Is Christianity compatible with the martial arts and the ancient samurai code of Bushido? The Reverend Sasamori Takemi, Methodist minister and pastor of the Komaba Eden Church in Tokyo, Japan and inheritor of three ancient martial arts traditions, unequivocally answers: "Yes!" In Bushido and Christianity, the Rev. Sasamori weaves together elements Japanese history, lessons from the Bible, and his own personal experiences growing up in a samurai family to trace where Bushido, the martial arts, and Christianity intersect and shows how following these 'Ways' can lead to a more fulfilling life. The Rev. Sasmori has over forty years experience as a pastor and over seventy years of training in traditional Japanese martial arts. He is regularly featured in the media in Japan and is a sought-after lecturer on the connection between Bushido and Christianity worldwide. His life's mission has been to bridge the cultural divide between East and West.

https://www.amazon.com/Bushido-Christianity-Rev-Takemi-Sasamori/dp/1533476675

“A man’s maturity is to have regained the innocence of a child at play.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

If you want to change the world, don't back down from the sharks. 

“…how ready they themselves are at bottom to make one pay; how they crave to be hangmen. There is among them an abundance of the vengeful disguised as judges, who constantly bear the word “justice” in their mouths like poisonous spittle, always with pursed lips, always ready to spit upon all who are not discontented but go their own way in good spirits…The will of the weak to represent some form of superiority, their instinct for devious paths to tyranny over the healthy – where can it not be discovered, this will to power of the weakest!”

Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

What does it mean to focus on fundamentals as a martial artist, citizen, in our vocations, and for ourselves? 

It's always hard to understand things while we are in the middle of them. It's only when we look back that these things become clear, if ever. Just hold  onto God, know that whatever you are going through He can help you through it. He can use it for your benefit as well as others, just have faith.

Kevin Ross' website: https://thesoulassassin.com

“You don't want to be in a place where there's no challenge. You might even quit your job if there's no challenge. Say, 'Well, that's a good job. It gives you security,' and you think, 'God, I can't stand this. It's eating away at my soul. It's all security and no challenge.' So why do you want a challenge? Because that's what you're built for. You're built to take on a maximal load, right? Because that's what strengthens you, and you need to be strong because life is extraordinarily difficult.

"(Why is that?) Because the evil king is always whittling away at the structure of the state. And you have to be awake and sharp to stop that from happening so that you don't become corrupt. And so that your family doesn't become corrupt. And so that your state doesn't have to become corrupt. You have to have your eyes open, and your wits sharp, and your words at the ready. And you have to be educated. And you have to know about your history. And you have to know how to think. And you have to know how to read. And you have to know how to speak. And you have to know how to aim. And you have to be willing to hoist the troubles of the world up on your shoulders. And what's so interesting about that, so remarkable. And this is something that's really manifested itself to me as I've been doing these public lectures. I've been talking about responsibility to people, which doesn't seem to happen very often anymore, and the audiences are dead quiet. And I lay out this idea that life is tragedy tainted by malevolence, and everyone says, 'Yeah, well we already always suspected that, but no one has ever said it quite so bluntly, and it's quite a relief to hear that I'm not the only person who has those suspicions.'

"Then the second part of that is the better part, and it's the optimistic part, which is despite the fact that life is a tragedy tainted by malevolence, at every level of existence there's something about the human spirit that can thrive under precisely those conditions if we allow that to occur, because as difficult as life is – and as horrible as we are – our capacity to deal with that catastrophe and to transcend that malevolent spirit is more powerful than that reality itself. And that's the fundamental issue. I think that's the fundamental issue of the Judeo-Christian ethic, with its emphasis on the divinity of the individual.

"As catastrophic as life is – and as malevolent as people can be, and that's malevolent beyond belief – fundamentally, a person has, in spirit, the nobility to set that right and to defeat evil. And that more than that the antidote to the catastrophe of life, and the suffering of life, and the tragedy of life that can drive you down and destroy you, is to take on exactly that responsibility, and to say, 'Well, there's plenty of work to be done, and isn't that terrible?

"There isn't anything so bad that we can't make it worse, but I have it within me to decide that I'm going to stand up against that. I'm going to strive to make the world a better place. I'm going to strive to constrain the malevolence that's in my own heart, and to set my family straight, and to work despite my tragic lot for the betterment of everything that's in front of me.' And the consequence of that – the immediate consequence of that – is that when you make the decision to take on all of that voluntarily – which is to stand up straight, by the way, with your shoulders back – to take all that on voluntarily, as soon as you make that decision, then all the catastrophe justifies itself in the nobility of your striving. And that's what it means to be an individual.” - Jordan Peterson

What are we willing to do, and suffer, for the sake of a hit of dopamine? What are the consequences of failure to distinguish concrete reality from virtual reality? What must we do to stop giving bullies our lunch money?

Despite the fact that fighting is supposed to enable the men in Fight Club to rise beyond their innocuous existence, it in fact reinforces social order and power relations.

Fight Club & Nietzsche: Overcoming Emasculation: https://youtu.be/NpxHFNvlUmU