approach – Intuitive Martial Arts

Martial Arts and Health

Posted on 3rd August 2020 Last updated on 3rd August 2020 by joeharman8 | 11 min read | 92 views

We can think of health as energy available to us to live an intense meaningful life, free from disease and debilitation. It is this state that we should reach in order to train properly in Martial Arts. And so we must cultivate and live in this state as much as possible, so that we can put this energy into everything we do. That is, of course, if we want to devote ourselves to this path. We don’t need to go looking for this energy outside ourselves by learning all sorts of complicated moves, hoping this will give us power. No, instead we should move naturally in ways which correlate with the intuitive rhythms of nature.

Now that science has given us complicated explanations and exact methods of technical performance, we exploit the resources of the body in order perform these techniques. And yet, many people find themselves more unhealthy than ever and plagued with injuries, not to mention lacking in energy. This is because people think about performing certain moves, like a punch, rather than strengthening the body which animates them. They do all sorts of robotic moves unthinkingly, which just causes wear and tear as the years go on. In truth, much of scientific advancement has made us lazy and unwilling to do work.

Whilst skilled people don’t wear out overnight, the abilities they have developed, often during youth, don’t last forever, and before too long they end up stagnating or in a sorry state. Many people put all their energy into the move instead of cultivating health through exercise. What they are forgetting is that the move is just a means of expressing the goal of perfection. Instead they get it the wrong way round, thinking that the move itself is the goal, and perfection of this will lead to truth. They think “I’ll perfect this move and one day I’ll become perfect”. But really, People are deluding themselves if they think they will make long term progress in this way, because once they are worn out and no longer able to animate themselves with zest, they lose the impetus to grow and develop. The real goal is keeping this zest, as this is the means of evolution.

Yes lots of people get big muscles first, but even a giant brick wall will develop cracks and fall down if the foundations and alignment are incorrect. And it is the same situation for Martial artists. Say, for instance, you are driving a stake into the ground. If you take the mallet and hit the stake off centre, it might bend. If you hit it dead centre it will drive into the floor creating a stable root. In the same way, if you direct pressure through the ground using gravity, aligned from head to toe, you will be much more structurally sound and dynamically stable (Steve Morris, the authority on the subject talks about alignment and whole body tension extensively on his website). On the other hand, if you contorts the body in all sorts of unnatural ways, without the means of stability stability, it’s only a matter of time before you damage your structure2.

How do we learn these “Fundamental” means of action? There is an imprint of how to move, breathe, and learn correctly inscribed within us. If we follow these intuitive pathways we can, with work, learn anything relatively easily to our own specifications. Think of the body as your instrument, you might be inspired by other peoples music, but you yourself produce the harmonies which resonate with your requirements and tastes. You might copy someone else at first, to create a stereotypical impression, but this is not the end of it. You continually develop. This will ensure you never lose interest and keep on growing, which itself is the only real indicator of success. When you train intuitively, all the knowledge is already in your possession you just need the inspiration and living examples around you to bring it out.

So what about adding our own flavour? After we have a fundamental knowledge of how to train and work, we can then add certain embellishments on top of this these forms we create. What Most Martial Arts practice involves is putting on the embellishments first, rather than making sure the basics are in order. It takes many years to learn to walk, so how do you suppose you can embody more complicated actions quickly? This just shows how much work needs to be done, and if the great fighters have to do this, how much more so for the rest of us?

In other words, many people go for the martial arts form without working on their body’s structural capabilities. Many of them go on about persevering through difficulty, and being patient, but in reality they are often looking for the easiest way to learn as many moves as possible to earn a certificate or belt. When you see a fighter in action, ask yourself “Does this form or style embrace universal principles of development and practice?” And, “Can I embody this practice so that it relates to everything else I do?” If not then it does not represent the truth3. There is no point is beating others up around you whilst your practice becomes devoid of meaning.

A true Martial Arts Master takes no interest in mechanical dead forms. There is no point because they do not relate to everyday matters of health and life. In fact they often ruin health because moving so violently without art or grace wears out the joints and causes fatigue. The temptation to stop developing, through pride, dogs the heals of even the best Martial artists until the end.

