GrandMaster Art Mason's Martial Musing

When I do Kyusho Course in my school, the novice session is 12 3 hour segments lasting a year in time. We meet once per month. My success rate with these groups getting to Black Belt is very high, but there is a reason for it. We follow certain laws that pertain to learning a new skill or any skill for that matter.

There are 4 major areas we will talk about.

1) Who to listen too. There are many people on the internet who are claiming high ranks and understanding of the art. How do you decide? Find someone who is doing the things with Kyusho you want to learn to do. That simple, but often overlooked.

2) Am I teachable? This is an important question to ask yourself. How badly on a scale of 1 to 10 do I want to learn this information and what I am will to do, change or give up to do it!

3) Technical Balance - There is a certain amount of technical skill needs to be balanced with the information processed from Kyusho Jitsu.

4) Putting it together. There are 4 knowledge states to be considered. Your goal is to the reach the forth. This takes time and much word to achieve.

a) Unconscious Incompetence- This is not knowing you don’t know something
b) Conscious Incompetence – This is know that you do not know
c) Conscious Competence – This is know that you know something
d) Unconscious Competence – This is doing something you know without thinking about it. This is the ultimate place to be in any martial art or skill.

If you apply this these skills to anything you are learning you will find great success in the field in question. Kyusho is a great example of this. If you would like to know more about learning Kyusho Jitsu visit on Kyusho Online Course Website

There must be a starting point for everyone that decides to become involved with martial arts training.  Formally we call this white belt, but it lasts much longer than this.  This beginning is based on movement and technique.

As you first begin your training you learn many, many different technique. Sometimes I think as a teacher I am teaching far to many of these. What is really needed is learning how to move. We have all learned and practiced technqies that work on some, then not at all on others. Yet the master seems to be able to always make them work. This can be very frustrating. Depending on the student sometimes I will tell them what is going on, other times I leave it to them to think about.

One thing the student tends to do when a technique is going bad is revert to using force or power to try to finish it. The problem with this is that you are now fully committed to the movement, and there is no way out.  What is needed is continuous motion.

The concept is simple, application is more challenging.

The student will often ask at this point “what about stances?” Stances are transitional points, not finishing events.  Continuous movement, through the varying stances for the particular application will yield a great result. The body cannot defend against such movements.

Students watch your instructor carefully over the next few months. See exactly what he or she is doing to make things work. Martial Art is about movement, and movement will make you successful.

One of the various qualifications for 2nd Dan Black Belt in our system is Mass Attacks. These are certainly very common in many martial art systems however with us the student is required to come up with the techniques, they are not pre determined.

The first of these is a 3 man attack. The attackers can be empty handed or using weapons.  Lately I have been spending more and more time on this, as I am see a lack of understanding amongst the students. Here is one such situation.

Several of my students are also studying Modern Arnis. They are also getting very good at it! It really pleases me to see growth in students such as this. Arnis is not part of our system. Now if the student would like to use some of this outside influence in their techniques they are more than welcome to. In fact it is encouraged!

In this scenario on student decided to give one of the attackers a stick (club) to use. This was followed by 2 empty handed attackers.  As he was working thought the situation he decided to try to disarm the first attacker. He did so very effectively, however he did not have control of the club immediately after the disarm. The weapon ended up about 3 feet away. Now if this was a one on one with a weapon I would strongly have encouraged this disarm, but not under the current circumstances.

At first the student did not see the problem, he was focused on the weapon and getting it out of the equation. The problem is that in this situation, a loose weapon is likely to be picked up by one of the other attackers. Once picked up it might not be as easy to deal with.

In a mass attack situation you must take each attacker out of the picture. If there are weapons involved gaining control of them is fine, lossing control will result in greater difficulties ahead.  Mass Attack scenerios are fun and a great education is self defense.

If you research the history of the martial arts you know there origin is actually in India, not China and this history goes back about 2600 years.  To research some of this history there is an excellent book called The Bodhisattva Warriors that goes into details on this subject.

Part of this great history is the link between the martial arts, spirituality and mediation.  Why is there a link to begin with? First, back in the times when martial arts began to be spread throughout the east man was in an amazing era of development. Within a few hundred years during this time great thinkers such as Buddha, Socrates, Plato, Confucius and Sun Tzu were alive. Man’s thinking ability was evolving in leaps and bounds.  This was fueled by man’s quest for understanding. Mediation was an important part of life.

What does mediation really do for a person? It helps to quiet the mind, allowing it to focus on one thing at a time. The purpose is not to cause a person not to think, just to be single minded. Martial Arts of the day, the Warriors’, meditated to calm the mind, and prepare themselves for battle.

Today in most martial art classrooms meditation is gone. With the vast diversity of cultures in our countries we are always concerned about offending someone.  But should we be? All religions practice some form or prayer, which is really just another type of meditation. Prayer is not a format for begging for things you need, but a way of centering the self within the beliefs of the person doing the praying.

Martial Arts is known not only for it’s self defense origins, but also it’s ability to focus the mind and relieve the stress of the day. If you are a martial artists or not, I encourage you to develop a habit of meditation in one form or another.

The difference it will make in your life cannot be imagined.

The is a very old Zen Koan. Find the meaning…..

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.
Dogen

A young man is searching the country to find meaning in his life. He hears of a Zen Master in the mountains near a village a few miles away.  He after days of searching he finds the old master and says. “Oh great master I have come to ask you to teach me about Zen”.  The master replies, “so you want to learn Zen, well you must answer me one question first.” The young man eager to please the master agrees. The master takes the boy to a window in the monastery and says. “see those 3 pine trees across the field? Tell me what the middle one means”. The boy thinks for a moment and replies, “it shows nature in its great abundance!” The boy is proud of his answer but the master shakes his head and says” no, that is not the meaning, come back when you understand”.

The boy goes outside to the garden of the monastery and sits, looking at the middle tree. “what does it mean he asks”.  He sits in reflection of the tree. The next morning he go back in to the see the master. He tells the master than he has come to a realization. “The tree signifies life, the root taking nourishment from the ground and the branches reaching to the sky”. The master shakes his head, the boy returns to sitting outside.

This goes on for weeks. Finally while sitting looking at the tree the boy jumps up and runs across the field. His anger exploding he kicks the tree and says ” this is stupid, you don’t mean ANYTHING!!!!!!” The boy then runs back into the monastery, and with anger in his voice yells out to the Zen Master, “Your question is stupid, the tree doesn’t mean ANYTHING!!!!!”

The master smiles at the boy and says “you are finally after weeks of thinking, correct, the tree means nothing, it is EMPTY, empty like your mind is now. Now you are ready to learn Zen”.

This story is about all of us. We go though life worrying about a reality that does not exist, looking for meaning were there is none, and looking for answer in the wrong places.  When the mind is disciplined and becomes empty we hear all the answers to all the questions we have from within.

When you stop looking for meaning, and empty your mind, you will find meaning.

A Zen Master is walking though the streets carrying a heavy load on this back. As he is walking he is approached by two young men. The men ask the Master, “what does a Zen Master do before enlightenment?” The Master stops walking and puts down he load and looks at the men but says nothing.  The men, confused, then ask the Master, “well what does a Zen Master do after enlightenment when he becomes a Buddha?” The Master then picks up his load, puts it all on his back and walks away in silence.

This Zen Koan is very simple. We are spiritual beings having a physical experience.  No matter what your religious background is we can all agree with this statement. What does this mean? That the road to the spiritual is found in the physical. We are all looking for higher answers, but are almost always looking in the wrong place. We must look within. Wisdom and the answers to all questions lie within each and everyone of us, if we would just be quiet and listen.

One of the problems when someone first discovers spirituality is it becomes all consuming. This happened to me many years ago also. We tend to think about developing something that is already developed. Thus we miss the physical experiences that we are here to enjoy.  How do you create the balance between spiritual and physical? By learning to quiet the mind and listen.

Some people will accomplish this by reading a bible, other by reading a sutra or many other religious texts. Some will mediate for a few minutes a day. One problem is that we often miss the reason for these practices.  The only reason is to quiet the mind so that we can understand ourselves, and thus the world we live in.

Once many years ago I visited a Buddhist monastery with some of my students.  The monk asked us if we could help them out by moving some statues in the stupa for them. We were very happy to be of assistance. After this work we were allowed to eat dinner with the monk and the other members of the monastery.

Being the senior person there from our school I ate at the table with the monk.  He told me that being a special occasions the other monks in training could talk with my student during their meal. He told me that this is normally not allowed.  Now when I heard this I figured there was some high spiritual reason for this practice. I was right, it was so that the mind was in the present and enjoying the meal, rather than being distracted with chatter. I was blow away and never forgot that moment.

What is the spiritual path? Enjoying living. If you practice martial arts, practice with all your attention. Are you a teacher? Then teach with all your attention and nothing else.  You see, it is all about doing what you are doing without thinking about something else. Being in the moment, and there are no ordinary moments.

Being spiritual is not about giving things up, it is about being mindful in the things you are doing.  Quiet your mind and enjoy your experience as a physical being.  Wisdom and happiness are your only goals. There is nothing in the past you can change, in fact it does not exist any longer. The future is like the past, it has not happened yet.  There is only this moment and nothing else. Learn to live in this moment. It is always calm and peaceful.

There is an old Buddhist saying, “You cannot step into the same river twice”. The fact is you cannot step into the same river even once.

One of the greatest benefits of training in a martial art is FOCUS.  Parents often look to martial art schools to help their children in this avenue of life.  However today I am speaking of focus with respect to adults.

