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Character Study By Scott Shaw

By Scott Shaw

I, of course, am a practitioner of Zen Filmmaking. Zen Filmmaking is all about embracing the naturalness of the moment—allowing your portrayed character to exist in the spontaneity and genuineness of the moment. Thus, the words you speak, while in character, and the actions your take are all guided by the response to what the other actor is saying and where you find the life understanding of your character naturally flowing towards.

Traditional acting is much different from that. A person is told what their character is to be—how they should look, act, feel, and behave. They are then provided with the words their character should say and the way their character should speak those words; all defined by the script.

In many ways, this is a much harder process. In many ways, it is much more unnatural. That is why I devised Zen Filmmaking—to embrace the true essence of the individual to let them be who they truly are while portraying the someone else.

But, there is a great art to actually becoming the someone else. It takes time. It takes practice.

I think we have all seen actors on the screen doing a very bad job in their portrayal. Sure, they are dressed appropriately. Sure, they have memorized their lines. But, they have not become the character they are playing. And, from this, there is something lost in the believability of the character and, thus, with the entire production.

As an actor, every now and then, I am asked to act in a traditional production. I am given my script and I must learn my lines. For me, it is a fun, enlightening experience because I must become that someone else. As I am running my lines I try to emerge myself into the mindset of that character. I try to understand who that person truly is. I try to become that person.

More than simply a process used in acting, I believe this is a technique that people should bring into their life. Ask yourself, how often do you truly try to understand life from the perspective of the other person? How often do you put yourself in their shoes and take the time to try to understand life from the perspective that they are living it? Most people just judge. They just see others from their own perspective, never trying to see the life melodrama that the other person is living.

So, next time you are passing judgment on a person… Next time you think that you know what someone is feeling and why they are feeling it… Next time you believe that you know why a person is doing what they are doing, become that other person. Put yourself into their mind. Become them as a character you are playing on the silver screen. Put yourself into their shoes. If you do, I am sure that you will come away with a completely different perspective about who they truly are and why they are doing what they are doing. In fact, by mentally becoming them as a character you are portraying, you might even emerge with a better perspective about who you truly are.

Copyright © 2019—All Rights Reserved

 Scott Shaw Zen Filmmaking

Scott Shaw Writings on Zen, Yoga, and Human Consciousness

Wikipedia and You Can Only Play in Your Own Playground By Scott Shaw

By Scott Shaw

         Like I have long said, “You can only play in your own playground.” You can/should only play in your own playground if you want to keep yourself: friends and family safe and not be accosted by the diabolical forces of the world.

         You know, once upon a time this ideology applied to the actual physical safety of an individual. I hate to sound old, (even though I am), but life was not necessarily better way back in the way back when but it was certainly a bit simpler.  A person was defined by where they lived and where they hung out. Me, (unfortunately), I grew up in the hood, so I was always accosted by danger the moment I stepped outside and I never knew where it would come from. It wasn’t fun. But, that was all outside. If I didn’t go out into the out and about, I would not have to be forced to fight. Now, the danger is different. It comes to attack from inside. Of course, I am speaking about the world of the internet.

         You know, I always find life, (my life included), very interesting and sometimes very strange. Most people live in a space of observances. They look outside of themselves hoping to find something that will make them feel the way they wish to feel. Most people are cool. They just look for normal things that they decide they like. But, then there are those who want to feel some sort of something and they venture into the realms where they can extend their control. Many do this via the internet. Where, as we all know, there are very few rules of defined appropriate codes of conduct and behavior.

         Me, I don’t surf the web too much. Only if I am looking for something specific. I check my Facebook most days, unless I am out of the country or off doing something more important, and my Instagram. There, I like to look at fun animal photos and videos. I’m not on the internet to preach, debate, fight, or tell someone/anyone what they should or should not believe. So, the thing is, unless I am told about a situation that involves me in cyberspace, I probably wouldn’t even know about it.  And, I think that’s better; isn’t it? Not knowing. Then you are living in a world free from the unnecessary agitation.

         Anyway, all this rambling brings me to the point of all this…

         I’ve never really been a fan of Wikipedia. From its early days forward, as far as I can tell, it is just a platform that is controlled by a bunch of people who have nothing better to do and want to force their opinion(s) onto someone else. They want their truth and their perception of reality to be the truth, whether it actually is the truth or not.  Sure, Wikipedia has its checks and balances. But, who controls those checks and balances? A bunch of unknown cyber people whose faces you will never see. Many of them are teenagers. People, who have moved up and through the Wikipedia ranks because they really don’t have anything better to do. They just edit all day, everyday. Yet, in that space, they can control the knowledge of the masses. That’s a pretty powerful thing, don’t you agree?

         I remember when Wikipedia was in its early stages and I found it on the web one day. I forget how. I noticed an article about Steven Seagal. The article totally tore the guy apart. I thought that was pretty uncool.

         Now, I have no feelings about Seagal one way or the other. I initially met him a million years ago when he was studying from Fumio Demura and then I ran into him again in Japan in the ‘80s. I thought his early films were pretty good.  But, that was that. On Wikipedia, however, somebody had torn the guy apart. My thought was, how is that an honest biography or portrayal? Anyway, as anyone could and can edit Wikipedia, I decide to try my hand at it and I cleaned up Seagal’s bio. You know, do a good deed and all that… A day or so later I looked back at the page and it was once again the scathing portrayal. Someone had undone all of my doing. That was the last time I ever edited on Wikipedia. What was the point? I guess things have gotten better over the years on Wikipedia, but it is still based upon the fact that anyone can edit, say whatever they want, and there is no true checks and balances.

         For those of you who may not know, if you ever want to see who said what and why on Wikipedia all you have to do it go to the View History button on the page. From there you can find a listing of all of the edits. If you follow through by clicking on the, "Contribs," link after the screen name of the person who made a specific edit, you can commonly see what type of edits they focus on and what they are trying to personally achieve on Wikipedia. As each editor does have an agenda, you can really observe what contribution (or lack thereof) they are trying to make on the platform.

         One of the main things to keep in mind is that, on the education level, you cannot use Wikipedia as a citable resource. That fact alone explains the nature of what is going on at that website. In fact, Wikipedia itself says, Wikipedia is not a reliable source. Click on that title to see what Wikipedia says about itself.

         Thus, I have always been anti-Wikipedia. The website is based on love or hate and personalities, not the truth. …Not the people who have lived what other people are writing about.

         For someone very famous like Seagal, he has a lot of fans and supporters. And, this is good, I guess. It is what keeps his page on the site somewhat in check. But, what about all the other people that are not really famous who have pages on there? Then, it is a free for all. 

         Somewhere along the line someone put a page up about me on Wikipedia. Initially, it was flattering, but I quickly saw the downside. Every now and then someone would let me know that there was some false information or some seriously derogatory statements made about me on the page. Me, not being all that well-known, I don’t really have all that many supporters. A number of years ago I was told that there was a crew of people working out of Raleigh Studios that were obsessing about Zen Filmmaking and they were playing with Zen Films and my stuff on Wikipedia. At least they were operating from a space of positivity. But, most of the people who like what I say or do are usually very Zen. They don’t charge in with guns blazing. Of the people that do like what I do, and have tried to help my Wikipedia page, I am told that they have been shot down by the more obsessional Wikipedians. In fact, a number of years ago one of my martial arts students from the 1970s and 1980s was on there, making edits to martial art pages, and he told me they kicked him off by making up some lie about him. So, that just goes to show you the nature of the beast. Thus and again, “You can only play in your own playground.”

         I was recently told that there was some negative editing going on about Don Jackson, myself, and some of our films that have pages on Wikipedia. I glanced over at the pages and it looks like someone is trying to make some point, take down some facts, spread some falsehoods, and/or to diminish and rip on DGJ and I and/or our films. Okay… Good for you whoever you may be. If it makes you feel better…

         And, that's the thing, the people who have learned the inner workings of Wikipedia know how to throw shade and make it look like what they are saying is for real. But, is it?

         I mean, the reality of life is the reality of life. The reality of me is the reality of me. Kind of like Popeye used to say in that funny accent the person who voiced the character used, “I am what I am.” Does what they say on Wikipedia change any of that?

