What’s with All the Bowing Stuff in the Martial Arts?
“Politeness is the greatest strategy.” Al Case
The most polite man i have ever met was my instructor in the Kang Duk Won. He was also the best martial artist I ever saw, which leads to an interesting possibility:
Politeness goes hand in hand with competence.
Think about it, if you are polite, honestly polite, then you won’t be scared, you won’t have hidden demons driving you, the martial arts will have expunged you of all that. You will be honestly competent.
So practice politeness as well as seek competence.
Now, with that in mind, what is the purpose of bowing in the martial arts? Aside from my little diatribe on politeness, why should people keep bowing and bowing all the time?
On one level, it is a sign of respect. I respect the work you’ve done, the level you’ve reached. And under that is the implied question: will you teach me. And the teacher bows to show respect to those who have come seeking his instruction.
On another level, it is merely saying hi. hi to everybody in the school. Hi to everybody who contributed to the school, even if they are passed on, a simple greeting to your friends.
With those two viewpoints in mind, here are the times you would bow.
Bow when entering the school. Bow to senior classmates. Bow to junior classmates. Bow when stepping onto the mat. Bow to the instructor, especially when asking a question. Bow after receiving instruction. Bow at the beginning of class. Bow at the end of class. Bow before you engage in any drill, be it sparring, form, etc. Immediately disengage and bow if an injury has occurred as a result of something you’ve done.
AND, bow to a classmate outside of school, or, if not considered appropriate, give him/her some sign of greeting.
AND, whenever entering another school, always bow, show that you have studied the martial arts, and that you are aware of martial etiquette.
Sounds like a lot of bowing, yes? Well, it is, but let me offer an insight. I can’t imagine not bowing, I strive to bow the most, to set the best example of being polite. I am constantly running into students who are surprised when I bow to them. But, it encourages them to bow. And, it makes you feel good.
Imagine walking into a school gymnasium, or an auditorium, with 500 people present. Imagine yelling out… HI EVERYBODY! And having them all yell to you… HI, AL!
After near 50 years in the arts, that’s what it feels like to me when I bow.
And I like to think that maybe I’m as competent as I am polite. One can hope.
Here’s a link to the martial arts I have been studying for near 50 years. Take a look, and see if I’ve made any inroads, if the changes i have made from the classical have value.
Defeating Distractions to Find the True Martial Art
Good afternoon! Special day tomorrow, I’ll tell you about it down the page, but before we get to it, remember this: the only way to celebrate this special day is to… work out!
Okay, hope your interest is piqued, but before we talk about that special day, let’s take a moment to talk about emotion.
Ultimately, you don’t want to have any emotion in your martial arts. You don’t want to cry, or feel fear, or anger, or any kind of emotion.
Emotion is a distraction. It gets in between the thought of what you are going to do, and the reality of what you do.
There is this thing called emotional content, Bruce Lee mentions it in ‘Enter the Dragon,’ but even that, ultimately, is a distraction.
To get to the pure state where you can read the mind of the attacker, see what he is going to do before he does it, and move with perfection, you must get rid of ALL emotion.
There is a problem, however. The problem is that nobody really knows what emotion is.
If you can stick with me through a couple of points I can help you understand, which is to say that I can help you understand something that nobody understands.
Here’s the dictionary definition for emotion: a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others: she was attempting to control her emotions | his voice was low and shaky with emotion | fear had become his dominant emotion.
But that doesn’t tell you what emotion is. That is like saying electricity goes through wires, but there is no mention of where electricity came from, what a generator is, or how electricity ‘flows’ through a wire.
It is an inadequate definition.
Here are three more definitions: 1 she was good at hiding her emotions: feeling, sentiment; reaction, response. 2 overcome by emotion, she turned away: passion, strength of feeling, warmth of feeling. 3 responses based purely on emotion: instinct, intuition, gut feeling; sentiment, the heart.
Again, these don’t tell you where emotion comes from, what has generated it, and how it really works.
So, here we go, here is what emotion actually is.
Emotion stems from motion inside the head.
And here is a truth, there are only people in this universe. Everything else in the universe, all the objects and non-living things (or ‘low living’ like animals) are the effect of motion in the universe.
A bug sits on a stalk, a frog sees the swaying stalk and must flick his tongue. A coyote sees the motion of the tongue, and is compelled to eat the frog.
