John Kevin's Journal: HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!!

I sail the seas of life as the MASTER of my ship.
~Jonathan-Lockwood Huie

GOOD MORNING, EVERYONE!!!

1. I am grateful that I woke up today, because it's a brand new day, full of oppurtunities to help me achieve my goals in life.

2. I'm very happy and grateful that I was born into this life, because I feel that life has had many lessons to teach me, both good and bad, and I know that life has many more things to teach me.

3. I am truly grateful because I have a roof over my head, because that is something that many other people do not have.

4. I am truly grateful for all the things I've recieved in my life, because even though I don't have as much as many other people do, I do have much more than many others.

5. I am truly happy and blessed to have the free time to shop in the downtown L.A. Fashion District today, so I don't have to deal with the crowds.

6. I'm truly grateful to be able to practice my silat, and come closer to my goals to mastery of this martial art.

7. I am grateful to be of able body and sound mind, so I can continue my silat practice, or any physical endeavor I may want to try in the future.

8. I am grateful to have caught that mouse this morning, and to have put it in a better place.

9. I am so grateful and happy to be able to continue on my 1000 burpee challenge! I am now up to 32 burpees.

10. I am truly grateful, to be able to sit here, and type these things to all of you, because I hope it gets everyone out there to count their blessings as well...

Life is like a rope, twined in all its complexities and yet weaved into one marvelous stream that you have the chance to use something amazing from.So grab hold of it.It’s really really hard to accept, but you can’t change the past. You can’t go back and manipulate things to the way you wanted them to happen because life would be meaningless and boring and just not worth living. But you can change the future and that’s a beautiful thing about life. Yes, you will make mistakes and yes, you will have bad days, but was long as you let the past go, you’ll have such a gorgeous and bright future ahead of you. Knowing that things were meant to happen. Knowing that each day you will learn something so that you keep growing to be a better person...

Now as I said last Monday, in celebration of Danni El's return to L.A., all this week, I gonna be posting videos of Danni performing her songs.

I was gonna post another video today, but I found this and just HAD to post it up... Anyway, today's video is simply called C Will and Danni El. Before she left for Miami, Danni El did a few shows, one of which was in North Hollywood, at an event called VENUS AND MIC. Now I had tried to go to this event, but North Hollywood is not an area I am familiar with, so I got lost on the way there, and missed the show. But that's all right, I got to see her 2 days later at her farewell jam at O'brien's in Santa Monica.

Anyway, I think this video was Danni performing at the Venus and Mic event... The poet performing with her is an amazing guy named Chuck Williams, and the percussionist with her is another amazing guy named Nick Ware. I first heard the song they're singing at the Down n Out bar in Downtown L.A. Danni was on stage with Nick and a guy named Christopher I beleive, when she called chuck up from the audience and they performed that song. It was so cool...

CLICK HERE TO WATCH

If you want to know more about Danni El or her music, you can look in the sidebar in the music section. Or, you can just click here:
DANNI EL MUSIC ON FACEBOOK
DANNI EL MUSIC ON YOU TUBE
DANNI EL ON TWITTER

To be aware is to see what is truth, not what we want to see in order to justify the lies we believe.
~don Miguel Ruiz

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What is a Warrior?

I see through different eyes.

I see a bigger picture when others see only grey skies.

Though many can’t conceive it,

I stand... facing the wind.

My bravery not from fighting,

but from my strength within,

I am a Warrior.

I will walk the extra mile,

Not because I have to,

Because it’s worth my while.

I know that I am different,

When I’m standing on a crowded street.

I know the fullness of winning;

I’ve tasted the cup of defeat.

I am a Warrior.

They say I walk with ease.

Though trained for bodily harm,

My intentions are for peace.

The world may come and go,

But a different path I’ll choose.

A path I will not stray from,

No matter... Win or Lose.

If you've been in the Martial Arts for a while, you'll find many people who would like to believe in the idea that just because they practice the Martial Arts, they are some kind of Warriors.(I like to call them Wannabee Warriors).

But what exactly is a Warrior? I mean, throughout history, there have been many different types of warriors, all having different Codes of Honor that they live by (And in case you're wondering, yes, there is a Warrior Creed that I follow and try to live up to also...) . But if you really try to define what a warrior is, there seems to be no one answer to that question. In fact, there seems to be many answers, almost as many answers as people you ask.

So, what I did was provide some links to some different websites about different warriors and types of warriors throughout history. Hell, I even posted links to web sites about Dan Millman and Carlos Castaneda for you "Spiritually Aware" types. Perhaps if you look through them, you'll find a good definition of a warrior for yourself...

And for you Wannabee Warriors out there... Some of the links I put up are to Law Enforcement & Military websites. If you really want to be warriors, Check out those links and become a police officer, or go join the armed forces. They need you!!!

