green paths in the valley

Family Visit Fun

Karen and I enjoyed having our son, Michael, and his charming wife, April, visit us in Red Bluff over the weekend.  April and Mick attended April's Corning High School Reunion. 

Both Michael and his mom, Karen, were feeling ill so activities were limited to accommodate them. 

Early Tuesday morning, Michael and April packed up and drove back to their home and jobs in Portland, Oregon. 

Our first heavy rain storm of the year started on Tuesday morning.  The storm brought about 2 inches of much needed rain to our area. 

A Song of the Good Green Grass

A U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq tends his "lawn."

"A song of the good green grass!
A song no more of the city streets;
A song of farms - a song of the soil of fields.
A song with the smell of sun-dried hay,
where the nimble pitchers handle the pitch-fork;
A song tasting of new wheat, and of fresh-husk'd maize."
-   Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Grass: Quotes 

October: Poems, Quotes, Sayings, Lore,Garden Chores

Autumn Retreat from Blogging

This is a busy time of the year for us in the garden.  Karen and I remove all the dying summer vegetables, weed, dig the soil, add manure, and let the soil rest.  We start digging holes for planting shrubs and trees in November.  We remove dead limbs and trees. 

Karen and I have a number of home improvement and home repair projects scheduled for the next couple of months. 

I have a number of major writing projects at work. 

My home office computer has been giving me many problems. 

Consequently ... I will be taking a break from posting to my Green Paths and Cloud Hands blogs. 

Best wishes to all for a great autumn season,

Mike

Hot Days Ahead

Although autumn is around the corner, we expect temperatures in the upper 90's for the next week. 

"Equal dark, equal light
Flow in Circle, deep insight
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!
So it flows, out it goes
Three-fold back it shall be
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!"
-   Night An'Fey, Transformation of Energy

   

"The last of Summer is Delight --
Deterred by Retrospect.
'Tis Ecstasy's revealed Review --
Enchantment's Syndicate.

To meet it -- nameless as it is --
Without celestial Mail --
Audacious as without a Knock
To walk within the Veil."
-   Emily Dickinson, The Last of Summer is Delight 

  

September: Quotes, Poems, Lore

Although autumn is around the corner, we expect temperatures in the upper 90's for the next week. 

"Equal dark, equal light
Flow in Circle, deep insight
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!
So it flows, out it goes
Three-fold back it shall be
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!"
-   Night An'Fey, Transformation of Energy

   

"The last of Summer is Delight --
Deterred by Retrospect.
'Tis Ecstasy's revealed Review --
Enchantment's Syndicate.

To meet it -- nameless as it is --
Without celestial Mail --
Audacious as without a Knock
To walk within the Veil."
-   Emily Dickinson, The Last of Summer is Delight 

  

September: Quotes, Poems, Lore

The Tomato Becomes "Me"

Be humble, for you
are made of
beans and seeds.
Be noble, for you
are made of
rivers and sunshine. 
Be joyful, for you
have tasted one of
Xiwangmu's peaches. 
Above the Fog

"Alfred North Whitehead once pointed out that when we really understand the biological and physiological functioning of the human body and the behavior of the molecules which constitute it, it becomes impossible to entertain the notion of a discontinuity between the the body and its external environment.  Living on this mountain, I can't help but realize that my body is completely integrated with the body of the mountain.  Every time I drink the water that spills out of it into the mountain stream, the cells of my body assimilate it.  My body is now largely composed of the water that comes from this mountain.  We grow our food in the mountain's soil.  The plants start out as a sing seed, and, by taking water, light, and minerals from the mountain, eventually manifest themselves as fruits, vegetables, flowers.  Thus, we take the mountain into our very being; we consume it.  Our septic system even returns our waste to the mountain.  How could we feel separate from it?"
-  John Daido Loori, Three Gates of Zen, p. 159 

Interdependence: Quotes, Poems, Sayings  

I am a machine that turns beans into memories. 

