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While on vacation in Japan, I went to visit one of the large statues of Buddha. Photos I took are below:
Click a picture for a nicer, larger image.
For those that might be interested, the statue is around 50 feet tall, 100 tons, 6-foot ears, and was made in the 1200s. You can also go inside it to see the work that went into making it.
While I was there, I was thinking about a fighter's heart, about DREAM, about MMA in general, and while looking at the giant Buddha, I suddenly thought of the Tibetan Buddhist idea of Bardo. My introduction to it was through Trungpa, which is presented below with quotes. I was also thinking of Evan Tanner, so this post is dedicated to him.
"Bardo" can be translated as something like "the space between two islands." Life can be thought of as the space between the islands of pre-birth and death. Death itself is another such space between islands. But also in life itself, death is another such space (i.e. a suicidal time in life, etc.). Basically in life the bardoes represent states of mind, your place along the path of the journey through life, etc. There are six bardos in life which could sort of be pictured as a spiral but instead of circular, it is hexagonal in shape. That is, once you have gone through one bardo, you will go through it again also, and again, but at different points along the journey, where it will appear to you in a slightly different form, etc
In any case, I see modern MMA and basically everything else that "happens" as going through these same stages.
I was thinking how MMA now has generally been about trying to find new techniques or "tools" to surprise and take out the opponent. We have seen new chokes, new guards, and things we never thought would work in MMA - like karate styles and flying kicks and such. At this point, MMA seems to be in the "human" bardo or "human" stage which is described below. He uses "tools" but you could think of "techniques" or "measures" or something similar. This aspect of the human stage could be called "techniques and anti-techniques."
"There is something extra connected with the human realm, a very strange kind of suspicion which comes with passion, and which makes human beings more cunning, shifty and slippery. They can invent all sorts of tools and accentuate them in all sorts of sophisticated ways so as to catch another slippery person, and the other slippery person develops his or her own equipment of anti-tools... Finally, we are unable to accomplish such a big undertaking. We are subject to birth and death. The experience can be born, but it can also die; our discoveries may be impermanent and temporary."
"The human realm is the lowest of the 'Three Higher Realms'. The previous three are known as the Three Lower Realms because you are just going down or stuck somewhere that is either unpleasant or limited. In this realm, unlike the previous three, there is a lot of choice, a lot of flexibility, a lot of creativity. There is promise. You are still earthbound and there are limitations, of course, but you can choose your behavior. You don't just have food, it can be 'cuisine'. You don't just survive, you could have enlightened society. You don't just walk around naked, you can wear fine clothes, and even when you go to the bathroom, there is a special room for it. Indeed, in modern Japan, in some well-to-do establishments, music automatically plays when you sit down on the toilet!"
"How interesting the human realm is! It is constantly changing. The other realms, even the higher ones, are stuck with their body or state of mind for a whole life. A pig, although one of the most intelligent animals around, is always a pig, with only a narrow range of feelings and situations that engender feeling; but a human has lives within lives. Each day we go through so many realms; in our lives, we can change roles and identities in terms of jobs, countries, relationships, styles. Indeed, the human realm is the only one where we can experience all six and keep going around and around."
"The human is sophisticated, intelligent, energetic, witty, and constantly preoccupied with what to do next. Life is filled with choices. The dominant emotion, or atmosphere, is passion: passion for other people, ideas, books, money, travel, food, sex, knowledge, power, insight, science, a better lawn than my neighbour's, a better pillow, a bigger bomb, a better pancake recipe. It is endless."
"Because of all this, the human realm is in many ways regarded as both the most intelligent as well as the most painful. In the human realm we can be aware that we are born, we live for a while and we die. This is because we are aware and can observe that we are always going through changes. In other words, we can compare this and that, and this 'now' from that 'then'. We have discriminating and evaluative memory and intellect so we can understand that life does not go on forever, that things are not as solid as we might first have thought. We are not actually stuck, even though we might be overly driven by our endless curiosity, passion, sense of exploration, intrigue, intelligence, whatever."
"This might not seem like much, and to tell the truth most of us ignore it all the time as if we will live forever or our scientists will find a way for that to happen; but it is important: it means that we have the intelligence and the opportunity to liberate ourselves from being trapped from birth in a particular body or mind-set."
"One of the main characteristics of the human realm is a sense of humor because we can see the many-sided aspects of pain and pleasure. We also see how they go together and therefore get glimpses that the whole thing is a mirage and so our point of view is always changing. That is why Buddhas can teach here, because this is the realm where we can actually wake up out of the dream. Because we see birth, old age, sickness and death we can learn to flavor the tasty food of our changing, multifarious experiences with the spices of wisdom and discipline in order to take full advantage of the precious opportunity that this life affords."
