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.
To the beginner the martial arts, and this includes Karate, Kung Fu, Aikido, Tai Chi Chuan, and all other martial disciplines, can be less than simple. There is simply an overwhelm of information, a ‘disgruntlement’ of the mind at the massive influx of new materials.
The simple truth, however, is that the truth is simple.
The answers are in you…if you have the discipline to look.
Why these subjects, be they karate or jujitsu or whatever, would not be simple, once once absorbed, is merely the result of engaging the mind to try and describe what is ‘not mind.’
For instance, in the beginning one must wade through instructions concerning physics, anatomy, history, philosophy, and so on. This is made more complex as different arts propose different structure and on many levels, and then often disagree.
The harmony of Aikido is similar to the absorption of Tai Chi Chuan, but there is sufficient difference to argue the terminology.
The striking methods of Wing Chun and boxing, though at heart still just a strike, can be argued ad infinitum.
But in the end, proven by simple and direct experience, a human being is constructed of flesh (body), mind (memories), and spirit (awareness). Thus, all physics, which is the heart of all sciences, can be rendered to a fine simplicity.
The fact is that the discipline of the martial arts focuses on doing to the exclusion of the mind, and thus is achieved enlightenment. Enlightenment is considered, from the unique viewpoint of an accomplished martial arts discipline, to be aware of the self as awareness.
And, yes, the above statement, so simple, is the summation that can be applied on any and all levels of all martial arts.
To do a single act, a kata or technique, a kick or throw, until there is no thought (no interference from the mind), and is intuitive, opens the door to enlightenment.
For once one looks at a fist approaching the face in terms of simple survival, one will begin to look at the approach of the universe in the same way.
Not an overwhelm of factors to be adjusted through eternal tweakings of computations, but a simple ‘Is it going to hit me or not.’
Followed by a simple, ‘Do I block or get out of the way.’
Not complex at all.
The unfortunate truth, however, is that man insists on his own significance in the universe by creating endless paradigm for his actions.
Thus we have reasons of physics, disagreements of anatomy, descriptions of philosophy, and all filtered through the various misunderstandings inherent in unaccomplished and divergent martial arts.
And these are all justifications for one’s existence.
‘To be or not to be,’ placed in endless loop.
But the simple truth is if one practices the discipline, and this of widely varied arts such as Karate or Aikido,Tai Chi Chuan or Kenpo, then one is engaged in ignoring the mind; one is functioning in an emptiness of reason and a purity of awareness.
Survival blots out psychological ramifications, and puts an end to philosophical meanderings – and justifications – of the awareness trying to look at itself, but so very unable.
To sum, it is not all the reasons, but the source of reason, the ‘I am,’ that is responsible for conundrum, and the resolution therewith.
The easiest way to cut through the fog of the martial arts, to ignore the mind and to find the truth of the self, is through the logic of matrixing. To matrix the martial arts is to rid the art of silly significance, and to place all the elements and pieces in the correct and easily assimilate-able order.
Matrixing can be found at MonsterMartialArts.com. Further juxtapositions of martial arts philosophy, real as opposed to the justifications of students mired in the endless mirrors of their own minds, can be read at ChurchofMartialArts.com.
…snakes are God’s Critters, and you have to be careful which ones you kill.
Rattlesnakes you kill. They have triangular heads, precise diamond markings on their back, and rattles on the tip of their tails.
I killed one yesterday. Didn’t have a gun with snake shot (a bullet with little bee bee shot), or even a knife. So I laid a board across it’s neck and beat the head off with a stick.
If I didn’t, it would kill my dog, or cause the cows to run and break legs, or whatever.
Sorry, tree huggers, I love nature, but I live in a place where nature doesn’t always love me.
A bull snake you don’t kill. They look a bit like a rattler, which causes mistakes, but they don’t have rattles. I killed one the first time I saw it, out of panic, then found out I had made a grievous error. Grievous because bullsnakes will kill rattlers. Yikes! He was my friend!
Garter snakes are totally harmless. Long and skinny, with yellow lines running the length of their bodies.
And so on.
And, I saw a six foot rattler, with 9 beads on its tail, crawling into a hole in the dam. It was going after ground squirrels.
So, do I kill it? The ground squirrels are destroying the damn, which is vital for the cows during the summer. So a bad guy is doing me a favor. Do I kill it?
Unfortunately, yes. Measure the good v the bad, and make a decision. And that’s life up here at Monkeyland.
This newsletter is going to the guys who have subscribed to this blog. They have an interest in Monkeyland. Martial Arts and beyond, they are searching, or at least considering.
So, if you are reading this newsletter, order any of the matrixing courses, and that means any of the first twelve courses on this page, https://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/, and I will give you, FREE, ‘Matrixing: The Master Text,’ which is going for $30.
Order the course, then send the paypal receipt to me via email, and tell me you want to take advantage of the MTMT offer. Offer good through May of 14.
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.
Have you ever considered how and why Yoga works? It’s a good question, and one which I have never seen answers for. In fact, some youngster puts the question to some oriental sage fellow, and I see a lot of circumventing and philosophizing…and no real answer.
In answer to this question, I was trying to make yoga work the other day, and I was listening to some gal on a Yoga CD and trying to put it all together with what I knew from the martial arts, and the gal on the CD suddenly said something that made me blink. With a satisfied smile she said, ‘It took me three years to get this posture.’ I sat back, put the CD on hold, and thought about what she had said.
It took her three years of work and discipline to make her body work. She was proud, which is probably the sinful version of satisfied. And I don’t think she was really doing Yoga.
She was being a contortionist. She wasn’t talking about becoming aware as a spiritual being, but rather being ‘over satisfied’ about being able to do weird things with her body. What she was saying had to do with holding her body in a yoga asana, and nothing to do with the spiritual side of the subject.
One of the martial arts exercises I do is to practice my Tai Chi Chuan in a dark room with no lights and my eyes closed. I do this because I started with Karate, which means ’empty hands,’ and I realized you couldn’t have empty hands without an empty mind. I am merely trying to reduce extra and distractive sensations, and develop awareness having to do with the sole and concentrated practice of the tai chi chuan form.
To utilize this in Yoga, close your eyes and be aware of your left, big toe. You must be aware of your right, big toe without the use of perceptions. You must become aware, as opposed to being aware with body perception devices (eyes, taste, touch, and so on).
If you can hold the body still, negate sensation, and just become aware, then you are on the path of real yoga. If you can see the different between being aware through body perception devices (nose, eyes, etcetera), and just being aware, then you are on the path of real yoga. If you can become aware of yourself as a spiritual being, and not as a body, then you are doing true Yoga.
You don’t have to contort your body through painful postures. You need merely put your body in a position…doesn’t even have to be an official yoga asana…and stop looking through your senses, and let awareness grow. The difference between perception and awareness, this is the why yoga works, why Tai Chi Chuan is what it is, and even your left, big toe.
