This is it.

A mind is all there is - it's the only thing that I know. But here's what I think of things, and some things that I do.

[irreduciblerascal]

"A way of life that keeps saying 'Around the next corner, above the next step,' works against the natural order of things and makes it so difficult to be happy and good."

Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh

[irreduciblerascal]

At a certain point, you can become so enchanted with the symbols that you entirely confuse them with the reality. The menu is not the meal.

Alan Watts

[irreduciblerascal]

The Master acts without doing anything and teaches without saying anything. Things arise and she lets them come; things disappear and she lets them go.

Lao Tzu

[irreduciblerascal]

The Empty Hand Way

I love martial arts, and miss the practice - I’ve always been something of a keen dabbler, starting with Tae Kwon Do when I was a kid, then later Karate and MMA, then Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, and gaining volume for some years now has been the call of Taijiquan. 

And now, after moving out here - I have found a Shotokan Karate dojo, one with a 28-year history. It says a lot just that it has its’ own building space, and even more that it has been so enduring. I called Sensei Ray and he invited me to watch some of a class that evening. He seemed to be a kind, older gentleman. Emanating enthusiasm - he shared some of his perspectives on Karate, talking about 40 years of training - every now and then snapping out a movement to illustrate a point, and holding kick-stretches. This is a man over 70 years old.

He made it clear that, while there is a couple of competitive point-fighting teams - this is not what he sees as his Karate’s ultimate purpose. Which is a perspective shared with the Shotokan style’s founder Sensei Gichin Funakoshi - that Karate is for defense, and that it is for everyone. I agree. I’ve fought before - and it’s exciting, yes. But it’s a different lifestyle, and it wasn’t for me.

I met a few of the students, and watched most of a class while talking to him - intermittently he would insert himself into the class with advice for students as he notices where it’s needed. Sensei has a keen eye, a sharp mind, and the respect of his students. And at this time, I was impressed. I think I’ve found a home there.

[irreduciblerascal]

Morning yoga - session 3

This morning marks the third morning this week where I have woken up early and got on the mat for some yoga. This post is just a check-in, today I felt more coordinated than a couple of days ago, and not quite as fatigued as I thought I might have been by today. So that’s some good news.

I’m still working on fitting the whole session in - my former teacher had made a few 1-hour sessions on YouTube for students during the COVID-19 lockdown, presently I make it through about 40 minutes before I have to sit down to work. I’m sure that as my mornings get progressively earlier I will be able to make the whole session.

One other thing to work on include patience with breathing - some mornings my sinuses are so clear and it’s great, this morning they were very blocked and I struggled a little bit with the frustration of it coming and going throughout various poses. But my bright side of that is to see it as a different type of yoga, one of acceptance and patience.

#Yoga #Acceptance

[irreduciblerascal]

You will only ever have two choices - love, or fear.

Jim Carrey

[irreduciblerascal]

Thoughts on Social Media.

I recently created a new Twitter account. Asked what he feels about today’s state of politics, a wise person suggested that we stop paying attention to the divisive and profit-driven media reports. Someone replied “so shall we stop paying attention? - is this a case of ignorance is bliss?” - and he said “no, it isn’t - but we change the world by first changing ourselves.”

I thought about it, and had already realised I spend a significant amount of time on Twitter - on which I had subscribed to a large number of american politicians, commentaries, and media outlets - because I felt that this was the way to be informed! - this was closer to the sources, and not filtered through as much news-media production. 

I was right, but at the same time wrong about this being a good thing for me. And suddenly I remembered a long time ago, a point I once made to my parents who were avid news watchers. I asked “why are you watching all these terrible things happen which you can do nothing about? - is this bad for the mind?” And while the conversation that ensued after that didn’t at all change their 6pm viewing habits, it had already illuminated this realisation for myself.

Why watch a program that aggregates a global collection of anger, heartbreak, pain, and sadness? - We say it’s about being informed. Ok then what will you do with this information? - Perhaps I’ll talk about it with my workmates the next day, or with my family over dinner - and we’ll all agree on how terrible the state of the world is becoming. If we’re lucky, there maybe some things we can relate to, maybe it might cause us to think of more than ourselves. But these “maybe”s are frankly few and far between.

The more common answer tends to stop at “telling others about it” - and this again is the work of an ego. We are afraid of being left out - seeming uninformed, or maybe missing a new joke. We also often revel in having strong opinions and feelings about things, and we enjoy having these corroborated by our peers - we crave that validation. And like all sated-at-the-time cravings, we are rewarded with endorphins. This is not useful. It’s addiction.

