The secrets of the masters...
People think that they are progressing when it seems that all they are doing is playing with themselves. Simple things amuse simple minds, yes?
I always shake my head whenever I hear politicians or other civil leaders talk about raising the 'standard of living' or 'marching into the future'. Marching is another word for conformity, isn't it? Earlier today, at the gym, there was a cover of Seal's "Crazy" being played and I couldn't help but be impressed by the words, "We are never gonna survive, unless, we get a little crazy".
It's obvious that humans are doing well enough for themselves. By that, I mean that it's not likely that humans won't be able to find a way out of a difficult material situation. After all, we've been doing it for thousands of years.
In martial arts, we often use the term 'ikiteru' which is usually translated by the translators at the dojo as, 'surviving' or 'living'. There are two Japanese characters with the same pronunciation that could be used here(生きる, 活きる) though interestingly enough, they do not mean, literally, 'surviving'. The first character represents 'life', 'genuine' and 'birth'. The second represents 'lively', 'living' as well as 'being helped'.
I mention this because living is the purpose of life. If you look at the meanings of the Japanese chracters, we have the sense of something genuine, something with spirit (lively). Marching into the future seems far removed from the idea of something genuine.
I also mention this because by 'raising the standard of living' the implication is that we know what living is all about. I would suggest that many of the developments of human history have been a case of the toys changing with the game and the players staying the same.
As suggested by one of the Japanese characters, there has been no 'birth' here...
The progress that is so often bandied about as being of importance is very rarely related to anything other than the visible, the material, the lowest common denominator, so to speak.
If a person truly wishes to survive and live, they will, as Seal suggested, have to get a little crazy. In Arabic, the word usually used for crazy is 'majnoon' which really means something along the lines of 'a place for the jinn (genies, spirits, if you will). So basically, a crazy person is someone who is possessed, or, more gently, in connection with the other world.
If you stick to just the simple meanings of things and not see deeper into the broader connections, then yes, you may 'survive', but it could hardly be called living.
Like the cat that plays with its victims before killing it, so to the human mind plays with it's host before it 'kills' it. This is what the logic of the heart warns us of if we choose to listen to it, rather than our 'leaders'.
This is protection of humanity at the highest levels, one of the secrets of real martial arts.
Thankyou Seal for reminding me of this while I was riding the bike today...
Sleiman
I always shake my head whenever I hear politicians or other civil leaders talk about raising the 'standard of living' or 'marching into the future'. Marching is another word for conformity, isn't it? Earlier today, at the gym, there was a cover of Seal's "Crazy" being played and I couldn't help but be impressed by the words, "We are never gonna survive, unless, we get a little crazy".
It's obvious that humans are doing well enough for themselves. By that, I mean that it's not likely that humans won't be able to find a way out of a difficult material situation. After all, we've been doing it for thousands of years.
In martial arts, we often use the term 'ikiteru' which is usually translated by the translators at the dojo as, 'surviving' or 'living'. There are two Japanese characters with the same pronunciation that could be used here(生きる, 活きる) though interestingly enough, they do not mean, literally, 'surviving'. The first character represents 'life', 'genuine' and 'birth'. The second represents 'lively', 'living' as well as 'being helped'.
I mention this because living is the purpose of life. If you look at the meanings of the Japanese chracters, we have the sense of something genuine, something with spirit (lively). Marching into the future seems far removed from the idea of something genuine.
I also mention this because by 'raising the standard of living' the implication is that we know what living is all about. I would suggest that many of the developments of human history have been a case of the toys changing with the game and the players staying the same.
As suggested by one of the Japanese characters, there has been no 'birth' here...
The progress that is so often bandied about as being of importance is very rarely related to anything other than the visible, the material, the lowest common denominator, so to speak.
If a person truly wishes to survive and live, they will, as Seal suggested, have to get a little crazy. In Arabic, the word usually used for crazy is 'majnoon' which really means something along the lines of 'a place for the jinn (genies, spirits, if you will). So basically, a crazy person is someone who is possessed, or, more gently, in connection with the other world.
If you stick to just the simple meanings of things and not see deeper into the broader connections, then yes, you may 'survive', but it could hardly be called living.
Like the cat that plays with its victims before killing it, so to the human mind plays with it's host before it 'kills' it. This is what the logic of the heart warns us of if we choose to listen to it, rather than our 'leaders'.
This is protection of humanity at the highest levels, one of the secrets of real martial arts.
Thankyou Seal for reminding me of this while I was riding the bike today...
Sleiman
posted by sleiman @ 11:13 PM
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