Friday, December 15, 2006
Week review “Honesty”
To be completely honest I did lied on Wednesday about a question that was a bit personal from a not very close friend so I didn’t want to share to much info with him but I tried at first to give a vague answer but he wasn’t satisfied so I was obliged to lie to him, I’m not very proud of that but it has to be done that way.
The conclusion that I came up with about honesty is that we can be honest if we want to be so it will only be hard for us in the times we r used to tell lies but that should be an indicator for us to reconsider why we r lying since it has to be something wrong either with us or in the situation that we put ourselves in so it has to be changed and that will be the key to be honest with ur self before being honest to others u should know why u r lying and what r the consequences of ur lies and how to fix that all…and may God help us all.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Another week another virtue (Honesty)
I remember once a comment by David about honesty in which he said”it can be very difficult to criticize the person you love. Say your girlfriend asks you a question and wants an honest answer. Well, sometimes a completely honest answer may hurt her feelings. So, do you tell the complete truth, or do you hold back part of the truth so she will be happy? ” well I quite agree with him about one thing that we certainly need to be careful about commenting on how a girl look but that definitely doesn’t mean that u have to lie cause not a lot of men has super models as their girlfriends but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t enjoy being with that person and there must be reasons for that, so when a guy is asked to comment about his girlfriend’s looks he doesn’t have to comment on her physical appearance –that is definitely dangerous if u say the wrong answer- so the only thing u have to do is to describe her beauty in ur eyes and why do u love her and forget about the others and in that way u’ll neither be lying nor hurting her (or actually getting hurt urself :)).
So I think that would work on a lot of situations being honest doesn’t mean that u r authorized to hurt people and if u have to tell a hurtful truth do it gently and be honest in ur heart.
Another view for honesty is being honest to ur own self cause if u can’t do that u won’t be able to be honest to anyone so u have to confront ur self with what u like and dislike about ur behavior don’t try to live in denial cause there is only one side for the truth so u have to admit at least to ur self of what is right and what is wrong and I don’t mean that u don’t have to be honest to others but start with ur self.
I know it might be hard to implement honesty but the idea of the possibility of an honest world is quite delightful a world that u may not fear to be cheated a world when there is no need to double check more than a source of information, I know that it might be my wildest dream but what r we without dreaming and may God help us all…
For more information about honesty u can go HERE
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Sorry for the delay
Well about my week it started normally and since the first few days there were no difference in my life style -since I was locked up at home due to the ultra violent environment- and since at home I'm only surrounded by my family that I hold respect for them normally-well I could say that I've lessen the teasing for my little sister-but there was some points that were scored against me due to the fact that I was sitting in front of the TV and I passed through some TV programs or video clips that I do not approve so I was unable to hold my tongue and I feel sorry for that and here is a record for the points for the first days
Sunday 15
Monday 9
Tuesday 16 (I know it is disrespectful to increase my points here)
Wednesday 5
Thursday 2
Friday 3
So as u may see I've tried to improve but on Thursday I met with some friends and tried to hold my tongue but it is sometimes hard to be respectful against some people I know that I should be respectful even for my enemies but I think it is OK for a respectable enemy but against terrorists well I can't stand but cursing and that is definitely not respectful thing to do...
Now we reach the juicy stuff on this week on Sunday I went to college and it was all going just fine-except for few points I scored for checking some girls' figures- till it was time to go back so I got a ride in my friend's car and it was OK till we started talking about some girls in our college and one thing led to another and I scored at least 50 or something I don't know what happened to me was it because I feared that if I didn't participate in the conversation I would be looked down at or may be I just wanted to look COOL- As if insulting people and laughing at their account is COOL although that they may be dressed or behave disrespectfully- well when I got back to my place I felt very bad because I was unable to behave my self but u know what I guess that is what the experiment all about.
In summary I've reached a conclusion that respect is a very deep a virtue since I noticed that everything is related to respect cause u can't lie if u respect ur self and respect the person u r lying to, u can't cheat if u respect ur self and do u want to know an extreme level of respect it is that u can't eat what is bad to ur body - like junk food and such stuff- if u respect ur self and ur body so it is all about respect
Friday, November 24, 2006
Implementation of Respect (Rei)
And now how to implement this virtue in our daily life I think that it is quite obvious how to be a respectful and in return respectable person the only thing that u have to do is to respect all in life and respect life itself with no exceptions u have to treat everyone and everything respectfully...
Let's say that ur Boss is the ideal as$#@l then how could u respect him? well if u don't respect him for him being ur boss (Out of business courtesy) u may respect him for his accomplishment if not then there has to be some qualities that u may respect him for and even if there isn't u have to respect him for being a human being at least.
How may ur respect be met by others? I assume that at first u may find a rejection by the person u may respect as he may think that u r sucking up to him and others may think the same but I assure u that after a while when people find out that u respect them for nothing in return but respect itself then they'll respect u in return.
