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Class discussion topics
The Master Instructor has set one topic each week which is discussed at the end of each adult class. Here are some of the topics.
The real you can only be found by removing everything that is not you
“Life is not about changing who you are, but discarding who you are not.” – Deepak Chopra "It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential." - Bruce Lee
Who were you before you were given a name, race, religion, customs, traditions, labels, and other people's beliefs?"
Don't let others hold you back from following your talents, passions and dreams
Don’t be concerned about what others think of you; that’s their business, not yours. Don't be concerned about what negative people say about you, or what they say you will amount to in life. Use any negative emotions that they have triggered within you as fuel for motivation and prove them wrong. So, in the end they have propelled you by triggering you into positive action. Congratulations, you have converted negative energy into positive energy!
People who block you from reaching your dreams and potential, or cause drama and trauma for you, are often some of those closest to you, such as friends and family. There is a big difference between 'soul family' and 'blood family'.
Escaping the Matrix Prison
Everyone has special talents or gifts coded into their DNA from their ancestors. These inheritances are your path to reaching your highest potential and your ticket out of the 9am-5pm matrix.
If something burns in your soul with purpose and desire, it’s your duty to follow your soul path and express it fully. Not doing so is a lack of appreciation and insult to the universe. Any other form of existence will be yet another dull book in the library of lives.
At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your soul purpose of freedom and happiness, or further away from it to bondage and misery.
Stop making excuses and get started!
Whatever your dreams are, remember that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Lao-tzu“
"A year from now you will wish you had started today.”
"The best way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” - Albert Einstein
"If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done." - Bruce Lee
While we wait, life passes, and soon we are too old and frail to enjoy it.
Organise and declutter your mind so you can see and think clearly
Journalling: When you feel lost, confused, or emotional, go somewhere quiet for an hour with a note pad and pen, relax, take some deep breaths, and write down or draw everything and anything that comes into your mind. Some of the notes that you make, which may seem insignificant at the time, will be from you soul or subconscious and will lead you to new ideas, information, and people, which will answer your questions and lead you out of your situation.
Declutter your mind and soul by removing the layers of illusions and deception that aren't you
“Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.” – Jose Saramago
“Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?”
“I am not my thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, and experiences. I am not the content of my life. I am Life. I am the space in which all things happen. I am consciousness. I am the Now. I Am.”
– Eckhart Tolle
The true you is at the core of an onion and you need to remove each layer to find yourself again. Layers have been accumulating since you were born and prior, and include what you have been told, taught, beliefs about yourself and the world, your education, spiritual teachings, customs, traditions, traumas, and undealt with / unreleased emotions.
Dedication
Dedication, commitment and perseverance are developed through attending two martial arts classes per week over many years, until Black Belt. Once these winning attributes become a habit, they permeate all other areas of your life.
If you skip training because it's too hot, too cold, if you are too tired, or prefer to do less important things, this attitude will also become a habit and will permeate all other areas of your life, and you will be less likely to achieve great things nor reach your full potential in life.
True Martial Arts is Mastery of Body, Mind & Spirit i.e. Self-Mastery
True Martial Arts, much like Yoga and Tai Chi, is a system for mastering the trinity of body, mind and spirit/soul. These three aspects are what make a 'human being'. As such a true martial artist gives equal attention to development of each aspect. Mastering these is the path to Self-Mastery (enlightenment), being the final tenet of Cobra Martial Arts and the quest of all humans, whether they are consciously aware of this or not.
Mastering the body is not just about your fighting skill, speed, agility or strength, but also learning about nutrition, eating as healthily and as organically as possible, relaxation techniques, and detoxifying the body of harmful chemicals found in modern day foods, tap water, medications, household cleaning products, bathroom products such as soap and shampoo, make-up, and personal hygiene products such as toothpaste and deodorant.
Mastering the mind is not only about knowledge and learning, or mastering your emotions or pain, but also detoxifying the mind by unlearning:
- lies we have been told or taught, often from sources we have been conditioned to trust, and who tell us not to question them or there will be negative ramifications. - deception and manipulation
- mainstream programming such as from the corporation-controlled media
Mastering the soul is about reconnecting to the real / original you. This requires detoxifying past trauma and withheld / unreleased negative emotions such as fear, guilt, shame, anger and stress, so that you can see yourself and the world more clearly, rather than through the layers and lenses of your past experiences, traumas, and programming.
