Tag: Buddhism

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Soft Front, Strong Back Reviews

Steve Rowe

3 BOOK REVIEWS- When we published this book I bought 300 to do as signed copies and have a few spare as gifts etc but surprisingly, nearly all have gone, so if you are in the U.K. and want one of the remaining copies, order it here on this link https://py.pl/1m5JAm Here are a couple of reviews you might find interesting….. Francis Briers – I got my copy of my long time teacher, Steve Rowe’s book and have started to read it today. What strikes me is how vulnerable Steve has been in writing honestly about himself and his life. … Continue reading Soft Front, Strong Back Reviews

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Sharing Is Caring

Steve Rowe

In the 80’s I was an Operations Manager in a security company with around 500 staff in all manner of contracts. Often at night I’d drive around the sites to visit our guards who were on minimum pay and 12hr shifts on various duties, many were Indian and Pakistani. They would always insist on sharing their meagre rations that they’d bought in to last the shift and would be very offended if I refused. In the beginning I felt embarrassed and tried to refuse but soon realised how important it was to them to share. Food is the staff of … Continue reading Sharing Is Caring

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I Never Wanted To Be Here

Steve Rowe

I never wanted to be here…..My body, thoughts and emotions just never ‘fitted’;I was never happy;As I child I didn’t fit in with my family,Always wondering what the hell I was doing here;Everything was clumsy and wrong;I certainly didn’t fit into school and never got along with teachers or education;Seen as a ‘rebel’ it wasn’t intentional I was dysfunctional according to the social norms;I ran with the other ‘rebels’ because there was nothing else to do but even that wasn’t me;I didn’t love or hate I was simply in the wrong place. I was drawn to oriental philosophy because it … Continue reading I Never Wanted To Be Here

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Earth Is A Prison!

Steve Rowe

Earth Is A Prison! You die into your meat carcass to serve your sentence of unavoidable suffering,And are born out of it on your release. Gradually rotting, consumed with desire to want or not want things.You can serve your sentence badly by hurting yourself and others with your wants. By believing the indoctrination of the prison cult,Or you can see it for what it really is,You rehabilitate yourself by accepting the sentence,Understand that it’s the carcass that has all these desires. Not suffering about your suffering,Not being angry about your anger,Not being emotional about your emotions. Remember that you are … Continue reading Earth Is A Prison!

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Waiting For God

Steve Rowe

Waiting For God I feel you looking out of my eyes,Listening through my ears,Tasting with my tongue,Smelling through my nose. But this vehicle won’t pass another MOT,The joints are rusty,Tissue is infected,It can barely run,It’s about ready for the knackers fire. It was elegant,A pleasure to drive,Would accelerate rapidly,Stop and turn on a sixpence,A reminder of classic times. Your consciousness permeates every cell,Always aware and alive,Observing yourself,When the body transmutes,The shape changes But consciousness is immortal. Continue reading Waiting For God

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Greedy Eyes

Steve Rowe

When you’re young you’re taught to have ‘greedy eyes’, to want more than you need.As you age, if you develop right view, you start to realise only what you need.Slowly you get rid of and let go of everything you don’t need.From material things, to people, to emotions.You stop looking back, you stop looking forward.You stop being greedy.You keep letting go, you stop wanting until time stands still.Instead of trying to grab and conquer life, you let it come to you.Until it doesn’t, and you loosen the last part. Continue reading Greedy Eyes

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Is The Purpose Of Life To Be Happy?

Steve Rowe

Is the purpose if life to be happy? It seems to me that the ‘successful’ people thrusting their ‘happiness’ in our face on every social media media platform every day are actually the opposite, behind their masks (and I know plenty of them) they are deeply troubled and flawed people. They are using that facade to sell ‘happiness on a stick’ to other deeply troubled and flawed people. They think that attention, fame and wealth will create the contentment they seek and their customers are forever chasing the tail of happiness that is just disappearing around the corner in front … Continue reading Is The Purpose Of Life To Be Happy?

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Dealing With Toxic People

Steve Rowe

Do you feel guilty when others around you are soaked in misery? Don’t. Because if they are genuinely suffering, empathy requires a soft front and a strong back to help, you suffering along with them out of guilt doesn’t help. There are also manipulative people who use and exaggerate their own suffering, sometimes even unwittingly, because they can see it makes you feel guilty and they either want to control you or just enjoy making you miserable as well. If you are an empathic person this is really difficult, these people might be at work, family or friends, it’s all … Continue reading Dealing With Toxic People

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Do I Want My Youth Back?

Steve Rowe

Insight while training this morning… Thank goodness the morning nausea has gone (except fort the day of the Tensho seminar 🤷‍♂️), but I still wake up with chronic fatigue, meaning that even my morning wash and dressing has to be done in stages with rests between each stage, followed by a rest with coffee and toast before I can train. Tai Chi opens my spine, deep front line and through the connection, all the joints and myofascia. Despite the underlying fatigue and pain from the surgeries, amputation, cancer treatment and chronic arthritis in all of my body, the training makes … Continue reading Do I Want My Youth Back?

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Look To The Old to Understand The New

Steve Rowe

温故 (On-ko) is to ask old things. 知新 (Chi-shin) is to know new things. This is really interesting, the idea or principle of learning should be properly understood and permeate everything in our lives and particularly our martial arts. We are often guided toward modern business and spiritual gurus wasting a lot of time and money, not really understanding that there’s nothing ‘new’ in the universe and that truth stands for all time in all things. If we know how to look, the roots are deep and worth researching. For me, ‘truth’ in the way the world works, the underlying … Continue reading Look To The Old to Understand The New