The universe happens like dominoes. And, the ONLY thing in the universe that can upset the dominoes, can change the path of the falling dominoes, can change cause and effect, is a human being.
A human being has choice, and that ability, that decision making ability, is apart from the universe, and can cause the path of the universe to change and change and change.
So a human being can change the universe, but how does he change it? by having a thought first. So he thinks, and does what he thought about, and what he thought about comes to be.
But, in between the thought and the accomplishment, is emotion. Think about it:
A man wants to accomplish something, he sets out on the task, then he gets angry, or fearful, or otherwise emotional, and his ability to make accomplishment is lessened.
He was distracted.
Which brings us to the crux of the matter, why does man create these (his own) distractions? Why does he create emotion and waylay himself? Why?
What happens when you squeeze an lemon? Juice squirts out. Gets in your eye and you cry.
So a man creates emotion when he is squeezed, like a lemon, and ‘things’ squirt out.
things like fear, anger, hate, and so on.
And these things disrupt the mind, cause distraction, and obscure the basic thoughts that one may have.
When I was a child I was spanked, which is to say I was squeezed. I experienced fear, and pain, and anger, and that stuff, because I didn’t know what it is, it stayed with me for a long time.
It would even be fair to say that, like dominoes, certain of those emotions caused me to study martial arts. How weird.
So when you feel pain and anger and all those unpleasant things just say ‘no’ to them. Just refuse them. Refuse to dwell on that emotion, refuse to have motion inside your head, refuse to feel the lingering effects of being squashed (squeezed), and go about your life. Refuse the distraction and accomplish your thoughts.
Of course, it is not always easy to do that. Sometimes what is big in your head is greater than your ability to ignore.
That is where the martial arts come in.
The martial arts train you to accomplish an attack, no matter the distraction, and the heck with emotion.
No other practice on earth does this more efficiently or to greater effect.
You face your partner on the mat. He growls, people yell, you are tired, but because you have endured training, and pain and other distractions, and gotten to your black belt, you are able to ignore the distractions, move forward, and accomplish the thought of the strike, or the lock, or the takedown, or whatever.
You simply train yourself to ignore the motion inside your head, to ignore anything in the universe that tries to stop you, and you accomplish your thought.
Here’s a cruel trap, people who start the martial arts, then quit, were distracted. They let something squeeze them, and they quit. And the cruelty is that if they had kept going they would have found the ability that would have enabled them to ignore distractions, and accomplish their thoughts.
Catch 22. Yes?
One last thing I want to say about this. There are many people who fail, and, there are many people who are studying something thinking it is a martial art, when it isn’t.
You have to study the true martial arts. You have to find forms that work, and you have to make them work. You have to cleanse your techniques so they become pure and can show the thought that created them.
That path creates the discipline.
Just fighting does not. Fighting teaches you to fight. Doing the real martial arts, practicing techniques until you can make them work, that is the discipline of ignoring distractions and getting yourself to the point where you can make your thoughts work.
The best method, because incorrect movements (which are distractions) have been removed, is Matrix Karate.
Okay, that special day I was talking about. For me it is the most important day in the universe, for it is when I decided to have physical presence on this planet. Birthday.
And, if you have been following this blog for the last couple of decades, then you know I always ask for one, specific present.
Forgive me. If I have sent out the wrong order, didn’t answer an email, didn’t answer an email quickly said the wrong thing, didn’t understand something, failed in some way, if i have done ANYTHING that might have offended you, or caused you ANY sort of distraction…
Forgive me.
Help me clean up my universe, help me not have the distractions of bad service, poor communications, or ANYTHING else.
Sort of interesting, but the martial arts usually travel through a filter; somebody tells you what a good technique and a bad martial arts technique is.
But, most times, the person doing the filtering, passing on the bad news, simply doesn’t understand the move.
I’ve written a thorough paper on a specific Karate move, out of the classical kata, and described why it is thought of as a bad technique, but is really a phenomenal technique.
If, of course, you are looking past the idea of karate as simply fighting, and are looking for the deeper truths of Karate.
Anyway, the technique should on Academia at this link.
March, what a wonderful month. I’m going to work out every single day, right into April. You do, too!
I was checking my stats on Amazon, and reading the reviews people write about me. Interesting reading. But crazy. Let me explain.
I’ll get two reviews for a book, one is a five star review,
VERY Interesting.. and I like the “creation” theories and methods… JUST what I was looking for. and one is a one star review.