Adults have as many, if not more focus issues than children do. I am not referring to their ability to focus on a task and complete it, which can also be a problem, I am however referring to the ability to focus on what is important, and discarding what is not.

The belt system in a martial art is designed to help with goal setting.  I wrote about this, in this blog article entitles Kudos to the Belt System. However keeping focused on the goal with all the distractions in life can be a challenge. Here is an example of what I am referring too.

How have you set your priorities? Are you thinking about developing yourself, or are you sitting at home watching the Simpson’s, eating a bag of chips and having a beer? Last night I was teaching the advanced class for adults in my school. I am not always available for this as I have several locations. I had a total of 6 students, 3 Black Belts and 3 Red Belts. How many could have been in class? There are currently 17 eligible and considered to be active students who could have been in class.  Many of these students were playing games and posting on Facebook.  This is a loss of focus on their part and will take a toll in their quality of life sooner or later.

This is especially true for advanced students, martial arts training is an important priority in life, at least I hope it is.  These students of the arts have often lost focus on what is important because they ‘get caught up’ in the day to day rat race of life.  Because of this the 2 1/2 hours of training each week will often go to the waste side. There lives will also often filled with stress and frustration.

Why is this training so critical? Because when we lose focus on our training we also lose focus in other important areas of our life, including our health. There is nothing more important than the time we spend on ourselves because if we don’t look after ourselves we cannot focus on other important things in our life like family and friends. People need to recharge after a hard day. Martial Art training provides this recharge.

Black Belts will often come and see me and give me the reasons why they are not in class. These are usually just excuses.  The number one excuse is a long day at work or I had to do something at home.  Well my day starts in the office at 7:30am, and goes until class finishes each day at 9:00pm.  I don’t cut out and go home, even though I could. I focus on the task at hand. When we are focused, because we are looking after ourselves, everything becomes more efficient.

I urge all people reading this, martial artists or not to take a look at your life and see where your focus is? If you feel stress in your life it is because you are out of focus. I put in 14 hours days working, but I sleep well at night, without the worries that keep so many people awake.

Where is your focus and what are you focusing on? If you are under a lot of stress, your focus is lost. If you are not a martial artist, consider it. If you are get out and train! Twice per week is not much when you consider the benefit of training and you all know this benefit well.

Martial Art training is time well spent, unlike the Comedy Network which brags about time well wasted.

The martial arts is rich with the teaching of the Buddha, the teaching of the movement of the octagon is no exception. What is the origin of the Octagon in martial arts training? It’s movement is based on the teaching of the 8 Fold Path. If you follow this path you will live a happy life, likewise if you understand movement in the Octagon you will be safe from your attacker. The 8 paths are grouped into 3 headings.

Wisdom

1. Right View – The 1st part of the path concerns “Right View”. Does a person go though his or her life with the right view of life in mind? Are they a positive person or a negative person. From the martial arts standpoint does the practitioner have the correct view of the conflict? Things are not always as they appear to be.
2. Right Intention – Is a person living their life with the right intention? The Buddhist view is to live a life in the intention of compassion. From the martial arts standpoint the warrior must have the correct intentions in battle or death is assured.

Ethical Conduct

1. Right Speech – In Buddhist life correct or right speech is very important.  A person should always be careful of his speech as to not hurt the other person with words. From the martial arts standpoint a person can end a conflict with his verbal skills. This is always better than resorting to violence.
2. Right Action – The Buddhist is always careful to control his or her actions. This is a basic law of Karma, cause and effect. The warrior also knows that his action fall into Karma as well.  He must always be just in his actions.
3. Right Livelihood – The correct job or career is important for anyone. There is nothing worse than doing something you hate.  The wrong livelihood will effect loved ones and friends as well. For the martial artist or warriors this path is clear. Your must train diligently and love the path you have chosen, otherwise you could endanger yourself.

Mental Discipline

• Right Effort – The Buddhist will always give the right effort in everything they do. Without right effort, there is no point in continuing the task.  Wrong effort is much like lying. For the martial artist this is also true. Right effort in practice is imperative to being safe in the outside world and in the Dojo.
• Right Mindfulness -  Where is your mind? Are you in the moment, living in the now, or are you in the past, maybe the future. The only time that matters is this moment. This is also true for the warrior.
• Right Concentration – Are you concentrating solely on the task at hand? This goes hand in hand with right mindfulness. The warrior will die in battle if he is not concentrating on the task at hand.

From a physical aspect the Octagon has angles to move in, which will either allow escape or attack.  The theories of movement are too complex for this essay. However the philosophy of the Nobel 8 Fold Path, or the Octagon are not.  Living with these “Natural Laws” in mind will not only lead to a happy and prosperous life, but for those on the martial path it will lead to a safe and long life as well.

This is the wisdom of Siddhāttha Gotama; the Buddha….Enjoy this video.