#WM3SUPPORTER #JusticeFor6 https://xitter.cf/t.co/uQ9CbEV8hG JOHN WAITE'S #1 Supporter!!
Memphis, TN
Joined March 2014
- Tweets9.5K
- Following482
- Followers526
- Likes10.6K
This👇👇👇
One of the most important things you can learn in life is to be very careful about the people you allow into your inner circle. I’ve learned to be particularly cautious around people who seem to experience misfortune in nearly every area of their lives. Their physical health is constantly deteriorating, their mental and emotional lives are in turmoil, their finances are always in ruins, and their relationships are filled with conflict. Now, there’s a difference between someone experiencing genuine hardship and someone whose entire life is organized around dysfunction. Terrible things happen to good people, and I’ve certainly experienced enough of that myself. But when someone moves from one self-created crisis to another, never accepting responsibility or making an effort to change, you need to understand that these patterns are contagious. The people around us influence our habits, attitudes, decisions, and emotional states far more than we realize. Eventually, you may find yourself sacrificing your own peace, health, finances, and discipline simply to accommodate someone else’s chaos. And sometimes the greatest damage isn’t what another person takes from you, but what you gradually stop doing for yourself.
This is why it’s important to ask yourself what someone actually brings into your life, beyond whatever superficial quality attracted you to them in the first place. Does your life become better or worse through your association with them? Do they encourage your growth, or constantly interrupt it? And don’t allow yourself to be manipulated by people who insist that protecting yourself demonstrates a lack of compassion. Compassion doesn’t require self-destruction. You can recognize someone’s suffering without assuming responsibility for ending it. You can wish someone well without allowing them to jeopardize everything you’ve worked to build. In fact, continually rescuing someone from the consequences of their own decisions can prevent them from ever learning to take responsibility for themselves. You have a responsibility to protect the conditions that allow you to become a healthier, wiser, more disciplined human being. Not everyone deserves access to your time, attention, and energy. You don’t have to hate anyone, condemn them, or convince them to change. Sometimes the wisest thing you can do is simply recognize that their path doesn’t have to become yours.
Awesomeness!!
Billboard in Times Square
The Alchemy of the Broken Blade is a book about rebuilding yourself through discipline, practice, and the discovery of something worth dedicating your life to. It draws on everything I’ve learned through decades of meditation, internal alchemy, Zen, and martial arts, but at its heart it’s about something much simpler: how to take the experiences that have broken you and use them to become someone stronger, more capable, and more fully alive. It’s about finding a path that gives your life direction, and understanding that transformation doesn’t happen through wishing, believing, or waiting for something to change. It happens through what you choose to do every single day. You don’t have to practice martial arts or have any interest in spirituality to benefit from this book. You only have to be willing to take responsibility for the person you’re becoming. The Alchemy of the Broken Blade is available now wherever books are sold.
a.co/d/00P5r3ec
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
I think one of the greatest mistakes we can make in life is believing that we’re supposed to spend our time doing what other people tell us is important, rather than following the things that genuinely interest us. We come into this world with certain inclinations, curiosities, and things that naturally draw our attention. Some people are fascinated by music, others by art, science, martial arts, philosophy, or any number of other things. These interests aren’t meaningless distractions from what we’re supposed to be doing with our lives. They’re often the very things that give our lives meaning. And yet, somewhere along the way, we’re taught to ignore them in favor of what society considers practical, respectable, or successful. We begin measuring our lives according to someone else’s standards, and then wonder why we feel so unfulfilled.
I think the point of life is much simpler than we’ve been led to believe. Follow your interests. Find the things that make you curious, that make you want to get out of bed in the morning, that you would happily spend your time doing even if nobody ever paid you or praised you for them. Then devote yourself to those things. See how deeply you can explore them, how much you can learn, and what sort of person you become through that process. You don’t have to turn every interest into a career, or justify it by explaining how it benefits the world. Not everything has to be productive in the conventional sense. Sometimes the value of doing something is simply that it makes you feel fully alive. We have a very limited amount of time here, and I can’t think of a greater waste of that time than spending it pursuing a life that doesn’t genuinely interest us.
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
The word “awakened” gets thrown around so casually these days that it has almost lost its meaning. People use it to describe everything from adopting a particular political ideology to questioning authority, rejecting social conventions, or becoming interested in spirituality. But traditionally, in the context of enlightenment, awakening points toward something far more profound. It refers to the direct, firsthand experience of the dissolution of the self. It means seeing through the identity you have spent your entire life constructing and realizing that you are not the constant stream of thoughts running through your head. You are not the intellect. You are the field of consciousness in which the intellect arises. The personality, the opinions, the memories, the beliefs, and the stories you tell yourself about who you are may still exist, but you no longer mistake them for your fundamental nature.
This also means recognizing that you are not your race, nationality, sexuality, religion, political ideology, or any of the other labels through which people define themselves. These things may describe aspects of your human experience, but they are not what you are at the deepest level. They are distinctions created and maintained by the thinking mind. Awakening doesn’t mean you suddenly become incapable of thinking, or that you lose your personality. It means you stop confusing those things with your actual identity. And this is why awakening cannot be reduced to adopting a new belief system, collecting spiritual knowledge, or declaring yourself enlightened. You can read every spiritual book ever written and still have no idea what awakening is. You can memorize every teaching about the dissolution of self while remaining completely identified with your own thoughts. Awakening isn’t something you believe in…..it’s something you experience directly. And once you’ve seen through the illusion of being nothing more than the identity you’ve constructed, you can no longer take that identity quite so seriously.
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
Hey, folks - in addition to the Way of the sword retreat that I’m doing in January, I’ll also be returning to the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY for Memorial Day weekend in May. If you’d like to join me there, you can find more details at:
eomega.org/workshops/way-swo…
Check it out!! Damien’s got more books signed at the Barnes & Noble in Kingston New York. Give them a call, get yours today.
I don’t travel anymore, and I rarely do book signings these days, so it’s become a little more difficult for me to get signed books into the hands of people who want them. Fortunately, the wonderful people at Barnes & Noble in Kingston, NY have gone out of their way to help me with that. I stopped by today and signed another batch of books, which are now available through the store. It means a great deal to me that even though I’ve stepped away from traveling and public appearances, there are still ways for me to maintain that connection with the people who have supported my work over the years. I’m deeply grateful to the staff at Barnes & Noble for their kindness, and to everyone who continues to read my books. If you’d like a signed copy of any of my books, you can just call them at:
(845) 443-2033 and they will ship it to you.
Thank you all for allowing me to continue doing what I love, while also living a quieter, more peaceful life.
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
BREAKING: Johnny Depp attended the star-studded Aerosmith Concert event on Thursday October 29th at The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Ca.
Johnny Depp was called on stage to play guitar on one of the final 2 songs of the evening by his Hollywood Vampires bandmate, Joe Perry.
Video Footage courtesy of @ForeverWyno.
Happy 81st birthday Henry!! it was so nice to meet you in Dallas last month.
@hwinkler4real
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
In alchemy, you often encounter the phrases “fixing Mercury” or “fixing the volatile.” Both refer to the same operation. In old alchemical illustrations, you sometimes see a warrior cutting the wings from a bird, a dog catching a fleeing hare, or a king pinning down the god Mercury. All of these images represent something that is constantly trying to escape. That something is the mind. The body is always here, in the present moment, but the mind is constantly fleeing into the past, worrying about the future, or disappearing into thoughts, theories, and fantasies. Fixing Mercury means bringing the mind back into the body so completely that it no longer carries our consciousness away against our will. This is also what the alchemists meant by the marriage of Sol and Luna, or the union of spirit and matter. It is the process of becoming completely embodied, rather than continually escaping into thought.
The alchemists described the finished product of this operation as something that could withstand the fiercest fire without being changed. This is a perfect description of what Japanese martial philosophy calls fudōshin, or the “unmoving mind.” It’s easy to remain peaceful when everything is going your way. The real test comes when you’re insulted, frightened, humiliated, or threatened. When every instinct is screaming at you to react, defend yourself, or run away. That is the alchemical furnace. Can you remain present without being carried away by your emotions? This doesn’t mean suppressing feelings or refusing to act. It means developing the ability to choose your response instead of being controlled by your first impulse. The goal of alchemy was never to escape the world, but to become so completely present within it that nothing could pull you away from yourself. That is what it means to fix Mercury. To remain completely here, even when the fire is burning.