         Mostly, I wish I didn’t even have a page on a site like Wikipedia. If you know how to take it down, please do. Does it really do my life any good? I don’t think so. It certainly doesn't help my life in any way. It just provides the people with nothing better to do a place to waste time and not face the truth about their own reality and, instead, spent their Life Time attempting to cast their judgments on the all and the everything, as they project their feelings about a person or a subject in the subtle ways that can only be done via Wikipedia.

         In my mind, that's just not right. That is not what a site like Wikipedia should be used for.

         So, if you see some negativity or bullshit on Wikipedia about me (or anyone else) you can change it if you want. Anyone can edit on that site. Go for it! I thank you in advance. But please, don’t think that you’re helping me by telling me when some bullshit is up there about me, because I just don’t want to know. Just let me play in my own playground.

Copyright © 2019—All Rights Reserved

Originally from the Scott Shaw Zen Blog

Scott Shaw Writings on Zen, Yoga, and Human Consciousness

Is Scott Shaw a Nihilist?

By Scott Shaw

            I was cruising down the coast between Santa Barbara and L.A. a couple of weeks ago with this sweet young lady. She was looking at her twitter feed and she noticed that somebody had quoted me.

            It is pretty common that people quote my books, Zen O’clock, About Peace, and Nirvana in a Nutshell on twitter, because they are made up of short spiritual aphorisms.

            Anyway, she noticed that somebody had commented on the original tweet, “That sounds pretty nihilistic.”

            She turned and asked me, “What does nihilistic mean?”

            Her question made me smile due to the fact that she didn’t know what nihilism was.

            I gave her the basic off-the-cuff definition… Someone who is nihilistic believes that life has no absolute meaning and that religions and philosophies hold no absolute truth.

            “Are you nihilistic,” she asked.  Again, I smiled.

            Do I believe that life holds an absolute meaning? No.

            Do I believe that religion possesses an absolute truth? No.

            Do I believe in a specific religion or philosophy? No.

            Does that make me a nihilist? Maybe… But, I think it is a bit more complicated than that.  By nature, I am extremely optimistic. I believe in people. I believe in goodness. I believe that people will make the right choices and do the right things — even though I have been proven wrong time and time again.  But, I still believe!

            So, is Scott Shaw a nihilist? Maybe. But, as a nihilist that would mean that I also don’t believe in absolute definitions.  So, the whole question possesses no merit.

            Ultimately, if Scott Shaw is a nihilist, he is an optimistic one. :-)

This is Life.

This is Zen

This is Scott Shaw Signing Out.

 

Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved 

 

Scott Shaw Writings on Zen, Yoga, and Human Consciousness

They’re the Ones Talking About Me I’m Not the One Talking About Them By Scott Shaw

By Scott Shaw

            Long ago I coined the statement, “You know you’re famous when people you’ve never met say things about you that aren’t true.” This came about when I read an article someone had written about me that was full of unsubstantiated falsehoods and flat out untruths. Yet, the person who wrote it had the appearance of being credentialed in his field and presented the paper in a very formulated format. Though the reading of it amused me to no end, I later began to contemplate how someone who didn’t know me and read it would believe the false words to be fact, not fiction. And, here is where the problem(s) begin…      

            Ever since I first began writing poetry, novels, articles, books, painting, and making music and movies, people began to draw conclusions about me. This is a fact of life, when you create, people who love, hate, or don’t care about what you create are going to come to their own conclusions about your work and yourself; be they true or false.

            In times gone past, opinions were kept to one’s circle of friends. If you were going to send your opinion about a person or their creation to a magazine, more times than not, the magazine would fact-check the writing before it was ever published. This is the world I grew up in. Throughout my studies at the various universities I attended and later when I began to be published as a journalist and an author, what I wrote had to possess a verifiable factual essence. You had to prove what you said. Then came the age of the Internet and the publish-on-demand world of printing. Anybody could say anything and there is no one there to challenge what a person says. Sure, you can get into twitter wars with a person but what is the point? People believe what they choose to believe, whether it be true or not.

            The fact is, in today’s world, when someone says something about somebody that is not based in fact, the lie simply continues to spread. I have seen one person say something about me that was completely untrue and then I have seen that same statement quoted by another and another. All false, yet it is presented as if it were the truth, when it is not.

