Aikido: martial art for defense not harm

(SportEye) Everyone underestimated the amazing art of aikido -- until one real fight turned brutal

He angered sleeping beast...who then harmed him - Show no mercy? He who destroys shall be?

Referee chokes violent pro fighter, disqualified

#Understanding #Mercy #Save #Respect #Humanity #Kindness #Hopecore #Defense #Nonviolence

(Jesse Enkamp) Real Aikido is terrifying

(Fighting wow) Aikido moves are no joke. They can be terrifying and very dangerous!

It's fake? Master vs. Sumo wrestlers

(Aikido Shinburenseijuku) "Aikido is fake?" Can an aikido master

really throw morbidly obese Sumo wrestlers around the dojo?

Self-defense move #martialarts #tsukiclosecombat - Technicalthree-stepthrow #martialarts #mma

Don't block kicks; do this instead #mma #muaythai - Capoeira, Krav Maga, Kung-fu: Which wins?

Headlock back of neck grab self-defense 😱🥋 - 🥋 Traditional kung fu conditioning — 4

Aikido stops knife attack, Berlin, 1924

Aikido (Shinjitai 合気道, Kyūjitai 合氣道, aikidō) is a modern Japanese martial art that is split into many different styles including Aikikai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, and Ki Aikido.

Aikido is now practiced in 140 countries [1]. It was originally developed by Master Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, Eastern philosophy, and Shintoist religious beliefs.

 

Meaning: how not to hurt the opponent

Shihonage throwing opponent using his own for against him in aikido

Westerners Anatoly Kharlampiev and Alfred Karashchuk learn aikido jujitsu in 1957

.

Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba

Aikido Founder Morihei Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves against attacks, while also protecting the attackers from injury [2, 3].

Aikido is often translated as "the way of unifying (with) life energy" [4] or as "the way of harmonious spirit" [5]. According to the founder's philosophy, the primary goal in the practice of aikido is to overcome oneself instead of cultivating violence or aggressiveness [6].

Aikido's founder used the phrase masakatsu agatsu katsuhayabi (正勝吾勝勝速日, "true victory, final victory over oneself, here and now") to refer to this principle [7].

How to put aggressor down without hurting him

Aikido's fundamental principles include: irimi [8] ("entering"), atemi ("strikes") [9, 10], kokyu-ho ("breathing control"), sankaku-ho ("triangular principle"), and tenkan ("turning") movements that redirect the opponent's own attack momentum.

Aikido's curriculum is comprised of various techniques, primarily throws and joint locks [11]. It includes a weapons system encompassing the bokken, tantō, and jō.

Jujitsu (and rifles) in an agricultural school

Aikido derives mainly from the martial art of Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu (a form of jujitsu) but began to diverge from it in the late 1920s, partly due to Ueshiba's involvement with the new Shinto-based Ōmoto-kyō religion (Oomoto). Ueshiba's early students' documents bear the term aiki-jūjutsu [12].

You too can learn to fight (UK)

Aikido as practiced by Ueshiba's senior students take different approaches to the art, depending partly on when they studied with the master.

Aikido today is found all over the world in a number of styles, with broad ranges of interpretation and emphasis. However, they all share techniques formulated by Ueshiba and most have concern for the well-being of the attacker. More

• Jesse Enkamp (video); Editors, Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit UPDATED

Ram Dass: How to keep Heart open in Hell

 

Remember: Be Here Now (Ram Dass)

(After Skool) It's all perfect by Ram Dass (formerly Prof. Richard Alpert, Ph.D., Harvard University)

RAM DASS ("God's Servant or Slave") was born Richard Alpert on April 6, 1931 and lived until December 22, 2019) [1]. He became a hippie and is also known as Baba ["Father"] Ram Dass. He was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga [2], academic psychologist, and writer of Be Here Now, his best-selling [3] 1971 book, which has been described by as "seminal" [4, 5, 6].

