Blog Disclaimer :-)

Zen Koans as they originate from Zen masters testing or challenging Zen students with parables, i.e., simple stories used to trigger a sudden realization in the student of a moral nature. Martial (Zen-like) Koan (or parable like quotes) studies are taking the practice of Zen Koan’s to trigger on-going realizations in the study of martial quotes that will lead toward martial enlightenment - toward a spiritual state of mind that allows for change. It is through such changes that both the discipline and the student can achieve higher levels of understanding through acquired knowledge and experience. Welcome to the “Martial (Zen-like) Koan Studies!”


“Koans, or parables (a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson).”


Caveat: Please make note that this blog is my personal analysis of the subject and the information used was chosen or picked by me. It is not an analysis piece because it lacks complete and comprehensive research, it was not adequately and completely investigated and it is not balanced, i.e., it is my personal view without the views of others including subject experts, etc. Look at this as “Infotainment rather then expert research.” This is an opinion/editorial article/post blog meant to persuade the reader to think, decide and accept or reject my premise. It is an attempt to cause change or reinforce attitudes, beliefs and values as they apply to martial arts and/or self-defense. It is merely a commentary on the subject in the particular article presented.


This blog is mine and mine alone. I, the author of this blog, assure you, the reader, that any of the opinions expressed here are my own and are a result of the way in which my meandering mind interprets a particular situation and/or concept. The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of other martial arts and/or conflict/violence professionals or authors of source materials. It should be quite obvious that the sources I used herein have not approved, endorsed, embraced, friended, liked, tweeted or authorized this article. (Everything I think and write is true, within the limits of my knowledge and understanding. Oh, and just because I wrote it and just because it sounds reasonable and just because it makes sense, does not mean it is true.)

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Friday, August 7, 2015

next three quotes

1. “Tracking back to the original questions, 'just' cooking is way more complicated, deep and involved. Yet with training and experience we easily navigate through massively complex processes in order to produce.” - Marc MacYoung, “Mac and Cheese Idealism,” MacYoung’s Musings Blog

Comments: We often assume that the simple actually produces the complex much like cooking from scratch to cooking from a pre-packed boxed meal, i.e., baking a cake from scratch or cooking a complete meal by nuking a television pre-packaged dinner. Both will feed you but only one truly achieves reality - a cake vs. TV dinner. Cooking from scratch is complex and takes processes much like the discipline of chemistry to achieve a finished product so why do we assume we can take self-defense and assume we can stick it in a microwave and get the same results?

2. “We tend to minimize the complexity of what we do actually know. At the same time we become vulnerable to anyone trying to 'sell us' that complex issues are simple and all about 'one thing.'  The latter especially in the form of soundbites, advertising and narrative.” - Marc MacYoung, “Mac and Cheese Idealism,” MacYoung’s Musings Blog

Comments: The human mind tends to lean heavily toward simplicity. After all, our ancestors lived in a simply time and a simple way, i.e., they were born, they learned to hunt and gather, they learned to protect the tribe, they breed and they died. It doesn’t get simpler but in modern times our human natures created such complexities that fog our minds hiding the simplicity of life itself losing our humanity for the sake of the complexities of modern technology leaving us whirling in a flood of complexities pulling us down to drown in the whirlpool as water down the drain. It is no wonder we gloss over the simplicity of conflict and violence along with the disciplines of that profession for the sake of gratification toward complexities that make us feel superior as an inferior animal. Do we really have the ability to think and reason? Are we really superior to the Lions and Tigers and Bears? Have we truly progressed from when we were the simply ancestors living on the plains hunting and gathering for us and the tribe? 

3. “Simplistic answers and an abundance of confidence really appeals to the part of our brains that want to reduce the complexities of life to simplistic narratives and never mind reality (much less all those messy complications).” - Marc MacYoung, “Mac and Cheese Idealism,” MacYoung’s Musings Blog


Comments: Isn’t it about our need for answers easily perceived and therefore perceived easy to live? Don’t the simplistic answers we need for comfort and self-soothing actually leading us blindly into a convoluted life where conflict and violence increase and dominate while we fool ourselves into “Believing” things are getting better? 
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