I almost forgot about this wonderful image from my black belt graduation in Daitoryu Aikijujutsu this spring. Sensei Seigo Okamoto from Tokyo, Japan visits us twice a year in Roppokai Copenhagen – Sensei has done that in a period of over 20 years. Ole and I have spent many wonderful hours in and out of the dojo here in Copenhagen. I look forward to every single training session! This is a tribute to Ole my local hero in Cph.
Ole & Thomas synger opera
Originally uploaded by docdyhr.
Nuclear powered vacuuum cleaners will probably be a reality within 10 years.
— Alex Lewyt (President of the Lewyt Corporation,
manufacturers of vacuum cleaners), quoted in The New York
Times, June 10, 1955.
This morning when I opened my terminal on my local computer a new tcsh shell popped up with this strange thought provoking cookie! “Fortune” is a well known little nifty Unix app that servers the cookies. You can find fortune cookie files all over the net. And you can easily write your own cookie files with your own profound sentences and make them into .dat files with “Strfile” that is readable with “Fortune”. Take a look at the man fortune and man strfile. Unfortunately not all Unix systems today comes with the fortune app out the box – but then go and hunt for it!
Btw I found some profound quotes at the goblogua yesterday that I have compiled into a goblogua.zip file for download for use with the Fortune app (Right click to download – both files are used and remember to leave the .dat part out i.e. just Fortune goblogua ).
知人者智，
自知者明。
勝人者有力，
自勝者強。
知足者富。
強行者有志。
不失其所者久。
死而不亡者，
壽。
Knowing others is wisdom;
Knowing the self is enlightenment.
Mastering others requires force;
Mastering the self needs strength.
He who knows he has enough is rich.
Perseverance is a sign of willpower.
He who stays where he is endures.
To die but not to perish is to be eternally present.
Reference: Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching XXXIII ( Trans. Feng & English )
Over christmas I visited New Zealand and Japan. Two different worlds on the same small planet. New Zealand is something very special for the eyes of the spectator. Nature is undeniably present everywhere in New Zealand. Even in close proximity of the biggest city in New Zealand, Auckland with Skyscrapers, lots of busy people and the many impressions of metro life you can feel the great omnipresence of Nature. It took me less than 45 minutes in an old 4×4 from the center of town in Auckland to drive to Carri Carri Beach, a place where nature runs wild and man feels incredible small.
The drive towards and the view of Carri Carri Beach when I first wormed my way there is breathtaking.
Above: Thomas at Carri Carri Beach, New Zealand.
I left the summer in the suburbs of Auckland, New Zealand and traveled back east to find the winter in Tokyo, Japan. Getting lost in Tokyo in Japan is an overwhelming experience that I can recommend.
Above: A view down one of the narrow, charming and endless streets of Meijiro, Tokyo, Japan.
One day Chuang Tzu and a friend were walking by a river. “Look at the fish swimming about,” said Chuang Tzu, “They are really enjoying themselves.”
“You are not a fish,” replied the friend, “So you can’t truly know that they are enjoying themselves.”
“You are not me,” said Chuang Tzu. “So how do you know that I do not know that the fish are enjoying themselves?”
Terror is the word to use when governments wants to diminish or lift the burden of freedom rights from the people. The privacy that each and every person is guaranteed by law and human rights is an illusion for fools.
Your windows software is bugged so big brother can tap into your computer when ever he wants to. All new labtop computers have electronic hardware key-loggers that circumvent your system and collects your every keystroke and sends it to your favorite intelligence agency via your ethernet card as soon as you connect to the Internet.
So much for privacy..
Links:
Government and computer manufacturers caught installing hard-wired keystroke loggers into all new laptop computers! infowars.com 4. october 2005
Our internet secrets stored for decades Guardian 2. october 2005
Clarke tells MEPs to back EU anti-terror measures guardian 7. september 2005
Unlawful, unworkable, unnecessary Guardian 13. july 2005
Britain: a ‘surveillance society’ BBC 13. june 2005
How NSA access was built into Windows 4. september 1999
The most submissive thing in the world can ride roughshod over the hardest in the world – that which is without substance entering that which has no crevices.
