Thought of the Day: Magic - Psychological or Real?

I guess I must be too bored or something... 

I visited a web forum on paganism and spirituality... its a forum that I used to post in a long time ago when I first started out on my own spiritual journey... back then I had foolishly thought that I would find likeminded people who were willing to go on a honest and objective search for some kind of universal-spiritual truth... 

I mean... I expected to encounter people who would put aside their own notions of deity, magic, spirit and reality and try to "test the limits"... so to speak...

But all I got were a whole bunch of people with a whole bunch of opinions...but not a lot of people who wanted to do the work and slowly sieve out the .. sometimes rather "blah" truth behind common beliefs...

But I think the thing that irritated me most was the fact that... there were so many professing "pagans" and "wiccans" in the West who... felt that magic only had purely psychological effects.... 

Of course... some would even go so far as to say... their "gods" were no more than constructs of their own mind.....

IF... you really believed that the effects of magic are purely psychological.... and that magic is a subtle means of changing your own mind and thereby changing your own world.... then why bother to be "pagan" or "wiccan".... why even bother to have "spirituality"..... sheesh... why not just be a happy atheist and study NLP ....

Doesn't it bother them that they believe in "gods" that aren't real? That their "gods" are just there to comfort whatever void they feel in their heart? 

I mean... doesn't the phrase "being in self-denial" or "dellusional" ever pop into their heads?

IF I didn't somehow believe in the ability of magic to affect physical reality... you won't catch me doing any magic .... 

What has spirituality in the West come to? (I found a lot of professing pagans and wiccans in the West on that particular forum) I mean, just because you don't see a lot of evidence of the supernatural in your vicinity, do you therefore resign yourself to the notion that what you believe in is a psychological crutch?

Could it be that you are not doing... whatever you are doing... in the correct manner? Could that be the reason you are not seeing the results you had hoped for?

If all that talk about ghosts, spirits and magic is just nothing but a lot of psychology....why then do people in Asia... in particular... my ... outwardly modern countrymen.... still cling to traditional beliefs ... and secretly believe in their heart that there's spirits everywhere?

If we didn't believe in a supernatural reality on some fundemental level... "True Singapore Ghost Stories" won't be the bestselling series that it has been for the last 10 to 15 years....

Are we Singaporeans... all crazy?

I dunno about you, but I don't think that 5 million people + millions of our Asian neighbours... are all wrong.

I was about to make a sweeping statement and say rather nastily that Western spirituality and esoterism has really taken a nose-dive... but kinda remembered that the majority of people in the forum come from America... 

Ah well.. there's always the non-USA part of the Americas and Europe... I don't think I've heard too much from them yet....

Thought of The Day: Stupid Me... answer in me face but..

I've been having problems recently... problems with me job and other things... but in particular, I have been having problems with a certain person in my martial arts class... a person I'll call "Judas"... because that's what he'll be.

I knew after a short association with Judas, that he actually does have some deep seated psychological problems. I did try to help him.... (something I regret now actually)... but I realised pretty early on that the kinda problems that he has require YEARS of therapy to overcome and will likely require him to confront certain problems about himself.... which I think he will be unable to accept... they are not easy issues and Judas... sad to say, is prone to violence.

Not wanting to "get another disciple" so to speak.... I decided to distance myself from him.. but still remain on friendly terms....

(A digression here)... yeah.... I tend to "pick up disciples"... as S... a friend of mine likes to say... he always says to me that I tend to pick up lost young men to mentor or something.... It irritates me, but he is not incorrect in saying so.... I have to this date, led two young men onto The Path... by direct and deliberate intervention... one asked me for The Path.. the other did not.... nevertheless... they are changed because of it... for good or ill... only time will tell.... (End digression)

I do not intend to pick up any more of such young fellows.... (such a waste of time really.... most of them are not what I would call..."nice people".... and certainly not really ready to face the issues they will have to face on The Path) and certainly my instinct did caution me to be wary of Judas... 

Sometime after I decided to distance myself from this young fellow... I was given a vision about him.... I cannot say the specifics.. but it does seem to indicate that he will eventually travel down a dark path and will in the end allow himself to serve evil. (No, I'm not being overdramatic here... it's the only way I can say it without being specific)

My opinion of him soured.. and it got a whole lot worse when I found out that he had broken....(in my eyes) .... a pretty big taboo and done an evil deed. This is the kind of deed that will cause even a hardened convict or gangster in my country/culture to curse the name of such a person.

I could hardly look him in the face... even today.... because all I can think about when he is around is how to kill him.

I don't take the visions I have lightly ... some of them have actually come to pass... and the visions showed me that Judas will eventually become the pseudonym I have given him here - he will betray all that he ... thinks... he cares about.

Men are such self-decievers.

Am I going to warn him off his current destructive path? No... Why? Well... 