So this is our challenge for a whole week we have to respect everyone and everything to the out most starting with ur own self so it doesn't mean that if u respect someone u have to stand still when he disrespects u but u have to respond in the most respectable way.
Any way what ever I say I may never reach the answer the question of how to implement this virtue so I will believe in the nature of the Human being to really reach that answer via experimenting and I'm sure that we -some how- r going to find our way.
So I hereby announce the beginning of V-Experiment on the 25/11/2006 and may God help us all...
HAJIMETE
Virtue of Choice
Where should we start? that is the question going to be, I thought that we should start with a virtue that is not very complicated and vague a virtue that may be understood and implemented easily so I limited the options to three virtues:
and I've got the approvement of the offline participants and I thought of taking the opinion of the online participants so u may agree or disagree with us and also u can name the most suitable virtue to begin with in ur opinion and to help u decide u may check these virtues in my previous posts or where ever u like .
OK that is all for now I hope that u'll respond quickly and may God help us all...
Saturday, November 18, 2006
V-Experiment
V-Experiment is a short for virtues experiment and in that one I tend to experiment the applicability of the seven virtues in the real world, and is the community able to accept whoever lives by such virtues? but in order to do that I need some help as I can experiment on the community in Iraq (and believe me that won't be easy cause lying can be a life saver) but what about other places and communities so I here by announce the initiation of V-experiment for all of the world and for those who r tempted to join me in my experiment u can say so in ur comment and I can only assure one thing that this experiment will be useful to u one way or another u may not realize it now but afterward u'll see the difference in ur personality and the way u see the world around u I know it won't be easy at all but I say it worth the shot, for having new perspective to the world u have to suffer a little and this experiment will manifest the best of u...
The experiment goes like this:We select a virtue and then we try to apply it in our daily life for a brief amount of time and we see from there how things will go, the key is the level of commitment to that virtue and since I've been in the world so I know how hard it will be to be fully committed to that virtue all the time so to ease things up u'll get to have piece of paper in ur pocket and every time u act against that virtue u'll score a point in the paper and in the end of the day u count the points and try the other day to lessen them and so on and u'll get angry some times furious others but u'll be happy when u lessen ur points so it will be an experiment filled with emotions so if u r up to the challenge tell me now and the experiment will be started next week and may God help us all...
P.S. if u r a blogger I will really appreciate if u link to this post even if u r not participating since I'm kinda new blogger so this will be like a big favour to me and thank u in advance.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Tadaima (I'm home)
Monday, November 06, 2006
Saddam A fallen Icon (a post of joy not politics)
Then what about honesty? let's see he lied to God when he did his oath to serve and protect this country while we were the ones doing all the serving and protecting and he lied about being a descendant of the prophet Mohamed while he was killing and torturing the real descendants and all who would say we r following the path of the prophet, and he lied and lied about plenty of things so I think that Honesty is not the answer.
Then it must be justice, let's see annihilating a village, taking the properties of people with no right to do so imprisoning any person that may doubt his decisions right or wrong and many many unjust acts...hmm I doubt that it is the answer of our question.
Well I'm kinda lost here "Saddam an Icon of what?" call me outrageous but let's try something out, let's inspect him for the quality of...hmm let's say Saddam an Icon of tyranny, hmm that sounds interesting let's see he ruled the country for more than 35 years with no just elections during all that 35 years (don't tell me about the time that we were forced to go vote for him against no one), how about the fact that if u want to get promoted in ur job or in anything u should join the Ba'ath in order for ur application to be accepted, and many many more of these actions... hmm that sounds interesting is it possible that he is fit for such hideous quality?
let me try something else how about Mass-murdering? let's see he killed numerous amount of people in Halapcha, Anfal, and in many parts of Iraq he murdered people for a reason and no reason... hmm I can't believe it he is fit for this one too.
And that is when it hit me that believe it or not Saddam Husein is a bad person, yeah I know that is almost impossible to believe "Saddam a Bad person" I must be on dope if he is a bad person then why r there people that love him and support him who would support a trash? why would anyone love and support a tyrant and a mass-murderer? unless...OH MY GOD I NOW GET IT ONLY THE TRASH SUPPORT THE TRASH and that is the way around with Saddam and his minions, oh my God I must be a genius to figure that all by my-self since it does require a genius to do so...Dos it?
Well now I can enthrone Saddam by his true title "Saddam the Icon of tyranny and Mass-murdering" well that's seems more like it and in the end I can only hope that u'll have a nice hanging Saddam and that u may never know peace not now not so ever and I also want to congratulate all the good people of the world for the fallen of this Icon and may God bless us all...
