The way is in training

Seeking perfection stops life. My all time favorite quote is a Buddhist one. It says "if you meet God on the road, kill him". It reminds us that there is no perfection and if you think you have found it then immediately kill it in yourself for every moment you believe you have attained it is wasted. That is not what life is. Life is always a journey, and its through traversing its perils and dangers that we connect and appreciate the human experience.

I've wanted to create a log of my thoughts on life in a helpful way for years but I always let the idea of perfect delivery stop me. I'll make myself believe that the presentation of such profound ideas must be delivered in a way that its importance is unmistakable and people will seek it out to help change their lives, but only one things creates change. Action.

My thoughts may not be complete here and there, but I have to start putting them down to start. It may seem like I should say something like "the way is in training" to help justify my life choice to own a gym and be a strength coach, but I tell you that I feel put here, and I cannot pin point any moment in my life where one could say "There, that's when he chose to point himself in the direction that put him where he is today." I have been making my way here since my creation and one hundred percent feel I am where the universe wants me. (I feel these next parts are going to jump around all over the place, so I apologize in advance, but in hindsight I think it may come together. Yet I also want to say that like almost anything good I've come across in text throughout my life, it reveals itself to me in layers as I age and acquire more knowledge, so depending on where you are in your life, this may not all make sense until years later assuming you also always continue seeking knowledge) Edgar Cayce is a name I came across glancing through my friends fathers books one day. I believe the name of one book was "Edgar Cayce on ESP". As a teenager, this caught my attention and so after asking the father of my friend about it, he gave me all his Edgar Cayce books. I don't need to go into detail here about them, but the impact here is I walked away with an understanding (belief) that time and life are like a river. If you can imagine a river, let's say maybe 50 feet wide, miles long, and it empties out into the sea. We can envision putting a ping pong ball at the start of the river and that it may take one of nearly infinite paths down the river, yet will ultimately end up in the sea. There are forces in the river that direct the flow of water, giving it almost an order it follows. Things may bounce around, or try to fight the flow, but everything eventually bows to its gentle yet unyielding push and pull. Likewise, we can also see us putting ourselves in that same river, and in fact many of us know what this feels like. You can move around, try to make yourself comfortable, or even choose to go from bank to bank. We also know what it feels like to succumb to the current and "go with the flow". Its only when you choose to go with the flow that you can then have attention to spare to appreciate the scenery around you and take in the experience. This is life too. Sometimes in the moment, definitely in hindsight, can I see how the flow of my life has been directing me to ultimately be where I am. While not always in a state of mind to do so, I do occasionally find myself able to appreciate the lessons being taught to me, being displayed around me, while experiencing my life as well as watching the lives of others unfold. So concerning the quote by Miyamoto Musashi, "The way is in training", I want you to know I don't present it to you as a means to justify my work, but rather that I see the truth in it every day and strongly encourage everyone to let that quote reveal its depth to you almost every day of your life. If you want to envision God as a father, or the universe as your mother, I feel that in training I get a smile from my creator appreciating that with each session I am doing exactly what a person is supposed to do with our time here on earth. Being aware of the beauty that lies in life, struggle, overcoming, pain, elation, frustration, completion, regret, preparedness, love, and all the other emotions you can experience in training. Training opens life up to me. I live to train, and train to live, and when asked at judgement what did I do with my life I will be grateful and confident that I can say I trained. In training I sought God, myself, purpose, and the meaning of life. In training I am able to give my life meaning by helping others and creating the potential to help others. Training not only helped create me, but it created life around me. Through training, creation was able to work through me and that alone put me in harmony with my place in the universe and that much closer to walking with God. Musashi may be quoted for it, I may be saying it to you, but it emanates from the universe itself, the way is in training.

Musashi also has another quote. "Through one thing, know a thousand". Remember this as you train. Training is revealing life to you. Through this one thing, you too can know many others. Keep yourself open, feel the flow of the river, enjoy the ride. Your only task is to observe, appreciate, and learn.