Not so common sense
Published: Thu, 06/18/15
A couple of weeks ago the news was filled with the story of a 23 year old English woman who ended up in jail for a few days in Malaysia. Her crime? She and some companions climbed a mountain (considered to be sacred by the locals) and stripped off (topless as far as I know) took pictures and posted them to social media sites. There was an earthquake which a senior government minister stated was the result of the spirits of the mountain being angry at the disrespectful behaviour of the foreign visitors. So three days in prison and then deported home. Pretty trivial really and the media really should have had more important things to report. You can read more about it here if you really have nothing better to do http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-33090576
The only reason I am mentioning the story here is because it illustrates the relationship between freedom and liberty. As I said yesterday, freedom is a state of mind. We are free and we choose to bind ourselves when we forget that we have inherent freedom of thought. I also said that we exist in time and space and we have to accept what is at any particular moment. Liberty is what is possible at a particular moment in space and time.
We associate liberty with laws and regulations and indeed laws do limit liberty. Liberty and freedom are good so laws must be bad? Well, I don’t think it is quite that simple. We have the freedom to conceive what we want to do. What we then want is the liberty to express our freedom. However, A third factor comes in and I will call it discretion, or just common sense or perhaps wisdom. The holiday makers mentioned above thought of stripping off on the mountain. They were at liberty to do so because there was no one else around. So why not have the discretion to not post the pictures on social media at least until their plane was in the air and on its way home?
So, how do we function in the world? We need freedom of thought so that we can create intention. We need the liberty to act and make things happen. We also need movement in time and space to choose the right point on the web to act and make real our intention. Practical wisdom is the ability to bring about a desired outcome by the ideal combination of intention, action and movement.
I have been exploring this very simple principle over 20 years of Stav training. Looking back it is what I was looking for all my life. On a mental level you now know all you need to know just from reading this. However, developing real ability and making genuine change comes from integration of mind, body and spirit and you are going to be lucky to do that from just reading words on a computer screen or on paper. Which is why Stav has a method of training the whole person, or more accurately, Stav teaches ways that a person can change themselves if they are willing to practice.
I will be exploring this theme through very simple martial training with the cudgel in Salisbury on Saturday the 27th of June, in Crewkerne on the 4th of July through unarmed self-defence training and of course at the summer camp the following week. All events linked through http://iceandfire.org/calendar.html
regards
Graham
PS If you have not reserved your copy of the recordings I will be making at the Camp then do it soon. It will be available later but at a higher price than the £30 I am asking before the event.