The Zen of the Martial Arts

Good morning!
I’m going to go all zen on you today,
so check out now if you think philosophy is garbage.

It’s funny,
probably the best definition for philosophy I ever heard
came from Bill Cosby.
He was asking the question,
‘Why is there air.’
All the philosophy professors would ask this
and that would lead them into a discussion of the cosmos
and God,
and life and everything.
And he said it’s a dumb question,
Just ask any coach and they’ll tell you
‘Air is so we can fill up balls.’

With that bit of droll humor in mind,
zen is supposed to be very philosophical.
It isn’t,
but we’ll just let that sit for a while.

So when I was about 15 or 16
my brother comes home and he tells me a joke.
He asks:
‘What is the difference between a duck?’
I look at him blankly,
it makes. no sense,
I shake my head
and he says:

‘One leg is both the same.’

And he walks off laughing hysterically.
Idiot brother.
Probably doesn’t even know what a ball is for.

But here’s the funny thing.
When I think back over my life,
that 73 long years that went by in a snap,
I don’t remember the jokes I heard.
I must have heard THOUSANDS of jokes!
But none of them were worth remembering.
But that joke about the duck,
and one leg being both the same,
it is vivid,
seared into me.
and I can’t forget it.
So my brother’s joke has had incredible impact on my life.
Which makes it the greatest joke of all time.
At least for me.
And,
it has zen implications.

After all,
the most famous zen saying of all time
is probably
‘what is the sound of one hand clapping.’
Tell me that doesn’t make as much sense as:

‘what’s the difference between a duck?’

And,
let’s translate that zen ‘joke’ to the martial arts.

‘What is the difference between a martial artist?’
And there are two very distinct un-zenlike answers.
And the answers,
applied to life,
result in two types of people.

The first type of person is one who needs to be entertained.
The second type of person is one who doesn’t need to be entertained.

And what the heck does that mean?
A lot, thank you, and here we go…

People are either creators,
or they are created.

People either search out something to entertain them,
or they produce.

This isn’t an absolute,
of course.
It’s one of those scales like:

to the degree that one produces
to that degree he doesn’t need to be entertained.
And,
to the degree that one is entertained,
to that degree he doesn’t produce.

I look at kids today,
needing to be entertained by a brainless video game.
and I would be disgusted,
except I used to bury my head in a book.
I needed to be entertained.

Where this would have gone I don’t know,
because I discovered martial arts,
and,
as you all know,
the martial arts seriously warps personalities.

But,
instead of needing to be entertained,
to read the latest book,
to go to the latest movie,
to waste time chattering over the latest stupid joke,
I started working.

I worked out,
learning and doing forms,
repeating them endlessly,
looking for some odd concept called…’perfection.’
Could I turn the hand right,
could I snap the foot perfectly,
could I perceive the attack before it came.

It didn’t happen fast,
it was more like a slow cook,
but I stopped needing to be entertained.
I started creating.
Instead of reading books
I started writing books.
Instead of wanting to be absorbed by a movie,
I wanted to be absorbed by a form.
Instead of needing to be entertained,
I entertained myself…by producing.
I became a totally and utterly different human being.

What a weird metamorphoses.
Hopefully you now understand the point,
you see the zen of it all.
Don’t play,
work.
The end of life comes too fast
and you need to hurry to get everything done,
but you won’t get anything done
if you’re sitting around trying to be entertained.

And that’s the difference between a duck.

have a great work out!
Al

!!!OBLIGATORY ADVERTISEMENT!!!
Go to…

http://monstermartialarts.com/matrixing-kenjutsu/

Stop being entertained by fake movies
and learn how to use a real weapon

And don’t forget to check out the interview
https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

BTW
I’m always pushing my novels,
did you know I write other stuff?
If you want to know the truth about government,
why we have riots and why idiots keep getting into office,
why the government seems to do the exact wrong thing
almost ALL the time…
then check out:

THE SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT!

http://monstermartialarts.com/matrixing-kenjutsu/

How Not to be a Robot

Newsletter 756
Being in the Moment

A bit cool and foggy out,
which is perfect for a work out.
Keeps your body cool,
and you can go longer.
I recommend it.

