What You Resist Persists

Tags

Barbara O'Brien, Be like water, bruce lee, buddha, buddha nature, buddhist, Carl Jung, eastern philosophy, impermanence, inspiration, journey, love, martial arts, resistance, self improvement, well being, Zen

I sit on this Sunday in pain. I ache. My body aches from competing in a martial arts tournament yesterday. My mind aches from the thought I should have done better and from the seemingly never-ending quest to edit and finish my second book. And, my heart aches from a love that was lost, a love that could have been. The weight of the world seems to be on my shoulders as I reflect on all of this pain.

Thoughts and questions enter my mind like “Why?” and “I am done, never again,” or “I can’t do this anymore.” As I filter these thoughts and look at my context of life I am clear to my pain – RESISTANCE. Just like in martial arts, in life what we resist persists. Life throws whatever it throws at us and we fight it. We hope and wish for something different. We sit in questions and victimize our lives as if we are at the effect of life itself. This resistance is like a dam blocking the flow of life. It blocks our lives, our happiness until we burst in a breakdown, or health problems, or we flood our subconscious with fear and inaction that cripples us in fully experiencing life, in pursuing what we truly want.

We resist the flow of life and cling to the permanence and static of life.

My favorite ex Seattleite, Bruce Lee said, “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless-like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle, you put it into a teapot and it becomes the teapot. Now it can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.”

This is the root of Buddha’s first noble truth. The Buddha stated that life is suffering. Yet this word suffering does not explain the full extent of his words as the Buddha did not speak English so the translation was lost. Barbara O’Brien breaks this down in greater depth in this article on Buddhism http://buddhism.about.com/od/thefournobletruths/a/dukkhaexplain.htm. O’Brien explains that Buddha’s word Dukkha often translated as suffering, or dissatisfaction can be broken into three main categories:

1. Suffering or Pain: This includes physical, emotional and mental pain.

2. Impermanence or change: Anything subject to change be it happiness, or sadness, or anger.

3. Conditioned states: To be conditioned is to be dependent on or affected by something else.

Thus, we suffer when we cling to this pain, impermanence and conditioned states. We try to HOLD ON as if we can control life and keep it as it was, or as we want it to be. We miss two fundamental components of our lives. In every moment, no matter the difficulty or pain we can choose acceptance and gratitude. Every moment in our life has beauty to it, some may be harder to find than others yet it is there if you stop resisting and open your heart.

After months of training, all of the sweat, the blood, the broken bones and the tears came to a head yesterday. My dam of resistance broke as I lost a match. I was angry, frustrated and disappointed I didn’t do better. The foundation of my resistance built as the thoughts escalated in my mind, ‘why am I doing this?’ ‘I am not going through that pain again.’ It’s funny as these same questions rise in my mind as I think about putting my heart out again. I think about how much I miss my love and my heart aches and these same questions come into my mind. Through all of this resistance my suffering persists.

As I change my context and accept things for exactly how they are and no different I can see a different path. I can feel different about my circumstances, I am no longer at the effect of this life. I can see that I am 100% responsible for my life and how I exist in it. I can have extreme gratitude that I am a far better martial artist that I was 3 months ago and I have built incredible friendships and brothers and sisters in my life. I can get that all this time editing and rewriting is a gift, I am following a passion of mine, a voice in this world. This is truly a gift. And, my heart, even though it hurts I am so grateful for each moment I had with this person, I am a far better person because of it and I will always have the memories of our time together. I am exactly how I am supposed to be right now. Every experience is exactly how it was supposed to happen. I can only smile in this thought and I am so grateful, so blessed for all of my experiences in this life. Life is this journey, this path, there is no supposed destination. Life is right now, in this moment, in each experience.

I am water my friend. I will give my heart as though it has never been broken and I will train like I have never lost and I will write as though they are my first words. Life is beautiful.

Call to Action:

• Get present to where you resist life. Let it go, find acceptance and gratitude in all of these areas.
• Be like water my friend, flow with life, you cannot control a life that is exactly the way it is supposed to be.
• Be LOVE.

Thomas D. Craig

Author of A Cup of Buddha

Seeker. Adventurer. Warrior

Embrace Your Scars

Tags

buddha, eastern philosophy, inspiration, journey, khalil gibran, life, love, quotes, scars, spiritual, suffering, travel, Zen

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

Khalil Gibran

As human beings we avoid suffering and pain. It is natural that we are drawn to comfort and security. However, pain is inevitable. Buddha stated this directly when he is said life is suffering. However, Buddha also stated that suffering, and life is impermanent. All of life, all beings are in a state of change. We are always in a transition. When we cling to the past, or what life should be we become attached to the illusion of permanence. Life is not permanent. It is constantly changing. It is filled with happiness, with loss, with broken hearts, with love, with joy, and with tears. We are an embodiment of all of these experiences, a walking billboard of scars and beauty marks highlighting a life that has been lived, journey’s that have been taken.

