Winter, Kidney and Hair : what’s in common ?

Dear Friends,
  image from thebeautybrains.com
In most circumstances, I guess it is hard for people to generally connect winter and hair.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, this is fundamental and health 101.
In postings The 5 Pointers: South, North, East, West & Middle and Harmonious Cosmic Motion, I dealt with basic stuff of space-time and natural cycle and their corresponding influence on [...]

Character of Winter

 
  image from www.english-test.net
For those who live in North Asia of Northern part of North America, they probably have just enjoyed the most beautiful season in the year with autumn red leaves in full display. Thise in Japan, Korea, Northern China and Canada are some of the most spectacular.
For this year, we will be entering the [...]

Black Swan : Black or White

Dear Friends,
   image from www.wwt.org.uk
 
Swan is always associated with the color White for a long long time, until someone spotted a black swan in Australia.
Some may argue that black swan is NOT “swan” because it does not have color white that has been very much a package of  “swan characteristics”. Maybe it should be called [...]

PRC : 60th Birthday (一甲子, “yi jia-zi”)

Dear Friends,
   image from shanghaiist.com
Today  The People’s Republic of China celebrated its 60th birthday. It is a spectacular, comparing the moment Chairman Mao Zedong declared the birth of the PRC and how far China has come to achieve against the various odds.
Some people have tried to explain that “中国” is short-form for ”中华人民共和国 ”, which of course [...]

Natural Cosmetics : How to keep your facial luster

Dear Friends,
  image from hairstyle.com
ch advised us that she has opened her shop in the posh neighbourhood of Aoyama in Tokyo.
Since she is a skin specialist, I guess given the timing of the natural forces of the 5th Major Qi Period (Dryness and Cold), it would appear her timing is impeccable, as this the environment [...]

Caster Semenya : What’s the problem?

Dear Friends,
image from telegraph.co.uk
In posting  Sexual Orientation and Kaleidoscope (Feb 29, 2008) I tried to look at Sexual Orientation from the perspective of  道 (“Dao”).
In the logics of Dao, Yin contains element of Yang, likewise Yang contains element of Yin.
This is best illustrated by the 太极阴阳 (“Taiji Yin-Yang”) diagram :
image from zh.wikipedia.

From the above [...]

Autumn ：秋 (“Qiu”)

Dear Friends,
                                                                                      
 
                                          
 
image from  zhounaidong.blog.sohu.com  / www.chinaqw.com
秋 (“qiu”), autumn in Chinese, is a very important word in Chinese culture.
For one thing, it is the harvesting time (秋收, “qiu-shou”), one of the happiest moment for people in a year in rural China or in agricultural based China.
(Note the phrase 王以民为天,民以食为天, ie The subject is [...]

Retreating to Autumn: 白露 (Bai-lu)

Dear Friends,
    image from flickr.com/photos
Next Monday (Sept 7) will be 白露 (Bai-lu), which technically means we will be seeing dew forming in the early morning as we enter Autumn.
After the 处暑 (Chu-shu, Aug 23) heat hitting close to the Earth surface, this heat will be penetrating the surface and descending further after 秋分 (Qiu-fen, [...]

Michael Jackson, King of Pop, King of Heart

Dear Friends,
  image from pitchfork.com 
There is immediate affinity with Michael Jackson for those of us who have grown with him through the same time-space. (re space-time, read posting Walking with Empress Cixi (象) ).
Personally I like mostly his pre-Thriller numbers like:

Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough,
Off The Wall
Beat It,
Billie Jeans

One has to respect his ability to connect with [...]

Black or White: 泰否 Dynamics

Dear Friends,
              
             泰                               否
The above two diagrams represent 2 of the 64 卦 (gua) in The Book of Change, i.e. that of  泰 (tai gua) and 否 (bi gua) respectively.

泰 (tai) means everything is going right in one’s way, everything is just right, peace.  The 3 solid lines below represent Yang energy and the 3 broken [...]