Powerful Emotional Energy
How do you feel when you are holding dense low frequency energy in your body, such as sadness, anger, hate, fear, jealousy or depression? Answer?
How do you feel when you are holding lighter high frequency energy in your body such as joy, gratitude, peace, security, creativity, curiosity and love? Answer?
The emotions you hold are your own response to past, current and possible future events or situations. The event itself is actually neutral and does not have an emotion. You create the emotion within yourself through your beliefs and thoughts.
You have inherited unique gifts which may have been suppressed until now
"You are an original, don't live as a copy".
"You are unique, in all the history of the world and in the world to come, there will never be another you".
Don't copy the path of another when yours was meant to be unique.
Your spiritual path is your own, not the path of another person, nor cookie-cut from a book.
"Do not fit in; stand out!"
You own nothing. Everything you possess has been loaned to you by the universe.
Nothing is yours nor in your control, not your life, family, money, home or health. All of these can be taken back in an instant by the universe if there was another world war, another great depression, or if you died today. The only thing you have some control over is management of your inner state of emotions, so take time to study that.
Learning GOAL SETTING through the BELT SYSTEM
"The belt system is not just a representation of rank and skill advancement; it is also an acknowledgement of personal growth towards self-mastery. Such advancement signifies not only growth within the dojo (training studio), but also outside of the dojo in all areas of life. Each belt is a goal to be achieved and the belt system trains the student in the goal setting process which they will then apply in their life. Once a goal is set, it is created in an energy field as a hologram. The more emotional energy you consistently feed it through visualisation, the faster it materialises into dense energy as a physical manifestation. People call this energy field the 'imagination', however realise that it is a real, non-physical place where all creation begins."
More about the belt system here: The Meaning of the Belt Colours in Cobra Martial Arts
-Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Gratitude
“There’s a lot that is good in your life - don’t take it for granted. Don’t get so focused on the struggles that you miss the gifts of today.” – Joel Osteen
Many people think their life sucks, but they are way better off than the majority of people in the world who live in third world countries, poverty, disease, war and homelessness. When you get home write a list of 100 things that you are grateful for in your journal, to change the vibration of the emotional state you are emitting to the universe. The universe mirrors back to you what you emit. This is the law of attraction. Genuine gratitude is a very high vibration emotion which attracts situations and things of equal frequency.
Bucket List
When you get home write a list of 100 things that you want to do or achieve in this lifetime, and a date next to each one. Then get on the phone or online and organise at least one or two.
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” — Lao Tzu
“If you’re serious about changing your life, you’ll find a way. If you’re not, you’ll find an excuse.”
The Line of Life separates the winners and losers
People who operate above the line live as winners. People who operate below the line live as losers. Do you operate above or below the line of life?
Ownership Accountability Responsibility
________________
Blame Excuses Denial
Making excuses and blaming circumstances and others for you not living the life you want will not help and will only make things worse for you. It gives your power away to external forces and people. Take responsibility for your life. Claim back your power. Educate yourself in areas that you want to improve in, such as motivation, organisation, discipline, relaxation, nutrition, exercise, fitness, increasing your energy, goal setting and building wealth in all areas of your life.
“Happy people build their inner world; unhappy people blame their outer world.” – Dalai Lama
What does Black Belt mean to you?
Wearing a Black Belt does not mean you are invincible or better than anyone else.
It means you don't give up. You don't surrender to yourself-doubts.
You face your fears and defeat them.
You are able to work through and conquer physical and mental pain.
You overcome challenges and disappointments.
You overcome distractions.
You achieved what only 1% of people do.
It means that you realise you are capable of anything and will apply these strengths to all challenges that you face in your life.
Live your best life now as the now is the best predictor of your future
“The future depends on what we do in the present.” - Mahatma Gandhi.
As soon as anyone starts telling you to be ‘realistic,’ or deters you from your dreams for whatever reason, cross that person off your contact list as they are intentionally or unintentionally working against you."
To predict your future, look at your now. If you don't want this to be your future, then take responsibility and make changes. Nobody is coming to save you.
Imagination is the first step to creation
“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.”
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.” - Albert Einstein
"Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements."
