Gardening at Dragon's Gate

--by Ecoliteracy.org, syndicated from ecoliteracy.org, Jan 30, 2014

I lived and gardened at Green Gulch Farm for twenty-five years, settling my life, practicing Zen, and deepening my understanding of the earth under my fingernails.

Green Gulch has a second name, one woven out of poetry and meditation practice: Soryu-ji, or Green Dragon Zen Temple. I love this name that so deftly describes the sinuous valley of Green Gulch, which uncoils between high, dry hills like an ancient green dragon with its tail stirring the sea and its fire-breathing head held high in the mysterious clouds that rise like primordial vapor from the coastal mountains. I now make my primary garden at my home a scant mile north of Green Gulch, almost where the dragon's tail lashes the sea.

This book is about gardening at the dragon's gate, where every leaf, every big-eyed bug, every rusty wheelbarrow is both utterly familiar and strangely new at the same time. Gardening at the dragon's gate is fundamental work that permeates your entire life. It demands your energy and heart, and it gives you back great treasures as well, like a fortified sense of humor, an appreciation for paradox, and a huge harvest of 'Dinosaurs' kale and tiny red potatoes.

Gardening is all about picking and choosing and following our passion. Some very basic principles inform how I garden. They come out of my love for gardening and for the world. Today I count seven principles. Tomorrow there may be eight or nine, because they arise out of an untamed rootstock from below the bottom of time.

My first principle is to learn gardening from the wilderness outside the garden gate. As I work to keep the links alive between the wild land and the cultivated row, I get my clearest gardening instruction from listening to the voice of the watershed that surrounds our garden. I know that January is the time to prune our Japanese 'Elephant Heart' plum in the garden, but just when in January is always linked to noticing when the first white blossoms appear on the wild plum tree. I mark it on my calendar and sharpen my red pruning shears, because in two weeks the 'Elephant Heart' plum will flower in turn.

There is very little true wilderness remaining in the modern world. And yet when Thoreau says, "In wildness is the preservation of the world," he reminds me that wildness, at least, persists. It endures underneath the paved-over pathways of our cities as well as on the fringe of urban farmland. It persists in patches, sumps, and wallows, in weedy tangles everywhere on Earth. Staying in relationship to the uncultivated world is a primary principle for me as I garden domesticated land.

In honor of wildness inside and outside the garden gate, every spring I leave a random corner of our garden untended. I let it go into a neglected tangle. Throughout the growing season I pass by this fallow spit of wildness and it feeds my somewhat fierce soul. In early autumn, when I am obsessed with our latest harvest of slim, white-stockinged leeks and golden beets, I look across the ordered rows of the garden to that far tangle of seedy cow parsnip and dry skunkweed and my wild roots stir back to life.

My second principle is to garden organically, always within the ample embrace of nature, without relying on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. Organic gardening and ecological farming is rooted in and encourages local stewardship and protection of land and water resources; it works in harmony with natural ecosystems to sustain diversity, complexity, and real health in the garden and in the wider community. Even now when organic gardening is no longer considered a marginal endeavor, it is essential to support organic farms and farmers in order to assure food security and safety over the long haul. Growing food organically and eating conscientiously are political acts that help to establish and ensure social, economic, and ecological justice.

My third principle is to know the soil where I work in every way. Composed of clouds of countless, invisible microorganisms digesting the land and running it through their intestines, soil is feces, and within the body of soil, all beings garden. Remembering as I work that there are more microorganisms in one cup of fertile garden soil than there are human beings on the planet Earth, I have a fresh view of my own scale and context in the life of the garden.

To know your soil is to work with the land and to let the land work you as well. How you cultivate your ground depends on you — maybe you will dig down deep like a joyous, unleashed dog and mound up your garden as we love to do at Green Gulch, or perhaps you will choose to create a long-term, slow-pulsed permaculture garden with soil that is hardly moved at all. What matters most is that you are in relationship with your land and listening to the soil as you work, finding your true place in the body of your garden.

