Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Even a Bad Day can be Rich in Understandings

By Steve Beckow

Posted on December 20, 2023

Punch comes in. Credit: sandovalkarate.net

I’m not sure I can say “all martial arts exercises,” but I can say “all karate exercises” begin with a defensive move, never an offensive move. Always with a block, never with a kick or punch.

A karate student is taught only to use the minimum force needed to subdue the opponent. And never to become emotionally entangled with or triggered by the attacker.

It was always designed to protect the unarmed and defenseless against tyranny, but never to tyrannize.

Come to think of it, in all the fights I was in, I never punched or kicked a single person. I always stopped my punches or kicks an inch in front of their faces and whipped it back. (That was my training.) And I always found that enough to decide the issue.

I wrote about this earlier under the topic, the absence of evil intention. (1)

I’m especially speaking to men, but I wish I were speaking to more and more women because of the security and confidence that knowing how to defend ourselves brings.

***

Interestingly I was just looking at this yesterday, noticing as I shopped that I was still a seething mass of likes and dislikes. Leave me alone. Get out of my way. Etc.

In no way do I demonstrate an absence of evil intention. I’m only up to being honest about not demonstrating it!!!!

Someone else would say, “I’m having a bad day.” But I see it as much more than that.

I have a residual troll in me – I wouldn’t even glorify it by calling it a “bad boy.” I don’t even get up to “bad boy.” Just a grumpy old f@rt.

This being Christmastime, you could call it a domesticated grinch.

And when he comes out from under the bridge, life is one big grumble. Grumble this, grumble that. Gaaawwwddd….. Give me a break.

I watched myself the other day, having a chat with a friend. I was framing one ego-based, self-serving comment after another or else I was grumbling about something. It was one or the other. That’s all that was on the menu.

Oh, and listening. I did a lot more listening, which is more satisfying anyways.

Both kinds of comments were ego-based, survival-oriented. I just didn’t say them. But it took work and commitment to walk by the opportunity to trot out my best lines. Seventy-seven years of saying these meaningless, self-serving comments is hard to break.

Maintaining one’s everyday self – whatever you want to call it – in the positive, non-victimized, creative space takes work. Being a troll, as I’m seeing in my everyday interactions, takes no work. Just let it fly.

I see the troll as a puppet of the ego, one of the many roles or faces the ego may assume in everyday interaction.

***

So, yes, I’ve moved my house from negative territory to positive, but the furniture is still the same.

And there’s nothing to do. No reason to panic. Awareness does it all.

Just keep raising it to awareness and let awareness dissolve it. Or let it go on its own pace and time, without prolonging its stay by wrestling with it.

Note to self: Even a bad day can be rich in understandings.

Footnotes

(1) “The Absence of Evil Intention, the Fullness of Empty Mind,” November 26, 2023, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2023/11/26/the-absence-of-evil-intention-the-fullness-of-empty-mind/

Steve Beckow