1. He will NOT believe me

2. My own divinations show that ..regardless of what he does or knows.... or even if I myself show him The Path... he will not deviate from becoming Judas. His karma is fixed. He has .. before this lifetime... made an agreement with the devil himself (I'm not referring to the Judeo-Christian devil btw... but it is convenient to use the terminology.).... such a pact cannot be easily broken... especially if one is ... weak and uncertain of oneself... and has dark desires...

3. Even if he does become who he truly was born to be... he will end up being... an evil man.... that is who he is. Some men are born to be evil because of the decisions they made and the sides they chose.. before they incarnated in this form....

How do you tell Jack the Ripper to become Mother Theresa? Jack will be Jack ... no matter what guise he takes.

4. It will take too much time and energy... time and energy that I do not want to invest... 

Anyway... this post aren't about Judas.. although I think I need to vent a bit of my annoyance on this blog...

I was quite annoyed by what I saw of Judas during some of the training... and it made me determined to be a lot better at what I do in the classes.... 

I did a bit of reading up and I realised something today that Wolfy himself mentioned to me... almost at the beginning of me attending the classes....

Near the beginning when I told Wolfy about Flower (Flower- the founder of the martial art I'm learning)... he said:

"The book isn't about how to use a sword... it's all about how to survive...."

He pointed out that Flower was a great survivor.... 

I really didn't know how important those words were.... until today... He also mentioned another thing about fighting and surviving... (a quote I think I'll not put here on this blog) and it was also true....

I realised that the thing which separates the true warrior from a guy who trains like crazy to learn to fight.... and IS a skilled fighter.... is a gulf that is immeasurable...

I also realised the true meaning of the often quoted cliche.... 

"The sword is the soul of the warrior..."

or

"The soul of the warrior is in his sword..."

Its a cliche that is often quoted by fans of samurai movies and kendo and other such... cultural icons...

Often quoted... but not truly understood.... especially the actual rationale for making such a statement.

I think I'll laugh when I hear Wolfy's shinai wielding friend ... or those of similar irk whenever they try to recite to me this quote.. :P They just don't know what it means.... I think the only people who really know the true meaning of this are those who have seen the horrors of war or survive countless years of fighting and violence.

Of all the people I have known... I think only G truly understands the meaning of this..... although probably he will likely be inelegant in his explanation of the quote.

He DID... by the way... mention the same thing in the class.... 

No one truly understood it... and sad to say... on the day he said it...neither did I....

But I now do...

May - Aug.... months with tons of cosplay events....

May - Aug... I think its probably fair to call them "cosplay months" ... it's like one event after another just pops up....
I went to Cosfest x.1 and then the Mascot Parade.... to be honest, despite a few funny moments at Cosfest.. I really enjoyed the Mascot Parade more... because...

1. there was a greater variety of people at this event instead of the usual cosplay community....

2. there seem to be a bit more purpose at this event than at Cosfest.

3. I met someone in a cosplay from the same game series as myself... (always a great thing for fans to meet... except unless of course the cosplayer is a certain insufferable kid from a certain local forum)

4. I got to "meet" a lot of ordinary people... not from the cosplay community... in my Ezio outfit...

5. I had a few laughs when someone said to me, "Say, if I call ur number, will you kill someone for me????"

6. I got to meet some of my.... I mean... Ezio's fans.... it's the first time someone said to me... "Oh my god, Ezio! Can I shake your hand?!" It sorta makes me feel like a president.... of some country ....

Anyway, before I go on about anything else, here are some pictures from the Mascot parade:

I saw some familar cosplay faces at the Parade.

I just love cats.... it was so unbearably cute...
had to take a pic :)

Despite my distaste of the local cosplay community as a whole and the attitudes that are prevalent there.... there are some pretty nice people in the community.

Yeah.. like I said, I met another fan... this friendly fellow was dressed as an Informant from the first game in the series.... actually he's likely the only cosplayer of the series who is dressed in a culturally accurate costume :D

And here's another pic of us...

And here's a shot of before the parade.

And here are the mascotters... which this parade is named after... according to an acquaintance who was there... the dude in the Sakae outfit was fiddling around with his iPhone/iPod inside the suit while the plushie was dancing around and waving its arms...  Our very observant informant managed to catch the mascotteer red-handed while looking through a vent in the side of the suit.
Talk about Multi-Tasking!

And here's the Sharity elephant... my god I haven't seen him in an age.

Even Orchard Central had it's official mascots...:P

While adding the pics to this entry, I felt a bit sad when I saw the pics of some of the people....

There's things I know about them and sometimes I'm terribly tempted to tell them what I know... but you know... they have a saying in Chinese.... "The will of Heaven you must not disclose..."  Haiz... 

I think I'll try to enjoy the "cosplay months"..... yeah...