A four month old facing the toughest battle! Please check-out Jameson's page!

http://jamesonfund.com/

Obervational Dualism: Relation To Universal Needs

I have been in this position before except I could contain myself then.
My mind is racing faster than the speed of sound. I have been saying my thoughts out loud and it is just now that I am realizing this. The eighty some odd students and professor that I am presenting my media analysis paper to appear saddened and confused by my demeanor as am I. I cannot think straight but my mouth wants to move during this awkward tension. My arguments and points that I wrote earlier seem to be forgotten. I am getting frustrated with myself as my ears start to hear what I interpret as snickers and chuckles around the lecture hall. I act on this insecurity and give every person spectating a cold glare as my awkward presentation turns into a philosophical monologue challenging religion.
I have been in this position before except I could contain myself then.
All of the aggression within the presences around has consumed me. His body language and dialogue is completely different from other times that we have visited. I note this but that revelation soon diminishes when I perceive him invading my personal space both, physically and mentally. I instantly react without thinking and give this fellow a mean gaze. I tell him in not very nice words to get out of my face as his nose is pressed right up against mine similarly to an axe resting in its splitting log. I pull my head back and notice his mouth start to move. I interpret it as laughing within the first upward and downward movement of his jaw. Similarly to the mechanical movements of a swinging axe, I pull my head back and snap my neck down forward.
I have been in this position except I could contain myself then.
I grab a hold of the two with each hand on the others’ shoulders. The clinch is enough to defuse the tension between the two while it has brought the attention on me. We are all friends but right now we have seemed to forget. The oldest of us three shakes it off while the youngest of us three has decided to hold his fists up. She, my significant other, jumps in and grabs me as my mother is yelling for us to stop in the background. I grab my love and tell her: “You need to get back. You might get hurt, either by him or me pushing you away.” She listens and he charges me with his fists in the air. I thought my hands were at their sides but one formed a fist and within a hook motion collided with his right temple.
The students and the professor’s eyes froze as their bodies seemed forced motionless while the two gentlemen’s eyes rolled back when they lost consciousness as gravity pulled their bodies to the ground. My mind is so confused within the moments that follow after. Sorrow then rage, rage then sorrow and eventually the rage is over while all I feel is sadness, alone and fear. “The protagonist never feels this way,” I use to say. The protagonist within a dualistic setting is no different from the antagonist while the words used to describe them are considered antonyms. The idea of “victory” within a physically combative setting is staling similarly to cat piss on a hot sunny day. Nobody wins but everybody is hurt. The dualistic reactions plague the body and mind while an inner seed of suffering grows like lotus.

I have been in this position before but now know that the feelings and emotions I am experiencing root from the beautiful, universal needs of, acceptance, self-respect, to see and be seen, integrity, harmony, order, celebration of life, challenge, clarity, mourning and freedom.

So pa

Patience is an element that every individual from all walks of life possesses or more commonly lacks. Forbearance is a necessity amongst interactions with other people and during the complex processes of reconstructing the self. Descriptions of people with impatient traits generally paint a negative image of the person; descriptions like: “he’s type A” and “she acts just like a bull in a china closet.” It is very evident that patience is a needed ingredient in creating a warm and loving community.
I picture the New Jersey turnpike whenever I hear the word “impatient” because there seems to always be a moment where there is a motorist among the many in one of the four lanes that is sounding off their horn like there is no tomorrow. Within this same moment there are vehicles zooming past at high speeds of up to a hundred miles per hour. In no time, there is an accident and every motorist has to stop but there are some that will try to cut through the miles of traffic through riding within the break-down lane and zigzagging in and out of the four lanes. In this short instance of three sentences we can already see how detrimental a lack of patience can be to those around the impatient. That individual who has decided to engage in beeping their horn has probably put fear in the law abiding driver in front of them. There should be no discomfort for a driver that is following the rules on the road but so commonly this is the case.
At any moment, the speeding vehicles could collide with cars of lower speeds that are changing lanes. During these instances, serious fatalities could occur from just one impatient motorist. Those drivers that decide to create a “shortcut” (more commonly motorcyclists) make it very hard for the rescue crews that have to use the break-down lane to get to the accident scene. This lack of patience could cause the seriously injured death. We see too commonly, serious accidents that occur because there was an impatient individual. This impatience deters a community especially when there are are fatalities to the extent that the impatient person is punished legally while also alienated by the community. All of this is a chain reaction of impatience, the members of the community that decide to say they will not forgive that person who made a mistake out of impatience will live suffering more than the individual that decides to use forbearance to later gain resolution and a general acceptance of the one who caused the accident.
We tend to encounter distressed people that we can visibly see their mind is racing and they are looking for a solution but don’t have the patience to narrow it down correctly. This is a natural thing for every sentient being but when I am amongst this with other people, I say: “Just breathe.” I can think of vast instances where this two-word liner has been so comforting. “So pa,” an eastern terminology describing patience, is applied globally but inhabitants of sub-cultures that are not poverty stricken must learn to possess patience. In that same instance at the gas station, where we are at the back of the line and frustrated with that cashier whom is talking to every patron like there is no tomorrow- we need to keep in mind that there are people of all ages in third world countries that stand and wait for hours, even days to receive food rations and medical treatment in some of the harshest forms of inclement weather.
- Just Breathe -