-  Pulling Onions

 

Japanese Aesthetic Principles for Gardeners

Japanese Aesthetic Principles

Here are seven design-related principles (there are more) that govern the aesthetics of the Japanese garden and other art forms in Japan. Perhaps they will stimulate your creativity or get you thinking in a new way about your own design-related challenges:

Kanso 
Simplicity or elimination of clutter. Things are expressed in a plain, simple, natural manner. Reminds us to think not in terms of decoration but in terms of clarity, a kind of clarity that may be achieved through omission or exclusion of the non-essential.

Fukinsei
Asymmetry or irregularity. The idea of controlling balance in a composition via irregularity and asymmetry is a central tenet of the Zen aesthetic. The enso ("Zen circle") in brush painting, for example, is often drawn as an incomplete circle, symbolizing the imperfection that is part of existence. In graphic design too asymmetrical balance is a dynamic, beautiful thing. Try looking for (or creating) beauty in balanced asymmetry. Nature itself is full of beauty and harmonious relationships that are asymmetrical yet balanced. This is a dynamic beauty that attracts and engages.

Shibui/Shibumi
Beautiful by being understated, or by being precisely what it was meant to be and not elaborated upon. Direct and simple way, without being flashy. Elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. The term is sometimes used today to describe something cool but beautifully minimalist, including technology and some consumer products. (Shibui literally means bitter tasting).

Shizen 
Naturalness. Absence of pretense or artificiality, full creative intent unforced. Ironically, the spontaneous nature of the Japanese garden that the viewer perceives is not accidental. This is a reminder that design is not an accident, even when we are trying to create a natural-feeling environment. It is not a raw nature as such but one with more purpose and intention.

Yugen
Profundity or suggestion rather than revelation. A Japanese garden, for example, can be said to be a collection of subtleties and symbolic elements. Photographers and designers can surely think of many ways to visually imply more by not showing the whole, that is, showing more by showing less.

Datsuzoku
Freedom from habit or formula. Escape from daily routine or the ordinary. Unworldly. Transcending the conventional. This principles describes the feeling of surprise and a bit of amazement when one realizes they can have freedom from the conventional. Professor Tierney says that the Japanese garden itself, "...made with the raw materials of nature and its success in revealing the essence of natural things to us is an ultimate surprise. Many surprises await at almost every turn in a Japanese Garden."

Seijaku
Trannquility or an energized calm (quite), stillness, solitude. This is related to the feeling you may have when in a Japanese garden. The opposite feeling to one expressed by seijaku would be noise and disturbance. How might we bring a feeling of "active calm" and stillness to ephemeral designs outside the Zen arts?

 "The Nature of Japanese Garden Art" by Patrick Lennox Tierney
 
 Seven Japanese Aesthetic Princiles to Change Your Thinking

Season of Mellow Fruitfulness

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.”
- John Keats, To Autumn The Inner Flame

  August: Poems, Quotes, Sayings, Lore, Chores

"Sometimes I wonder what I'm a-gonna do
'Cause there ain't no cure for the summertime blues."
-  Eddie Cochran 

Family Time III

On Monday, Labor Day, we all stayed at home.  We harvested some vegetables, and walked around the property.  The girls played in the water with a sprinkler.  We watched an animated film, "Treasure Planet." 

Grandpa Mike, Katelyn, and Makenna harvest some peppers and tomatoes. 

   

Makenna offers Rowdy some grapes.  Katelyn and Grandpa Mike keep
an eye on the situation.  Rowdy was not interested in green grapes. 

All in all, everyone enjoyed a nice visit. 

Family Time II

We enjoyed a variety of activities today.  Katelyn calls them "adventures."

We used the children's playground equipment at Trainor City Park and at Jackson Heights Elementary School, both in the City of Red Bluff, California. 

The blue hot rod was fun for Makenna and Grandma GG (Karen) in the front seat,
and Katelyn and Grandpa Pacos (Mike) in the back of this speedster. 

   

Grandpa Mike holds Makenna for a ride down the slide at Jackson Heights
Elementary School playground. 

Makenna enjoyed her first ice cream soft cone for the first time afterwards. 

At night, we lit a wood fire in the Circle Garden, and roasted marshmellows. 

Makenna and Grandma GG sit by the fire. 

Katelyn roasts a marshmellow. 

