6/27: I hope you’re all taking care and being safe. There’s a rise — an uptick, according to the media — in the infection rate in several states. Apparently due to the premature opening of businesses, beaches, bars, and churches and the stupidity of people who refuse to put on masks even in company. Florida, California, Texas, Arizona, among others, have seen an unprecedented increase. Covid 19 is still here. I do not think it will go away “miraculously” unless we find a cure for it.
No, forget that moronic idea of injecting yourself with bleach or Lysol. Obviously it will not work either. We have seen political rallies, led by the US president who has no sense to believe in science, that are actually breeding grounds for the pandemic. I have no word to describe this insanity.
Of course, we try to keep the guidelines of the CDC. Lolit and I have started therapy at St Luke’s in P’Burg, NJ, just across the Delaware River from Easton. She has worked with Molly since last year. I just started 2 weeks ago with Ivanna, a Hispanic therapist. Lolit does exercises while I combine exercises with massage. It’s for an hour twice a week. I hope to reduce and eventually eliminate the soreness in my sacrum and legs that has bothered me since 2-3 months ago, We have stayed home most of the time. We only go out when it is necessary. I cook unless we can order a take-out or whenever friends Guru and Suh, my son Al and his wife Laura or neighbors Bill and Dianne bring home-cooked food to our door. Al has installed Amazon so we can wash movies and TV shows. We already have NetFlix. We can just watch films the whole day. In fact, we have followed up to 10 episodes in one day! Yesterday we started Jack Ryan through 5 episodes. It’s plain indulgence.
Thursday we drove down to a Philippine grocery store-cum-turo turo in Branchburg, NJ, an hour away from the house, to stock up on bagoong/shrimp paste. Lolit had a craving for her favorite dipping sauce for green mango. I got her 5 bottles. She consumes 1 small bottle every 2 weeks by herself. It is probably a Filipino thing. Anyway we had a take-out of rice, Bicol Express and Laing (dried taro leaves cooked in coconut milk). We found a table in a park in Flemington and had our lunch under the London Plane trees before driving home.
Last Sunday we were at Al and Laura’s for Father’s Day. They prepared shrimp with cocktail sauce and crab claws with horseradish sauce for appetizers and grilled hot dog and salad for dinner. Laura’s parents were there, too. Tuesday we were there again to film me reading my poems for the Marble Summer Arts Festival in NYC. Ava videotaped 7 or 8 of my poems. Al sent 5 of them (along with a photo of me that Laura took 20 years ago) to Marble. Mario Sprouse, the organizer of the Festival, chose 4 for the online show. I read 3 of my poems 2 years ago when the Festival was live, Now it is online because of the pandemic. Here is the link:
https://www.marblechurch.org/welcome/calendar/events/all-church/7959/marble-summer-arts-festival-online
Isabel, my granddaughter, had her examination by 4 professors art Penn last Thursday. It seems like they have this preliminary test to see the competency of grad students on the doctorate program! When I talked to her last night, she said that she was examined on her projects and what else — courses — she needed for her program. She passed, needless to say. I found an article about her winning a fellowship from the National Science Foundation in my files. I do not know if you’ve read it, but here is the link:
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2019/june/national-science-foundation-graduate-research-fellows/
Isabel, 22, has devoted years to the study of epidemiology with several scientists in college as a scholar at the University of Delaware. It is so good to see somebody who knows what she wants to do with her life at such a young age.
This weekend we have no plans. We’ll just stay home, I guess. I was invited drop in by my neighbors. They usually serve wine and we have a lively chat for a couple of hours. They are one of my few connections to the world. I was thinking of driving up to Delaware Water Gap to pick up some pies and cookies but I have to mail some books at the PO for my friends.
7/10: Lee Holden is Taoist friend and colleague. We have studied with the same masters over the last 3 decades. He was involved in the documentary about David Verdesi and the search for Superhumans. The documentary is now finished and Lee is releasing it to the public. Lee, David and I trained together at the millennium in the Tao Garden in Chiangmai. I taught David a Shaolin Buddhist Hong Kuen form called Fairy Child Praying to the Goddess of Mercy. In turn David taught Drunken Qigong to Lee and me. Lee and I also studied Thai Massage with the famous master Chaiyuth Priyasuth in downtown Chiangmai. Lee and I trained in the Thunder Path with David in Bali in 2012. David introduced me to an old Hindu priest and shaman. The old man used to hold my hand in his, smile and he would say, OM Shantih Shantih Shantih. You can see photos of him in my website blog
for 2012. David and I also met with John Chang, the famous Magus in Java in 2006 and the hermits of Huangshan in 2007. Sadly, the Magus and Xuan Kong and Jiang Feng have passed away. I wrote about these masters in the essay “Thunder Path in Huangshan” in the Writings section.
Lee wrote me this letter about the docu-series:
Hi Rene,
All of us here on the Searching For Superhumans team are so glad you stopped by to pick up the introductory episode of the series!
Don’t forget to watch it right here.
We put a lot of love into this project, and I can’t wait for you to start experiencing the magic that lies within you right now.
You know, it was many years ago that I decided to dedicate my life to helping people heal themselves through the practices of Qi Gong. But at the time, I’d never imagined that it would take me on the path toward discovering and witnessing superhuman abilities, and interviewing the superhumans that possessed them.
My boyhood, superhero-obsessed self would have been so excited!
Little did I know that the real-life superhumans were so much cooler. You know why?
It’s because these incredible people are not only using their own powers for good, but they’re even joining me in helping all the rest of us ordinary folk harness our own superhuman abilities.
That’s what the Searching For Superhumans series is all about.
Through 9 action-packed episodes, you’ll be introduced to individuals from across the globe and watch as they defy all logical realms of possibility. They’ve developed abilities that can only be described as superhuman…
…and you’ll discover how you can do the same.
Until next time,Lee Holden
I have seen the documentary “Searching for Superhumans.” Some of the masters I am familiar with because David and I went to see them or talked about them. The last time I was with Lee and David Verdesi was in Bali in February of 2012. One master we went to see at the time was a Hindu priest and healer. He appears in the documentary with him and David passing a red hot chisel on their tongues. The method is intended to activate the kundalini. A photo shows me doing the same technique with the master. Here are the blogs and photos I published at the time. You’ll see a 93 year old Hindu priest, Marina and Nicolai (famous Russian psychics), David and Lee, and a few other characters in our search for the masters:
Of course, power is important — imagine what a person with a pure heart can do with it — but it can also fall into the wrong hands. Love — and healing — should be the foundation of life. There is too much meanness and cruelty and egotism, even in everyday life, not much patience, acceptance, forgiveness and accommodation. Like success, fame and fortune, power can distract us from our intended and true goals -– our destiny — on earth. We have seen masters who have been derailed from their intended mission because they were blinded by what Joseph Campbell calls “the blandishments of the world” or misled by their own greed; and those who seek power often get bogged down in showing off and blatant exhibitionism. Either way, the route of power, unless guided by a pure intention, is invariably vain and corrupting.
Blog postings:
Bali: Views & Downtown Ubud
Bali: People
“A man of parts, a master of Chinese arts”
Bali: Temples, Offerings, Initiations
Dateline: Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. E-Mails and Adaptations.