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Honor
these r the definitions for honor that can be found in the dictionaries but I absolutely didn't feel satisfied by them so I thought that the best way to know the meaning of Honor is to ask an honorable person so I asked a Friend that I have full confidence in his honorable behavior (I'm not sure of the validity of my judgment but he is surely more honorable than me) and that is what he said:
"Honor is showing great respect for yourself, other people, and the rules you live by. When you are honorable, you keep your word. You do the right thing regardless of what others are doing. Honor is a path of integrity"
After hearing that I felt that I'm almost on the right way to catch the real meaning for Honor so I searched harder, squeezed my brain harder and after ten hours of meditation (that I didn't do) I reached multiple opinions on the matter of honor.
I begin with William Shakespeare and his play "King Henry IV" in a wonderful scene on Part one of the play and her is a quote from Sir John Falstaff while he is defining Honour to us:
"Well, 'tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? no. or an arm? no. or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. 'Tis insensible, then. Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I'll none of it. Honour is a mere escutcheon: and so ends my catechism".
After remembering that I felt closer to know the meaning of Honor so I kept going...
I remembered that I've read a story concerning honor some where so I've searched the web a bit and what u know I've found it and it is a story of a master swordsman who sat calmly through a barrage of insults from potential robbers. The swordsman avoided a fight by expertly catching four flies with his chopsticks and then getting up and walking away. Traditional misunderstandings of honor would see this man insulted and would say that he should get revenge. In fact, nothing that the robbers could say would take away the swordsman's skill or honor. Fighting them would not make this swordsman more skilled or honorable. It was more honorable for this swordsman to walk away so Honor is not to avenge someone or something.
In summary Honor is to know shame and trying to prevent it at the cost of ones life and there is no need for explaining the meaning of the word shame cause we deep inside know what we should be ashamed of and what we shouldn't and as one of the great samurai once said "Shame (haji) is the most important word in a samurai's vocabulary. Nothing is more shameful than not understanding shame" and from here comes the origin of seppuku that the samurai that feels that he has dishonored himself or his master commit suicide (I'll talk about seppuku in another post).
So it seems that Honor sums all the 7 virtues of the Bushido in one and to be honorable is to live putting the honor in front of u in all ur actions...
Note: that was the hardest post I've ever wrote so I hope that it is good and if not then forgive me for my lack of intellect...
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Loyalty
Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person or cause, A feeling or attitude of devoted attachment and affection for a person or a cause...this is what u'll get by checking the dictionary.
The above might be a very good explanation of the word loyalty since loyalty is indeed being faithful and devoted to a person or a cause but as u look at it u begin to wonder where does that feeling come from? well the answer is :
- Thankfulness
- Respect
- Devotion
In the period of Kamakura shogunate, Kamakura was the gathering place for all samurai,No matter what, when a samurai received the message "Isa Kamakura!" (at once to Kamakura!) he had to come there at any cost. This was a simple act of loyalty.
So loyalty can not be given or bought it can only be earned since no matter how much u fear, seek the acceptance of someone he can never earn ur loyalty unless u admire, respect, and appreciate that person and I also want to remind u that loyalty can not be only held to a person but in alot of cases loyalty is to be held to a cause or principle and that is what the Samurai code of Honour is all about.
So being loyal to a person or a cause arise from within the person's heart but to act according to loyalty is what's all about, for being loyal even in the cost of ur own life and here comes the big decision to make is ur loyalty to what u believe in more important or is it ur mortal life? some would say " Hey when u r dead u r dead, end of the story" well I can't think of something more wrongful than that in our case since if u r really loyal to what u believe in then dying to it is the most honorable death. It is not about being loyal but how r u devoted to the person u r loyal to and from here we can see how devoted the Samurai class were to the code of honor that they lived by that if they dishonor them-selves or their masters (that they r loyal to) they preform seppuku (the samurai act for suicide) and that is how loyal they where...U see being loyal is being true to your-self and if u r not true to your-self then u r just living a big lie in which u r trying to avoid what really maters in this life and when the end draws near u'll only think in ur self if only I was loyal and faithful to (My family, my respectable ones, to GOD) but then it is too late for that, so all u have to do now is to determine ur principles and ur priorities and be loyal and devoted to them and determine what is really important and what is ur life is all about do it now since u can....
Friday, October 27, 2006
And here we go again
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Merry Eid to all
With these warm wishes I start my post ,which will be more like a short message than a post actually, and with a true hope that God will remove the tribulation that has been placed upon Iraq and the Iraqis and replace it by peace and prosperity....Amen.
I just hope that we will carry on what we have been doing in Ramadan from charity, loving, and adoration to God... and to always remember that God is looking at us and that He said in the holly book of Quraan that He won't change the status of a nation till they change what is in their-selves so if we want the distress we r in to be removed then we should start with our-selves and may God bless u all...
