The following data is applicable to all arts: Aikido, Kenpo, MMA, Kung Fu, whatever. Simply, it doesn’t matter what martial art you study, to be successful, to reach the pinnacle of your discipline, you must do the following.
1) Realize that you are an ‘I am.’ Know that you are a spiritual entity.
2) Create space. Do not generate staticky thoughts.
3) Focus your awareness on one thing. Learn to concentrate awareness, and you will find unlimited abilities.
4) Do not be positive in your action, do not be negative. Simply maintain distance and learn to be aware in the middle of chaos.
5) Realize that: For something to be true, the opposite must also be true. This defines the universe as a motor, and everything in the universe as individual motors.
6) Understand that you are not the screen for the universe, but rather the projector. The universe does what it does in response to your specific thoughts.
7) Treat others as you would be treated yourself. Recognize them as spiritual entities, help them learn to create space, and all the other items of this missive.
8) Practice your discipline every day. No matter if it is Kenpo, Karate, Krav Maga, or whatever, practice, and use that practice to focus the points of this missive.
9) Align yourself. Align your body with the physics of the universe, align your mind so that there is never contention, either from within or without, and then you will succeed.
10) Always step outside of your established patterns; find the ‘new you’ by refusing to do the same old same old; seek new methods, new ways of thinking, new everything.
And, it goes without saying, that the true art will manifest quicker if you are studying a matrixed martial art, or are matrixing your martial art.
Have a great work out!
About the author: Al Case is the inventor of Matrixing Technology, the only true science of the martial arts. His books and videos may be seen at MonsterMartialArts.com, ChurchofMartialArts.com, and various other sites on the internet.
In my other articles I started that my original karate dojo may have been the best thing that ever happened to me. If you haven’t read them you might find them interesting, especially the ones on Dojo-kun and Do vs Jitsu.
Click here to learn Butterfly Pa Kua Chang
Among other things that I rarely see in other schools, each belt test consisted of kata, punching and kicking, hojo-undo etc, but they also included reading a book and a verbal book report. The very first test was, like many styles, a yellow belt. I will never understand having a rainbow of colors that DON’T get darker as they go…
That first test was quite an eye opener for me though, Sensei had added his own requirement, because he was not about making money, nor was he interested in having half-hearted students, nor students that would leave. He wanted people that were going to forever be changed, and continue to practice for the rest of their lives.
The requirement he added? Go to another martial arts school, and take a minimum of one class with them. Give a verbal report.
This requirement, was a bit baffling, why take anyone just starting in your school, and require them to go try another school and possibly lose them? Because it makes sure you are in the art that you will stick with.
For my yellow belt test, I took a 3 day introductory course to Tai-Chi, knowing nothing about any other martial art I made the mistake to trying to compare it to what I knew. To give you some idea of what kind of apples and broccoli I was trying to compare, I was taking Pangainoon, and the first form you learn is Sanchin and the school I went to was doing Yang Tai Chi.
I made all sorts of uninformed, biased assumptions, I loved karate with a blind passion, and wanted to impress upon my sensei how much karate meant to me. Thus I took the classes looking for what I perceived to be flaws and weaknesses in the art such as
* no application of technique – never did I get any instruction of “this is a block, this is a strike, this is what you are defending against”
* the stance was too wide – I was not given any explanation for a neutral bow, or why it would be a good stance. In my mind Sanchin was the ultimate fighting stance.
* No power in their techniques – I had no understanding of chi power, even though Pangainoon teaches it, I hadn’t really even gotten an introduction.
I wilfully and with eyes open wide walked into a trap that ensares so many others. I blinded myself to the benefits of other arts.
I was lucky that I didn’t entirely discount everything I learned. I continued to keep in contact with the Sifu, and shortly before he left for China, I had the opportunity to witness him do Tai-chi very fast, it was amazing. Suddenly all the soft flowery techniques appeared to have power, and were obvious as to blocks and strikes. At this point, I had also had enough Pangainoon to understand some of the techniques and chi.
I was lucky for many reasons, I was lucky that my Sensei had the confidence to send us other places. I was lucky that I choose a school that was so different that I was forced to re-evaluate what I was learning (even if it was only in the back of my mind).
