Tao Character

We learned to write this one for our Foundations of Chinese Medicine class.

To read it, start by looking at the top right:
Two eyes (above the vertical line)
Become one (the vertical line and the small stroke under it)
To look into oneself (the square form with 4 horizontal lines through it)

And reveal (now look at the top left)
The path (bottom line)

There's an excellent site that shows how the character is drawn (link at top), scroll down to the letter D, it is the 4th Dao mentioned (different tone, different word! But more about this later).
Kids, do practice this at home! There's a strange sense of achievement when you're able to draw this one :)

Buddhism, the right way

Today I arrived in Foundations of Chinese Medicine class, ready (sort of) to take a quiz. I like this class a lot because the teacher actually lived in China for a bunch of years, which made him lose all the "a" "is" "and" "to" when he's speaking in English. (try it - this is a table = this table! you need to go = you need go! and so on). Of course, he's an American of Irish decent. But that is not the reason why I like the class - I suspect it's because on some level, it reminds me of spiritual stuff that I've studied/stumbled upon/crashed into over the years. And there's a whole lot more.
Anyway, hearing someone talk about living in a monastery in Thailand for 3 years can be interesting, especially if the person is passionate. But experiencing is so much better. When I was studying the 4 Noble Truths of Buddhism, and the 8-Fold Path - more so, trying to cram it into my brain - I thought to myself, this is not the way to study this. An image of a blackboard on a street in Kathmandu saying: "Tonight, the 4 Noble Truths" kept coming up in my brain. That was from... more than 10 years ago! So I was really glad when the teacher (or Lau Shi! in Chinese) announced in class that he's giving us a home assignment instead of the quiz, and blowing the syllabus out the window - we're going to study this the right way - through experience.
We went into deep guided meditation, going through the yin organs - liver, spleen (stomach), kidneys, heart & lungs. Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM for short, states that there is an emotion connected to each organ. Left unexpressed, this emotion can cause energy - or Qi (pronounced chi) - to stagnate, or impede the flow of Qi, as well other functions of the organs.
Each organ connects to a color as well. This practice was so powerful for me, that when it was over I wasn't sure what to do with myself. I put my head on the table at first. We got a 20 minute break, so I got out of the building, for some fresh air. Of course New York today was at 32 Fahrenheit, or 0 Celsius. But I was so happy! I really felt that some stagnant emotions made their way out. I went running in the park! Me, running! Depending on your level of acquaintance with me, you might know this is not a thing I do, like, ever. But it felt so good!
The last hour of class, we did some I-Ching. But that would have to wait for another post. Fun!

The 4 Noble Truths:
1. Life is Dukkha (originally I learned Dukkha meant Suffering. My teacher insists Dukkha means continuity: we are attached to things in our physical lives, therefore we keep being reborn
2. The origin of Dukkha is attachment
3. Cessation of Dukkha is attainable
4. The path to cessation of Dukkha is the 8 Fold Path

The 8 Fold Path:
1. The right view
2. The right thoughts
3. The right speech
4. The right actions
5. The right livelihood
6. The right effort
7. Mindfulness
8. Connections