That is why I know the benefit of resorting to no action. The teaching that uses no words, the benefit of resorting to no action, these are beyond the understanding of all but a very few in the world.
Lao Tse, Book 2, XLIII
(Translation D.C. Lau Penguin1963)
This spring I felt so lucky and blessed. A little sparrow came and sat in my hand and I fed it bread crumbs from my thumb. The tiny bird chewed away, looking at me as we where eternal friends, and it flew away. Minutes went by returning with his wife the 2 teeny sparrows chewed through my hand to my heart. Eventually the small beats flew away. Leaving my heart full of joy. Will I ever meet my friends again?
I asked myself this question. What is my answer?
I have come to believe that NOW is my aim, but I am still waiting.
I enjoy to have books recommended to me by people I do not necessarily know or even fundamentally agree whit. Sometimes what’s recommended is rubbish and sometimes I am pretty amassed to find out what I have been missing in the world of books.
When I was surfing the english book shelves in the main public library in Copenhagen, prompted in my mind by my own overwhelming ignorance of english written literature, reaching the letter F, I stumbled into a book of an to me unknown writer. To my luck the book was a laminated paperback, so I was able to read the recommendations and quotes from Canongate Books advertising effort on the back side. The publisher had among others picked a quote from the english newspaper Guardian which read: “This is man who could give Conrad a run at writing the perfect sentence… Room will now have to be made for Faber alongside Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, Irwine Welsh and A.L. Kenndy.” So this book went to the digital self-checkout-point in the library and followed me home.
I just finished Michel Faber’s “The Courage Consort” and I liked it. A wonderful tour of fucked up postmodern living in the 21. century, written whit great psychological insight in a wonderful shaped natural language with a refined sense of poetry, irony and humor.
Some people think reading books are a waste of time compared to real life! And they are not entirely wrong, but in the same time they are missing out on the subtle qualities of language, the human mind and simply the unknown. Sometimes you should allow yourself to be dazzled by the lengthy words of another spirit. When the conversation takes place inside your own head you somehow listen more carefully..
By the way have you read a book recently that you want to recommend?
Dear friends,
I am sorry for the fallout of dyhr.com for more than a month or so. It’s due to rather sudden and unforeseen circumstances. But we are up and running again!
Whenever I fall I must rise again.
Yours sincerely,
Thomas
Going left.. No! Driving right.. No! Thinking of flying straight!
Find center!
Relax the chest.
Raise the back.
Enclose the solar plexus.
Protect the cheekbones.
Lift the head.
Suspend solar plexus.
Loosen the shoulders.
Sink the elbows.
Be evasive.
Avoid conflict.
( Wu-Yü-hisiang )
Many qigon practitioners and masters skilled in the internal martial arts say that the most difficult position to achieve is Wu Chi – just normal stance!
Taiji is born of Wu Chi. It is the origin of dynamic and static states and the mother of yin and yang. If they move, they separate. If the remain static, they combine.
( Wangzongyue )
Stand with the feet in shoulder wide position. Big toes in line with nipples. The feet are pointing straight forward and are parallel. Do not let the toes point inward. The weight is evenly distributed on the hole foot of both feet.
The arms are hanging loose and relaxed in a normal position by the side of the body. ( After a while arms are naturally arching slightly to the front as a consequence of the flow of chi. Do not to force this posture or think of achieving it. Just think of the sensation and the new position of the arms as natural! ) Fingers are slightly extended (without stretching) and pointing down towards the earth. Keep your structure effortlessly.
Imagine that the top of the head is slightly pulled up by a golden cord or thread to heaven (Alternatively imagine your head is floating on water and the body settles underneath). Connecting heaven and earth.
