Tony Robbins

I watched this 22 minute video all the way through. It captivated me so much I immediately watched all the way through a second time. Enjoy:

Einstein on Everything Except Science

"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...

"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.

"My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude..."

"My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.

"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

--Albert Einstein

Wisdom of Alan Watts

Stonehenge and an Unorthodox Jew

First: a prayer Barack Obama left in the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The prayers are private, and no one is ever supposed to remove one, however one unorthodox orthodox jew did just that. He stole Obama's private prayer and leaked it to the press. Here it is:

"Lord, protect my family and me. Forgive me my sins and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will."

Here's an amazing video of a man who is rebuilding Stonehenge by himself.

The Tao of Joker

Recently a creative writing professor gave me the following advice:

"The best villains are those who evoke sympathy. They have some apparent character flaws which allow you insight into their existence, but underlying it all is a certain sensitivity, an understanding of goodness that allows you to relate to them, to realize that they are a human being. Only then do they reveal their shriveled soul by using that very same redeeming quality as twisted motivation for further their evil deeds."

Enter the Joker.

This is a man who possesses a simplicity, an understanding of life that borderlines on spiritual. He's content with a cheap suit, and burns money for kicks. Unlike most villains his motivation is not for personal gain; the advancement of his wallet, scope of his influence, or notches in his bedpost. He has relinquished these fruits of life. His sole purpose seems noble: achievement of his dreams. It is only when we realize what his dream is that he becomes so sinister. Unadulterated chaos in Gotham.

The Bhagavad-Gita, and ancient spiritual instruction manual, defines three types of individual:

An agent called pure
has no attachment or individualism,
is resolute and energetic,
unchanged in failure and success.

An agent said to be passionate
is anxious to gain the fruit of action,
greedy, essentially violent, impure,
subject to excitement and grief.

An agent defined by dark inertia
is undisciplined, vulgar, stubborn,
fraudulent, dishonest, lazy,
depressed, and slow to act.

Most villains fall into the latter categories. They attempt to beat the world into submission, using violence, dishonesty, and Machiavellian tactics, destroying its intrinsic value for a petty gain. Along comes a hero, a pure agent, who values not the riches, and sensations of the world, but something more permanent. Hero beats villain.

The Joker is no ordinary villain.

Everything he does screams that he is an agent of purity. He has no attachment, little individualism, is resolute and energetic, and unchanged in failure and success. Furthermore, he possesses a level of surrender, and vulnerability that one might not expect in a villain. His agenda: to free the world of its laws, doctrines, dogmas, plans, legalities, power structures, and rigidity. To return it to a state of possibility and limitlessness. The problem is instead of influencing people to sacrifice their power out of love, he doesn't want to allow them a choice.

"Do I really look like a man with a plan, Harvey? I don't have a plan. The mob has plans, the cops have plans... I just *do* things. I'm a wrench in the gears. I *hate* plans. Yours, theirs, everyone's. Maroni has plans. Gordon has plans. Schemers trying to control their worlds. I am not a schemer. I show schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are... It's a schemer who put you where you are. You were a schemer. You had plans. Look where it got you. I just did what I do best-I took your plan and turned it on itself. Look what I have done to this city with a few drums of gas and a couple bullets. Nobody panics when the expected people get killed. Nobody panics when things go according to plan, even if the plans are horrifying. If I tell the press that tomorrow a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will get blown up, nobody panics. But when I say one little old mayor will die, everyone loses their minds! Introduce a little anarchy, you upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I am an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos, Harvey? It's fair."

Watching the Dark Knight was a joy. I never would have guessed that as a child, the super hero whose pajamas I refused to take off would develop into the modern day legend that he is. The Dark Knight is just that: a great American Legend. Like the tales of Greek gods, I think this story has so many insights, and illustrates so many facets of the human condition, that it will continue to be retold hundreds of years into the future. The genius behind the Joker is simply one small aspect of the movie.

