Who are the Bad Guys?

Got a couple of things to cover this issue.

First…

pick up the free book,

RAT SYNTHESIS: SOUL RANGE: THE ART OF VICTORY: BECOME A DHARMIC WARRIOR

It is by Matt Russo.

and it is free for a week,

so check it out.

Second…

I was thinking the other day,

how do you tell the good guys from the bad guys?

It’s easy to say stay away from bad guys,

but how do you tell who is a bad guy,

and who is not?

When I was in high school

I was studying world history,

the teacher said that Hitler attacked every country.

He went to Poland, then continued attacking countries

in a circle, until he got to Russia.

He just attacked everybody.

And,

when he started losing,

he attacked his own people,

blaming the German people for being too weak.

So my criteria for identifying bad guys is

looking for the guys who attack people.

Obviously, you can have differences of opinion,

even big, old arguments,

but when an actual attack occurs,

there’s the fellow you should look at,

he might have just made a bad decision,

but he might also just be a Bad Guy.

And,

you can further identify a bad guy

by the magnitude of his attack…

does he bring a gun to a fist fight?

And,

you can further identify a bad guy

by how many people he attacks.

Does he pick fights with lots of other people?

And,

a very important element,

does he attack people who are smaller than him?

What gets interesting is something like

the weigh in at UFC.

There is trash talk,

good to generate audiences.

Then one of the guys slaps the other guy,

or some other action.

Oops. Bad guy.

There are also all sorts of key phrases that identify bad guys.

For instance:

‘That guy studies at a McDojo.’

‘If it doesn’t work in the ring it isn’t a real art.’

I know I’ve stepped on some toes here, 

and there is a lot of room for opposing opinions,

shadings of some of the things I’ve said,

and so on.

Just because a guy says one thing,

or does one thing,

doesn’t paint him forever.

Guy might have just had a brain fart.

But you can generally identify bad guy remarks because

they have one common factor:

opinion over facts.

Okay.

Think about it,

argue,

find fault,

think about your politicians…

andleave comments at MonsterMartialArts.com

and don’t forget to check out Matt’s book.

Have a great work out!

Al

And thanks to everybody who picked up my book,

Advanced Tai Chi Chuan for Real Self Defense!

Don’t forget to give me five stars.

Those ratings help my sales.

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

Why the Horse Stance?

Good morning!

Summer is coming,

so start thinking about what art

you’re going to learn this summer!

Let’s talk about the horse stance.

It is considered by many

to be THE stance of classical martial arts.

Why?

First, because the body is an energy system.

If you’ve gotten any of my courses

you’ll remember that

weight equals work equals energy.

When you sink your weight,

your tan tien has to create more energy

that energy can be used in strikes, blocks, etc.

BUT…

how much energy do you need?

Or…how deep do you go in your stance?

I used to practice holding a horse stance

with a stick laid across my thighs.

This made my thigh bones horizontal to the ground,

was difficult,

and gave me lots of strength

and even a bit of flexibility.

But it was impractical for fighting.

If you go lower,

if your butt is below your knees,

you’re not in a horse,

you’re in a squat.

If you go higher you’re not getting the power.

BUT…

you don’t need to practice those low, low stances forever.

Practice for a while,

till you have the power,

then raise your stances and use that power in your mobility.

AND…

I never practiced those super low stances in forms.

I practiced them in a meditation we practiced

which we called ‘Kima Chasie.’

I apologize if I have the spelling wrong,

or even the translation,

which we were told meant,

‘horse meditation.’

We would assume a stance with the bottom of our butts

on a level with the top of our knees.

A very slight slope.

We would hold one hand in an open hand high block,

and the other hand stretched to the side

with the fingers turned in a ‘beak’ to the rear.

This gets painful real quick,

but if you realize one simple idea…

‘it may hurt but it won’t kill you,’

and just sit through the pain,

the pain will eventually stop,

and you will have super leg power,

and incredible mental power.

So how deep should the horse stance be?

Depends on what you’re doing.

Are you seeking mobility?

Power?

Something else?

Are you doing it in meditation? 

Part of a form?

For some other reason?

It’s up to you.

But what is guaranteed

is that the horse stance is a profound secret of poweer,

if you can get past the pain

and tap into your inner self.

Prepare for the summer!

Plan your work outs now!

Set up your dojo!

Every form is a prayer,

every technique reveals your heart.

Have a great work out!

Al

(thanks to Kumar)

And thanks to everybody who picked up my book,

Advanced Tai Chi Chuan for Real Self Defense!

Don’t forget to give me five stars.

Those ratings help my sales.

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

Hidden Techniques of Karate!

I originally published this book as Chiang Nan.

I added several hours of video links

and renamed it

‘Hidden Techniques of Karate.’

Oddly,

The version called Chiang Nan

without the video links

has five star ratings.

Hidden Techniques, however, has no ratings.

Weird.

You’d think I would have more and even better ratings 

for a book that includes several hours of videos.

Anyway,

I want to discuss the first technique.

It’s the third move in Pinan one (Heian One)

the move with the rolling fists.

On the surface it is stupid, as I will show you.

But when you see what it is really is

it really makes sense. 

Pay attention to the way ‘old masters’ do this technique.

It will demonstrate how even the guys

who supposedly know so much have been bamboozled.

My way is best,

and if you do it right,

and the guy doesn’t let go his grab

a little practice

and you can break his wrist with your strike.

Here you go.

If the link doesn’t work try copy and paste into your browser.

Okay,

the book is 

Hidden Techniques of Karate

It’s a video course book.

It’s got hours and hours of video

forms and applications,

and it is a valuable lesson in the right way to do martial arts.

Here’s the website link…

Hidden Techniques of Karate

Or if you want to just go to Amazon  just type

‘Hidden Techniques of Karate’ in the amazon search box.

Now,

have yourself a funomenal day!

And a great work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

New Book on Nine Square Diagram Tai Chi Chuan!

What a beautiful day!

For me, what mades it so is the one form I do.

I start off the day with this form,

and I end the day with this form.

Oh, I still do Sanchin (including Seisan)

and my matrix forms,

but the one form that geets my full intention

day after day,

is in my new book

Advanced Tai Chi Chuan for Real Self Defense!

In this book I get rid of ALL the mystical bushwah,

and I focus on the dozen postures.

The moves that actually work, and can be used in freestyle.

The form is done on the nine square pattern,

it is short, 

and I do it with closed eyes.

This aids in visualization

and really starts the energy flowing.

There are about 30 techniques taken directly from this form,

and I have a section on Lop Sau,

which helps understand how the moves can be translated from

the perfection of form

to the discipline of application

to the chaos of freestyle.

The book is 108 pages,

has included some matrixing theories,

and…

I do it every day.

Rain or shine.

I do it slowly,

Tai Chi style,

And it is the only form in the art of 

Nine Square Diagram Boxing!

SO,

check it out…

Advanced Tai Chi Chuan for Real Self Defense!

And have a GREAT work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

Speed Posers in Martial Arts!

Last newsletter I talked about the basic poser technique,

a technique where the attacker has to wait

while the defender does the technique.

That’s the basic thing you’ll see

that makes a technique useless and unworkable.

A secondary poser would be one where

the defender has unrealistic hand speed.

The attacker throws a punch or two,

and the defender’s hands are a blur,

almost invisible.

But is it realistic to assume

that you will be that much faster than your opponent?

In a fight everything speeds up.

Your attacker is going to speed up.

And that includes doing unorthodox things

that you won’t see on the mat.

So the idea of you being incredibly fast

and the opponent reacting in an exact, prescribed manner,

is false.

So,

solution.

Don’t practice techniques where the other guy waits for you to do the technique.

That was my first advice from the last newsletter.

AND…

practice techniques that are simple and basic,

and rely mostly on basics,

until you go out of your body.

This happened for me

right before I got to black belt

on applications from the form Botsai.

(Bassai, other spellings)

We did the three blocks

right at the beginning of the form,

and I knew I couldn’t keep up with the three attacks.

Month after month I practiced,

Trying to do something I knew I couldn’t do.

With endless practice I started to economize my motion,

and I started to use my body as one unit.

What I call CBM,

or Coordinated body Motion.

All parts of the body begin motion at the same time.

All parts of the body end motion at the same time.

All parts of the body contribute to the motion

according to the various percentages

of muscle, mass, etc.

One day I was doing the technique,

and suddenly it was as if I was behind my head,

not looking through my eyes,

but seeing everything without blinking.

