There are four means by which we can bootstrap ourselves toward happiness through purposeful action. These include:
~ Alexander Green
“Without AMBITION one starts nothing. Without WORK one finishes nothing. The prize will NOT be sent to you. You have to WIN it. The man who knows HOW will always have a job. The man who also knows WHY will always be his boss. As to methods there may be a million and then some, but PRINCIPLES are few. The man who grasps PRINCIPLES can successfully select his own METHODS. The man who tries METHODS, ignoring PRINCIPLES, is sure to have trouble.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Samurai has long intrigued the world’s imagination.
While much of the writing about the samurai has focused mainly on bloodletting, the samurai’s strict adherence to a code of conduct is packed with many lessons that help to map a path to success.
As Terukeni Uki, a samurai teacher at a martial arts near Tokyo’s Imperial Palace, summed it up, the modern significance of the tradition is to teach the art of winning.
“Here we teach the spirit of winning, but it’s not so much defeating an opponent as overcoming one’s self,” Uki said in an interview with National Geographic.
“These days it seems everyone is looking for someone to blame rather than focusing on himself. We’re told to believe that unless you graduate from the best university and are somehow elite, you’re a loser. Our message is that if you try hard, you will enjoy your life,” he added.
Indeed, in modern times there is lot that can be learned from the ancient spirit of the samurai to cope with the demands of an increasingly harsh and fast-paced world.
1. Know what you want.
Famous for their exploits in battle, the samurai always knew what they wanted, and they went to all the lengths to get it. The samurai knew the danger of dilly-dallying, and that’s why they gave their all to a chosen goal. Like the samurai, you define and refine what exactly you want out of your life. Your purpose must be crystal clear in your mind that you turn neither to the left nor to the right in your quest.
2. Get the right tools.
Before going into battle the samurai always checked his tools, that is, the weapons that he would use to conduct the fight. In the same vein, you must fashion yourself properly in your chosen field. You must do a check on the tools that are required in the battlefield of your chosen contribution to humanity. Without the right tools, you will not be able to get what you want. That is why the samurai always took an inventory of the weapons that were required so that he would not be found wanting at the battlefront.
In addition, you must enhance your skills and competencies before you head out to the playing ground. Preparation is a key ingredient in your quest for achieving your deeply cherished goals.
3. Give it your all.
On the battlefield, the samurai sacrificed everything, including his life. Not to say you have to commit suicide as the samurai did but you must give your all to your chosen path. You have to put in the time and energy to be able to reach your goal. The way of the warrior demands that you stay fully committed and determined to undergo the arduous journey that will lead to success. You absolutely have to give all your mind, heart and soul. Like the samurai, you must refuse to allow obstacles to deter you from following your dream.
4. Stay true to the code.
Values are the lifeblood of success. They help you to determine and even predict the choices that you make especially in times of crisis. You need to define a code that will guide you like a compass on the journey. You must never, never compromise your principles.
5. Be at your best.
The samurai teaches that you cannot do battle when your spirit is half into it, otherwise you expose yourself to the wiles of the enemy. Excellence is not a given, it’s a function of the decisions and choices that you make.
6. Conquer your fear.
When the samurai went to the battlefield, they threw fear to the side, and jumped into battle like a fish into water. Fear is like a virus. It slowly infects, then ravages your whole system, and stops you from going after what you want. But why did samurai throw themselves so wholeheartedly into battle? It is because they were crystal clear about the path they had chosen.
The first thing to know is that we are never born with fear. Rather, our life experiences inject fear into our spirits, little by little, until we become immobilized to take action.
But fear is also a product of having no cause in your life, not dedicating yourself wholly to that which you really want. Hesitation becomes the order of your being.
7. Get out of your way.
Habit is the greatest cancer in the world. It is very to atrophy and yet still get an impression that you are alive. You can be “dead alive,” so to speak. Thinking that you are enjoying your life but in reality you are simply slipping into a cesspit. The way of the warrior is to get out of your own way. Self-sabotage reduces your chances at advancement. In everything that you do, you must strive to choose what really matters.
8. Improve your soul.
The soul is the key to all the world has to offer. There is something in life bigger than the reality of being. Being in itself is a small, non-significant speck of the whole that defines existence. In the beginless, wherein it is begotten, being makes no real choice. Something other than being is responsible for defining factors of the beginless that eventually gives birth to being. The samurai knew that sojourning in the dark valley of being yields no results. That’s why he dedicated to consistently improving the state of the soul.
The philosophies of Buddhism and Zen, and to a lesser extent Confucianism and Shinto, influenced the samurai culture. Zen meditation became an important teaching due to it offering a process to calm one’s mind. The Buddhist concept of reincarnation and rebirth led samurai to abandon torture and needless killing, while some samurai even gave up violence altogether and became Buddhist monks after realizing how fruitless their killings were
9. Dedicate yourself to the arts and nature.
Take a cue from the samurai, and put a spark in your imagination by dedicating yourself to the arts. The arts and nature teach us that there is an endless world outside the miniscule reality of being.
10. A sword never rules.
The best of the samurai knew that real power lies outside the sword but in the spirit — the spirit to conquer self. Nothing can ever be achieved without conquering self. Self is perhaps humankind’s greatest enemy in today’s world. Everyone looks outside self to attach blame for failure in his or her life. They do not realize that they are equally played in contributing to the position that they find themselves in their life.
Conquering self is a life mission. It is something that has to be practiced all the time. The best of the samurai knew that to be able to really and truly master the sword they had to go deeper onto their spirits to master the energy of controlling the sword.
10.1. Be a servant.
The word “samurai” is derived from the archaic Japanese verb “samurai,” changed to “saburau,” meaning “to serve”; thus, a samurai is a servant, that is, the servant of a lord. You must absolutely change the way you think about making a contribution to whatever cause stirs your heart. Being a leader means zero if you have nothing to offer. It’s not about position. The samurai were content to serve their master to achieve a cause, using their skills and competencies. The applied what they knew to the mission that they had identified.
“All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him, but you won’t succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy.”
~ Wayne Dyer, Teacher
“The real winners are not just those at the top but those who have come the farthest over the toughest roads. Your victory may never make the headlines. But you will know about it, and that’s what counts.”
~ Ernest A. Fitzgerald
‘So arm in arms, with arms, we’ll fight this little struggle’
On April 18, 1980, Jamaican musical maestro Bob Marley joined millions of Zimbabweans to celebrate a hard-won independence from oppression.
As part of his tribute he performed the song “Zimbabwe” live in Harare, the capital city. April 18 marked the day on which Zimbabwe’s incumbent leader Robert Mugabe was sworn in as the first prime minister of a people that took over a hundred years to reclaim their freedom from British colonial rule.
Twenty-eight years later Marley’s words in “Zimbabwe” ring with an amazingly prophetic tone. More than anything they speak to his inspired genius and to his ability to understand humanity.
But greater still, they speak to the struggle of how to build a nation from the ashes of oppression in which every human being must be granted a right to decide their own destiny.
“Bob’s story is that of an archetype, which is why it continues to have such a powerful and ever-growing resonance: it embodies political repression, metaphysical and artistic insights, gangland warfare and various periods of mystical wilderness,” states the official Marley Web site.
I couldn’t have put it better.
It was the ability of Marley’s music to tear into the fabric of the sociopolitical establishment of his time that won him so many fans.
With his words Bob Marley was able to open up new human awakenings and, fused into rhythmic yet soothing Jamaican reggae melody, the power of his words went on to inspire millions of people around the world.
The fact that Bob Marley penned a song for Zimbabwe can only mean that he had a special regard for the country in his heart.
By the power of his words, he managed to capture the dream of the people of Zimbabwe and project it onto the world map.
More amazingly his words are so true to the reality in Zimbabwe today. As a Zimbabwean it’s both nostalgic and frightening for me to listen to the words of Marley’s “Zimbabwe.”
Every man got to decide his own destiny
And in this judgement there is no partiality
So arm in arm with arms we’ll fight this little struggle ‘
‘Cause that’s the only way we can over come our little trouble
Brother you’re right.
You’re right.
You’re so right.
You’re right
We go fight (We go fight)
We’ll have to fight (We go fight)
We’re gonna fight (We go fight)
Fight for your rights
Natty dread it in a Zimbabwe
Set it up in Zimbabwe
Mash it up in a Zimbabwe
Africans a liberate Zimbabwe …
Divide and rule could only tear us apart
In every man chest there beats a heart
So soon we’ll find out who is the real revolutionaries
And I don’t want my people to be tricked by mercenaries
On the one hand Bob Marley’s song arouses the joyous reminisces of a newly independent Zimbabwe with a promise of a future of hope, development, democracy and opportunity. On the other hand it mirrors the disintegration of the state of Zimbabwe today.
For me it’s indeed like a surreal paradox. Marley’s song in the current Zimbabwe is no longer a song of liberation but a call to a united front that can confront the dark powers of black-on-black oppression camouflaged in pan-African ideology.
More than just a gifted songwriter and musician, Marley was indeed an inspirational prophet who wanted truth to be told and injustices to stop.
Ironically Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe has ushered a dispensation that is akin to a silent genocide against his own people. Marley must be cringing wherever he is living now with the gods of music.
Presently Zimbabwe has come down to devouring its own people because of the selfishness and greed of its political leaders.
The political leaders care little about the people that they claim to represent. Poverty and suffering have become the order of the day in that beloved nation. All because of the beliefs held by its political leaders.
The belief that we must revenge the evils of the colonial past has killed the country of Zimbabwe. Belief shows itself in action and, if its root is coated with evil, shows itself with an ugly face.
Revenge, oppression and hatred are the currencies turning the wheels in the ramshackle state of Zimbabwe. And as a result many people in the country are dying, like donkeys drinking water at a poisoned well.
Marley asked in one his songs: What happens to a man that kills to save his own belief? That very question is what Zimbabwe’s political leaders need to ask themselves today. The political leaders’ divide-and-rule tactics against the population have made Zimbabwe a laughingstock around the world.
The nation itself is like a house cracking at its foundation. Not many in Zimbabwe today have a right to choose their own destiny. Partiality and cronyism is what the politicians practice. Increasingly it is becoming apparent that ordinary people need to join “arm in arms” to fight for freedom; otherwise, there will be no guarantee of a future of promise.
Only a united Zimbabwe can fight the trouble the nation is facing. But the truth is that the country today lacks true revolutionaries: people who are willing to give up their lives for the cause of freedom, but who will not kill innocent beings for the cause of freedom.
True revolutionaries who dare to dissent at the risk of having their voices cut off. Mugabe’s government has become like a mercenary against the people. But in every Zimbabwean’s heart, the quest of freedom beats constantly.
It’s probably the only right thing about the country today. If the people of Zimbabwe can believe more in the sound of that heartbeat, Marley’s song will reverberate again like a joyful sound.
Freedom must free not just the freedom seeker but those around him. Real revolutionaries, in Marley’s words, are people who do not tolerate any form of injustice or oppression. That message rings true throughout his music, touching the hearts of many freedom fighters around the world.
And in Zimbabwe, Marley’s words could never sound better as a call to progressive action.
”If you’re a man, get cut today”
Male circumcision (the cutting of the foreskin from the male penis) is increasingly gaining currency among medical researchers as an alternative method to reduce HIV-infection.
But will this solution really work?
Researchers say that if all men in sub-Saharan Africa — the worst HIV/AIDS affected region in the world — were circumcised over the next decade, roughly two million new infections and 300 000 deaths could be averted.
An additional 3.7 million new HIV infections and 2.7 million deaths could be avoided in 20 years.
Put simply, while the benefit of male circumcision to an individual man is immediate, a large scale impact of the intervention will be realized in two decades.
AIDS risk lowered by 60%
In fact, evidence from observational studies in sub-Saharan Africa has shown that circumcised men have a lower risk of acquiring HIV infection than uncircumcised men. A study in South Africa showed that male circumcision might reduce by about 60 percent the risk of men contracting HIV through sexual intercourse with women.
The study focused on 3000 HIV-negative, uncircumcised men ages 18 to 24 living in a South African township. Of these, half were randomly selected for circumcision while the other half remained uncircumcised and served as a control group.
For every 10 uncircumcised men who contracted HIV, about three circumcised men contracted the virus. Researchers believed the findings were so significant they deemed it was unethical to proceed without offering the option to all males in the study.
The argument is that the inner surface of the penile foreskin contains Langerhans cells, which have HIV receptors, and is also vulnerable to disruptions during intercourse. Second, an intact foreskin exposes a man to a greater risk of ulcerative sexually transmitted infections, which in themselves are a risk factor for HIV acquisition.
Furthermore, the virus’ chances of survival might be higher in a warm, wet environment like the one under the foreskin.
How will it affect society?
The evidence that circumcision may protect against HIV infection is now considered strong enough that further trials evaluating the efficacy of circumcision as part of an HIV prevention program have been advocated.
This could herald a new era in HIV-prevention methods. But the question remains: what are the societal implications of such a solution?
Male circumcision has been practiced extensively in some sub-Saharan communities in rites of passage ceremonies from boyhood to manhood. The gruesome circumstances under which such practices occur may be exacerbated in the light of this new evidence. Other communities have not practiced it at all.
However, qualitative studies in the Botswana, Haiti, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe revealed positive attitudes toward male circumcision in populations that do not traditionally practice it.
From 45 to 85 percent of uncircumcised men in surveys expressed interest in the procedure if it is safe and affordable. In spite of the interest in male circumcision, it is not a magic bullet in the fight against HIV-infection. To be effective, circumcision has to be promoted alongside condom use and faithfulness, long-established approaches in the fight against HIV.
Education and money will be essential
Some men may be tempted to engage in unprotected sex because they perceive they are protected by male circumcision. And some women may get a false sense of security when having sex with a circumcised man.
In itself, male circumcision provides little or no protection against urethral STDs such as gonorrhea and chlamydia and certainly cannot prevent unwanted pregnancies. This issue will need to be strongly emphasized in social campaigns.
To be successful, male circumcision will have to be complemented by a massive investment into education and counseling programs. There will be need for widespread and culturally sensitive dissemination of information that outlines the benefits and potential complications of male circumcision.
Another danger is that male circumcision can be risky or fatal if conducted by untrained personnel. There’s no doubt that with increased knowledge of male circumcision as a barrier against HIV, many men will try to perform it on their own.
There will be obviously costs involved in getting circumcised which some people will try to circumvent. Circumcising large numbers of adult men will be a major undertaking. If circumcision is not performed correctly it will increase the risk of infection.
A major surgical system infrastructure needs to be developed. Who will fund this and how long will it take? Also, most health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa are in a shambles and ill-equipped to perform widespread male circumcision.
In addition, there’s also lack of social acceptability of circumcision in many of the sub-Saharan communities that have not traditionally practiced it. Besides the safety and acceptability issues, perhaps the greatest drawback is the financial means required to undertake circumcision whole scale.
Male circumcision will come with high costs through social mobilization efforts and upgrading of medical facilities. The more the men get circumcised, the more the success — and that’s tough ground.
Imagine the social marketing message: If you’re a man, get cut today.
“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”
~ Dom Helder Camara
“The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.”
~ Benjamin Disraeli
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Chief K.Masimba Biriwasha
