“A Warrior’s Heart” TedxFrisco January 11,2020
Good evening, I am truly happy to be here.
No one is born a Black Belt. But everyone can cultivate a Warrior spirit. What makes difference is the path you choose to walk.
Not long ago an older man came to the dojo and asked me if he could still train Martial Arts. He said ever since he was little he had wanted to learn. I asked, “What took you so long?” He said his job, his career; his responsibilities had taken priority in his life. I asked, “Why now?” He said that he was 55 yrs old, and had been diagnosed with Cancer. He believed this would bring him joy in a time when the future was uncertain. He mentioned his friends and family thought he was crazy, but this was really in his heart. I knew what he meant, I felt it. Sometimes people wait until they are sick to follow their own heart.
Tonight, I am honored to share with you our school’s philosophy “The way of the Heart.” In the way of the heart we train physically but we train for so much more.
Number 1 We train Courage. The word Courage comes from the Latin word “Cor” which means heart. The source of courage is in your heart, the source of courage is in love. Courage is love in action. The way of the heart is for a path for a life, health and joy. Not of sickness and disease and I know, no money or possession can take the place of a healthy happy, father, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter. We train to have the courage to follow a path of that make our heart rejoice. But at some point, everyone experiences the internal conflict between the heart and the mind.
Number 2 We train to the heart and the mind to become allies and to create this alliance we must differentiate between feelings and emotions. We recognize emotions come from the mind and are felt in the head. Negative emotions go around in the head making people feel dizzy and , creating negative scenarios, creating worry, this drain us of our energy making us fearful, thus stealing our joy. We train to be guardian of joy. That is a feeling. We recognize feelings come from the heart and are felt in the whole body filling you with excitement and giving you a sense of direction, giving you energy to pursue your goal and dreams. Recognizing feelings and emotions helps to bring peace and harmony to our hearts and minds so that we can be a good reflection for a world of mirrors
Number 3 we train to see the world as a world of mirrors. We understand, as it is inside so it will be on the outside. This creates responsibility, compassion and the willingness to help other.
The only complicated thing is that it is simple. Listen, feel and have the courageto follow your heart. Lets Practice laughing and not taking things too serious, remember you can be serious without being heavy and if you are able to laugh at yourself, you are in the right track, and if you need help with that, come see us at the school.
To close, I’d like to share what a native Lakota elder said to me, true wisdom is so “the people might live” in peace, health, joy and unity. To me this is a path worth walking, for us this is the next level.
Thank you, Aho.
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