Martial Arts: A Lifestyle & Spiritual Path

Violence has played a role in the evolutionary processes of human beings since the creation of man as it first played a role when sentient beings were seen as the smaller item of any carnivorous food chain. Humans are an abnormal mammal because we stand on two legs without any natural protection of our vital organs besides a small layer of skin and minimal bone structures that don’t necessarily shield internal organs completely. Through time, our species started to adapt to its surrounding habitat but differently from other animals. A caterpillar builds a cocoon and nestles itself in the structure to later transform into a butterfly within the next season. Human beings have to rely on outside resources in order to survive day to day; instead of making a cocoon, early human beings used their hands with the help of their jointed thumbs to create building structures and clothing while they gripped weapons made from stone and indigenous plants (spears, tomahawks, knives, etc.) to fend off nature’s inclement weather and its hungry mammal inhabitants.
Through time a competitive edge encompassed the human race in what is now known as the “cave man theory.” “The survival of the fittest” tactic we may still see but its real existence lives in landscapes without human intervention, where: the mouse eats the plant; the bird snatches the mouse; the bird is devoured by a tiger; then the tiger is engulfed by a massive snake and so on. It was not long after mankind established its plethora of ethnicities and languages that this theory became altered in a form where peace and happiness was assumed to be possessed not by the physically stronger but by the higher social class. History and the contemporary have seen this aspect repeat like a broken record while caged and enslaved people have worked for generations (in some cases centuries) without being presented with plausible opportunities that could lead to future generations attaining a higher social status.
Today, we most commonly see this survival of the fittest ideology possessed by people that are not in the wilderness with scarce resources among other, very hungry, larger creatures. This aspect lives within the various industries of the world, where corporate companies devour natural resources that are not just crucial to the survival of all of humanity but very detrimental to the existence of ecosystems that flourished before human intervention ever occurred. The state of an inhabitant’s environment undoubtedly affects the inhabitant’s mental and physical attributes. In the late 1990’s, companies that we believed were exemplary in depicting Western culture for the rest of the world to see became dragged under the microscope of media outlets on a global level. Nike and Wal Mart, regularly outsourced in third world countries where there were no working regulations; there were other companies among them using the same practices but it is known that these companies funded the creations of factories that trapped the indigenous in terrible working conditions where they made lower than a hundredth of people in Western culture filling the same positions.
While many people remain enslaved in different parts of the world, social revolts have occurred and “freedom” has been captured by those who were oppressed but it has not come easy or without bloodshed. The successful uprisings in many cases have not involved violence partaken or incited by the movement leaders (Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, etc.) but our instincts derived from a primitive past where we were the weaker item on the food chain tends to cloud the minds of many who have been oppressed. This fact creates a terrorizing scene even in the most holy of places, such as Hunan province, China. The Shaolin temple sets in the mountains of this region and for over 1400 years the Shaolin monks have ventured into Hunan province to collect supplies similarly to how we often see people of Amish descent purchasing supplies that are intended to be rationalized for long periods of time.
As much as we might admire those who dedicated (and in many cases literally gave) their lives to complete nonviolence- the Gandhis and Martin Luther King Jrs. Of the world- there are situations where a shovel cannot do the work required of the hammer.
- Martial Artistic Novelist, Dr. HaHa Lung.

