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A theory that was presented in one of the books I am reading, i.e., I read veroushily throughout the day, both things on work and to relax the mind things I like as subject such as martial arts, karate and about conflict and violence of humans. In the quote I provide below the author addresses the very things we as humans seem to “need” to be content toward our selves and our lives.
The order is just a way to present the things and I suspect the order of need and priority is a matter of individual need priorities, etc. I feel that my self must be as authentic and true to me as possible and then as a very close second how the tribe perceives me as authentic then I move to competency. Competency covers a wide range of human traits such as honor, understanding and humility to name at least three of many. As to connections to others that one is a bit tricky for me. I tend to lean toward solitude in my life and yet I admit freely that to be in total solitude for humans is impossible so I tend to control how and when and why, etc., I make connections and associations with others. I can count my friends on one hand and business oriented associations of both hands.
We in martial arts talk the talk of contentment and humility and enlightenment and all the Eastern mystical rhetoric because we assume that it is an intricate part of that discipline and that thinking is tantamount on our ignorance to the Eastern view of life and philosophy and spirituality, etc. We hear or read or are told someting is this or that way because it is a part of the discipline but that is usually as far as it goes.
Being human is like that, we perceive from our environment and our connections of what reality is and how that contributes to our belief system but how many of us give time to these three basic things all humans probably need to be human and to be socially tribe like members who contribute the the whole of the tribe through our individualism and individual actions, etc.?
We strive for an independent self so we can achieve self-determination through a level of autonomy, competence and our tribal connectivity often called, “community.” It comes from natures survival instincts, i.e., where we continually use conflict for our survival as individuals and through our conquests to maintain the self and the tribe toward a wide variety of resources humans require to - wait for it - survive.
The dojo collective is a tribe; the family you come from is your tribe; the family you create is your tribe; the social construct in which you have a home and live is also a tribe and what comes up in all of them is that connectivity that makes for a community or a tribe that connects us in a way that we endure and survive in any given challenging situation and encounter. It permeates deeply every thing we do in life such as sports, work as jobs, and other socially modern endeavor except something is missing in modern society.
In the conflicting, chaotic and often violent way of life in modern society where we perceive the dangers of conflict and violence is less than history ever achieved is actually more corrosive to the human self, the psyche, and human health then in any other time of human history. I quote, “In effect, humans have dragged a body with a long hominid history into an overfed, malnourished, sedentary, sunlight-deficient, sleep-deprived, competitive, inequitable, and socially isolating environment with dire consequences.”
We all need to reacquire the type of social cohesive community that allows each of us to feel competent and connected, authentic and connected and with a certain autonomy and competence while being closely and emotionally connected to a community, a tribe, so we can better cope with the situations that come from such a modern and so called advanced society.
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