Zen and Martial Arts Practice

[joesteph]

For example, bringing in a police officer to teach your class how to speak with officers after an encounter.

This I especially like. Kids often think that they're doing something wrong if they "say anything," when in fact they may be doing exactly the right thing, and it's likely they don't know how to go about it, how to express themselves, if speaking with the police.

I'm thinking of a relative who, when her boss flew off the handle and fired her, pushed her out the door--he physically pushed her. She told her father, who went down to the place of business, and so boss, father, and daughter/ex-employee were on the sidewalk about to have it out. It fizzled, but I asked the father why he didn't call the police. He really didn't have an answer, which did his daughter no good.

[ConsciousEffect]

the entire argument is baced on the beliefe that similarity is illusionary anything in ones mind is illusionary and so this is true, but the ability to recognise patterns is the key to discovering truth all this proves is that truth is illusionary nothing more but everyone knows that truth is as one might say the oppisate of false. i postulate that the universe is truth and the self is falsehood. the irony of the situation is the universe can not exist with out the self and the self can not exist with out the universe so this proves illusion and truth are one in the same,

IN CONCLUSION we see that reality is nothing more than a paradox something that cant exist its funny when ever you get abstract enough you see that you cant be real yet this contradicts i think therefor i am the only proven statement ever, what do you know another paradox DOH

[Philx123]

As a bit of aside, it always amuses me when I hear the term "It is what it is" used, as if it is a great zen insight into the actuality of things. If I have learned anything, it is that it is actually what it isn't. Everything we encounter is filtered through our own limited experience and prejudice. When seeing the tree we remember the trees of our past. We may touch the bark and use terms like rough or smooth. We may see the the scenes from all those films, or those passages in all those books. The tree is indeed, just the tree, but we cannot help but see it through our, and others, experience. For the tree to be the tree it requires us to abandon ourselves, and the majority of people who use the term "it is what it is" have no actual understanding, nor any real inclination, to do this.

I suppose what I'm saying is that there is a danger that the more zen is absorbed by the west, the more it becomes window dressing for a society absorbed by itself and its relentless drive to have it all.

Which is not to suggest the discussion here falls into that category, just more a general observation.

If any of that is at all relevant.