My fourth principle is to feed the soil and to work to build fertile land, not just to grow crops. An old Japanese proverb says a poor farmer grows weeds, a mediocre farmer grows crops, and a good farmer grows soil. Organic gardeners "grow soil" by planting a green mantle of cover crops on the ground to build fertility year round. We also cultivate deep-rooted crops like Burdock and American sweet clover, which break up hardpan and consolidate minerals and nitrogen in their roots. Sometimes we help build fertile soil by stepping back and fallowing land, letting it rest for a season or two. But most of all, we build soil by making compost piles and celebrating decay. "Life into death into life" is the organic gardener's motto for the work happening to every compost pile built out of raw garbage and layered straw. This work is so fundamental to our gardening tradition at Green Gulch that we often joke that even though we don't proselytize about Zen we certainly do preach the gospel of hot compost.

My fifth gardening principle is to welcome diversity into the garden. I have a passion for preserving and culturing biological diversity in the plant kingdom — without a "king," all plants are kin — for growing a wide range of plants from seed and for supporting small seed companies that make a special effort to protect heritage varieties. Eighty percent of all the vegetable varieties that were available in the United States in 1900 have now disappeared, due to a huge centralization of the seed trade in the hands of a very few multinational corporations. Even while I inveigh against the erosion of genetic diversity and the unmonitored modification of crops, I also remember that agriculture is 15,000 years old, grounded in biological diversity and fueled by the determination of gardeners worldwide to protect and encourage this diversity.

My sixth gardening principle is to slow down and invite the unknown, the unwelcome, and the failed into the life of the garden. When you garden at the dragon's gate you have no other choice but to do this, so you might as well be gracious and willing to be undone. At Green Gulch and the school and public urban plots where I garden, I work with all kinds of people. I have learned to trust and to garden with whoever shows up. We are never in control of the garden, anyway, so why not yield to the mystery of transformation? I have seen a sixty-three-year-old woman with pneumonia come back to health dead-heading white cosmos hour after hour to provide fresh flowers for the zendo altar. And I've witnessed an unhappy six-year-old hellion become a gallant angel by rescuing and caring for a newt about to be mangled by the garden lawn mower.

We live in a nonrepeating universe, a world where we learn as much from failure as from success. Corn-gobbling blue jays and other garden pests serve as fine teachers and so do failed 'Easter Egg' radishes, crimson, white, and dark purple, laid out in worm-eaten decrepitude on a chipped platter. "Life is one continuous mistake," Shunryi Suzuki Roshi, the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, used to remind his students. When he shopped he sought out the rattiest vegetables at market, all the discarded and maimed culls, and his meditation grew strong, nourished by the continuous mistakes of human life.

My seventh principle is generosity with the harvest. In the biblical book of Leviticus, one of the laws of Jewish life was not to cut the corners of the fields after the main harvest but to leave them standing so there would be food to be gleaned by the hungry, the lonely, and the stranger. I treasure this old admonition to share the bounty of the garden harvest with all beings; it reminds me not to cut corners and to garden wholeheartedly for the benefit of both the visible and the invisible hungry world.

This essay is excerpted with permission from Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World (2008, the Bantam, Dell Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.).

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The Center for Ecoliteracy supports and advances education for sustainable living. You can follow its work at www.twitter.com/ecoliteracy  

Milk Thistle Cardo-mariano Posted: 15 Nov 2013 10:56 AM PST Nome popular: Cardo-mariano Nome científico: Silybum mariano É chamado cardo-mariano por causas daquelas nervuras brancas que tem nas suas folhas, que acreditava-se que o leite de Maria amamentando Jesus tinha caído em cima da planta. Suas folhas tem nervuras e pontos brancos que se parecem com gotas de leite. É mais conhecida por fazer aumentar o fluxo de leite em mulheres que amamentam, e também pelo seu poder contra doenças hepáticas (fígado). cardo-marianc As partes usadas na medicina alternativa são as sementes, as folhas e as flores da planta. Suas flores são muito consumidas em saladas, que na antiguidade era usada para tratar angústia, melancolia, depressão e excesso de bílis negra (líquido geralmente amarelo-esverdeado que tem na vesícula biliar, que constitui o sistema hepático). Contém princípios amargos É Eficaz para ser usada por pessoas que tem câncer, antes e depois da quimioterapia. É uma

Iboga, the Matrix, and Pineal Gland Decalcification

January 24, 2014 | By WakingTimes | 20 Replies

Daniel Raphael & Dylan Charles, Staff
Waking Times

The pineal gland has been at the core of spiritual traditions dating back thousands of years, spanning all inhabited continents. Prominently carved onto Buddhist statues, ceremoniously painted onto tribal faces, and deceptively displayed in the Vatican square, the pineal gland, known as the Third Eye, or Seat of the Soul, is still shrouded in mystery.

