C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  It never fails. It's an utter truth. And no matter how many times we remind ourselves NOT to do it, we do it anyway. So what is "it"?  IT  is our natural tendency to want to make things more complex; it's our natural tendency to slide away  from the simple, and to look for things of more complexity; it is our urge - no matter how many times we tell ourselves that it's going to be different - to NOT  do the basic training that we should  be doing! The "original" power-builder  Pat Casey built his mass and strength using the basics! Why do we do this?  The primary reason is probably nothing more than human nature.  We convince ourselves that we will get better results if only  we do more - more exercises, more sets and reps, more days of training, multiple exercises-per-bodypart, endless variations of different exercises... the list seems to go on and on. I suppose before going much further, I should add a caveat: variation  and vol...

Read on and discover the REAL connection between Zen and the martial arts! Taisen Deshimaru - the great Soto Zen monk of the 20th century - clearly taught that there was a correlation between martial arts and Zen.      There has long been a debate over how much, if any, influence Zen has had on the martial arts.  There has also been interest over the years as to whether or not mutual exchanges occurred between the various martial arts and the various Buddhist philosophies of silent/seated meditation - i.e.: Zen.  Zen is the Japanese translation of the Chinese "Chan", itself a translation of the Indian/Sanskrit word "Dhyana", which simply means "seated meditation" in English.  I write "philosophies" (plural) of Buddhist meditation because there are many "Zens".  Not only is Zen known as Chan in China, but it's also practiced as "Seon" in Korea, and "Thien" in Vietnam.  (Probably the most popular Zen monk in the wo...

 For this latest installment of my semi-regular "Fundamentals" series (inspired by the great IronMan  writer of my youth, Bradley Steiner), I thought it would be a fitting time to discuss a few of the fundamental lessons  that I've learned from lifting, lessons I sure-as-hell wish I'd known when I was first starting out.  So here goes... Matthew Sloan builds his muscle mass through "consistent" training! Lesson #1: Consistency Trumps Everything      The first lesson here is the one that most people intuitively "know" to be correct.  If you want to gain plenty of muscle mass, get stronger, lose bodyfat, or whatever-your-goals, it's not going to happen without consistency.      In other words, showing up  isn't just "half" the battle; it's the foundation that underlies everything else.      Now, since this is the one lesson here that is naturally intuitive, how come folks don't have more success at, well, anything ...

 I have - on and off since my youth - practiced zazen.  But the sort of zazen that I was introduced to as a young man in the Isshin-Ryu dojo of my formative years was (as I have said before elsewhere on this blog) decidedly of a Soto-style nature.  Specifically, it was what is known in Zen as shikantaza , often translated as just sitting.  But "just sitting" can be a lot harder than it sounds. The following is from Japanese-American monk-priest Sokuzan, in a new book of his entitled "108 Meditation Instructions."  I admit to knowing very little about Sokuzan, despite typically being familiar with the American-Buddhist "scene", but what he has to say here has a depth to it that you don't typically encounter in American Zen. Enjoy! Kodo Sawaki sitting in Zazen Why do this kind of meditation (shikantaza) rather than shine or thaktong or samatha and vipassana?  Why not do creation/completion practices or deity yoga visualizations?  Or mantras?  Why no...

 A.K.A: Intermittent Fasting Ain't Nothin' New! Wallace D. Wattles was a popular early New Thought writer I was reading through a book this morning from one of the early New Thought writers in American history - and one of the lesser known ones:  Wallace D. Wattles.  In 1910, three of his "prosperity" books were published.  (And I don't think they were called "prosperity" but rather "New Thought" since the word New Thought had been in usage already  by 1910.)  The three books were entitled, "The Science of Getting Rich," "The Science of Being Well," and "The Science of Being Great."  Of the three, the "Science of Getting Rich" was his most popular, and you can find quite a few copies/versions available from different book dealers. But the book I was reading this morning was The Science of Being Well .  I wanted to share a few quotes from it with you, and to show you how intermittent fasting really is  not...

  The Way of the Samurai Selections and Commentaries from Yamamoto Tsunetomo's  Hagakure , the Classic Exposition on Zen and the Japanese Warrior Code of Bushido courtesy of Wikimedia Part Two: Become as One Who is Permanently Dead "I have found that Bushido means to die.  It means that when one chooses between life and death, one will quickly choose the side of death.  There is nothing else to consider.  One simply makes up one's mind and pushes ahead...  When one has to choose between life and death, there is no time to worry whether one's objective has been achieved.  All of us prefer to live, so we can always find a reason to stay alive.  If one lives as one intends to die, it is cowardice... If one dies when one intended to live, it might be regarded as a vain death or as craziness, but one will not incur any shame.  This is to be a real man of Bushido.  If every morning and every evening one dies anew, one will become as one perman...

  The Way of the Samurai Selections and Commentaries from Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure , the Classic Exposition on Zen and the Japanese Warrior Code of Bushido Portrait of Yamamoto Tsunetomo I. Everything is in the Present Moment "There is nothing outside of the present moment.  Life is nothing but a series of moments following one after another.  If one becomes aware of this fact, there is no reason to be in a hurry and no reason to be searching around for anything.  All one has to do is hold to the present moment and get on with life.  Yet everyone lets the moment slip from their grasp, believing that there is something else over and above the present moment and hunting all around for it, losing their awareness of the here and now.  It takes a lot of practice to learn to hold continually to the present moment and to not let it slip.  However, once one has found this realm, even if one cannot remain in it constantly, it is already the real thing....