Ram Dass perfectly describes "ego death"

Ram Dass (Dr. Richard Alpert)

With the help of his scandalous but loving sex guru Neem Karoli Baba, he helped popularize Eastern spirituality and yoga in the West [7]. He authored or co-authored a dozen more books on spirituality over the next four decades, including Grist for the Mill (1977), How Can I Help? (1985), and Polishing the Mirror (2013).

• Is Ram Dass still here now?  An excerpt from Being Ram Dass (Tricycle)
• The Legacy of Be Here Now (RamDass.org)

Aren't you supposed to be a Jew?

Once when he was teaching with his long hair, beard, and linen garments, someone in the crowd asked him why he dressed like a guru from India when he was really a Jew from the U.S. Without missing a beat, his retort was, "I'm only Jewish on my parents' side." Ha ha ha, exactly!

We are born into a faith, and it's usually rammed down our throats before we have a chance to do anything but swallow. And most of us won't question it. But some of us vomit it up, leave or examine, sometimes even come back to it later.

Harvard professors Dr. Timothy Leary and Dr. Richard Alpert (cool squares rounding out)

Ram Dass, The Guru who studied LSD and wrote The Hippie Bible

 

However, it seems the job and duty of any human to question it, test it, attempt to validate it, argue against it, learn from it, grow from it, reject it all together, or make peace with it. There's a world of spirituality out there to explore. We usually need a floor, a ground, by which to test things. And almost all major religions have a mystic component or sect. That's a place to start.

Parents, what am I to do but follow my heart?

But question we must, and explore we will, and find? That remains to be seen. We are on a spiritual quest. And maybe the whole rest of the world can't be. But if Americans can't, what the F are you calling yourself an "American" for? Life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness is all you were promised -- and you're not even going to pursue it? Truth means nothing? Just taking sides? Just being controlled by your government, schools, and parents, the "powers that be"? Pathetic. Human up, and get searching.

Hell: all the people Ram Dass hated

(My brother Comes) Love everyone and tell the Truth

Ram Dass' brothers and sisters with Baba

Ram Dass was personally and professionally associated with hippie Dr. Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s. Then known as Richard Alpert, he conducted research with Leary on the therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs.

In addition, Alpert assisted Harvard Divinity School graduate student Walter Pahnke in his 1962 "Good Friday Experiment" with theology students, the first controlled, double-blind study of drugs and the mystical experience [8, 9].

While legal at the time (and not yet criminalized), their research was controversial and led to Dr. Leary's and Dr. Alpert's firing from Harvard in 1963.

In 1967, Alpert traveled to India and became "Ram Dass," a disciple of Hindu Guru Neem Karoli Baba, who gave him the name Ram Dass, meaning "Servant of Ram," but usually rendered simply as "Servant of God" for Western audiences.

Hi, I'm Neem Karoli Baba (Sculpture in Ram Dass Library) sculpted to look like sweet Budai

 

In the following years, he co-founded the charitable organizations Seva Foundation and Hanuman Foundation. From the 1970s to the 1990s, he traveled extensively, giving talks and retreats and holding fundraisers for charitable causes.

Remember: Be Here Now (Ram Dass)

In 1997, he had a stroke, which left him with paralysis and expressive aphasia which would be better characterized as "fluent, anomic-like with hesitations and word finding difficulties at the conversational level with grossly intact auditory comprehension for high level, low-context information" [10, 11].

He eventually grew to interpret this event as an act of grace, learning to speak again and continuing to teach and write books. After becoming seriously ill during a trip to India in 2004, he gave up traveling and moved to Maui, Hawaii, where he hosted annual retreats with other spiritual teachers until his death in 2019. More

How to finally let go of painful memories

(Lotus Dharma Path) As we get older, how to let go of painful memories we've carried our whole life | Buddhism

(LDP) As we age, stay away from these 7 people, even close relatives

Getting drunk with Eckhart Tolle

(Eckhart Tolle) What alcohol (liquid ignorance) is really doing to us

Eckhart Tolle shares his awakening experience and the shift in consciousness

Synthetic cannabis; deadly new opioid

(KTLA 5) Southern California youth Bryce Jocquet, 22, from Stevenson Ranch, overdosed on drug

Worse than fentanyl, carfentanil (Wildnil), tranq

Careful, kids. There's a new danger on the block. Nitazenes are a chemically defined class of substances derived from the parent compound nitazene. They were developed in the second half of the 1950s by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Ciba AG as pain-relieving agents.

Big Pharma to blame for making obscene profits?

They are important as centrally active, selective μ-opioid receptor agonists. The high potency of fentanyl (in humans) is matched by only a few nitazenes and surpassed by etonitazene and isotonitazene.

Due to unacceptable side effects, nitazenes were never included in the pharmacopoeia of human or veterinary medicine.

Deadly fake weed Delta-8

Worse living through chemistry: The problematic rise of Delta-8

(Reuters) Thailand to recriminalize cannabis, shocks billion-dollar industry

Since 2019, highly potent nitazenes have proliferated as ″new synthetic opioids″ in the North American and European narcotics markets and as such have become a formative component of the opioid epidemic in the United States. Overdoses of nitazene opioids have led to several hundred documented fatalities [1].

• (Ponto Azul) The first country in Asia (Buddhist Thailand) to legalize cannabis (marijuana, weed, pot)
• 100 incredible moments caught on camera #16 | Best of the Month | VIU
• KTLA 5; Reuters; Crystal Q., CC Liu, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Luigi Mangione not to be charged

Man accused of killing healthcare CEO will NOT face state terrorism-related murder charges, but other charges will stand

People's hero or future model?

Handsome accused killer Luigi Mangione scored a major legal victory today (Tuesday, 9/16/25) as a judge dismissed the two top state charges against him, first-degree murder and second-degree murder, both of which prosecutors had argued were "terrorism" crimes.

Mangione still faces an additional second-degree murder charge, as well as a federal murder charge, in the killing [execution, assassination] of United HealthCare executive Brian Thompson last December.

I'm super smart, so I'll shoot this thief...

The overseer of Mangione’s state criminal case, Judge Gregory Carro, said “the evidence put forth was legally insufficient” for the two terrorism-related charges, in a written decision that was posted during a 15-minute proceeding in Manhattan court on Tuesday.

I got away by bike; my brows brought me down

“Counts one and two, charging [the] defendant with murder in the first degree (in furtherance of an act of terrorism) and murder in the second degree as a crime of terrorism, are dismissed as legally insufficient,” Judge Carro wrote. “The people presented legally sufficient evidence of all other counts, including murder in the second degree (intentional).” More

• 9News: Commentary on dropping state charges

COMMENTARY: "Deny, Defend, Depose"

Luigi Mangione, "the hero of the people"

• Deny Defend Depose, Miami Beach | jbjelloid | Flickr

Kill our TVs before they kill us with PR?

"He's so good looking, he could get away with murder," people say. Deny Defend Depose, the profit-driven insurance companies insist. Are the killers getting more handsome, or is it just me? Sweet, super smart shooters, why? Bonnie and Clyde were popular American figures, Jewish mafiosos who brought down Italian ones by selling them out to the Feds and destroying some families by working with the American government...and we as a population are cheering for more missiles to Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Yemen, Iran, Venezuela...like we just can't keep our missiles in the Pentagon's pants.

Race may play a role in these murder cases, because today the Menendez Brothers, stars of a documentary that almost got them released from prison, lost their bid to retry the case. Now their only hope for release is California Gov. Newsom. (What's in it for him since he intends to run for president and doesn't want to be accused of being "soft on crime"?) And in three years, they can go back to the prison board to petition for release.

• Victoria Bekiempis | The Guardian, Sept. 16, 2025; Ashley Wells, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Monkey Mind: 'Monkey-barring' for dating

'Monkey-barring' is the latest dating trend wreaking havoc on relationships

Without letting go of one, you grab the next.

(FOX 32 Chicago) Sept. 2, 2025: Certified counselor Love McPherson breaks down why some people jump from one relationship to the next [like a monkey grabbing bars, not letting go of one and already grabbing the next or like a frog waiting for a new pad to jump on instead of getting into the water of singlehood and swimming to find a better pad like a decent person] and offers steps for healing and forming healthier connections. "Fear of abandonment" anyone?

• Understanding the "Monkey Mind" in Buddhist Meditation with teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

What is monkey mind? Restlessness, worry...

A Modern Journey to the West

The term "monkey mind" originates from Chinese xīnyuán or Sino-Japanese shin'en (心猿), which literally means "heart-mind monkey."

It is a Buddhist concept that describes a state of restlessness, capriciousness, and lack of control of one's thoughts and emotions, the inability to find soothing stillness, calm, equanimity, poise, or maintain mindfulness.

Others suffer from it, too?

Attempts to suppress tend not to work. It is spurred by caffeine, stimulants, excitotoxins (chemicals), and is frequently followed by a crash, exhaustion, and cyclical dysfunction:

• Worry, sleepless, exhausted, stimulated, foggy, worried, sleepless, exhausted...

This "mind monkey" metaphor is found in Buddhist writings in Zen, Chan, Mind-only, Pure Land, and Shingon and has also been adopted by Taoism, Neo-Confucianism, Chinese poetry, theater, and literature.

Perfectionism is a mental illness.

The expression "monkey mind" commonly appears in two reversible four-character idioms paired with yima or iba (意馬), which means "idea horse."

Chinese xinyuanyima (心猿意馬) and Japanese ibashin'en (意馬心猿) illustrate the interconnectedness of a restless mind and wandering (discursive) thoughts.

The "Monkey King" Sun Wukong in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West is an iconic personification of feeling indecisive and unsettled. More

Punk Rock in SLC (film) and Kalama Sutta

Punk rock made sense to rebels

SLC Punk! is an American comedy-drama film written and directed by James Merendino. The film centers around Steven "Stevo" Levy, a college graduate and punk living in Salt Lake City during the mid-1980s. SLC Punk!, which was released in 1998, was chosen as the opening-night feature at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival [2]. Merendino created the film based on his experience growing up in Mormon-heavy Salt Lake City. Although the film is not autobiographical, Merendino has said that many characters were based on people he knew [3]. More

What's so punk about Buddhism? Well, it is anti-authoritarian, into direct experience rather than intermediary priests. It is about questioning and going "against the stream." Just ask punk Buddhist Noah Levine, his Buddhist dad Stephen Levine, or his long-time teacher Jack Kornfield.

[Mormon] Jesus saves? Buddhism is all lies? - Are you envious of lay people, and do you regret?

Western monk explains his choice of Theravada. - How can we know and be sure? Bodhi

Not until I was sure did I claim to know and see.

It is so sad to hear this last man's words. The same accusations were hurled at the Buddha in his day by Brahmins and doubters. While it may sound reasonable to us as we assume, it is completely wrong. The Buddha DID NOT follow his own thinking or take a "best guess" and the meaning of life. It was about awakening to the Truth he could never have imagined. It has so little to do with "thinking" and so much to do with directly experiencing. But he did not stop there. He verified again and again and taught a path of verification and purification. Buddhism is not a belief system, as much as people try to treat it that way or make a "religion" out of it. It is a path-of-practice, a set of instructions. One must practice (walk) the path to verify it for oneself. There is nothing to believe or accept on blind faith. There is everything to investigate and see for oneself. What is the most "punk" sutra? That would have to be the Kalama Sutta, the Buddha's invitation to self-inquiry. "Don't believe anything I say just because I say it -- or even that of your teachers or books or traditions. But you yourselves must know and see" is the gist of what the Buddha is saying to the Kalamas, a group of people who rightly doubted him as "just another teacher about to exalt himself and condemn others." The Buddha shocked them when he didn't do that but still managed to teach them the Dharma.

How can anyone know anything?

The Buddha gives a standard: Start from what you
already know to be true from your own experience.

