Tag: meditation

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Why ‘Positive Thinking’ Doesn’t Work…

Steve Rowe

Why ‘positive thinking’ doesn’t work. That happy mask, the fixed inane grin, the stupid idea that ‘anything’s possible’ if you think positive hard enough, usually comes from someone desperately unhappy or someone with their hand in your pocket. Let me be honest. At least 50% of life is shit. It ranges from dissatisfaction to ‘please kill me now’ suffering. If you learn to deal with with it by becoming durable, it ‘enobles’ you. It means you’ve been hurt so bad for so long, nothing or no one can hurt you as much as you’ve been hurt already. It gives you … Continue reading Why ‘Positive Thinking’ Doesn’t Work…

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The Dark Side Of Pain

Steve Rowe

  Pain eats your soul. You want to move but you can’t. Life is out there waiting, Calling you to come out and play, People to see, places to be, Exciting, active and fun… The spirit is willing, but the body is tired, Every move jars the soul, Pain screams around the joints, They give way and are unstable, Medication has a price that is just as bad. Everybody assumes you will fully repair, That is the confidence of youth. You end up joining the pretence, Because it’s easier than trying to explain. In the end life can only get … Continue reading The Dark Side Of Pain

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Cognitive Dissonance In The Martial Arts

Steve Rowe

I posted recently on Facebook about Firemen who rescued some piglets from a fire and how the grateful farmer then slaughtered them and rewarded the firemen with sausages made from their carcasses. As a meditation I suggested that if that made the readers uncomfortable it might be because they were experiencing ‘cognitive dissonance’ because they might hold two opposing views about the piglets, one because they are cute and cuddly and the other because they like them as food. This then made me think that it might be a good idea to draw some of my teachings together under this … Continue reading Cognitive Dissonance In The Martial Arts

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Direct Knowledge Is Different

Steve Rowe

  I used to get my knowledge and wisdom from others at lectures, in books and lecture tapes.  I would meditate for ages on the wisdom of the Buddha, Lao Tsu, Ajhan’s Chah and Sumedho, Alan Watts, Kahil Gibran and many others, I studied Buddhism, Zen, Chan, Taoism, Wicca, Paganism, Ritual Magik, Spiritualism and all their associated arts, but when the breakthrough occurred, I stopped. No longer did I need to refer to others, because I was able to look inside and find my own ‘wisdom mind’. When I sat or stood still, I could access the part of me … Continue reading Direct Knowledge Is Different

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If I die tonight

Steve Rowe

Dedicated to my good friend the late Graham Wednes. If I die tonight will the universe stop? If I return to the Tao it will be like a wave returning to the sea; No more ‘being human’ and only ‘sensing’ the infinite; From whence I came, I will return and be it once more. My ‘place of refuge’ becomes my home again. In the infinite, all time exists all of the time, the theatre of life exists because the pot is stirred; When stirred, one plays off against the other in a binary fashion, simple appears complicated as the picture … Continue reading If I die tonight

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I Should Be Dead

Steve Rowe

I know it, the reaper came, hovered and left. I stood between the worlds for months after a collapse with a second serious infection, 5 life saving and crippling surgeries on top of the 9 I’d already had and a second round of months of a cocktail of life saving, gut wrenching, antibiotics and hallucinogenic pain killers left me in serious doubt as to whether I was still meant to be here. But here I am… still feeling ‘out of place’ and on borrowed time. Pain is a constant reminder and fatigue is always pulling at the back of my … Continue reading I Should Be Dead

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Standing Neigong

Steve Rowe

Standing Neigong Several people have today messaged me asking questions about neigong and to explain the benefits and basics of how we do it in our training system. The benefits of Standing neigong are as follows: Good posture Good balance Good rooting An understanding of left/right and upper/lower body harmony Good breathing An aware, focused sensitive and intense mind Emotional intelligence An intuitive understanding of yin and yang The 5 basic postures are: Neutral Upper Yin Upper Yang Lower Yin Lower Yang There is an excellent set of videos called ‘stand still – be fit’ that can be seen here: … Continue reading Standing Neigong

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Mindfulness

Steve Rowe

  MINDFULNESS Our use of the word ‘mind’ in English can be quite versatile.  As a noun it describes our awareness, consciousness and thought, as a verb it can mean ‘to take care of’ like in ‘mind the child’ or when getting on a train ‘mind the gap’, so to be ‘mindful’ is to increase our awareness and consciousness and to take care of our thinking and feelings. So we ‘mind the mind’, we take care of it.  All the time we remain mindful, we are watching our thoughts, emotions and actions and this act in itself is life changing. … Continue reading Mindfulness

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Winner Or Loser?

Steve Rowe

Winner Or Loser? So many people just don’t get it. If you want to be a winner, you have to learn to win more than you lose. Firstly you have to decide who and what you want to be. If you want to be a good traditional martial artist then you have to do more work in that direction than in any other. It’s your choice. Draw a line in your life and call it ‘Zero’. Every moment you are mindful, in good posture, breathing properly, caring, polite, courteous, determined, resolute, courageous and working with emotional intelligence  you are in … Continue reading Winner Or Loser?

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Mass Slaughter

Steve Rowe

I have been kept in prison; Forced to take drugs, Forced to have sex; And my children were slaughtered. When I become useless to my captors; I too will be killed. The terrorists have no compassion, They say everything is for the ‘greater good’. Their leaders manipulate them, They are constantly taught to have no compassion for me; If they want to be fed, They must torture and kill me and my babies. The mass slaughter should end; One day compassion and kindness should rule, Respect and equality for all should be normal; But I fear that day is a … Continue reading Mass Slaughter