So then, the answer becomes obvious: be mindful of your intake - know the difference between being informed and being a news-junky. And if you’re already addicted - you might be surprised at the difference. I check my older Twitter account still, but it’s no longer the default on my work computer. That has my new account - which is much more reflective of myself than my want for information, conflict, and other egocentric energy-sinks.

I’ve since found the time I was losing - I work better, I feel more creative - more frequently too. The end of my working day comes and sure, I still absolutely wonder how the rest of the world is doing - but I make a choice. I check on my old Twitter, and I often like to watch the late-night shows to get my bulletin - I believe it’s intelligent to take news with comedy. After all, why take it so seriously? - feeling bad about it achieves nothing except that - feeling angry, sad, hopeless and helpless. I’m not a masochist - it’s better to laugh at the world, and think “how can - I - be better?” “how can this information change - me, so that I in-turn change the world around me?” - this is productive and also uplifting. Why not choose that?

Mr Jim Carrey said it best: “You will only ever have two choices - love, or fear.”

[irreduciblerascal]

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.

Taoist proverb

[irreduciblerascal]

It's a long way to the top, if you want to rock and roll

AC/DC

[irreduciblerascal]

A note to myself about work.

Relax. That’s the gist of it.

They say things like “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” - and that sounds good, but for one thing it’s easier said than done - and for another, what sense is it to shy away from work? in one way or another - it’s inevitable and/or necessary. Maybe the Stoics got it right with their thoughts on hardships and work.

But how do we embrace the rig-moral? - the answer at this time is perspective. If you have a concept of life being divided up into work, play, love, hate, good, bad, et cetera - then you are neglecting that all of these are the inevitable ingredients for life as a whole which is really all there is - breaking it up into labeled pieces is something a human being does, and sadly often not for its’ benefit.

Work might require discipline, and sacrifice - and those are things we often don’t like, but we almost selectively see only those aspects, even if we know there is more going on than simple suffering for the sake of it. We know there are reasons but we disconnect the discipline and sacrifice from the goal and its’ satisfaction. So remember - at the end of it all, the biggest picture is the only picture - and it contains amongst its’ vastness both the sacrifices and rewards.

But, obviously - not everyone gets to work a job they can love. And there are many jobs people don’t want to do, but still need doing. So it might be a safe bet to say there are more people working one of these than there are of those working the ideal job that they could love doing. So what of them? Well - I’m not a doctor of any kind, so this is by no means a prescription. But for me, it’s been very important to remember the natural transience of such jobs - nobody expects long tenures in these occupations from anyone - so accept that one day there will be a reason leave it. Maybe you’ve found an opportunity to improve on the job you have. Or maybe you’ve reached the limit of your patience with this one and it’s time to move on - which of course, is actually the same opportunity.

A job is never worth real pain. You can dislike a job, and keep working it - so long as you maintain in-mind what it’s for, and what its’ acceptable limits are. Never put your peace-of-mind on the altar of a company - it doesn’t care, because it can’t. You should compromise - to work, yes - but I decide how hard, and if that’s relative to my feelings about the job then that’s not unreasonable, rather - it’s only human.

So, relax. Stay in the moment. Maintain the biggest-picture in your mind - and you wont be working, you’ll be living life - and from there the choices are yours.

[irreduciblerascal]

What’s all this, then?

I want to make more time to write. And I want to write as unbounded as I can. I have a lot of thoughts, and I feel that laying them before you in text makes them more navigable - I guess to know your ‘self’, it helps to give your ‘self’ it’s best chance to explain things.

But - isn’t this all just more superficial manifestations? It’s still the ego, and that’s fine. The true self is elusive - Alan Watts said something about ego’s identifying with a higher level as it becomes recognised - and this is true. And really, we could never know when the true self is communicating - fire doesn’t burn itself, knives don’t cut themselves, so how should a true self recognise itself?

All concepts - including the concept of your mind, god, nature, everything - are wrong. True nature (Tao) doesn’t operate on the concepts people create for it. It is it’s own indeterminable state of operation which we do not have the faculties to interpret. We must accept that all we have here are concepts - bound to be wrong, yes - but still somehow important. So we do things to speed up the folly (to again, borrow from Watts) - prayer, meditation, and in this case contemplative writing - in an attempt to reach ‘the void’ - an endless now where everything happens. This is mindfulness.

So what’s all ‘this’ then? - that’s a big question with many, tiny, human answers.

For now - this, this space of tumblr - is going to serve as an output for thoughts, feelings, and my streams-of-consciousness. So - if you’re reading this, thanks. And if you aren’t, thanks. These words are for the thoughts and concepts they represent, for anyone, everyone, and no-one

Let’s see where this takes us.