In 600 A.D., Hunan province was plagued with social injustices that were carried out in a fatal, dehumanizing array of mechanisms. The monks of Shaolin were continually robbed and nearly beaten to death by other inhabitants of the village’s pathway. Their spiritual teachings would not deter the attackers away or grant these unethically correct individuals an awakening but more than likely inspired the robbers to hurt and steal from the monks more. The beatings stopped after, Bodhidharma, a monk master arrived from India. Bodhidharma had experienced military battles before converting to Buddhism and he is credited as the creator of Kung-Fu. The monks of Shaolin underwent physical training within the fields of yoga, sparring and grappling carried out by Bodhidharma.
After a short period of time, the monks were no longer perceived as a group of weak individuals and they served as an exemplary basis for sixth century and contemporary martial arts schools to follow. The Shaolin monks’ depiction of martial arts was among many within this time period spanning across the world and they are often falsely credited as the sole creators of martial arts. The techniques taught and executed have been seen in other martial arts while the Shaolin monks were within a culture that already had martial arts influence (since 1600 BCE) and were later taught by a powerful Buddhist figure of Indian descent with a military background. Nearly 2000 miles away, since BCE Japan has acted as a creator in different branches of martial arts. These martial arts span from hand-to-hand combat fighting styles to weaponry fighting but the most commonly known ones today are judo and jujitsu.
The prefix “ju” means gentle while “jitsu” is interpreted as technique and this combines to form the English interpretation “gentle technique.” Jujitsu served as a platform for the lower-classes (representing the majority of 6TH Century Japan) to achieve inner peace through the various traits jujitsu presents its student’s with. There are a plethora of theories that contradict each-other in regards to the incredible growth of jujitsu. The theory that seems the most prevalent is the Sociological Class Theory. “Mastering Jujitsu” writers and professional jujitsu experts, Renzo Gracie and John Danaher, explain the Sociological Class Theory as: “This is the idea that every culture has a class system in place that ranks citizens into various groups based on income, occupation, lineage, and so on. Feudal Japan used an extreme example of this hierarchy, as different sociological classes had different social roles and conditions (Danaher, Gracie. 2003. Mastering Jujitsu. P.7). Self-confidence is derived from the physical and mental exercises within jujitsu’s structure that its students of middle class actively participate in. The psychological and physical gains from martial arts will be described more in depth after the origins of the dance fighting art, Capoeira are explored.
Capoeira is a fluid, rhythmic ritual, with enigmatic and often contradictory characteristics. The gestures of the capoeirista are those of a martial artist, with ritualized but sometimes violent attacks and counter attacks” – Women & Environments Writer, Janelle Joseph.
Eighteenth century, African slaves held captive within Brazilian plantations practiced Capoeira as a way to train each-other how to defend themselves while disguising Capoeira as a dance that the plantation overseers misconstrued it as. This martial art is seen as a form of expression and a challenge to oppression that still lives today in various parts of the world. Capoeira was very influential and it inspired the enslaved to revolt. Eventually, slavery became abolished in 1888 but with this came the illegalization of Capoeira. Capoeira did not become legalized in Brazil until the 1960s (Joseph. 2005. Transgressing Boundaries and Crossing Borders. Women & Environments). Capoeira’s success is incredible, but it and other martial arts should not be misinterpreted as simply, forms of brute force. The various forms of martial arts should be identified as paths that promote inner spirituality, efficient responses and self-confidence that are possible and present in the tense moments of life. Professional Counselor, Marty Mendenhall,explores in his article, “A Radical Approach to Delinquency Reform,” the peace that can be attained by juveniles who are living in distress within a detention center by attending a daily martial arts class.
Mendenhall selected 12 residents of a juvenile detention center ranging from 16-21 years of age to participate in a 12 week program that taught Chuan Fa, a martial art of Buddhist origins. The students were taught meditation and self-defense techniques that promoted a positive inner self. These “juvenile delinquents” developed skills that authoritative figures possessed through their secondary trainings. This fact might sound frightening but this is why I quoted “juvenile delinquents” because these residents wore that dehumanizing label without being presented a skill to remove it. Obviously, there are crimes of different natures where there is an extreme level of suffering by both the inmate and the inmate’s victims. Juvenile training schools are also present in the detention centers but Mendenhall notes that between 50-70% of enrollees commit crimes within a year or two of release (Mendenhall. 2008. A Radical Approach to Delinquency Reform. P.71).
Chuan Fa presents mindful breathing exercises while presenting Buddhist attributes, such as the Four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold Path. The four noble truths are the recognition of suffering, the origination of suffering, the stopping of suffering and a continual path of avoiding moments of suffering experienced in the past. This is a huge core of the Buddhist religion and like all other elements of Buddhism, it can be conjugated to explain all Buddhist teaching as all other aspects can describe the Four Noble Truths. Marty Mendenhall did not want to force his religion on his students so he presented the teachings in a neutral base form. The idea of recognizing suffering has been captured by Western philosophers (Sigmund Freud’s “Pursuit of Happiness”) but it is so controversial that different branches of Buddhism developed after the death of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha).
Mendenhall also explains the psychological disorder called locus of control:
Locus of control is the tendency of individuals to either perceive life’s circumstances as a product of forces outside their control.
I’ve seen this as the thesis of many lost people’s lives and it is sad because it can be countered. Meditation creates an absolute form of mindfulness and it acknowledges the rivers filled full of emotions and impulses. The Noble Eightfold Path plays in our mind naturally but without knowledge of it then there is no possibility of strengthening it. The Noble Eightfold Path is: Right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. Instances where the mind naturally follows the eightfold path are when the mind stops and analyzes a specific thought that is not true or obscene. When asked about the meditation experience, one of Mendenhall’s students responded:
Meditation practice has helped me open up and stay focused. Not only that, it has expanded my awareness and helped me understand other people’s perspectives on life, and that there is not only one way to handle the issues that I have. Ever since I started this practice I feel more at peace with my mind. I’m not trying to fight with myself anymore. I’m learning to help myself (Mendenhall. P. 72).
As a current student of Brazilian jiujitsu (BJJ) I have noticed a remarkable change with my self-confidence and physical strength through both physical and mental exercises within each class. I was an individual who was first inspired with martial arts because of the physical maneuvers and not the soul of the sport. I learned maneuvers from handbooks and people of experience before actually setting foot in any dojo. I learned that the movements I had learned were uncommonly a success while grappling with an even not nearly experienced BJJ student. I still struggle with maintaining discipline but I have a completely different view from when I first started to dabble in martial arts.
As I said earlier, my interest was to learn how to hurt people while, presently I have found BJJ plays the role as a family and a lifestyle that I would like to stay true to. The motivations to stay involved with the sport are achieving an acquired level of discipline, self-refrain, family and eventually gaining higher merits within the belt system. I had a misperceived stereotype of what actually transpires in a martial arts academy and felt more fear before attending. The environment is warm and welcoming where the student develops a strong bond with people that the student had never met until the night’s class. This sense of community is a very powerful feeling.
I’ve found that Mendenhall’s Chuan Fa is very similar to how I train my mind within most moments of life. I am very new to martial arts but I find the literature of martial arts to be very similar to texts of Buddhist and even Western ideologies. The dojo is the only place where you can be on the floor, on your back, shaped like a pretzel, without the fear and attitude that plagues people who find themselves in these situations outside of the dojo. Since beginning my trainings, I have found it much easier to defuse situations where the other person(s) maybe trying to cause harm by listening and noting their awkward movements. Those fellows that are always picking fights at the local tavern have serious mental issues, probably derived from a childhood of being bullied. I find that there is hope in these tense moments where these lost souls might interfere while my significant other and I are participating in “a night on the town.” A few years ago, I may have thought differently and I know that my girlfriend gets really nerved up but all of these emotions rush our mind especially if we have not trained them. A good friend of mine created an organization called “Breathe Peace,” I tend to do some breathing exercises while saying that in my mind and it works.
There is without a doubt that we have control of the path that we are going and with almost anything we can see how we could have had a different result. I look at my past experiences, where I had been beaten to a pulp-like substance and in some cases by more than one person; I know that I had done wrong just as much as those people wronged the innocent. Adopting “Gentle Technique” to my experiences has taken scenes that could have ended with resuscitation or a very long stay at the Intensive Care Unit and replaced them with a sense of reform and acceptance. These trainings can not necessarily change all scary situations, but they create a much more in depth level of understanding where the mind and body can react not in a vigilante sordid way, but that of a brother or a shepherd helping direct the lost.

