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Skyping with my Anna
Berlin, May 29, 2009.
Seeing her smile with
Bright eyes and a
Mouth like mine
Is enough to bring
Tears to my eyes.
“How are you doing?”
“How is your love life?”
“Work is going well”
“No man for a while”
“But I am fine, Dad”
“Really, I am fine.”
“And you, what’s new?”
“In my second 60 Jiazi cycle”
“I have learned something new”
“I did not know”
“How to love your Mum”
“When I was young”
“But now I know”
“It is not that difficult”
“All I have to do is to”
“Make a commitment”
“Be monogamous”
“Be honest and”
“Be myself”
“Trust and respect will follow.”
“That doesn’t sound very romantic.”
“No, it is not, but then”
“Love is not romance”
“I looked for the wrong thing”
“When I was young.”
Seeing her smile with
Bright eyes and a
Nose like mine,
Is enough to bring
Tears to my eyes.
I have been looking for a translation of what Wang Bi 王弼 has said about reading the Yijing 易經 in a chapter entitled Ming Xiang 明象 (Understanding the Images) appeared at the end of his commentaries, Zhouyi Zhu 周易註, finally I saw one in one of my friend Boyler’s postings and would like to share it here with everyone:
“Images are the means to express ideas. Words are the means to explain the images. To yield up ideas completely, there is nothing better than the images, to yield up the meaning of the images; there is nothing better than words.
The words are generated by the images, thus one can ponder the words and so observe what the images are. The images are generated by ideas, thus one can ponder the images and so observe what the ideas are. The ideas are yielded up completely by the images, and images are made explicit by the words.
Thus, since the words are the means to explain images, once one gets the images, he forgets the words, and since the images are means to allow us to concentrate on the ideas, once one gets the ideas, he forgets the images.
Similarly, ‘the rabbit snare exists for the sake of the rabbit; once one gets the rabbit, he forgets the snare. And the fish trap exist for sake of fish; once one gets the fish, he forgets the trap.’ If this is so, the words are snares for the images, and images are traps for the ideas.
Therefore someone who stays fixed on the words will not be one to get the images, and someone who stays fixes on the images will not be one to get the ideas.
The images are generated by the ideas, but if one stays fixed on the images themselves, then what he stays fixed on will not be images as we mean them here. The words are generated by the images, but if one stays fixed on the words themselves, then what he stays fixed on will not be words as we mean them here.
If this is so, then someone who forgets the images will be the one to get the ideas, and someone who forgets the words will be one to get the images.
Getting the ideas is in fact a matter of forgetting the images, and getting the images is in fact a matter of forgetting the words. Thus, although the images were established in order to yield up ideas completely, as images they may be forgotten.
Although the number of strokes were doubled in order to yield up all innate tendencies of things, as strokes they may be forgotten…”
Often we get caught up with words and images and forgot what the idea is all about, worse still, we read them too literally when the ancient Chinese used correlative thinking to deliver their ideas.
Some photos of the push hands we did in Munich last weekend (24-25 May). We took photos using a high speed camera showing students pushing me and then I push them and compare the two sets together to see how important it is to maintain one’s structural integrity as we push:
1st. May 2009
Today on top of this castle tower showed below* we came to study the “Xing Shi” (Form and Configuration) of this defence stronghold as part of the Unit 2 Feng Shui Professional Practitioners Course. Lidia Sarek, our Polish host, told us a funny story about modern understanding of Feng Shui.
She said she went to see a client earlier this year, the husband said to her, “So you do Feng Shui for a living, you know, I don’t believe in this superstitious rubbish!” Lidia tried her best to be polite and replied, “Oh, is that so? What do you do for a living?” The man replied, “I do something very different, I look for potential sites for MacDonald.”
Being a good-natured person Lidia just smiled. Little did the man know he is in the same profession as Lidia and if he bothers to study a little bit of Feng Shui, it might even improve his professional skill!
* Lipowiec Castle – built at the end of 13th. century, by Cracow bishop Jan Muskata. The fortress was intended to be the church’s administration centre and at the same time a frontier watchtower. It sits on a solid Black Turtle to the north and has a closer and higher Azure Dragon to the left and a lower and broader White Tiger to the right, overlooking a wide Mingtang to the south with the distant mountains holding the qi back towards the Xue, the Feng Shui Spot – a classic Siling model in the landscape.
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