Waste of time if you are a serious martial artist…poor illustrations…bad
The five star talks about interesting ideas. The one star just says ‘stupid.’ Hmmm.
How could one book provoke two such dissimilar reviews?
Well, let me tell you.
I received an email a while ago, the fellow said: I don’t understand all the writing, but when I see the pictures (videos), then I get it.
Well, of course, a picture is worth a thousand words. BUT the real key here is that he didn’t understand the writing.
Here are some frightening statistics.
50% of adults can’t read at 8th grade level. 45 million people are functionally illiterate. and, one that is very important, 6 out of 10 households don’t buy a single book in a year.
Let’s consider the implications of these statistics as they relate to my books.
Out of the 50% adults that can’t read at 8th grade level, there are going to be a substantial number who are passionate about the martial arts. They are going to read what some people see as five star material, but because they don’t understand it, because there aren’t enough pictures, they are going to perceive it as worthless. At best, they are going to sense that something just passed them by, and they are going to be pissed. Pissed enough to give one star.
Out of the 45 million that are functionally illiterate, some are passionate, they live in blogs with small words, and they are, again, angry. A rich life is passing them by, and though they feel that something is happening, they can’t see it.
But here’s the kicker, 6 out of 10 don’t buy a book in a year. But they do read on the computer, and they are vocally upset, when they don’t understand what somebody has said.
This is the defense mechanism of the ignorant: get upset when you don’t understand something.
Now, why do I bring this up. Because I get a few low reviews, that discourages others from buying, and the vey valuable knowledge that is in my books, is then removed from the hands of the consumer. The intelligent consumer who needs to know, but is being waylaid by the ignorant.
Feel free to give a review. I prefer nice, but honest will do.
When you see a bad review, especially if you have read the book, and disagree, answer them. I can’t, but you can. Set the record straight.
And, make sure you are literate, that your children are literate, and that knowledge can be passed down.
This world is not Rep v Dem, it is not haves v have nots, it is ignorant v intelligent, and if the intelligent don’t set the ignorant straight, then the intelligent lose. So do you want the world to get more intelligent? Or more ignorant?
Here’s the book which received the reviews I listed above.
It’s hot here in LA, and you can really sweat those toxins out. The best way to sweat? Work out!
I was driving down the street the other day, and I saw all sorts of martial arts studios. MMA, Muay Thai, Boxing, Karate, Kung fu, Kenpo, Judo, Aikido, Taekwondo, and on and on and on.
When I began, in 1967, which is near 50 years ago, there was judo, which was taught in a few places, and there was Karate. Interestingly, Karate was undergoing a boom. This was just before Bruce Lee, and the Tracy Brothers had breathed fire into marketing, and Karate schools were opening every where.
I began Kenpo, went every day, became an instructor, and so on, and I had a lot of questions, and nowhere to get the answers. The only magazine was Black Belt, and they sort of circled the arts, talking about, but never delving in.
And there weren’t many books. There was the outlandish Super Karate Made Easy, Ed Parker had a book out, Robert Smith wrote his book on Shaolin Temple boxing. But these books were either techniques books, or they talked in mysteries, and there was no way to understand what the heck the martial arts were all about.
Then I came across a book called Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. I had left kenpo by then, and was in the Kang Duk Won, and this book was a Godsend.
Not a book about technique, not a dissertation of mental tricks, rather questions and tales that made you blink, and look for the real you.
One of my favorites was the old question, ‘Who were you before you were born.’
Now you might be wondering, how can an art built of physical routines answer that question?
The answer to that wonderment lies in the simple fact that we were not distracted. Karate was not infected by boxing, throws weren’t an active part. And so on.
On the surface, looking back, reading these words as I write them, I can understand why people might wonder, how can you call that an art? How can you think of that stripped down sapling as a wondrous forest of spirit?
Easy. We weren’t distracted, and we practiced those few techniques we knew until we could make them work.
Enlightenment is when you do one thing without distraction, until you see the truth of that one thing.
You have heard people like Bruce Lee say, in the end, a punch is just a punch, a kick is just a kick.
But, here’s the bad news, if you haven’t found that out through doing a simple kick, or punch, without distraction, for tens of thousands of times, then the truth of the statement evades you.
You know about water, but you’ve never been wet.
That is why, except for a few logical changes, and the nudging of matrixing, the karate I do now, is virtually the same as the karate I did way back when.
