Nature's Way to Peaceful Space

In a recent Post I talked about the game played with my youngest son. The game about what God has created and what man has made. There is something very mysterious, almost magical about our natural environment. If you get it, we can pass it on to the children. In the midst of a cosmos fueled by unimaginable and often destructive forces, you and I sit on this sphere of dynamic energy, products of its life-giving powers. And throughout our lives we remain related-to, connected-to, and dependent upon this sphere that Dr. M. and the Enia call Ile Inurere (the House and Home of Humanity). The Earth and her many environments and forces have an affect on us, mentally and physically, as the Mysterious Dr. M. points out in the Handbook. We share a quantum connection with the earth and with the thread of her garments. We are related-to, connected-to, and dependent upon the Ile Inurere because the earth, air, fire, water, wood, and iron that are woven into the design of her garments are also woven into the design of our garments. We are her children! Each of us finds comfort, meaning, inspiration, and peace in one of the layers of her robes. Some of us are keenly aware of a shift in our energy when we are around bodies of water, like oceans, rivers, or lakes. Some of us have a particular energetic response to mountainous areas covered in foliage or dry desert rock. For some of us the environment of personal cultivation is a wooded area full of tall, awe-inspiring trees with brilliant seasonal colors. Like our animal and plant relatives, we can have strong reactions (positive or negative) to wind, rain, fog, lightning, temperature, and other shifts in the dynamic forces that sustain the garment of Ile Inurere, of which we are a part. Clouds can cause a shift in your mood and your health, the direction of the shift depending on whether or not you are a Cloud Person (someone who tends to have a strong reaction to all manner of cloudy skies) and what kind of Cloud Person you happen to be, positive or negative. When we are seeking Peaceful Space each of us has a natural environment that we can go to where we can be nurtured into our Healing Place. It’s important to know what that environment is and then to go there when you need renewal, rejuvenation, and vitality.

Your Ase, the field of energy that defines your Energy Signature, shifts when you are around animals, plants, children, adults, or the seniors of our kind. Being aware of these shifts is an important part of understanding the special way you need to plug into the energy field that feeds all things on this planet. Those select environments that allow you to potentiate Ase are a part of who you are and who you have to potential to be in the world. It is as important for you to plug into your Energizing Environments (EEs) as it is for you to drink water, eat food, and sleep. Every aspect of your being requires that you draw energy through your EE periodically.

Few of us are wealthy enough to be able to design our homes to bring nature right into our rooms. Sometimes people need to relocate to a different environment in order to blossom, maybe from hot to cold, maybe from cold to hot, maybe from highland to low land or vice versa. We all have EEs but it is different for each individual, even in the same family. I have a sister who lives in New York and the cold is a no-no for me! Moving to a warmer climate was a good thing for me. Many of us have no problem making the choice about the general climate in which we want to live. However, we often forget that we need shifts in our environment on a regular basis. Man-made environments and natural environments are not the same. Being in your home is not the same as being in a park, garden, or field. You can go from home, to your car, to your day office or school, to your car again, and to your evening school or work, and to your car again, to home, and to bed, and then repeat that process for days, sometimes weeks, maybe months before you plug into your Energizing Environment. Increasingly, we are equipping ourselves with all of the gadgets necessary to stay in our homes, cars, offices, and classrooms, and avoid all contact with our natural world. This trend will have a profound effect on our physical and mental evolution as well as on our social development and environmental consciousness.

Perhaps you are what the Enia would call an Omo Eshu, Child of Eshu, who thrives with opportunities to travel, draws energy from bright colored clothes, and has a need to be outside, in the open, and unrestricted by confined places. In confined places restricting circumstances your sense of humor, your knack for practical jokes, your sensuality, and your sense of right and wrong would all be negatively affected. Or perhaps you are an Omo Ogun who is attracted to metal, woods, and mountains. Spending time working or playing with metal, and time in the woods or mountains periodically will help you to maintain your profound sense of right and wrong, your enjoyment of physical things, your inclination to ‘do’ rather than talk about doing, and your strong physique.

You may be an Omo Obatala and find your Energizing Environment in being alone around your home during a beautiful sunset or other significant change in the weather, or perhaps in a garden or yard, or on a rooftop looking at the stars, or maybe in a familiar park near your home. This alone time helps you to think, to feed your love of new ideas, to nurture and reflect on your sense of justice and honor, and to mentally rejuvenate. Without this alone time in quiet places you may lose mental potency, your nerves may fray easily, you may disengage from your regular and desired routine and activities, and you may be prone to headaches and head colds. Knowing the location of your EE is as important as knowing your birth date or social security number.

One of the benefits of the Traditional Martial and Healing Arts [TMHA] as a developmental tool for educating our children is that these arts nurture a healthy attitude towards the natural environment and teaches each student of their special place as a thread in the garments of Ile Inurere. TMHA teaches the Prime Directive by encouraging students to see themselves as part of the whole, with special benefits derived from the whole and special responsibilities owed to the whole. Creating Peaceful Space for yourself and others requires effort in a world so charged with negativity. Spending time in your natural Energizing Environment is the way to start with you. Pay attention to yourself as you move from one environmental experience to another. Observe how your energy shifts until you hone in on your ideal natural Energizing Environment.