Brazilian jiujitsu is a Brazilian impression of jujitsu that Helio Gracie presented to the world in his mixed martial arts exhibits in the early 1930s. Gracie just passed away at 96 but he was actively participating in the sport up until the year before he perished. Gracie’s children and their children actively participate in BJJ. Royce Gracie’s infamous pay per view fights against people of all sizes from the nearly seven foot tall 450 pound Akebono to Ultimate Fighting Champion Matt Hughes, has given BJJ more shine and popularity within the global community. BJJ also developed from social class order, where its participants could feel free from all of life’s oppressions in a famine and disease stricken Brazil.
History has shown how martial arts has strengthened the mentally and physically weak while, serving as an outlet for people in distress to become stable. The monks of the Shaolin temple in the sixth century help provide an image of institutionalized martial arts but should not be confused as the “creators” of martial arts. It is very evident that social class structure has played a role in the evolution of martial arts. Marty Mendenhall’s approach to disciplining juvenile delinquents with a Buddhist form of martial arts appears to be more successful than the schooling procedures going on within detention centers across the globe. One size does not fit all but martial arts allow creative expression to form freely as opposed to specific governing structures. We need to fix ourselves before we can enact a policy that will produce peace in the masses. Society could become less violent and filled with peace if martial arts were used as a curriculum in teaching people of all walks of life.

