Individual Thought Patterns 6/30/2014

Yes here is the part of the blog where I analyze a certain thing and give my own personal opinion on it using my own life experiences, knowledge, yadda yadda yadda. The way I see the world I think is quite different then society's preconceived norms. I tend to gravitate towards thoughts and opinions that relate to me and discard anything that doesn't. I tend to categorize stories in to my own individual way of thinking either using experience, clarity for my brain, or just straight up intuition. This doesn't mean that my thoughts on a topic is set in stone. If it fits for me it fits for me, it doesn't necessary have to be politically "correct". This means I may re-edit some initial paragraphs if I gain more knowledge of a topic or just come up with different thoughts.

As of now I am giving my first on passages that pop out to me from books. I've got e-books downloaded exclusively and for free off the lovely thing that we call the internet. These books that I am currently starting to read or as follows: Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, Tao Te Ching, & The Book of Five Rings. Of course I'll pull from more resources as I see fit, but this is a good place to start.

Today's entry will be pdf pg 4 on Hagakure and the quote is as follows:

A certain swordsman in his declining years said the following:
               In one's life. there are levels in the pursuit of study. In the lowest level, a person studies but nothing comes of it, and he feels that both he and others are unskillful. At this point he is worthless. In the middle level he is still useless but is aware of his own insufficiencies and can also see the insufficiencies of others. In a higher level he has pride concerning his own ability, rejoices in praise from others, and laments the lack of ability in his fellows. This man has
worth. In the highest level a man has the look of knowing nothing .
             These are the levels in general;. But there is one transcending level, and this is the most excellent of all. This person is aware of the endlessness of entering deeply into a certain Way arid never thinks of himself as having finished. He truly knows his own insufficiencies and never in his whole life thinks that he has succeeded. He has no thoughts of pride but with self-abasement knows the Way to the end. It is said that Master Yagyu once remarked, "I do not know the way to defeat others, but the way to defeat myself. ''
             Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is neverending.

Okay I was basically just skimming through this one and it caught my psyche for whatever reason lets analyze. So throughout one persons life there is an endless persuit of knowledge and one has to study learning many different life lessons and experiences throughout. As you go throughout life you might have excellent skills in a certain area and think you might know it all. But as the rest of the paragraphs describes there is never a state of being perfect at something. You must be humble because there is always someone out there that has more experience. Also, with the Master Yagyu quote perhaps that is a way of saying as an individual you know yourself more than you could ever know somebody else. So basically I think its a quote of having self-growth of yourself compared to all of the fallacies of another person. We can never walk in someone elses shoes. Have the strength to walk in your own

The Art of Training & Pushing Oneself

Today is the start of my brand new training regime. I woke up hella early today. I did my first run on the Odin track in a very long time. Odin is a 1 mile run that I used to do with giant hills and shit. The track totally kicked my ass. I ran like my dad, which isn't very fast. My dad is over 300 pounds haha. I totally was out of shape even though I sprinted up and down the large part of the hill twice. I stopped quite I bit when normally I would run the whole thing with no stops. Still got a long way to go.

I'm on this cardio igniter supplement. I tried it this morning before I ran. It tastes pretty good. Hopefully I can keep this up at least for every other day or so. I also am in the process of finally going back to martial arts again. I'm not only doing one but two different martial art disciplines. One of them is dependent on my summer school schedule. Since I go during the night shifts, the dojo that I'm looking at only has night classes. It's not worth it if I can only go once a week for 90 dollars a month. But the brazilian jiu jitsu classes that I'm looking at are offered monday, wednesday, and friday in the mornings, so that works out quite perfectly. I just have to wait to get my car back again. At least it's at the mechanic.

I feel that it's time to push myself physically and mentally. Part of the reason is I want to get in good shape again. When I'm not working out I tend to get overactive and restless when I'm doing nothing in my haus. Plus I know it's a good way to get any kind of negative energy out of my system. Only thing preventing me is that I'm quite nervous about it. It's been awhile since I was involved in the martial arts. I'm just worried about if I can handle it again especially with my school schedule. I know my body will be pretty sore perhaps maybe all the time. Will I have the energy? All I know is that I'm going to have to become more disciplined. Nothing is impossible and I believe I'm ready to test that theory.

Hard work beats out talent when the talent doesn't work hard

Yea haven't wrote anything in awhile. Not been much too report until recently. Let us see. This half year of 2014 has been very good to me. I can't believe so far I have seen every concert I wanted to see. I have seen Moonspell, Leaves' Eyes, Atrocity, Dark Tranquillity, Omnium Gatherum, Children of Bodom, Death Angel, Tyr, Lacuna Coil, Dream Theater, Linkin Park, Iced Earth, Revamp, Sabaton, and already paid for Septic Flesh & Fleshgod Apocalypse. The most badass concert that I'm gonna be part of early next year is the 70,000 tons of metal boat cruise to Jamaica! http://70000tons.com/



I can tell everyday I'm gonna be hyped for this one. Theres already bands on there that I've never heard of but I'm digging alot. Didn't think I would be able to go to one this soon. I thought it would be a couple of years, so I guess I'm doing well financially. I hope Anathema, Within Temptation, and Hypocrisy are announced. That'd be sweet. So yes I'm a huge music/concert fan. While others go to clubs or bars (whatever). I mosh and fuck people up at metal shows. Thats how I party.

