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The phrase “Shiken Haramitsu Daikoumyo” is interpreted by Soke Masaaki Hatsumi as “any experience good or bad can lead to enlightenment”. This video dives into the significance of that idea in a world on fire.

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While pressure points seem physical at first emotional triggers work the same way. Martial arts practices can help transform these sensitive points into places of power with the right mindfulness. Note: I saw “weakness” in the video and video in retrospect “sensitive” I think is a better word. Twitter and Insta: @nintozen

#ninja #ninjutsu #bujinkan #mindfulness

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Its interesting to experience how the “self” folds to gain definition as life goes on. When I was thirteen, I was driven by impulsive exploration. Based on a deeply felt connection to magic others could not see (like most thirteen year olds). This drive, however, no matter how misinformed led to experiences, memories, training, and an entire formative process.

Once education set in though. Real education. The kind that brings dreadful perspective. It came to be shown that much of these experiences were tied to fads, patterns, politics, interpretation. Uniqueness was lost and all that remained was the multitude, and the mediocrity that infinite scale brings.

Where I stand now, poised at the heart of that infinity, it seems that this detachment only serves to clarify the self. Old experiences and purpose gain new meaning when it seems you have lost them. We miss our loved ones most when they are gone, after all. Parts of the self have to truly die (or be killed) so that you can look at their body and see if you mourn. If you do, what you do to brig it back will define its next life. The beauty is that this is one case where grief can actually bring something back to life.

#the self #grief #reflections

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Uranami

In my times spent watching, living, and telling martial arts narratives, a certain strange character has coalesced.

The character is a great martial artist. Often beyond great. Yet, they seem consumed in desire for some other art. Furthermore, they act as if subtly burdened by their martial skill, sometimes to the extent of seeing it as separating them from the possibility of a life in the other art. If I am on to something, examples of your own should already come to mind. I am thinking myself of Iroh and his love of Tea (ATLAB), Broken Sword an brush work (Hero), and my own Soke’s comments on wanting to only paint now.

The existence of this character in the narrative scope, especially when normally regarded with such esteem, seems to suggest a certain self-destructive trap hidden in martial art ambition. That the “end enlightenment” of reaching that level of skill somehow brings with it a malaise. A knowing of how long it took to get where they are, and how long it might take to get there again with something new (and if they have time left). Usually coupled with an ache for the end of fighting.

However, now I am inclined to see it a bit differently. It seems that there is a certain singularity involved. A point to which all arts (and other pursuits of higher awareness) converge upon. Once there, one can see all the paths leading to that point. This brings with it deep appreciation of skill anyone took to get there and a certain “blue print” for how to go about maybe walking off one of those new paths, this time knowing where you are going. After you learn Spanish, Italian comes faster even though both are equally complex, so why not try out one more language?

#martial arts #zen #reflections

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#Martial Arts #Bujinkan #Ninjutsu

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If you are willing to look at another person’s behavior toward you as a reflection of the state of their relationship with themselves rather than a statement about your value as a person, then you will, over a period of time cease to react at all.

Yogi Bhajan (via lazyyogi)

#detatchment

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i am afraid that if i open myself i will not stop pouring. (why do i fear becoming a river. what mountain gave me such shame.)

Jamie Oliveira, “Erosion” (via wordsnquotes)

#poetry

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Some insight gained from meditation on Air Bending:

The root of many human basic desires is a feeling of a void. A void in your stomach is called hunger. People with oral fixations have a constant awareness of the void in their own face. The void that dives sex speaks for itself.

However, the ways of life that inspired the Air Benders show a profound awareness of the truth these feelings of emptiness point to. They fast to master the yawning appetite of desire through the stomach. They focus on the breath to celebrate the voids in our chest that pull breath into our forms. By following these exercises, one becomes aware that the body is mostly empty space. Most of existence is empty space. What’s more, this space has form and moves; only leaving evidence in what we feel as wind currents.

With this in mind, I feel that true Air Bending (as a metaphor for this case) is the awareness of the energy that can be created by pressurizing a void, either positively or negatively. Negative pressure pulls air in, positive pushes it out. By controlling the positive and negative pressures in your own awareness, you can cause change as subtle as air.

Quick Aang doodle too.

#inktober #aang #avatar

#air bending #meditation inspiration

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Works by visual artist Penabranca (Bruno Borges).

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Cool the Flames

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“If you were an atheist, Birbal,” the Emperor challenged his first minister, “what would you say to the true believers of all the great religions of the world?” Birbal was a devout Brahmin from Trivikrampur, but he answered unhesitatingly, “I would say to them that in my opinion they were all atheists as well; I merely believe in one god less than each of them.” “How so?” the Emperor asked. “All true believers have good reasons for disbelieving in every god except their own,” said Birbal. “And so it is they who, between them, give me all the reasons for believing in none.”

“The Shelter of the World” - Salman Rushdie

#Brahmin #Salman Rushdie

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Just a random cross cultural bloop of a post. Noticed this "mudra" just pops up everywhere. For Christ it was a benediction (top left), for Prithvi it was a symbol of the energy of the earth (top right), for Buddha it was the connecting of an energy meridian (bottom left) and for Houston Cougars it means team spirit... and a missing cougar claw (bottom right). Has anyone else found this hand gesture in other cultures?

#mudra #anthropology #hand signs

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Repost from @izealist

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