Hey,
I was thinking,
it didn’t hurt too much,
and I started thinking about this.

When I was young,
first starting out,
I was always impressed by stories
of who could beat up who.
People in the martial arts I never heard of,
and we would argue who would win in a fight,
and wasn’t it cool.

And,
in spite of what I am about to say,
I don’t begrudge that.
If you’re young,
enjoy.
But after a while that sort of thing wears out.
Instead of perking up your ears in excitement,
you start to think,
‘who cares?’

And,
of course,
by this time you are really into the martial arts,
beyond the flush of youth,
and into the depths of your soul.

And,
you are learning how to get into the moment.

Nothing bores me worse than a war story.
Somebody suddenly wants to talk about
the time he hit somebody,
or got hit,
or the fight he saw,
even the fight he saw on TV.
And,
what’s even worse,
is when he wants to describe it blow by blow,
what happened in some other moment.

In other words,
he is not in the moment now,
he is not now,
he is yesterday.
Which is to say,
he is not conscious of now.

Martial arts are like climbing a mountain.
and sometimes you have to climb particularly rough cliff.

So what would you think
if somebody took you out there
day after day
and made you climb the same cliff?
Never a different cliff,
always the same cliff.
Day after day.
Boring.

We are not talking about polishing basics now,
which have to be done
fresh and alive
until you are doing them in unique moments of time.
We are talking about repeating the same moment in time.
We are not talking about doing something until every time you do it
it becomes a unique and separate moment,
we are talking about doing the same old same old thing,
the same moment in time.

Man,
that’s unconscious.

When somebody comes to me,
and starts telling me about the time
he and Billy Bob got drunk,
and this really funny thing happened,
I want to scream.

I’m supposed to stand there and listen to a recording.
Something he has told time and time again.
Never a deviation,
not because it is cool,
but because it is cool in his mind,
it is a moment of time he can’t get away from,
can’t forget.

He can’t get on with his life and find new and unique moments.

What I want is for him not to tell me a war story,
but to create a new and unique moment.
A moment of new now.
Where we laugh for the first time.
Not the hundredth time about something that was over
a hundred laughs ago.

Do you understand where you are going?

This is why you do forms.
Not to repeat them endlessly,
but to repeat them until they become intuition,
and each moment is fresh and unique and new.

And,
what brought me about to all of this
is pretty interesting.

I was thinking about the fact
that people who study the martial arts
usually go into business for themselves.
Or end up in highly creative and unique positions.
If you go to school,
then you get trained to work in a factory.
That is the purpose of school.
It was actually stated so by Ford,
or one of those old time idiots,
back a hundred years ago.
These money guys were actually talking about
how great it would all be
when they got the educational machine turned around
so that people did what they were told,
and became good, little workers in their factories.

So if you go to school,
you end up a cog in a machine.
If you study martial arts,
you learn about things like reality,
what hurts and what doesn’t,
what is good to do and what hurts people,
how to be responsible.
How to take responsibility for your life.

Not how to be a worker.

And that train of thought
is what got me off on this
‘be in the moment’ thing.

Odd how the mind works.
Who woulda thunk.

Anyway,
I do want to tell you how unique you are.
Surviving that thing people call ‘education,’
and actually setting out on a path of real responsibility,
real education,
and being the real you.

Keep going.
And,
make sure you keep going faster and further
bu matrixing.

Here’s the obligatory link…

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

It’s to rolling fists,
which is the best and fastest way
to learn how to fight with awareness.
how to be aware in a fight.
Rolling fists is a great way to be in the moment,
to be in a new and unique now.

Now,
have yourself a cool and awesome workout!

Al

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

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

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The Difference Between Zen and Chi

Zen and Chi are Different, Here’s How…

Let me give you some fascinating data
about zen and chi and stuff,
but let me start out with a basketball analogy.

