Be the best you can be in your world

Towards the end of a short video I saw on the BBC site entitled The art of boxing, I was struck by this quote by the boxer and artist Thaddine Swift Eagle Johnson. An inspiring short video, it looks at her life as a champion boxer and the challenges she faces but also touches on her philosophy and how to look at things when life seems bleak.

She says, "Be the best you can be in your world, or…someone else's world. Be that champion in someone else's world. Smile to someone on the street. You don't know what their day was like. That would make their day."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16880075 

Kung fu piano playing

Not as weird as it sounds. This pianist has developed an idea of continuous music and which necessitates long periods of piano playing sometimes culminating in 19 notes a second being played. Lubomyr Melnyk says that this requires a martial arts mindset: in order to achieve this speed one needs to turn one's body "into water".

"The technique is based on a martial arts, kung fu use of the body and the energy"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16794606

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubomyr_Melnyk

Be water, my friend…..

The Grand Master says, "she works hard, she can do it": Memoir of a female Kuk Sool Won master

BBC News - Iron Butterfly: Memoir of a female Kuk Sool Won master 

Nice little film from the BBC about a young female martial artist who follows her dream.
http://bbc.in/yuFmrc

"As a young girl growing up in 1950s South Korea, Choon Ok Harmon faced a dismal future as the youngest of seven brothers and sisters living off money their mother earned free-diving for shellfish in the ocean."


Also an interview by the publisher of the book and (ghost) writer:

Meditating our way into 2012

What with the last few months being somewhat turbulent I need to stay focused on task when I'm busy, but when I have down time it's important for me to dis-connect from those issues. Meditation is a good way but for me it is hard to stop that buzzing in my brain (and I don't mean this lovely Belgian coffee)!

Possibly here….
http://www.diamondway-buddhism.org/default.asp?col=05&t=centerlist.htm&CenterID=287

New Year's Resolution for us all maybe?

A diet rich in vitamins and fish may protect the brain from ageing while junk food has the opposite effect, research suggests.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16344228

Martial arts movie references in The Matrix

Everything is a remix…check out robgwilson's take on the Matrix film's many martial arts references.
Cool and informative video.


Everything Is A Remix: THE MATRIX from robgwilson.com on Vimeo.


@openculture, @ChristofZuern

Shinto: Japanese belief system

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014qnld

"Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Japanese belief system Shinto."


Mentioned in the discussion:
Kami 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kami


Keyhole tombs, Japan (Kofun)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kofun