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Farewell Ramadan
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
How cheap can we get
Seriously is there no limit for how cheap the Iraqi blood can get it just keeps going down and down and may be the next thing u know before they kill u they'll charge u a fair amount of money like it is a service that been offered to u or may be after they've killed u they'll just go to ur family saying "hey u owe us some money, we r the guys who killed ur son, show some gratitude u ungrateful people"....
Sorry for the rather harsh intro but I had to let out some steam...
This post is dedicated to a person I know, a follow human being his name is "Kareem", I don't know him very well to know his last name, Kareem is a simple guy with a small family, he worked hard for the sake of that family he may have done some mistakes in his life but he hadn't seriously hurt anyone intentionally, he wasn't in a death squad or anything he was just a normal guy trying to live his life with his family in the best way he had known...
So the question is WHY? why in the sake of God why? why in the sake of whatever the guys who killed him worship (if they do believe in anything cause I doubt it) why? is it because of money cause I assure u he doesn't have a lot,is it because of his job I know that he worked as a guard in a simple house and when he was killed he wasn't even there so what is it?, is it because of his doctrine cause I can assure u that it has nothing to do with that because we Iraqis have been living together far far before Saddam like brothers and we had never heard of any casualty because of a person's doctrine in Saddam's time or before so why now? some would claim that the freedom manifests things that were buried deep inside, well I can simply refute this claim since as I look at all the people around me -and I know quite a few people- I have never heard or saw or even felt that the difference in our doctrine would be an issue between us and also I can't even think of a Muslim that would kill a fellow Muslim unjustly after all what had been said in the Holy Quraan and said by our prophet about all the Muslims being brothers so it is rationally impossible for a person to kill his brother.
So if they r not Muslims then what r they well that is even more obvious question to answer "THEY BELIEVE IN NOTHING" except may be for the money that is being paid to them by whoever benefits from the chaos is Iraq and in the world if we r talking about terrorism since "Terrorism has no faith", I remember once that a certain person told me -and it has been said by a lot of people- that "Every terrorist is a Muslim but not every Muslim is a terrorist" well actually it is more like "Every terrorist pretends to be Muslim so every Muslim is an anti-terrorist".
In the end all I can say is "God bless ur soul Kareem" and for those who pretend to be Muslim all I can say is "God may respite but he never forget".
May God have his mercy upon u Kareem and upon all the Iraqi martyrs and God bless us all...
Monday, October 16, 2006
WOW Live and Learn
I was sitting in front of the TV and just exchanging channels trying to find something good -or may be just to feel relieved that I have lots of choices- and then I landed on this channel that is showing an educational program on Ramadan and the Islamic fasting and I was like "OH not again what is there to learn" I kept watching -and thank God I did that- there was this guy that is talking about the benefits of fasting to the Human body and since I do care about such stuff I kept watching and in the beginning he said the usual information that fasting is good for ur health and there came the new information that I didn't know, he said that in ordinary situations the human body renews it-self at a whole (except for the brain cells) every five years and that from time to time the weaker cells is replaced by stronger newer ones and that is a periodic operation for the human being till the body is old then this operation is slower and slower, so what does that have to do with Islamic fasting? well through fasting the cells of the human body is starved so the weaker cells will be eliminated cause they can't take the pressure so they'll have to be replaced by newer ones so in conclusion after 29-30 days of this process the human body will be completely renewed (of course except for the brain cells) so instead of being renewed every five days by fasting Ramadan the human body will be renewed every year with fresh strong cells isn't that a miracle or what?...
Sunday, October 08, 2006
The last of the Iraqis
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
The Brain: necessary or accessory
Evidence #1:
the exact phrase "The human brain is necessary and we all know that so there is no need to even think about it" and since in the end of that phrase it was said "there is no need to think about it" and since the tool for us to think is our brain then by saying that there is no need to think about something then it means that there is no need to use our brain then it is an accessory...now the defence may argue that is one question so it doesn't mean that I can define the brain as an accessory according to it only, well by asking that question it proves my case not deny it since I've said that-and if I may quote from my self- "that is a big question" and later on "a question that may define the human beings that we pretend to be" so according to that it proves the ignorance of knowing when to think and when to not so the human brain is an accessory and thank u...
Evidence #2:
how many times during the day do people actually use there brains? (let's count them out)
- U wake up in the morning (let's say at 7) so u do the systematic procedure (bathroom, clothes, breakfast or may be just coffee and then u take the train, bus what ever to go to work (there is absolutely no brain activity in here).
- U reach ur work place and except for the first days at the Job in which u r sharp and always thinking not to screw up, the days afterward it will be just a loop of the exact procedure that needs no brain activity.
- U r back at home so u either sit in front of the TV or the PC and doing nothing just numbing and waiting the time to pass (unless that u have some useful activity like sports or something then u'll be obliged to use ur brain a little bit) and u may go out with some friends trying to have fun and believe me that require no brain activity at all since the real fun is when ur brain is shut :D
- it is night now so if u have company u'll do some more activities that also require no brain activity ...:D and then u go to bed.