I was shooting baskets the other day
and really got into the zen of it.

If you look at the rim,
you miss.
If you look at the backboard,
you miss.
If you look at the space inside the ring,
swoosh.

If you try to use muscles,
you miss.
If you push the shot,
you miss.
If you let it roll off the fingers effortlessly,
swoosh.

If you think about your body,
you miss.
If you think about the space in the ring,
until you forget your body,
swoosh.

It’s actually very interesting to do this,
and you learn something.
Do things effortlessly,
keep your mind on the goal,
and life works.

But,
since we are about martial arts,
and since my understanding of zen
came form martial arts,
let’s consider a few things.

On the ‘Matrixing Chi’ page
of Monster Martial Arts,
I put out a candle from over a foot away.
That took a lot of zen.
I had to empty my muscles.
I had to focus on the candle
until I forgot my body.
This is just a thumbnail of what I did,
there is a lot more in the book,
but it gives you an idea
of the direction I was taking.

The point here,
however,
is can you do that type of mentality
for every move in every form and every technique
in every martial art?

The candle trick is a trick,
but it has long reaching,
all encompassing effects.

What is a perfect kick?
Can you look at the target hard enough
so that you forget your own body,
and just let it happen?

Most people are into muscles,
and they miss the effortlessness required
for a perfect kick.

Don’t get me wrong,
the beginner should use muscles,
he needs to build up a certain amount of muscle,
but at a certain point
he should give up muscle.

Many people say that when you don’t use muscle
you are using chi.
They wouldn’t be wrong,
but zen is different than chi,
though there is often overlap.
Definitions and descriptions are different,
makes for confusion.
Zen is empty.
Chi is energy.
You can’t have one without the other,
but the process of creating nothingness with the mind (zen)
is different than creating the energy of chi.
But you can’t have some degree of one
without the other.

Okay,
here’s the page again,

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4c-matrixing-chi-power/

Let me know if you have an luck with the candle trick.
And remember,
every time you fail,
you are one step closer to success.
But you have to keep working at it
to make it work.

Have a GREAT work out!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4c-matrixing-chi-power/

The Difference between Fixed Zen and Martial Arts Zen

Getting Your Zen Together with Martial Arts

One of the most important things

you can do in the martial arts

is get your zen together.

 

Fixed Zen will Expand your Moving Zen

Now,

I am going to swing wide on this,

so stay with me.

 

In the book

Zen and the Art of Archery

by Eugene Herrigle (spelling?)

the author travels to Japan to study zen.

But they won’t let him.

All the priests turn him down,

they say that his western mind won’t be able to absorb it.

They tell him,

instead,

to study something ‘with’ zen.

Like the tea ceremony,

or flower arranging,

or…archery.

 

He chose archery.

And,

he experienced zen,

and the book is quite fascinating to read.

Go get it if you wish,

but let’s us take a quick side step.

 

When you do Karate,

or any martial art,

you get a certain amount of zen.

 

The word zen translates as ‘meditative state.’

So you do Karate and you enter into a sort of meditative state.

I say sort of because we are talking broadly,

not about matrixed martial arts

where you get your zen together

right from the get go.

 

But what is this meditative state?

Is it the sound of one hand clapping?

Is it learning to be attentive?

Is it one of a thousand other things?

 

Yes, it is,

and no, it isn’t.

 

Zen is learning to focus your awareness on the moment.

You can slice that into a thousand different pieces

and end up with a thousand different zens,

all of them valid.

 

When you do Karate you focus on the punch,

on the block and the kick,

on the doing in practice,

in the receiving in freestyle,

and this all jacks up your awareness.

 

But if you practice only freestyle,

then you lose half your zen right from the get go.

And you know the old saying,

half a loaf of zen doesn’t deserve any butter.

Okay,

I just made that up.

Sorry.

 

but the point is this…

Good martial arts makes for awareness.

Zen makes for awareness.

