Irregular Wisdom Office Hours. I ask unplanned general & specific questions for your wisdom & you ask me. In the meantime we share openly -- likely from whatever is currently happening -- to get at our wisdom

In this nineteenth installment of the ongoing live series with Wendy Nash inquiring into meditation practice on and off the cushion we explore the ins and outs, ups and downs, and pros and cons of augmented meditation methods, mostly from an outsiders perspective -- things like: brain wave binaural beats, isochronic tones, using specific (chakra) frequencies, lucid dreaming devices, sensory deprivation tanks, biofeedback devices, gongs, singing and crystal bowls, Native American flutes, tuning forks, didgeridoo, hand pan drums, music in general and more. Wendy mentions Dream Yoga: Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep by https://www.andrewholecek.com Original blog post: https://integratingpresence.com/2024/03/17/augmented-meditation-methods-meditation-q-and-a-19/

For this month’s regular open-audience, open-discussion “Ask Us Anything” — continuing discussions about meditation and related topics — Denny presents the long standing Five Element system mostly in terms of astrology, Qi and the body — an expansion on his article Qi and the “Real” Organs — with me commenting along the way until the show ends prematurely due to unknown technicalities with live streaming services. Denny amended the video solo to wrap up. My closing comments are tacked on in the audio only version available as podcast and at https://integratingpresence.com/2021/08/30/qi-and-astrology-8-31-2021-ask-us-anything-live-with-denny-k-miu/ Topics include: -Galileo, telescopes, Copernicus, Heliocentrism -Friends and associates (known and unknown) as well as public and private societies involved in the rise to popularity of certain historical figures -Differences and similarities with astrology and astronomy and religion’s influences -History is (re)written by the victors (usually with agenda) -Western astrology sometimes not in accord with actual positioning of space object -Chinese 12 deities or 12 zodiac system -How leap year factors into Denny’s building of a clock chip in experimental physics lab -Five Elements (/materials/ phases/ liveliness/ movements/ behaviors/ interactions/ etc) of water, metal, fire, wood, earth and their correspondence to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn respectively Using this system on the surface with next step maybe being verifying it in one’s own experience and eventually maybe even investigating how this system was discovered, assembled and propagated -The organs and elements’ relation to emotions -“Treasure Organs” and “Vessel Organs” -Various bodily/organ essences -Role of kidneys in marrow -The ambiguity in translating Chinese, for example the two relationships between elements translated three ways as 1) nourishes, suppresses 2) supports, opposes 3) generating interaction; overcoming interaction Role and influence of teachers and how they teach such as from the book and from experience -Displaying of physical metals -Micro (and Macro) Cosmic Orbit; a famous chart displaying this and its possible origins -8 immortals -Synthesis of: --Taoism (understanding how the Dantian is the treasure) --Zen (difference of pain and suffering / sensation vs perception) --Confucianism -Lü Dongbin -Dantian -Bodhidharma -External and internal Eastern alchemy -Daoyin -Energy; and deep meditation as tool to discover and know all this -How Denny learned Micro Cosmic Orbit -Relationships and translations of yin and yang and how this applies to the body -Organs and meridians as understood by function -Modern Western alchemy as mostly internal alchemy -Masculine and feminine distinctions as applied to many of these topics and beyond -Various past AUAs on Qi as well as Bodhidharma and Zen -Eastern medicine in context of Western medicine and where it may be going -Various definitions of Qi: --maybe mystical --(but mostly:) ---air ---breathing ---rice ---external substances brought into the body ---no fire/lack of fire ---circulation (between kidney/water, heart/fire and lung/metal metabolic harmony (between kidney/water, Earth/spleen and liver/wood) ======================== Other questions and points (most left unmentioned in the video version): -Variations on theories of astrologers. How some correlate and build on each other; how some oppose; and how they evolved and devolved over time -Why is the air element missing in this element system? -When pentagram/pentagon diagram arrows reverse so do the interacting relationships between elements -Do the different time zones and locations on Earth make a significant difference for what optimal time periods correspond with various body, organ/meridian functions? Why or why not and how? Is only one time zone in China relevant to this? -Fond of Denny’s translation of Triple Focus for what’s usually translated as Triple Burner -Perhaps possible similarities in the Distillation, Fermentation, and Calcination stages of the 7 stages of Western alchemy relating to fog (upper burner), foam (middle burner) and gutter (lower burner) respectively -Noticing the vast benefits for ourselves and others from using this Five Element system and when we may be clinging to it; ignoring/rejecting something that seems to run contrary to it; and/or only categorizing (experiences and phenomena) in terms of the Five Elements as a replacement for not investigating for one’s self -How does using disorder as in “Metabolic Disorder” and “Lifestyle Disorder” help wake one up to motivate healthy, beneficial changes and how much does it promote unnecessary psychological shame, blame and guilt thus influencing/impacting physiology? ========= Links, slides, images, and audio version for this AUA along with related content: https://integratingpresence.com/2021/08/30/qi-and-astrology-8-31-2021-ask-us-anything-live-with-denny-k-miu/