Family Time

My daughter, Alicia Flinn, arrived Thursday evening from Portland.  She brought her two daughters, Katelyn Alice and Makenna Aryn.  So, we have been busy with grand-parenting activities with a 3 year old and a 1 year old child, and visiting with our daughter. 

On Friday, we all visited the Turtle Bay Museum and Discover Center in Redding.  

 

 

Katelyn, Makenna, and Grandpa Mike resting by an old locomotive
that was used in the building of Shasta Dam. 

 

Alicia holds Makenna so she can feed the birds. 

On Saturday, Alicia joined me in my taijiquan and yoga classes in the morning. 

The temperature has finally dropped to 90 degrees today, after many days of over 100 degrees. 

In the afternoon, we relaxed in the shade.  

 

Alicia and Mike, daughter and father.
Rowdy, our dog, relaxes nearby. 

 

Dharmapada Sutra: Buddhist Wisdom

Dhammapada Sutta:  Buddhist Proverbs, Sayings, Aphorisms

Buddhist Proverbs from 100 BCE

Chapters 1-4, Verses 1-59

I.    Twin Verses, Mind, Anger and Hatred, Discernment, Practice, Contrary Ways, Contrasting Pairs, Yamakavagga   Verses 1-20

II.   Vigilance, Watchfulness, Earnestness, Diligence, Zeal, Self-Control, Joy, Nirvana, Appamadavagga   Verses 21-32

III.  The Mind, Thoughts, Cittavagga   Verses 33-43

IV.  Flowers, Blossoms, Things of the World, The Flowers of Life, The Fragrance of Good Deeds, Pupphavagga   Verses 44-59

Chapters 5-8, Verses 60-115

V.     Fools, Evil Fruit, Ambition, The Childish Person, Balavagga   Verses 60-75  

VI.    The Wise Man (Pandita), The Skilled Person, The Wise, Panditavagga   Verses 76-89 

VII.   Infinite Freedom, The Venerable (Arhat), The Accomplished Person, The Arahant, Arahantavagga   Verses 90-99 

VIII.  Better Than a Thousand, Thousands, Sahassavagga   Verses 100-115

Chapters 9-12, Verses 116-166  

IX.   Good and Evil, Avoid Evil Deeds and Do Good, Consequences of Evil, Detriment, Papavagga   Verses 116-128  

X.    Don't Punish or Kill, Don't Inflict Pain on Others, Overcome Desires, Train Yourself, 
        Avoid Violence, Evil Returns Evil, Dandavagga   Verses 129-145 

XI.   Beyond Life, Old Age, Broken Down House, Illness, Death,  Jaravagga   Verses 146-156 

XII.  Self-Possession, Self Control, Propriety, Duty, Oneself, The Self, Attavagga   Verses 157-166 

Chapters 13-16, Verses 167-220

XIII.   The World, Illusions, Neglect, Practice, Lokavagga   Verses 167-178  

XIV.   The Buddha, The Awakened, Restrained, Unbound, Refuge, Buddhavagga   Verses 179-196 

XV.    Happiness, Being at Ease, Bliss, Follow the Wise, Sukhavagga   Verses 197-208

XVI.   Affection, Pleasing, Sorrow, Attachments, Piyavagga   Verses 209-220 

Chapters 17-20, Verses 221-289

XVII    Guarding One's Character , Daily Efforts, Controlling Emotions, Anger, Kodhavagga   Verses 221-234 

XVIII   Impurities, Faults, Ignorance, Envy, Malavagga   Verses 235-255  

XIX     The Righteous , True Sages, Wise Elders, Monks, The Just, Dhammatthavagga   Verses 256-272 

XX      The Eightfold Path, Impermanence, Meditation, Death, The Path, Maggavagga   Verses 273-289      

Dhammapada Sutta: Translations, Index, Bibliography, Links, Commentary

    

Tai Chi Chuan Classes, Northern California

Current Taijiquan Class and Practice Schedule

Instructor:  Michael P. Garofalo

Outdoors, Monday, 7:00 - 8:30 am, Valley Spirit Taijiquan Center (Red Bluff, CA)

Indoors, Monday, 5:30 - 7:00 pm, Tehama Family Fitness Center (Red Bluff, CA)

Outdoors, Friday, 7:00 - 8:30 am, Valley Spirit Taijiquan Center

Indoors, Saturday, 9:30 - 11 am, Tehama Family Fitness Center

Sunday, 7:00 - 8:30 am, Valley Spirit Taijiquan Center

We practice the Yang Style of Taijiquan (short and long forms),  32 Sword Form and Eight Immortals Cane in the Yang Style,  Tai Chi Kung Fu Fan,  Sun Taiji 73 Form, and a variety of Qigong forms.