One of the culprits to the endless poverty, warfare, and illness in society today lies in humanity's collective disconnection from their soul and their true divine nature. The key to awakening from this destructive dream lies in the pineal gland, a crystalline, cosmic antenna integrating multidimensional life-source into our five sense reality. Throughout the past few decades however, fluoride and other toxins have calcified this soul-gate, blocking many human beings from their divine guidance and limiting their personal power.

Iboga is an ancient shamanic plant medicine derived from the root bark of a curious tree, the Tabernanthe Iboga, which has been used for millenia by the Bwiti tribe of Equatorial West Africa as a ceremonial sacrament. Taken for its vast physical and psychological healing properties and as a right of passage and introduction to the spirit world, it opens the third eye and awakens one to their true spiritual nature. When ingested, the spirit of the plant awakens, projecting a celestial film within the mind's eye of the initiate, teaching experientially through holographic vision and divine dialog. Also ridding the body of mind-numbing toxins, and freeing the mind from detrimental programming and limiting beliefs, this plant medicine offers serious promise as a tool for Western seekers in our collective quest to break free from the matrix and reconnect with Mother Earth.

Fluoride and the War on Consciousness

As renowned author and historian Graham Hancock explains in his banned TED talk, The War on Consciousness there is a deliberate effort to prevent sovereign individuals from exploring the vast potential of their own minds. To control a population, the masses must be programmed through spells conjured up by a corrupt corporate media, cultural programs of self-destruction, and the diabolical manipulation of the noosphere. The operating system of the mind is accessed through language, and one's reality is a combination of the filters, biases and belief systems learned from the dominant conversations in a society. Whom ever controls the language of a society creates the reality for its members.

To further influence the consciousness of human kind in our seemingly backwards world, the mind is targeted and weakened by an onslaught of toxicity. Sodium fluoride, an inorganic chemical compound and toxic waste product of the aluminum industry, is one of the main toxins used by the elite to increase our susceptibility to subliminal messages and mind control. By narcotizing an area in the left occipital lobe of the brain, fluoride makes people docile, passive, disconnected, and obedient.

Click to Enlarge

Fluoride is widely used nowadays as one of the basic ingredients in Prozac (Fluoxetene Hydrochloride) and other psycho-tropic drugs, and is also a key ingredient in rat poison and sarin nerve gas (Isopropyl-Methyl-Phosphoryl Fluoride). Oddly it is also a common additive to municipal drinking water in the United States and other nations, ostensibly to protect public health by fortifying teeth. Multiple scientific studies in recent years have proven that fluoride causes a slew of health conditions as well as significantly lowering the IQ points of its unsuspecting victims, which is why there is a growing popular movement to end fluoridation of public water supplies.

The first use of fluoridated drinking water occurred in Germany's Nazi prison camps by the Gestapo who used fluoride to sterilize humans and force people into submission.

Charles Perkins, a US chemist explains the dangers of fluoride in 1954:

"I was told of this entire scheme by a German chemist who was an official of the great IG Farben chemical industries and was also prominent in the Nazi movement at the time. I say this with all the earnestness and sincerity of a scientist who has spent nearly 20 years research into the chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and pathology of fluorine–any person who drinks artificially fluorinated water for a period of one year or more will never again be the same person mentally or physically." [Source]

An even more damaging effect of fluoride exposure is calcification of the pineal gland, which separates a person from their spiritual nature. Fluoride encapsulates the pineal gland in an artificial shell, physically disconnecting the soul and higher consciousness from the bio-computer known as the brain. Without access to the soul, the human brain becomes mechanical, robotic and conscienceless in it's operation, rendered a tool easily controlled by social programming and mind control.

The end game of mass fluoride poisoning is the creation of a population of submissive, obedient, un-intelligent workers, rather than true thinkers, warriors, artists, and heroes. This is evident in our modern cities where once lively human beings now appear as self-regulating zombies, slaves in a spiritless matrix of consumerism and competition .

Decalcification Protocols: Unlocking the Soul

Most people's pineal glands are heavily calcified by the time they are 17 years old, so much so that it appears as a solid lump of calcium during an MRI scan. There are many practical methods and supplements available to seekers who wish to fully reawaken their spiritual essence, and for seekers on the path toward truth and enlightenment, purification of this spiritual organ is an absolute must.

