Green Way

“I first met Chang San-Feng above the forest,
near the clear spring,
when gathering clouds darkened the day,
and Mt. Shasta was silent.

His long beard was black as emptiness,
ear lobes to his shoulders,
holding obsidian in his hand,
pointing to the sun,
eyes staring into infinity,
his long body clothed in silence.

We exchanged “hellos”
smiled and bowed,
a barbarian and an Immortal,
both panting from the climb,
laughing,
ten-thousand echoes
between our rocky minds.

After billions upon billions of heartbeats past
(for he must have been 888 years old),
I was so bold
as to ask the ancient one
for the sacred mantra of yore.
He lifted his whisk,
and brushed my face,
I could not speak,
my lips were stone,
ideas stopped -
I was alone.”
- Michael P. Garofalo, Meetings with Master Chang San-Feng

Mike Garofalo sometimes writes under the pen names of “The Green Wizard” or “Gushen Moon”

Is Mike really a wizard? Hah! Come, come, my dear friends. He, like like his lanky and legendary mentor, Grand Master Chang San Feng, just likes to keep on walking, gardening, dancing at dawn, playing taijiquan, creating, enjoying scholarly pursuits, Internetting, encouraging peaceful productivity, standing under the Gushen Moon, and letting others bang his brass wizard’s hat.

“Standing at the Mysterious Pass
Centered in the Eternal Now,
Balanced in Body and Open in Mind,
Rooted into the Sacred Space,
Motionless as the Golden Mountain,
Fingers around the Primeval Sphere.
Dragons and Tigers are still dreaming -
Ready for Rebirth.

I breathe in, the World Breathes Out.
The Gate of Space opens;
Heaven moves and Yang is born.
The hands move out, embracing the One.
The mind settles and is clear.
The Dragon Howls,
Ravens fill the Vast Cauldron,
Mind forms melt like mercury,
Spirit rises in the Clouds of Eternity.
Yin appears like the moon at dusk.

I breathe out, the World Breathes In.
The Doors of Emptiness close;
Earth quiets and Yin is born.
The hands move in, entering the One.
The body settles and becomes whole.
The Tiger Roars,
The Great Ox is nourished by the Valley Spirit,
Substances spark from flaming furnaces,
Essence roots in the Watery Flesh.
Yang appears like the sun at dawn.

Dragons and Tigers
Transformed within the Mysterious Pass -
Chanting and Purring.
Awakened,
Peaceful,
Free.”

- Michael P. Garofalo, Opening at the Mysterious Pass

Blog Search Terms: Green Wizard, Taoism, Poetry, Qigong, Druids.

The Spirit of Gardening

Cloud Hands: Taijiquan and Qigong

One Taoist Druid’s Journey - The Green Wizard’s Notebooks

Gushen Moon

Valley Spirit Center, Red Bluff, California

The Green Wizard Opens the Door

The Six Principles of Enlightened Living
The Six Perfections (Paramitas) in Mahayana Buddhism:

1. Generosity: charity, kind-hearted giving, altruism, unattached generosity, boundless
openness, unconditional love (Dana) .
2. Virtue: ethics, morality, self-discipline, not harming, proper conduct, impeccability (Sila).
3. Patience: tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance (Kshanti).
4. Energy: diligence, courage, enthusiasm, vigor, effort (Virya).
5. Meditation: absorption, concentration, presence of mind, contemplation (Dhyana).
6. Wisdom: transcendental wisdom, mystical insight, enlightenment (Prajna).

- Dzogchen Buddhism, Dharma Talk: Six Principles of Enlightened Living
and Six Perfections (c 50 CE)

Lifestyle Advice for Wise Persons

“The Partial within the True:
The blue sky clears and the River of Stars’ cold flood dries up.
At midnight the wooden boy pounds on the moon’s door.
In darkness the jade woman is startled from her sleep.

The True within the Partial:
Ocean and clouds rendezvous at the top of the spirit mountain.
The old woman returns with hair hanging down like white silk
And shyly faces the mirror coldly reflecting her image.”
- Zen Master Hongzhi, Cultivating the Empty Field

“Getting rid of things and clinging to emptiness
Is an illness of the same kind;
It is just like throwing oneself into a fire
To avoid being drowned.”
- Yungchia, Zen and Zen Classics, R. H. Blyth, Volume One, p. 63

Green Way Wisdom - Zen Poetry

“My daily activities are not unusual,
I’m just naturally in harmony with them.
Grasping nothing, discarding nothing…
Supernatural power and marvelous activity -
Drawing water and carrying firewood.”
- Layman Pang-yun (740-808)

“Like the little stream
Making its way
Through the mossy crevices
I, too, quietly
Turn clear and transparent

The wind has settled, the blossoms have fallen;
Birds sing, the mountains grow dark –
This is the wondrous power of Buddhism.”
- Ryokan

