Standing in the face of fear

Fear. Find it. Find what you are afraid of and run towards it. Embrace it and make it your friend.

Spiritual Anger

Anger. It is a difficult thing to deal with, and it has no easy answers. That is why I feel the need to talk about it. The question is do people that are "spiritual" and try to be loving ever get angry? I think that the answer is yes yes and yes...of course. We all get angry, and should get angry...anger is a healthy emotion and is telling us something. I think the question is not so much do spiritual people get angry but how they deal with anger. The past few weeks I have been feeling quite a bit of anger, which is uncommon for me. Sometimes it's at certain people or situations, sometimes it's in the middle of the night for no reason at all. And, I've been thinking to myself good lord! What is all this about? Anger has many messages, but I think that its biggest message is "hey, something is not right here, and my boundaries are being crossed!."

Boundaries can be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual...so it can be a sticky thing to uncover, and sometimes it is anger at yourself for not doing something or being something and sometimes its anger at others. SO with anything just look at it first, ask yourself what is going on that is crossing your boundaries. Then, address it. If it is something that is within you then make the changes that you need to get to a place where you are not angry, and if it is with someone else then address it with them. But, truthfully, it is best done in a simple and direct manner that doesn't need any type of outburst or abuse. The Dali Lama has one of my favorite quotes on anger, when asked if he ever gets angry he said "yes, of course" and they said, "well, what do you do" and he responded..."I watch it come, I watch it go." This is so wise because first he is taking a moment to look at it. Second, he is not taking action from a place of anger. I am sure that if something needs to be said or done he does it, he just doesn't do it from a place of anger. I think that anger used justly as an Urban Samurai might do, can be used for personal and planetary power, or what one might call "a fire in the belly." Because I am still riding the words of MLK from last week I shall end with another quote of his. But, to conclude, listen to your anger...learn from it...allow it to be transformed into truthful powerful action of growth and love.

"One of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites—polar opposites—so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love…. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

To Blog or not to Blog

Anyone that knows me knows I avoid technology at all costs. Phones, internet, texts, face book, all of it. I'd rather be running through some field talking to birds and squirrels. And now I start a blog... something that always seemed totally self indulgent and basically a waste of time. So why? because after some thought I think it is what an urban samurai would do. Attempting to connect with others for a divine and profound purpose in a modern way... this is my intent anyway...we can't avoid the way the world is changing, nor should we, but we can seek to use it for common good...use it for a specific intention...and to hope in some small way my thoughts and others thoughts may help each other to live beautiful fulfilling lives...

ps. i tried to post this earlier and instead it ended up as comments to my own posts, case in point, I'm still failing forward as I learn about communication over technology.

Happy MLK...

Riding on the back of the celebration of Martin Luther King's Birthday yesterday...I would like to talk about a quote of his that I love....

The means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I find this to be particularly pertinent when seeking to do any form of service in the modern world. So often people start a business, school, politics, art, with the intension of doing good work, making a contribution only to find it harder and harder to make those choices on a daily basis. Little things happen every day that challenge our heart, our purity, and our integrity, and sometimes we think well, if I just do this now then I will be able to do all the good stuff I want to do down the line and make up for it, but it never works that way. Never. When you cut little corners in any fashion, or do things that you know are not true to your heart along your path, they are like chinks in a chain that becomes weaker and weaker with time. I have had this challenge put in front of me several time with prestigious jobs where I had great connections, and great money, and thought if I just work here a little while I can build up enough assets to do the type of philanthropic work I want to do, only to realize that every day in some small way I would be compromising my heart and my values and also not strengthening my heart and my values by being around a community that had a similar vision. We must fight the good fight all the time, every day, and the small things are as important if not more important then the big things because they create your center, your strength, and your character. The former eats away at your soul and slowly pulls your vision off your original path, and the ladder build momentum slowly but surely as you find strength and confidence from fighting the good fight every day and hopefully finding kindred spirits along the way that and willing to fight that fight with you. A small group of clear and determined individuals with pure and untainted hearts are in fact the only people that have ever really done anything of value in this world. To give you one more glorious quote of support from MR. MLK...don't worry...have faith that truth does prevail.

Fear knocked at the door, faith answered, no one was there.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happy Birthday Mr. Martin Luther King Jr.

What is a spiritual life anyway?

That is the question...I don't know for certain but I know what I feel. I think it has something to do with living a life that is congruent with serving a purpose that is larger then your individual self. Doing what you know to be right, true, and loving in all circumstances especially when it is difficult. Not thinking about how what you do will percieved by others in terms of ego gradification, but only in terms of if you are making a greater contribution to society. It is allowing your small self to be swallowed by your larger self to do something profound, unique, and noble. We all know those examples Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jesus, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa and many others. It is easy to be supports of them now, at a distance, when everyone agrees what they did was needed, but it is always so much harder to be a person in those times and those situations. Gandhi, MLK, and Jesus were all killed for starters, Mandela spent 17 years in prison with horrific torture and Mother Theresa spent much of her life in what she called a spiritual darkness not knowing if god was still with her while she continued her work in the poorest slums in India and near starvation and sickness herself due to lack of provisions.

So this begs the question what is an Urban Samurai? I believe it is someone who seeks to live for a more noble cause regardless of the circumstances and the cost. I don't think that we warriors must always suffer, that is not my point, but to be noted that sometimes you do suffer when you fight for something outside the norm...but the suffering is far less great then knowing that you are not doing what you need to do. What you are called to do. If you are making progress and pushing for change that makes people uncomfortable because it threatens their self and what they know to be true. So check yourself, make sure you are living the big dream and not the small dream...and that every action is congruent with the larger self of love and transformation.

The Home Needs Fixin

I left the castle I lived in for three years in the Hollywood Hills last month. It was a magical place, and I left for a variety of different reasons, but one of them was that the house needed work done on it and the army of construction workers and insane sounds were starting to disturb my peace...so I moved into a lovely home in Topanga Canyon, quiet, peaceful, near the ocean, and hiking. It was perfect...until the home owners decided that this house needed work done. The men raced in, the house was wrapped in plastic, there were no doors on my room, new floors were being put in. It was basically my worse nightmare, and ten times worse then the construction I had left at the castle. I stayed with friends for a few days, and cried for what was wrong with me that a team of construction workers were following me where ever I went. Then I remembered a story I was told by a monk when I was living at a monastery in Mount Shasta. He told me when he first joined the monastery everyday the master he was training under asked him to change rooms, it drove him crazy especially because he didn't ask any of the other monks to move....just when he would start to get settled in the master would kindly ask him to move to another location. He kept doing it so finally the young monk began to tolerate it, then he accepted it, then he didn't mind it, then he even looked forward to what room he would get next. Then the master decided he that he didn't need to change rooms anymore because it no longer bothered him. Ahhh...

I came home the other day and looked at the nice new floors, and rocked out to the loud music being blasted by my new friends that were doing construction, asked questions about how they did what they were doing, and joked that we could check our email while sitting on the toilet because all the computer stuff was sitting in the bathroom. What a time saver! Alas, maybe the homes did need fixin but I think the real fixin was the home on the inside. Find the center in the storm, find peace in chaos. That's the real task.

It is easy to be at peace when there is nothing to disturb your peace, it is hard to be at peace when a team of people are there disturbing it. But, that is the way of the Urban Samurai... ; )

Urban Samurai Life

This is the beginning...the beginning of what I'm not exactly sure...

but something spectacular is happening I can feel it urban Samurai.