Hips are settled and relaxed as if sitting on a horse. Wu Chi is sometimes referred to Ma Bu (horse stance). Tuck in the tailbone, but relax buttocks, straightening the lower part of the back into the ground. Bend the knees slightly so the tip of the knee is over the center of the foot. Knees must not stick out over the tip of the feet. The lower part of the back and hips are relaxed so you can move freely. Neither buttocks or the abdomen are sticking out.
Have a sensation of sinking or melting into the ground on the outside of the body. Have a sensation of inside structure growing up from the knees below ground up through the soil to heaven like the first spring seeds.
Angles, knees, hip, shoulder and ear are perfectly aligned in a straight line over each other. Align navel and nose as well.
Breathing is calm and normal. Your tongue optional touches palate behind the teeth. Send mind to the top of the head when breathing in. Energy stores in center an inch below the navel (Tan Tien). Mouth is closed. Make optional sound of HEN with breath when breathing in. Relax from the lower part of the back and feel the feet when breathing out. Relax chest. Mouth is closed or slightly open. Make optional sound of HA with breath. Observe the movements of Dantian. Keep calm, breath deeply like a long thread and gradually forget the breathing.
Be present in the body. If necessary send mind around as a repair unit or heat projector to relieve tension and open up joints and blockages all over in the body. Pain is normal, body can endure. Send mind to relieve tension by breathing in and out with the point in mention. Shoulders, knees, thighs and sole of feet is normal places of tension.
Relax the neck, chest, shoulders, sink the elbows, relax the hip, knees, angles and feet. Do not lock the joints. Keep the joint light and agile, they should feel like a balloon floating on air! Picture a thread from the knees to the heavens. Make soft upward pressure to the top of the head orginating from below the ground with the feet, angles and knees as gateways to relieve tensions. Make roots well below the ground from knees and down, rising steady like a tree above.
You are sitting on a balloon inflated whit hot air. In fact there are small balloons everywhere in and out of your body – under your armpit, around all joints, between fingers. Go ahead and find them! You are a one big balloon. Project your mind to the horizon. Keep a light natural smile on your face coming from within. Let go of all tensions in you body and mind.
Start standing in the beginning for 5 minutes in the morning then slowly increase to 30 minutes several times a day on your own convenience.
So simple, yet so difficult. Gradually, it seems that the boddy no longer exists, with a feeling of emtiness and transparency both inside and outside. Relax the body and mind, let the spirit raise to the top of the head and observe the wonders of the world without judgment.
We are centered, stable and still
as mountain.
Our Chi sinks to the tan-t’ien and
we are as suspended from above.
Our Spirit is concentrated within and
our outward manner perfectly composed.
Receiving and issuing energy are
both the work of an instant.
( T’an Meng-hsien )
Surely you are interested in good health both in body and mind.
People from all over the world in many separate cultures have been looking for hundreds of years, if not thousands of years, for ways to achieve unity of body and mind. One could think of every different system of exercise or mental practice as an independent road leading to the same destination. Who is to tell which is best?
Ancient China developed many systems that comes together under one description: Qigong
According to the Oxford dictionary Qigong is a Chinese system of physical exercises and breathing control related to Tai Chi.
In martial arts all the internal systems as Taiji, Ba Gua, Hising-I you will find emphasis on the cultivation of energy through Qigong (Chi Kung) exercises.
Qigong is a wonderful world to explore. The benefits of Qigong through rigorous practices is marvelous. Acscending up the staircase to heaven on pure energy. Even the first tiny steeps of Qigong can be felt in both body and mind. Transformation starts after a few months of practise.
Full of energy, full of potential,
Unity of body and mind.
No sense of loss or disconnection,
No self just smiling and happy.
A moment feels like an eternity. Eternity feels like a moment.
Recommended Books: Natural Healing with Qigong by Dr. Aihan Kuhn CMD. YMMA 2004, The way of Energy by Master Lam Kam Chuen
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