Martial Arts is a moving awareness,

and zen is a fixed awareness.

 

You have people that like one but not the other,

and they are being half loafed about it.

 

You simply MUST have both

if you are to have all.

Do you understand?

 

If you study Karate you won’t have the tai chi.

If you study Tai Chi you won’t have the karate.

You can’t study yin without the yang,

and vice versa,

because that won’t give you the whole yin yang.

That is an absolute and don’t even try to argue because I’ll just call you stupid.

Or blind.

 

But let’s expand this from karate and tai chi,

to martial arts and zen.

 

Now,

personally,

when I began my studies of zen

I didn’t last too long.

Boring.

Sitting.

Doing nothing.

No directions.

Waiting for the lighting of the Cosmic All to strike me.

No joy.

 

But that moving zen stuff,

that karate,

and then shaolin and wing chun and aikido and, and, and…

and all the other martial arts I studied,

they really worked for me.

But,

though I had a high degree of zen

I knew I hadn’t really gotten into fixed zen.

So I put Yogata together.

Number one,

it is like a kata.

It is motion.

But it is so slow,

and you can drag it out,

that it is fixed.

And it does a lot more for your body.

You learn to relax your mind

no matter what the tension on your body.

And,

you get to the point where you can sit int he zen

and not be bored.

 

So I got my fixed zen together.

 

If you have beaten and bruised, and sometimes even broken, body

then yogata enables you to relax it back together.

 

If you are stiff and rigid,

and you know there is truth in the old saying

that a relaxed muscle is a strong muscle,

then yogata can do that for you.

 

If you just want a warm up,

yogata can do that for you.

 

But,

if you are at the highest reaches of the martial arts,

and want to expand from moving zen to fixed zen,

if you want to expand your awareness

beyond what it is capable of through martial arts…

 

yogata can do that for you.

 

Here’s the URL…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/yogata-the-yoga-kata/

 

Or,

if you really want to get into it,

here’s the website I have been playing with

dedicated to yogata

and yoga stuff in general…

 

http://yogata.org

 

Oinkley doggie,

time for me to get my morning work out in,

(and that always includes a bit of Yogata)

and start this day off like a rocket!

 

Have a  great work out!

Al

 

 

BTW,

I’ve been publishing some of the old articles and newsletters,

here’s three interesting ones.

 

Combat Strategies in Shaolin Gung Fu!

https://alcase.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/combat-strategies-in-the-shaolin-butterfly/

 

Energy Beams in the Martial Arts

https://alcase.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/energy-beams-in-the-martial-arts/

 

Mental Martial Arts

https://alcase.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/mental-martial-arts/

 

Press the FB LIKE button.

Mental Martial Arts

A Silent Mind and Monkeyland…

Good morning
and a GREAT work out to you!

Is it better to feel up or down?
up, right?
And a work out causes you to go up,
to feel better,
so,
I repeat…
a GREAT workout to you!

Now,
the big news is Monkeyland.
I’ll talk about it in a minute,
but first,
I wanted to share a thought
on what happens to your mind when you matrix.

First,
there is relief.
All the jumbled up techniques suddenly fit together.
You can see the blank spaces, where techniques were missing,
you stop hesitating and intuition starts to kick in.
Simply,
the techniques you have been memorizing suddenly make sense,
and become accessible without thought.

This thing of doing without thinking is incredibly interesting.
A baseball player takes off at the crack of the bat.
He’s all the way out in centerfield,
how did he know how to run at the crack of the bat?
He hasn’t had time to study the trajectory of the ball,
yet…he knows where the ball is going.
That is a zen moment.
That is a moment of intuition.
And the question here,
really,
is how do we make our entire lives into a zen moment?
Why do we have to leave the zen moment and return
to the old knock on wood world?
Why do we have to go back to thinking?

This is the purpose of the martial arts,
this is what they are all about,
to take us out of the reaction time, apple falls on head world,
and to put us in a zen universe,
a world where our every action is instant and intuitive.