Yet we hide these scars denying they are part of us, somehow telling the world that we are fine that life is always OK. We talk about the weather and we play reasonable and safe. We use words like someday, and never again, and I need to protect myself. We play the game of looking good to the outside world while we suffer inside, constrained in our self expression and our love. We hide our scars to the outside world but carry the wound with us everywhere, letting it impact how we live, how we experience the world around us. We keep people at a distance so they do not see our scars, only the mask of illusion we wear to tell the world that our perceived life works. In turn we do not let anyone in, nor are we part of another’s world. We play this dance of permanence and illusion, as if to showcase only the highlights of our lives.

It took me a long time to embrace my scars. Literally and metaphorically. I did a face plant into a broken milk glass when I was 2 years old which resulted in over a hundred stitches and multiple follow up operations to the area next to my left eye. I was immediately self-conscious, but then my first girlfriend in 5th grade took this to a new level. Upon our breakup she tore off the puka shell necklace I had bought her scattering the beads across the playground and followed me back to class pulling her left eye down and calling me scar face. It took me many girlfriends before I would allow one to stand or sit to the left side of my face. I would wear sunglasses inside to hide my scar, my perceived weakness. This seemed so real then, so threatening. I was so concerned in looking good as if others would not accept my differences.

Thinking about this now is humorous to me. Our scars and experiences make us who we are. These are our individual imprints that tell the world we have lived, that we in this current body experienced life. It is easy to hide, to sit alone on a couch with what if, and someday, and if only thoughts filling our existence. Our lives flash by safe and secure as if a beautiful sailing ship never left the dock. We long for freedom, we long to let the wind rip into our sails while we crest the wave and then dip into the dark unknown. This is life. This is full self expression.

Embrace your scars. Embrace all of it. Fail as many times as you can because it is in these failures, these scars that you are pushing life to the fullest. Our scars do not define us. They are gifts of experience. They are roadmaps of character and courage. As Khalil Gibran stated ‘the most massive characters are seared with the most scars.’ Live fully, put yourself out there. Love with all of your heart even if it is broken. Experience life to the fullest.

For in the end we are simply a traveler passing through and each and every moment is perfect and exactly as it is meant to be. Every moment is a gift and every scar worth embracing and showing to the world.

I bow to the divine in you. You are beautiful and I love you.

Be well. Be Love.

Call to Action:

• Embrace your scars. Embrace all of it. Live your life to the fullest. Let the world into your experiences.
• Fail. Keep making your plate bigger. If you are not failing you are playing safe in this world.
• Put your heart out and keep putting it out. Every heart break is a gift, a scar to embrace.

Thomas D. Craig

Author A Cup of Buddha

Seeker. Adventurer. Warrior

The Art of Fighting without Fighting

Tags

bruce lee, buddha, eastern philosophy, inspiration, journey, love, martial arts, peace, presence, self improvement, spiritual, the art of fighting without fighting, warrior, well being, Zen

The Art of Fighting without Fighting

Finding the Warrior within Yourself

“Why do you train in Martial Arts?”  A friend asked me the other day.

I hadn’t really thought about it.  I paused and sensing my hesitation, he jumped in with another question.

He seemed perplexed as he asked, “I don’t understand, it doesn’t make any sense, you follow a spiritual path of nonviolence, you are a vegetarian, you don’t drink, you meditate.  Why do you train to hurt another individual?”

I shrugged and threw out a quick answer that I train in the Arte Suave, or smooth art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu predicated on controlling versus hurting an opponent.

Having seen me through my injuries and discussions of chokes and armlocks he didn’t seem to buy this answer.

In truth I hadn’t thought about this question.  Being in a martial art was second nature to me. I had been in some form of a martial art for most of my life. My father was a wrestler and a coach so I was wrestling practically before I could walk and competing by the time I was eight years old.  I trained in Tae Kwon Do, a form of Chinese boxing called Wing Chun and now I train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

In pondering the question, my thoughts raced.  I had always been troubled by the concept of a Warrior Monk.  These real life Zen Monks, or Sohei, from feudal Japan who rationalized a spiritual and warrior path as a means to forward both political and personal gains.  The root of martial arts, or at least Kung Fu comes from a Buddhist monk by the name of Bodhidharma who developed a series of exercises for the sedentary monks in the temple.  My mind wrestled with this concept, one of the core tenets of Buddhist thought is ahisma, or nonviolence for all living beings.  This was the root of the nonviolent movement promoted by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.  My mind grasped onto this thought of ahisma and the respect and humility for all living beings.  The thought that we are all connected.  We are all brothers and sisters vibrating harmoniously in the breathe of life.  This is my belief, we are all the same.  So then, why train?

To get to the root that all living beings are connected and one, it is essential to remove everything within one’s mind, one’s ego to get to a state of nothing.  At a state of nothing we are then connected to everything.  From nothing we become everything.  Our mind becomes a barrier to this state.  It creates doubt, inflated worth, individual thought and ego.  Our mind attaches to the past and desires of the future.  It is fueled by fear to hold us status quo, trapped in our worldly attachments, trapped in this body.  Our mind creates a false belief that we are this physical vessal we carry around in this life.  We hold onto this individual identity from this physical persona and create beliefs that we are more important, or superior to other creatures, to other individuals.