Skate liver oil for pineal decalcification was popularized by government insider Pete Peterson and contains a compound known as Activator X which allows the body to remove calcium deposits from various locations. Iodine has been clinically proven to increase the removal of sodium fluoride from the body via urine as calcium fluoride. Tamarind also helps in releasing fluoride through the urine. Boron, found to be powerfully effective in the form of Borax Decahydrate, reduces excessive calcification of the pineal gland while also helping magnesium access cells to further remove calcium deposits. While supplements can be effective at detoxifying the pineal gland, however, people often report mixed results with them as it may take years to achieve noticeable results.

In addition to modern supplements for cleansing the pineal gland, the plant medicine Iboga is undoubtedly a very effective agent in re-awakening one's connection to spirituality, and initiates routinely have powerful spiritual experiences within just a few sessions with this ancient medicine teacher.

Studies with Iboga for pineal decalcification have yet to be conducted, however, anecdotal evidence has raised attention to its potential. Various paranormal and spiritual phenomena occur during Iboga journeys, from out of body experiences, remote viewing and seeing through walls, vivid full spectrum life review, speaking with spirits and ancestors, and accessing outside information. These mystical phenomenon are linked to the powerful spiritual awakening induced by Iboga journeys, and the detoxification of the body's spiritual organs.

Iboga Neuroscience – the Tree of Life


Ibogaine, the active alkaloid in Iboga, influences the neurological processes involved in learning addictive behavior and can reveal the deepest layers of one's mental and habitual programming. Through NMDA receptors, Ibogaine influences the process of long-term potentiation, a long-lasting enhancement in signal transmission between two neurons which increases neuroplasticity, strengthening the synaptic signals, therefore augmenting learning and memory.

Ibogaine has been found to increase levels of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, or GDNF, which promotes the survival and replenishment of many types of neurons. A single dose of ibogaine can increase GDNF expression for weeks, depending on dosage. Ibogaine is also highly lipophilic and remains in body fat for months, gradually being released, further extending its influence on GDNF expression. Patents are currently pending on Iboga alkaloids to reverse or treat dementia, Alzheimer's, depression, and ADHD, and the compound is widely respected as an effective agent in treating serious drug addictions.

Furthermore, certain mental illnesses and psychiatric conditions may be remedied with Iboga. It is common for people with depersonalization, a relatively new psychological disorder where one feels disconnected from his or her own self and the outside world, to find immediate, powerful and lasting relief with Iboga. It is thought that this new psychological condition along with several others is caused at least in part by pineal gland calcification and often triggered by a traumatic event. Additionally, clearer, more three-dimensional vision, a new baby-like sensitivity to life, and feelings of having an open heart are often reported the day after a spiritual Iboga journey.

Long term, if not permanent effects include increased psychic sensitivity, the ability to visualize internally in crystal clarity, and an increased magnetism for manifestation. Greater intelligence, clearing of brain fog, eloquence in speech, and a lighter, more youthful energy are also often reported. The most important effect of Iboga is the reconnection to free will. Many go in thinking they are free and come out realizing the thousands of choices they make each day are a result of reacting to programming and cultural narratives that are fabricated deceptions aimed at limiting personal liberty.

Although the actual journey is intense, including possible purging and nausea if your body needs to clear toxins, the experience is rarely described as scary, although a common somewhat frightening aspect commonly occurs the day after when an initiate experiences thoughts such as, "what if I hadn't done this? What blind path I would have continued on, if I didn't see what I just saw." One often wakes from a dream that she did not know was a dream, is left breathless and surrounded by a higher actuality. 

During the Iboga journey, many people do not experience deep spiritual journeys their first time since the medicine must clear and detox the body first, resurfacing cellular receptor sites, removing mercury and aluminum from the muscles and blood, and killing off parasites, candida, and other low-vibration microorganisms. Once the body is relatively clean, the medicine then can reach the mind and soul. Some people describe it as ten years of psychotherapy in one night since the rhythm of thoughts and revelations appear fast and frequently, unceasingly bursting one's bubble with simple, objective dialog. Unlike the lyrical, abstract visions common to Mother Ayahuasca, Iboga teaches through direct, logical information downloads and is known as the "Father" teacher.

