Meditations on God

On Passion And Purpose
Passion is a fickle friend who will ultimately disappoint those who rely on it.

Passion comes, goes, and changes focus as it sees fit.

It is selfish, fleeting, and easily swayed when challenges arise.

Passion is an excuse for all manner of immature, irresponsible, and even hurtful decisions.

It overrides what we know to be true about ourselves, about others, and about who we know we are and want to be.

Passion is the enemy of reason, morality, and integrity.

It ignores the laws of cause and effect, and the consequences thereof.

Passion will abandon us once it has been satisfied, leaving only regret, remorse, and shame in its wake.

It is a distraction from the truth.

Passion pulls us away from ourselves, widening the divide between us and our hope for contentment and fulfillment.

It is a liar, a thief, and a trickster, promising to give us more than we have worked for, more than we have earned, and more than we deserve.

Passion, instead of the beacon of hope it claims to be, is better perceived as a warning that, if followed, will cause us to stray from the path of honor, meaning, and purpose.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.

Follow Robert Van Valkenburgh and Holistic Budo on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.

If you found this post helpful or meaningful in some way, please feel free to Share, Comment, and Subscribe below.
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
August 22, 2020

contentment, fulfillment, integrity, meaning, morality, passion, purpose, stoic, stoicism, the path, the way, truth
Being Wrong To Be Right
The only way to be right, consistently, is if we admit when we are wrong and then adjust our beliefs and behaviors.

No one is right about everything.

Expecting others to be is unreasonable and expecting ourselves to be is arrogance.

The choice we must make really comes down to what we do when, not if, we are wrong about something.

If we refuse to see, to admit, and to accept our errors, we are committing ourselves to not only ignorance, but regression.

There is no such thing as neutrality.

If we are not getting better, we are getting worse.

We are either growing, evolving, and improving or we are devolving, regressing, and deteriorating.

Our ability to improve is inextricably linked to our willingness to admit that we were wrong.

We cannot make progress if we do not admit our mistakes, change our minds, and change our actions.

Being right is a fluid state wherein we must act as if we are while remaining open to the possibility that we are not.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.

Follow Robert Van Valkenburgh and Holistic Budo on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.

If you found this post helpful or meaningful in some way, please feel free to Share, Comment, and Subscribe below.
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
August 21, 2020

acceptance, evolution, growth, humility, improvement, progress, right, wrong
A Path Of Errors
“Honor thy error as a hidden intention.“
—Brian Eno, Oblique Strategies

When we do creative work, we will make a lot of mistakes along the way.

At least that is how it will feel.

Our projects will not always come out the way that we wanted.

We will sometimes find it difficult to get our ideas out in a way that also gets our intentions across.

Our finished projects will often be far different than what we imagined we would create.

There will be a lot of false starts, a lot of failed attempts, and a lot of what will feel like errors along the way.

In fact, as we hone our craft, find our voice, and develop our own personal style, this is likely to be the case more often than it is not.

This is all part of the process.

However, something is only an error if we allow to be so, if we perceive it as such, and if we accept that there is nothing to be gained, gleaned, or learned from it.

Errors are only defined as such because they are a divergence from our initial ideas, goals, or intentions.

If it leads us somewhere worthwhile, though, the error becomes the path itself.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.

Follow Robert Van Valkenburgh and Holistic Budo on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.

If you found this post helpful or meaningful in some way, please feel free to Share, Comment, and Subscribe below.
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
August 20, 2020

artist, creation, creative, creativity, errors, mistakes, opportunities, opportunity, the journey, the obstacle is the way, the path, the way
Turn Toward Trouble (A Jiu-Jitsu Lesson)
Our only hope for overcoming our troubles is to turn toward them.

One of the most valuable lessons we learn, as we practice jiu-jitsu, is that our troubles do not go away when we turn our backs on them.

In fact, the more we train, the more we discover that, by turning away from our problems, they actually tend to get much, much worse.

By turning our backs on our troubles, we forfeit nearly all ability to defend ourselves against them, to overcome them, and to be triumphant against them.

At first, it may feel like the only way out, it may feel safer and more comfortable than what is in front of us, but, as time goes on, we learn that turning away actually makes us more vulnerable, more susceptible to danger, and leaves us with little to no recourse.

Turning away in an effort to escape our problems, we come to find, is tantamount to giving up.

No matter how much pressure we are under, no matter how aggressive and persistent the attack, and regardless of how unprepared, outsized, and outmatched we may be, our only hope for overcoming the difficulties we face is to actually face them.

To be sure, this is no easy task, but with enough courage, enough persistence, and enough practice, we eventually learn how to not only survive, but how to thrive in unfavorable, uncomfortable, and even painful situations, and, over time, we even come to embrace them and use them to our advantage.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.

Follow Robert Van Valkenburgh and Holistic Budo on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.

If you found this post helpful or meaningful in some way, please feel free to Share, Comment, and Subscribe below.
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
August 19, 2020

brazilian jiu-jitsu, courage, gracie jiu-jitsu, grappling, jiu-jitsu, life lessons, Martial Arts, persistence, practice, submission grappling, success, vulnerability
Starting At Home (Effecting Change)
We cannot be all things to all people and still be effective.

We all want this world to be a better place for ourselves, our families, and our loved ones.

We want the future to be better than the past.

We want to leave this life knowing that it is better for us having been here.

If we are sincere about these desires, we want to be helpful.

We want to be of service where, when, how, and to whom we can.

But, part of maturing as a human is acknowledging, understanding, and embracing our limitations.

Each and every one of us has limited resources with which we can effect change and we must choose wisely how we use those resources because some of them, especially our time and our attention, are non-renewable.

Once given away, we do not get them back.

We must, therefore, determine for ourselves, often through trial and error, though many attempts and many failures, where the limits of our efficacy, the boundaries of our responsibility, and the edges of our obligation lie.

We have to learn to respect and accept the fact that a lot of people in this world need help, but not they do not all necessarily need our help.

There are many, many problems in this life that need to be solved, but they do not necessarily need to be solved by us.

From day to day, there is an endless number of tasks that need to be completed, but they need not all be completed by us.

As difficult as it is to remember with our modern-day, globalized consciousness, effective, positive change begins at home, however we may define that for ourselves.

Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.

Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.

Follow Robert Van Valkenburgh and Holistic Budo on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.

If you found this post helpful or meaningful in some way, please feel free to Share, Comment, and Subscribe below.
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
August 18, 2020

boundaries, change, choice, community, family, helping, home, leadership, local, priorities, service

On Passion And Purpose

Share this:

Being Wrong To Be Right

Share this:

A Path Of Errors

Share this:

Turn Toward Trouble (A Jiu-Jitsu Lesson)

Share this:

Starting At Home (Effecting Change)

Share this: