush piles, and other preparations for the coming rain.
"You may also want to bring the practice of wogging into your
life. Half slow walking (going uphill) and freely surrendered, speedy
jogging (going downhill), it may become your preferred meditation posture or
form of dance. The goal of the practice is not to condition the body
aerobically; that happens as a natural byproduct. The goal of the practice
is to open to and merge with the breath, letting your natural, surrendered
breath determine how fast or slow your body moves, to stay as loose and relaxed
as possible, to let every part of the body move as fluidly as possible, to
surrender to the sensation and energies of the body as you keep playing with
balance, to keep emptying the mind and staying in clear perception of vision and
sound. Full-bodied breath comes easier during a wog than during any other
activity. Sensations can be felt through the entire body. Vision can
become very clear, and the mind can stay very empty."
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February 27,
Monday, 2006
Walking and taijiquan in the morning. Blood tests at Lassen medical. Work from 10-4 for CUESD. Gym: weightlifting then spin class. "If you want to know
God,
I intend to live and garden forever - so far so good.
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February 28,
Tuesday, 2006
Work for CUESD from 7:30 - 4:00 pm. Writing SCVP grant, placing orders. Gym: Weightlifting - Bench Press; Teach yoga from 5:30-6:45 to 17 students. Comments from Readers: "The Five Frolics! I read the Bear...and loved what you wrote! The
history and spiritual meanings of the poses was fascinating. Forgive me if this
question is answered on your site - I missed that part! My question is, where
can I find out how to do the poses you named and explained? Is that located on a
different part of your site - or is this still under construction? Then about
those other four animals...will you be filling all that information in? Michael,
a thousand thank you's! Your site is fascinating and has a ton of information
and wisdom – like a puzzle. I do appreciate all the time and love you’ve put
into your site! Just thank you! Michael, you are touching so many lives!"
"I wanted to let you know that your walking quotations web site has been
a true inspiration to me over the past year. I broke my leg one year ago this
past weekend, which has involved two surgeries, and your quotes have been
signatures on my e-mails since then. Keep up the good work!!!"
"I stumbled across your tai chi/qigong website a few days ago. I've
recently begun studying Wu style Tai Chi in Austin, TX. I just wanted to tell
you what a GREAT job you have done! Thank you very much. What a fantastic
resource you have created for people like myself. I work offshore and it is
difficult to continue to practice with guidance from my teacher. Your
explanation of the 8 section brocade qigong excersices is informative and
motivating."
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