Now,
as I said,
when you matrix the martial arts you feel relief,
the more martial arts you know,
the greater the feeling of relief,
but the real cool stuff starts happening when your mind starts getting silent.

After you matrix your mind will relax and you will start to experience mental silence.

When you walk down the street
your mind is usually filled with junk.
Thoughts about what you’re going to do,
does he or she like me,
contemplations on work,
and all sorts of other things.
Simply,
you are thinking ALL the time.
The mind just won’t stop…
it just won’t shut up.

After you matrix you feel relief,
but something else has started,
your mind has started to calm down.
It is talking because it is confused,
is one way to look at it.
But,
any way you look at it,
calmed down,
the mind starts to go neutronic.
It starts to shut up,
and you start to look at the world
without having all this thinking crap going on in your mind.

It is a blessed silence.

So here are some things to think about
to help you come to grips with this silence,
and to make it happen quicker.
Mind you,
the things I say will work for martial arts that are not matrixed,
but they will take twenty or thirty years to happen.
With matrixed minds,
everything happens faster.
Logic always works faster.

First,
have you ever engrossed yourself in a good book?
You put it down and suddenly wonder where the time went.
Your mind wasn’t thinking,
because it was busy generating a world
out of the words you read.

when you do a form,
you want to get that feeling,
of investing yourself in the form,
of creating emotion and movement so intently,
that you stop thinking.

Simply,
you are so busy concentrating on one thing,
that you forget about the world.

Try standing and holding your arm out
with the index finger raised.
Stare at that finger.
Every time your thoughts start to wander,
every time you lose focus and start to think,
examine the finger.
Look at the sworls, the curves, the nail…
examine it,
lose yourself in examining your finger.

The point here is simply to learn how to focus your attention
so that your mind doesn’t generate a bunch of crap.
This is a simple exercise in how to remain focused and attentive,
but on what you want…
not on what your mind wants.

Guaranteed,
after a while you will experience the blessed silence.
You will be face to face with the world,
with no bushwah thoughts getting between you and the world.
It is a very special place,
it is a very zen place.

And it will happen faster if you matrix.

Here’s the first course…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/

You do Matrix Karate,
you learn Karate if you don’t know it,
or you finally understand Karate if you have already been studying it.
Now,
take whatever art you wish,
plug it into the matrix.

Take the high block in your rare and esoteric system of Golden Fu,
put it where the Matrix high block is.
Do the same for all the blocks.
Put your blocks into the Matrix forms, high for high, low for low, and so on.
Do the Matrix of blocks,
plugging your blocks into the thing.

Zingo bingo,
your art is matrixed.
You still have a complete classic art of your own,
but it suddenly becomes understandable.
Techniques that were hidden pop out at you.
Gaps in training routines become visible,
and you can fix them!

And your mind will start to become silence,
and you will finally see the world
that the chattering of your mind
has stopped you from seeing.

Oinkey donkey,
Monkeyland.

I’ve got a complete list of things to research…
garden boxes,
how to keep animals out of the garden boxes,
morphing them into green houses,
green houses into meditation rooms.
Interesting stuff,
with an overall aesthetic to it all.
A plan.

And, the thing I’m working on this week…how much is chicken feed?
How do I generate food for chickens without paying out money?
Because everything has to eventually be self sufficient.
Everything has to go natural as soon as possible.

And,
I’ll be honest,
I’ve never done anything like this before,
so I am confused and dazed and…quite enthralled.

But,
the real plans are in the martial arts programs.
I’m figuring out plans for seekers (postulants), novices (novitiates), monks, and so on.
How much art do I give for each level,
how do I tie it in with neutronics, and so on.

And,
Monster has to stay afloat,
because there are going to be people who are more interested in martial arts
and don’t want any religious bushwah infringing upon them.
I understand and empathize.
They are the recruits from which I will draw
after they have had some matrixing,
and have realized that they can make the world into a zen universe.

