1

'Why think the cage your whole self, O bird?
When did you forget your wings, and flight?
Are you content to live, singing for seeds
within the confines of the bars?

The door is open, O foolish bird!
(Indeed, it cannot close)
The sky above is your real home,
not here.

Perhaps, up there, you will forget captivity-
just as completely as you seem now to have forgotten flight...?'


Shahab ad-Din Suhrawardi (translated by Kemlyn Munn)
 

------------------------------------------------------------




My name is Mauricio.
I come from a country a long way from yours, where the customs and language are very different,
but where men's hearts are essentially the same.

I was born into a family that could be considered poor, or even rich- all depending on your own experiences and point of view.
We never starved, but we constantly struggled.
In that, we were in the same position as the vast majority of humanity, throughout the greater part of its history.

Praise be, I was alive.
My country had been free from war for many years, and as long as one stayed away from the policed zones, was a place where one could explore the limits of possibility, be creative and change the small world around oneself.

As you can imagine, a young boy of the type I was soon bored with all this, and desired to find greater challenges 'outside'.
Of these, I had many over the years- and indeed our purpose here is to discuss one or two of them.
But for now, I'm getting ahead of myself (I always have been impatient and of short attention span!).


I need to explain something of my family.
We were members of the once powerful, but still influential priest class.
Although my family had degraded, with its fair share of vagabonds, alcholics and madmen (and women!), some of the ancient teachings still pervaded our thoughts, habits and modes of speech (something which I have found of great benefit on no few occasions).

A central part of our heritage was as teachers, both of the wealthy ruling classes, and of select members from the workers' ranks.
We taught the usual stuff (no need to go over too much here), with varied success as always,
very little of which ever interested me.
Apart from, that is, the Sacred War Dance.

At one time, this was a method of training for combat- and could even descend into combat itself,
but it had long since been just a ritual, a motif; a way of expressing the Multiverse symbolically, a moving, physical philosophy...





 Many still believed, however, that it was a valid fighting system.
This they could, because so few of us had lived through real war and violence.

It came as a sudden shock to me, when thrown in the deep end of fists and feet, that our old system wouldn't even allow me to float- let alone swim!

2

The first blow took me completely unawares.
I had been used to people attacking in a set, stylised way.
We had always practiced a particular sequence or pattern in the War Dance, we always knew what was coming and how we should ourselves move.
Here in the cage, it was completely different!







No-one was here for brotherhood or for spiritual growth-
they were here to bash your brains in, throw you on your head, strangle you, twists your limbs beyond their natural range.
Those that were most successful at this won fame, adulation, social standing and wordly riches.
Not to mention the women........oh the women!


I had imagined myself a hereditary warrior, steeped in the highest traditions and methods of combat-
and now I was being thrown around like a child.

People didn't just fall down at the slightest touch like they did in the Dance.
Here you had to put them down, and keep them down!


My learning accelerated at a dizzying pace, as I strove to implement all my faculties to keep from getting squashed underfoot.


Pain- as they say- is a great teacher, and death the most unforgiving of examiners...

3

In the philosophy of the Dance, one must travel through the fire of Eye-Oochi, mutual destruction- the primordial state of beastly violence, aggression and destruction- before being able to fully understand the
elevated goal and state of Eye-Nookay, mutual preservation- the station of saints and angels.

Unfortunately, whilst we had retained the concept of this, the theory, we had let the practice full by the wayside.
We now couldn't fight ourselves out of a wet paper bag!
We even had trouble fighting sleep...  LOL

So, we believed ourselves to be Ascended, beyond the dirt and bustle of the streets-
without having ever passed through or climbed above the lower stages.
Now, some natural impulse was guiding me through the dangers of cagefighting, as a salmon might return to the breeding pool where it was once hatched.

There is no place that ore can be turned to gold, except in the furnace.






For those that do not force themselves to burn, these are of course only words....

4

Naturally, gold itself has uses.
It's place and destiny is not to remain in the flames, though it must pass through this stage on its way home.

A famous and mighty hero of ours, from the days when our tribe were really warriors and not just imaginary knights, said this after the epic battle which made his name and freed a good part of the world-

'The fight we have just taken part in represents only the Lesser Struggle.
The Greater Struggle now awaits us- the internal struggle one must fight and win with oneself....'


Everything is within us.
Everything must be experienced and explored.
Our inclination is to avoid difficulty, to hide from the darkness.

Our fantasies and wishes will always remain just that.
Our Duty and Goals will remain....


Only the hard and twisting path leads to the top of the mountain...



 

5

We now are at a point in time, where our species has the power to completely destroy itself-
or to create itself anew.

This choice cannot be just theoretical; the best ideas in the world go nowhere without effort and application.


People of thought must also become people of action,
and people of action must also become people of thought.


Of course, we don't all need to experiment with being cagefighters to realise our lives (thankfully!),
but we all need to struggle, to suffer and to get our hands dirty- somewhere along the line.


If we are to look down and guide the Work from above (as someone must),
we need to understand this same Work from below (where most are).



One cannot learn to swim without getting wet,
and the journey doesn't magically make itself.



Put on your shoes and start walking to wherever you need to go!
To where we all need to go.........no?



The cage door is open,
why be content with comfort and ease- when you can fly?