It is obvious that less that 1% of the human brain is used in daily life and that is more than sufficient for the survival of the human race and this is another proof that the human brain is an accessory.
Evidence #3:
Generalizing things around us is the most obvious evidence because when we generalize it is due to lack of brain activity because we don't want to look into things in details to distinguish between things that seems alike but actually r not so we generalize them as in the same category, let's say that there is this group of people who r really a pain in the ass they bother everyone and cause troubles all around and it happens that a lot of them pretend to know how to drive camels so does that make all camel drivers belong to that group even if actually those guys know nothing about camel driving? but due to the fact that the human brain is an accessory so we r obliged to put them in the same category and that example is applied for variable situations.
Evidence #4:
The forth evidence is about " how much do we believe in God" a lot of people may say "we do believe in God" but that is not the question in hand but it is how much do u believe in God do we believe enough and for those people who said that they believed in God do they really?, do they seek God in their daily life or only when they need something and even so do they really believe that God will grant them their wishes or they just ask cause there is nothing better to do, so after all the evidences on earth of the greatness of God we rarely seek God in our life so will a person with a brain as an essential organ do such thing and not to think of the creations of God and the miracle of our existence for even few minutes in his entire life and that is a huge thing to think about and that is just another evidence of how the human brain is an accessory.
There is a lot more evidences for my case but I am too lazy to mention them so it is another evidence of my case since it is a very important matter yet I'm too lazy to do any more.... :D
After all these evidences and by relying on the little capabilities that the human brain should have, I end my case and have a nice day...
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
In the name of God the beneficent the merciful
U see that simple Bedouin answered a question that a lot of people are asking with his simple terms that he was able to come with according to the way he lives and the things around him without returning to any book or anything he just said what he did think and believe and actually he makes sense more than a lot of explanations I've heard, it is simple, understandable, reasonable and actually true since u see if u look around u anywhere u'll find that everything was created perfectly that can't possibly be due to random events, the earth has been circling around the sun along with other planets since thousands of years without colliding, all the fascinating physical rules that hold the universe, the marvel the human body is all that and more and more of the miracles of God don't they indicate something to the human brain?
People have forgot about many things and started to take things for granted in their life they take it for granted that they'll wake up everyday in the morning, they'll have food on the table, they'll continue breathing indefinitely and they think that everything will be fine if u plan for ur future and choose the right choices in ur life and it has nothing to do with God or anything that we can't perceive then one day u get in a real trouble which no one can help u with and everyone have just abandoned u and suddenly u remember "Oh there is some one that I have not turned to yet" what u know u've remembered that u have a God that had created u and that u can turn to in the worst situations and u know deep inside that no one would help u but him and then u go "Please God help me just this time I promise that I'll be good and I'll never forget what u have done to me Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease" and there u go after the things is alright with u and all ur troubles r gone away u forget everything about God and u say "it has nothing to do with God I worked hard and I managed to survive all the credit is only conferred to me"
and then u go with the same procedure on and on till one day all is lost and u'll start regretting "only if I had done this or that, only if I hadn't forgotten or pretended to have forgotten".
Monday, September 25, 2006
Happy Ramadan to all
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Slight deviation in course
Monday, September 18, 2006
Honesty
Truthfulness, sincerity, veracity, chastity, fairness, straightforwardness of conduct and adherence to the facts... theses r some of the synonyms of honesty...
Now the real question is what is the meaning of being honest, when should we be honest? , what do we get from all that honesty since we all know that lying has become a part of our lives that we can't invalidate since we preform lying in our day life on regular basis and there r some jobs that lying is the essence of that job and being honest is like losing that job and may be all jobs - it is like ur boss who is a typical ass pass by u and u have to greet him and complement him gently even if u hate his guts- so from all that it seams that being honest is noxious more that being beneficial to one-self so why to bother if that is right?!
Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthful and with fairness, as best one is able. It is related to truth as a value. This includes listening, reasoning and any action in the human repertoire — as well as speaking.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu taught: “Real honesty is being honest about what your possibilities are, what your potentials are. That’s where true honesty lies. It stretches us. It’s not simply admitting where we are - that’s a beginning step, it’s not the end step. So be honest about where you are but also be honest about what your possibilities are. That keeps the challenge of the path always before us"
The answer for the second question about when is the right time to be honest is at all time u should be honest with ur self so know what u want to do and why u want to do it and don't make execuses to mislead ur true intentions just be honest to ur self cause if u can't do that then u won't be able to be honest to anyone else so to urself u havr to be honest at all time with no exceptions and with others as the meaning of honesty implies that u have to be honest as best as one is able and as long u r honest to urself u'll know when...
The answer for the third question is manifested when u think about the following situations:
- u r going to buy a car or may be a used car what is the first and may be the only thing u can think about when u meet the car salesman?