So in addition to terracing the hilltops,
making work out places for every art,
I think about things like libraries,
and living quarters,
and everything.
And I am really concerned about making a curriculum
that really works.

Now,
that said,
as you might expect,
price of courses will be rising.
Heck,
you all know I’ve been too low for too long,
and I’ve got a temple to build,
unless,
of course,
some happy millionaire out there
wants to donate a million bucks.
That would certainly help out.

Anyway,
you’ve got about a week,
then I’ve got to raise the prices,
so take advantage while you can.
And you might consider starting with Matrix Karate.
It’ll be the first course for Postulants (seekers),
and people will be expected to know it before they even get invited to Monkeyland.
Here’s that URL again…

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

Now,
I’ve spoken enough,
got to get to work,
got to make this thing happen.
And I thank everyone who sent in their well wishings and congrats to me.
I appreciate all of your thoughts
and will try to live up to them.
Thanks,
and have a great work out!

Al

Monkeyland is the Place for the Martial Arts!

Monkeyland is Now Open!

I’m here! At Monkeyland! The Church of Martial Arts has actual physical presence and location!

I’m sitting in a small cabin, the wind is howling hard enough to blow monkeys out of the trees, if there were any monkeys in the trees. Heh.

Do you know the truth of the martial arts?

And, I have no clue what is going to happen.

I just knew I had to get here, had to have a perfect place to work out. Had to have a place where there weren’t any low grade human beings, and only the faithful to train.

I know what Mas Oyama felt like when he disappeared into the mountains for two years to train himself.

I know what people who removed themselves from the world to pursue the ideal of perfection felt.

But, enough about me. I’m not one of those ‘me, me, me,’ personalities. This is about you.

Do you want perfection? Do you want the real martial arts? Do you want…Monkeyland?

So what’s stopping you?

Heck, hop a plane for a couple of hundred, live cheap, work hard, and dedicate yourself to training.

You know, I don’t want to just turn out martial artists…I want to turn out people who can train martial artists.

There’s one of me and millions of martial artists. I need help if I am going to spread the true arts, fix the corrupt arts, and elevate the martial arts to the highest level on this planet ever.

Heck, if you live in California you could come for a weekend.

If you’re out of California you could fly/drive/swim in over the weekend, spend a week in heaven, and leave the following weekend.

Seriously, this is the best deal, monetarily and martial arts wise, you could ever find.

How much does it cost you to live for a month? $1000? So spend half as much and live here!

I’ll work you, I’ll train you, and you will walk out a matrixed human being. You will walk out with a complete system or two, totally jazzed, and wide awake!

So, seriously…what is stopping you?

Here’s a series of articles that will tell you about the Martial Belief system at the Church of Martial Arts.

Martial Arts Religious Book

A Win for a Martial Arts Religious Book!

Here’s a win I received some time ago for prologue. It’s a little egghead, but dot let that put you off, the book is simple.

Prologue is the first book of neutronics, which is the science behind the science of matrixing. And matrixing is the science behind martial arts.

A martial artist can monkey see monkey do his way through the martial arts. Takes a while, but there are spectacular results.

A fellow who has matrixes the martial arts has mastered the martial arts, logically, in a short period of time.

A fellow who studies neutronics understands the martial arts.

These three levels can be equated to this:

a martial artist can drive a car.

A matrixed martial artist can fix a car.

A neutronicist can build a car.

Except we are talking about not cars, but martial arts specifically, and life.

Here’s the win.

Mr. Case,

I want to thank you profoundly for sending me that little book called Prologue. You may or may not have heard of an old fraternal organization known as The Golden Dawn but Neutronics in many ways reminds a great deal of the conclusions that you will encounter and discover within that system… but you reach them by an entirely different path. Very powerful stuff, life changing really.

Matrixing is phenomenal, as I read the concept began to unfold in my mind. The beauty, the simplicity, and the power of this way of thinking blew me away. I’ve had exposure to the concept before. In digital logic and more specifically boolean algebra what you call a matrix is used to explore the function and to simply digital circuits. In computer programming these are known as multi-dimensional arrays. In order to express multiple dimensions in a two dimensional way you have to use… a matrix. Except that you have taken this concept of manipulating computer storage and modeling three dimensional space out of the computer, out of the electronic circuit and transformed into a mode of human thought. This is an astounding breakthough, I believe you have unlocked the key to the human mind thinking in three dimensions and beyond. After all, a three dimensional concept of space would be a 1×3 matrix of height,width,depth and even time would be only one more element in the matrix… matrixing actually makes concepts vastly more complex than this simple.

Thank you for the karate and the power kicks as well. I look forward to encoding these arts within my mind in a nice neat matrix of neural connections.

You can pick up Prologue at Church of Martial Arts.

So, if you feel like looking, I won’t stop you. Have a great day, Al

The Martial Arts Zen of Billy the Kid

I often wonder about the zen martial arts of Billy the Kid.

Billy was rumored to have killed 21 people before he was 21.  That puts todays gangbangers to shame.

He was a rowdy, likable fellow, and he played the Robin Hood well. He managed to elude the law, and even make fools of them. He rustled freely, killed anybody who called him a cheater, and was popular with the folk…especially the Mexican folk, as they identified with a fellow who did the things they did. Simply, they were put upon and bullied, and they liked to see somebody fight back.

Now, to the point of this article…how good was Billy the Kid’s Martial Arts Zen.

Another way to phrase this would be…how aware was he during a gun fight?

In answer to this question, I read several histories of Billy the Kid, and one particular book seemed to shed light on the matter. This was the book on Billy by Patrick Floyd Garret. Pat, if you didn’t know it, was the fellow who killed Billy the Kid.

Now, one thing to understand before we start, Pat isn’t always the best source. According to him, he beat Billy the Kid to the draw in a darkened bedroom. But…he probably ambushed him with a shotgun. So Pat isn’t sterling when it comes to telling the truth.

That said, however, two tales in his book on Billy seem to offer interesting glimpses into the mindset and reality of Billy the Kid.

One, Billy told a tale of how he had been trapped by Indians, and how he outran them, got into a slot canyon, and shot them. The odd thing about this is that it sounds not like a real incident, but braggadocio. But was it bragging because of Billy’ description? Or was presented in bragging style, preenting Billy in a poor light, in Pat Garret’s writing? At any rate, it sounds ludicrous, and is valuable only in that it illuminates a certain type of writing style that reveals the author is writing, or relaying, an untruth. Thus the second tale in the book, by being ‘absent’ of this style, seems to be the truth.

Apparently Billy the Kid was in a small store and he ran into a rancher he didn’t like. So he jokes around, and when the rancher is distracted, he pulls his gun…and finds that the rancher has drawn with him, matched him, and is staring at him with steely, no nonsense eyes.

Billy puts his gun away, laughs and jokes some more, tries to make a funny thing out of it all. ‘I was just funnin’ with ya,’ type of stuff.

The rancher goes on about his business, and Billy sneaks up behind him and draws his gun again…and finds that the rancher has drawn his own gun and is staring him right in the face.

Billy tries to make a joke out of it, puts his gun away, and then tries a sneak draw when the rancher holsters his own gun…but the rancher has redrawn and is staring at him silently.

And this went on for a half dozen more attempted draws. Was Billy serious? Was it attempted murder? Put off only because of the rancher was more aware, more intent, than Billy the Kid?

I don’t know, and none will ever. But, when you read the description it is eery. And there is just the ring of truth to it. And in this ‘true’ anecdote we can look at the Zen in Billy’s mind.

He didn’t have any.

The rancher, however, was aware at all times, didn’t bother with reaction time, stayed in the moment, and yet didn’t leap to conclusion. It is the zen–it is the ‘wise’–of a person who has enough experience that he can defend himself, and yet doesn’t want to bother with doing something that is basically bad. wouldn’t you call that good martial arts zen?

 

 

Put Zen Martial Arts Concepts In Your Karate, Kung Fu Or Taekwondo!

There was always plenty of punching and kicking, I spent hours and hours punching and kicking, doing kumite and kata and techniques and anything else I could. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of stuff telling me about the deep, down why behind arts like Jujitsu, Aikido or Karate. And, I don’t mean just why kick or punch, but a why to the whole zen martial arts behind it all.

Now, to be honest, the question was sort formulated wrong from the get go. If you ask a human being why, he’ll go crazy, if you ask him how, he’ll go sane. Go on, try asking these questions and watch how people react.

Anyway, I read every book I could find, couldn’t figure out what was under it all, and then, out of the blue, I found the answer. I found it in an Aikido class, not in a martial arts book. The answer was in the old martial arts saying, ‘A perfect circle has no corners.’

Well, that was simple. And I practiced my shoulder rolls, forward and backward across the mat, and I was astounded by the basic truthfulness of this simple saying. But even while I was thrilled at this simple answer, I was developing variations of much interest.

In arts like traditional Karate there is often noise. We talk about moving quick and silent, like a ninja, but the truth is that Karateka are noisy. And the light dawned upon me, ‘The perfect art can’t be heard.’

Now I practiced my moves like a real cat, yet sinking the weight in every move I made. My kata, especially the kiai (spirit shout) part of it, became totally different. I began to understand what it was like to do a kata like a ghost.

And then the third of these concepts manifested and totally undid me. This happened during my practice of Tai Chi Chuan, but it quickly wormed its way through all the other arts I knew. And the simple became apparent as, ‘The perfect art cannot be seen.’

Three simple sayings, yet they washed over me, and changed the complexion and the very heart of all my martial arts. I began to seek perfection through the smooth liquid of motion, the silent ghosting of movement, and the execution of technique without any discernible effort. Go on, try putting these three phrases into your practice, and watch how you turn arts like Karate, Kung Fu andTaekwondo into a more zen martial arts.

If you like Zen Martial Arts, but want them now and not in twenty years, then head on over to Monster Martial Arts.

Doing All The Martial Arts…and A Lot More!

Yoga isn't What You Think!

Let me ask you a question. Why can a child simply bend his knees and run under a table and not have to grunt and groan? There is a reason, you know, and this reason infects the martial arts…and all of life.

Try running under a table yourself…grin. Find some low hanging branches that are as noggin knocking to you as a table is to a child. Run under those limbs without moaning from the weight on your knees and your back and your whole skeletal structure.

Well, the first and most important thing that occurred, that actually caused your body to whine and moan, is that you forgot to laugh and have fun like a child. See, a young child has more brains than you. A child understands how to enjoy life.

Now, to get back to that state of mind where you laugh and have fun and giggle incessantly just because it is fun to giggle incessantly, you should do a couple of things. First, get rid of all the grouches in your area. Second, stop listening to the news, or watching TV, or partaking in the doom and gloom that the media is.

Second, know that you are an eye of awareness in the immense awareness that is All awareness. Since the universe is constructed of a bunch of objects in motion, you have to view your life as an object in motion. You need to discover all the potentials of motion that fell by the wayside when you grew up and became such a, uh, smart person (snicker).

So, first sit in the zen position and and let your imagination run wild. You don’t have to do anything, just lose yourself in your thoughts. Have a good time and realize that you are all you need to entertain you.

Second phase, try learning some yoga. Explore the various postures, and run your thoughts through the potentials of your body. Become aware of where your potential of motion has stopped.

Third, go study some martial arts. Start moving through various drills and exercises, and explore your potentials of motion. Start moving in all the ways that are possible, and know the truth that life is motion, and if you have stopped motion, you have stopped life.

Doing yoga and martial arts and things like that is just a beginning, this is just a start, but it is a good start. This is the beginning of you enjoying your life. This is the end of those habits and situations which stopped you from enjoying life.

Head over to Monster Martial Arts and proceed with this new found zest for living, loving, and the development of you as a Spiritual Being.