Luck aside, my own belief that my karate style was the only “good” style, quickly crumbling down. I wouldn’t have been able to overcome this false pride, had I not had these opportunities.
If you run a school, you will do your students a massive favor if you encourage them to go practice with other schools.
If you are a martial artist of any style, you can benefit from swallowing your ego and practising at other schools, especially those that are radically different than yours. For example, if you do Tai-chi, you might want to try a boxing school, if you do Wing Chun, try Judo or Jujitsu, etc.
You never know, you might might new friends, you might learn something new. As I often say “more bodies, means more opportunity to learn, especially when they are doing something other than you are doing”.
Alaric Daily began practicing the martial arts in 1992. Martial Art she has studied include Pangainoon, Karate, Kenpo, Wing Chun, Krav Maga, Judo, Jujitsu, Aikido, Bagua Zhang, and Tai Chi Chuan
Do Men and Women Really Understand the Purpose of the Martial Arts?
I posed a question for a martial arts forum a couple of weeks ago, self defense I think it was, and it got a lot of interest. The precise question I asked was: You Killed Him…Do you Turn Yourself In.
A lot of interest, and let me tell you, what I say here may seem cruel, but that is not my intention. It’s just that I was struck by the responses of some very intelligent people, and my conclusions may seem harsh.
Are you seeking enlightenment?
Let me preface this piece by recounting an incident that happened to me back about 1974.
A bunch of us black belts were sitting in a bar called ‘The King’s Table.’ Wonderful place for winding down after intense work outs where you were pushed past the limit…of spirituality.
One of the fellows asked my instructor, a fellow name of Bob Babich, what Karate was really all about.
Bob didn’t even hesitate, ‘Karate is about survival.’
We all sat and sipped our drinks (no sissy beer for us) and pondered his answer.
Oddly, though he had been fast in his answer, I didn’t think it was the kind of thing he ever thought about. He was a fellow who did. Didn’t talk much. And I just didn’t think he had thought about it, and I realized that this was likely one of those rare instances when you saw the forms at work. Simply, his intense study of Karate, especially through the forms, had afforded him that intuitive, innate answer.
Yet, I thought the answer wrong. At first I didn’t know why, but upon reflection over his answer I finally, after many months, realized what it was.
I believe that Karate is to seek existence as. Survival is fine, but that doesn’t necessarily lead anywhere. Animals survive. We should expect more of ourselves as men.
So I came to believe in Karate, and the martial arts, as a method to seek existence as…as awareness.
Decades later I posed the question for a forum: You killed him…do You Turn Yourself In. The responses reminded me of that long ago conversation, my purpose in the martial arts (to create more awareness). The responses to my question in the forum were often of two varieties.
The ladies engaged in a deep discussion regarding teaching people with ADHD. Very interesting. Not Bob’s purpose, not my purpose, but a purpose intended to aid thedisadvantaged. Noble, but…interesting. But it made sense because women are of the nest, and men are of the spear. A generality, I know, but a truth of mankind. Though I should say that this generality held true more before the introduction of the pill.
The men seemed to slant off into what the law was.
Fighting? Or freedom?
But the intent of the question I posed included the condition that law had broken down and was not to be trusted.
But the men kept spouting things about what the law required, and so on.
I was struck by how far from survival the Martial Arts had become, and dismayed by how far from ‘to seek existence as’ (awareness) they were.
Now, you can check out the discussion on linkedin, it is quite interesting, and you can see if you reach the same observation as I did, or even dare to make the same conclusions as I.
But let’s get to the point of this little diatribe. Or, prepare for the left turn.
We can divide mankind into three classifications.
Sub human.
Human.
Superior human.
A subhuman is going to be a criminal type, one without morals. Very unaware, except as to how to twist the moment to his own advantage, and then he might or might not be incredibly brilliant.
A human is your average go to work oaf. He makes payments, he votes as he is told to, and he is mired in normalcy bias (loosely – hold to the least threatening path). The odd thing is that, because he removed from the immoral survival level of the subhuman, he is often (but not always) less aware.
