Getting To The Point: From Marketing, To Martial Arts, To Yoga, To Zen.

What is real? 
What is truth?

Since adolescence, I have always been preoccupied with the quest for what is real; inevitably leading me to question what is true. I would often fill my time with thoughts of the ultimate truth; that being our inescapable demise (death). A morose thought for someone as young as I was to be thinking of such things, but it’s what has catapulted me to both not waste time and to enjoy the fleeting feeling of each moment. It wasn’t until I attended university and began studying Marketing that I was first introduced to the earth-shattering concept of relativity. The impetus to the demise of both reality and truth.

As my journey furthered along, I had also stumbled upon other outlets of skewed objectivity; from Martial Arts, to Yoga, to now Zen (the ultimate truth).

Marketing is the practice of selective skewing. It’s a practice of framing. Not to turn something so material into something spiritual, but understanding Marketing (which I continually base my foundation upon) is what has set me up for understanding that all truth is relative. And if truth becomes relative, then it’s not really truth at all—because there is no truth.

Martial Arts is a more direct pursuit of truth. It seeks to maximize the moment by engaging each practitioner in a heightened state of combat, so much so that truth seems to not matter at all. Truth becomes more of a background function, white noise if you will, to the reality that—if you lost, you lost—then that becomes your truth. Martial Arts is understanding that truth is based upon past results. Either I tapped you out, or I didn’t. That becomes what was true. Results afford truth; yet, such truth is always fleeting and dependent from moment to moment.

Yoga is a portrait of truth. It takes the reality of what we believe, devoid of hard science and presents it as a painting, or a poetic interpretation of truth. From the granthis, to chakras, to asanas, to altered states of consciousness; Yoga allows for the manipulation of the first person interpretation of truth. It finds truth, not by knowing the cogito, but by experiencing it. Truth is a personal experience between you and you, alone.

Finally, Zen. The ultimate truth. The dissolution of all other truths to let go of the pursuit entirely. What truth is there when you are fully engaged in the present moment? You can either be here, or you cannot. For, in the eyes of the fully present, there is no truth—only being. But to the one who has lax’d in their pursuit of truly being here, they are the ones who have become separate in order to reflect, review, and (ultimately) think. In the eyes of the Zen practitioner, just like in the eyes of the child, there is no truth. What truth can there be when you’re having fun? There is no death for the Zen practitioner, only a death of the mind. A cessation and a realization that the pursuit has come full circle. Just as children know, we must now remember…

wait… what was I talking about again?

-all life is a celebration, we’ve just been at the party so long we’ve come to forget it!