- u've lost something important somewhere and u went looking for it and asking people questions and there was this person that obviously dislikes u is in the scene what is the one idea that will haunt u all the time?
Imagine with me the following:
people r all honest to each other and when u ask someone something u'll get the true answer from him no matter what and u'll have absolutely no doubt about it, how will the world go now when everyone trusts everyone? u'll say what is he talking about it is just a childish dream that will never come true!... well I can't deny that but how can we be sure if we don't try and let's start simple by everyone of us trying to be honest as possible and as they say in an old saying in my country "Start with ur self" and u'll see that u r going to affect all the people that u interact with even if it is very small effect and when they see that u r committed to honesty they'll start thinking about their-selves and that will be just the begining...
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Respect
Veneration, reverence, esteem, regard, all these words represent respect if u look it up in the dictionary but what does it mean to respect and what does it mean to be respected and what will come from all that? and why do they say that u have t respect ur self in order to be respected by others?... these r questions that might cross the persons mind when thinking of respect.
Respect is to to feel or show deferential regard for someone, something, some behavior...etc. so it is like that there is someone u admire and honour whether for his position, behaviour, ethics, or for a good deed that he had done. Respect is showing admiration and regards, not just showing since that the respect does exist at all time else it won't be considered respect but more like fear or blandish and that is far away than respect, the feeling of respect does not come from the must to show respect but more like from the need to show respect.
The feeling of being respected is rather a wonderful feeling it is very nice to feel that there is some one that admires u and look up to but that is a burden more than being a good feeling since if someone respects u for who u r or what u've done u have to maintain that reputation to be worthy of respect and believe me that is very important, Imagine with me a little kid (that kid could be u, me or anybody) that admires and respects someone (a super hero, a movie star,one of his family...etc) and one day he finds out that this person is not at all worthy of respect, imagine the level of devastation that this kid will suffer to love and respect someone for so long only to find out that he is some lowly snide and this is not applicable for kids only it is the same for adults and that is why to manitan that respect is much more important task than getting that respect in the first place.
The last question is the most important one since we always hear that phrase "U have to respect ur self inorder to be respected by others" so how do I respect my self and how in the world the people r going to notice that and respect me? to answer that u have to think a little in a basic way, what does attract u in a person that u admire and why do u admire him? I'm sure that u'll find out that in addition to many qualities that make u admire him a great share belongs to the fact that he is self confident about himself and what he do when he is doing the right thing (for more info refer to the previous post entitled " Rectitude") in other words that he respects himself and his act and that is the answer for the question since when u respect ur self and ignore the others when u r doing the right thing since it is ur opinion that matters not what other people think and with that comes another responsibilty that u have to be 200% sure that u r on the right way since it can be very tricky but if u r then have pride on what u do.
We've talked till now about the respect that u have to some one u admire but what about the people that u don't know? the simple answer to that is to respect everybody unless u find out that they r not worthy of respect cause all people have qualities that is worthy of respect and because u don't see them doesn't mean they don't exist so in order to live in a world of respect we have to apply this rule any where and at any time...
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Benevolence
Benevolence characterizes the true goodness of the mind, the unbiased kindness to do good. It confers thought and regard for the welfare of other people, and finds expression in sympathy and kindly gentleness and compassion, with charitableness and kindness.
Those who lack benevolence have little, if any, thought or regard for others, and a tendency to help oneself, in neglect of others.
That was a typical text book definition for Benevolence and we can put it in simpler words and say benevolence is to love people and be kind to them in a gentle and compassionate way and when I say people I mean all people and in other words all living creatures.
Now the big question pops why should I love all living creatures? What r they to me? And if I love all people that means I would love even the person that is trying to kill me and those who hates me and that is definitely has no meaning !?...
To answer the first and the second questions just close your eyes for a minute and Imagine this scene with me "you r walking in the street and few feet in front of you there is a lady with her two children one she is carrying and the other is walking by her side, suddenly an Ice cream seller car passed by and the walking child start running towards it and was trying to cross the street so he came running towards you and the street was full of cars and his mother screaming....Now Imagine with me these two situations:
a-The child ran towards you and you said it isn't my business and walked your way and then you heard a scream and turned around and the child was hit by a car after that u went on your way saying "it is all his mother's fault she should have hold him with her hand, that poor stupid kid".
now open your eyes and think of how you are feeling now.
b-now for the same scenario just imagine that when the kid ran towards you, you caught him by his hand and said to him "hey be careful now the street is full of cars" and then his mother came in haste towards you and thanked you for your kind action and that you saved her child's life.
now open your eyes and think of how you are feeling now.
If the feeling is the same for you then I can do nothing to help you, for ordinary humans there should be a great difference between the two situations and that is because we have the quality of benevolence inside all of us and even if you say "no I don't have that" but deep inside you can still feel the need to be the good benevolent person even if the accumulations of the bad experiences you've had in your life forbid you of that feeling but believe me it is there deep inside your soul.