Holographic Teachings

Tapping into your own database of memories, memes, and anchor points, the spirit of Iboga crystallizes momentous visuals on your inner chalk board, while many also hear a telepathic voice of truth both answering questions and pointing out blind spots over the course of a single session which can last up to 36 hours depending on your sensitivity, dose, and current state of consciousness. During this time, arrows of truth incessantly pierce your dream-like bubbles, but these arrows are coated with love's varnish, and shot by an omniscient bowman who already knows what you are ready to see. Your emotional body is also temporarily relieved through this experience so that you can observe and process past trauma in a near-instant and smoother process without getting caught up in old triggers and tears. This allows you to glide fast through the multitude of blocks you may have, for there is much work to be done.

Time slows down on Iboga, and while you lie consciously awake and in control, your brain remains in an REM dream state where you have both read/write access to your subconscious mind's hard drive. Virtually everyone the morning after Iboga who listens to music remarks that the music sounds twice as fast. This is because time actually stretches out in your personal reality, but music and clocks remain relative. Visual tracers are also quite common on the medicine, as you can see the reflection of the past in each moment, and each thought and lesson is processed in a more advanced, cyclical nature, instead of linearly.

When experienced in a group setting with absolute trust and love, a collective psychic grid is created where concepts, Matrix-busting revelations, and healing love-webs can be instantly shared with the group. Often times the group simultaneously voices the same revelation as information is shared freely and each member becomes open-source, as she opens up to source in a Golden Age bubble crafted by the experience. Seeing, moving, and speaking in this state can be best described as fractal, fluid, and holographic.

Do you Hear the Hero's Call?

Do you feel the call to taste the tree of life? There are several options for experiencing an Iboga journey in a guided setting, as undergoing a journey alone is not recommended or safe. Handfuls of ibogaine clinics have popped up in recent years, mostly geared towards treating drug addicts, and largely devoid of the medicines true spiritual context. It is recommended to keep clear of medical-style clinics if spiritual awakening, heart opening, and soul connection is what you seek. Using the full root bark of the Iboga tree or at least the total alkaloid extract ensures the spirit of the plant is intact and available, while also holistically utilizing the dozen other alkaloids that the plant has to offer.

Some feel called to experience the full Iboga initiation in Gabon, Africa. A good place to start your research would be Ebando, which has offered heart-felt initiation ceremonies for many years. Full initiation ceremonies differ by tribe and region and can last several weeks and include ingesting 5-10 times more Iboga than a typical Iboga center in the West offers. Most people do not feel ready to fly to Africa and experience this intense journey.

Shamanic Iboga centers such as those in Central America offer a bridge for Westerners, as people from the West have their own set of problems including many new psychological ailments and toxicity-induced diseases. Some get what they want in one journey, but most require several journeys to cleanse their body before experiencing the spiritual awakening that can be breath-taking and unbelievably liberating.

In the end it is important to follow your own intuition, and realize Iboga, like other plant technologies, is simply a tool. As Aikido master Morihei Ueshiba once said, "Loyalty and devotion lead to bravery. Bravery leads to the spirit of self-sacrifice. The spirit of self-sacrifice creates trust in the power of love." In the end your own dedication, self-inquiry, and openness to love will determine the speed and depth of your healing and awakening. Iboga simply lifts the fog, revealing the hero within.

About the Author

Daniel Raphael is a shamanic apprentice who currently co-facilitates shamanic journey retreats and pineal decalcification with Iboga at a plant medicine retreat center in Costa Rica. He splits his time between California, Costa Rica, and Gabon where he continues his training with the Bwiti tribes. He can be contacted at daniel@ibogalove.com.

Dylan Charles is a student and teacher of Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Qi Gong, a practitioner of Yoga and Taoist esoteric arts, and an activist and idealist passionately engaged in the struggle for a more sustainable and just world for future generations. He is the editor of WakingTimes.com, the proprietor of OffgridOutpost.com, a grateful father and a man who seeks to enlighten and assist others with the power of inspiring information and action. He may be contacted at wakingtimes@gmail.com.

Sources: 

http://www.ibogaine.desk.nl/lit-nmda.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/fluoride_b_2479833.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/028906_fluoride_dangers.html

http://rense.com/general79/hd3.htm

http://www.fasebj.org/content/20/13/2420.full.pdf

This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It's okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

Iboga, the Matrix, and Pineal Gland Decalcification

January 24, 2014 | By WakingTimes | 20 Replies

Daniel Raphael & Dylan Charles, Staff
Waking Times

The pineal gland has been at the core of spiritual traditions dating back thousands of years, spanning all inhabited continents. Prominently carved onto Buddhist statues, ceremoniously painted onto tribal faces, and deceptively displayed in the Vatican square, the pineal gland, known as the Third Eye, or Seat of the Soul, is still shrouded in mystery.

