Tales of the Fat Monk Xiaoyao Xingzhe

Send us a Text Message.The Fat Monk and Xiaoyao visit the Hermit for a quiet talk, but find the Boatman and his friend--who Xiaoyao has never met--already there.Tea is the main topic of the day, but in the course of the discussion, the Fat Monk's peculiar aversion to Zhuangzi is exposed.It turns out the Boatman's friend is well-versed in all things Zhuangzi ...SHOW NOTES:Xiaoyao Xingzhe, the self-styled carefree pilgrim, has lived and worked all over the world, having crossed the Gobi in a de...

Send us a Text Message."Ru zi, ke jiao ye!"The Hermit tests Xiaoyao, who thinks that the Hermit will teach him about locating herbs in the mountains.The Reality, however ....SHOW NOTES:Xiaoyao Xingzhe, the self-styled carefree pilgrim, has lived and worked all over the world, having crossed the Gobi in a decrepit jeep, lived with a solitary monk in the mountains of Korea, dined with the family of the last emperor of China, and helped police with their enquiries in Amarillo, Texas.FAN MAIL is....

Send us a Text Message.Xiaoyao enters a hidden chamber and witnesses a strange dance, before learning more about "medicine," the gathering of scattered medicine and use of it, and its exoteric and esoteric processes.The "Earth of Attention" (意土 yì tǔ) centering the ascending elements of hún (魂) and shén (神) against the descending elements of pò (魄) and jing (精), the evoking of presence as a method of working, and the difference between "heavy" and "light" thinking.And the importance of the sa...

Send us a Text Message.Xiaoyao ventures into the Mundus Imaginalis, and finds strangeness, unexpected encounters and … welcome. “Joyful the moment when we sat in the bower, Thou and I;In two forms and two faces—with one soul, Thou and I.The colour of the garden and the song of the birds give the elixir of immortalityThe instant we come into the orchard, Thou and I.This is stranger, that Thou and I, in this corner here …Are both in one breath in Iraq, and in Khorasan – Thou and I.”Jalāl a...

Send us a Text Message.Xiaoyao discovers an ancient and enigmatic inscription in a hidden alcove of the monastery, and learns the difficult technique of stone rubbing.The fat monk and the boatman instruct him in the art of duàn jù: "breaking the sentences" for pieces of writing that have no punctuation and look utterly incomprehensible. (See the transcript for the original piece in Chinese).Later, the Abbot joins them as they parse through the text written by the Pine Vally Daoist, and the fa...

Send us a Text Message.Xiaoyao visits Shijie's husband, Dr. Jiang, at the famous old Chinese medicine pharmacy across the road from Shijie's restaurant, and asks him an awkward question.Shijie inducts three new members into her Daoist group, and gives them specific instructions on how to make the best use of their novitiate.The fat monk describes the design of a group, why it has the structure it does, and how academics so often get it totally wrong because they have no idea of the concept of...