When I step on the mat to compete in martial arts I have to relinquish all of these fears.  I no longer have the permission or belief that I am superior, or better.  In different to some of the language I hear from the MMA fighters of today, traditional martial artists were always taught first to be humble, to respect your opponent above yourself, to respect life above all.  There is a saying in martial arts, there is always someone stronger, faster, better.  In training, I am stripped of everything, I cannot bring the past with me, I cannot day dream of a future that is not here, I am alone with nothing but a Gi around a stripped down physical body.  Metaphorically, this is life.  First treat life with respect and humility.  Value life above all else.  The founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, talked about his meaning of the Budo the code of martial arts, traditional defined as the path of the warrior, describing BU as LOVE. Love in that all life is precious and martial arts is used to protect life.  Life is LOVE.

When I am alone on the mat, I have no other choice but to stay in the present moment.  A lapse in concentration and I am finished.  There is no greater metaphor for life.  All we have is now.  There is no tomorrow.  The past doesn’t exist, it is gone.  We can create anything we want in this moment, the moment of now.  Martial Arts remind me of this critical teaching like a firehouse to my face.  The mat teaches me this lesson without bias, without morality or right or wrong.  I am present and in the now or I am finished, disconnected from the source, and lost.

I do not train to fight an opponent, I train to fight myself.  I fight the fears that sit inside and tell me I can’t or tell me I am small.  I fight the voice that asks ‘Who am I?’  Who am I to make a difference?  Who am I on this planet?  I train to fight the fears that I am not good enough, or lovable, or successful, whatever this means.  I train to better myself everyday.  This is my fight.  I fight each day to better the last, to push myself beyond the voices and beyond my comfort zone to that of a place that silences the noise bringing me in harmony with the wind, with the trees, with all living beings, with my opponent.  There is no time for fear in this place as the only thought is now.  I know that I am responsible for getting to this place, there is no other place to look as I am alone on the mat as in life.  I am responsible for being the ONE.   I know that I must train, I must give effort to reach beyond the ordinary to find this edge.  I train to live on the edge, to know I am capable of anything I create.  I train to better myself and those around me.  I train to find harmony in life, to find love.

This is why I train.

There is a famous story of one of the greatest samaruai of all time, Miyamoto Musashi, who defeated an opponent without fighting by convincing him to row to an island for a fight only to leave him on shore.  Bruce Lee repeated this story in Enter the Dragon when the tough guy on the boat asked him what his style was.  Bruce replied, ‘The art of fighting without fighting.’  The tough guy asked him to show him something.  Bruce convinced him to go to shore so they would have more room only to leave him by himself on a small raft behind the boat.

Martial Arts is not to harm an opponent. It is my canvas to find humility, respect and the PRESENT. It is my vehicle to better myself in all of life, to have love and compassion. This is the art of fighting without fighting. This is the way to find the warrior within oneself.  Respect, humility, presence, and living on the edge. Life is love.

Call to Action:

• Find your canvas in life, the canvas that puts you on the edge, that finds humility within yourself, that teaches you to respect all of life.
• Be this passion. Do not put it on the shelf and wait. Live it, breathe it, be it.  Let this passion become part of your being expressed through all of your actions in life. Thoughts and actions should become one.
• Better yourself everyday.  There is no where else to look but in the mirror.  Put aside these fears and voice of smallness and become the leader that you are.  There is no where to look but within yourself.
• Be LOVE.

Thomas D. Craig

Author of A Cup of Buddha

Writer. Seeker. Adventurer. Warrior

In the end…

Tags

buddha, buddha nature, god, inspiration, journey, life, love, meditation, mindfulness, peace, self improvement, spiritual, well being, Zen

In the end

All I will be remembered for is what I stood for in this life.

I cannot take with me my car, my house, my clothes.  It will not matter where I have lived, or what was in my bank account, or what type of job I held.  All of my material world will pass as if a dream.

I will pass onto another world, in some other form, shining as a light as the energy that I am, that we all are.  This form, this body will pass and decay and merge into reusable properties that all physical forms pass into.

This cycle of life will pass like one long breath and exhalation that will seem like a short sleep.  All that will be left of this current existence will be the mist of a physical presence and the imprint of what I stood for in this universe.  Our imprint may be a faint whisper and not impressionable at all. It may be that of uneventful self-induced motives that will be forgotten before the dirt settles onto our face.  Or, our imprint may be one that touches our immediate family or community.  It may even spread throughout humanity and touch, move and inspire generations.  You are more powerful than any force on this planet, you can move mountains, ride the wind, create from nothing.  You alone author your imprint.

Whether you know this or not, this life is not about you.

In fact, it is this you that we must discuss.  It is this you that we have to get straight about first.  This you is not what you see in the mirror.  This is just the rental that you are now in possession of as you pass through this cycle of life.  YOU are the light within, the vibrating energy that all living things possess.  There is no distinction between you, and me and any other living being.  Under the covers we truly are connected.  There are no classes, no races, no divisions.  There is no distinction, WE ARE ONE.

