Our Fears

   Acknowledging fear is not a cause of depression or discouragement.  Because we possess such fear, we also are potentially entitled to experience fearlessness.  True fearlessness is not the reduction of fear; but going beyond fear.  – Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chogyam Trungpa

   I like this idea of fearlessness being only something as simple as acknowledging and dealing with our fears rather than being able to have NO fears.  I don’t think there is a person in existence who has no fears.  We all fear things in life, it would be unnatural for us not to.  Dealing with it in the right ways and keeping a cool head is how we can be truly fearless.

   I think my skills at over-analyzing actually come to good use here because when you sit and think things through, and realize how trivial they are.  You can really begin to see what good we can bring ourselves and other people if we can make ourselves overcome them.

   On a different note, the book that I read this from is one awesome piece of writing.  I’ve been studying it for the past 2 or 3 months although I haven’t yet finished it.  Its not really even that long, I just end up going back and reading things over again because they really jumped out at me that much.

   I’m also going to make an effort to write in this blog more, hopefully daily.  And I want to try and quit going to myspace so much.. heheh.

The Day the Rain Turned To Snow

Originally posted on myspace on Monday, January 14, 2008

I remember, I used that for a title because that’s what happend on the day I wrote this blog…

Once again I feel the need to blog. It happens.  This is kind of on the same subject as my warrior-poet blog, this kind of being where I got the idea from.

    Anyway, I’ve been thinking alot lately about the age old story of the warrior, who saves the princess from the evil monster.  This story, although it seems kind of cheesy or even mundane from our standpoint has a very deep analogy that came to my attention a few months ago.

    This fairy-tale is a story that transcends time and culture.  It has taken different forms throughout the ages, such as the monster being a fierce dragon in medieval times, or a villian of the old west.  Although the characters and settings have been changed to accomadate different cultures and periods, the substance doesn’t change.

    The story has three main entities, which all represent different aspects of ourselves.  First of all the monster, or dragon as I’ll call him just for fun, represents  any negativity in ourselves.  Any time we settle for less, tell ourselves we’re not capable of something, or even give in to our fears, or laziness, the dragon has succeeded.  The dragon’s goal is to keep us from attaining what we want out of life, what will truly make us happy. 

    Only people who know how to be the warrior, can conquor that dragon.  The hero of the story is a warrior because it takes courage, a strong will and an indomitable spirit to rise to the challenge that separates us from our goals.  The warrior is pure Yang energy if you haven’t realized it already.  He knows only conflict. War is his profession, and he is an expert at it.  His unbreakable will and unbeatable combat prowess are what separates him from lesser men, who would either be too overwhelmed or simply outmatched by the dragon.  The Warrior is the only one who could save the Princess.

   Now, the Princess in the story is not a secondary character at all.  She isn’t just a pretty excuse for the writer to blab about a mighty warrior and the epic battle he has with the dragon.  The Princess is another aspect of ourselves, as I mentioned above.  If the Warrior is 100% Yang, the the Princess is absolute Yin.  She is the extreme opposite of the Warrior in that, if he is all strength and power, she is sensitivity, creativity, and the ability to dream and gain joy out of life.  The Warrior knows how to kill and destroy, he is a master of war.  The Princess is an artist of peace, she knows how to love and how to create.

    You see, the Princess could never stand up to the dragon, she knows only softness and love, and those will not stop the dragon.  But at the same time, after the Warrior has defeated the dragon he would not know how to have happiness, he doesn’t know what to do when there is no longer a tyrant to defeat.  The Warrior can only be truly happy with the Princess.

   So basically, we all have to have the strength and courage to overcome obstacles in every day life.  Or even rise to bigger more daring challenges, if we feel that we want the outcome bad enough.  But at the same time, we have to know how to get the most out of our successes and truly enjoy and be happy with what we’ve fought to achieve.  We need to have an equal balance of the warrior’s power and the princess’ grace, if we want to get the most out of life.

