With that said I'd like to give you a bit on info about myself and how I came to live the way I do.....
For most of my life I have had a love affair with ancient cultures as well as a great fascination with the religions attached to them. When it came to religion specifically I preferred a very "hands on" approach. As a result I have worshiped with modern Druids and cast circles with the Wicca. I have even prayed to the God of the Bible and bowed before Allah as well as seen Lucifer as the brilliant rebel he should be. I rummaged through faith structure after faith structure all in search of something more... something profound. In the end I realized the problem with faith structures is that they are based on faith. Faith; that ill defined, easily corrupted idea so powerless before the stark frame of reality. No matter how hard I tried to shut my eyes to reality my skeptics mind forced the need for empirical data to the forefront. Eventually I could no longer fight it and I was left to come to terms with the fact that regardless of my desire the world is devoid of deity and for the most part western religions are superstition and hokum.
For a short time I was left bereft and cynical towards all things. I was angry because a void was left in me that still desperately needed something more.... something profound. Then without warning I somehow found myself in the East in a metaphorical sense. For months I dwelt among the monks and the samurai of Japan. It was in the pages of Musashi's Book of the Five Rings, Munenori's Life Giving Sword and of course Takuan's Unfettered Mind that I found an elegant if not visceral code of conduct. It was a way of life that fit my virtues. It allowed me to question, it allowed me to love and it also allowed me the opportunity to be the unattached killer that I knew I could be if the need ever arose.
Through the wisdom of the monk Takuan I was given introduction to the concept of Zen. Though I detested religion Zen, in its purest sense, could not be defined as such. Certainly it had its cult tendencies and it's traditions but it lacked one fundamental thing. It lacked dogma, in fact it outright abhorred it. Zen encouraged the practitioner to push past all things including Zen itself in order to live fully in the moment.
Through the Wisdom of Musashi I learned how to walk the path of a warrior. I learned to be aware and in the present. I became ready to fight and in necessary die for what I felt was just.. I became aware the mortality is fleeting and that understanding this helps one live each day to the fullest extent possible.
This helped me define myself as a Godless Samurai. I do my best to live live in the moment each and every day. I refuse to be a victim of circumstance and as a man who knows that each day could indeed be his last. I take the world at face value and realize that the sacred is not something removed from the natural world; it is the natural world in all its simple glory.
On top if that I am a huge nerd. I love comics, video games, tabletop RPG's and Science Fiction. I love Star Wars, Star Trek and Dr. Who. I am a tech junkie and were I a wealthier man I'd have the latest and greatest in iParaphernalia among other fun toys.
In the end this blog is for my catharsis as much as anything. Hopefully anyone who runs across it will, at the very least, find my ramblings entertaining.
