Meditation Dojo…

Posted by The Senzei on February 26, 2011 · 4 Comments 

Years ago back when Livejournal was cool and all uber exclusive (remembered how hard was it to get an invite!), I founded a community called Meditation Dojo. The cool thing about Livejournal was the community of writers. Sure, it attracted flamers, thus the lock post was created but it was really great to have people commenting and the sharing was good. Love the fact I had readers who actually cared and who took the time to read the stuff I posted was cool. Everything being customizable and the great community there on LJ made it all really a warm, happy family. I made quite a few friends from LJ who I still do keep in touch. Sometimes the most awesome peeps come from the strangest of places met in the randomest of encounters

I always wanted to take up martial arts, was toying about Aikido or Karate but ended up with Karate some 4 years ago as there was a Sensei around where I used to work. Back when I was in high school I really really wanted to pick up Taekwondo, the Batman tendancies started early but my folks can’t afford and I remember trying to learn outside the school hall.

I always toyed around the idea of martial arts and how martial arts teach us a lot about life and about showing up. I always had an awe on the discipline and the diligence proponents of martial arts had. They know very well they will be throwed around, yet they still make it a practice to attend classes.

I have the highest regards to Karate and Aikido as they show humility towards their opponents and they taught budo more than the techniques. The kata’s and kihon’s were merely an expression or a meditation in motion of the Budo. Or the Martial Way.

Meditation has also been something I have been toying and dabbling for the past 11 years or so. My interest in meditation and even the occult started very early in life. By 13, I was already reading about chakras and the Arkhasic records. All this perhaps sparked due to vivid Out Of Body Experiance memories I have when I was 4 or 5. It was scary but it felt right in a funny way. I still have almost excellent memory of my childhood and my early years were years where I felt “guided”. I had the same spiritual state when I was in college after reading The Celestine Prophecy and also from interactions with the Ouroboros Society. Fun times those were.

Up to today, I still feel that I am meant for greater things and my early start in the spiritual is testament of that. As much as I dig religion, I still found something missing in organized religion. Its as if the initial spark or intent of it has been forgotten and replaced with modern day administration and surface glazing which I am not too big a fan of. I subscribe to the gnostic testament that “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21, NIV). I feel that spirituality is meant to be experianced in the daily things that happen. The people the you meet, the lives that you touch and the change that you bring. Spirituality is a living religion rather than lip service or a string of rituals that serve merely to teach symbolically the fundamentals of living (devotion to the Source / God).

I started both my meditation and karate practice back quite recently and the chain of events from those practices (totally not intentioned) has been excellent. Its blissful awareness of yourself and just clarifying your values and what you are meant to be doing. That is the easy part of things, the challenge comes in actually living these truths against all odds.

Living against the stream of society’s perceptions of what normal is and twisted understanding of spirituality and of living is challenging. We are living in a world where things are OK just so long as “everybody is doing it”. Just because the mass majority approves of something makes it right. I was also hit by the same wave but one of just going with the norms of society since I started working. Listening to one of the Optimal Living 101 sessions reminded me of the fact that we have our own values to live up to (some even higher than the bar set by society) and that long time ago, it was OK to have slaves, it was OK to discriminate…but not anymore.

Put togather, the words Meditation Dojo means a lot and with careful thought, it has more significance than just the marrying of two different ideas – peace (meditation) vs kumite (dojo), kind of like the yin and the yang.

Two parts of the same coin.

So above yet so below.

It means:

Showing Up Even When Things Are Bleak

In meditation, karate and in life, we need to just show up and do our best even when things are the ugliest -i.e.  you don’t feel like meditating, you are dreading the strain you will go through, you are in the rut. In the dojo, no matter how ridiculous something sounds, you still need to bow and give a loud OSU! and just do it. The same applies to the area of meditation and in life.

Stretching Your Limits Even When You Don’t Want to Be Stretched

In karate, every session is stretching. You will find greater strength in yourself doing things you never think you can do. As I always playfully tell my friends with 10th Dan you can transform water to sake, gain invisibility and dodge bullets. As serious as I hope I can get those abilities, it has a deeper meaning. When you meditate and when you live, you will be stretched, there will definitely be challenges, so you need to have the courage and will to stretch yourself. This can be making a major change in your life direction or increasing your meditation sitting time.

There WILL be Mistakes. You WILL Get Kicked, Punched, Thrown, Etc.

Just like life and meditation, there will be mistakes that you will make. There will definitely be pain, don’t let any religious guru or self help guru tell you otherwise. You will be thrown around (trust me not a pleasant feeling), kicked, punched and you will make mistakes. But all this will serve to train your diligence, patience, build your character and most importantly your will to stand up again and face the enemy.

Its all about getting up.

The faster you get up, the faster you recover to bounce back in action and the less energy is wasted. Pain like change are hard things to accept but once you recover, you will find that you are a changed person.

Same as when you miss a day of meditation, get up and get back to practice.

Humility and Fun

You will also learn to be humble in taking falls / punches / etc. Embodying the pain and realizing that you do not want others to feel the same pain you are feeling. This gives you the sense of peace within you to defend yourself in a battle rather than to fight. And when a fight is necessary, to end the fight swiftly to incur as little pain. The same lesson you learn when you meditate, there are days where you can’t still your mind, it teaches you to be humble and that you can never learn it all.

Notice that in Karate the grading system 10th Kyu to 1st Kyu to 1st Dan to 10th Dan. The numbers are reversed to remind the Dan’s that learning never stops. That makes it all the more fun. As much as I would love invisibility – gain via going to Japan meditating and learning under a Master Dan with Jedi like powers, I think the main fun of it is developing yourself to be a better person. To take life less seriously and take things less seriously and live for the sake of living.

Conclusion

I can go on and on with how related martial arts, meditation and life is related to. Incidently, I have also purchased the URL www.meditationdojo.com. I hope to monetize it within this year or so, or at least share this wisdom I have on meditation and martial arts and hopefully get more people to lead more authentic lives from this.

Have an idea on what I should do with the URL or any thoughts on meditation, martial arts, and life? Do comment or drop me a note Love to hear and learn from you.

Now, step on the dojo mat and meditate. Mokuso. OSU!

Filed under Introspection · Tagged with brian johnson, karate, life, living, living religion, meditation, optimal living 101