classical karate form | Matrix Martial Arts

The type of mental breakdown in the martial arts I am talking about is one you want.

Zen there was me!

This is the breakdown, or loss, of scattered and shallow surface thoughts; thoughts that get in the way of the drive and desire to do the martial arts technique as cleanly and efficiently as possible.

I first noticed this in Chinese Kenpo back in 1967. In my first few kumite lessons I realized that I was launching the body, and my mind had nothing to do. So, in the space while I was waiting for the completion of technique, I had time to think. My mind would wander, I would wonder when this was ever going to reach conclusion, can’t this closing technique ever get any faster, maybe I should have done a side kick, and yawn, so on.

The solution, it seemed, was to make the body go faster. So I worked out harder, and made it go faster, but it didn’t work. Body go faster…mind go faster.

So the solution wasn’t a faster body, it was a slower mind. But slower only in the sense that I refused distractive thoughts. And here is where the blessing of the martial arts forms came in.

I could practice that kata, that shrot form and long form and so on and the book set and the two man forms, and…my mind became more comfortable with practice, I stayed focused, and surface thoughts went away.

I have to say, however, that the practice of the classical karate forms, seuch as the Heians (pinans), and so on, seemed more efficient. Of course, by then I had a kenpo base. So I can’t be absolutely sure. But…it sure felt like it.

Anyway, that is how i slowed my mind down, broke down the mental apparatus of compulsive having to think about something, and just observed reality. This observation of reality should happen in any martial art, but now that I knew what I was trying to do, I put together a more logical set of forms to make it happen faster. These are the matrix forms, and the techniques on the matrixing courses.

Pop over to Monster Martial Arts, check out some of the things having to do with slowing the mind down, have yourself a mental breakdown (grin), and I’ll talk to you later.

Classical Karate Forms Open the Imagination!

Two things happened when I got my Black Belt so long ago, and they had to do with dreams and the martial arts.

First, I had a tiger dream. I was studying Karate (Kang Duk Won) and a Tiger appeared in a dream and showed me how he flicked his paw. It was all done slow motion, and I was fascinated, and I watched the dissection of how a tiger fights. Oddly, it wasn’t usable information, it was more of a ‘welcome to the club’ kind of thing. I had made black belt, I was recognized by the tiger, and i knew why Shotokan had a tiger on it’s emblem.

Second, I pretty much stopped dreaming. I would have an occasional dream, but those weren’t really dreams, they were me being outside my body while I was sleeping.

Now, I knew something about dreams at the time. I had done the obligatory psych classes, and I had read Freud’s (and others) works on dreaming. And I found that the psych people didn’t know what dreams were. No offense, but they were speaking as observers, and not as people who experienced and therefore knew. Virtually all of the conclusions reached by psych people were wrong.

Oddly, Carlos Castaneda had the best advice on dreams, but it was pretty skewed. He believed in drugs as a method to deconstruct the world, and see it as it really is. Unfortunately, there is a certain amount of confusion accepting dreams as the result of drug research.

But, here are the facts, and I offer them as someone who has gone places and done things.

When you CBM your body becomes efficient, and your mind has more space from less body chatter.

In that space you will notice certain abilities arising, one of which maybe the ability to be outside your body, as if in a dream, while you sleep.

Floating, flying, that sort of thing, seem to be fairly common.

Castaneda held that you should look at your hands in a dream, and that would help. I found it woke me up.

Consider, instead, that you are in a separate universe, and just concentrate on what you are doing. Don’t try to increase awareness, just enjoy what you are doing; awareness will increase automatically as you enjoy, and as you continue doing perfectly aligned (matrixed) forms while awake. You might try to focus on objects in that other universe, that might help, but if you find yourself waking up, try something else.

And, if you have success in something, let me know. I’m always looking for good stuff, and I’ll passit on as I can. And, if you want those perfectly aligned forms, pop on over to Matrix Martial Arts. Take a look at the Temple forms. They are the ones used by me, and I have altered them only slightly. If you want more pure, unaltered, try the Evolution of an art. Remember, however, that they will be less matrixed, and will take longer to make work. And that pretty much covers dreams and learning the martial arts.