REFERENCES
Danaher, J. Gracie, R. (2003). Mastering Jiujitsu. USA: Human Kinetics.
Janelle, J. (2005). Transgressing Boundaires and Crossing Borders. Women & Environments International Magazine. P.31-33.
Lung, H. (2008). Mind Fist. New York: Kensington Publishing Co. P.1-85
Mendenhall, M. (2008). A Radical Approach to Delinquency Reform. University of Phoenix. Arizona: ReVision Publishing. P.71-76.

Never Forgotten!

Photo Courtesy of:http://www.whsv.com/home/headlines/34935079.html

His dreads hung past his blocky shoulders as the Black and Mild cigar touched his lips during the brief pauses in and out of his monologue. I thought he was much older than he really was but his physique and dialect made him seem older. The former Liberty University tailback was in the prime of his life and I had the privilege to know him as a friend for a short span of the last three months of his young life. Shay’s voice was very deep and I remember always walking into his conversations not knowing or really being able to relate. I was ignorant about the trials and tribulations that African Americans go through in the USA and I believe my lack of knowledge partially is because I’m a native of Maine where it is very sheltered compared to Virginia. I wasn’t use to Shay’s dialect but he was very kind towards me and I could see that he had good intentions.
After a few visits in the designated smoking area at Blue Ridge Community College we started to have good conversations within small increments because it was typically in between classes. I was twenty at the time and I placed Shay as being in his mid-twenties because of his physique and verbal presence. It was surprising to me to learn that Shay Nicholson was only nineteen. I’ve heard different versions of what happened November 9, 2008. That early morning, three members of the despicable gang the Crypts entered a party that Reginald Shay Nicholson was at with two friends, a male and a female. Apparently these members of such a ruthless gang started to terrorize the party through threatening people with gang symbols and ill language.
Shay was a fighter and at this point in his life, he had defeated many odds while using his athleticism and charisma. Calling the confrontation “a brief fight” is most certainly an understatement. Nicholson told the thugs that they were being disrespectful and that they needed to stop. They responded by trying to jump Nicholson. The gang members were upset with the outcome of the brawl and as Shay walked out with his friends; his male friend was jumped from behind while stepping out the door frame of the townhouse apartment. Shay and his female friend were walking down the gravel parking lot at Hunter’s Ridge thinking their friend was behind them but it was eighteen year old Zachary Turner of Charlottesville with a loaded semi-automatic pistol. The bullets were shot off at a high angle to the extent that a round grazed Nicholson’s friend’s scalp. Tragically, Shay wasn’t as fortunate as she was and a bullet entered from the back of his head and remained in lodged inside his sinus cavity. For almost two weeks Reginald Shay Nicholson held on and during this time period his parents quit their jobs to be with their son in his last moments of life.
I was almost a stranger to Shay but his murder impacted my life as it did a vast majority of Shenandoah Valley. Today, I learned that a close friend of Shay’s and mine almost had his life taken away at gunpoint in broad daylight within that very same parking lot, yesterday. It’s almost been three years since Nicholson's tragic murder but there hasn’t been a day where I haven’t thought of his story. It’s sad to fathom that such terrible atrocities are happening in the very spot that this young person was slain. I remember advocating a march against violence in his honor but it never happened. Hopefully something will change in Shenandoah Valley; it’s a beautiful place where there are incredible sentient beings that are being misrepresented by the heinous crimes of primitive gang members. My condolences go out to the friends and family of Reginald Shay Nicholson.