Pinan one through pinan five, the iron horse, a few others, I do them almost the same as I learned them. And, here’s the interesting thing, the way I learned them was only a couple of generations removed from the way they were taught before Funakoshi.
I go into modern schools and I don’t see what I learned. I see forms infected by boxing, distracted by MMA, slanted by tournaments and kick boxing. I see techniques discarded because people can’t make them work. I see people fighting, instead of painstakingly being taught the drills that lead to…not fighting, to scientifically assessing an opponent and shredding him without waste.
Most of all, I don’t see the calm of mind, the calm that comes not from knowing about lots of arts, but from knowing one thing well. And, in these modern times, if people do know one thing well, it has been slanted by ‘reality fighting,’ by the desire to beat up your fellow man, not to calm yourself, and find the truth of yourself.
Not to find out who you were before you were born.
Here’s the art that I was taught, unchanged except for a few logical tweaks, and the ‘de-slanting’ of matrixing.
Happy Thanksgiving! I give thanks for many things, I give thanks for working out, and what working out does for me.
Who would have thought, in these robotic, wartorn, poverty stricken times, there would be such a unique and fun way to find personal responsibility and martial excellence?
Before we talk martial arts, I want to share a thought. I was sitting somewhere, working on my laptop, and I had this thought. So I emailed it to myself, and it’s been sitting there, and thanksgiving is a good time to share it. Here we go:
Your duty is to observe the universe, to listen to both sides, to never take a stand against one side or the other, until the truth pops out. The truth is not a viewpoint or opinion, it is merely what is.
Now, let’s talk martial arts.
It was a shock when Rhonda got knocked out. And I don’t understand why it was a shock, because it was inevitable. It was inevitable as soon as Joe Rogan claimed that Rhonda wasn’t once in a lifetime, she was once in history. It seems that we finally got the ultimate ‘adjective.’ Not star, not superstar, not once in a lifetime, but once…ever.
As soon as I heard that I knew Rhonda was going to lose. I just knew.
Part of it is that when you listen to fighters and they describe what they are going to do to their opponent, they are living in a fantasy.
‘I’m going to do this.’ ‘My striking is superior and he can’t match my grappling.’ ‘I’m going to pound his face into the floor.’ I know, when I hear this sort of thing, that the fighter is in his own mind, trying to psyche himself up, but it is a lost cause.
There is just a hollow feeling, a ‘spirit-less’ feeling, to such words said before a fight.
The winner, on the other hand, doesn’t boast about what he is going to do. He is serious. He has no fantasy distracting him.
Here’s the weird thing: Rhonda didn’t say such a thing, it was Joe Rogan. But it was so unique, and everybody was so pro-Rhonda, I just knew she about to fall.
Now, here’s the thing: when people think they are the best, there is no place to go but down. When they are serious, and look at each fight as a challenge, a mountain to climb, there is no where to go but up.
Rogan, with his statement, left Rhonda no where to go but down.
I don’t say Rogan made her lose, there was just a predict in his words. There was a summation of the position that the world put Rhonda in.
Tell the truth, she is probably going to be more alive, more determined now, than she was before. Now she can climb again. Now she can go up.
Now, the fight itself.
Rhonda tried to box a better boxer. Holly is a champion boxer, Rhonda apparently had a fantasy of trying to outbox a boxer, so she didn’t go to the ground.
I think everybody agrees, Rhonda would beat Holly on the ground.
What a miscalculation on Rhonda’s part.
And, what will she do next time? Will she work on her boxing game? Of course. But the heart of her strategy should be her ground game. How to avoid Holly’s fist get under it, and take that girl down.
Truth, I watched Rhonda simply run into Holly’s fat fist time after time, and I cringed with each impact.
Man, Rhonda can take it. But it was not smart. It would have been a lot smarter to assess the distances involved, and respect Holly as a champ in her own right.
Here’s the truth: we all strive to be the best we can be. To strive to beat somebody else, however, is only a partial proof, for it comes at the cost of another human being. The true art is being the best you can be without beating somebody else.
Weird, eh?
That said, I watch the fights, I learn from them, and I appreciate them. With all my talk, one has to appreciate the measuring stick.
Okay, nuff said.
Go to this course for the complete data on how to assess distance in a fight.
Good morning!
Every work out you do
produces more of you.
Well, well.
I’m going to tell you the truth today.
and there is a question in it for you.
