Archive for Eugen Herrigel

Story of O

Posted in Pornography, Reading with tags , , , , , , , , on September 14, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

‘…for as a matter of principle he was participating in whatever might be demanded of or inflicted on her, and that it was he who possessed and enjoyed her through those into whose hands she had been given, by the simple fact he had given her to them.

‘She must greet them and submit to them with the same respect with which she greeted him, as though they were so many reflections of him. Thus he would possess her as a god possesses his creatures, who he lays hold of in the guise of a monster or a bird, of an invisible spirit or a state of ecstasy.

‘He gave her only to… reclaim her enriched in his eyes, like some common object which had been used for some divine purpose and has thus been consecrated.’

Story of O, P.31.

There is a special category of books I love into which Story of O falls, along with Hubert Selby Junior’s Last Exit to Brooklyn. These are books I HATED the first time I read them, went away and thought about, re-read and then discovered they had completely rewrought the way I thought. As books, they actually pushed me out of one phase of psychological maturity and into another. Continue reading →

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Zen in the Art of Archery

Posted in Fitness, Kickboxing, Writing with tags , , , , on August 1, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

More than almost any other book, Zen in the Art of Archery has shaped the way I live – and experience – life. Continue reading →

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Discipline

Posted in Kickboxing, Reading, Writing with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 15, 2010 by Jarrod Boyle

dis·ci·pline //  (d s -pl n)

n.

1. Training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement.

2. Controlled behavior resulting from disciplinary training; self-control.

3.

a. Control obtained by enforcing compliance or order.

b. A systematic method to obtain obedience: a military discipline.

c. A state of order based on submission to rules and authority: a teacher who demanded discipline in the classroom.

4. Punishment intended to correct or train.

5. A set of rules or methods, as those regulating the practice of a church or monastic order.

6. A branch of knowledge or teaching.

tr.v. dis·ci·plined, dis·ci·plin·ing, dis·ci·plines

1. To train by instruction and practice, especially to teach self-control to.

2. To teach to obey rules or accept authority. See Synonyms at teach.

3. To punish in order to gain control or enforce obedience. See Synonyms at punish.

4. To impose order on: needed to discipline their study habits.

Definition taken from the free online dictionary

(Please ignore the aspects relating to compliance or submitting to authority, because I certainly don’t advocate or believe in that).            

I am endlessly fascinated with the development of skill as the means for undertaking the profound existential journey. Regardless of what it is, almost; whether it’s building a wall as in Solzhenitsyn’s ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’, reaping a harvest as in Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina’ or even a seagull obsessed with flying, as in Richard Bach’s ‘Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.’ Continue reading →

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