In other news looks like I'm gonna be an acupuncturist. Just got finished with my first semester. I did alright knowing that I was sooooo not used to studying at all. Last year at didn't count because my teacher in my computer class gave out barely had any homework and I basically got annoyed and bored with my Japanese History class. So I haven't had anything as challenging as this acupuncture business in years. I'll admit that I basically cheated my way through every test back then. It's amazing what long hair, earplugs, and other mischevious methods will get you. I believe that the college school system is corrupt so I believe in using any means necessary to pass these general classes that you have to take. But alas thats a story for another entry.



We will see how this will turn out. I basically have 4 years of this who knows what will happen. My parents seem to believe I was made for this. I tend to believe that I had to pick something, acupuncture and asian medicine just happened to be something that I had a wee bit of interest in. Maybe my love for it will grow more as I become more comfortable, and becoming being less of a lazymothafucka. I did happen to get a 94% on a channels and points test, my first A that I got without cheating so theres hope. Just need to be more focused and organizized which I'm sure will come with time. Tho, I will continue to have a nonchalant attitude towards school mainly because when I start caring too much I tend to have way to much anxiety. Things will happen I believe at my own pace.

I do know that I must improve my habits at least a little bit for next semester. I have a total fucked up sleep schedule that has not been helping when it comes to school. I would go to sleep at 5 in tha morning, wake up at 3 p.m. and ride my bike to school and get there at 6 p.m. Ride back to my house by at least 10 p.m. and do absolutely nothing till I fell asleep. Rinse and repeat. I still can't believe I was able to pass 4 out of 5 of those classes holy shit. But I'm already in the process of at least changing that. So ya gonna put at least a little bit more effort on my side.

Also, I've decided I'm gonna use this blog as an outlet for my adventures in acupuncture, studying, the martial way, life, and anything else that I feel like writing as one tool too help me become more organizized. So there,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,bitch.

Parents

Looks like we are all trying to get in better shape in some way or form. Got my dad to start running with me during the evenings. He is doing a good job considering i live in a place with lots of gradual hills. Limited my jiu jitsu training just to being my dads coach and sparring with him on Saturdays. Its been working out pretty well so far. I just hate how my allergies are really acting up. Its becoming fall so gotta adjust to the wheater even tho I love the cold. My mom lost 7 pounds to start out with. I am very proud of her. I just gotta get her to do yoga I think she would like that. I currently like somewhat being the head workout instructor to my parents and helping them. They gotta start working out in my shirts tho hahahaha.

I'm in school now as well. Taking a computer class which overall isnt that bad and a Japanese Civilization class which is interesting. Of course I don't like working on homework but it is what it is. K until the next time that I have anything on my mind

Nada

Just waiting for this download this finished, been hella bored lately. I've been training running pretty frequently but thats about it. Haven't been using this blog thing because I've been concentrating on writing in this journal. Sometimes u just go through life when nothing is outta the extraordinary. Had a fun 4th of July party but been having trouble with cars. It sucks alot. Will update when anything new happens

Death Card

The skeletal spectre of Death arrives by boat, wrapped in the mysterious cloak of Manannan. The dead are then conveyed back to the Land of Youth by a sea-god, who changes his appearance with his magic cloak to create the grim aspect of Death. But the journey about to begin is the transmigration of the soul - according to Celtic belief. Drawings of solar ships have been discovered on standing stones in Brittany and Ireland which are identical to early Egyptian hieroglyphics denoting the Cult of the Dead - a belief in the immortality of the soul.

Julius Caesar had dismissed the Celts as a semi-barbarous people, but he had been impressed by their Druids' knowledge of medicine and scholarly learning. He had been particulary fascinated to discover the Druids' view of death as similar to Pythagoras' and wrote: "The principle point of their life (the Druids') teaching is that the soul does not perish, and after death - it passes from one body to another."
These few lines pick up the idea of the Death card - a transition of life rather than physical death. Death is a disturbing card however; it indicates having to suffer some kind of loss, which can be a devastating experience. The astrological sign of scorpio, a water sign, is attributed to Death, and the Druids identified it as the sign of The Reed. A symbol of being submerged in water and yet retaining the ability to breathe is another significant comparison.

One of the two figures waiting on the shore is King Arthur and the lady holding the lamp represents the dawn of Christianity. To the Celts, King Arthur represented an important time of transition in their own evolutionary journey. King Arthur was the first great Christian King of the Celtic people, and his meeting with Death is symbolic of a new Golden Age about to begin.

Ancient Britain was considered by the Gauls and continental tribes to be a sacred burial place of "the Gods" and a place where gods still roamed on earth. A glimpse of the ghostly white cliffs, and the sudden descent of mist which hovered over the dividing water, was enough to keep intruding races away for several centuries. The Breton fishermen today still talk about the legend of ferrying their dead over to the shores of "Alba Longa" - the name of ancient Britain.

The mysterious figure-head of the boat is the Celtic god Janus, the God of the Underworld, whose role was as both a guardian and initiator of Death. The mermaid figure swimming alongside the boat is reminiscent of the Lady of the Lake, as she raises her arm to greet Arthur. Her presence perhaps defines something of the mystical element of Death.
Dignified: It indicates a transformation of a situation that can herald new beginnings. Past events have finally been brought under control and the querent can make the changes necessary to live or to evolve rather than remained cocooned in the past.

Ill-Dignified: The querent is lacking real purpose and seeks an easy way out of a current situation. Not facing up to a situation will create a destructive cycle for self and others. Loss of life or property cannot be ruled out if the neighbouring cards are negative.

The Death card is an important point of self-realization; it raises the question of whether to hang on to something not worth having. The symbol of the rising Sun in the card is a reminder that something is both finished and about to begin all over again.