Green Way Wisdom - Zen

“This pure mind, which is the source of all things, shines forever with the radiance of its own perfection. But most people are not aware of it, and think that mind is just the faculty that sees, hears, feels, and knows. Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling, and knowing, they don’t perceive the radiance of the source. If they could eliminate all conceptual thinking, this source would appear, like the sun rising through the empty sky and illuminating the whole universe. Therefore, you students of the Tao who seek to understand through seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing, when your perceptions are cut off, your way to mind will be cut off and you will find nowhere to enter. Just realize that although mind is manifested in these perceptions, it is neither part of them nor separate from them. You shouldn’t try to analyze these perceptions, or think about them at all; but you shouldn’t seek the one mind apart from them. Don’t hold on to them or leave them behind or dwell in them or reject them. Above, below, and all around you, all things spontaneously exist, because there is nowhere outside the Buddha mind.”
- Huang Po, circa 830, translated by Stephen Mitchell

“Be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars.
In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.”
- Max Ehrmann

Green Way Wisdom - Zen Poetry

The Six Principles of Enlightened Living
The Six Perfections (Paramitas) in Mahayana Buddhism:

1. Generosity: charity, kind-hearted giving, altruism, unattached generosity, boundless
openness, unconditional love (Dana) .
2. Virtue: ethics, morality, self-discipline, not harming, proper conduct, impeccability (Sila).
3. Patience: tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance (Kshanti).
4. Energy: diligence, courage, enthusiasm, vigor, effort (Virya).
5. Meditation: absorption, concentration, presence of mind, contemplation (Dhyana).
6. Wisdom: transcendental wisdom, mystical insight, enlightenment (Prajna).

- Dzogchen Buddhism, Dharma Talk: Six Principles of Enlightened Living
and Six Perfections (c 50 CE)

Lifestyle Advice for Wise Persons

“This pure mind, which is the source of all things, shines forever with the radiance of its own perfection. But most people are not aware of it, and think that mind is just the faculty that sees, hears, feels, and knows. Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling, and knowing, they don’t perceive the radiance of the source. If they could eliminate all conceptual thinking, this source would appear, like the sun rising through the empty sky and illuminating the whole universe. Therefore, you students of the Tao who seek to understand through seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing, when your perceptions are cut off, your way to mind will be cut off and you will find nowhere to enter. Just realize that although mind is manifested in these perceptions, it is neither part of them nor separate from them. You shouldn’t try to analyze these perceptions, or think about them at all; but you shouldn’t seek the one mind apart from them. Don’t hold on to them or leave them behind or dwell in them or reject them. Above, below, and all around you, all things spontaneously exist, because there is nowhere outside the Buddha mind.”

- Huang Po, Huang-po Hsi-yun (?-849) was a Chinese Zen Master, and the teacher of Lin-chi (Rinzai). This translation is found in Stephen Mitchell’s The Enlightened Mind - An Anthology of Sacred Prose, Harper Perennial, 1991.

“A certain day became a presence
to me; there it was, confronting me — a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task. The day’s blow
rang out, metallic — or it was I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I can.”

Denise Levertov, Variation on a Theme by Rilke
(The Book of Hours, Book I, Poem 1, Stanza 1)

Green Way Wisdom - Spirituality

“To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly. When you first seek dharma, you imagine you are far away from its environs. At the moment when dharma is correctly transmitted, you are immediately your original self.”
- Translated by Robert Aitken and Kazuaki Tanahashi.

Genjo Koan
By Zen Master Dogen

The Mother of All Buddhas

A version of the Heart Sutra, created by Morgan Nels,
based on a translation by Red Pine.

Avalokiteshvara, Awakened One—
reincarnation of Maya, Mother of Shakyamuni—
while practicing the Perfection of Awareness,
looked upon the aspects of reality mistaken for a self
and seeing they were empty of self-existence,
said, “Here, Shariputra,
matter is emptiness, emptiness is matter;
emptiness is not separate from matter, matter is not separate from emptiness
whatever is matter is emptiness, whatever is emptiness is matter.
The same holds true for energy and emotion, thought and spirit.

Here, Shariputra, all reality is defined by emptiness
not started or finished, natural or artificial, sacred or profane.

Therefore, Shariputra, in emptiness there is no matter,
no energy, no emotion, no thought, and no spirit;
no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no hand, and no mind;
no image, no sound, no smell, no taste, no feeling, and no idea;
no perception, from visual recognition to abstract understanding;
no causation, from ignorance to decay and death,
and no end of causation, from ignorance to decay and death;
no symptom, no cause, no cure, no treatment;
no wisdom, no achievement, and no failure.

Therefore, Shariputra, without achievement,
awakened ones know Perfect Awareness
and live without cave walls.
Without cave walls and so without fears,
they go beyond delusions and even Paradise.

All buddhas past, present, and future
also know Perfect Awareness
and realize unsurpassed, simple enlightenment.

You should therefore know the great spell of Perfect Awareness,
the spell of great magic,
the unsurpassed spell,
the spell containing what cannot be contained,
which resolves all suffering and is true, not false,
the spell of Perfect Awareness said this way:

Gone gone, beyond gone, entirely beyond gone, awakening is so.”

Green Way Wisdom: The Heart Sutra - Buddhist Scripture