To be continue!

To all my readers, Have a blessed, safe, and wonder-filled Holiday and New Year!

Living in alignment with the Prime Directive

is a choice to which everyone should be invited!
You have been invited!

Create Peaceful Space! 
Trust Your Process!

Peace, Love, and Health!

Preview The Handbook On Being Human, vol. I 

Nurturing The Way of Peace

In the Handbook On Being Human, the Mysterious Dr. M. talks about the value of Traditional Martial and Healing Arts training for our children. To some it might seem like a contradiction to look to the martial arts to discover and nurture The Way of Peace. But if you understand the purpose and content of Traditional Martial and Healing Arts training you will see that there is a paradox but not a contradiction. A paradox is a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true. A paradox is a situation, person, or thing that actually combines or integrates apparently contradictory features or qualities.


In the book, “Wu-Te, A Guide for Parents: Why Train Your Children in Traditional Martial and Healing Arts?” the author states, “As the soldier prepares to meet and defeat the enemies of the state, the traditional martial artist daily meets and defeats the enemies of the self. The Traditional Martial and Healing Arts turns the practitioners’ attention away from the mundane and trifling annoyances of daily life, and instead focuses their attention on the higher aspirations and possibilities of the self.” According to Da Mo, one of the patriarchs of the Shaolin Temples of China (one of the foremost centers of traditional martial arts training in the world) ‘we practice the martial arts to develop the qualities of discipline, restraint, humility, respect for human life, and the principle of Do No Harm’.


Having studied and taught the traditional martial arts for the past 40 years, I’ve experienced and witnessed the profound benefit that these disciplines have brought into the lives of thousands of students. And every day I become increasingly aware of the dire need that the youth of today have for an experience and a teaching that will help them to unlock their unique inner potential and to realize their connection and responsibility to the larger social order and environment. Training in the Traditional Martial and Healing Arts has rescued thousands of youth from drugs, crime, a sense of hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness. It has nurtured in them a sense of pride, purpose, confidence, courage, discipline, respect, kindness, patience, humility, and determination.


We have a responsibility to teach our children how to live together in peace and how to be good caretakers of this magnificent planet that they will inherit (if we don’t destroy it first). The word traditional distinguishes martial arts training from mere self-defense training and fighting or combat techniques. Traditional Martial and Healing Arts training embodies a philosophy that nurtures the highest aspects of human character and potential. According to the late and great founder of the Art of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, the Way of Peace begins with you (the individual). It requires that you work on yourself and your appointed task. As Dr. M. points out in the Handbook, everyone has a spirit and personality that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow or Destiny Mandate that they are driven to realize. Our children are not here simply to be consumers of the endless and latest array of products that appear in the marketplace. They are here for no other purpose than to realize their inner divinity, to manifest their innate enlightenment, and to achieve their Destiny Mandate. These are the same reasons that you and I chose to come into this world.


We are here to nurture and foster Peaceful Space. The thousands of Traditional Martial and Healing Arts schools across the United States and the tens of thousands around the world are places where children (and adults) can learn how to discipline themselves, control their appetites, face their fears, overcome their weaknesses, recognize and build upon their strengths. These schools, temples, and dojos (rooms or halls for martial arts practice) are places that nurture the virtues of humility, kindness, patience, and diligence. Students of the Traditional Martial and Healing Arts learn that one does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art or Way of Peace. They learn that heaven is right where they are standing in any given moment, and that is the place to train some aspect of their mind, body, or spirit. They learn the critical lesson embodied in the Prime Directive. That is, all things, material and spiritual, originate from one source and are related as if they are one family. Likewise, the past, present, and future are all contained in the life force or quantum field of energy as Dr. M. explains in the Handbook On Being Human. The students of the Traditional Martial and Healing Arts learn that the universe emerged, developed, and is sustained by one source, and we evolve through the optimal process of harmonious integration, that is, Interrelatedness, Interconnectedness, and Interdependence. As Ueshiba said, the Way of a Warrior is based on humanity, love, and sincerity; the heart of martial valor is true bravery, wisdom, love, and friendship. Emphasis on the physical aspects of the Way of the Warrior is futile, for the power of the body is always limited. The Way of the Warrior must be the Way of Peace.


Traditional Martial and Healing Arts training is a wonderful way to rescue our children from the addiction of consumerism and the stupor of technology intoxication. It is a venue where they can learn to internalize the Prime Directive and how to Create Peaceful Space.

Living in alignment with the Prime Directive

is a choice to which everyone should be invited!
You have been invited!

Create Peaceful Space! 
Trust Your Process!

Peace, Love, and Health!

Preview The Handbook On Being Human, vol. I 

Ref: The Art of Peace, Morihei Ueshiba, translated by John Stevens, Shambhala Pocket Classics, ISBN: 0-87773-851-3