My Yoga Journey
I have been a bouncer and a bodyguard, a law enforcement officer and a private investigator. I have been stabbed, shot at, set on fire and thrown down flights of stairs. I have been crashed-up, smashed-up, beat-up and considered DOA.
Who Makes One?
I remember some years ago reading a book written by Zen Master Seung Sahn, (I can’t remember which one, there are so many). He discussed the question:
“Who makes one?”
Who makes one is a question that confronts our thinking. It attacks our concepts.
Party Crashers: Anxiety and Depression
Anxiety and depression are like kissing cousins. They share a lot of symptomatology and often show up together. Anxiety and depression are party crashers. They bring the unwelcome gifts of worry; insomnia; gastro-intestinal disorders; trouble concentrating and avoidance behaviors.
Unnecessary Baggage
In this multi-media, uber-complex; complicated world we live in, it seems, we hardly live at all; at least not consciously. We are driven, by chores and responsibilities; flooded with stimuli, both bad and good; constantly. In our high-tech...
Zen
What is Zen? According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, the definition of Zen is:
1: a Japanese sect of Mahayana Buddhism that aims at enlightenment by direct intuition through meditation
2: a state of calm attentiveness in which one’s actions are guided by intuition rather than by conscious effort
Movement Practices
One of the most important movement practices, which is often neglected, is self-defense. Self-defense lies at the heart of every martial art. Modernity has mollified, sportified and distorted martial arts. Competition is seeking glory and perpetuating bitterness. Winning is a construct of the ego.
The Power of the Practice
Everything in life follows a pattern. The Fibonacci sequence, fractals, seasons, all follow cycles that emanate from cycles. It is inescapable as the moon and the stars, and put that way, why would we seek to escape them?
Why Only Live?
When we come to a reckoning with reality, we realize that the human mind is limited in both perception and capacity. The human mind cannot ken the essence of good and evil; that is above its genetic endowment, as one might say, above our paygrade. What is left then; desperation; nihilism?