It’s funny,
only about 50 people will read this.
I’ve got over 1600 on the newsletter list,
but only about 50 of them open their email.
The rest just wanted the free books,
and then consigned my newsletter to the junk lists.
That’s the internet,
you know.
Guaranteed anonymity.
A chance to ghost through life
without any commitment.
And,
I’ll be honest,
I do the same thing.
I’ve got different reasons,
but I do the same thing.
Oh, well.
Are you ready for the truth?
(Quote Jack: ‘You can’t HANDLE the truth!’)
Okay,
here it is.
I was reading the Patanjali,
this was some time ago,
and the point was made:
we are bound by our desires.
Which is to say:
We are trapped by our fantasies.
We are imprisoned by what we want…
and have lost sight of reality.
Sounds like I’m going egghead on you,
eh?
Well, not really.
When you do the martial arts
you are training to defeat hordes of home invaders,
slaughter gangs of street thugs,
maybe even defeat the government
which came to take away your 2nd amendment.
How many of us have used the martial arts?
In that sense the number is low, low, low.
So the martial arts are good for discipline.
For lifestyle and health.
And all of us get that,
in spite of our fantasies.
So let’s look a little deeper.
Let’s go spiritually egghead.
According to the Patanjali
you made this universe to have a place to exist.
Heck,
look at the universe,
it’s mostly nothing.
But you made it a long time ago,
so long ago that when you did
you could imagine anything,
and make it real.
Nowadays,
except for a lousy novel or painting,
you can make almost nothing real.
You wish you had a fast car,
a beautiful woman,
a job where you traveled the world
and made zillions of dollars.
Yet,
you don’t have the power of imagination,
you don’t have the discipline behind the imagination,
to make this happen.
This is the truth.
I didn’t say it would make you comfortable.
In fact,
it’s guaranteed to do the opposite.
So you live a life where you have little money and desire more,
where you have a lousy job and desire a good one,
where you are low man on the totem pole.
You pay rent,
you pay tickets,
you listen to the Bushwah coming from your politicians,
and nothing changes.
Death and taxes, baby.
The secret isn’t to have all those things,
it is to have personal responsibility.
You see…
it is not those things that are your prison,
but your desire to have them.
And a lot of other desires, too.
Now,
here is the trick,
if you can give up your desires,
all those things will come to you easily. You can have anything you want, you can make anything in the universe real, if you can just relax, and find the truth of yourself.
This is the truth.
But how do you give up desires?
Colleges tell you you must desire a position
in a high paying company.
Welfare institutions pay you money
to stifle your initiative,
and to keep your desires strong.
Police give you tickets to keep you
enslaved to the judicial system.
And,
here is the truth…
everybody is in cahoots to keep you…desiring.
Heck,
you can’t turn on the TV,
or the internet,
or even drive down the street,
without being overwhelmed
by ads that feed your desire.
Ads pouring liquor,
inflating your groin with beautiful women,
offering counseling for addictions,
advising you to fight other races,
threatening you with poverty
and disease
and loneliness.
All designed to keep you in the rut,
in the ratrace,
desiring things,
trapping you
even while offering
enlightenment.
The truth is that you won’t become enlightened,
you won’t break free of your desires,
through ANY of these methods.
You will only become enlightened
by achieving personal responsibility.
Here is the question I promised you:
are you the kind of person who seeks
to be entertained?
Or are you the kind of person that seeks?
To be entertained
is to be victim,
to be victim to your desires,
to be manipulated by those who would entertain.
Many people who study the martial arts
do so to be entertained,
to be titillated in their desire
to be tough.
To be unbeatable.
To have a swagger in their walk
to know they can slaughter hordes,
even if that knowledge
is a fantasy.
You can recognize them
because they earn their black belt,
and quit.
They just wanted the belt,
the symbol,
the fantasy.
They desired a meal with no meat.
Here’s the sad thing:
even if a person is a true seeker,
desiring to break free of desire,
he is trapped in inefficient systems.
Here is the truth.
I studied the martial arts in the sixties.
Back then you could tell the difference
between the belts.
Green belts actually had the tools to defeat white belts.
Brown belts actually had the tools to defeat green belts.
Black Belts actually had the tools to defeat brown belts.
But,
as time passed,
other arts came along,
some good…some bad.
the original teachings of karate were diluted.
Tournaments became a key to promotion,
as did ‘how good you could fight.’