It is our responsibility, our purpose to move forward.  We have been blessed with this amazing mind, body and spirit.  Our capabilities are limitless.  We can accomplish anything with intention and spirit.  ANYTHING.

All that is left is CHOICE.  Our life becomes a choice in what we are willing to stand for in this life.

Breathe in this thought for a moment.  Life becomes quite simple at this realization.  This stress dissipates as we are no longer fighting for some perceived MORE, or GOT TO HAVE things in this world.  All of this is meaningless.  When you take your last breath in the luggage that you are carrying around you will not have one thought about possessions, or what people think of you.  This is the Matrix that we wrap ourselves in.  This is the illusion that is meaningless.  All that will be left is who you touched on this planet and what you stood for.  Did you forward life in this universe?  The simplicity of life comes down to a daily mantra, a constant question of What do I stand for?.….What am I willing to fight for?…..Am I am making a difference?

In the end this is all that matters.  Every breath, every moment is a chance to choose.  The distractions of life pull us to choose a different path that fills one with a self-induced, egotistical life.  This pull gains traction and gravity within and we continue to search for meaning in this life.  We buy books looking for answers, we search and yet there is a void.  Once self disappears, and one lives in a state of curiosity in the possibility of benefitting the common we then we fill this void.  Our anxiety of our purpose is gone as there no longer is an I, an ego to satisfy.  If everything is one and we are all connected, and we exist this common we, then we can stand in the question of How can I make a difference for this common ‘we’?  Or, How can I make a difference for living beings?…Once we live in this existence we become light, filled with passion and purpose.  The root of our existence comes from our inner being fueled by love and compassion.

This is your choice in life.  Choose to make a difference.  Choose to forward life.

Find your purpose.  Find your passion that comes from this root of love.  Choose this existence.  Live life with no regrets.  Live life filled with purpose, passion and love.  Live life as if each day is your last.  Get up….stand up…fight for making a difference on this planet.

This choice is yours.  In the end this is all that you will remember.  In the end this is the only existence that will be remembered.  Do not fight for the remembrance of your physical body like some elaborate tombstone, fight through your actions, through your commitments, through your stand.

Call to Action:

• Find what you stand for on this planet.  Read the papers, listen…you will hear it.  You will be called.  When you are called there will be nothing that can stop you.  You will be a force that cannot be stopped.  You will find this burning purpose.
• Be in the question at all times ‘What do I stand for?’  Whether this is fighting with your significant other, work, your family.  You have and always have a choice, WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOR?  Choose love, choose compassion, be the leader.  This is the question.
• Be LOVE

Be well….Be Love

Thomas D. Craig

Author A Cup of Buddha

Writer. Seeker. Adventurer. Warrior

New Beginnings

Tags

buddha, inspiration, journey, life, love, meditation, new beginnings, peace, quotes, self improvement, spiritual, well being, Zen

Every end is a new beginning.

Proverb

Human beings avoid change.  However inevitable change may be in life,  we find ways to ignore, delay, or avoid it.  We mask ourselves by becoming complacent, by pining for the past, by hoping for a different existence.  We hold onto the status quo with a vice grip that blurs our vision into one of no possibilities.  We hold onto a context of life that clings to the static yet asks why isn’t life different.  We live in this prism of suffering shackled to a life as a victim.

Yet, new beginnings surround us be it a new birth, a new job, a new love, a new day.  These new beginnings fill us with hope, with anticipation, with possibility.  When we allow our minds to truly put aside that which is complete then we are open to new experiences.  We see life in a different light.  We realize that life at every moment is a new beginning.  Every end is a new beginning, every moment is fresh, is new.

My life is at this point right now.  I am in a new job, I am working on publishing my second book, a fiction book titled ‘In Death and Living’ based on a short Zen story.  I am looking at new places to live, I am moving to a new phase in my relationship with my girlfriend and various friends. Life moves as it always does.

There is no power in this world that can stop life from happening.  At times life brings rainbows and smiles and at times it brings tears and extreme challenges.  It is easy for human beings to put blinders on and see life through a certain lens be it rose colored or black.  We begin to expect life to be a certain way, or we begin to long for the way used to be.  We build lives on hope and pray for things that we need or lives that we deserve.  When life plays out in a different manner and our expectations are not met we feel frustration and sadness in that our lives are not what they are supposed to be.

At every moment as we filter and process life, a larger existence is happening all around us.  The brain processes 400 Billion bits of information every second yet we are aware of only 2000 of these.  We miss life happening at every moment.  If we remove our blinders, if we remove the concept of good or bad, if we remove the expectations in life then we can start seeing life and the world just as it is……beautiful in every moment.

When we can take in life as it happens without creating meaning around it, or holding onto moments grasping for a different existence then we can truly create a life with continuous NEW BEGINNINGS.  From this state of nothing we can create a life at every moment. There is no right or wrong or expectations in how things should be.  We then take in and live life from an open existence and begin to EXPERIENCE all of the things around us that we have been blind to our entire lives.

