A Swift Kick In The Soul: Recent Episodes
Hillel Norry
A talented teacher and story-teller with parallel expertises in creativity, music, Judaism, and Taekwondo describes how spiritual practice influences martial artists, and the martial arts transform spiritual knowing...so you can become a better human.
You'll hear something worth thinking about, I promise.
This week I had the opportunity to teach an online group of Christians from a local church. After a discussion of theology, scripture, and spiritual practice, they asked if I had any wisdom to share regarding these difficult times. Here is what I shared with them.
We explore the provocative topic of weapons, and what I like about them. We explore all kinds of weapons, their function, lethality, and aesthetic as force multipliers, and how they can be understood spiritually.
An unfiltered "behind the scenes" conversation about how to start a particular episode. Along the way, Marshall learns some Hebrew grammar.
Injuries. We talk about the impact of injuries, how to recover from them, and what are some examples of spiritual injuries. I suggest that there is a lot we can learn in our spiritual and religious life from how we deal with injuries on and off the mat.
Marshall and I talk about the Hebrew word Kavanah, and the role of focus, direction, concentration, and aim in developing the meaning and purpose of our devotional and martial practice.
Almost every mastery can be measured by speed. How fast you can do something is a measure of your ability. But speed also blurs imperfections, and sometimes slowing down is what we need. How fast is fast enough?
We talk about the value of building a foundation through scales, sketches, footwork, ball handling, and reciting Psalms.
We discuss the spiritual message of Dick Fosbury and other masters who made it their own.
It only seemed right in our first episode to talk about beginnings. I am not a runner, but in this episode, I pose the question - When is the race won? At the beginning, the middle, or the end. On your mark. Get set. GO!