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
I’m happy to announce that I’ll be hosting another Way of the Sword retreat this January at Hutton Brickyards in Kingston, New York. Every year, millions of people begin January with resolutions about how they’re going to change their lives. But most of those resolutions are forgotten within a few weeks, because lasting transformation requires more than good intentions. It requires discipline, consistency, and a willingness to do the work. That’s what the Way of the Sword is about. We’ll spend our time practicing traditional sword techniques, meditation, and exercises designed to cultivate presence, awareness, and self-mastery. You don’t need any previous martial arts experience, and you don’t need to be in exceptional physical condition. All you need is the desire to become a little better than you were yesterday. My hope is that you’ll leave with more than a few days of good memories. You’ll leave with a practice you can take home and continue using to transform your life long after the retreat has ended. If you’ve been looking for a way to begin the new year with a sense of purpose and direction, you can join me here:
huttonbrickyards.com/wellbei…
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
In alchemy, there are two traditional approaches to accomplishing the Great Work, known as the Wet Path and the Dry Path. The Wet Path is slow and gradual, involving repeated cycles of dissolution, purification, and refinement. The Dry Path uses intense heat to bring about transformation much more rapidly. When applied to consciousness, the Wet Path is what happens when we dedicate ourselves to daily practices like meditation, martial arts, or another discipline that gradually changes who we are. The Dry Path is what happens when an experience is so powerful that it completely dismantles our existing understanding of ourselves and the world. This might be a profound spiritual realization, a confrontation with death, or a crisis that forces us to question everything we previously believed. But one important thing to understand about the Dry Path is that suffering doesn’t automatically produce wisdom. Fire can purify, but it can also just destroy something (or someone). Being broken apart doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve been transformed.
I think what people often overlook is that these two paths aren’t necessarily separate. Someone might spend twenty years gradually refining themselves through the Wet Path, only to experience a realization that changes everything in a single instant. Likewise, someone who undergoes a sudden transformation through the Dry Path may need years of gradual practice afterward to integrate what they’ve experienced. This is why I place so much importance on daily discipline. We tend to romanticize dramatic spiritual experiences, but the real test comes afterward, when we return to the ordinary difficulties of being human. The goal of alchemy is to produce something stable and capable of withstanding the fire without being destroyed by it. The goal isn’t to become someone who has experienced extraordinary things. It’s to become someone who can meet ordinary life with extraordinary clarity.
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
Sometimes one of the hardest lessons to learn in life is that not every misunderstanding needs to be corrected, and you don’t need to defend yourself against every accusation. Sometimes people have already decided who you are, what your intentions were, and what role you played in their story. You can spend forever trying to explain yourself, carefully choosing your words, hoping that if you can just make them understand, something will change. But understanding requires a willingness to listen, and you can’t give that willingness to someone who doesn’t have it. At a certain point, continuing to defend yourself becomes little more than volunteering to participate in your own suffering.
There comes a time when you have to decide what matters more: being understood by someone who has no interest in understanding you, or having peace in your own life. Sometimes the wisest thing you can do is allow someone to believe whatever they need to believe about you, even when you know they’re wrong. This doesn’t mean you agree with them, or that their version of events becomes the truth. It just means you’ve stopped making your peace dependent on their opinion. You don’t have to win every argument, or correct every false impression. Sometimes the greatest act of self-respect is to say nothing, turn around, and continue walking your own path.
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
THE CEASEFIRE HAS COMMENCED
The ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia took effect at 4:00am Moscow time on October 27, 2026.
Timing was accelerated two days ahead of schedule to protect the safety of civilians and to facilitate the delivery of critical humanitarian aid. The ceasefire’s geographic area has expanded beyond Oleshky, within the Kherson Region, to provide safe passage for the humanitarian convoys.
General Valery Gerasimov, Joint Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces has confirmed.
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
Interestingly, Sinatra didn't want to collaborate at all. He didn't believe the partnership would work because their musical styles were too different. But it turned out great!!! 🔥The way Elvis moves his hand, his neck, it's just so charismatic. So fresh. Nobody compares.
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
Bir kadın, dükkânının önüne seksek çizerek gelip geçenlerin tepkilerini kayda aldı.
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
One of the things I write about most often is the importance of dedicating yourself to something that allows you to refine yourself. For me, it’s martial arts and sword training. For someone else, it might be music, painting, or any number of other disciplines. Inevitably, someone will respond by saying there’s nothing we can do to become more than we already are. That there’s nothing to attain, nowhere to go, and no progress to be made. And I agree. At the deepest level of our being, there’s nothing missing. But recognizing that truth doesn’t automatically eliminate a lifetime of conditioning. You can experience the dissolution of the ego and still be impatient, undisciplined, selfish, or controlled by your fears and desires. Realization and integration are two very different things.
