The Birth of Tragedy

In my life, I can do both music and art and not concentrate on money or fame or women.  I don't need results, I need happiness, contentment, productivity, and a sense of accomplishment. 

I know I have been doing music for 25 years and art for 4 years or so.  I graduated Art school in mid 2015 and started using Photoshop in 2017 to digitally color my drawings.

I don't need to choose between art and music.  I can do both.  Ultimately, I enjoy music more.  Rhythm and blues is the music of the slaves, and is in touch with the tragedy of life.  Art is more like a hobby to me that supplements what I do as a musician.  But art is a vital hobby, and neglecting it is a big mistake.

I also did shootfighting and judo most of my adult life, and judo leads to the Gendai Budo, which leads to Aikido.  The word 'Aikido' literally means 'the way to harmonize the spirit'.  It is not just wrestling with weapons or pinning people face down.  It is a system of training your mind, body, and spirit in the mastery of the self.  The good Aikido man can win without a fight, and if forced into a physical confrontation, wins without harming anyone.  Fighting against multiple opponents is a myth.  Aikido is weapons grappling the way Judo is the original sport grappling.  In Japan, there is a form of Aikido that uses randori or free-fighting.  It is called Tomiki Aikido.

Tomiki was a Japanese man who trained with Jigoro Kano and had a black belt in judo.  He incorporated some of Kano's training methods into his Aikido teaching and formed a unique variant of Aikido.  Sparring and competition is not real fighting, it is a training method for building timing and reflexes in a martial artist.  Jigoro Kano was a huge innovator when he invented Judo.  It is an eastern combat sport with a live method of winning and losing.  In that way, it is more similar to boxing and wrestling and less similar to kung fu or tai chi.

Aikido is not just self defense, it is a method of training the spirit.  A real human being wants to avoid violence at all costs, and if forced to defend himself, do as little damage to both parties as possible.

So Music, Aikido, and Art are important activities to me.  And I use the word activity because hobby is a word that implies it is just for fun. 

Nietzsche wrote a book called, 'The Birth of Tragedy' in which he compares Art and Music.  He equated art with Apollo and music with Dionysus.  Art is about beauty, light, splendor, youth, and innocence, Music is dark, moody, intangible, erotic, emotional, and has to be experienced.  So it is fair to equate art with Apollo the God of Light and music with Dionysus, the dying God of Ritual Madness and Ecstasy. 

I like all manners of creative expression, and now that I am older, physical performance is declining.  So I am getting more creative.  I like playing guitar, singing, watching music videos, using Spotify, and even looking at photos of famous musicians.  There is a visual element to music, because human beings are primarily visual.  The musician has to be attractive, photography is a big part of music, albums need cover art, and even music can be learned visually by memorizing chords and scales and then later developing your ear. 

So I prefer music over art.  But most of all, I like the lifestyle of a Zen yogi.  You start in health and you end in spirituality.  Nutrition should be the first thing you teach a child, attaining kensho and being free from rebirth is the ultimate goal of life.  Between health and spirituality, you should master something.  A skill is a vocation, and if you take 20 years to master a skill, you can be very successful and famous.  I've done music for over 25 years and grappling for over 22 years.  So my education did not help me, but my hobbies did. 

But what really helped me most was what I did first.  I attained kensho, and I attained freedom from rebirth and immortality of the spirit.  You don't have to believe me when you read this, you don't even need to understand this.  Just don't assume I am wrong or crazy. 

When I die, I will attain bliss.  That is something better than going to heaven.  But regardless of whether I am alive or dead, I am happy, and this is the most important thing.  In a world of suffering people, I am happy, and this is a huge accomplishment.  So I don't need more money or more women.

Nietzsche was a brilliant mind, and from his work, Psychology was born.  I also draw inspiration from Nietzsche, but look at him as someone who was extremely gifted but also extremely flawed.  He didn't believe in God, angels, morality, reincarnation, enlightenment, or a purpose to life.  That is what Psychology, Medicine, Science, and the West is lacking.  This is a big flaw, so Psychology has a big flaw.  You can't acquire faith.  It can't be bought either.  You are either empowered with faith or you are not.

So say what thou will, Nietzsche had a lot of insight and both art and music is part of a healthy, sane, and fulfilled life.