Illuminating rlung: The Vital Energy of Tibetan Medicine

According to Tibetan Medicine, rlung is one of the three principal energies of the human body; rlung can be translated loosely as “wind” because its predominate element is air. It is responsible for all movement internal and external to the body, from the circulation of blood to the movement of limbs. rLung is the “vehicle” of consciousness, the force which holds and moves the mind. According to the rGyud-bZhi, the traditional Tibetan medical text, rlung is the beginning and end of disease because of its pervasive nature and its close relationship with the mind; it has the power to spread and strengthen disease. It is therefore important to understand its nature, function, and disfunction as related to the mind and the body in order to maintain health. rLung is associated with insomnia, chronic stress and anxiety, depression, heart palpitations and other heart conditions, stiffness in the body, various digestive problems, among many more physical and mental ailments. There are a variety of factors, ranging from diet and lifestyle to season and environment, that create rlung imbalance and disease. Primary psychological causes, according to Tibetan Medicine, are desire, excessive thought or mental exercise, and wrong-view. Most, if not all the Tibetan doctors I spoke with related to me that rlung is most usually developed in “foreign”(European and American) patients and people who meditate. They continued, saying that it is also becoming much more common in other patients as well. There are a number of factors contributing to these findings. Perhaps the strongest is the psychological, primarily the increasing stress of modern lifestyles. Allopathic medicine has yet to recognize rlung, thus there is no framework in which to know how to take care of it. Because allopathic medicine is the leader of modern healthcare, it is important for it to integrate conceptions of rlung as to better diagnose and more holistically treat disorders related to rlung. Treating rlung in Tibetan medicine is a multi-dimensional process that includes lifestyle changes, medicine, external therapies, and relaxation techniques. Perhaps the strongest treatment is the preventative; learning to become aware of rlung and its effects can foster greater understandings in how to maintain healthy rlung, and thus a healthy mind and body. The following study is a result of my stay in Dharamsala, a cultural heart of Tibetan Buddhism and medicine being the headquarters for the the main Men Tsee Khang Clinic and College and the home of the Dalai Lama. During the month of November 2013, I had the opportunity to meet with many Tibetan doctors, Buddhist practitioners and scholars, and people who deal with rlung related illness. It is from these meetings that I have gathered a fuller understanding of rlung and its effects. I have supplemented this knowledge with readings about Tibetan Medicine and Buddhism written by great scholars

Exploring Political Action and Socialization through Group Improvisation within the Music of Frederic Rzewski and Cornelius Cardew

In the late 1960s, socialist composers, Cornelius Cardew and Frederic Rzewski, each established ensembles with the purpose of performing works consisting of experimental forms of improvisation. By employing group improvisation, and including untrained, non-musicians within their performances, they strove to use these ensembles as a model for society itself; this model includes a dissolution of the hierarchy among performers and the barrier between performer and audience. Improvisation helped music resist commodification by the culture industry or appropriation by authoritarian regimes for the purpose of propaganda. This dissertation aims to explore how Cardew and Rzewski constituted effective socialization and political action within two works: Cardew’s The Great Learning (Paragraph 1) and Rzewski’s Les Moutons de Panurge. This dissertation explores the complex relationship between politics and art, particularly, how art maintains its autonomy while also being political. The political and compositional backgrounds of these two composers is examined in order to gauge their intentions within these works and evaluate the political efficacy of the resulting compositions. This is accomplished by examining the scores as well as various studio recordings and live performances. This dissertation proposes that it is only within performance that the relationship between improvisational choices and political efficacy is revealed

Introduction to Special Topic Section: Transpersonal Sociology

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Musicianship in Beginning Level String Pedagogy: A Content Analysis of Class Method Books

Students who begin music studies with a thorough foundation in musicianship will be better equipped to tackle the challenges of performing at a high level. When actively applying new techniques, however basic, to the goal of musical and artistic expression, the focus will shift from increasing physical technique and skill development to growing as a musician. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of musicianship in a setting that seldom receives attention in the musicianship literature: beginning string instrument instruction. This monograph examines string method books, a major deliverer of instruction within the early years of string instrument training, based on their incorporation of musicianship. To document the functional use of musicianship within a sample of beginning string method books, this monograph contains three primary elements: a literature review, a content analysis, and a synthesis of analyses. The content analysis examines the prevalence and use of features of musicianship within five specific methods books published since 2001. Each method is examined primarily for its use of musical variety and for the inclusion of non-technical elements, i.e., non-playing or non-reading activities. The purpose of this monograph is twofold. First, it will help string teachers choose the best method to give students a genuine musical experience, either by drawing from the methods discussed here or by using the criteria outlined to evaluate other methods. Second, it will highlight the shortcomings of specific method books so that teachers may use these books more effectively, adding supplemental materials and experiences when necessary

Contributions to the Gramineae of Bernalillo County, New Mexico

An attempt has been made to collect, identify, and classify all the four tribes Agrostideae, Andropogoneae, Aveneae, and Chlorideae within the confines of Bernalillo County, New Mexico. Specimens have been examined from the herbarium of the University of New Mexico, the regional Forest Service herbarium, and the regional Soil Conservation Service herbarium, all located in Albuquerque. Species reported from Bernalillo County in these herbaria and unobserved by the author have been included in the thesis