This is why we need a discipline. We aren’t trying to become something greater than we already are - we’re trying to refine the habits and behaviors that prevent us from living in accordance with what we’ve realized. I can’t become patient simply by understanding patience. I have to practice it. I can’t think my way into becoming disciplined. I have to repeatedly do things that require discipline. The danger is allowing the ego to turn these accomplishments into another identity, another reason to feel superior to others. The purpose of the work isn’t to create a better ego, but to become less controlled by the one we already have. There’s nothing we need to become, but there may be a lifetime of things we need to unlearn. Enlightenment isn’t the end of the work. It’s the beginning of learning how to live.
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
Most people go through their entire lives without ever asking themselves WHY they’re doing the things they’re doing. They follow routines, repeat habits, and live according to expectations handed down by their parents, society, or religion. They never stop and ask themselves what sort of human being they’re trying to become. When you don’t consciously establish an intention for your life, you don’t become free of direction. You simply allow your fears, desires, habits, and the expectations of others to determine that direction for you. You can spend forty years performing the same rituals, saying the same prayers, or practicing the same techniques without ever fundamentally changing. Repetition alone doesn’t produce transformation. Intention is the ingredient that turns repetition into refinement.
When you establish a clear intention, your life begins to organize itself around that intention. You begin to recognize what deserves your time and attention, and what is just distracting you. My intention in sword training isn’t to become the greatest swordsman in the world. It’s to cultivate discipline, awareness, and presence through the act of training. That intention can be fulfilled every single day, regardless of whether I succeed or fail. Even mistakes become opportunities for refinement. And the same principle applies to everything we do. Every action you take, every habit you repeat, and everything you give your attention to is shaping the person you’re becoming. We have to figure out whether we’re going to participate consciously in that process, or spend our entire lives being shaped by forces we’ve never bothered to examine.
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
True
Margaret Thatcher explained this perfectly back in 1983
The government doesn't have money of its own. Every time politicians promise to spend more, someone has to pay for it
And people somehow still think it's someone else's money
“There is no such thing as public money. There is only taxpayers’ money”
And sooner or later, that someone else they expect to pay is YOU
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
One of the greatest misunderstandings in religion is the belief that stories about what happens after death are necessarily describing what happens when the physical body dies. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Greek myths of descent into the underworld, and even the biblical accounts of death and resurrection can all be understood as descriptions of internal processes that take place while we’re still alive. The descent into the underworld is the confrontation with everything we’ve buried within ourselves. The judgment of the dead is the moment we can no longer hide from the truth of what we are. The terrifying deities of the Tibetan tradition are manifestations of consciousness that must be recognized rather than feared. And the resurrection described in Christianity is the emergence of a new way of being after the identity we’ve spent our lives constructing begins to dissolve.
The problem is that people have spent thousands of years turning descriptions of experiences into beliefs about places they’ll go after they die. They’ve mistaken maps of consciousness for maps of the afterlife. I’m not claiming to know entirely what happens after physical death. What I’m saying is that there’s a death you can experience long before your body dies, and until you’ve undergone it, you’re largely dependent on what other people tell you these stories mean. You can spend your entire life studying descriptions of resurrection without ever actually experiencing it. You can memorize every detail of the underworld without ever making the descent. At some point, you have to stop studying the map and actually make the journey. The kingdom of heaven isn’t necessarily somewhere you go when you die….it’s something you can discover while you’re still alive.
♥️~Tina Gill~♥️ retweeted
Living an enchanted life means different things at different stages of the path. At first, the world seems mundane….you go to school, get a job, make money, buy things, do what you’re “supposed” to do. Then something begins to feel hollow or missing, and we go looking for more. We discover magick, meditation, gods, angels, spirits, hidden worlds, and reality suddenly becomes mysterious again. But if we keep going, eventually we discover that the forces we were searching for outside ourselves were within us all along. After this, the division between the spiritual world and the ordinary world begins to collapse.
Then enchantment takes on an entirely different meaning. You return to the same world you once wanted to escape, only now you realize it was never mundane. You wash the floor with the same attention you would give to cleaning the body of God. You prepare food as an offering. You listen to another person as if the creator of the universe were speaking to you. The later stages of the path aren’t about finding more extraordinary experiences. The culmination of the path is about becoming completely intimate with ordinary life. You leave this world searching for the enchanted one, only to eventually discover that the enchantment was here all along. You just couldn’t see it yet.