Substance vs Peripherals

Recently we went to watch a theatrical production called the Monkey King, a story from China based on a fairy monkey who gains immense powers, and tussles with using them for the right causes vs aggrandisement. Going through lessons of correct use and misuse of power, the fairy monkey eventually wins many supporters, and also through trial and tribulation develops an attitude of bravery and simultaneous humility. He therefore rightly becomes a celebrated character and hero. In the production as you can imagine, there was a lot of jumping and bouncing, and coordination between the various actors; from jumping on trampolines in a synchronized manner between four or five people, to in some parts more than 10 people coordinating beautiful dances. The concept of control and coordination are typically part of any successful execution. Anything from medical procedures, to military coordination, to building work; everything hinges on some degree of command and control. The Monkey King showed the importance of competence in his determination to obtain the treasures, but also the importance of character in ensuring proper treatment and sensitivity to others around him. We may have experienced that leadership and even life without meaning or purpose doesn’t lead to satisfaction at a deep level. It may lead to superficial satisfaction and impacts, but lacks depth and longevity. There are so many paths one can take. Will Smith recently said he read the Bhagavad Gita, and how amazed he was with it. Should our choices of what to believe hinge on such endorsements? If they do, then I would hope there is accompanying good reason. Unfortunately, too often there isn’t – it’s more sentiment and factors on what we refer to in this blog as the "periphery". The way we view things is critical. How should we view, or conceptualise our path, our mental state and finally our actions? The issue with many "religious" paths for people is often the human factor. Indeed many have tried to re-brand religion as "spirituality" to essentially de-couple the substance from the politics. There have been countless stories of treatment of children in Churches, people in positions of influence being imprisoned for activities, indeed with even President Obama abandoning Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ after a string of controversies. We argue here that one should logically and rationally consider the "substance" as well as the "periphery" of one’s path in life.

Separate the Two

After practicing martial arts in a few disciplines and in various martial arts in different contexts, with different teachers; over time it has become easy to separate the substance from the people, who may form the periphery. I have met some bad people, and I have met good people. I have met those who are incredible with technique, but disastrous in character, and vice versa. Ultimately, the substance which consists of the practice and the techniques, is separate from the people involved. If we have a terrible boss, we will likely create an association between our work and the boss, and we will hate both. This is because we are human and can be more sentimental than we are rational. If we have never trained martial arts and in our first attempt we experience someone who treats us in a rough way and injures us, it is likely we will carry that association for a long time. Given it is a first try for these people, who is to blame them? I know people who have had extremely serious injuries early in their martial arts careers and continued. And conversely have also seen the opposite where people have quit after a first attempt or few tries. The difference can come down to how much the person wants to learn AND how easily they are able to separate the substance and the peripherals. If we are not able to do this, we will always limit our experiences to the quality of people we are around; which we are not able to guarantee at all. If a beggar on the street offers me an authentic Rolex watch on the street whilst am on a busy lunch time hustle to get to the shops, it is still very unlikely I will stop, give attention and take the watch. Because we are programmed to associate things together based on repeated experiences to the extent that we may miss the substance due to the peripherals. The only means of separating the substance from the peripherals - is to be conscious, to be aware and rational in our choices concerned with our journey and path.

Be Conscious

The nature of this tendency to attribute the quality of our experiences with the peripherals comes from lack of objectivity. If we are objective in the extent to which we apply our judgments about things or people, this will help us to be objective about the reality, thereby leading to a more accurate view of the world and understanding who we are in relation to it. What do we believe in, and why do we believe in it? What do we gain from it? What are the fixed aspects, and what is variable? What do those variables depend on? Assessing these kinds of things is to be aware. Intuition is a huge topic; it comes even when we don’t want it to - sometimes when we most don’t want it to.  What is the source of intuition? Intuition is a complex mesh of feelings, experiences, sentiment, and sometimes also a sixth sense. It is defined as "the ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning". This indeed sounds dangerous, and sure it can be, but sometimes it can be spot on, because it is immediately in tune with who we are. By all means we can let intuition play a role in our beliefs since our beliefs need to be close to our heart and intuition can come from the heart. But there must be rational, logical thinking that also is applied to this. If I feel intuitively that I like to break peoples cars, and that becomes my life goal; it is not in line with good cultural norms with a rational justification. The alignment of intuition and rationale are therefore essential in understanding and discovering our beliefs over time. One quality  of "religious cults" is that they tend to discard rational thinking on the basis of sentiment and order. If my teacher taught me something happened 50 years ago because “that’s what it says in the book”, and 25 years later I am explaining to people “this happened 50 years ago”, then I am objectively 25 years off. A humble and open mind understanding our shortcomings, a desire to discover the truth and it's application in our lives in a thoughtful way lay the foundations of a journey of fulfillment.

A more conscientious sense of spirituality means that we are balanced between objectivity and intuition  in the understanding the effects of applying and refining techniques, means and practices of thought processes in our own lives whatever they might be; and not in being purely ears for the movement of others.

At What Cost?

Che Diavolo???

We were reminded at work that any gambling we may engage in between teams and people as the Football World Cup approaches, must be approved by the Compliance Officer. It made me smirk as I recalled how we would go to the bookies every lunch and put money on various combinations of results. A combination of likely and a few unlikely results happening would win you a reasonable amount of money. But, sometimes large accumulations would fall through by one result failing. The taste of disappointment in this after it happened a few times in a row would make you want to win the small amount of money you’ve staked, back. How to do this? Well, one way is to take an event that’s extremely likely and almost imminent, and put lots of money on it. 9 times out of 10 it will pull through; the Dominican Republic don’t come back to beat Brazil from being 2-0 down with 5 minutes to go – not very low likelihood, and if you stake enough, you will get something reasonable back. Since the odds are very high, your winnings wouldn’t be great, but at least we’d make back what we lost earlier; or so, as ‘youngsters’ we thought we would. We needed to recover £25. Italy, who had the most water tight defence in the world, had not conceded a single goal in the 2002 Japan and South Korea World Cup of 2002, all the way to the semi-final of the tournament, and were playing again South Korea. There were 15 minutes left, and Italy were, in their usual fashion, winning 1-0. It seemed sure as anything that they would not concede. Me and my friend went to the counter, put down £200, which would win us back the £25 we had earlier lost. I don’t particularly like explaining what happened next. Yes, the Koreans went up full steam, in came a cross, and somehow their striker rose above Paolo Maldini, one of the best defenders in the history of football, and scored! We lost the money, and were pretty disappointed to say the least. Never had our eyes opened wider in disbelief. We then decided we would never stake more than £1 on a particular sequence. Within a few days we won what we had lost. We evaluated how we felt about the sport, and about this gambling. We had initial started to put money on the football because we had quite a genuine interest in it, and thought it would be fun to make some predictions, it would add some excitement. When watching the Italy game however, we didn’t care about how amazing Paolo Maldini’s last ditch tackle was, or Park’s goal was. All we cared about was our money! We didn’t care about the process, we cared about the result.

If we analyse further, the £200 investment yielded nothing. The few £’s investment yielded over £200. Life is like this. Sometimes so much is invested into big things. These seem like the most important.

The Chopper

The sound of the chopper as it gets closer becomes clearer and clearer to everyone; there is anticipation to see who comes in. Eventually, and a elderly but polished looking figure enters with a lady. They are escorted by three people to their table and offered towels to refresh themselves from the journey. They're then served several rounds of refreshments and starters, followed by over a dozen gourmet delicacies along with the finest spirits. A weary, pale figure, knowing he is safe, relaxes in the comforts of the shelter he has taken; it is clear in his eyes. Thousands and thousands of Hong Kong dollars is simply no issue for the momentary peace afforded. What was the real cost of this enjoyment?

The young banker enjoys his night out with the lads, with scores of beautiful women from all over Asia surrounding them. Their toned bodies, tailored for enjoyment; they seem like they can forget whatever else they did during the day and just enjoy. Then as the planes depart for the weekend holiday, anticipation is in the air once again. The excitement of getting away boils. What is the real cost of this enjoyment?

Meanwhile, back in the dojo, the students line up, bow multiple times to pay their respects to the dojo, to the sensei, and to each other. There is a brotherly spirit, and the cost is minimal. Repetition of technique, again and again and again. Improvisation of the same technique, in different situations with different people brings a deeper satisfaction to one. What is the cost of this feeling?

Small everyday deeds

What does a set of martial arts classes for a year cost in comparison with a few holidays? What do they return? What is the longevity of the return? Now am not saying stop going on holiday! They're also fun and such rejevenation is important sometimes. But on the whole we certainly overinvest mentally, emotionally, and financially in things that have a very futile return, and underinvest in those things that have deeper, long lasting returns. If we live consciously of this, then in our work and outside dealings we will feel a greater deal of satisfaction, which will make us simultaneously happy and sober.  

As for the gentleman in the Michelin 3 star restaurant arriving by helicopter, what was the cost? From his eyes, it looked like a life-long stress in a business or something. Maybe it wasn’t, maybe it was a few lucky breaks, or an inheritance, who knows? Whatever the cause, you could see he was able to release his stress or anxiety in the restaurant not being around people except his lady. For the bankers, they have to work all hours, in a cut-throat environment, all day to sustain their routine and lifestyle. For the martial arts students however, it is daily increments of effort, of discipline which remove them mentally from all the things of this world, teach them to respect and to be humble, and to be determined. It costs a fraction of the price of the things mentioned above in many respects. What purchasable things do you need to practise martial arts? For Bruce Lee, it was hardly anything. For Tony Jaa, it was hardly anything. The important things in life, which can make us happier in a deeper way centre around good values and principles, and good values and principles do not cost anything. They’re free. Simple-heartedness is a rare virtue in many places, but is most endearing. Warren Buffet is simple hearted, and I don’t think he’d trade that mindset for any amount of money; he doesn’t need to.

A balanced life is very important, and we should absolutely make sure we are doing what we and our families need, but also the education that it’s not the £200 stakes that take all our resources that make us rich, it is the small things, the little things, but infused with goodness, which make us truly rich in life.

Galadriel: Why the Halfling?

Gandalf: I do not know. Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.