My hands moved,

perfectly CBMed,

and my ‘whole body speed’ was faster than the attack.

That was a major point for me.

My body working as one unit,

being apart from my body,

and my body moving in response to my thought,

and not because of ‘reaction times.’

I often hear people talk about muscle memory,

and that is a silly concept.

Your muscles don’t remember sequences.

They remember pain,

but the real ‘memorization’

is a circuit in your mind.

And that circuit is enacted by you.

The human being.

And if you practice long enough 

the circuits tend to delete

and you move without the need for circuits.

Which is seen as you being apart from your body.

Moving in…’the now.’

So good martial arts is liberating,

imparts a certain freedom of the soul.

And that is why you have to stay away from posers of ALL kinds.

Unfortunately,

most arts are so filled with posers

they rarely impart this freedom of the soul.

But almost any art can work

if you simply get rid of posers,

Focus on techniques that rely on basics

and a true estimation of time and speed of hands and so forth.

I would recommend applying Matrixing to your art

to make this happen.

Matrixing is the only scientific analysis of the martial arts.

Remember this:

Science only measures.

Matrixing provides solutions.

Obligatory ad coming up.

check out

The Last Martial Arts Book: Nine Square Diagram Boxing

GET THE EDITION WITH THE 5 HOURS OF VIDEO LINKS!

This art has the meditative aspects of Tai Chi,

the simple, modular approach of Pa Kua,

the workability of GOOD karate,

and goes from block and punch

the closure of distance

to grab arts.

Incidentally,

I’m almost ready to publish a book on advanced Nine Square techniques,

including the only form in Nine Square Diagramming.

Stay tuned,

sign up for the newsletter if you haven’t,

and…

Have a great work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

Poser Martial Arts Techniques!

What makes a good martial arts technique?

Actually, it is easier to ask what makes a bad martial arts technique.

I think I’m going to write a bit on this on future blogs,

but let’s start with what I call a ‘poser.’

First, before I give you the facts,

go on youtube and ask for bunkai,

or martial arts techniques,

or form applications.

Now,

have that page open while you read this newsletter.

The prime example of a poser technique is

when the defender punches,

then waits for the defender to do his technique.

This flaw,

this ‘stop-motion’ in the middle of a technique

 is the quintessential definition of a poser.

In a real fight people don’t throw one punch and stop.

Does a fellow stop in the ring after he punches?

Now,

take a look at the technique open on youtube.

Does the attacker stop motion after a punch?

If he does,

no matter what,

no matter how august the art,

or prestigious the artist,

that is a poser technique.

If it’s a really bad poser,

if the attacker is frozen for a long time

it’s fun to take a stop watch to him.

Now, here comes the bad news.

Film yourself doing techniques,

or just watch other students do them.

How many of your techniques are posers?

The answer is a lot.

Most arts are about 90% poser.

In my art we train extensively

with a matrixed form of Lop Sau.

In this perfect exercise

the techniques we practice are in use.

They are not slices of a form

designed to teach you something abstract

that is not necessarily useful in a real fight.

We train so that you segue directly into counters,

so you can handle the secondary attacks that MUST happen

because of the body position you are in

and the techniques you are using.

Anyway,

the point is that you must examine your art

no matter how much you love it,

and define and eliminate all poser techniques.

To not do this is to invite a beating.

Okay,

obligatory ad.

If you are curious about my lop sau,

my ‘perfect drill for fighting,’

check out

The Last Martial Arts Book

Nine Square Diagram Boxing

But DON’T get this version.

Look around and find the version with over FIVE HOURS of video links!

That’s five hours of video training

for the price of two books.

That is THE BEST deal anywhere!

And it will make your karate technically correct

and give you all the real techniques!

Okay,

guys and gals

thanks for being martial artists

you make the world a better place…

Have a great work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

Martial Arts Injuries in Brazilian Jujitsu!

Recently read an article that claimed

Brazilian Jujitsu was causing lots of injuries.

I find this fascinating.

When I started Kenpo Karate back in 67,

within two years I had broken my toes twice,

my hand once

and needed to repair a cracked tooth,

and I attributed these injuries to two things.

First,

poor instruction.

Can’t argue with that.

Second,

protective gear.

Our instructor came out to the freestyle class one day.

He had a couple of large boxes filled with protective gear.

“Okay, guys,

now we can fight without getting injured.”

Oh, Lord, the injuries piled up.

Everybody thought they could hit harder,

everybody thought they had to hit harder.

They stopped learning control

and started punching harder.

When I went to a classical school

(Kang Duk Won)

I learned what power was. 

By learning what real control was.

This school was ten times harder than the Kenpo school,

I ended up with so many bruises I couldn’t press the clutch pedal.

But I never received an injury.

Good instruction and no protective gear.

We learned to be protective of our partners,

and to be precise in our control.

We learned the consequences of poor control

through the ministrations of our ‘gentle’ seniors.

in other words,

if you showed poor control

a higher belt would step in and show you consequences.

But they did it with good control.

It was actually a very humane lesson.

Brazilian Jujitsu has lots of injuries.

There is no arguing that. 

I have seen good schools with lots of injuries.

Especially to the hands and wrists.

Poor instruction?

Maybe.

But I would tend to think it is young turks

getting over excited by the action.

But here’s the thing…

if you do jujitsu correctly

if you find the angles

and use gentle force,

it works.

That’s what the name means.

Jujitsu means ‘gentle trick.’

But I see people,

especially in the cage,

where victory is more important than your opponent’s body,

who use full force

and crank to the max,

and who,

in rare matches,

can’t even be pulled off their opponent.

It is interesting,

we live in degraded times,

where honor is not as valuable as a punch in the face.

Thus, there aren’t many voices asking for

more rules to protect the fighter.

To be truthful,

I am not fond of rules.

Rules are needed in contests

where the participants might be out of control.

they don’t have self control,

and there is a need for ‘other’ control.

such as referees,

fines and punishments like being banned.

It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out.

But,

in the meantime,

I’ll stick with the classic arts

who preach honor and virtue,

over ‘winning at all costs.’

Okay,

obligatory ad.

If you want to know the right way to do Karate,

check out

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Comes in Two Volumes)

These are the real techniques behind the forms,

techniques that can be used on the street,

and even in the ring.

The books have over FIVE HOURS of video links!

That’s five hours of video training

for the price of two books.

That is THE BEST deal anywhere!

And it will make your karate technically correct

and give you all the real techniques!

There it is,

check it out,

and enjoy the rest of this winter.

It’s almost spring,

and that is training time in my book!

Have a great work out!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

Taking the Next Step in Tai Chi Chuan!

I was always trying to figure out

how to make Tai Chi Chuan happen a little quicker.

Just as i didn’t want to take years for a black belt in other systems,

I didn’t want to take years to get the real benefits of Tai chi.

When I put together the Nine Square Diagram Boxing

I was addressing this directly.

I figured isolating the working moves,

increasing repetition,

and focusing on the meditative aspects

would get me there.

The important things to remember

are to shift the weight back and forth,

loading the legs with energy,

pushing that energy into the tan tien,

which is the energy generator for the body.

Also, to keep the belly taut, but not tight.

This focuses on the tan tien and not the muscles.

Very important to realize that

if you focus on the muscles

you isolate body parts

instead of putting them together as one unit.

And, to keep the arms filled with unbendable energy.

Aikido definitions are best to understand the ‘unbendable arm.’

But very little flexing,

keep the arms at their most optimum bend

and work on subtle pulses

that work off the push of energy in the legs.

Doing the Nine Square in this way,

or doing Tai Chi in this manner

will up your speed of learning,

and the accumulation of energy in your body.

Simply shift back and forth

and feel the ‘slosh’ of energy in your body.

It may take a while,

but it is faster than traditional Tai Chi by ten.

But what REALLY helped me

is doing the Nine Square with my eyes closed.

I did this with Tai Chi and it helped,

but with the repetition and focus of Nine Square

it magnified everything tremendously

I was feeling like I was holding a ball of energy.

I was feeling the energy building so fast

that I was compelled to move into the hard style

and snap everything with power.

that’s why I talk about doing the Nine Square two ways.

One soft and one hard.

When doing the Nine square soft (or Tai Chi)

don’t work against yourself.

Let the power build by being patient.

Know that you’re working for more than simple self defense.

Know that you are building yourself spiritually,

building and using energies

that normal people are not aware exists.

Ground the legs,

taut the belly

unbendable arms

close the eyes and let the power build

Do the hard style separately.

Here’s the link to the book,

make sure you…

GET THE EDITION WITH 5 HOURS OF VIDEO LINKS!

The Last Martial Arts Book: Nine Square Diagram Boxing

It’s a new year,

so have a great work out,

and do all the martial arts you can!

It’s good for your soul.

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

The Evolution of the Shaolin Martial Arts!

Most people say the Martial Arts

came from the Shaolin Temple.

Undoubtededly,

the Shaolin Temple is a big influencer.

But,

my own theory is slightly different.

Originally

I wrote a short column about ‘Og and Bog.’

Og steals Bog’s apples by conking him on the head,

Bog imagines a defense for getting conked on the head,

and we have a technique

and the birth of the martial arts.

Which is to say

from the very first time

one man raised his fist to another,

martial arts have been developing.

Verbal history,

not a reliable thing,

says that Bodhidharma came to Shaolin from the east,

trained the monks in meditation,

and when they proved too weak to meditate properly,

he gave them the martial arts.

But when you look at the exercises credited to Bodhidharma

they look like calisthenics.

So how do simple calisthenics

become martial arts?

Let’s create a possible scenario

to present my theory.

Warlords reigned,

they conscripted peasants,

and taught them how to fight.

How to use the spear,

how to do basic ‘boxing’ (kung fu).

The peasants who survived the battles

might retire to home,

and go to a temple to pray,

maybe even feel a bit of remorse

 about the deaths they caused

and join a temple.

At the temple they want to stay in shape

so they use the basic calisthenics they used in the military.

They even use some of the fighting routines.

But the essence of the temple isn’t in fighting,

and if one is in daily meditation

and begins a regimen in fitness,

it is conceivable that the exercises they did

begin to take on the form of meditation.

No, not every monk is a warrior,

but if even one soldier takes refuge at the temple

translates his military exercises

into meditation…

that might have great influence.

So we have a sort of a criss cross here

between meditation and physical combat.

It’s a maybe,

but a logical sort of a maybe.

Now let’s talk about what happens if a person

 practices a routine for years,

and especially in conjunction with meditation.

He becomes aware through meditation,

and as he focuses his meditation on his calisthenics,

he achieves a different type of awareness in his calisthenics.

He starts to feel this thing called chi,

a ‘breath energy’ circulating through the body.

He finds this thing called chi is difficult to explain,

but if a person is dedicated to motion,

and to the calm and breathing techniques of meditation…

he can achieve a certain degree of awareness of,

and control over this somewhat invisible energy called chi.

And all this backs up various religious theories.

The interesting thing is that Shaolin happened,

and it is so far back

that all we’ve got is theories.

But we have another art that isn’t thousands of years old.

It is influenced by Shaolin, but…

Tung Haichuan

back in the 1800s

apparently knew some kung fu.

He went into the mountains,

met some monks,

and they taught him how to meditate by walking the circle.

Tung Haichuan supposedly combined

the circle walking and the kung fu

to make Pa Kua Chang.

People immediately invested PKC

with all sorts of religious theories.

The eight trigrams,

all that sort of thing.

A good example of a ‘calisthenic’ being adapted to kung fu,

and kung fu becoming more meditative,

just as what probably happened

thousands of years ago at the Shaolin Temple.

And!

If you look at Karate,

it was a martial art designed by and for palace guards.

Heavy duty self defense

and hard core fighting.

In just a bit over a hundred years it has become

heavily infused with zen concepts.

A martial art expanding awareness

through dedicated and repetitious motion,

until it becomes,

in its purest form,

a source of enlightenment

and spiritual development.

AND…

A good question here is

could MMA become spiritual?

I would guess probably not,

and this simply because the techniques are

more dedicated to destruction than control.

The practitioners might even laugh if 

a student wanted to find the zen

behind an arm bar.

Hey,

it may have taken MANY generations

for Shaolin to become more than

a physical calisthenic for ex-warriors,

and to become a method of awareness and control

and not simply an excuse for destruction.

So that’s my theory,

if you feel it is full of holes,

or you feel some other possibility is probable,

leave comments.

I do want to say that when I developed the 

The Last Martial Arts Book: Nine Square Diagram Boxing

I was trying to create movements

that would have meditative aspects

as in  Tai Chi Chuan and Pa Kua Chang.

