Note - What follows is a bit of a story about how my home dojo came to be, and the effect it has had on me. This blog is more personal in nature, but I hope you enjoy it. It was a mess. Not the first mess I'd ever got into, but one of my … Continue reading Building what builds you. The story of a true circle.
sta·sis | \ ˈstā-səs 2 a: a state of static balance or equilibrium b: a state or period of stability during which little or no evolutionary change in a lineage occurs - Merriam Webster dictionary. 'A nation that draws too … Continue reading Stasis: The safety of the ledge.
'Almost all neuroses begins as an alternative to legitimate suffering' - Carl Jung Hunger. We have a complicated relationship with it. This week a couple of my colleagues and I are taking part in the Ration Challenge. I'm two days into a week of eating plain rice gruel, a few beans, no coffee. Later in … Continue reading Hunger.
Apparently it's a modern epidemic, destroying our economic, physical, academic and spiritual potential. It pours out of our phones, Stan, Netfilx, Cable, Playstations, Xboxes, IPads, IPods, Radios, and Apple Watches. It comes at us 24 hours a day, ruining our lives and, (so I'm told) we're powerless to defend ourselves. Distraction. The latin root of … Continue reading What is distraction for?…mind the gap!
Sorted. All fixed. Straightened out. Done and dusted. We've got a lot of phrases in our culture for the end of an activity, the successful completion of a goal, that wonderful place in tomorrow land where we reap the benefits of all our hard work. Heaven knows I've gone after and reached plenty of goals … Continue reading Sorted… sort of.
Hi readers - I apologise for being absent of late. I quit a job and had a lot to finish up on. This gave me cause to reflect on the subtle art of making a good end, and to this end I thought I'd better get posting again! Wishing you a wonderful 2019 and thanks for … Continue reading How to quit.
I had been working on a new post when I read a quite reactionary article from an academic at La Trobe university, decrying the evils of modern feminism and longing for a return to the good old days. I felt obliged to respond, and decided to post my response below. Nostalgia is a seductive liar, … Continue reading Reply to ‘nostalgic manhood’.
We all have likes and dislikes. But I often wonder what it is to like something? To want to do - or have - more of it, or feel like we have found the 'truth'? I wonder if there's some value in unpacking this 'liking' thing, and ask whether or not it's always the best … Continue reading Whatever you like…
For a change of gears, let's start with a zen story... "It seems that in old Japan, a pair of monks, one an old veteran, the other a novice, were walking along a swollen river when they happened upon a young lady sitting by the river with a basket of vegetables, crying. "Sister, what's the … Continue reading Letting go… it’s not what you think.
We're good at acquiring stuff. Working, going shopping and coming home with new toys we'll probably never use is a cultural pastime. We even have a vernacular for it (i.e. retail therapy, impulse purchase, buyer's regret). We chase titles, belts and get a certificate to prove we learned anything. Well, so what? What does it … Continue reading You are an illusion.
Shinwabukan 