Sunday, March 23, 2008

Whada Week

So this last week was completely a life changing and growing experience in more ways than one. I think it was the time I had the most going on and the most changing all at once. I take guitar lessons now even though I have been playing for years and my instructor has been amazing and has showed me some new tricks that I feel were really holding me back. I went to Daughtry/BonJovi on Tuesday with my sister which was really cool to see her reactions because we had really close seats and it was really fun. I had two interviews the day of the concert and found out on Wednesday one of the companies was interested and I was also in joining them so I will be starting on March 31. That was all put in place due to the fact that my contract at my current company was ending on Friday 3/21 after a year. I had been renewed several times but I knew this time was coming. And to top it all off on Saturday I started Olympic style sparring training for Tae Kwon Do. I just wanted to spit this out quick since I haven't updated this in a while and this is a good quick way to remember, it was a great week.

-JB

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Book of Five Rings Part I

I have recently read the Book of the Five rings. It is a comprehensive yet almost esoteric form of learning hand to hand combat strategy. Miyumoto Musashi is the writer of this excellent exercise of learning, my copy was translated by Stephen Kaufman. In such a straight forward manner it is hard to believe it is so deep. In this writing the creator makes even the simplest of statements mind blowing. It is a short book but one that takes many hours of thought. I have read it through once to get the basic concept and am working on my second time around to actually begin the understanding of his message.

I was brought to this book as I am studying Tae Kwon Do, I am a middle belt and just beginning to see the theory of strategy at work. In hand to hand combat it is a quick game of skill, knowledge, confidence and lack of fear that will give you the edge, I have only begun this journey. In many ways I want to jump to the end and know all the moves and be able to perform them with precision, but I know that to master any of this is going to take many hours of practice. I have an incredible instructor who is able to perform feats I could only imagine and that really keeps me going. As we were sparring one day in practice I realized he had a much better plan for his fighting and style than anybody else did, in watching him I knew I had to research strategy much further. Surprisingly enough the very next class we started working on strategy a little more, but I had already picked up the book and was glad I had done so.

There is quite a lot to the book of the five rings, it is broken into a course of 5 chapters encompassing each aspect of the authors theories on strategy. Broken into Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and No-Thing each section has it's own intricacies that extend far beyond basic thought of strategy and combat. Each element is extremely useful for everyday life. I will be going through this book as a series of posts, to keep my thoughts in tact and also as an easy reference for the future.

-JB

Monday, March 3, 2008

Changing Your Stars

I want to write bit on what Heath Ledger had meant to me and maybe in doing so come up with some deeper insights into life and synchronism's. I first came across him as the son of Mel Gibson’s Character in The Patriot, in that movie you really get close to the character and him in understanding who he was, and he played the part great.

Where he really struck home with me was in the second film and one of my favorites A Knights Tale. It was in this film that I saw that I didn’t need to live the same life I had been. I could "change my star’s" and young William Thatcher said in the movie. He didn’t know that was his path, he didn’t know that by being a squire for many years he would have this opportunity, he didn’t work and work and work in the hope’s of becoming a Knight as that is not how that happened in those days. You either were Nobility or you weren’t, there was no middle ground on this. He, after being in the position to pretend for a day, took the opportunity which was better than never even having it at all. This turned into a whirlwind of fortunate events that opened doors for him to become something he was not born into but something he was born to become.

"We are not creatures of circumstance; we are creators of circumstance." -Benjamin Disraeli

This really struck me in the sense that I always felt that I was on the outside looking in to becoming something I had always wanted to be, but never having the opportunity or sometimes the guts. This was in many aspects of my life at the time, previously and since. Now looking back it is amazing to think what an actor can do to put your mind into that realm of opening doors for yourself. This is why we revere them so much, much like musicians. It isn’t so much the story but the story we take from it to become something better. Are we born into something, are we born to do something, be something, strive for something.

I have been reading a lot about synchronicity and understanding them, this is why I feel this strikes such a cord with me as well. I feel this is a waking point as well as an ending point, it is time to shed the old and wake to the new. Those who have come before and are no longer with us were here to teach us something, as well as learn for themselves, when that teaching and learning was done in this life they moved on. What is good or bad right or wrong depends on the time in which you lived, weather you left your mark is left to the time that is yet to come. I think that most will see they have learned much from those that have come and gone in their lives.

I don't usually like nerding out this much but I recently read an article about how energy can not be destroyed it can only be changed. A great metaphor for what happens after we die is placed nicely in the Lord of the Rings; when Dumbledor the Grey becomes Dumbledor the White. He is the same yet he is on another plane of consciousness. Even though you may see him in the same dimensions, he has changed his entire mind and in this it has given him more knowledge and also more power. I think that as we grow we grab onto new things and gain levels just like this, on the outside we may change slightly but everyone still recognizes us as the same. We move up to different levels, we are able to do different feats and becomes something new.

Reality is in a constant state of flux and is very fluid, so much so that we sometimes don’t recognize it and become stuck in a swirl of currents going different ways. I find myself challenged to find direction and move forward and get out of the swirl to get onto the next level of consciousness, and to a new stage in life.

From a Knights Tale:

Wat: You have been weighed.

Roland: You have been measured.
Kate: And you have absolutely...
Chaucer: Been found wanting.
William: Welcome to New World. God save you, if it is right that he should do so.


-JB


 
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