Joe Hyams Quotes & Sayings

Those who are patient in the trivial things in life and control themselves will one day have the same mastery in great and important things. — Joe Hyams

And for the unpeaceful, how can there be happiness? — Joe Hyams

One of the first lessons one learns is that the mind is a powerful factor in everything you do, including those exercises that seem to require a maximum of physical strength. — Joe Hyams

When an untoward event occurs in your life, react to it without haste or passion. — Joe Hyams

Anger doesn't demand action. When you act in anger, you lose self-control. — Joe Hyams

Only after several years of training did I come to realize that the deepest purpose of the martial arts is to serve as a vehicle for personal spiritual development. — Joe Hyams

To generate great power you must first totally relax and gather your strength, and then concentrate your mind and all your strength on hitting your target. — Joe Hyams

Always remember: in life as well as on the mat an unfocused or 'loose' mind wastes energy. — Joe Hyams

A dojo [pracice hall] is a miniature cosmos where we make contact with ourselves - our fears, anxieties, reactions, and habits. It is an arena of confined conflict where we confront an opponent who is not an opponent but rather a partner engaged in helping us understand ourselves more fully. — Joe Hyams

For example, if you are fearful your mind will freeze, motion will be stopped and you will be defeated. If your mind is fixed on victory or defeating your opponent, you will be unable to function automatically. — Joe Hyams

When one eye is fixed upon your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the Way. — Joe Hyams

When a problem arises, don't fight with it or try to deny it. Accept and acknowledge it. Be patient in seeking a solution or opening, and then fully commit yourself to the resolution you think advisable. — Joe Hyams

What stands in the way of effortless effort is caring, or a conscious attempt to do well. — Joe Hyams

We are like blades of grass or trees of the forest, creations of the universe, of the spirit of the universe, and the spirit of the universe has neither life nor death. Vanity is the only obstacle to life. — Joe Hyams

The mind is like a fertile garden," Bruce said. "It will grow anything you wish to plant - beautiful flowers or weeds. And so it is with successful, healthy thoughts or with negative ones that will, like weeds, strangle and crowd the others. Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strangle confidence. — Joe Hyams

For the uncontrolled there is no wisdom, nor for the uncontrolled is there the power of concentration; and for him without concentration there is no peace. And for the unpeaceful, how can there be happiness? - BHAGAVAD GITA — Joe Hyams

The principle of avoiding conflict and never opposing an aggressor's strength head-on is the essence of aikido. We apply the same principle to problems that arise in life. The skilled aikidoist is as elusive as the truth of Zen; he makes himself into a koan - a puzzle which slips away the more one tries to solve it. He is like water in that he falls through the fingers of those who try to clutch him. Water does not hesitate before it yields, for the moment the fingers begin to close it moves away, not of its own strength, but by using the pressure applied to it. It is for this reason, perhaps, that one of the symbols for aikido is water. — Joe Hyams

When you lose your temper, you lose yourself - on the mat as well as in life. — Joe Hyams

Only through practice and more practice, until you can do something without conscious effort. — Joe Hyams

I can defeat you physically with or without a reason. But I can only defeat your mind with a reason. - JIM LAU — Joe Hyams

Only by constantly exposing myself to someone better than I have I been able to improve. — Joe Hyams