A superior human is going to be a fellow or gal with morals, an upward plan, and the personal drive to make that upward plan work. He is going to be aware, or at least on the path to awareness. Enter the Martial Artist.
Now I don’t have much argument with the ladies. They rise above culture and its expectations, and though I think the martial arts used to reach ADHD students is far afield, who can fault their motivation?
But the men…when the question posed calls for survival…they argue over what the law says. And here is a point of fascination for me.
The law is a bunch of made up rules so men can get along. To temper their ‘spearlike nature,’ as it were.
Now I know this could possibly just be my disagreement, and you are certainly free to hold to your own opinion as to what the purpose of Karate, or whatever martial art you study, is.
And you could even attack me for being anachronistic…having trained with men who dated women ‘before the pill.’
There would even be cause for that.
But to allow yourself be bound by any law can become immoral itself.
Yes, law is a bunch of rules to allow warlike oafs to live in some semblance of peace. But laws can be immoral, or immorally applied, as was implied in my article. In which case it is actually one’s duty to rise above the law.
Not in mob, but in individual initiative and action.
Can you see yourself achieving perfection?
Anyway, while you grok with that concept, or not, let me return to my thesis, my purpose, that the purpose of the martial arts is to seek existence as.
My specific, as intimated, is ‘to seek existence as…awareness.’
When one does a Karate Kata, or a Gung Fu pattern, or any such type of exercise, one is building a circuit in the mind.
Done not long enough, and the circuit is binding, actually slows one down, mires the person in automated responses that are not always even logical. This, incidentally, is why many people attack Karate, or like arts, as unworkable…it simply has not been done long enough to work.
Done long enough, however, and the circuit pops…disappears, and the person achieves enlightenment.
The enlightenment is sometimes qualified, slanted to a particular method of art, but it is enlightenment, and there is more awareness. Thus, one has sought, and achieved, existence as…awareness.
My problem is that if a person is a knock on wood, solid citizen, concerned with the law, that he is bound…and that means that he has not achieved the enlightenment offered by the martial arts.
And here is the tragedy, a person can be VERY advanced in the martial arts, and unable to break the binding, unable to pop the circuit, unable to reach enlightenment.
Why? Poor training. Poor instruction. Not enough time being instructed by a qualified person.
Usually achievement of enlightenment has to do with one of these three items.
Poor training, of course, includes any slant of the martial arts, such as for tournaments, for the training of children (sorry, ladies), commercialism, and so on.
Commercialism is the big bugaboo, of course, and I constantly wondered at how many of the people who entered into the discussion, who held to the law as so important, even over their own survival, were instructors.
But what were they instructing?
A system based on the memorization of random techniques. Circuits.
Yet they had not broken through their own circuits!
One of the things that matrixing a martial arts does is break through the circuits, and it does this by the simple fact of introducing logic. Putting the techniques in order, causing understanding to happen.
Understanding always breaks a circuit.
But here is the cruel trap. A person still in circuit will hold to the circuit no matter what. He will resist logic and all other intrusions.
Well, of course he will. He has invested time and money in the devil…a belief system. And, believe me, most belief systems are the devil. They are like The Law, binding hopelessly, not to allow men to live together, but to control them.
You’ve heard of the Golden Rule? He who controls the gold rules?
The more insidious cousin is: he who controls the rules rules.
Do you seek to understand yourself as awareness?
That bit of juice observed, and under threat of wandering far afield, let me return to the point of it all.
Normalcy Bias is when a person holds to his path tightly, no matter the signs of impending doom, because…because he can’t deal with the coming disaster.
Yes, it’s a prepper term, but it holds true in this instance because, for person to devote his life to seeking enlightenment, and then to get sidetracked with concern for the law, or tournaments, or commercialism, or even the raising of children, is a tragedy.
Simply, you must not stop seeking existence as (awareness) for any reason. That would be to stunt your growth, and return you to Human, or even Subhuman existence.
A person guilty of normalcy bias will not see his own normalcy bias, and will not complete his search for existence. He has become comfortable as a superior man, without ever making the final leap to that exalted status, and will become nothing more than (he will return ‘down’ to…) a normal, knock on wood, do your job and vote as you’re supposed to oaf.