"I am the man, I suffered, I was there."
Click a picture for a nicer, larger image.
For those that might be interested, the statue is around 50 feet tall, 100 tons, 6-foot ears, and was made in the 1200s. You can also go inside it to see the work that went into making it.
While I was there, I was thinking about a fighter's heart, about DREAM, about MMA in general, and while looking at the giant Buddha, I suddenly thought of the Tibetan Buddhist idea of Bardo. My introduction to it was through Trungpa, which is presented below with quotes. I was also thinking of Evan Tanner, so this post is dedicated to him.
"Bardo" can be translated as something like "the space between two islands." Life can be thought of as the space between the islands of pre-birth and death. Death itself is another such space between islands. But also in life itself, death is another such space (i.e. a suicidal time in life, etc.). Basically in life the bardoes represent states of mind, your place along the path of the journey through life, etc. There are six bardos in life which could sort of be pictured as a spiral but instead of circular, it is hexagonal in shape. That is, once you have gone through one bardo, you will go through it again also, and again, but at different points along the journey, where it will appear to you in a slightly different form, etc
In any case, I see modern MMA and basically everything else that "happens" as going through these same stages.
I was thinking how MMA now has generally been about trying to find new techniques or "tools" to surprise and take out the opponent. We have seen new chokes, new guards, and things we never thought would work in MMA - like karate styles and flying kicks and such. At this point, MMA seems to be in the "human" bardo or "human" stage which is described below. He uses "tools" but you could think of "techniques" or "measures" or something similar. This aspect of the human stage could be called "techniques and anti-techniques."
"There is something extra connected with the human realm, a very strange kind of suspicion which comes with passion, and which makes human beings more cunning, shifty and slippery. They can invent all sorts of tools and accentuate them in all sorts of sophisticated ways so as to catch another slippery person, and the other slippery person develops his or her own equipment of anti-tools... Finally, we are unable to accomplish such a big undertaking. We are subject to birth and death. The experience can be born, but it can also die; our discoveries may be impermanent and temporary."
"The human realm is the lowest of the 'Three Higher Realms'. The previous three are known as the Three Lower Realms because you are just going down or stuck somewhere that is either unpleasant or limited. In this realm, unlike the previous three, there is a lot of choice, a lot of flexibility, a lot of creativity. There is promise. You are still earthbound and there are limitations, of course, but you can choose your behavior. You don't just have food, it can be 'cuisine'. You don't just survive, you could have enlightened society. You don't just walk around naked, you can wear fine clothes, and even when you go to the bathroom, there is a special room for it. Indeed, in modern Japan, in some well-to-do establishments, music automatically plays when you sit down on the toilet!"
"How interesting the human realm is! It is constantly changing. The other realms, even the higher ones, are stuck with their body or state of mind for a whole life. A pig, although one of the most intelligent animals around, is always a pig, with only a narrow range of feelings and situations that engender feeling; but a human has lives within lives. Each day we go through so many realms; in our lives, we can change roles and identities in terms of jobs, countries, relationships, styles. Indeed, the human realm is the only one where we can experience all six and keep going around and around."
"The human is sophisticated, intelligent, energetic, witty, and constantly preoccupied with what to do next. Life is filled with choices. The dominant emotion, or atmosphere, is passion: passion for other people, ideas, books, money, travel, food, sex, knowledge, power, insight, science, a better lawn than my neighbour's, a better pillow, a bigger bomb, a better pancake recipe. It is endless."
"Because of all this, the human realm is in many ways regarded as both the most intelligent as well as the most painful. In the human realm we can be aware that we are born, we live for a while and we die. This is because we are aware and can observe that we are always going through changes. In other words, we can compare this and that, and this 'now' from that 'then'. We have discriminating and evaluative memory and intellect so we can understand that life does not go on forever, that things are not as solid as we might first have thought. We are not actually stuck, even though we might be overly driven by our endless curiosity, passion, sense of exploration, intrigue, intelligence, whatever."
"This might not seem like much, and to tell the truth most of us ignore it all the time as if we will live forever or our scientists will find a way for that to happen; but it is important: it means that we have the intelligence and the opportunity to liberate ourselves from being trapped from birth in a particular body or mind-set."
"One of the main characteristics of the human realm is a sense of humor because we can see the many-sided aspects of pain and pleasure. We also see how they go together and therefore get glimpses that the whole thing is a mirage and so our point of view is always changing. That is why Buddhas can teach here, because this is the realm where we can actually wake up out of the dream. Because we see birth, old age, sickness and death we can learn to flavor the tasty food of our changing, multifarious experiences with the spices of wisdom and discipline in order to take full advantage of the precious opportunity that this life affords."
"I am the man, I suffered, I was there."
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