Pictures of Athens 2

Dear Mme Gubaidulina

"I am a religious person...and by 'religion' I mean re-ligio, the re-tying of a bond...restoring the legato of life. Life divides man into many pieces...There is no weightier occupation than the recomposition of spiritual integrity through the composition of music."

Sofia Gubaidulina

Realpolitik (part II)

How do you know when to stand and when to evade?

Someone once told me: “in matters of tactics you negotiate, in matters of Principle-NEVER!”…

Nothing implies better the spirit of Political Realism.

King Leonidas was facing a matter of Principle: he wanted to make sure that the Persians would get so frustrated so that even if some Greeks (and yes, old Leonidas knew which were the ones) wanted to negotiate, the Persians wouldn’t!

Ironic as it may seem, Leonidas decision is NOT a romantic, chivalric flavored gesture by a Byronian character (as classroom taught History wants us to think) or Hollywood like blockbuster story!

Thermopylae is the ultimate Political Realism act. It is cold calculated, pragmatic and true. It is true to the Spartan Spirit, and Sparta was not a place for philology, believe me! Contrary to popular belief Spartans valued Life more than anyone else, that is why the gave it away only after dead-serious consideration.

This is exactly why that Spirit is significant. In reality there is not a bipolar axis
Heroism←→Pragmatism , this is our perception from the Western Civilization point of view. It is exactly the same case with samurai seppuku (“hara-kiri”): we will never grasp it. What we interpret with our emotions, was done by cold calculation.

There is one point and only one: Imagine their Training!

---

As a matter of fact, returning in this post’s initial question, the answer is: “how do you stand and evade at the same time?”

N.

What was the most beautiful thing you left behind?

Adonis, in response to a question from the Shades in the Underworld ("What was the most beautiful thing you left behind?"), answers:

κάλλιστον μὲν ἐγὼ λείπω φάος ἠελίοιο,

δεύτερον ἄστρα φαεινὰ σεληναίης τε πρόσωπον


(Finest of all the things I have left is the light of the sun,

Next to that the brilliant stars and the face of the moon)


Praxilla of Sicyon, 5th century BC

Pictures of Athens

Physical Injury during Practice periods

How Discipline makes us truly Free

Sometimes you know that you have to practice but you don't want to. It seems there is a second self somewhere inside that is stronger, more powerful than our will, that dictates what is going to happen. No matter what your plans are, you-won't-do-it. Period.

Whenever I think about this, I have an image about that other self: it is as powerful as a lion, stubborn like an ox, ferocious like a shark. And you my friend, are not going to practice no matter what!

Discipline is a liquid. It runs in all of our Life's aspects. You can't be disciplined in one thing and
chaotic in another.

It is part of character and character is built up. By applying it in everything.
Discipline in how you eat. How you sleep. How you do your homework, take the bus, work.

It is from these aspects that you may take any amount of "discipline" to apply it where and when is needed. Yourway of life will support you. You will practice by counting on your own daily routined discipline. You will find the power to tame the lion, the ox, the shark!

I am not suggesting a life full of militarian discipline. Even if you wanted, society (this applies for all countries on planet Earth except for Japan!) is not helping you. There is no black and white, only shades of gray. The chaos that rules other peoples' lifes affects us: the garbage truck that 
picks up the trash at noon(!), the guy who double-parked for 5 mins (actually it's 40 mins by now), another strike that causes downtown nuclear meltdown, your friend that came 
30 mins late...

All I am saying is that You must decide about your Life. You should choose when to have coffee, when to practice, when to go to the movies. It must be your choice, your decision. Thus you are free. Free to do as you decide.


Injury. Pain as means to an end-another kind of aikido.

All these are meaningless the moment you get hurt. Pain knocks the door of your brain saying: "I am shuting systems down!"...

It gets even trickier... You think it is for the best to rest. To lie on the sofa and watch TV... You are hurt, aren't you? You deserve this...

No. As long as you can walk, you must go to Practice. And do as much as pain allows you to do. Is it only one simple exercise? You do it.

Pain is our friend. Pain is a signal telling us that something is wrong. We must learn to embrace it. Not demonize it! Pain is the best thing our body can do to tell us in order to protect ourselves.

Absorb it and exhale it.

Realpolitik (part I)

Stranger, go tell the Spartans that here we lie, obeying their Law


When I was about 12 years old, I read about King Leonidas, the 300 and Thermopylae.
I was amazed by that act of Self-Sacrifice.

To make a stand, against your interests but for your Ideas.

To obey the Law to Death, that is the extreme limit of Man, Citizen, Warrior.
This seems to me the ultimate contribution of Ancient Greece to World's Civilization,
the defining moment of Law, the State of Justice, Principle over Self.


Ever since, there is one picture that haunts me: the Persian spy returns to the Great King and informs him that the Spartans are there, getting ready to die, by preparing themselves, putting on their finest clothes, calmly brushing their long hair, waiting.

What a scene! Brushing each other’s long hair, calmly waiting to die…

---

Then came Philip.

To keep myself sane during the last year of high school and the intense studying for the University-entering exams, I studied about Philip, King of Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great.

And there it was: "Philip was a genious. He knew when to fight but most importantly, when to retreat, avoiding conflicts that he could not win..."

What? Whaaat? Avoid battle, retreat? "Keeping it low?"

What about fighting? Heroism, Sacrifice?

This way, a hot summer evening, Realistic Politics stormed into my Life!

The Brilliance of BU !

Shunryu Suzuki

Hell is not punishment,
it's training.

800 Anno Domini

Unknown persons(?) vandalized the statue "Κοιμωμένη" by Chalepas.

Now I know the date!

Music is a moral law

Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good, just and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but nevertheless dazzling, passionate, and eternal form.

- Plato

ΜΗΔΕΝΑ ΠΡΟ ΤΟΥ ΤΕΛΟΥΣ ΜΑΚΑΡΙΖΕ

When all is easy, we all have something to say.

Germanicus

Bassui, Zen master

Just stop your wandering,
Look penetratingly into your inherent nature,
And, concentrating your spiritual energy,
Sit in zazen
And break through

None shall sleep tonight...At Dawn I shall win!

PUCCINI_TURANDOT
Aria_Nessun Dorma

Il principe ignoto: 

Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma! Tu pure, o Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza
guardi le stelle
che tremano d'amore e di speranza...
Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me,
il nome mio nessun saprà!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo dirò,
quando la luce splenderà!
Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio
che ti fa mia.
Voci di donne
Il nome suo nessun saprà...
E noi dovrem, ahimè, morir, morir!
Il principe ignoto
Dilegua, o notte! Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle! All'alba vincerò!
Vincerò! Vincerò!

"Julius Caesar" - Shakespeare

CAESAR:

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.--

A drop of water

Kaso (1352-1428) , Zen master, abbot of Daitoku-ji


A drop of water freezes in midair.
My seventy-seven years
All used up!
Spring water bubbles up from the flames.

Plato, Protagoras

Education and admonition commence in the first years of childhood, and last to the very end of life.

Mother and nurse and father and tutor are vying with one another about the improvement of the child as soon as ever he is able to understand what is being said to him: he cannot say or do anything without their setting forth to him that this is just and that is unjust; this is honourable, that is dishonourable; this is holy, that is unholy; do this and abstain from that.

And if he obeys, well and good; if not, he is straightened by threats and blows, like a piece of bent or warped wood. At a later stage they send him to teachers, and enjoin them to see to his manners even more than to his reading and music; and the teachers do as they are desired.

And when the boy has learned his letters and is beginning to understand what is written, as before he understood only what was spoken, they put into his hands the works of great poets, which he reads sitting on a bench at school; in these are contained many admonitions, and many tales, and praises, and encomia of ancient famous men, which he is required to learn by heart, in order that he may imitate or emulate them and desire to become like them.

Then, again, the teachers of the lyre take similar care that their young disciple is temperate and gets into no mischief; and when they have taught him the use of the lyre, they introduce him to the poems of other excellent poets, who are the lyric poets; and these they set to music, and make their harmonies ana rhythms quite familiar to the children's souls, in order that they may learn to be more gentle, and harmonious, and rhythmical, and so more fitted for speech and action; for the life of man in every part has need of harmony and rhythm.

Then they send them to the master of gymnastic, in order that their bodies may better minister to the virtuous mind, and that they may not be compelled through bodily weakness to play the coward in war or on any other occasion.

This is what is done by those who have the means, and those who have the means are the rich; their children begin to go to school soonest and leave off latest.

When they have done with masters, the state again compels them to learn the laws, and live after the pattern which they furnish, and not after their own fancies; and just as in learning to write, the writing-master first draws lines with a style for the use of the young beginner, and gives him the tablet and makes him follow the lines, so the city draws the laws, which were the invention of good lawgivers living in the olden time; these are given to the young man, in order to guide him in his conduct whether he is commanding or obeying; and he who transgresses them is to be corrected, or, in other words, called to account, which is a term used not only in your country, but also in many others, seeing that justice calls men to account.

Now when there is all this care about virtue private and public, why, Socrates, do you still wonder and doubt whether virtue can be taught?
Cease to wonder, for the opposite would be far more surprising.

Blasphemous Words

Discipline, Practice, State <Κράτος> & (...God forgive me) Obedience.


Close your eyes.
Think about these words and their meanings, the Ideas they represent.
Tell me the truth, you felt something negative when you read them (especially "Obedience" & "State"). It almost feels like your human rights are being violated, eh?


We live in times where the main Message is "Life is to short to be miserable", "Enjoy as much as you can" and the sort...

Try to talk (especially to young people) about discipline (!), practice (!!) and obedience (&^%$!)...

I am trying to imagine a pianist who doesn't practice scales, an aikidoka who never does ukemis, a painter who doesn't spent infinte hours experimenting with colours.

Anyway, it's always easier to drink a coffee, isn't?

Our times are dark and we think it's sunshine. Not only we don't master our selves in order to achieve goals, we make it seem bad, we judge the ones that do and at the same time we have embarked in a campaign to destroy all the people (in history) who serve as paradigms for this.

It's easy, political correctness requires for us to be the same (NOT equal as we ought to  be), the same but downwards not upwards...

If we all sit down our bare naked ass willl be covered.

Goodnight.

Untitled

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities
  but in the Master's there are few”