Your journey must be your own - think for yourself! You should not blindly accept the teachings, programming and beliefs of anyone or any group, just because your parents, grandparents, friends, teachers, and the masses do. Question everything you have been told until you find or receive answers that feel right. Study how to develop your intuition and discernment. There is truth, deception and manipulation in almost everything we read, hear, or watch on TV. "Nothing binds you except your thoughts; nothing limits you except your fear; and nothing controls you except the beliefs that you have adopted." - Hans Ferburger
"To find yourself, think for yourself." - Socrates "All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns". - Bruce Lee
Love
“If you love a flower, don’t pick it up. Because if you pick it up it dies and it ceases to be what you love. So if you love a flower, let it be. Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.”
–Osho
Connect but don't attach.
Love is letting go of fear of loss.
Relationships
The reason why so many potential relationships fail is because people are broken, carrying trauma, negative emotions, unresolved and unreleased emotions, and unhealthy beliefs. Yet they are still trying to date, surprised that it is not working out. Healing requires 'knowing thyself', isolation, critical self-analysis, studying your behavior, patterns and triggers, research, and release of trauma, withheld lower emotions, and unhealthy beliefs and belief systems. Most people haven't mastered the relationship with themselves, yet are trying to have a relationship with others.
The Now
The past is a memory, and your future is your imagination; all that exists is the now.
“If you feel anxiety or depression, you are not in the present. You are either anxiously projecting the future or depressed and stuck in the past. The only thing you have any control over is the present moment" - Tobe Hanson
Breathing exercises, being or walking in nature, meditation, or doing healthy things that you enjoy, can help you declutter and calm your mind, and bring it back to the now.
Emotions
"Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions."
"What worries you, masters you."
"Feelings are something you have; not something you are."
"The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood."
The best answer to anger is silence. - Marcus Aurelius
The best revenge is not to be like your enemy. - Marcus Aurelius
Detachment - Connect but don't attach
Nothing is in our control except for our emotional state. A higher power controls everything. It can give or take a life in a second.
The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have. - Marcus Aurelius
You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength. - Marcus Aurelius
Attachment to a person or an outcome has its roots in fear and a need to control or hold on to what is familiar. Allow others to be themselves. Detachment allows the universe to create the perfect result and is the key to well-being and happiness.
The universal Law of Attraction
Like attracts like. Whatever the conscious mind can perceive and believe, the subconscious mind (soul) will create and achieve.
What you think about or wish for, for yourself or others, will attract similar circumstances of equal energetic vibration to you, like a boomerang.
If you hold negative thoughts (or actions) about others such as hate, anger, or jealousy, or wish them misfortune (e.g. spells), that negative emotional energy radiates through you and then radiates from you like a beacon, and it attracts situations, things and events of equal frequency to you and your family, sooner or later. Similarly, positive emotions, thoughts and actions attract positive things, situations and events to you and your family sooner or later. This is known as karma. 2024 is a year of karma.
Be the best version of yourself to reach your full potential
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein
"If one desires a change, one must be that change before the change can take place" - Gita Bellin "If you keep doing the same things you will keep getting the same results"
Death
I cannot escape death, but at least I can escape the fear of it. - Marcus Aurelius
One of the biggest crimes of modern times is removal of the knowledge that consciousness (us / our soul) is energy, which cannot be created or destroyed but only transformed from one form to another. This is called reincarnation and has been removed from mainstream sources of information by certain people to retain control and power. Understanding this changes your attitude and emotions towards death of the body. Your current body is simply your vehicle for this lifetime.
Perception "Men are disturbed not by what happens, but by their opinion of things that happen." - Epictetus
The truth is the truth, but people's perception of it may vary drastically. Is the curry mild or spicy? Is a situation good or bad? It depends on who you ask, i.e., each person has their own perception. In reality, it is neither mild or spicy, and neither good nor bad. It is a collection of atoms, i.e., electrical charges / energy.
I know that I'm not seeing things as they are; I'm seeing things as I am.
The Matrix
When you realise that you (humanity) have been under a spell and controlled, at that moment you are awakening.
I started to be free when I realised that my cage was made of my beliefs and thoughts. A prison without bars.
Good evening, this is the evening news. Here is what we want you to believe today...
A tribute to Martial Arts Instructors and Assistant Instructors
When you create a difference in someone's life, you not only improve their life, but you also improve their children's lives and their descendants, as well as everyone influenced by them throughout their entire lifetime.
Your Value
Your value doesn't decrease based on people's inability to see your worth.