            This is the thing about the life of the creative… The creative, create. The others talk about those who create.

            Whenever I teach a university class or a seminar I always pose the question to my students, “Who do you want to be? The creative or those who talk about the creative?”

            In a world where you can say anything about anybody with little consequence, the only person you are beholden to is yourself and the karmic destiny you lay out that will unfold in front of you based upon your deeds, actions, and words. Therefore, it is you who must ask the question of yourself, “Are you a person who speaks of others, expounding your opinions about an individual based upon your own appraisal of their words and creations or are you a person who is the source of your own creations?” Yes, being the source point of your own creations will put you in the bull’s-eye but it will be something wholly you own. If, on the other hand, you spent your time focused upon analyzing the creations of others and the personage of who created them, all you are doing is further spreading the myth of that individual.

            If you speak the truth that is the truth, then the truth will be known and the truth will embrace you. If you spread the lie, based upon your judgment(s), then all you will be known as is a liar once the truth is revealed and all you will be defined as is an individual who relished in the limelight of others.

This is Life.

This is Zen.

This is Scott Shaw Signing Out. 

 

Copyright © 2016—All Rights Reserved

 

They’re the Ones Talking About Me I’m Not the One Talking About Them @ Scott Shaw.com

 Scott Shaw Writings on Zen, Yoga, and Human Consciousness

Don’t You Have Anything Better To Do? By Scott Shaw

By Scott Shaw

            Every now and then someone will bring to my attention to the fact that there is discussion going on about me on the internet. Mostly, I’m doing other stuff and I really don’t care so I don’t check it out. Sometimes, however, if I’m just screwing around on-line when they alert me to the fact, I do take a moment and read them. Some are positive dialogues. Thanks! Others… What I always find is that the inception of the conversation was begun by a very articulate individual who is trying to cast shade on my life and me in a very subtle manner. Those make smile. The assumptions are false. The claims are misplaced. But, the writing is good. Some are just the, “This guy is a fucking asshole!” Those make me smile too because the person writing them does not know me at all. Like the old saying goes, “To know me is to love me.” I think I’m a nice guy. :-)
      Spending my life in the world of martial arts this type of attack is not new to me. It seems there is always some insecure practitioner attempting to create doubt about someone else. Sad but true. I have written about this phenomenon in the past…
      But, it forever perplexes me why anyone discuses me at all. Don’t you have anything better to do? I mean, I am just a very basic sort of guy who makes weird movies, writes books, makes music, takes some photographs, teaches a class or a seminar every now and then, and stuff like that.
            …There was a filmmaking team who made a mockumentary about me maybe a decade back at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. I thought that was pretty funny. Zen Filmmaking !!! You can get to it from my YouTube page if you feel like it. I imagine they were doing it for a filmmaking class or something. But, at least they created something and probably earned a grade for it.
            What always boggles my mind is, what does talking about and discussing another person equal? What does trying to make me or any other person look good, look bad, or look like anything equal? What does it prove and what does it do for your life — especially if you are hiding behind a screen name? Though, the truth be told, I have watched a couple of people cause their on-line notoriety to rise by discussing and/or talking trash about me (and other people). But, they never even said, “Thank you.” :-)
            As the joke goes, “You know you can believe everything that is on the internet.” I mean any person who wants to can find a place to get their voice heard on the internet. But, why is your voice wasted talking about other people?
            I remember back a number of years ago, I was watching a Run Run Shaw movie with a group of people and someone commented that his name was the same as mine. I made the joke, “I’m half Chinese.” A couple of weeks later I was alerted to the fact that it was listed on some website that, “Scott Shaw is half Chinese.” I mean, come on people… And, I have seen a few other pretty ridiculous things mentioned about me on the internet. But, the thing is, what can I do? This is the internet, anyone can say anything that they want: positive, negative, or just straight up bullshit. They can say it about anyone or anything.
            Some of these, "Writers," present their thoughts, beliefs, and accusations as though they are the truth. They are not the truth but there is a certain segment of society who believes something simply because they read it. Thus, if someone believes something, in that regard, it somehow does become the truth — at least in the mind of that individual. This is how false accusations and misguided beliefs have the potential to truly damage a person's life. And, what is the karma for that, if you are the one instigating or embellishing falsehood and hurting someone else's life? But, I guess most people who do that kind of stuff don't care.
            And… I always feel thanks for the people who rise to my defense (and the defense of others) when they attempt to countermand the spreading negativity by inserting their positive opinions and/or truth based facts.
            The fact is, who and what I am, what I have or have not accomplished is one hundred percent verifiable. I don't care about accolades so you are not going to find me listing mine. Like Jack Webb's Joe Friday character used to say on Dragnet, "Just the facts…" Other people may put them out there, but not me. I don't think about things like that. All I think about is what I haven't accomplished and what I've yet to accomplish. Yet, some people attempt to embellish or diminish who and what I am; what I have done. Why? I don't know. What does it prove? Some people even try to describe my life and my life motivation. But, they have never even met me, so how do they know anything about me? But, as they used to say on the X-Files, “The truth is out there.” 
            Now, all of this rambling about me brings us to the point of this blog. What are you doing with your life? Are you doing something for you? Doing something for the people you love? Accomplishing something with your life? Doing something for the greater good? Counteracting negativity wherever you find it? Or, are you wasting the very short amount of time that you have in LIFE obsessing about someone or something else? Attempting to either put them on a pedestal or cast them to the depths of hell?
            My advice, if you love someone or something they created, support them. If you hate someone or something they created, support them, as well, because they are giving you a reason to think, study, and question life.
            Ultimately, focus on your own life. Make your own life more. Then, you won’t need to focus on my life or the life of any other person. You won't need to make yourself look right while attempting to make others look wrong. By accomplishing your own accomplishments, your life becomes a creative masterpiece based upon your own vision. From this, you can stop talking about other people and start being alerted to the fact that other people are talking about you. :-)