One of the culprits to the endless poverty, warfare, and illness in society today lies in humanity’s collective disconnection from their soul and their true divine nature. The key to awakening from this destructive dream lies in the pineal gland, a crystalline, cosmic antenna integrating multidimensional life-source into our five sense reality. Throughout the past few decades however, fluoride and other toxins have calcified this soul-gate, blocking many human beings from their divine guidance and limiting their personal power.

Iboga is an ancient shamanic plant medicine derived from the root bark of a curious tree, the Tabernanthe Iboga, which has been used for millenia by the Bwiti tribe of Equatorial West Africa as a ceremonial sacrament. Taken for its vast physical and psychological healing properties and as a right of passage and introduction to the spirit world, it opens the third eye and awakens one to their true spiritual nature. When ingested, the spirit of the plant awakens, projecting a celestial film within the mind’s eye of the initiate, teaching experientially through holographic vision and divine dialog. Also ridding the body of mind-numbing toxins, and freeing the mind from detrimental programming and limiting beliefs, this plant medicine offers serious promise as a tool for Western seekers in our collective quest to break free from the matrix and reconnect with Mother Earth.

Red Tea - The Best Antioxidant Drink

May 8, 2013 | By WakingTimes | 3 Replies

Norman Shealy, MD, PhD, Guest
Waking Times

Green tea has had a great deal of PR in the last few years and even regular black tea has some strong evidence for a positive effects on health. But Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) or Red tea has the best evidence of all–no caffeine, no calories, significant antioxidants, vitamin C, some minerals, etc. With 50% more antioxidants than green tea and a much superior taste, it has even been called ”The Tao of Tea.”

One of the most exciting studies of Red tea demonstrated suppression of age-related accumulation of lipid peroxides in the brain of rats. Indeed, brains of 24 month old rats had virtually the same appearance as the brains of 3 month old rats! (Neurosci Lett, 1995, 18; 85-88). Rooibos tea has also been reported to reduce nervousness, allergies and even colic in babies (J. Agric Food Chem, 2002, 50: 5513-5519). In tissue culture studies of HIV infected cells, Rooibos suppressed the cytopathological changes (Leukemia, 1997, April 11 Suppl 3:128-130). Rooibos has even suppressed the oxidative damage induced by radiation (Mutat Res, 1996, 350: 153-161). Even more exciting is the effect of Rooibus tea in facilitating antigen-specific production of Il-2 generation, of potential benefit in cancer, AIDS, allergies and infections (Biosci Biotechnol Biochem, 2001, 65: 2137-2145). Interestingly, Rooibos tea does not increase absorption of iron, as does regular tea (S Afr Med J, 1979, 53: 631-632).

The polyphenol antioxidants in Rooibos include aspalathin (found only in Rooibos), nothofagin, quercetin, rutin, isoquercitrin, orientin, isorien, virexn, isovitexin, and chrysoeritol. Up to 80 mg of polyphenols may be obtained in one serving of Rooibos (herbalgram.org, issue 59, page 34-55). These polyphenols in Rooibos have been demonstrated to prevent peroxyl DNA radical strand scission (Biofactors, 2004, 21: 285-292). And Rooibos tea has liver protective benefits, leading to suggested use in patients with hepatopathology (Physiol Res, 2003, 52: 461-466).

Now why do I give all this support for Rooibos? The answer is simple. A huge majority of Americans do not drink adequate water. They drink gallons of junk ”pop”, great amounts of coffee containing caffeine, and high carbohydrate ”athletic” drinks which have minimal benefit. I strongly urge those who do not like to drink water to make themselves a quart or two of Rooibos tea daily. Add a little mint if you want to add some extra zip to the mild taste. As of this moment I know of no better antioxidant drink! I predict some smart company will begin selling it at 25+ times the cost of making your own.

This article is featured as part of a partnership with AllThingsHealing.com.

All Things Healing (allthingshealing.com) is an online portal and community dedicated to informing and educating people across the globe about alternative healing of mind, body, spirit and the planet at large. We are committed to bringing together a worldwide community of individuals and organizations who are working to heal themselves, each other, and the world. We offer 39 healing categories, 80 plus editors who are experts in their fields, a forum for each category, and an extensive “Find Practitioners” listing. Our Costa Rica Learning Center and Spiritual Retreat is coming soon. Join us!