Blog Posting Schedule:

Green Paths in the Valley Blog: Posting on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday

Cloud Hands Blog:  Posting on Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Cloud Hands: Taijiquan and Qigong Website

Yoga Classes

Nearby cities:  Chico, Orland, Corning, Los Molinos, Red Bluff, Cottonwood, Anderson, Redding

Contact Mike by Email

Current Taijiquan Class and Practice Schedule

Instructor:  Michael P. Garofalo

Outdoors, Monday, 7:00 - 8:30 am, Valley Spirit Taijiquan Center (Red Bluff, CA)

Indoors, Monday, 5:30 - 7:00 pm, Tehama Family Fitness Center (Red Bluff, CA)

Outdoors, Friday, 7:00 - 8:30 am, Valley Spirit Taijiquan Center

Indoors, Saturday, 9:30 - 11 am, Tehama Family Fitness Center

Sunday, 7:00 - 8:30 am, Valley Spirit Taijiquan Center

We practice the Yang Style of Taijiquan (short and long forms),  32 Sword Form and Eight Immortals Cane in the Yang Style,  Tai Chi Kung Fu Fan,  Sun Taiji 73 Form, and a variety of Qigong forms.

Blog Posting Schedule:

Green Paths in the Valley Blog: Posting on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday

Cloud Hands Blog:  Posting on Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Cloud Hands: Taijiquan and Qigong Website

Yoga Classes

Nearby cities:  Chico, Orland, Corning, Los Molinos, Red Bluff, Cottonwood, Anderson, Redding

Contact Mike by Email

Floating Down to Die

The cottonwood tree is slowly loosing its leaves, or should I say that the leaves are one by one letting go to float down to their death. 

"When the still air and still in summertime
A leaf has had enough of this, it seems
To make up its mind to do; fine as a sage
Its drifting in detachment down the road."
-  Howard Nemerov, Threshold

 

Summertime: Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Lore, Chores

"The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August,
and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair
amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many."
-  Oliver Wendell Holmes

Discourse on Happiness

"Not to be associated with the foolish ones,
to live in the company of wise people,
honoring those who are worth honoring –
this is the greatest happiness.

"To live in a good environment,
to have planted good seeds,
and to realize that you are on the right path –
this is the greatest happiness. 

To have a chance to learn and grow,
to be skillful in your profession or craft,
practicing the percepts and loving speech –
this is the greatest happiness. 

To be able to serve and support your parents,
to cherish your own family,
to have a vocation that brings you joy –
this is the greatest happiness.

To live honestly, generous in giving,
to offer support to relatives and friends,
living a life of blameless conduct –
this is the greatest happiness. 

To avoid unwholesome actions,
not caught by alcoholism or drugs,
and to be diligent in doing good things – 
this is the greatest happiness.

To be humble and polite in manner,
to be grateful and content with a simple life,
not missing the occasion to learn the Dharma –
this is the greatest happiness. 

To persevere and be open to change,
to have regular contact with monks and nuns,
and to fully participate in Dharma discussions –
this is the greatest happiness.

To live in the world
with your heart undisturbed by the world,
with all sorrows ended, dwelling in peace –
this is the greatest happiness.

For he or she who accomplishes this,
unvanquished wherever she goes,
always he is safe and happy –
happiness lives within oneself."

-  The Buddha, Mahamangala Sutta, Sutta Nipata, 2.4
    Found in "Chanting from the Heart," by Thich Nhat Hahn, p. 270 

Lifestyle Advice for Wise Persons

Dharmapada Sutra