PeaceWalker Blog

Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. One time I arrived in the middle of the night for a pick up at a building that was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. . Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a minute, then drive away. But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself. So I walked to the door and knocked.  . “Just a minute,” answered a frail, elderly voice.  . I could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80′s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. By her side was a small nylon suitcase.  . The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for

  A samurai who was known for his nobility and honesty, went to visit a Zen monk to ask him for his advice. When  the monk had finished his prayers, the Samurai asked, “Why do I feel so  inferior? I have faced death many times, have defended those who are  weak. Nevertheless, upon seeing you meditating, I felt that my life had  absolutely no importance whatsoever.”   “Wait. Once I have attended to all those who come to see me today, I shall answer you.” – replied the monk.   The  samurai spent the whole day sitting in the temple gardens, watching the  people go in and out in search of advice. He saw how the monk received  them all with the same patience and the same illuminated smile on his  face.   At nightfall, when everyone had gone, he demanded: “Now can you teach me?”   The  master invited him in and lead him to his room. The full moon shone in  the sky, and the atmosphere was one of profound tranquility.   “Do you see the moon, how beautiful it is? It will cr

  The other day someone asked me to break down the attributes of surviving a physical assault. I gave it some thought and believed it might look something like this: 35% Attitude 30% Awareness 20% Skill 10% Physicality 5%   Luck If I had to share the three elements of not acting like a victim it would be these things: 1) Attitude: Don't be part of the problem 2) Awareness: Be here now. 3) Ability to Act: Make the plan, work the plan, change the plan. Keep going! ~Craig

  This third and final installment has to do with moving in tactical space, the last piece to training warrior arts.  . As the story goes, at the Hombu dojo in Japan, Soke Masaaki Hatsumi painted the kanji for “life” on a sheet a paper. Then flipped it over and painted “death” on the back - a poetic distinction of the meager difference between living and dying. Physically, this sheer difference is also the realistic margin of error we’re working within when we train. Too often, I see folks using far too much or too little space, paying no mind to the margin. But if the thickness of paper can mean the difference between life and death, then something like a foot of misused space might as well be the zombie apocalypse. General Douglas MacArthur supposedly said the following after battling the Japanese to reach Australia: It was close, but that's the way it is in war. You win or lose, live or die - and the difference is just an eyelash.   What happens when we lose