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Friday, July 6, 2012

The Path of Budo - Noise


Noise.

Life has been crazy of late. 

Not enough hours in the day. 

Busy at the dojo.

Busy at work.

Busy at home.

Conflicting priorities.

Everything seems rushed. 

Stressed.  All the time.

Tired.  All the time.

Work/Life balance.  Yeah right.

Sound like anyone you know?

I wonder what to do about it?  We’re so driven as a society for the acquisition of material things that I wonder if we’re missing out on some of the really important stuff.  In fact, I know we are.

All this stuff.  The stress. The long hours.  The fatigue.  The bills.  The commitments.  The housework.  The homework.  The overtime. 

A thousand things.


I call it noise.  I’m living a noisy life.  So are many of the people I know.  Most of the people I know.  Rush rush rush.  It’s a drain. 

I bring this up not to complain.  After all, I’ve got it pretty good.  I’m just not sure I’m spending the proper proportion of my time and energy on the things that matter most.


I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately.  I’ve been thinking about living a more minimalist life, quieting my life.  Reducing the noise.

I think from time to time you need to evaluate what is truly important in your life and make sure that you are taking care of those things, first and foremost. 

I’m going to meditate on this for a while.


I suspect this is all part of the path of Budo.

Something to think about.

7 comments:

  1. The obstacles that life throws at us (they are really of our own making, but that's another discussion) serves to help us distinguish between what we really want and what we only think we want.

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  2. The obstacles (which are mostly of our own making anyway, but that's another discussion) serve to help us distinguish what we really want from what we only think we want.

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  3. Rick,

    Ah yes, trapped in the prisons that we build for ourselves. Worthy of it's own post, for sure. Good point. Thanks.

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  4. There is an old samurai maxim that I think can relate to your situation, "To know and to act are one and the same".

    I do hope that both your training and your blog survive the rebalancing.

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  5. I'm sure it's no coincidence but some of the poorest societies in the World e.g some of the remote villages in India for instance, have the happiest people, probably because they have a strong sense of community cohesion. As they say: Less is more....

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  6. Sue,

    Very true. They (who are they?) say that once you have taken care of the necessities, food, shelter etc, money rarely makes people happier. I think I agree but will probably still buy a lottery ticket from time to time.

    The sense of community and family is truly one of the most important things. A rich person with none of that will still be sad. If we're lucky, we get a sense of community cohesion in our martial arts schools. Thanks.

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    ReplyDelete