Speaker 1: 0:37

We are in that powerful, powerful portal of Day of the Dead, halloween, in between autumn and winter, and many traditions have ways of honoring this time. Halloween is a pretty amazing way that some of these older teachings have survived into the modern world. Dreams may become more potent at this time and this idea of children pretending to be ghosts and going door to door this is a Celtic way of imitating what's going on at this time of year, also according to Tang Dynasty thoughts traditions. So the dead ancestors are the ones that come to the house during this time of year and it's an important and potent and powerful time to make offerings for them. This is the trick-or-treat part, so they come back. And for people who are less nomadic, if you've been in a house for like eight generations, you know the ancestors that lived in that house come back this time of year and they sort of float from room to room, you know. And if you have offerings laid out for them on your altar persimmons and fruit and flowers and all these things then they sort of get. You know, get that reciprocity, get some kind of way of being fed, for you know they're helping us all year long and they're like, okay, fed, for you know they're helping us all year long. Then they're like okay, so this is the time when we can um, honor them by feeding them, not just with candy but with offerings on the altar. Incense and fruit is great way. This is replicated by kids now going around door to door dressed as ghosts. But there's also the trick part. I think back in the day people were a little bit more into the trick part, but now it's like not so much. But yeah, it's important to feed the ghosts. It's very, very important to feed the ancestors this time of year and if they do, then the things are resolved, illnesses are resolved, sicknesses are resolved and sometimes things that are passed on ancestrally, illnesses that are passed on can be resolved.

Speaker 1: 3:48

The yin right now is relatively small. It's not a demonic time of year, hence the little ghosts dressed up that are so cute. Demons are summertime. Right, that's the heat, the pernicious heat that comes late in the summer. But these are cute little yin ghosts that get appeased by offerings of persimmons and things like that. And if you do something like name your child after the ancestor or make offerings to them, they'll come back and they'll just be like oh, all is well, love, love.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Moving on, there's many customs for how we work out this reciprocity, whether we name our children or offer them fruit or ashes or pumpkins or whatever it is ashes or pumpkins or whatever it is. But the veil is very, very thin and this is the time where, um, where we have the capacity to be very generous in our and actually reach them in a really easeful way. Um, they come often because it's getting colder and they don't feel the cold the way that we do, so they don't mind. They don't mind the cold, it's comfortable for them the darkness. And as we start to slow down because of the cold and the darkness that's also they become more visible. So there's kind of this built-in perfect timing for their arrival and us slowing down and things getting darker, so the gate kind of gets opened and this is a profound time to die.

Speaker 1: 5:31

You know, between now and winter solstice is a really, really good time to die. So there was a practice in ancient China where at this time all the chronically ill patients would be sent home to die. You know, just like the doctors would get a vacation. And this happened even in um not that long ago. My teacher Lu Ming, he would talk about this how his friends would say it during the cultural revolution. Yeah, we don't know why. We just, you know, gave us this is the time the doctors all got vacations, like it was still left over. They didn't say why, because then of course it would have stopped being happening, because it would be superstitious and all that. But it was like a good time to just be sent home. Doctors go on vacation and if people die this time of year, it's like the best option. A lot of prisoners would have been put to death rather than being fed all winter. And we've talked about this also as the time to really let go of any projects that are done and wrapping them up and just like getting ready for the winter, winter.

Speaker 1: 6:38

So the loved ones that passed are kind of in the neighborhood anyway right now, so you may see them, you may see them in dreams. You may definitely want to go visit any gravestones that you can and go sweep off those, make offerings. So feeding sweets and caring for relatives fondly in their graves fondly is the way to be in reciprocity. And ignoring them they just, you know, like Lu Ming would talk about it, like they'll just start a little tumor in you. I don't really like to like be fear mongering. You know about it the whole thing, but it's like that's how he would talk about it. He's like you either get rotten eggs thrown at you or a little bit of cancer. It's a little bit. I'm just not going to dilute it. So these are really sensible holidays.

Speaker 1: 7:30

Right now the harvest is in, so we have that to. This is kind of like a yeah, kind of like a way of giving back. If you want to make a more formal offering dagara style, you know if you go to the gravestone or use flowers or whatever, you can put a little bit of ash with your left hand down on the ground. That's to protect your offering from the other hungry ghosts that might be wandering around, that are your neighbor's ghosts or whatever neighbor's ancestors. You're not going to go feed them, you want to feed your own, so that ash will protect the other hungry spirits from coming to get that offering or whoever you're making it for. And then you can tap on the ground with your left hand in a heartbeat fashion as you speak your prayer and thanks and direct your offering to where it wants to go or where you want it to go and then pour, maybe if you're using flowers or fruit and then pour water after that as a way to be super clear that it's all for the healing. So it's a good time of year year to get on top of the ancestor offering moment.