I was intrigued by this subject roughly a year ago or so, from the book, On the Warrior’s Path by Daniel Bolelli

Anyway, that’s mah blog, for now.  I’ve been meaning to blog on Morihei Ueshiba, or O Sensei, the founder of Aikido and one of my personal heroes.  But their is just too much to say about the man, and I’m finding it difficult to get it all organized up in the old noggin to write anything meaningful and not just jargon.  Maybe I will attempt something in the near future…

Jared Freitas

Warrior-Poets

I originally wrote this on myspace on  Thursday, December 06, 2007

    I have a million or so thoughts in my head that i’d like to end up written here and be somewhat comprehendable.  I was thinking of some thoughts on the Martial Arts of course.  And who knows what other subjects I’ll end up with on here by the time I’m done.  Philosophy, life, love, art, pancakes, society, who knows.

   So yeah, the martial arts… I’d definitely say that dispite the fact that I really haven’t been training regularly for quite some time, martial arts is one of my biggest passions in life.  I’ve never done any drugs, not even tried them, but I think that the feeling that you get; the state of mind that fighting/sparring puts you in, that rush, that hightened sense of everything is one of the greatest things ever.  Who knows, maybe heroine is that much better and I just don’t know what I’m missing.  Well this is good enough for me.  But that whole concept is just hard to fathom even for people who have experienced it, and frankly, alot of people think I tend to over analyze it and think that there’s more there than there really is.  Some say its merely an adrenaline rush.

   Those people are fools.  It truly is a form of meditation. It can only last a moment but it always seems like an eternity, and I don’t care who a person is or what they’ve been through, you are truly alive during that moment.  Every ounce of passion and feeling is poored into each technique, each movement, and your mind basically takes a back seat to your animal insticts, there is no time for thought or reason.  The techniques you’ve trained and trained and trained in are all you know.  I can almost bring myself to tears of joy just trying to explain it.

That, is what martial arts is to me. 

     The sad thing is that to most, at least in America, its just a hobby or a sport.  Watching some egotistical brutes pummel each other and then cuddle together on the ground in UFC.  Or little Timmy going to Master Bob’s Karate Dojo on tuesday and thursday nights after school.  And all the dissension among the different styles!  Why the different styles of martial arts can’t stop arguing, and just have a mutial respect for each other is beyond me. 

  But I guess thats how every aspect of society has always been, and probably always will be.  But basically to me, the martial arts is something that should be taken seriously.  It’s all about bettering one’s self.  I believe that if a person takes it seriously enough, and is passionate enough about their training, that anyone can and will better themselves.  Physically, mentally and even spiritually.  It isn’t about muscles, or brute strength. Or even winning or losing.  Those are such trivial concepts really.  What does a winner win? and what does a loser lose? Honestly.  If no ones life is at stake then, the loser actually gains some insight on how to become even better in the future. The winner gets nothing but a bigger ego and a false sense of faith in his own ability, which may not even be that much better than the “loser”. 

  Seriously I think that “Mixed Martial Arts” like we see in the UFC gives martial arts in general a bad image. Being a martial artist is not about being a brainless meat-head who just wants to kick peoples asses.  And before people stop me and say “wait Jared, you can’t judge each and every fighter in the UFC to have no brains and be nothing but ego.”  That is true, I can’t. But the IMAGE that the marketers show us on television is what I’m talking about.  Americans love to watch big giant guys smash into each other, run around with balls, and sweat all over each other.  And mixed martial arts is this americanized image of what martial arts is.  People in the western hemisphere really need to learn a little balance.  martial arts isn’t all about muscle, physical strength or ego.  One needs to learn the soft as well as the hard.  I’m talking about Yin and Yang here, so get your minds out of the gutter. 

   Contrary to what alot of people think, a martial artist shouldn’t be all sweat, power and furious battle cries.  This will sound strangely cliche but a martial artist should also have a sensitive side.  He/she should also know how to dream, how to enjoy poetry or art, or express themselves through music.  How to feel joy.  However, I’m not saying that every guy who fancies himself a martial artist should just chop his balls off and start going by a girl’s name. 

  All in all, a martial artist should be so well balanced in the masculine and feminine sides of life, that they become well rounded individuals.  He/she should know when to be strong, and when and how to end a fight with expert precision.  But the martial artist should also know how to listen, how to laugh, how to think. How to love. 

We should all live like Warrior-poets.