It is said that when Columbus anchored in the new world the natives could not see the ships docked off the island.  These natives had no concept in their minds of a schooner ship so their minds could not grasp the reality that these ships were anchored immediately off the shore.  This is our life.  We are blind to so much life around us as our minds are focused on outcomes and expectations and not on being and experiencing.  We run the hamster wheel to our death bed longing, expecting, and hoping and we die missing the grandiose of our existence.

When we empty and come from a place of nothing, we begin to see.  We begin to hear.  We begin to taste.  We begin to feel…..We begin to live.  We have no expectations.  We are here, exactly where we are supposed to be living exactly the life we are supposed to have.  Look around, see this world, there is beauty, grace in front of us at every moment. Until we let go we cannot see it.  Until we find this emptiness we will suffer.  Until we allow ourself to BE at every moment we will sprint through this blink of a life and never find peace.

Embrace new beginnings.  Allow yourself to create these new beginnings at every moment.  Allow yourself to find grace and beauty at every moment of your life.

You are creating your world.  Be love, be peace….this is your choice.

Call to Action:

• Inspect your life and find where you long for things to be a certain way.  Find where you have expectations and be present to these areas.
• Be excited for new beginnings.  Be excited for creating new moments in your life.  Begin to create your world.  Choose every state of your existence.
• BE your world.  Be Love.  Be peace.  Be grace.

Thomas D. Craig

Author of A Cup of Buddha

Seeker.Adventurer.Warrior

What are you willing to fight for…

Tags

buddha, ee cummings, fight, journey, life, love, meditation, mother theresa, passion, peace, poetry, quotes, spiritual, stand up, Zen

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

e. e. cummings

Buddhists talk about the veil of illusion.  The illusion that this life is static and permanent.  We become absorbed in this cloak of SELF and believe that we are this baggage of flesh indifferent to the true self that is contained within and filled with vibrant, endless, universal energy.  Our lives become an extension of this SELF in fulfilling superficial wants and desires.  Our fight in life is to satisfy the desire of the personal SELF.  Our existence is from the context of ‘How can I benefit’ or, ‘what’s in it for me?’ We act on our desires or out of fear to satisfy the SELF.  We journey through life in this me first mentality indifferent to the pain and hurt we inflict on others along our path.

We spend our existence on this planet as if it is one of only THIS lifetime.  This is shortsighted and small.  It is an existence of SELF and ego led by fear that keeps us limited and contained.  We are not this body.  The Tibetan word for body is lü which translates to that of luggage or baggage. This metaphor is perfect as our body is simply baggage carrying our true self as a transition to another form.  If this is the case, what are we fighting for?  An empty vessel that in earthly terms could be gone in a moment and in universal terms is over in a blip?

We are powerful beyond any comprehension.  We can create anything we put our energy and commitment toward.  Inside we itch to stand for something.  We itch to fight for something beyond SELF, beyond ego.  We stand on this planet in this form to FIGHT for this transformation beyond the individual to that of a collected consciousness.  Strip away our fear, and our ego and we are boundless energy, universally connected that at its root is simply LOVE.  We serve on this planet to connect and transform all living beings to a version of LOVE that is individual defined.  Buddha means the awakened one.  When we connect at this level to the level of love we are awakened to that of universal beings.  Fear no longer exists.  We are left with no barriers, only a clearing to connect and transform.  We are left with something to fight for.

What are you willing to fight for with this life?

Pick up the paper, walk the streets, travel.  Suffering, injustice and ill-treatment to living beings abound in this world.  We can pass this by and tell ourselves it is not our issue, yet if not you, then who?  If not now, then when?  The time to wake up is now.  The time to fight is imminent.  All we have is right now, this very moment.  There is no other time.

Find what moves you in life.  Find what gets you out of bed.  Find your passions and what calls to you.  FIND what you are willing to die for.  Stand in this space and be unmoved to all that come at you.  Be unmessable in this commitment and stand.  Fight for this.

You don’t have to fight for world peace.  Be committed to making a difference on this planet in your terms.  It might be a commitment to family and you create  a commitment and a stand in how families can work in this world.  It might be a relentless commitment to love.  Be a stand to another with your heart.  Give it freely and fight for your love and do not let anything come between this.  This is worth a life in this vessel in giving love freely.  There is no greater purpose than giving your heart filled with compassion and love.

Awaken yourself and find a commitment that lasts beyond this body, this life.  Let them speak of you as what you stood for on this planet.  Let the words embody the spirit of your commitments and the living beings you touched and transformed in this form.  As you give LOVE in this form the ego and SELF dissipate into a meaningless whisper that no one can hear.  The universal melody of LOVE drowns out any of this noise.  There is no greater power and nothing higher than to fight for with all of your being.

Live the words of Mother Theresa

“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.

Life is beauty, admire it.

Life is a dream, realize it.

Life is a challenge, meet it.

Life is a duty, complete it.

Life is a game, play it.

Life is a promise, fulfill it.

Life is sorrow, overcome it.

Life is a song, sing it.

Life is a struggle, accept it. …

Life is a tragedy, confront it.

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is luck, make it.

Life is too precious, do not destroy it.