I wanted to create a degree of spiritual awareness,

and yet have the art be totally workable on the street.

I want the meditation, the control, the spirituality,

but not at the cost of losing the destructive potential of the art.

Check it out on Amazon,

and if you decide to get it,

make sure you…

GET THE EDITION WITH THE 5 HOURS OF VIDEO LINKS!

Give yourself a present,

and don’t forget to give me five stars!

Have a great work out,

and have a great and profitable New Year!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)

Duc Tape and WD40 in the Martial Arts

A fellow once told me that the two most important things in life

are duc tape and WD40.

This is because everything is either falling apart,

or getting smunched together.

Makes sense, eh?

So I’ve been working on a Neutronics book

and I realized a couple of things.

There are three problems in life.

For a body it is inflammation.

For a mind it is tension.

For a spirit it is lies.

On the body level it is inflammation.

Well, actually it is inflammation or compression.

Inflammation is when your body has an illness of some sort.

Inflammation is generally a germ,

but it could be food, DNA, or whatever.

Compression is when you get in an accident.

Compression is you took a wrong turn,

were in the wrong place at the wrong time,

and that fellow in a Ford smacked you.

On the mental level,

all problems come from two terminals opposing.

Two terminals opposing could be a push or a pull.

There are A LOT of potentials

when applying this to the mind.

You disagree with others,

you disagree with ideas,

you disagree.

The basic problem here,

when you break it down enough,

is that  since the mind is nothing but a bunch of memories,

there is a conflict between memories and reality.

On the spiritual level

all problems come from a lie.

Lying creates tension in the mind,

and can cause the body to get sick.

this distracts one from the truth of the spirit.

This makes life hard to live.

These three things are interconnected.

And the results of dealing with these things

on a neutronic level can be interesting.

You can handle inflammation with certain herbs and such,

and sometimes drugs.

You can handle compression with surgery.

Handling the body in this way will usually work,

unless you go off and die,

but it ignores the tension in the mind

and the distraction of the spirit.

You can handle your mental turmoil

by getting rid of problems.

This can be done on the surface,

but the real handling is going to take place deep in your mind.

Handling the mind in this way usually works, 

unless your mind is really messed up.

but it ignores the fact

that the spirit is still messed up.

If you didn’t allow the spirit to become distracted,

which includes concepts such as:

tension, splintering, shattering, etc.,

and usually means a lack of integrity or wholeness,

you would rarely become ill

or even confused in your life.

To handle the spirit is the easiest of all,

yet almost no one does it.

To stop lying you must be ruthlessly honest with yourself.

You must tell the truth at all times,

and develop virtues such as

compassion, kindness, patience, and so on.

You should find a list of virtues and start practicing them today.

That’s it.

If you handle the spirit,

if you stop lying,

then the mind is no longer stressed

and the inflammation is cured,

and you have a harmonious person.

This is actually pretty important stuff.

And I figured it out simply from observing the world,

talking to people,

and Matrixing.

When you do the martial arts

it tends to handle the body.

A handled body handles the mind,

a handled mind can handle the spirit.

If the martial art is messy

it takes a while, 

and can even fail.

If the martial art is matrixed,

which is to say logical and aligned,

the body is aligned and won’t suffer inflammation so easily.

the mind refuses the tension of opposing terminals

and ceases being distracted,

and the spirit becomes harmonious.

If this doesn’t make sense you should read

this newsletter over a few times.

Doing a Matrixed Martial Art

aligns the data of motion.

This aligns the mind so it stops distracting,

and the spirit becomes harmonious.

Obligatory ad for this wonderful bit of wisdom…

The Last Martial Arts Book: Nine Square Diagram Boxing

GET THE EDITION WITH THE 5 HOURS OF VIDEO LINKS!

This is a complete and matrixed art,

Applicable on the street,

as meditative as Tai Chi Chuan,

and modular in construction like Pa Kua Chang.

Give yourself a present for Christmas,

and don’t forget to give me five stars!

Another Neutronics book will be here in a couple of months!

Have a great work out,

and HanaKwanMass to all!

Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.

(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)

My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them  for 5 stars.

‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.

‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.

‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.

My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings

so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.

How to Fix Karate:

A Karate Training and Workout Book

 (Two Volumes)