If you are looking for the web site of the

Northern Virginia Budokai

please click on the link above to go to the new location for the Budokai web site.

Welcome to the web site of Ernest "Ernie" Lissabet!

Hi! I'm Ernest. My friends call me Ernie. If you have found your way to this page, chances are you are someone who shares my interests, or at least some of them. Actually... probably just some of them.

This is my "opinion" page. The perspectives expressed here are entirely my own, and should not be construed to be those of my family, the Northern Virginia Budokai, or the Masonic Fraternity.

So, scroll down for links to sections on Budo and Freemasonry, as well as some random contemplations to meditate on...but if you keep an open mind, a scary thing might happen: I just might start to make sense.

Budo
Click on the sword guard to learn my perpspective on Japanese martial arts.

"There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the present moment."

Yamamoto Tsunetomo



Freemasonry
Click on the Square and Compass to visit with the Masonic Fraternity...

"The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they dared so roundly to assert that God spoke to them; and whether they did not did not think at the time that they would be misunderstood and so be the cause of imposition. Isaiah answered: "I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in everything, and as I was then persuaded & remain confirmed that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for the consequences, but wrote."

William Blake
"Power"
"Wisdom"
Sculpture from the House of the Temple, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry


   Contemplations
   A few random thoughts to meditate on...

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, conn a ship, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve an equation, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Robert Heinlein


"The totally robotized Rationalist, the one whose nervous system has stopped growing entirely, can be recognized by two signs: He or she is constantly trying to prove that much of the daily experience of the rest of humanity is "delusion," "hallucination," "group hallucination," "mass hallucination," "mere coincidence," "sheer coincidence," or "sloppy research." And he or she never thinks that any of his or her own experience would fit into any of those categories."

Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising


"There was only one catch and that was catch 22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr (Yossarian's tent-mate and a pilot who kept crashing) was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. "Okay, let me see if I've got this straight. In order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy, and I must be crazy to be flying, but if I ask to be grounded, that means I'm not crazy anymore and have to keep flying." Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. "That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. "It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

Joseph Heller, Catch-22


"Americanism includes a mind that is free to pursue individualism and enterprise and morally desirable ends, to oppose as suicidal to our traditional public schools and our land of healthy religious pluralism any competition from state support of church schools, and to honor the inspiration that motivated our patriot founders in constitutionally separating church and state and thus avoiding the cruel strife that still plagues some other countries."

Henry Clausen, 33°, Beyond the Ordinary


A skeptic demanded of the Buddha, "Are you a God?"

"No", he replied.

"Are you a saint?"

"No."

"Then what are you?," demanded the skeptic.

"I am Awake."


Thanks for visiting my world!
Comments?

corvus66@hotmail.com