This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

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The Basics of I Ching, the Chinese Divination Tool

January 18, 2014 | By WakingTimes | Reply

Erik Oakenshield, Fractal Enlightenment
Waking Times

The I Ching Basics: What Is It and How Do I Use It?

The I Ching is one of the world's oldest divination texts, with some claims putting it over 3,000 years old The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is an oracle even, that has helped millions by providing advice and guidance to life's questions, both complex and basic. The beauty in consulting the I Ching is that it does not provide answers for you — but rather it helps you find the answers that already exist within you.

Mode of Consultation

There are multiple ways to consult the I Ching. One of the earliest methods utilizes sorting and counting yarrow sticks, but as time has gone on other ways have evolved. The most common method now has become coin-tossing, perhaps because 50 yarrow sticks are harder to come by, possibly because the coin-tossing method is faster — either way, the mode by which one consults the I Ching is not as important as the mindset that one has while they are consulting.

The Importance of Mental Focus

Focusing on their question is one of the most important things that people consulting the I Ching can do. If there is one piece of advice that I can give to beginners, it is that they fill themselves with their specific inquiry as they are consulting the I Ching.

A practitioner will, for the time that they are tossing coins or drawing reeds, meditate deeply on their question. After they have built their hexagram line, they will empty themselves of the inquiry, like a vase emptying itself of water. The results are there to fill the inquirer with suggestion, so it is imperative that the practitioner has room to receive that suggestion.
This may sound difficult, but with even just a little practice, the novice will start to notice the effects.

How to Consult the I Ching?

The I Ching is not something that somebody has to learn, so much as something somebody just has to do. You'll need a copy of the I Ching, 3 coins, and a pen and paper.

1. The first thing you will do is ask your question. You don't have to say it out loud if you don't want to, but be sure that you are concentrating on it mentally (memtioned above). Your question should not be a yes or no question, and should allow for a considerable amount of time for a real-world manifestation. For example, instead of asking something like "Should I go out today?" you would want to ask something closer to "How can I become more in tune with the universe?" or "How can I make my relationship better?" These questions allow you to take time in realizing, manifesting, and becoming the answer you are looking for.

2. As you are meditating on your question, toss the three coins. From bottom to top (not top to bottom), you will record one of four different outcomes.
• 2 tails, 1 head = Yang, signified by a solid line
• 1 tail, 2 heads = Yin, signified by a broken line
• 3 heads = Changing Yang, signified by a solid line with a knot in it
• 3 tails = Changing Yin, signified by a line broken by an "x"

Explaining I Ching

Repeat this step six times, until you have a hexagram.

3. If you cast no changing Yin or Yang, you will skip this step. If you did, you are going to create a second hexagram utilizing the opposite symbol in place of the changing symbol. For example, if you had one changing Yin in your first hexagram, you will create a second hexagram that is identical, except that it will have a Yang in the original changing Yin's place.

Changing Ching

4. If you have one hexagram you will look up its configuration in the I Ching. If you have two, due to a changing Yin or changing Yang symbol, you will look up both hexagrams. The first hexagram, with the changing symbols, will represent your current situation. Your second hexagram will be the answer to your question. There are 64 hexagrams in all that correspond to the 64 chapters in the I Ching. Use the chart below to match your hexagram to the corresponding chapter.

64 hexagrams in I Ching

5. The readings are not straightforward, and, as stated before, you must meditate on the reading and let its results fill you like tea in a tea cup. Depending on which translation of the I Ching is being read, the hexagram's language may differ, though the meaning of the message will be the same. Take the reading into account as a suggestion, meant to lead you to the answer, and remember that the reading itself is not the answer.

Now that you know the I Ching basics, try consulting the world's oldest divining text. See how it can change your life!

 **The Basics of I Ching, the Chinese Divination Tool is originally featured at Fractal Enlightenment and re-posted here with permission.**

Too Much Stuff? 7 Ways To Change That

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --Leonardo da Vinci

--by Shannan Stoll , syndicated from Yes Magazine, Jan 21, 2014

1. Change the rules

University procurement policies are one of the most effective pressure points for students seeking big change. The college apparel industry, which retailed an estimated $4.6 billion in 2011, is mostly supplied through overseas factory labor for brands like Nike and Adidas.

