Everyone knows what musk is, so you would think. Marco Polo apparently knew enough to spot a grain of it here and there on the forest floor.
Why do I spend so much time in search of beauty, its myriad forms? Do we require the rituals of costume? I tend to think of mine as recreation. When I participate, I feel better even though I'm alone, knowing I am the same. When I'm listless, it all seems shallow.
Constantly praised for her beautiful voice, an excellent singer was inspired to hear that "It's not always about being beautiful." It is, but it isn't. For example, what strangeness of beauty is putting bat poo on your eyes and going all lengths to smell like the funk of a deer's navel & whale's bile?
"Collecting 'Anbar-gris" ->
What is the role of Art or Beauty in this practical game of survival? Sexual selection. A landscape painting that will hold the gaze of time itself has the most protein per square mile. So why is everyone on these vegetarian, low-fat diets when life is a fine cocktail of oils.
Hafiz would agree - what is human life without our precious animal products? Blood from the heart, marinating in the stomach, musk caught up by the breeze from wispy hairline locks.
5 comments:
Howdy.
I found your blog thru 'weakness with a twist'. Scott initially studied with one of my 1st Tai Chi teachers. Wow. Your writing here is insightful and full with the use of the senses. Love it. Will continue to visit.
You might find some interest in my blogs on the initial stages of listening - ting jin in the practice of push hands.
http://taichieugene.blogspot.com/
Best Regards,
Roger
I'm returning. How personal is the search for beauty and feeling 'shitty on my high horse'? When the senses are stimulated and one feels alive... how much is it like being in love. Then there's the loss of energy when the relationship grows stale or one feels that 'I've drawn all the life out of that process'. There's nothing more to do external to myself. No. Let it settle. Let all the feelings about it swirl and just come to center. Darkness, yin qualities, I avoid. But they take the balance with them also. It's not easy.
Thanks, Roger. I'm looking forward to voyeurism of your practice via your blogs & more comments you might bestow.
Before the year 1,000 the Chinese knew ambergris as lung sien shiang, "dragon's spittle fragrance," which was supposed to come from the spittle of sea dragons sleeping on sea rocks and drooling into the ocean.
(from this site: http://tinyurl.com/ambergristinytiny ...I corrected the Romanisation of 龍涎香)
"Like any secret, adornment 'singles out the wearer, whose self-feeling it embodies and increases at the cost of others', but unlike most secrets, it is not only egotistic but altruistic....One adorns oneself for oneself, but can do so only by adornment for others."
-http://tinyurl.com/transmission-adornment
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