Speaker 1: 8:44

I'm curious if anyone had a really clear vision come in and you kind of tuned into what they want, because the portal is thin so they'll just let you know directly If you notice your practice start to thin out this time of year. It's a healthy sign. Probably people are just staying at home and cultivating yin they feel. Often people will be like I'm too tired to come in. I'm like, good, stay home and rest. That's a good thing to be doing right now. The problem isn't not coming in. The problem is if people are just going around like crazy.

Speaker 1: 9:25

This is the Gan Ying right, the feeding of the ancestors, this reciprocity principle. So we're in a kind of a dance right now to adapt our value system from valuing Yang in the summer Now we're valuing Yin. We're kind of valuing the quieter, slower time, the dance. So rest is very, very helpful and we want to use some of the extra yin time in the evening right now for resting. So the most potent time right now is in the evening and if we use that to get, like the last little things done instead of using that to rest, then we can increase the insomnia. That to rest, then we can increase the insomnia. So, as much as you can, take the kind of quieter, downward sun setting energy and let that be the invocation of rest and use that extra chi to nourish and calm down, that would be helpful. Calm can seem like something we need to sedate ourselves to fight. If we're pretty young, deranged, sedate ourselves to fighting off like calm can seem very hard if we have been worshipping young all year. But constant aggression this time of year is very hard on the system. But constant aggression this time of year is very hard on the system.

Speaker 1: 10:59

It's a great time of year to read like autobiographies and biographies and like other things that remind us that like, yes, you have this like big life, but then death. You know things that like remind us about cycles, remind us about letting go, remind us about crescendos and releases. They can be redundant, you know, because that's kind of the wisdom of this time of year. It's like, oh wait, autumn again, coats again. Like time to be quiet again. We just did this last year. Time to be quiet again. We just did this last year.

Speaker 1: 11:39

It's like the kind of wisdom that comes with us remembering that it's like the cycles keep going and the acceptance of this, of like boredom and redundancy, is sort of the medicine that we get to have right now. It's like, oh right and I know that I'm just in this particular way of stuff maneuvering right now, kind of like this stuff, stuff sorting process of a lot of my it's influencing a lot of my counsel that, um, stuff as matter or as yin, you could say, you know, like maybe out of, out of, out of control, yin worshiping is constant accumulation of matter, but really it's not. It's actually like a yang right, because it takes yang to accumulate stuff. So shopping and going and buying and doing all that holiday shopping, stuff that's like a, can be conceived as a deranged yang buying, buying Like it takes yang to buy stuff, like, yes, you're buying yin, you're buying something that's solid, but buying, buying like it takes yang to buy stuff. Like, yes, you're buying yin, you're buying something that's solid, but it's like depleting yang to get the stuff. And then, of course, if we have too much of the stuff of the matter of the yin, then it creates stagnation, accumulation, damp and difficulty in in maneuvering and moving. Turbid we call it turbidian, so too much stuff could be like a kind of yin turbidity, like a stuff you know increase. So you could look at it as like moving, sorting stuff, as a kind of way to tonify yin, a kind of way to be in a good way with yin and matter and mother and grandmother We'd be in a good way with matter, mother muder In Afrikaans we say muder.

Speaker 1: 13:27

So there's many, many ancestor rituals happening now and, as you've heard me say, pretty much every week since after summer solstice, certainly since autumn began. It's a very rude time of year to be at war. It's a very impolite time to be at war. It's not the time to start sort it out through violence. This is a time of diplomacy and alliance, talking, write poems see who writes a better poem or hip hop, whatever, like battle it out on the dance floor, like through capoeira or, you know, through some break dancing. But don't, don't go to war. It's a.

Speaker 1: 14:20

It's a time to honor our friendships, but that's a time that comes through like trusting. You know how you have those friends. We have those friends that like, maybe you don't talk to for a year, but then you see them and it's just, you just pick up and like nothing's changed. It's like that kind of honoring of our friends. You're just like I know that we're solid. I don't need to text you 30 times a day, I don't need to remember to write your Christmas card, and if I don't I'm somehow blah, blah, blah. It's like we're just trusting into the solidity of those life allies that we have. It's the time of year to trust and to feel into the depths in that way. And the warmth inside the home relative to the cold outside the home is what often brings people closer together in more smaller family settings and the sun is less intense. So that's like a small yang that starts to welcome in the yin, welcome in the kind of closing of the doors, the closing of the storehouses. Closing of the storehouses If you haven't planned a meditation retreat yet for the wintertime, or like a time of silence, a time to be quiet, this would be a good time to do that, using the last little vestiges of yang before.

Speaker 1: 15:45

It's so small that using it up is more depleting To plan in like maybe a 10-day silent time this winter at some point. There's a potent time at winter solstice, but if that doesn't work for you because of your other commitments, it's also very potent from the new moon after winter solstice to the full moon, and then even more potent from the full moon to the new moon, and then even more potent from the full moon to the new moon, which is that ice moon time from the new moon after winter solstice to the next new moon, which is, of course, the new year, the lunar new year. That month would be a really great time to block off as much retreat and quiet time as possible. So I'm saying this now because a lot of times some of us need to plan things pretty far in advance in our modern culture.

Speaker 1: 16:47

So the taking stock of our lives isn't only about possessions, you know, but it's also like where am I right now in my life? What have I what? What? What has come through this year? What has been learned? What has been let it go of? What friends am I going to pull in closer this winter? What am I going to shed? Um, so, taking stock in this, in this storehouse or the we talked last week, last time, about closing the vault on the, closing the silos it's not only about possessions. It's also what, this natural kind of wintertime contemplation where am I, what have I? Because in the winter we don't want to contemplate this, we want to just be in nothingness. But like now's, a little window where, like before I go into my complete retreat in silence and depths of not knowing, like, where am I here, what have I, what have I come through? This year, winter is like a kind of humbling experience, like you get older, kind of like our birthdays, like all right, there's many ways to to do this. I'm not really recommending any particular one way of assessing life and kind of in order to move into a deeper winter time, but certainly throwing up as many lights as possible is probably not the way to do it. Avoiding being in the dark is probably not the way to get through. Honoring yin.

Speaker 1: 18:15

You know, my teacher Lu Ming would counsel us to read Russian novels this time of year because they're kind of you know, anna Karenina is one of my favorites it's like, it's like, and then it just all ends tragically and and that's it, you know. And it's like there's like some kind of medicine in that. You're like, how is that so beautiful? But it is, it's just so beautiful, you know, to just like let it be that way, it's like humbles us from thinking that somehow we're going to be different. One of the ways I often remind myself of this is I say everyone dies, everybody will die, including me. To like add the including me part at the end of it, like some part of the psyche wants to imagine that somehow we're outside of that equation.

Speaker 1: 19:07

I just want to emphasize how I did talk about how the best chi is in the evening and I want to just remind us that we don't want to use the best optimal chi right now to power through and get stuff done. We want to use the best optimal chi to help us calm down and relax and sleep and wind down and let the yin kind of feel in, because it can be tempting to power through. And the other thing is that, because we're in between the autumn and the winter, this is the time when the wind is pernicious. So it's still, or especially, important right now, if you're going out tonight or, you know, out at night in general and in the cold and anything that's windy, to make sure you're wearing a scarf around your neck and something around your wrists and like sweater weather and leg warmers, but especially the neck, back of the neck, wrists and ankles, are very good ways to protect ourselves from getting sick from xie qi, from evil qi that's wandering around and letting the wind go into the body which can then cause arthritis and things like that later on this cold wind, it's important to make sure to be cooking things this time of year, eating things warm, drinking warm water not cold water and just rest. When it gets to be nine o'clock and you're like, oh, just follow it, let it go, try not to push yourself to go out and be merry. It's fine to just prioritize rest as being the medicine of this time of year and remember the rest that comes in from now. You know, these next three months is like, unlike any rest that we can get during the summer, it's deeply restorative, deeply nourishing, has unbelievable power to to uh, create health in our systems and longevity.

Speaker 1: 21:10

So the tongshu, this Chinese almanac, ancient Chinese almanac I'm going to just read this little excerpt from it for this time of year Does that work for everyone? So it's called Frost Descends, yin Encloses Yang. Earth Buries fire, shuang Jiang, frost surrenders, the frost descends qi. Node is when autumn collapses into winter. Lesser yin gives way to great yin On earth. Stasis and frost are prevalent.

Speaker 1: 21:51

As the autumn descends into winter, natural activity appears to subside. In fact, activity simply withdraws deeper and deeper inward and down. The northwest wind carries in the growing cold with transitional damp. Days grow short, young diminishes During this period. The environment grows ever more yin and is characterized by frost. Dampness in the earth rises. Dampness in the form of earth rides the cold wind and is variable. Snow threatens. The blustery wind is pernicious, cold and damp. Young withdrawing in and downward must not be called back up and out. Dress warmly and stay out of the wind During this period. Qi is best at 8 pm. Neigong is practiced inside where it is warm. Rub your belly until it turns red. Eat warm and nourishing meals and go to bed early, even if the weather is not cold and temperature. Do not get caught in the wind.