The True Spirituality of the Martial Arts

The First Lesson in the Martial Arts

I was teaching today,
first time in a long time,
first time since I went through the shoulder injury,
and operation and rehab,
and,
man, it felt good.
Back in the saddle again.
Thanks, Nick.

And,
I was reminded of one of the first things
I ever tell people.
Sort of important,
because I get emails from people
who ask about spirituality.
So here is the basic lesson,
usually the first lesson,
I teach people,
and it is about spirituality.

Invariably,
people will think they made a mistake,
they will usually even apologize.
I say,
‘What?’
They say,
‘I’m sorry.’
I ask, ‘For what?’

Here’s the point,
The student never makes a mistake.
He makes decisions based on the data he has.
If he comes up with an answer that doesn’t fit
he isn’t wrong.
He just needs to go over the material some more.

And here is the lesson…

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS RIGHT AND WRONG!

There is right,
and there is almost right,
not quite right,
and so on,
but there is no wrong.

The problem is that people have grown up in a society
where people make other people right or wrong.
You ran the red light!
YOU’RE WRONG!
You get a ticket.

Well, actually,
you ran the red light based on certain data.
The data might have been off,
but it doesn’t make you wrong.

It makes you the ‘victim’ of a government
that exists through the action
of making people right or wrong.

Some guy slaps his kid.
He’s not wrong,
he was raised by being slapped,
it is the viewpoint he has accepted.

Now,
we know what is wrong here,
running a red light or slapping a kid,
it is easier to say somebody is wrong,
than to understand them.

The government thinks that penalizing you
will make you more aware.
But hitting people doesn’t make them smarter.
Quite the opposite.

So here is the point:
do you want to be a spiritual person?
Then make people right.
Give up,
totally,
the idea of wrong.

Teach a kid,
show a worker the correct way,
share a good time,
make people right.

Not wrong.

This is an old concept.

Ever heard of:
Do unto others…?

This is because the universe is basically
a mirror for ourselves.

As you do,
so shall ye reap.

If you make somebody wrong,
then you are wrong.

If you make somebody right,
then you are right.

So,
which do you want to be?
What kind of universe do you want to live in?

And this is,
invariably,
the first lesson I teach.

some people get it quick.
Some slow.
But if I keep saying it,
then it works.
Students get better.
Students become better teachers.
And everybody becomes more spiritual.
More aware.
More…understanding.

Okay!
Here’s a list of books I have written

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/

Check them out,
see which ones interest you,
fill out your library,
expand your understanding of the martial arts,
and of yourself.

Have a great work out!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/

http://www.amazon.com/Matrixing-Tong-Bei-Internal-Gung/dp/1507869290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423678613&sr=8-1&keywords=tong+bei

Three Ways to Transform Yourself in the Martial Arts

Three Martial Arts Drills… 

Merry HanaKwanMass!
it’s time to think about a New Year!
What art do you want to learn next year?
What arts do you want to learn?
Make the thought now,
get started now
on making your plans.

Let me tell you something you don’t know.
My Xmas pres to you,
something you don’t know.
It’s the present that will last,
because you’re going to think about it,
and it will change you,
and you will find that this simple fact
has a LOT to do with the martial arts.

Here go…
Did you know that emotion is 90% hearing,
and 10% seeing?

It’s true.

Music is filled with emotion,
people’s voices are filled with emotion,
but you look at somebody
you don’t feel much emotion,
actually,
unless you know the person,
and even then have been apart from them for some time,
you actually tend to judge them.

Now,
there are ALL sorts of ‘what ifs’ to this,
but generally speaking,
it’s true.

So what does this have to do with the martial arts?

Simply this,
when you face somebody,
on the mat or on the street,
you trust your eyes.
Heck,
if everybody is yelling,
then you have to trust your eyes.
You use your eyes,
and you analyze what is happening.

So the breakdown goes like this.

Hearing is emotion,
seeing is judgmental,
and seeing through the martial arts is analysis.
Thus,
the importance of the martial arts
as a learning experience,
as a way to get over the desire to judge others,
instead of see them as they are.

Now,
if you are astute,
then you realize that I have given you the key
to world peace,
and,
to peace within yourself.

understanding this datum,
that hearing is emotion,
seeing is judgmental,
martial arts transforms judgment into analysis,
and thus wisdom,
will change you,
a subtle but immeasurable but infinite change.

Now,
the problem is that this change
from judgement to the ability to analyze
takes a long time.

Most martial arts take two to three decades
to transform the individual.
So a guy takes the martial arts,
learns to beat somebody up,
and thinks that’s all.
Quits the arts.
Yikes!
He is actually going AGAINST world peace,
and peace within.

(You can’t have world peace
unless enough people have peace within)

So you either have to do the martial arts long enough,
or do them intensely enough,
to transform yourself from judgement to analysis.
And that’s where Matixing comes in.

The biggest enemy Matrixing has
is the martial artist who thinks he knows it all.

At best,
he passes down the art,
transforms people in the same old same old
slow
way.
At worst,
his art has time to warp and twist and leave the true.
And,
let me tell you,
the worst is more likely to happen
than the best.

But when you matrix
you learn to find the things you don’t know.
You find the blank spots
the things you didn’t understand,
and the art speeds up.

Awareness progresses
according to the speed at which
you discover what you don’t know.

This is an absolute.

The problem is that people go only as fast as they are bound.
Bound by what they know,
which hides what they don’t know.

Okay,
you’re probably swimming by now,
so let me back off a bit,
and give you a couple of exercises
to help you grok this data.

First,
do matrixing.
Matrix your forms,
matrix your art,
matrix yourself.
That’s easy to do,
just get a MonsterMartialArt.com course
and go for it.

Second,
go out in the woods,
where there are no sounds of civilization,
sit,
close your eyes,
and listen.

Listen as if you are watching TV.
The same attention,
the same raptness,
but the whole world is now your TV.
At first thoughts will intrude,
but keep shoving them aside,
and learn to listen,
and you will shortly enter a world,
a world of emotion beyond emotion,
that you never knew existed.

Third,
take a day and don’t talk.
Tell your friends the day before,
have a card printed up if you need to,
but don’t talk.

Obviously it should be a day you don’t have to go to work.
Then,
wait a week or two,
and do it again.
A few days of no talking,
and you will enter a realm
where you learn to communicate with the eyes,
and you will see things
that have been passing you by.
Your eyes will open
and you will see a different world.
A world without judgment.

Okay,
those are your three steps,
fun to do,
takes some discipline,
but the results will knock you for a loop.

Okaley dokaly
Remember,
I have two specials on…

One,
Rolling Fists is half price,
because I have a bunch of labels
that faded.
Email me for details.
(aganzul@gmail.com)

Two,
the HanaKwanMass two for one special!
Good until Jan 1.
Get any course,
and email me afterward
for any other course
of equal or lesser value!

Simply go to
http://monstermartialarts.com
and run wild.
Kid in a candy store,
Eureka!
And find the martial arts you want to learn this next year.

Remember,
learn the truth about emotions,
transform judgment into the ability to analyze,
and Matrix yourself.

The world will be a better place.

Happy New Year
and have a great work out!
Al

Everything You Wanted To Know about Martial Arts Kicks!

There are pivotal moments

in everybody’s life.

My pivotal moments came

when I earned my black belt.

I went through a tremendous number of interesting experiences.

I had visions,

learned things,

my world just changed.

One of the things that happened

that really tweaked me

had to do with kicks.

At the Kang Duk Won

we practiced kicks a lot.

We started class

with hundreds of kicks,

just for the warm up.

The bag in the back

was taken down every few months

just because somebody kicked a hole in it.

You could feel the whole building shake

when somebody started bouncing that bag

on the end of his foot.

Kicks are good.

So one day we were freestyling.

I was first brown,

going into the changes at Black Belt

and the second instructor was in charge.

He decided to have me fight two guys.

This wasn’t normally done,

the head instructor

kept a tight rein on us,

made sure we stayed on the way.

But,

here I was,

fighting two guys.

So one jumped in and grabbed my arm,

and the other one started hitting me.

I couldn’t block,

my ribs were getting pummeled,

it was all out of control,

and,

suddenly…

I felt this big weight in my foot.

It was like somebody had tried to stuff a car in my shoe,

except I wasn’t wearing shoes.

Then I vaguely remembered

looking at my leg.

What was I doing?

Oh,

I was doing a side kick.

And then I came back to myself.

I was actually sort of dazed,

and I realized

that I had been out of my body.

Sort of unconscious,

not really understanding what had happened.

But,

I remembered kicking,

and the guy who had been pummeling my ribs

was lying in a heap

on the side of the room

some twelve feet away.

Apparently,

I had kicked him.

Except that I hadn’t kicked him.

I had

KICKED HIM.

And he had flown  twelve feet through the air.

Oddly,

he wasn’t hurt.

Just bent a little,

had trouble breathing,

but nothing was broken.

Now,

I have practiced kicks for forty years

trying to figure out

how to do that again.

I can break ribs,

but I can’t move a guy twelve feet

without breaking ribs.

Interesting problem,

eh?

But the point of it all is this:

that is classical power!

That is the power somebody has

when they do the classical forms.

So I practice classical forms.

A lot.

Of course,

I’ve changed things a little,

done a lot of Matrixing,

but I always try to point out what I’ve changed,

and why.

At any rate,

the thing that I discovered

after many years

is that it is not more power that I need,

but less.

I can get back of my head pretty easily these days,

and I can KICK,

but my best kicks are gentle little things.

The more gentle I get,

the more KICK there is.

That’s the classical power,

when you finally figure it all out

you realize that it is not how much you kick,

but how little.

You just have to coordinate your body

so that intention comes out.

Pretty easy,

but nobody talks about it,

nobody really understands it

they just keep doing forms,

searching for violence,

and not realizing the truth.

Interestingly,

you can find all sorts of writings

by the old masters

that back me up.

Mark Bishop details many of these

in his book.

There are Tai Chi classics,

and so on.

Gichin Funakoshi understood this.

He noted that the forms he had brought to Japan

had been changed,

and he actually passed on the official stuff

of his school

to Shotokai.

Not Shotokan.

Though Shotokan has claim,

they are not the legitimate inheritors of the system.

The Shotokai is.

Go on,

youtube it,

see if you can see some shotokai examples of forms,

compare it with shotokan forms.

Quite interesting.

Though,

times have changed yet again,

and you might have to look to find the changes.

Interesting problem.

Anyway,

the point of it all is

learn how to do less,

not more.

Heck,

if ten guys attack you

are you going to be ten times more powerful?

I think not.

But,

if you fight one tenth the power for each

you might make it.

It will take ten times the intelligence,

but if you study hard,

do your work outs religiously,

you’ll survive.

So,

if you want to look some kicks

I give away a free kicking course,

complete with form and applications

on the Matrix Karate Course.

Here’s the URL

http://www.monstermartialarts.com/Matrix_Karate.html

I picked out a couple of wins to share…

No longer do we punch and kick and wait for the skill to come. Now we use concepts and practice our understanding of them, thereby traveling a road directly to skill.

And…

people think that I’m some sort of mystical genius, when I use your Punch & Kick technologies…

So,

if you want some good kicks,

that’s what this newsletter is about.

Lot of data here,

and I hope you use

and have the best work out of your life.

At the end of the work out is the truth,

and the truth is…you.

Have an absolutely incredible day.

Al

BTW

try googling this…

‘Karate Kick Harder with These Seven Simple Tips’

Battle is an orgy of disorder.

George S. Patton 

Kids Karate and the Savage Beating of an 84 Year Old Man

Kids Karate and the Savage Beating of an 84 Year Old Man. Four young punks make a game out of beating up old people. You won’t believe the name they gave this game!

What Works in MMA, and What Works in the Martial Arts!

I came across an interesting article, it had to do with the MMA saving the world of the martial arts. Check out the video, then I’ll tell you about it.

The points were well taken, it was basically a diatribe on commercialization, and the reduction in actual teaching.
MMA works because it puts the pedal to the metal, and its hard to upgrade from your silk shorts to, uh…something flashier.
I liked the article, though I disagreed with some of it.
Commercialization is okay as long as it promotes the money, and not okay when it becomes obsessed with monetization. I agree with that.
However, the point that classical martial arts are basically dead I disagree with.
No, they don’t spend time rolling around on the mat, but they do go somewhere. These old legends of ‘iron fist,’ and ‘dim mak,’ and iron bell training,’ they are real.
What is lacking is dedication and commitment to the extreme.
Now people are watching the MMA and wanting to basically box and kick so that they spin around out of control.
Classical martial arts is not boxing. Also, classical martial arts doesn’t result in cauliflower ears, slurred speech, faces cut beyond belief. Also, Traditional MA results in fine discipline, stronger bodies, mental acuity, and all manner of politeness.
Of course, that is if it is taught right.
The points made in the article were good, but there was a bias towards only MMA, and MMA as the Saviour of the arts, and so on.
Really, one is not better than the other, and to say that one is is to fall to the worse qualities.
What works in the MMA? What works in the Martial Arts? Can’t we all get along? Check out Monster Martial Arts if you’re interested in seeing some of that classical mess. There is some real magic in that stuff, and the pendulum is starting to swing the other way. Oh, and pick up a free book on the home page while you’re there.

Changes are Happening to Monster Martial Arts! Caption Contest!

The Chinese have a saying: “May you live in interesting times.”
Actually, it’s sort of a curse. Life, according to the saying sayers should always be the same.
Isn’t that hell of sorts?
If life isn’t changing, then aren’t you stagnating, and what is the point of it all then? Eh?
So, let’s try changing the Monster a bit.
I’ve been tweaking the website, making it more friendly in a lot of ways.
And, I’ve been working over the blogs. Got some ideas on that.
I need to get more computer literate. (Ugh! It hurts! Don’t drag me into the ‘Smart Age!’)
Thinking about consolidating sites, maybe bundling Monkeyland with the Monster, doing a few things like that.
And then there is the newsletter.
I love the newsletter, but, I need to morph it into something bigger and better.
So, I’ll try a few formats, and then maybe go forward, or go back, depending on what happens.
So, this issue is PDF and downloadable.
Servers won’t get mad at me for sending out too much mail, I get to put actual ads in the thing, and I get to focus on certain things, and generally expand.
It’s not a newspaper, or a magazine, but I think Journal best describes it.
You like, you tell me.
You don’t like, you tell me.
And may we all live in interesting times.

WHAT’S THE CAPTION?

Give me a good caption and win a free download!
Contest over on Monday, Feb 21st!
Results to be posted here!

Check out Monster Martial Arts.

Let me know if you like the changes,

and sign up for the newsletter/journal.

The Power of the Kiai Used in Elementary School!

I was teaching in an elementary school. The bell rang, everybody crowded out of the class, and I was left looking over the heads of the thundering herd. Now how could I get out? I didn’t want to wait while they talked about Dick and Jane and wandered about. I had a lunch waiting for me!

So I summoned up the Kiai power (means ‘spirit shout’) and I thundered…’Man coming through!’

They scattered, shriveled up against the walls, stood back in awe and watched as I sauntered meaningfully past them.

A man.

A real live man.

In this day and age, a real man is sometimes an endangered species, or so it seems. And here was one, walking right through them–and it was like being in the jungle and watching as the biggest, fattest gorilla sauntered between them.

Now, I’m not making any kind of statement. I’m just saying that real men know how to Kiai, and they know how to use that Kiai. They don’t get in fights, they don’t whine and moan, they just get the job done.

How about it. Want to study some real martial arts and get the job done?

Try Evolution of an Art, get the job done. Be a man.

Grrrr!

The One Real Reason To Study Martial Arts

Now a lot of guys will say that the one real reason to study the martial arts is to beat people up.

Foolishness.

The need to beat people up diminishes in proportion to one’s ability to beat people up.

The ability to protect oneself breeds self worth, you see.

But the one purpose is that you step out on the mat, you do a form, and you realize something.

It’s fun moving your body.

So you move it a gain, and again, and you start realizing something else: it’s fun to move other peoples bodies.

So you go overboard and really start practicing the martial arts, and you realize something else…who is moving your body.

Now here is one of the cruelest things I can ever tell a person who doesn’t do martial arts.

You don’t know who is moving your body; you don’t know who you are.

They will say, oh yeah, I know that. I know who I am.

Nope.

They don’t.

They don’t have a clue.

And they won’t until they have done martial arts a few years. Then they wake up, see the light, and they say…Oh, I thought I was in control of myself. Boy, was I foolish.

You can’t argue against what people think they know.

Try Monster Martial Arts if you want to know something.

It’ll give you the one real reason to study the martial arts. Do it quick, too. Learn an art in a few months, and your self confidence boosts, your self worth boosts, and one day you will know who is moving your body. Guaranteed.

It’s the cure, bro. It’s the cure.

Three Steps To Making Deadly Martial Arts Moves

Everybody buys into the concept of Deadly Martial Arts Techniques, but most schools don’t deliver. Teaching Little Johnny, training for tournaments, these concepts take from the fighting arts. Interestingly, one need only understand the three stages of technique, or bunkai, and it doesn’t matter whether you do karate or kenpo or taekwondo or whatever, and your art is going to become deadly.

You must come to grips with the basic idea and principle of what you are doing. Often there are a bunch of little tricks that need to be figured out, but they will come together in a single idea. This idea is presented in the kata, and it is why things like Karate kata or taekwondo poomse are actually incredibly vital to learning martial arts.

The form, you see, is a concept that strives to be as perfect as possible. You practice it without distractions and you attempt to make each technique you do as perfect as is possible. You try to do without things as reaction times, and you train your body to move as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The second thing you need to do is apply the individual parts of the forms in bunkai, or applications. You need to make the technique work through controlled distraction, you need to experience resistance. Most important, you need to understand the reality of what happens when bodies collide with bodies.

The idea here is that you need to have somebody try to stop you from achieving perfection. This enables you to deal with problems, and go through the doors that will enable you to make a technique work, and to find all the ‘what ifs’ that will get in the way. This is perfection on a new level; this is learning how to make the art work in spite of anything that might get in the way.

The third thing is to take your skills and make them work in freestyle, or sparring. Here your kenpo techniques may not be so smooth and liquid, in spite of anything Mr. Parker might say, and you are going to have to push through all resistance and make them functional. Ultimately, as you test these applications and find the working parts, you are going to find the perfection of art that can be found in such forms as wankin and seisan and even lowly sanchin.

The thing you have to watch out for, in this process of smoothing out distractions, is getting sold on violence as a solution. You must not come to love the Joy of Combat that is so alluring. You must, in spite of the chaotic nature of the subject, hold to cold, calm logic; you must control yourself until you find yourself.

The martial arts are a project of finding yourself through hard work, and through the seeking and isolating of the perfect concept of each movement you do. Perfection is there, you know, but it comes at a price. Deadly Martial Arts Techniques, you see, are achieved at the price of inner peace.

Half a dozen arts, dozens of forms, THOUSANDS OF TECHNIQUES, are available at 25 martial arts books.com