In the Kalama Sutta the Buddha lists the criteria by which any sensible person can decide what to accept as true or not: Do not blindly believe religious teachings, he tells the Kalamas, just because they are claimed to be true, or even through the application of various methods or techniques.

Direct knowledge grounded in one's own experience can be called upon [as the deciding factor]. The Buddha advises that the words of the wise should be heeded and taken into account, but he does not propose passive acceptance.

Rather, the Buddha promotes constant questioning and personal testing to identify truths that verifiably reduce one's own disappointment, suffering, and misery (dukkha) and that of others.

The Kalama Sutta (also called the Kesamutti Sutta) states [3]:

• Do not go on what has been acquired by repeated hearing (anussava), nor upon tradition (paramparā), nor upon rumor (itikirā), nor upon what is written in scriptures (piṭaka-sampadāna), nor upon surmising (takka-hetu), nor upon axioms (naya-hetu)... More

Becoming [Mexican] Frida Kahlo (BBC)

New book gathers every single documented Frida Kahlo, including lost works

Goddess and God of Christianity, Catholic icons, a Mary and the Jesus. Which Mary?

Revolutionary Che Guevara, artist Frida Kahlo, and Goddess la Virgin de Guadalupe

• Who's Frida Kahlo?
• The Eyebrow Lady? Isn't she Che Guevara's divine consort?
• We prefer to think of her as the Unibrow Goddess, thank you. What is a "divine consort"?
• Y'know, like, Goddesses are always paired with Gods. There's Krishna and Radha, Shiva and Parvati, the Buddha and Kwan Yin, the Jesus and Mary [Magdelene] Chain, Muhammad and Khadija, and now Che and Frida.
• Oh, yeah, something like that -- iconic -- but the Buddha did not have a wife. Prince Siddhartha (who later became the Buddha) did, and here name was Bimba (though the world remembers her as Yasodhara, which is a description, and by many other names).

BBC: Becoming Frida Kahlo

A divine couple, Frida and Che (modern art)

There are many myths that surround the passionate, radical Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, 1907–1954), the most famous female artist of the 20th century.

This compelling art documentary attempts to set the record straight. It reveals how politics, love, and art shaped Frida as an individual and as an artist. And it shows how she ultimately strived to be free from the control and influence of men.

• WATCH NOW: Becoming Frida Kahlo (BBC Select)
• Watch Becoming Frida Kahlo and more acclaimed documentaries on BBC Select today. Restrictions apply.* Get it on Apple TV Prime Video, The Roku Channel

Becoming Frida Kahlo on BBC Select

Her Story: Frida Kahlo · Mexican feminist icon, artist (She Made History.com)

Episode 1: "Tragedy Strikes"

Frida Kahlo, husband Diego Rivera

When an accident changes Frida’s life, she channels pain and heartache into painting. Frida Kahlo was a rebel from the outset, challenging norms from an early age. As a young woman, she met Mexican Diego Rivera, a superstar artist who would go on to change her. But a tragic accident thwarted Frida’s plans. Left facing a life of pain and injury, she channeled this tragedy and used it as the catalyst for her artistic career.

Episode 2: "Travel and Turmoil"

Kahlo’s potent portrait on US-Mexico border

Now married and living in 1930s America, Frida witnesses the ugly side of capitalism. Frida Kahlo traveled to America alongside her lover Diego Rivera, who’d been commissioned to produce an important mural. But Frida was determined to succeed in her own right. She was shocked by the vast gap between rich and poor in America. Then after losing a child to miscarriage and her mother to illness, she produced some of her most visceral and devastating works.

Episode 3: "The Final Years"

Dangerous politics and turbulent [bisexual] love distort and devastate Frida Kahlo’s world. After a short affair with Leon Trotsky, Frida finally achieved her own solo exhibition in Europe. But all does not go according to plan. She learns that husband Diego Rivera wants a divorce. Pouring her pain into her work, she creates her masterpiece: The Two Fridas. Her last years are spent in agony, while creating some of her most enduring images. Source

• BBC Select 2025; Crystal Quintero, Pfc. Sandoval, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly