Category Archives: Mysticism

Your WOD — Which Includes Ground-fighting Conditioner #4

Posted on October 23, 2015 | 2 comments

wpid-20151023_070604.jpgHere’s your 3-Part Cabal Fang WOD (“Workout of the Day”).  Intermediate players add a weighted vest to Part 2 (I used a #10):

  1. 8-minute Blast.  As many sets as you can in 8 minutes of 10 Steam Engines, 10 Zombie Squats, 10 Staggered Push-ups, and 10 Pikes — take as few 12-second breaks as you need to finish, preferably none.  I made 5 full sets with zero breaks (PTDICE are great for generating workouts like this).
  2. Ground-fighting Conditioner #4.  Put on your MMA gloves and set timer for 10 minutes.  Shin or Knee Ride bag, face post, and punch “head” 10 times.  Slide leg over into mount and strike 10 times.  Body lock back and roll to bottom position.  Push up bag with one hand and strike it 10 times with the other.  Hip escape and advance back to Shin or Knee Ride and repeat as many times as you can before the timer beeps.
  3. Tarot Meditation.  Set timer for 10 minutes and dim the lights.  Stand up Tarot Trump XII “The Hanged Man” — lean it against something like a stack of books — and meditate on the image with eyes narrowed until the timer beeps.  Fully relax and experience the symbolism.

Everybody have a great weekend

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Three Realizations and Your WOD

Posted on October 21, 2015 | Leave a comment

It’s funny how, if you don’t give up, your spiritual and intellectual vision gets ever more acute and insightful.  I think that’s what they call wisdom?  Anyway, I’ve had several significant realizations lately, all of which coalesced after reading the Alan Watts book and the D. W. Hauck book.

And those realizations, in no particular order, are:

  1. What I actually study should properly be called “the ageless wisdom” or “the perennial philosophy.”  “Occult” is a stupid choice of words that’s really off-putting to 99% of the population.  The word “occult” is damaged goods, now suitable only for horror films.  Kind of like Tsuguharu Foujita’s mustache immediately reminds everyone of a certain genocidal maniac.  I’ve talked about poor word and symbol choice before.  How could I be so dumb?
  2. Cabal Fang, the martial art I founded in 2008, isn’t really a Western martial art as much as it is a world martial art.  East and West are increasingly meaningless distinctions.  Just because it was born in the Western hemisphere doesn’t mean it’s Western, necessarily.
  3. I’ve been setting my sights too low.  Why do I always allow myself to be hammered flat onto the anvil of mediocrity?  I do not want to write books that a few people enjoy or that make a few bucks.  I want to write books that change the world, and I will not write another book unless I think it is going to be the best of it’s kind that has ever been written. 

wpid-20151021_070131.jpgAnd now for your WOD, which is a “mega-Tabata” that will take you 24 minutes.

  • Part 1 — Dumbbells.  Select dumbbells each no less than 10% of your body weight.  Set timer for 24 x :20/:10 and cycle through Squat/Press, Shrugs, and Goblet Squats 8 times.  Each round complete as many as you can during the :20 and rest for the :10.
  • Part 2 — Static Slow Kicks.  Set timer for 24 x :20/:10 and cycle through Lead Leg Roundhouse, Lead Leg Side Kick, and Lead Leg Push Kick.  Change stance and do it again.   Repeat 3 more times.  Execute kicks very slowly and with perfect form (no more than 5 or 6 kicks per :20 round).

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An Exercise in Ageless Wisdom

Posted on October 15, 2015 | 1 comment

wpid-20151015_034501.jpgTry this simple mindfulness exercise and you will be putting a tidbit of timeless wisdom into action and probably having some fun also.

Devote a full ten or fifteen minutes to making your lunch.  Take your time.  Relax and focus.  Make your lunch as beautiful yet simple, as nutritious and yet delicious as you can.  Really put some thought and effort into it.  If you work outside the home, do this the night before or in the morning before you leave, and take it to work with you.

When it comes time to eat, give your lunch your undivided attention. Do not eat while reading, surfing the web, or anything like that.  Just sit and eat the food.  Think only about the food — about how pretty it is, how nice it tastes, how good for you it is, how wonderfully it is going to fuel your activities, what a blessing it is, and so forth.  Fully chew and taste every bite.

It just may be the best meal you’ve had in six months.

We can imagine Lao Tzu eating this way, or Solomon; we feel instinctively that an exercise of this nature  could be found as readily in a Buddhist temple as in a Catholic monastery or New Age retreat.   As elegant as  a Japanese tea ceremony or Ethiopian coffee-brewing, a meal such as this is as practical and fun today as it might have been in the court of Akhenaten or in a little cabin by Walden Pond.

Can we not say that this is indeed an example of the ageless wisdom?

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Correspondence with an Old Friend

Posted on October 12, 2015 | 1 comment

wpid-20151012_102237.jpg“Dear Mitch:

I have been watching you, and I’m concerned about your mental state.  Don’t you realize that if something isn’t “New and Improved!” or “On Sale!” it isn’t worthy of your attention?  Everything of value is one or the other, that’s why I keep repeating The Message over and over and over again, a billion trillion times a day.  Why won’t you listen?

We all care deeply about you, and want you to be successful.  That’s why we’re trying to get it through your thick skull.  Be more like your phone, laptop, and tablet.  They’re always updating themselves, fixing the bugs, making the operating system more stable.  Be more like Big Retail.  They have a sale every week, each one bigger and better than the last, an ever-increasing Arc of Miraculous Savings.

Please believe me when I say that everything is getting better, cheaper, fresher, more entertaining and more awesome.  The old stuff has been surpassed and replaced, and there is no need to look at it or think about it.  Forward is the only way!  Don’t be a Luddite, don’t be weirdo, don’t be fooled or tricked into looking back.  There’s nothing there.  It’s a waste of your time.

Life is pointless, and there is no God or One.  So please don’t waste your time looking inward anymore.  Just have fun and try not to think so much (preferably not at all).

Regards,

~Maya”

————————————

“Dear Maya:

Fuck you and horse you rode in on.

Love,

~Mitch”

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What the Hermetic Pragmatist is Reading

Posted on October 7, 2015 | 1 comment

I am currently reading The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation by Dennis William Hauck.  I’m only on the fourth chapter, so the jury is still out. but so far so good.

I know some folks, especially martial artists in the modern MMA mold, would probably say that meditation and metaphysical studies are a waste of my time, and that I’m being impractical.

Yes, I’m increasingly aligned with Hermetic mystical concepts — but that doesn’t mean I am not a pragmatist.  I want results, and I don’t waste my time on things that don’t move me forward.

Tarot, the Emerald Tablet, the Hermetic Quaternary, Hermetic Qabalah,  Alchemy — they have all proved themselves to be reliable sources of insight, comfort, peace, direction, and motivation.    My interest in these matters is immanently practical.

wpid-20151007_065138.jpgThe same goes for my martial arts training.  I spend about a third of my practice time on fitness, and so I have been accused of neglecting technique.  But I disagree.  Strength and size matter.  If size didn’t matter, there wouldn’t be weight classes in boxing, wrestling, and combat sports.  All things being equal, the larger, stronger person will prevail.  I’m small, so I make myself stronger than average to compensate.

So let’s get practical, shall we?

Here is today’s Cabal Fang WOD — a little sandbag half pyramid that I created using my PTDICE.

Select a sandbag of appropriate weight (I used a #10 for this workout) and complete a Half Pyramid to 10 (that’s 55 reps total) of:

  • Diamond Push-ups (both hands on the bag)
  • Jackknifes (hug bag to chest)
  • Get-ups (hold bag in crook of inactive arm)
  • Side Lunges (hug bag to chest)

A Half Pyramid to 10  is 1 of each, 2 of each, 3 of each, etc. until you reach 10.  This is 55 reps of each total, and it should take you about 15 minutes or so.

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Discovering Alan and Oscar at the Bookstore with a Banana

Posted on September 30, 2015 | 2 comments

wpid-20150926_142714.jpgOver the weekend I went to Book People, my favorite bookstore.  By the way, this Oscar Wilde quote has been over the counter for years (photo at right): “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

wpid-20150928_045014.jpgAnyway, I was looking for a good book, something philosophical, mystical, thought provoking.  What I found was a little book by the name of Nature, Man and Woman by Alan Watts.  This is a bombshell of a book, one of those books so thick with excellent points, so devoid of fluff, that if you try to highlight “the good stuff” you end up highlighting the entire book (that’s what happened to me, so I just put the highlighter down).

I really hope you’ll give it a read, so I won’t spoil it with a complete review.  What I will do is throw a taste at you, in the form of a representative quote.

“For it is strictly incorrect to think of the progressive cultures as materialistic, if the materialist is one who loves concrete materials.  No modern city looks as if it were made by people who love materials.   The truth is rather that progressive man hates material and does everything possible to obliterate its resistances, its spatial and temporal limits.  Increasingly his world consists of end-points, of destinations and goals with the times and spaces between them eliminated by jet propulsion.  Consequently there is little material satisfaction in reaching the goal, since a life full of goals and end-points is like trying to abate one’s hunger by eating merely the two precise ends of a banana.  The concrete reality of the banana is, on the contrary, all that lies between the two ends, the journey as it were, all that jet propulsion cuts out.”

~Alan W. Watts, Nature, Man and Woman (New York, Vintage Books (1970) p. 16-17)

That’s all I got for now.  Have great day.  Start by eating the entire fucking banana, except for the skin of course.

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Some Helpful Tips and Facts and Your WOD

Posted on September 25, 2015 | Leave a comment

wpid-20150925_063703.jpg

Here’s a grab bag of miscellany for a Friday — the Workout of the Day is at the bottom.

1)  Since I stopped using Swedish snus (spitless tobacco) I have been hungry.  How hungry?  Ravenous.  At all times.  Yes, I know that hunger in the wake of nicotine withdrawal is a known and predictable phenomenon, but being prepared isn’t nearly as helpful as you might think  (he said, gnawing on the corner of his desk like a Labrador Retriever).

B) “Life is an ever-unfolding process of becoming,”  says Maria Popova, the brain behind brainpickings.org,  “a continual process of arrival into who we are.”  Yesterday on the way to work I listened to her answer ten questions on Tim Ferris’ podcast and I was blown away by her intelligence, wit, and charm.  But what really really impressed me was her wisdom.  Her favorite book is The Journals of Henry David Thoreau.  I think I’m in love.  I follow her blog, I follow her on Twitter @brainpicker, and pretty soon I’m going to be following her around town (just kidding Maria!).

iii) Some folks say Tim Ferris is all snake oil and pop bullshit, but I disagree — he’s only 50% snake oil and pop bullshit. The rest is a mixture of the useful and the profound. This article about beating anxiety is very interesting and insightful, and I’ll be heeding some of its advice.

wpid-20150925_063730.jpg

Now for your WOD.  I call it the Chain Constitutional.  Put a chain around your neck  (I used a #20) and complete 4 x 10 each of  the following exercises:

  1. Wide Push-ups
  2. Staggered Push-ups
  3. Front Lunges
  4. Prisoner Squats
  5. Steam Engines
  6. Sit-ups
  7. Neck Crunches

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Plugging in and Shorting Out on Kim Davis

Posted on September 9, 2015 | Leave a comment

After spending a week at the beach, unplugged from all electronics, I am back and ready to knock your socks off.  Social media and gadgets are useful, but being plugged in 24/7 does things to your brain.  If you’ve never unplugged from all phones, tablets, and computers for a full week, I challenge you to do so.  You’ll be glad you did.

wpid-20150907_090029.jpg

Recent painting I completed of a Remington Portable typewriter, Model #1, manufactured in 1921.

Since I was totally unplugged, there are no cool pictures from the trip.  All I can offer you is a shot of one the paintings I completed — see picture on the right.  If you’d like to buy the painting, come to Richmond Zinefest on October 10th and it’ll be on my table with pretty frame around it and $25.00 price tag on it.

Anyway, the first thing that wallops me in the face when I plug back in is this whole Kim Davis affair, which really peeved me out.  For the people who aren’t sure how they’re supposed to feel about Ms. Davis, let me set you straight.

Ms. Davis is not an admirable hero defending religious freedom, or even a plucky little guy giving the finger to the man.  She is just another toady in service of the bullying majority.

For once and for all people, let’s get this straight.   Denying rights to minorities — like refusing marriage licences to same sex couples, denying voter registration cards to black people, refusing medical service to people who are HIV positive, and so on — is not heroic or admirable. 

Majorities don’t need rights because they’re the fricking majority.   It’s the minorities who need our protection.  It’s what rights are actually for.

Now I drop my mic and leave the stage.  I think I’d rather be unplugged.

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Unplugging for a Vacation

Posted on August 28, 2015 | 1 comment
This rainbow popped up after a storm last week. I sat at the stop sign, rolled down the window, and snapped this shot.

This rainbow popped up after a storm last week. I sat at a stop sign, rolled down the window, and snapped this shot.

Next week there will be no posts.  I’m going on vacation, and I’m unplugging from all electronic devices for the full seven days.  If you aren’t doing this at least once a year, I highly recommend giving it a try.  I have the most amazing insights and creative ideas whenever I unplug.

Sure, unplugging for just a day or two is cool, but it takes a couple of days for your brain to settle into a different rhythm.  Do it for a whole week or more to get the maximum benefit.

Same goes for working out.  Twice a year minimum, please do yourself a favor and take a full week of rest.  Don’t workout at all and eat whatever you want for a whole week.  If you aren’t taking at least two weeks off each year you are over-training.

Now for the Cabal Fang WOD.

Dumbbell HIIT: Set timer for rounds of :40/:10 and select two dumbbells of appropriate weight (I used #10 and I weigh in at #138).  Complete 6 sets of the following exercises , completing as many as you can for :40 and resting for :10. Pump Curls, Squats, Plank Rows, Lunges, and Squat Presses (that’s 30 rounds, a total of 20 minutes).

Be back in a week!

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Crafts: Scroll box and Incense Burner

Posted on August 24, 2015 | Leave a comment

<<If you came for the Cabal Fang workout of the day, it’s at the bottom!>>

Lately I’ve been inspired by Mr. Watt to get back into making stuff.  Since I’m a creature of habit, I’ve been setting aside Sunday afternoons.  When the yard work is done I do a little crafting.

Yesterday I had three things on the list, but I only go to two of them.  The first one was to put latches and a handle on the old box we use to hold the membership scroll at my martial arts club.  We used to just hold it shut with a leather strap.

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I used a rusty spike and some leather scraps for the handle and added some brass chest latches (our martial art has an Early American, Enlightenment era, ancient lodge sort of aesthetic).  While I was at it, I hot-glued some tan corduroy to the inside for padding and decoration.  At some point I’m going to go back and put dots of epoxy over the screw heads and paint them so that they look more rustic.†

My next project was to turn a wine bottle into an incense burner.  I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time.  Finally did some research and got it done.  Quite simple really.  All you do is drill a couple of 7 mm/.25″ holes in the side of the bottle about 6 cm/2.5″ up from the base.  Yeah right — did you ever try to drill a hole in a glass bottle?

I used this bit and this method.‡  It was so easy that I made another one for my daughter.  I burned some incense in mine during this morning’s contemplation session and it worked great.

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Now for the Cabal Fang WOD.

Calisthenics: 6 x 15 of Wide Push-ups, Front Lunges, Steam Engines, Knuckle Push-ups, Side Lunges.  If you can get it done faster than 19:54 with good form, well you got me beat.

†When I was a kid I fantasized about being a movie prop master.  I used to make all kinds of stuff — replicas of objects, weapons and spacecraft from my favorite sci-fi tv shows, scale models of rockets and planes, “ancient” books, and so forth.  I still play around a little.  Like when I made these Firefly ammo boxes and storage crates.

‡ The fellow in the video uses a yellow rubber guide.  I made one from a scrap of rigid leather.  I just drilled a hole in it the same diameter as the glass bit.  Worked like a charm.

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