Daniele Bolelli

“One of the most refreshing, humorous, and radically honest books about practical and comparative religion this reviewer has ever come across.” — Library Journal (starred review) “Daniele Bolelli is in the house. Minds will be blown. Lives will be changed.” —Joe Rogan, host, The Joe Rogan Experience Create Your Own Religion is a call to arms—an open invitation to question all the values, beliefs, and worldviews that humanity has so far held as sacred in order to find the answers we need to the very practical problems facing us. Writer, philosopher, and professor of comparative religion, Daniele Bolelli, leads the reader through three thousand years of mythology, misogyny, misinformation, and the flat-out lies about “revealed truth” that continue to muddle our ability to live a peaceful life, free of guilt and shame and the ultimate fear of death. “Our worldviews are in desperate need of some housecleaning,” says Bolelli. “We enter the 21st century still carrying on our backs the prejudices and ways of thinking of countless past generations. What worked for them may or may not still be of use, so it is our job to make sure to save the tools that can help us and let go of the dead weight.” “With a cheerful, good-natured smile, Daniele Bolelli torpedoes the often luxurious but spiritually leaky battleships that sail under the various flags of the world’s organized religions.”—Tom Robbins, New York Times bestselling author“Bolelli’s direct confrontation with dogma without giving an inch and without prescribing a new dogma is about as fresh as it gets.”—Mike Vallely, skateboarder, musician, and actor

"The honesty and authenticity in Daniele's writing is truly inspirational. Most books about life are written with kid gloves and give us old school clichés to handle adversity. Daniele has gone through some of the most difficult situations a father, husband, and all around warrior can go through. He gives us an honest look into the pain, heartache, and process of fighting back against things that would bring most to their knees. Everyone can relate to the feelings and thoughts Daniele displays. We can only hope to someday have his strength and conviction to come through and thrive!” —AJ Hawk, 2011 Superbowl Champion with the Green Bay Packers “A true warrior poet, Daniele bleeds on these pages with fearless vulnerability and uncensored humor." —Aubrey Marcus, writer and CEO of Onnit.com"Bolelli is a genius warrior philosopher. What he talks about here is the opposite of a victim's mentality. By sharing the emotionally apocalyptic experiences he has gone through, he gives a gift to anyone who is struggling with the dragon of fear and sadness. For me to hear this story and to think of everything that happened to him, and then to think about my own little doldrums that I fall into—suddenly I'm invigorated. Everyone please listen, open your ears and open your hearts to the incredible, the brilliant and the super sweet Daniele Bolelli." —Duncan Trussell, comedian and host of the podcast The Duncan Trussell Family Hour“An inspiring life story about overcoming fear. This is a necessary task, no matter what you do in life. Whether you are an amateur or professional athlete, you will be able to draw many similarities to your sport. At the same time, this book gives us a great reminder to enjoy the ride while it lasts. Well done Daniele, you did it again!” —Bostjan Nachbar, professional basketball playerThis book is a meditation on facing fear, heartbreak, and mortality. It is the story of a man who in rapid succession has his wife die in his arms, loses his house and his job, and is left to care for his 19-month old daughter. Oddly enough, the best tools for coping with all of this were those he learned in more than two decades of the martial arts practice. Not Afraid tackles this extremely heavy subject matter in a lighthearted style and with an attitude that acknowledges pain and suffering but denies them dominion over one’s life.In his own irreverent and inimitable style, Daniele Bolleli tells the story of his courtship and marriage, which would have been a sweet story had not all hell broken loose. Or as he puts it, “Hell was a ninja who entered my house without being seen. It all began in such an unremarkable way that it barely registered as anything meaningful. Little did I know that the experiences of the next five months would rip me apart and kill me. They would reforge me into a different man. On that day, I became an unwilling traveler on a journey through the heart of fear. Every step along the way has forced me to face my fears time and time again.”In autobiographical fashion, Not Afraid recounts how martial arts practice and personally relating to fear inducing experiences can affect and shape one’s personality. The result is a page turning book about beauty as well as tragedy, hope as well as despair.

From the "chop-sockey" kung-fu epics on the big screen to practices like tae kwon do at local community centers, the martial arts have become a major phenomenon in Western culture. In On the Warrior's Path, author Daniele Bolelli examines the central figure in this trend: the warrior. Bolelli, himself a martial artist, looks at every facet of the warrior lifestyle, from the unbreakable tenacity of the Japanese swordsman to the contemplative practices of the mysterious warrior monks of China. Drawing from both classical and popular sources of warrior culture, Bolelli shows what it takes to inhabit this singular role, along the way making surprising connections between martial arts and psychedelic culture, basketball, American Indian society, surfing, Star Wars, and more.