Life is life, fight for it.”

Call to Action:

• Awaken.  Find what moves you.  Find what pulls you out of bed in the morning.  Find what eats at your soul that you are NOT willing to tolerate anymore.
• Be committed to this passion.  Be committed and a stand for something beyond yourself.  Be unmoved in this commitment
• BE LOVE…..there is no great power.

Thomas D. Craig

Author A Cup of Buddha

Writer.Seeker.Adventurer.Warrior

Be the ONE

Tags

buddha, buddha nature, inspiration, journey, life, love, peace, poetry, ralph waldo emerson, self improvement, spiritual, spiritualism, travel, well being, Zen

Every artist was first an amateur.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fear limits our expression in life.  Fear constrains our ability to explore and experience this world.  Fear creates distance in relationships and extinguishes the flame of love.  Fear controls and manipulates the limitless being that exists in all of us.  Fear oppresses our ability to shine.

As human beings we have a notion of looking good.  This worry about how we will be judged or looked upon by another dictates our way of being on this planet.  We limit our leadership.  We constrain our full self-expression.  We become safe and rational.  Our way of being and our context of life becomes small and constrained in a box.  Safe and rational become the norm.  Our thoughts focus on what cannot be done.  Our life becomes limited by the fear that constrains us and becomes a world of survival.  We begin to use phrases like “who am I to do that?”  Or, “someone else will take on that action.”

Our actions are consistent with this fear and wanting to look good.  We play small.  We doubt what is possible.  We do not see the power that exists inside of us because of the limits that we have built within ourselves over our lifetime.  We worry about judgement and what people think.  We play a game to look controlled and good on the outside while we are wrapped in chains and constrained on the inside.  Our life exists inside of a box that is self-created.

Fear keeps us from a life that we love.  Fear masks the compassionate and loving being that exists inside all of us.

We know what exists down this path of fear.  We have been down this road.  Our energy, our spirit craves for a different journey.  We crave for a journey that is free of bondage.  A journey where we dance like no one is watching, where we sing when the melody of life moves us, where we speak to move another human being.  This is a journey of full self-expression and love.  This is a journey where we step outside of our limited box and rid ourself of fear into a world that we are the ONE, that there is no one else more capable to carry the flame of our commitments.  Our love and commitments carry far more power than the limits of fear.  Who are you not to carry this flame of love out into this world?

As we step into something new in life we are expanding.  Playing a life that is static, and limited is safe and constrained.  We are creative human beings that exist to explore and expand.  Expansion requires stepping beyond what we know and what feels safe.  In order to expand we must get comfortable in making mistakes.  This is part of the growth.  Breakdown to breakthrough.  Feel freedom in the chaos and the unknown.  Feel freedom in mistakes.  Learn to love them.  As Ralph Waldo Emerson states “every artist was first an amateur.”  Every new step is a first step.  Be comfortable in the uncomfortable.  Get rid of the concept of looking good.  This is a concept that is entirely self-created.  Be curious, be adventurous, be love.

Live a life that is filled with creation and exploring.  Live a life that expands.  Be on a journey that is fully self expressed.  Be a stand for expansion and love.  Be your commitment on this planet.  Life is too important and too short to have it limited by fear.  You are far bigger than this.  Create this journey.

Call to Action:

• Get present to where you are controlled by fear in your life.  Get present to where you are consumed with looking good and judgement by others.
• Create a life that is unreasonable.  Creating this context creates a life where anything is possible and you are the one to make this happen.  BE the ONE.
• Be curious, explore, expand.  Try new things, remember that you start as an amateur.
• Be comfortable in making mistakes.  Be comfortable in the chaos.  This is exactly how it should be.  This is expansion.
• Be LOVE.

Thomas D. Craig

Author A Cup of Buddha

Writer.Seeker.Adventurer.Warrior

Get Up Stand Up

Tags

bob marley, buddha, get up stand up, inspiration, life, love, meditation, peace, poetry, quotes, self improvement, spiritual, Zen

Stand up for what is right even if you are standing alone.

Anonymous

True power comes from within. True power comes from standing for who you are and what you believe in the face of NO AGREEMENT from the world or yourself. True power is removing all barriers within and standing for something bigger than yourself.

As human beings we look everywhere for this power. We read books, watch movies, listen to speeches. We surround ourselves with superficial masks to display our Peacock feathers. We flaunt these feathers proudly with our big houses, our cars, guns, and trips. We take on this faux power as if it is ourselves and we treat others as if they have no power. We treat them without integrity and love all to beat our chest and bellow our primal screams. Yet, at the height of our screams, when we are alone, we know inside we have no power. We know that we are filled with fear.  We are filled with anxiousness and anger. We are filled with emptiness. We stand for nothing.

If we were to stop this dance in life, what would be left? If we removed all labels in life, What would we feel? If everything was removed and we stood naked in this world what would we find?