The answer for the last question is "WHY NOT" even if the person hates you -that is not enough reason for you to hate him back- he may has a reason to hate you and that reason might be because of a misunderstanding or it is out of jealousy and many other reasons that may make no sense at all but they do make sense to that person so you shouldn't hate him for that but rather pity him for such a shallow perspective and that means at the same time that you should cleanse your-self of such feeling at first before applying them on other people.
All that I'm going to say now is that you should try to love everyone and I know it is not simple with so many people done so many bad and evil things but always remember that hate brings no good at all and only by love and benevolence this world may has a chance and as once said "The bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring" so if you don't know love then you've known nothing of this world...
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Courage
Courage is the quality that we describe by it an army leader who confronted a huge army with only few soldiers to defend something dear to them, a person who risked his life to save a child from drowning, a fireman that rushes into the burning house to save its inhabitants from being burned alive, .....And many other situations that we find ourselves saying "Oh how courageous" and for a split of a second we wish that we were in those people places but the biggest question is "will we react as they did in that situation?" I think that by this question we can really define courage.
Some may say that a man with no fear is a courageous man and only when a person fears nothing then we can say that he's got courage, well as charming it may seems it is absolutely WRONG, you may ask why? If you fear nothing then u may do whatever you want, you can lead an army of ten people against a thousand, you can jump into a lava river to save someone,...Etc.
and if those are not courageous then who in the world is? Well the point is you can never have no fear at all and if you do then you are as they say "a man with no fear is a man with no brain"and I don't mean that you should fear for yourself cause fearing death has never prolonged someone's life not even a day long, as they say "cherish your life but don't fear death" so now one may ask "then what is the world should I fear for then if I'm dead then everything ends there is no me anymore " before saying that you should ask yourself one thing have you ever loved and cherished something more than you life if you haven't then believe me you haven't lived not even a single day and that what you should fear for (your loved ones) and here u can define a new perspective for courage from a person saving a live of a dear one to a fireman risking his life for people whom he doesn't know.
So after all that I think it is safe to say that courage is not having no fear at all but rather confronting these fears in order to do what is right and what you believe in so it is to rush into the jaws of death for what you believe in and you should fear no death if for the right cause.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Rectitude
You can define rectitude with many words such as:
- Moral uprightness; righteousness.
- The quality or condition of being correct in judgment.
- The quality of being straight in the moral behavior.
That what we'll get if we looked up this word in the dictionary but what is it really mean and how can we classify a person to have this quality or not?
well let's talk a bit about this virtue, it is one of the most important virtues for the warrior since this virtue defines all other virtues and as one of the greatest samurai said once "Rectitude is the bone that gives firmness and stature. As without bones the head cannot rest on the top of the spine, nor hands move nor feet stand, so without rectitude neither talent nor learning can make of a human frame a samurai. With it the lack of accomplishments is as nothing".
So what does it really mean to be rectitudinous ? A well-known bushi defines it as a power of resolution: "Rectitude is the power of deciding upon a certain course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering, to die when it is right to die, to strike when to strike is right."
In simple words it is the ability do define what is right and to do it and stand for it even if the price is the persons own life and from that we understand why it is a virtue defining all virtues.
In Japan back in the old days the the epithet Gishi (a man of rectitude) was considered superior to any name that signified mastery of learning or art so being rectitudinous is not only considered as a posession of a virtue but as an achievement also.
Now we reach the more important question how can we define a Gishi (a man of rectitude) and how to become one, well it is simple in words but believe me it is hard in act. in words I can say that you should put every act in your life to a simple scale whether this act is right or wrong you may say that this is a sentence we tell kids in order to be good children and that for adults it is more complicated than that and that the line between right and wrong is rather vague cause as an adult you'll be in certain situation that will oblige you to lie, deceive, and other stuff for the greater good, well to tell the truth as I was writing that exact previous sentence I was like what is this crap I'm writing how come an intelligent human being is not able to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong, that is just absurd to even think of, the strange thing is that we forbid our children from doing or even thinking of these things and why is that? the answer is simpler than you think it is just that we want them to stay pure while in our custody and after that they may got corrupted as they like and that is the story of us all so why do we need to get corrupted the answer for that is cause we choose to be and don't tell me "we have to in order to be able to live in this world" and such crap, it is simply what you choose to be not what the world want you to be so the moment of truth is whenever you decide that it is enough of the lying, deceiving... and it is time to be a Gishi (a man of rectitude) and believe me there is no loss in that not so ever so be true to your self and that is what matters.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Bushido
Bushido meaning "way of the warrior," is a Japanese code of conduct and a way of life, loosely analogous to the European concept of chivalry, Bushido is the code of moral principles which the samurai were required or instructed to observe.
