Elijah Oxford

  Miyamoto Musashi was a Ronin, being a samurai that was outcast from society, made to live a life separate from everyone else, having no master and living alone. Musashi is perhaps the most famous Ronin for his skill in sword fighting, winning a total record of 61 duels to the death. Not only was he masterful samurai, but also an artist and perhaps most importantly, a philosopher, writing many of his ideas onto paper, forever solidifying his place in history. His work is still used in today’s society, as much, if more then it was when he wrote them. Leaving behind 21 of the most core principles he lived by, and everyone should strive to live by too. Withstanding the test of time, having survived for nearly 500 years now. The first five of these principles will be covered in this video, with the others covered in future videos, allowing for a more in-depth look into each one. Rule 1 - Accept Everything Just The Way It Is This precept encourages acceptance and mindfulness of the w...

  Have you ever found yourself, sitting down to do some work and no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to focus, you keep looking out of the window, checking your phone and 10 minutes feels like an hour Fortunately there is a solution to help you fight procrastination and achieve a state of deep flow in work you may not even enjoy doing. Unfortunately, most people won’t do it. So what is this miracle cure?  Boredom. A heavily neglected and stigmatised part of modern society, acting as both the problem and the solution. Hear me out. Social psychologist Timothy Wilson conducted a study, placing volunteers in a room with nothing but a button. If pressed they would receive an electric shock. After 15 minutes of sitting in an unfurnished, completely empty room alone, 67% of males and 25% of females chose to willing electrocute themselves over doing nothing, with some participants deciding to press the button multiple times. It is also worth pointing out that the volunt...

One of the greatest philosophical questions that many have sought out to answer, is what is it to be? The German philosopher Martin Heidegger based a large amount of his life to answer this question. His book “being and time” that took a deep dive into this question, would later get viewed as one of the most profound written texts of European philosophy ever. Heidegger was born on September the 26th, 1889, with his philosophical development being ignited after reading the works of Aristotle and Brentano, with Aristotle’s ideas of metaphysics, to know what it is that unites all possible modes of being that started Heidegger’s obsession of what is was to be a human. Heidegger would spend many years teaching, one of the University’s he taught at, was that of Marburg, these were described as brilliant years by the people of University, building up a strong reputation as having an excellent mind. After his teaching years, he started to write his book, seeing the state of ‘being’ as someth...