The uneasiness in the pit of your stomach is the gap between your true self and the play that you are acting as your life. The anxiousness that is left is your mind asking “If I am not this creation, then what am I.”  Your mind wants to fight for this creation.  It wants your ego to develop into a SHOUT that screams…Hear me, See me, I am something…LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT MY THINGS.  This gap is the gap between your mind and your intuitive heart.  Your intuitive heart sees no distance between you and anything else in this Universe.  Your intuitive heart comes from a Universal pool of love that innately understands we are all vibrating energy and connected.  The fear and unrest we have comes from the barriers we have built against our intuitive self.  The further we remove ourselves from this universal pool the greater the unrest.

We spend our lives fighting.  We fight to be heard.  We fight for money.  We fight against those that oppose us.  We fight, but what are we committed to in life?  What do we stand for?

As a martial artist I am often asked what I am fighting for.  The answer is simple and is the root of martial arts…..I am fighting myself.  I am fighting to remove all fear and obstacles within myself.  Standing in this space I am left with a commitment to better myself everyday.  I am left with a commitment to LOVE.

Look at your life.  What are you telling the world with who you are?  What are you fighting for?  What do you stand for?  When you really get the creation of the YOU that you presenting to the world and you let this go then you can begin to create from nothing.  In this emptiness you have everything.  You can be and create anything that you want.  You can actually stand for something beyond yourself.

Stand in this place.  Stand in your purpose on this planet.  Stand in what moves you.  Human beings have been in existence for what is a blip in the time of the Universe.  Our lives will be over in an instant….get up…stand up for what you are committed to in this lifetime.  Stand in this in the face of any opposition.  This is where you will find your power.

Stand up and we stand together.

Namaste….

Call to Action:

• Get clarity on the YOU that you are presenting to this world.  Get present that the roles and labels you have created is NOT the true you.
• Fight the fight within yourself and remove these barriers and find what you are COMMITTED to on this planet.  Stand in this commitment in the face of NO AGREEMENT.
• Be LOVE

Thomas D. Craig

Author of A Cup of Buddha

Writer.Seeker.Adventurer.Warrior

Honestly Expressing Yourself

Tags

bruce lee, buddha, inspiration, journey, life, love, martial arts, meditation, peace, poetry, quotes, self improvement, spiritual, well being, Zen

To me ultimately martial arts means honestly expressing yourself.

Bruce Lee

Like a moth drawn to the light, I have always been drawn to martial arts.  Practically before I could walk my father was teaching me how to wrestle.  From the age eight every morning was filled with miles of running and after school hours of practice.  Each weekend was filled with road trips and tournaments across the west coast of America.  Cutting weight, bruises, sweat and blood were the norm.  After high school this led to a short stint in learning how to fight with my feet in Tae Kwon Do and then training with a true legend and one of Bruce Lee’s initial students Sijo James Demile in a form of Chinese Boxing called Wing Chun.  I then spent many years away from martial arts as I moved away from Seattle and spent my time focused on business.  I didn’t realize the missing in my life until I started training again a few years ago with my friend and Sijo’s head instructor Korbett Miller.  I am back to my grappling roots in training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and I feel at home again.

Yesterday I realized the depth of my home and reach of the martial arts community.  Bruce Lee’s first student Jesse Glover was laid to rest in Lakeview cemetery in Seattle roughly 50 feet from Bruce’s gravesite. The martial arts community came out in force to pay respect to Jesse who was an amazing teacher in his own right and an individual who positively impacted the community. I met Bruce’s wife Linda and listened to the words and humility of incredible martial artists and human beings.

One Jesse’s students spoke about being humble. I reflected on these words as the root of a true artist is humbleness. A true martial artists does not train to kill or maim, or to DEFEAT.  A martial artist competes with themself on how great they can be, on removing any barriers that confront them in their own greatness.  Greatness is not defined in winning and losing.  It is not defined in beating one’s chest and screaming to the world that you are the greatest.  A true martial artists knows there is always someone better.  All one can do is uncover the greatness within oneself, to reveal their true expression, or as Bruce Lee’s called this ‘honestly expressing’ oneself.  Martial Arts is thus an expression of the capabilities of one human being, constantly striving to better oneself, to defeat those barriers which limit our true self-expression.

During the service I also heard the words of dedication and repetition.  It has been said that a black belt is simply a white belt that does not quit.  Receiving a black belt in most disciplines typically takes longer than receiving a Doctor’s degree.  Belt color is irrelevant, but persistence and dedication is a way of being that once developed becomes one’s way in life.

As I stood among the tombstones overlooking Lake Washington, I thought of death.  Death has always been at the forefront of a Martial Artist. It has also been at the forefront of Zen practitioners. The famous Samurai turned monk Shosan constantly beat this drum of focusing on death. If one is present to death and that this life in this body will pass in a blip in Universal time then one can truly live.  Once we come to peace with dying can we truly live.  We can let go of fear and understand this is only a transition for our energy. A warrior understands this and then completely respects and appreciates life.  Being present to death creates a presence to NOW.  All we have is right now.

I am grateful that I have found a way to connect my mind, my body and my soul in martial arts and in other areas such as meditation and yoga.  Finding passions in life that allow us to reflect and expand ourself move us from an ordinary life to an extraordinary life.  It is here we find balance and our true self.  It is here that we uncover our true being.  It is here that we strip away the layers and we become who we are meant to be.  It is here that the honesty dwells within us.  It is here that we honestly express ourselves to the world and to this universe.

