Hey, it's Nicholas! 👋

I'm heading down to southern Colorado to help out with some recovery from the Aspen Acres fire, so I thought I'd just do a quick one about a TCM reference I found in a Star Wars book...

You may or may not know this, but I’m a pretty big Star Wars nerd, and lately I’ve been reading through the High Republic books.

One concept the series introduces is that each Jedi experiences the Force differently. One might experience it as music, with different notes of harmony and disharmony. Another might see it as stars that form constellations. Another might feel it as different colored threads woven into a great tapestry.

But the Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh experiences it as flowing water.

One passage reads:

And this is similar to how we describe qi flowing from the extremities toward the trunk.

The five-step process that Vern goes through—trickle, brook, stream, river, sea—echoes the way the classics describe qi flowing through the Five Shu-Transport points.

Chapter 1 of the Ling Shu states:

The qi appears at the Jing-Wells, like water coming out of the ground. Then as it flows, its passage gets wider and deeper until it becomes a great sea of qi.

(The character for Hé 合 would be more accurately translated as uniting, joining, or a “confluence.” In English, a confluence is where two rivers join to form a large body of water.)

The above translation is from Deadman’s A Manual of Acupuncture. (That text erroneously attributes it to Chapter 71 of the Ling Shu. It actually comes from Chapter 1.) Unschuld translates the classics more literally. Here’s how he renders this passage: Where they exit, these are the wells. Where they move in swift currents, these are the creeks. Where they flow, these are the transport [openings]. Where they permit passage, these are the streams. Where they enter, these are the confluences.

So I just thought this was kind of fun to see a possible TCM reference in a Star Wars book.

Hope you have a good week!

Oh, and by the way...

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So I wrote this on Monday when we were planning to head down to do some recovery work, like clearing burnt hazard trees and stuff.

But then on Tuesday we got word that the fire had shifted, and they are no longer allowing evacuees to return home, so we postponed.

And now it sounds like they're letting people back into the county, so we're making new plans to go down again.

Anyway, I feel really lucky that I have the flexibility to leave at a moments notice and help with this kind of stuff. So thanks for being a part of this and allowing me to do that.

Hope you have a good week, and stay cool!

Nicholas

This is a weekly newsletter to let you know about the weekly updates like livestreams, office hours, and Q&A's. It's also a way to share whatever little TCM tidbit is on my mind. If you prefer not to receive this each week, you can unsubscribe from just the newsletter. You'll still receive major updates when new videos are added, you just won't get this newsletter.