I'll leave you with one final look at the Joker:

"You look nervous. Is it the scars? You want to know how I got them? Come here. Hey, look at me. So I had a wife, beautiful; like you. Who tells me, I worry too much. Who tells me, I ought to smile more. Who gambles, and gets in deep with sharks. One day they carve her face. We have no money for surgeries. She can't take it! I just want to see her smile again. I just want her to know that I don't care about the scars. So I stick a razor in my mouth and do this... to myself. And you know what? She can't stand the sight of me! She leaves. Now I see the funny side. Now I'm always smiling!"

A Short Story and 7 Mutants

A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.

Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!



- 101 Zen Stories



7 People From Around the World With Real Mutant Superpowers

Inspiring Outlaws

Every now and again I hear of someone who is not limited by social norms. They take liberties with the law, not out of greed, but out of inspired action. These men break down social barriers to inspire the world and deliver a message that they believe in, usually in an extraordinary way. Here is such an example:

Alain Robert: Urban Free Climber and Skyscraper Mountaineer

"The man later confirmed, moments after being arrested on the roof of the tower, that he was Alain Robert, a 46-year-old stuntman famous for scaling structures like the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the Sydney Opera House in Australia and the Eiffel Tower and Montparnasse Tower in Paris. He wore a T-shirt with his name and the address of a Web site (thesolutionissimple.org), exercise pants and climbing shoes. He had long blond hair. He used no rope, harness or parachute."
--The NY Times



What an awesome way to inspire change in the world.

Wisdom from Paulo Coelho

Poetry

I laugh when I hear the fish in water is thirsty.

You don't grasp the fact that what is most alive of all is inside your own house;
and so you walk from one holy city to the next with a confused look!

Kabir will tell you the truth: go wherever you like, to Calcutta or Tibet;
if you can't find where your soul is hidden,
for you the world will never be real!

Kabir

I said to the wanting-creature inside me:
What is this river you want to cross?
There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road.
Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or resting?
There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman.
There is no towrope either, and no one to pull it.
There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford!

And there is no body, and no mind!
Do you believe there is some place that will make the soul less thirsty?
In that great absence you will find nothing.

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Think about it carefully!
Don't go off somewhere else!

Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.

Kabir

Exercise and the Raw Human Experience

Here's a great piece of writing that describes the shear power of exercise. It's taken from the CrossFit Endurance Blog:

Mark Twain said, “why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.” When I started the ice age 50 mile trail race at 6:00 am in the morning I looked around at the other 250 people who were crazy enough to do this and I felt for the first time in a long time that I wasn’t the only nut in the bunch. But even among this running community I would be considered a lunatic for training less than 6 hours a week and of that amount only about 3 of those hours were dedicated to running. I can only imagine what they would say to me if they found out that my longest training run was 13.1 miles and also that I have only gone over 20 miles once in my life. I had friends who are doctors wondering what in the world I was doing training in this manner. I myself was a bit worried at times, but I enjoyed the crossfit too much to stop training this way, I enjoyed being fresh and not tired and injured all the time to stop and change routines. I figured that if I’m sore after a 50 mile run so what? That’s only one day and at least I’m not sore and tired all the time. When the race started I felt completely fresh, my legs felt strong and anxious and I struggled in vain to hold myself back for the first 20 miles of the run. I had taken Brian’s advice and buried my heart rate monitor in my drawer at home and just ran how I felt I should run and I felt liberated not having to be worried about where my heart rate was or exactly how far into the run I was. I found myself loving the downhill portions, feeling like it was a game of tetris with the rocks and roots as the obstacles and the touching my foot down in the perfect spot as quickly as I could as the point of game. I though “who needs video games, I’ve got my feet and some rocks and roots to dodge.” I remember getting frustrated as I had to slow down when more careful people took their time. I kept thinking, “all you have to do is lift your feet, it’s not that hard.” All the speed work, interval training and tabata’s were rewarding me with quick and light feet. Unfortunately that feeling didn’t last forever, although I thought it would but somewhere along the way at about mile 33 I found my happy spot. I say happy spot now with affection because at the time it wasn’t a very happy spot, but it is the spot that I had looked forward to and read about. This was the spot where ease turn to work and where work turns to pain and where pain turns to misery. It’s also the spot where my misery turned to happiness. This is the spot where my competitive spirit melted away and I saw the other runners not as competitors and not as somebody that I was better than, but instead I saw them as fellow participants in this experience. Looks and appearances no longer mattered. I no longer thought that I shouldbe better, stronger or faster than anybody no matter how they looked. My eyes no longer judged their physical deficiencies, instead I saw their powerful inner determination and I wondered about this breed of people, knowing that they were probably in more pain than me and wondering where did they get their strength from? I found that I was honored simply to be a part of them. In my previous races I was used to finishing in the top 25%, but in this race was I humbled to the point of simply wanting finish. Finishing times no longer mattered. I just wanted to finish. Along the way I experienced emotions that I either hadn’t felt in a long time or maybe I had never felt at all. Why hadn’t I done this sooner? Sure it was getting harder and harder to lift my legs, but that no longer bothered me. All sensations were heightened. The simple orange slice was delicious beyond words. A word of encouragement from an unknown stranger was enough to bring emotions unknown to the surface. I felt the hand of a friend (friend isn’t nearly a strong enough word) pulling me out of the depths telling me to dig in and that this is the point that matters. It’s amazing how a few simple words of encouragement could change my whole mentality. I felt how through the quite silence of lonely footfalls of miles after miles on a lonely trail a friendship can be cemented and bonded when no words are spoken and how words are the worst indicators of the respect and admiration that can be felt when going through this experience together.

...

One last thing for the guys, I didn’t realize this during the training, but it was something that my wife said after the race and I can’t remember the exact words but it alone made the whole thing worthwhile. She laid it on me like a bomb because it had never crossed my mind, I always I thought I was being selfish with this goal in seeking something that I wanted, but she said something to the effect of, “I think it’s so sexy that you set a goal for something very difficult that’s so far out there that most people can’t comprehend and you’re so determined that you don’t give up and you just finish with out questioning yourself.”

What a great piece of writing.

"The fulness of life
Lies in dreaming and manifesting
The impossible dreams." -- Sri Chinmoy

Real Life Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man in the World

Recently Dos Equis Beer came out with the most inspiring ad campaign:



Searching the internet, I found a real life "World's Most Interesting Man." This is also great evidence of fact being stranger than fiction.

Taken from World Net Daily.com:

Adventure in his blood

Jack Wheeler, who holds a doctorate in Philosophy, has always been drawn by the thrill and accomplishment of adventure. He became the youngest Eagle Scout in history at age 12 before becoming the youngest person to climb the Matterhorn in Switzerland at age 14.

"People collect things," Wheeler explains. "They collect stamps, or coins, or porcelain. At 14, I decided what I wanted was to collect extraordinary experiences. You could lose your stamps or coins, but you can never lose what you have done with your life."

Wheeler swam the Hellespont like Leander in Greek mythology, was adopted into a tribe of Amazon headhunters and successfully hunted a man-eating tiger in South Vietnam while still in high school.

"My intellectual adventures began when I read Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises and Aristotle, inspiring me to get a Ph.D. in Philosophy," he said. "I explored Africa, the Gobi, Mongolia, Central Asia, Tibet, the Himalayas, the Andes, Borneo and the South Pacific, discovered lost tribes in New Guinea and the Kalahari, took elephants over the Alps in Hannibal's footsteps, skydived onto the North Pole, roused anti-Marxist guerrillas from Angola to Afghanistan and helped get rid of the Soviet Union."

Forty years after Wheeler's historic climb of the Matterhorn, he ascended the mountain again, this time with his 14-year-old eldest son, Brandon.

Wheeler completes his column entitled "What life is all about" this way:

"No lion, sitting underneath an acacia tree in the Serengeti, asks himself, 'What does it mean to be a lion? What is the purpose of my existence?' A lion has no choice but to unselfconsciously follow his genetic program. But human beings have to figure out how and why to survive, they have to choose a rationale that gives purpose and meaning for their lives. My choice has been to try and make my life, and now the life of my son, a thrilling adventure."

Wheeler has worn many labels throughout his decades as an adventurer and geopolitical expert. The Wall Street Journal called him "the originator of the Reagan Doctrine." The Washington Post called him "The Indiana Jones of the Right," and Izvestiya, the organ of the Soviet Communist Party, called him an "ideological gangster."

Wheeler says his site offers readers "mind-stretching pro-America insights on our lives, our politics and our world."

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., sums up Wheeler's extraordinary life:

"Jack Wheeler is just about the most interesting man I know. As a professional adventurer, he has discovered lost tribes and led expeditions to every corner of the globe. As a geopolitical strategist, he created the Reagan Doctrine, which led to the demise of the Soviet Union. He is a brilliantly original thinker and deeply perceptive analyst of world events. I value his counsel and friendship."

END QUOTE

My favorite anecdote from the World's Most Interesting Man:

"He's a lover, not a fighter...

... but he's also a fighter so don't get any ideas."

Murphy Strikes Again

Murphy's law dictates that the day after someone makes a blog post with a youtube video in it, said video will be taken down the next day. So here's that fourth video from Human's Unleashed...again.

Humans Unleashed

Welcome to Monkey Wrench Satori. Because this is the first post I have decided to make it a celebration of humanity. I picked three videos which show some amazing, seemingly impossible human feats. First let me assure you that they are real. No special effects, CGI, wires, or anything like that were used in any of these videos. The people in them are legitimately doing what you see. Second, I assure you that nearly all human beings are capable of such abilities; however most people’s lifestyle and lack of discipline prevent them from achieving such heights.

The first video is a break dancing competition in Germany. I found the video on youtube, but hesitated to watch it because its 25 whole minutes long. After watching the first three, I was so captivated I let the whole thing run. Once I remember thinking that breakdancing must be easy, I mean hey, it’s dancing, how hard could it be? I encourage you to try any of the tricks in this video so you can see how hard they are for yourself.

For those interested in attaining the ability required for this, there are a few ways to go about it. First, take time every day to play around, and have fun trying the moves. Make a point of having fun, rather than being goal oriented. That comes later. Second take a Hip-Hop dance class. This will give you basic conditioning, and teach you how to dance. Third, to increase flexibility and basic mobility do Yoga. Yes Yoga. It’s a challenging workout and will increase your flexibility to levels never thought possible. After you have advanced far enough in Yoga, find a gymnastics gym. There they will get you doing the more advanced stuff, like handstands, handsprings, flips, swipes, etc. By the time you are at this level I assure you: You will be a better break dancer than you ever thought you could be.

The next video blew my mind. I will let it speak for itself. Let me assure one more time that this IS real. There are no wires, no CGI, and no safety nets. Pay close attention.

The discipline this guy practices is called Parkour. To learn how to do what he’s doing your best resource is American Parkour.com. It takes a lot of conditioning to get strong enough, and once you are strong enough you will have to take baby steps to over come the fear that may arise when performing stunts. Another great resource for conditioning is CrossFit.com. A link can be found at the bottom of this page. This sport, like breakdancing, will eventually require some gymnastics abilities, so keep an open mind.

The next video is just plain cool.

Rodney Mullen is an awesome skater. It is such a testament that when someone loves and dedicates themselves to something, even something funny like riding a board with wheels, they can make it inspiring.

The last video is a personal favorite of mine. When the movie “300” came out the internet buzz was “these guys have all done steroids,” or “they have years of pumping iron under there belt.” Not true. The actors got in shape in 6 months of training and eating right. It’s a testament to the power of good old fashioned effort and intensity.

The trainer in the video is Mark Twight, the owner of Gym Jones in Salt Lake City. He is quite the badass himself, let me tell you. Just flip through the first few pages of his book: Extreme Alpinism.

The last video is amazing to me. A “normal” teenager from the east coast took some time training, and video taping by himself on a series of cloudy days and put this beautiful video together.

If you haven’t been inspired by any of these people, then I suggest you check your pulse, and if your heart is still going, seriously consider a lifestyle change. Remember, when it comes to acquiring new skills

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. -- Theodore Roosevelt

and always enjoy the pursuit.