This is Life.

This is Zen.

This is Scott Shaw Signing Out.

Originally from the Scott Shaw Zen Blog 

  Scott Shaw Writings on Zen, Yoga, and Human Consciousness

Stealing and Selling Other People’s Work and Internet Piracy is not a Victimless Crime By Scott Shaw

By Scott Shaw

            Ever since the dawning of the Internet, bootlegging, (for lack of a better word), has become quite rampant. Meaning, that people copy and sell products that they did not create to other people for a profit. But, none of that money goes back to the people who actually created the product; be it a book, music, or a film.

            Maybe stealing is a better term...

            Certainly, the whole Napster syndrome shook the music industry a few years ago. At that point, people were copying music, uploading it, and “Sharing it” with other people. Though it changed the music industry forever, it also affected the financial livelihoods of many artists.

            In the more recent past, movies have come to be bootlegged, uploaded, and then people are allowed to watch them by paying a price to join the website service that is showing them.

            Now, in terms of high budget films, one could argue that the movie studios have already made a lot of money on these films, so why do they need to make more? Be that as it may, there is a whole other side to the issue. For example, people like myself, who pay for their films to be made out of their own pocket. When these sites get a copy of my films and put them up on the Internet, it can really kill sales. And, believe me, it costs a lot of money and time to make a movie. And, it is very sad when someone else is making a profit from my creation, when I am not.

            Some people believe that the “File sharing sites” are better than the ones just described, as they appear to be free. They are not. Someone in that chain is making money or these site would not be active. Someone, but not the creator of the project.

            Another path where people are commonly bootlegging other people’s creations is in relation to books. I have found several of my books, copied and put up on sites on the Internet. Now, let’s think about this for a moment. The people who do this may like the book, but they did not write the book, they did not spend the money to have the book printed that was laid out by the publishing company. Yet, they scan the books and are selling people the ability to read them on the Internet. They are the one’s making the money. Not the author or the publishing company.

            Recently, I was popping around the Internet and I found a website that is selling scanned copies of martial art magazines. In fact, this site is selling photocopies of several magazines I wrote articles for. They scan them and then sell them.

            Of course, on this website, the people are not honorable enough to provide a name, address, or telephone number where you can contact them. Which illustrates that they know what they are doing is wrong, illegal, and uncool. So, I emailed them. They did not reply.