When I pass schools these days,
when I look in the windows,
perhaps sit and talk with teachers,
I don’t see the same principles.
People are doing the kicks mindlessly,
or concentrating on how hard they can kick,
instead of what is required for perfecting the kick.
They do the exercise with no idea
of searching for the correct angle, tilt, line of thrust,
and so on.
The forms are no longer repositories of working techniques.
I can’t tell you how many people have told me
they had no idea there were even techniques in the forms.
So how can you achieve enlightenment
if you can’t seek perfection of character
because the method has become so imperfect?
So the truth is that what I am doing
is trying to bring perfection to the martial arts,
by offering education
as to perfection of form,
of motion,
of the mental apparatus behind motion.
And the truth is that the fifty people
who actually read this,
have already ordered courses,
have already started their path to perfection,
are already breaking through the fantasy
and achieving the personal responsibility
that is at the core of enlightenment.
What I would really like,
what I desire,
is for 5,000 people to matrix.
For 50,000,
and more,
to matrix.
Not for the money.
Money doesn’t mean much.
It is just the coin of desire.
But for a better world.
A world not confined by desire,
not ruled by people who sell desire,
who imprison by desire.
The most capable person in the world
the happiest person in the world
is that person who is free
from all desires
but the desire for personal responsibility.
Okey dokey,
here’s the link for finding personal responsibility,
and the enlightenment and perfection
that goes along with it.
Now,
a simple word…
we’re all going to desire some turkey next week,
and then we will make deals with our mind
to go on a diet,
or some other such frivolity.
And,
right after that,
we will stuff ourselves for Christmas,
or some other holiday,
like a pygmy trying to eat The Hulk.
And that is when I start shouting
Hanakwanmass!
Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukah
and Krazy Kwanza
A chance to say howdy and good wishes
to everybody.
Or,
at least insult everybody equally.
Think about this,
if you don’t do something for the fellow
who’s family sits down for a can of beans,
then someday
you will find yourself
in reversed positions.
You will be eating from a can
while those with more ability
will be ignoring you
as they cut into succulent dishes.
So do something.
Toys for tots,
boxes of food to your fire station,
or just helping out the family down the street.
Good Evening! Time for a great work out! Get your body revving, after all, end of the month you’re going to be stuffing it. You’re going to NEED a work out! Grin.
Click on the cover to find the source of the martial arts…
Let’s talk about the proper attitude in the martial arts.
There were a lot of bikers back at the Kang Duk Won. independents, Gypsy Jokers, Hell’s Angels. They made things fun.
You’d work a technique, they’d offer a critique based on how it worked in a fight. Interesting stuff. Kept it all real.
There was one Hell’s Angel, and he liked to get drunk and run red lights. He’d do this in a car, get roaring drunk, give somebody a ride, and watch them shriek in terror, while he laughed uproariously.
Now, here comes the question, why wasn’t he ever arrested or killed, or suffer other tragedy?
Because he had the proper attitude.
Hard to swallow, eh? It’s like saying being a homicidal maniac is having the correct attitude. Let’s look at it.
He was playing games. He wasn’t being mean. He wasn’t hurting anybody. He had no intention to hurt anybody. He’d plow through an intersection right between the cars, and…laugh. No harm, no foul.
Isn’t that interesting?
So, what’s your attitude towards life? I know a lot of martial artists are serious. No laughing or joking, this is serious business. I remember one fellow, who actually got upset when I called the martial arts a game. You ever think about the definition for a game?
‘a physical or mental activity or contest that has rules and that people do for pleasure’
Or…
activity engaged in for diversion or amusement
Or…
often derisive or mocking jesting
Or…
a physical or mental competition conducted according to rules with the participants in direct opposition to each other
And so on.
So here is this guy, makes up a game with potential death in it, but because he laughs and has so much fun, he never suffers ill consequences.
Now that’s martial arts.
And I want you to think of something: when you are laughing and joking…that’s when good things happen. When you are grim and serious…that’s when bad things happen. And this is a pretty diehard 100% rule.
So I repeat the question: What is your attitude?
If you don’t understand the point I’m making, keep doing your forms, you’ll get there. That’s where the martial arts take you.
If you do understand, then how can you achieve this attitude? How can you learn to laugh at everything? To hold to the idea that nothing matters, so you might just as well laugh and have a good time. Somebody dies, they’re dead, so why cry? Rejoice in life, because someday it’ll be you lying cold and stiff.