Bushido expanded and formalized the earlier code of the samurai, and stressed frugality, loyalty, mastery of martial arts, and honor to the death. Under the Bushido ideal, if a samurai failed to uphold his honor he could regain it by performing seppuku (ritual suicide).
So here come the question what is that thing that require the samurai to kill them-self if they have to and why are they obliged to live by it if it require them to kill them-self in certain situations since anyone sane enough will say this is not a way of life if it get you to kill your-self for it and what is it for you if you live by that code? I can't say that the answer for that is simple to undersatnd so the answer for this question is in one word it is "FAITH" I don't want to go through a religious stuff ( shinto or Buddhist) I just want to make my point that they believed in that this way of life is how a true warrior should liveand die.
Here are Seven virtues associated with bushido:
Gi – Rectitude
Yū – Courage
Jin – Benevolence
Rei – Respect
Shin– Honesty
Meiyo – Honor
Chū – Loyalty
Others that are sometimes added to these:
Kō - Filial piety
Chi - Wisdom
Tei - Care for the aged
well it is very obvious that these virtues are pretty impressive even for a saint so now it is more clear why the samurai believed in Bushido since it represent everything that a samurai should be endowed with so to hold these qualities and defend them is more important than life it-self for the samurai because these qualities define the samurai and without them they are nothing more than ordinary brawlers with no ethics and principles so in reality by defending these virtues the samurai defend their isism and who they are and isn't that indeed something worthy to give your life for...
I'll end my post by the word of the great Samurai Torii Mototada when he chose to stay behind in his master (Tokugawa Ieyasu) castle to provid him more time to escape.
" It is not the Way of the Warrior to be shamed and avoid death even under circumstances that are not particularly important.....For myself, I am resolved to make a stand within the castle and to die a quick death. It would not take much trouble to break through a part of their numbers and escape, no matter how many tens of thousands of horsemen approached for the attack or by how many columns we were surrounded. But that is not the true meaning of being a warrior, and it would be difficult to account as loyalty. Rather, I will stand off the forces of the entire country here, and...die a resplendent death"
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Ken Shin
It might be a weird word for some of you so I'll explane a little it is a Japanese word and it is formed of two syllables the first (Ken) which means a sword or blade and the second (shin) it means true (these words can come in other meanings) so these two word together means "True sword" and that doesn't mean that this sword is true and there is a fake sowrd no not like that but it means the true representation or meaning of the sword and when a person is called "Ken shin" it means "Sword's Saint".
Some might say Oh God no not another samurai freak that will talk and talk about how the samurai is great and strong and such crap while he is only a lazy ass kid who wish to be a samurai one day spending no effort, well half that is true I wish to be a samurai one day and to tell the truth I wish to be a "Ken shin" but that doesn't mean that I'll go buy a sword and go down the street and slash people and bring some heads home it is not about that no not at all it is about the essence of being a samurai and how to perform that in our daily life so I'm going to talk about the true samurai and the way of learning from the way of the samurai what will be beneficial in our way of life.
and now we arrive to the big question "why samurai?" and that is an important question really why not Medieval knights, Arabian knights, Mongol warriors....and many others, well to tell the truth I like Japanese every thing but aside from that it makes no difference because the honorable warrior will have the same ethics anywhere so you've never seen or heard of a decent warrior killing a child, a woman or an old man and we've never seen or heard about a honorable back stabbing warrior. Also in fighting technique there is no martial art that say that if your opponent's upper gard is invincible you should keep trying the same place, they all say (and believe me I know about that) that you should make a diversion to trick him so in essence there is no difference between them and as I said I like Japan and it is my descision so I say I'll deal with the SAMURAI.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
My first time (don't get me wrong)
Hi this is my first post ever so I hope that you'll like it and if not then what can I say since it is my first post then I better be polite and keep my moth shut.
I like to think that this post is dedicated to someone that is not me but if there is something that I've learned from all these years for living as human then let's say that not everything that you want is what you'll get and that not everything that I say is true (hey but don't think that I'm a big fat lair-at least not fat-) well I think we'll see about that.
what you should expect of this blog-spot that it will provide you with the following stuff:
- Historical informations about some great people.
- General and particular informations about various matial arts.
- Some wisdom from the mouth of great Kyubai ( and most of it will be stupid)
- I'll bore you with some of my great adventures in the Kyubai dream land.
Well I guess it will be a normal blog with some focus on Martial art and some dull remarks from the mouth of certified psycho so I hope you'll enjoy it and
"YOU DON"T NEED TO GO ANYWARE ELSE YOU NEED TO STAY ON THIS BLOG"
and now since you've read this sentence you won'y be able to navigate away from my blog because I'm sure of my talents as a Jedi HA HA HA
have a nice time sitting infront of your PC waiting for someone to free you.....