            But, think about this for a moment. How long do you think it takes to write an article? Then, you have to supply photographs for the techniques presented in the article. This all costs time and money.

            Back in the day, when these magazines were published, they use to pay me $125.00 per article. The photographs alone used to cost me more than that to produce. So, I personally made no money. And, this is not to mention all the time and money it actually took, on the part of the publishing company, to create and release these magazines. But now, here is somebody on the Internet, who had nothing to do with the creation of these magazines, making money by selling someone else’s hard earned work.

            Ultimately, if you’ve ever created something, that you cared about, and took the time and made the effort to get it published or released, you will understand the problem with what is happening when these websites release this information.

            We all want things for free or for cheap-er. This being stated, whether you are paying to access a site or viewing and downloading content for free, you really should think about the reality of what is going on and how your actions are affecting the lives of creative people before you access these sites that sell and make money off of the creative work of other people.

Internet Piracy is not a Victimless Crime

            I was flipping through channels last night and I came upon the Arsenio Hall Show. Prince was on.

            At first glance, this show was kind of interesting in that this same show could have taken place twenty years ago when Arsenio’s first late show was on the air. But, there they were, Arsenio and Prince both looking quite good for their age.

            I was never a really big fan of Prince back in the day. Though me, being who I am, I do own all his vinyl and most of his CDs. It was later that I came to appreciate his music and his contribution to popular music in general. This, though I do have an abstract connection to Prince in that my high school friend, Lisa Coleman, was his keyboard player for a number of years in the Purple Rain era and an actor, Kevin Thompson, who I have used in a number of my films was a Prince impersonator until that era dried up. In any case, it was an interesting show to watch. 

            When Arsenio was talking to Prince they discussed his love and hate relationship with the internet and how music gets out-there for free which really impacts an artist’s bankbook. Though Prince made his own contribution to the changing evolution of music by being one of the first artists to break away from a major record label, what he said made me think back to the time when the whole Napster thing took place and there were a lot of musicians out there rallying against people getting their music for free. I remember when they spoke to Dave Grohl, (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, etc.), and he said, “Why should I care, I’m already rich.” I believe that is an important, and oftentimes overlooked statement to keep in mind when one views this subject.

            There is a certain group of people who now expect to get everything for free on the internet — whether it is music, movies, books, or whatever. But, by taking those items for free you are really causing the person who created those things to not earn money for their creation. As money is one of the most essential elements to life, it is what we must have to survive. And, by taking these creations for free, you are really creating karma for yourself.

            It is one of the most instrumental laws of understood spirituality; do not take things for free or steal things because then karma is created. One should always extend a payment for whatever they receive, as then karma remains clean.

            But to view this subject in a little bit more in-depth manner; first of all, do you think the websites who host these downloads are doing it for free? No, they are not. They are earning money by being in existence or they would not be there.

            From a more philosophic standpoint, (if you want to make excuses for yourself), downloading movies and music financed by major studios or corporation can be viewed as, “Sticking it to the man,” if you want to view life from an anarchistic point of view. But, for people like myself or on a much higher scale someone like Prince, who finances all we do out of our own pockets, it becomes a very different ballgame. For me, I can’t make the same claim as Dave Grohl. So, every dime taken out of my pocket really changes my reality.

            The other side of the issue is that there is nothing I can do about it. My books, music, and movies are out there on this offshore websites being offered for free. Do the people or corporations who run those websites care about what affect they are having on me and the other creative people in my predicament? Probably not. Why? Because they are generating money to support their lifestyle based on the creations of others.

            There is just something wrong in that equitation.

            This is what people really need to think about when they do what they do, whether it be downloading things for free, without thinking about what effect it has on the creator of the work, or simply not taking the time to think about the impact they are having on this world by their various actions.

            What you choose to do and how you choose to do it affects everything in this world. How you choose to live your life affects the next evolution of this Life-Place. So, if you are doing things that negatively impact other people, don’t cry when karma comes calling. Because you are the one who set it in motion.

            Internet piracy is not a victimless crime. And, the victim may end up being you.

Copyright © 2011 & 2014 — All Rights Reserved

   

Scott Shaw Writings on Zen, Yoga, and Human Consciousness