Bruce Lee was a true pioneer.  He was ostracized for teaching martial arts to non Asians.  He was ridiculed for training across different martial arts versus sticking to one style.  He was the original cross trainer, the original Mixed Martial Artist.  More importantly he was a philosopher who studied Buddhist and Taoist ways.  He was the embodiment of honestly expressing himself.

In this I will always remember the words on the back of the memorial bench at his gravesite:

The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.

Call to Action: 

• Find your passions in life that push you to the best that you can be.  Inspect and grow each day.  Look within for growth.  You will not find it outside of oneself.
• Honestly express yourself.  Remove the fear and barriers that keep you from full self-expression connecting your mind, your body and your soul.
• Live a life worth remembering.  It is not about you.  What are you committed to on this planet as this is far bigger than you as self, as an individual.
• Be LOVE

Thomas D. Craig

Author A Cup of Buddha

Writer.Seeker.Adventurer.Warrior

Find the Silence

Tags

buddha, gandhi, inspiration, journey, life, love, meditation, peace, poetry, presence, self improvement, spiritual, well being, Zen

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.

Mother Theresa 

I have a friend who is constantly in story mode in how difficult his life is.  Each time I talk to him he sounds miserable, he explains how stuck he is and how much he is suffering.  I listen, and then I interrupt his story to ask a question.

 ”Why do you choose to suffer?”

“Choose!!!”  He responds full of animation.

“Yes, choose.”   I recite.

It doesn’t occur to him that our lives are a product of our choice.  Our lives are a product of our way of being.  We choose our existence.  We choose every moment of every day.  There is NO WHERE else to look.  Our lives are simply a product of our choice.  If you are unhappy then BE HAPPY.  If you do not like your work situation then CHOOSE a different existence.  We alone are the power of this creation.

I spent hours trying to have him decipher that his life is of his own creation, that HIS TIME is his own.  Suffering is simply a product of expecting life to be different and expecting life to stay static and permanent.  Complaints are an expression of living life full of defeat and unhappiness.  No matter the circumstance we have an opportunity to choose our way of being.  Flowing with life is a dance of impermanence, a tango to a harmonic beat that fills our soul with the rhythm of the universe.  A Divine drumbeat of love that pulses in every heartbeat.

Once I got through to my friend in understanding that he was the conductor of his own symphony, I told him the vehicle in quieting his suffering mind was FINDING THE SILENCE.

“How can I find THE SILENCE in such a chaotic life?”  He laughed.

I didn’t have an easy answer for him.  The answer really is simple.  It is understanding how to quiet your mind through meditation and internal reflection.  Having this conversation with someone who does not believe this is possible is not an easy conversation.  I chose to start with enrolling him in quotes from others extolling the benefits of silence.  I started with a quote from Gandhi.

“It has often occurred to me that a seeker after truth has to be silent.”  Gandhi

This didnt’ register so I tried to appeal to the rational sense.

“No thought, no action, no movement, total stillness:  only thus can one manifest the true nature and law of things from within and unconsciously, and at last become one with heaven and earth.” 

Lao Tzu

He still looked at me blindly.  Finally I just said trust me.  I told him his suffering was his mind out of control and finding silence was the way for his true self to take back the reins to his life again.  I showed him how to sit upright and comfortably place his hands, sit with his eyes closed and to breathe in and out deeply.  I had him find a word or words to repeat silently that represented peace and love.  And then I told him to do this every day for at least a half an hour, more if possible.  Morning and night were preferable.  He agreed to try.

“We do not try we only do.”  I laughed back at him. 

The door had been opened.  It was now up to him to walk through or not. 

The noise and chaos of life creates the illusion that silence and peace are not attainable in our world.  It creates the false belief that we must retreat to a mountain top or that we can only find peace within a yoga studio. 

There is a Chinese proverb that states: 

“The small hermit lives on a mountain. The great hermit lives in a town.”

Suffering and pain do not cease if we remove ourselves from society.  It only creates a false barrier and belief that one has eliminated this pain.  The mind follows us everywhere.  We cannot externally escape, we can only find peace from within.  There is no other way.  This is the journey.

This silence, this void is where we find our true self.  It is where we connect to God, where we breathe in synchronicity with the universe.  This is where we find love and our connection to all living beings. 

In order to find peace, to find love we must find the void.  Finding this silence is the journey.  Look within and dance with your life, dance with every moment.  Embrace the silence, and embrace your life.

Call to Action:

• Take ownership of your life.  There is no other place to look than within yourself.  Create your life.  Be Happy.  Be Love.
• Find the silence.  Set aside time each day to reflect by yourself.  Preferably this is in the form of meditation, but at minimum find time to look within.  Look at the beauty in every moment.  Quiet your mind and you will find your true being.

Namaste

Thomas D. Craig

Author A Cup of Buddha

Writer.Seeker.Adventurer.Warrior