A bar of iron costs $5. If it is made into horse shoes, it is worth $12. If it is made into needles, it is worth $3,500. If it is made into springs for watches it is worth $300,000. Your value is determined by what you make of yourself, so reach your full potential.
Intuition
Your pineal gland in your brain contains light sensitive structures called rods and cones, just like your eyes. Fluoride accumulates in the pineal gland, solidifying it, thereby, reducing its ability to function. Ancient cultures refer to the pineal gland as the third eye, being the centre of intuition. Fluoride is also used in rat poison and pesticides. Some governments add fluoride to tap water and toothpaste.
Intuition
No matter how good something looks, if it doesn't feel right, walk away.
Are you Awake yet?
It is better to walk alone than with a crowd going in the wrong direction. Do what you feel is right.
Negative People
How you make others feel about themselves says a lot about you.
Low frequency people take pleasure in creating conflict.
The ideal strategy for dealing with negative people is to go non-contact.
The Kiai!
The shout heard when a martial artist executes a strike is called the Ki-ai. Other athletes also shout when executing a technique with full power. 'Ki' is 'Chi', which is 'life force energy'. 'Ai' means 'union'. So kiai means 'union of energy'. It is the combining and focus of the technique with life force energy to intensify its power. It has a way of 'psyching' you up and raising your spirit, making you feel invincible. Tennis players, power lifters and Olympic athletes all use it. Soldiers and warriors also use it when they charge into battle.
Goal Setting, Affirmations, Matras, Prayer and Visualisation
In the 1950s Harvard University did a study on goal setting. After interviewing their student body they found that only 3% had correctly set written goals. Twenty years later they did a follow-up study. The study showed that the 3% had accumulated more wealth than the other 97% combined.
Study the goal setting process and set goals for any or all of these areas:
family
career
finance & investment
social / friends
health & fitness
education
spiritual
Nutrition
Nutrition is health care. Medicine is sick care.
--- Miscellaneous
Don't overreact to things that are over. It only makes things worse. Re-centre your emotional energy and find the lesson.
Being rejected or your rejection of others is for your protection, as this was not in line with your path.
Have you got too comfortable with being uncomfortable?
A person's own natural duty, even if it seems imperfectly done, is better than work not naturally their own, even if well performed.
You can commit injustice by doing nothing. - Marcus Aurelius
Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil. - Marcus Aurelius
We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. - Seneca
No man is free who is not master of himself. - Epictetus
If you want something good, get it yourself. - Epictetus
“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
― Marcus Aurelius
The grass looks greener on the other side because it's fake.
If you don't like something, take away its power; Your attention.
Ignore what everyone else is doing and achieving. You are not in competition with others, as your path is unique. Compete with your old self. Outdo your past, not other people.
Sometimes those who don't socialise much aren't actually anti-social. They just have no tolerance for drama, stupidity, and fake people.
You will never understand the damage you did to someone until the same thing is done to you. This is karma and 2024 is a year of karma. Karma can be negative or positive, depending on how you lived your life. The thoughts, actions and energy you have given out is now being returned more quickly.
I had to make you uncomfortable, otherwise you never would have moved. - Universe
The one who follows the crowd will go no further that the crowd. Thise who walk alone are likely to find themselves in places no one has ever been before - Albert Einstein
You either get better or bitter. It's that simple. You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person, or you allow it to tear you down. The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you.
Religion is believing someone else's experience. Spirituality is having your own experience.
We work jobs we hate, to buy things we don't need, to impress people who we don't like - Tyler Durden
It is unhealthy to be normal in a sick society. Be different, be the weird ones.
You are a human magnet, constantly attracting what you speak, think, do and feel.
"I would rather adjust my life to your absence than adjust my boundaries to accommodate your disrespect."
Maturity is accepting that you won't always get the answers or apologies for the things that hurt you, but you choose to work on yourself and heal anyway.
Every end has a new beginning. We have exited a period known as Pices and entered a period known as Capricorn. The tail becomes the head, and the head becomes the tail. The old is dying and the new has been born.
I used to be afraid of losing people until I realised that most of them were never really down for me anyway. So instead of being afraid of losing them, I allowed them to lose me.
Ignorance is the cause of fear. - Seneca
Education is not intelligence. The world is full of highly indoctrinated sheeple with zero common sense or intuition.