If you're waiting for the world's "Holy Men" to tell you the truth about their religions, do you suppose they'll mention Adding to its popular '50 Things You're Not Supposed To Know' series, Disinformation has teamed with Daniele Bolelli--writer, professor of comparative religion, and renowned martial arts practitioner and philosopher--to tackle an ever more serious and important popular misconceptions about religion. Among other Capturing just the right balance of indepth knowledge, respect, humor and irreverence, Bolelli takes an ecumenical approach to the task, revealing surprising, shocking, and littleknown facts about the "big three" religions but also many more, including Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and, of course, the increasingly popular atheism.

“We came to serve God and get rich” — Bernal DiazIn the 1500s, two highly militaristic peoples fueled by religious ideologies requiring bloodshed clashed with one another. This is the tale of what happened when a band of Spaniards run into the Mexica (Aztec) empire. By the time the dust will settle, out of the 25 million indigenous inhabitants of Mexico, little over a million will be left standing.http://historyonfirepodcast.com/episo...http://historyonfirepodcast.com/episo...http://historyonfirepodcast.com/episo...http://historyonfirepodcast.com/episo...

"What good is power if you cannot protect the ones you love?" muses Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones. I can’t think of a more appropriate question to discuss the life of 19th century Lakota hero Crazy Horse. His undeniable power as a warrior, in fact, didn’t spare him from having tragedy visit him time and time again. Taking place against the backdrop of the Lakota-U.S. conflict in the second half of the 1800s, his life was the quintessential tale where epic, heartbreak, bravery, and horror mix freely. His people were one of the last Native American tribes to stand in the face of American expansion. And Crazy Horse was always in the thick of the action, throughout over twenty years of intermittent warfare.

Legendary historian Will Durant has described the story of the 10,000 as “One of the great adventures in human history”. In this two-part series, we meet the main characters of our tale, when a band of over 10,000 Greek mercenaries agree to serve under the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger in a fratricidal civil war against Cyrus’ brother, King Artaxerxes II.We find out why it is a very bad idea to get on the wrong side of Parysatis, one of the most ruthless queens of the ancient world. We also run into betrayal, prophetic dreams, epic battles, Xenophon’s rise to leadership, heartbreaking moments, tribal guerrillas in the mountains, poisoned honey, athletic competitions, sweet revenge, and the planting of the seeds for Alexander the Great’s campaigns.Also included is a brief history of the Persian empire, tattooed, head-hunting + marijuana-consuming + sweat lodge-partaking tribal peoples, plagues, a cameo by Socrates, Machiavellian political games, the great battle of Cunaxa, and a eunuch worthy of Game of Thrones.

Mike Vallely is a legend of skateboarding, a musician, and an actor. Daniele Bolelli is a university professor, a writer and the host of the Drunken Taoist Podcast. Despite the differences in their backgrounds, they teamed up here because they both approach life with reckless passion and to tell a story grounded in just that — High voltage passion.On the surface, the story written here revolves around the infamous fight that turned Mike into the star of one of the very first viral videos. Ever since that day, Mike has been asked about what really happened in the fight, why it took place, etc. And for the first time, all those questions are answered here. But this is little more than an excuse for a much deeper tale — A tale of willpower breaking down all the doors that were being slammed shut in Mike’s face, of triumph over what doctors considered a career-ending injury, and of unyielding commitment to live life on one’s terms despite what everyone else is telling you. Ultimately, it is precisely the kind of tale that Nietzsche referred to when he wrote, “Of all that is written, I only love what a person has written with his blood.”

This book pulls together some of the best writings published in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts regarding modern mixed martial arts. Daniele Bolelli provides a superb overview by analyzing 176 matches that took place between 1993 and 1999 under the UFC umbrella. He also highlights the different ways in which grappling techniques are currently used in mixed martial arts competition. Dr. Rhadi Ferguson zeros in on armbar and chokehold submissions to conclude just how often these were utilized in 1,263 UFC bouts. His works here can assist mixed martial arts professionals with analytical information to help them in training practices and winning strategies. Other chapters provide insightful text and the photographic detail chokes, armlocks, and leg locks. Andew Zerling offers three chapters with the precious help of his teacher, Renzo Gracie. Steve Scott’s chapter is a highly detailed piece on the cross-body armlock, giving four primary applications. You’ll also find perspective and insight that illuminate what is occurring in the evolution of MMA changing competitive rules and dollar amounts play a role in the outcome of championship belts and competitive crowns.