FROM WIKIPEDIA, THE FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA: Silat is a collective word for indigenous martial arts of the Malay Archipelago and Malay Peninsula of Southeast Asia. Originally developed in what are now Indonesia, peninsular Malaysia, southern Thailand and Singapore, it was also traditionally practiced in Brunei, the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. As a result, it is closely related to other Southeast Asian martial arts including krabi krabong and eskrima. Practitioners are called pesilat. The Chinese fusion of silat is known as kuntao.

There are hundreds of different styles but they tend to focus either on strikes, joint manipulation, bladed weapons, throws, animal-based techniques, or some combination thereof. Silat is one of the sports included in the Southeast Asian Games and other region-wide competitions. Training halls are overseen by separate national organizations in each of the main countries the art is practiced. These are Ikatan Pesilat Indonesia (IPSI) from Indonesia, Persekutuan Silat Kebangsaan Malaysia (PESAKA) from Malaysia, Persekutuan Silat Brunei Darussalam (PERSIB) from Brunei and Persekutuan Silat Singapura (PERSISI) from Singapore.

Below, I added some links to various websites and video clips so you can get a better understanding of what Silat is about.

One of the gravest disservices we have done to the people of our world is to have provided them with a poor education. We do not teach students to think.

If you do not learn to effectively process information (and it is a learned skill) then you will always be at the mercy of people promoting their favorite dogmas.

The problem is, that all kinds of people would like you to uncritically believe what they are telling you about the way the world is. Many of them pretend that such uncritical belief is "faith", which it is not.

If you do not have the tools to discover what a given person or group is really trying to sell you, then you are libel to be making some really wacky presuppositions about the world, which will in turn become the heuristics by which you operate.

About half of what we perceive as "intelligence" is the ability to process information effectively, so if you want to be "smarter" then all you have to do is improve in that area.

While this is pretty simple, it is not necessarily easy. In my experience, most people are conditioned to a way of thinking already comfortable to the individual. When a person tries to change the way they process information they run a good chance of evoking a "threat response" from within themselves.

The wonderful thing about the internet is that you have access to so much useful information. If you're reading this, then you are able to self-educate on any number of subjects to a remarkable degree, and do it almost for free.

And that's what this section is about. I added some links here so anybody with a brain can study and learn to use it.

Remember 2 things people:

"I NOT ONLY HAVE THE RIGHT TO THINK AT ALL TIMES, BUT THE RESPONSIBILITY TO DO SO."

"IF I DON'T THINK FOR MYSELF, THEN SOMEBODY ELSE WILL DO IT FOR ME".

There are over 10,000 different religions in the world, 150 of which have at least 1 millions followers. Which one is the truth? "Christianity!" someone says, but even Christianity alone has over 38,000 different denominations. So which interpretation is the TRUE one?

Religion is not the anchor-point of truth. The truth always existed. Religion is man-made, meaning that the truth existed prior to both man and religion. Religion may be an effective catalyst for some individuals who desire to invest their minds into ideological association for whatever reason, but it is not a necessary nor a sufficient condition for a relationship with God, and understanding of the Creator, or the inner workings of the self.

Spirituality is not a belief. It is a state of consciousness, a mental framework with which you approach the world. Spirituality is in fact what birthed religion through the attempted organization of experience and wisdom, which ended up being the hierarchical stratification of various belief systems that we call religion.

Don't let the commitments you have to a religious belief system in your mind take you away from your natural state of Being with all things. You were a human before you learned religion. God's light existed in you before you learned this through some spiritual guru. Does this mean don't read or believe what Jesus of Buddha had to say? Of course not. Just make sure you take the time and effort to experience the rose instead of just believing in the accounts of others. This is not an attack on any religion by any means, and religion has brought many people happiness and the experience of being close to one's creator, but don't let it cause segregation away from our inherent unity.

As for my religious beliefs, well...

I'm a CHRISTIAN, in the sense that I believe that personal redemption is feasible for everyone and that universal love makes that salvation possible.

I'm a MUSLIM, in the sense that I believe that there's only 1 GOD, ans that all are equal under this one GOD. And, althought I'm not jewish, I do have a respect for JUDAISM.

I'm a BUDDHIST, in the sense that the seeds of enlightenment are within all of us as an integral part of our DNA, and that we are capable of reaching the Absolute through our own efforts.

I'm a HINDU, in the sense that I believe that GOD takes many shapes and forms to reach out to mankind.

I'm a TAOIST, in the sense that I have a total belief in the reality of Yin & Yang Energies.

And I also have a total belief in the world of spirits, and what we can learn from them, so I guess that makes me an ANIMIST.

I never want to tell someone what to think, for ones spirituality is a private matter between that person and their creator.

My goal here is only to show all of you the history and traditions of the many, many ways the people of the world have reached out to god.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!!

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