Thus, I was struck by the responses to my article. Sometimes gratified, even surprised by the depth of perception and the proof that individuals were seeking existence as.
But I was also dismayed by people who held to the rules, could not think outside the box, were obviously still ‘in circuit.’
Final word, remember, Matrixing WILL teach you to think outside the box. It WILL create more awareness. It WILL break the circuits of the martial arts and allow you to understand the martial arts, and life, to an enlightened extreme.
Remember, it takes discipline in the proper method to achieve enlightenment. Random discipline, as in current martial arts, takes twenty or thirty years, if it can be done at all. Logic, through matrixing, can speed up the process by as much as ten.
But to hold to the current course, doing random series of techniques with no logic, and certainly without the understanding that understanding the whole picture that logic brings, is to risk disaster…a lifetime spent spinning your wheels and never achieving enlightenment. Never achieving an existence as…awareness.
Please, if I have stepped on toes, apply lineament and remember that my purpose is good…to seek existence as awareness, and to cause others to find that same purpose.
Have a great workout!
Al from MonsterMartialArts(dot)com.
Old, decrepit, but still searching…and able to put out a candle from over a foot away without using force. This is one of the many incredible things matrixing can do.
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.
Official Emblem of The Church of 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.
Speaking of a martial arts plan, what a great day in the morn! eh?
The nice thing, this past few days and newsletters and blogs and articles and such, is that people are starting to see the overall grand scheme of Monkeyland, they are seeing the culmination of this martial arts plan.
There is the announcement of the land acquisition, and then there is the outline of the curriculum, and things are just coming together in this martial arts plan.
Can you slay your enemies and make…life?
You can see the direction of the martial arts at Monkeyland, and you can understand why Matrix Karate and Temple karate are so important, and you can understand why I focus on them so much.
Matrix Karate simply changes the way you think about the Martial Arts, put that together with the Master Instructor course, and you have a real one two punch.
The complete Matrix Karate package will probably include the small Perfect Karate, the Matrix Karate course, the 120 lessons to Black belt, and maybe a couple of other things.
The point being that if you don’t understand Matrixing, through Matrix Karate, before you come here, that’s going to be the very first thing you have to study.
And, Temple Karate, as presented at KangDukWon.com. An in depth checklist covering an amazing amount of material. You understand the important of Temple Karate because if you can do the first two levels before you even get to Monkeyland, then we simply check you out, award your certificates…gold sealed to indicate that you actually were promoted at the Church itself, and continue on with official monk studies.
So if you don’t have those courses, you’d better. It’s part of the overall martial arts plan.
Now, let me give a slight picture of what has happened so far.
I matrixed, and discovered neutronics, and decided that the world would be a better place if everybody knew the martial arts…the right martial arts. Fixed and corrected martial arts that impart all the real abilities that you read about, but rarely see. So I came up with a plan.
The plan was simple…
Write books and courses, which courses were, for the most part, already done.
Then write websites, selling matrixing courses, and getting people ready for Monkeyland.
Then find some land.
Then start building and create a paradise of martial arts.
So, technically, we’re on step three. And step four should officially begin in the next couple of weeks.
To me the really interesting thing is that every fit together, even the work I had done early on, before I started Matrixing.
And the more I do, the more it fits.
Honestly, some of this I don’t plan, it just fits.
Like the people I talk to on the web.
I don’t plan it, but when something is going haywire, when i need some data badly, somebody suddenly writes me off the internet, gives me direction, clarifies what is happening.
So the conclusion is this: life is an art.
Yes, the martial arts are an art, and you can see how they work.
But life is an art, living life the right way, making things happen that fit into a grander scheme, this is all an art.
So we live, and life is the canvas, and when we are done…is our life a masterpiece? Or is it a shambles?
A martial artist usually understands this, or easily accepts it, because he has already seen how life in the dojo, the mini-universe of the dojo, shapes up as a work of art.
Now, can you accept the larger picture?
Monkeyland is dedicated to the fact of this larger picture, of making life an art for all who come.
