I had employed a practice that I’ve only recently been taught: positioning my awareness slightly on the positive or leaving side of my heartbeat. I had no idea of its meaning, yet the instant I turned to this practice a realization immediately emerged.
To be clear, I'm not declaring an understanding here. Rather, I'm simply sharing realizations that instantly emerged when I began practicing something I didn't understand.
Read MorePart of my martial arts journey involved learning to become more relaxed. Problem was, I didn’t realize that I wasn’t relaxed. Understandably, this particular ‘inner journey’ took time for honesty to creep in. It wasn’t that I was being dishonest, but rather that my definition of honesty and self-awareness had to expand. Frankly, it was a process that took me years to unfold.
What’s interesting is the way in which Jiu Jitsu helped me unwrap all this.
Read MoreThe Seven Fundamental Principles for Standing in the Face of the Truth represent a relationship between the balance and harmony of standing in the face of the truth. There are many, many forms of truth that can matter in countless ways. In understanding the Seven Fundamental Principles better, it’s important to be mindful of what they are addressing.
Read MoreBalance and Harmony’ is an often-used phrase that sounds good on paper but isn’t always so easy to achieve. Quietly residing between those two seven letter words lays a simple three letter word — ‘and.’ As we shall see, it’s all in the ‘and,’ because hiding in that modest conjunction are five secret principles to improved balance and harmony. The power of the ‘and’ reveals how to transition from Balance to Harmony.
Read MoreShe who walks a tightrope wire is both strong and relaxed at the same time. With strength she is able to stay balanced in an impossible position. Yet by relaxing, she is sensitive to the most subtle of changes to her balance.
Read MoreThe Principles of Ki were developed by Koichi Tohei (head Aikido sensei, and founder of The Ki Society). What Tohei refers to as “Relaxed Strength” is what Jiu Jitsu calls supple — it’s a state between hard and soft, between rigid and flaccid. Tohei maintains that the four sub-principles contained within the Principles of Ki are something everyone can practice, regardless of age, gender or physical condition.
Read MoreI can say the point again, but before I do, let’s remember why and what we are here practicing. We are learning about an art…an art of giving…and way of being in the moment that can unlock the inward understandings of everything.
Now here is the point: when you practice, you have to go through the prime positions to bring anything into being.
Read MoreWhen we set ourselves to practice our reason for being, are we able to remember what it is? Do we look for it and stand on it, hoping for an even clearer version to appreciate? Do we respect it when it peeks through the moment at us enough to acknowledge it? Do we appreciate it and grow it into a more capable position? Do we show gratitude when the better version presents itself? Do we respect the improvements enough to live on them, sharing them and growing them more in our lives?
Read MoreAs I wrote earlier, it was eating from the tree of knowledge that separated Adam and Eve from the Known. Before they took that turn, they were dwelling in a sense of Oneness with the Known. Adam was primarily looking inward and Eve was primarily looking outward, but they shared a Known connection between themselves. As they lived in this inner connection, it provided them with a Knowing of the Known, and they became Known for it.
Read MoreUsing the understandings is the way to understand them better and it leads to more of the Knowing aspect within when we use them as they are Known instead of how they are known or unknown. Are there gradations of knowing? Yes, there are gradations of Knowing, just as there are gradations of knowing. As you come to know me more, you will have more knowledge of me and of my understandings. As you come to Know me more, you will have more Knowledge of Me and my Understandings.
Read MoreThe points we are discussing are not only in every one of us, they are in our moments as well. If we consider the moment as a cross section of life’s ongoing momentum, we will have a slice of living current to examine. This slice is one part of a continuum. This cross-sectional view and the continuum it belongs to is our subject when we become aware of life as a continuum and when we become aware our relationship to it.
Read MoreIt is important that we can move both inwardly and outwardly through our givings, as this enables us to navigate through life’s many circumstances and to line up with the spiritual values and matters of the moment. But I do want to once again address the outward and inward directions as I am using them. Outward values are values that are negative to a particular state of being and inward values are positive to that same state of being. By state of being, I am including any particular value, any reason, any manner or way, and any point.
Read MoreLet’s consider Adam and Eve. These are the names given to the Prime positions of Male and Female in this current model of humanity. Even the names have meaning. These prime points are in each application of this model, you being one and me being another. These are also the names given to the beings incarnating into those first two Prime positions. It is not the names of the souls. It is the names of those particular lives. This model, along with previous models, such as the Neanderthals, was created as an evolving species and there is an evolvement within each model. But previous models were in need of revision and the beings that created the new more evolved model set about to do just that. These beings, known as the Elohim were the creative team. Genesis says ‘They created Adam in Their own image.’ This refers to the Creators, acting as God, being seven in number, each representing the seven spirits of God, or the seven chakras, also referred to as the seven seals in humanity’s closed forms of awareness.
Read MoreThis essay delves into Adam and Eve, including describing both what they symbolically represent and literally empower within each of us. The basic notion being that Adam represents the part of us that is facing inward toward source and Eve represents that part of us that is facing outward toward matter. The Christ-point describes the hovering or balancing in between these two aspects of our nature. And when we balance the most perfectly, in a 50/50 position, we are unifying the two parts into one.
The Christ is not a person. It is a way of being. Christ is the mend for the riff of separation caused by the fall of Adam. Christ is the mend for the separation in us all if we claim the place in the heart where it is the in-dwelling of. It represents a way of connecting to the ONEness. Adam was the name given to the soul entering into a new model of Humanity. That model was paired into male and female and was called Adam and Eve. They each represented an aspect of being. Christ is the way of connecting those aspects.
Read More“Thoughts are like arrows. They shoot out of a person’s mind, or mouth, seeking a target. Once they are launched, it is inevitable that they fall back to the earth. You are made of earth and dirt, a soft and natural target for an arrow. But that is not all that you are made of. You are denying three fourths of your nature. Why not become fire, or wind or water? Is that so far beyond your ability to imagine?”
Read MoreWhen it comes to life itself, it’s clear we’ve disconnected or jumped out the wiring. If humans were buildings, they wouldn’t be allowed to be occupied.
Read MoreWe are living in an atmosphere of climate-denial, of divisiveness and hate. Working men and women are subjected to an unrelenting pressure — to produce more for less. In such an environment, how is it realistic to consider that we have a chance to robustly improve consciousness?
Read MoreSometimes Principles and Truths become fashionable and we lose the actualizing to temporal expression. Sometimes Truths and even Love can be used as very hurtful weapons, injuring the Hearts and Hopes of others and ourselves.
As we study and practice to be more in line with what we want our Eternal Relationship to be more about, we begin to see Principles in more meaningful ways.
Read MoreMartial arts often focus on an elusive concept characterized by the term 'center'. Students are introduced to this concept early in their training. In that context, instructors may emphasize various essential self-defense concepts such as, "Move the body as a unit, not as isolated parts." Over time, these vague concepts slowly crystalize into a series of realizations. When we examine our approach to our start-ups within the context of martial arts principles, we can see similarities emerging out of our own, unique 'everyday life dojos'.
Read MoreFairness Right #4: We believe in the Rule of Chairs. If we are negotiating from opposite sides of the table, you and I should be able to switch chairs and still agree that the deal is Fair. It’s not Fair if I give you a child’s sippy cup while I drive away with a full tanker truck. I’d probably not want to switch chairs.
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