The Top Of The Mountain

Anyone training in the martial arts needs to educate and alchemise their body, mind and emotions. There are only so many ways they can effectively do this. If they train to fight, they have to train the body and also their health, including the emotions and mind. If they train for health or skill the same also applies, so whatever the reason, to reach the top of the mountain. the route has to contain the same basics. The mountain can have many paths, soft, hard, internal, external, different arts and styles, but when they reach the top, they have to … Continue reading The Top Of The Mountain

The Quanyin In All Of Us

Quanyin while standing before the gates of paradise heard a cry of anguish from the earth below. Turning back to earth, she renounced her reward of bliss eternal but in its place found immortality in the hearts of the suffering. Immortality is actually the ability to open and enter the door of infinity and communion within all of us that meditation and stillness brings, and by sharing, serving and being a part of our community instead of hoarding and isolating ourselves from it. The moment you let fear into your heart, you demonise others and society takes a turn toward … Continue reading The Quanyin In All Of Us

Train Your Energy!

You could just replace the word ‘chi’ or ‘ki’ with ‘energy’. Our ability to stimulate it with emotion, store, release and discharge it is our skill in martial arts. Awareness brightens it, sensitivity connects our mind to it, we need to focus to harmonise the different ways it manifests in our body, bring it together and be able to move it. Intelligent emotional intensity empowers and guards it. We do all these things anyway as it’s a part of being alive. We do it badly unless we train it and become skilful. This is why we need to meditate, exercise … Continue reading Train Your Energy!

There’s A Hole In My Bucket

I’ve always found the idea of having a ‘bucket list’ a bit selfish and strange. Is this the purpose and quality we put on having a life? Shouldn’t we find our meaning and purpose within every moment? It’s the same as having to take a holiday, is our life so mundane and bad that we have to get away? Spend all our time wishing we were somewhere else and being pampered like a child? If our life is so unsatisfying maybe we should look inward and make changes that then reflect outward into each moment so that we don’t need … Continue reading There’s A Hole In My Bucket

3am Black Dog

It’s always at 3amYou wake with a feeling of dreadIt can come from medicationOr lack of itMaybe PTSDOr something happening in lifeOr just plain anxiety and fearEither way it’s always 3am You’ve been asleepAnd the unconscious has been free to roamYou wake with this powerful sense of dreadYour mind attaches reason to itBut that’s not always what it isEvery nerve in the body hurtsNot with painBut with emotionA kind of yearning You distract the mind to ease itAnd think it’s goneBut as soon as you stop the distractionIt returnsEventually you sleepBut when you wake upThe black dog is still sitting … Continue reading 3am Black Dog

The Darkness

Carrying on with life normallyAnd suddenly, without warningAn overwhelming darkness descendsEverything is wrongYou don’t want to be hereDeath is preferable to lifePeople wonder why others suddenly end their lifeIt’s because the mask slipsThe darkness is always thereDeep down, we know life is wrongWe all have Stockholm syndromeWe’re abducted into a bodyEnergy becomes desireThe thirst of wantingOr not wantingControls everythingWe spend all our timeDriven by that which cannot make us happyWealth and beauty are emptyLook at the wealthy and beautifulSee the snarl on the lipsThe emptiness in the eyesThe bullying satisfactionOr lording their wealth and empty beauty over youThey are the … Continue reading The Darkness

Amputate Or Die?

By the time most people get to the point of amputation, it’s amputate or die, up to that point if you were asked would you prefer amputation or death you probably would’ve picked death. But when reality kicks in…. When you come too after surgery a missing limb is a shock, and it’s not just that once, when you dream you have two legs or arms, so every day you wake up you get the same shock again and again. This is normal. The physical pain is bad enough, the phantom limb pains can be incredibly sharp (like cramp) and … Continue reading Amputate Or Die?

Ong Namo…

Ong Namo…Greeting universal consciousnessAs it fills the space in every cell in my bodyThe dark and cold of the cave behind meThe immovability of the rock surrounding meThe dawning light at the cave mouthThe steam from the awakening earth and plantsAs the morning warmth blends with the cold of nightThe earthy smell mixing with the heady perfume of awakening flowersThe profound silenceInterspersed with the calling of birdsThe trees stretching their branchesSo the leaves absorb the sunThe rough robe against my skinMorning hunger letting me know I’m aliveThe growl of ‘Ong’ from the lower abdomenVibrating the roof of my mouthOpening the … Continue reading Ong Namo…

The Magic Of Avebury

I remember being in the Avebury stone circle and as I walked around touching each stone I felt that they were like ‘stone mirrors’, upright pieces of earth reflecting my ‘original face’ back to me. That thousands of years ago each stone belonged to a different magician and that completing the circle touching each stone gave me a unique transmission from each one and completed an ancient rite. I found Avebury far more powerful than Stonehenge and complemented the energies from Glastonbury Tor, Glastonbury Abbey (very powerful) and Chalice Well. Continue reading The Magic Of Avebury