Interesting point, eh?
It’s not Miamoto Musashi, but it’s very pertinent to our times, to the type of people that populate the world.
Can you laugh when somebody insults you? Can you laugh when tragedy hits? Can you laugh when you lose?
Can you?
Okay, check out my last two books, do a search on amazon for them. ‘How to Matrix the Martial Arts,’ and ‘Binary Matrixing in the Martial Arts.’
Okay dokay!
The new book on the martial arts is done,
should be on amazon.
It is called
‘How to Matrix The Martial Arts…
and the universe and life and everything.’
There are seven sections in it.
The first section deals with the theory of matrixing.
The second section shows the actual mathematics
(geometries) used in matrixing.
The third section deals with the structure of the body and energy.
The fourth section gives the exact methods I used
when I matrixed the various arts.
The fifth section has to do with the effects of Matrixing,
how it slops over into real life and changes everything.
The sixth section has to do with how matrixing brings about neutronics.
The seventh section is ‘Beyond Hands,’
in which is the overview and arrangement
of the entire martial arts.
The reason I wrote this book is because I wanted
an overview of the entire matrixing process.
I want people to be able to understand,
in a thumbnail sketch,
what all the courses are structured around.
I want people to understand the overall scheme,
and be able to put all the courses and books together,
to make sense out of the whole thing.
Now,
if you have been a long time matrixer,
then you may have seen some of this material in various form.
Hopefully the arrangement I present here,
will enhance your understanding,
and give you a leg up.
Also,
and this may be a bit arrogant of me,
I wanted to write an answer to
The Book of Five Rings
by Miamoto Musashi.
That is what the first six sections of the book are about.
The seventh section of the book,
Beyond Hands,
is an answer to The Tao,
by Lao Tze.
So that is what the book is.
Now,
you may have to google the thing,
or search for it on Amazon,
but it should be released by now.
So there it is,
‘How to Matrix the Martial Arts…
and the universe and life and everything’
Hope you enjoy it,
and I’ll put up another newsletter with the link next newsletter.
Okay, my apologies, I should have announced Jim a few weeks ago, but this durned Al’sheimers really gets me.
So, Congrats to Master Instructor Jim McElroy!
Dear Mr. Case Something I want to say: I’ve studied martial arts for many years (1977-) and never had them explained as clearly as your courses do. I cannot thank you enough for these courses. Sincerely Jim Elroy Now with that said here I go: Some Wins and realizations that i have gotten from your (Master Instructor) course:
And, sorry to say, I can’t tell you the rest of Jim’s wins. The reason is that he goes through the material, point by point, explaining exactly how it works, and how he understands it.
This tells me that he really understood the material, which means that he will be able to use it, but… if I tell you the win then I will be giving you the contents of the course.
Shucks, we don’t want to do that! Grin.
But here’s the thing, this is the only course in the world that people read, and understand the material well enough to transform their martial art. Just by reading!
Oddly, it is simple stuff, but it is not talked about commonly in the martial arts, or, if it is spoken of, then only in mystical terms that reveal a fascination for what is being said, but no understanding.
This is important, this thing of mysticism vs understanding.
Three blind men came across an elephant. One said, ‘it is like a wall!’ The second said, ‘it is like a little snake,’ the third said, ‘it like a fire hose with two big teeth!’
Each has a different viewpoint, and they pass these viewpoints down until everybody argues what the elephant is like.
Then you come across one yourself, and you are not blind, and you see how each blind man misunderstood, and you are the only one that truly understands.
This is what matrixing does. And it does it not by passing down my viewpoint, but by giving you the actual physics of the martial arts. Not the western world version of physics, but the physics that takes into account things like chi energy, how the body is constructed for the martial arts, and so on.
Things that people have rarely heard, and then only in mystical terms.
So, again, my thanks to Master Instructor Jim Elroy. Well done for that great win. And my apologies for being so late in announcing you.
And, now the news, the next book, ‘How to Matrix the Martial Arts (and the universe and life and everything else),’ is almost ready to go. I am actually working on the physical version, just a couple of things to do, and then it will be here.
And, for everybody… it is fall. Fall has fallen, so have you picked an art to dedicate yourself to this winter? Are you going to know a new art by Summer?
Think about it, do it, and let me know how it goes.
Matrix Martial Arts 