When one Adidas factory supplier in Indonesia abruptly closed in April 2011, 2,700 workers were left without jobs and were owed $1.8 million in severance pay. United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) responded by launching a two-year campaign aimed at pressuring university administrators to end their contracts with Adidas if the company refused to pay the workers. Seventeen universities and colleges ended their contracts. In April 2013, USAS announced  that the campaign had been successful: Adidas had agreed to compensate the former workers.

2. Know your stuff

Last year, nearly $1 billion worth of handmade goods was sold through Etsy, the flourishing online marketplace that connects individual craftspeople with individual buyers. Madesmith is an online store that takes this idea one step further, telling the stories of the people who make the wares it sells. Like the one about Chelsea Miller, whose work creating handmade knives from repurposed steel helps her forge a connection with her blacksmith father.

Madesmith founders Sheila Iverson and Sumeera Rasul aim to support local communities and preserve craftsmanship. They hope that the stories behind the products will help buyers think a bit more about the things they buy, how they're made, and who is making them. "Knowing where our things come from," they write, helps us "buy less, buy well."

3. Share it

At the height of the Great Depression, the manager of a Los Angeles dime store caught two small boys pocketing toys their families couldn't afford. The Probation Department staff assigned to the boys' case responded by opening the county's first Toy Loan Center in a garage in Southwest L.A.

In recent years, the Toy Loan Program's popularity has grown quickly alongside unemployment, with the number of centers in Los Angeles County more than doubling over the past decade.

The program still operates like it did more than 75 years ago, though. Each week, children at 45 centers throughout the county check out their favorite toy on an honor system. For every 20 weeks of good toy care and on-time returns, children earn a wish-list toy to keep. If a kid gets bored with a toy, it goes back on the shelf for the next borrower. It's a library for toys, without the late fees.

4. Repair it

A growing movement is fighting planned obsolescence by helping people fix what's broken.

In Brooklyn, N.Y., the Fixers Collective dedicates space, tools, and community support to what it calls improvisational fixing. Formed out of a 2008 art installation based on the idea of mending, the collective has since built a community that includes experienced fixers with skills in mending, soldering, and electronics.

People bring suitcases, clocks, and iPods—anything, really—to the monthly repair sessions. Sometimes things aren't fixable and get creatively repurposed. A specialty of the Fixers is creating tote bags from broken umbrellas reclaimed from the streets of New York.

5. Slow clothes

Sarah Kate Beaumont makes virtually everything she wears, underwear and rain gear included. The New York-based artist uses fabric from worn out clothes and old sheets, other people's scrap fabric, and the occasional discount cloth purchase to craft a beautiful, functional, and completely hand-made wardrobe in her own style.

Beaumont began her project in response to the economic downtown in 2008, and five years later, it's grown into a lifestyle.

Slow clothes, as Beaumont calls the project, is about understanding the clothes we wear. Because she mends or makes everything she wears, she's not supporting sweatshops and other aspects of consumer culture. At the monthly mending workshops she hosts, participants tell her again and again how encouraging it is when they find they can prolong the life of something they thought was worn out. Darning a sock, she says, is empowering.

"If I am cold in the winter and need another layer, I make it, instead of thinking about what I need to buy," says Beaumont, who is featured in the book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline. Beaumont adds that shifting her focus away from consumerism opens up artistic space in her life. Her handmade lifestyle demands creativity every day and builds self-reliance.

6. Think "better than new"

When ceramic artist Dick Lehman traveled to Japan for an exhibition in 1999, he was astonished by his host's parting gift: four broken ceramic cups that Lehman had thrown in the trash just a few weeks earlier. Under his host's covert care, the cups were recovered, repaired with silver, and made even more beautiful than they were before.

Kintsugi, translated as "gold joinery," is the ancient Japanese craft of mending broken pottery with gold-filled resin. Modern Kintsugi artists use a variety of materials to decorate the scars from a repair.

"In the West, we usually expect a thing to be repaired so you can't tell it's broken," says Lehman, who now incorporates Kintsugi into his own work. Using copper powder or gold leaf to mend his pieces, Lehman hopes his repairs communicate a sense of history and care. He writes, "Kintsugi artists believe when something has suffered damage and has a history, it becomes more beautiful."

         

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Shannan Stoll wrote this article for The Human Cost of Stuff, the Fall 2013 issue of YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. This article is shared here with permission.