Routinised, meaningless practice has a terrible effect on health and energy. And then what weapons will you have when you are older and worn out? What will happen when your inner weapons of energy and enthusiasm has gone? You will have nothing. But if you learn to increase your health, training intensely for only short durations4, you will be able to have a profound effect on your abilities whilst not squandering your reserves on mindless work. Yes it is possible, through intelligent work, to remain healthy and vigorous even into old age. This is how you know you are following true Martial arts practice, you will increase your abilities, happiness, and senses.

To the extent that a form of martial arts is useful, you should integrate this with your everyday behaviours and gestures which underpin movements in all domains. Obviously, this works by degrees. Then martial arts simply becomes another way of moving more generally. You simply take the forms in homeopathic doses, letting them colour your existing movement repertoire, and receive a new expression of the same intuitive movements you already posses. Yes, because we already have within us the means to learn, intuitive movement, enthusiasm, and intelligence, combine all three and you will learn anything naturally.

All movements share intuitive gestures and actions with which we should mindfully engage in order to connect the dots between seemingly different activities. In this way throwing a ball, swinging a bat, etc., is fundamentally the same as throwing a punch or kick. They are different expressions of the same truth. It is up to us to become aware of these connections. To divide is to destroy, what you must do is unify everything. You divide up simply to analyse, and then it becomes part of the whole again. Otherwise it becomes dead and disconnected. This is why once analysed, it must come back into our being adapted to the wisdom of the body. We want to work on this wisdom of the body, in other words, to embody knowledge, but what we often end up doing is practicing nonsense. The form is merely the model to aim towards within a discipline, but the greater form, the true form, encompasses everything.

We practice according to a perfect model, that is a representation of the higher self. This mental model, and physical representation, is always better than we ourselves are. It assimilates what is useful, in other words the essentials, and discards what isn’t. These are the fundamentals, and the intuitive movements we all posses like walking and grabbing are used as building blocks. I have no objection to practcing a specific style, they are good as far as the go, but the problem of inner evolution and and progress cannot be solved by an existing physical forms. But back to fundamental building blocks.

A baby can learn to crawl, and then walk, and then run.But adults often have difficult applying the concept to even more advanced movements as they grow in intelligence and power. Because they fail to capitalise ion this, they stagnate and go backwards. Martial arts is just an extension, and evolution, of these basic fundamental actions. Once they are tapped into, these basic movements stimulate and trigger the development of more advanced skills such as punches and kicks. They are not simply new movements disconnected from previous learning.

The flowers of one plant spreads and multiplies new plants which then blossom into new flowers. In the same way humans learn one skill and then cultivate it until it is ready to spread into new domains. The whole thing then goes on and on again, even into later eras after the death of the practitioner. These ideas are then passed onto someone else and then come back to where they began, inside the individual. That individual is then in possession of certain knowledge that he must then pour out onto others. If the flowers are uninspired, dull, and disfigured no one looks at them and it is as if they never existed.

By helping other develop, you will find solutions to your own questions due to this effort applied to the process of “blossoming”. Others around you will be attracted to your flowers as a bee is around nectar. Naturally, this is how ideas spread. In this way your own practice will develop, fuelling your optimism and abilities. There is no escaping this process. I know that this may seem naive and childish, and it may not be taken seriously, because as everybody knows that you need to flatter people and quote recognised authorities, otherwise you don’t get anywhere. This just proves that despite of the hostility and hazards around you, you must keep fighting, and it is these trials if you like which oblige you to develop will power and evolve. I will go further to say that this is a blessing in disguise.

People tend to be happy one minute, unmotivated the next, always changing theirs moods and ideas. The least little problem knocks them off balance. This is why we need a high ideal, or if you like a perfect model to orientate ourselves towards. Compared to this ideal we are weak and ignorant. We keep failing, making mistakes, making enemies… We then think this weakness represents truth, and we bring everything down to this level. And then progress stops because we have focused on our lower nature and its insecurities rather than treating the high self as a living being. So many people have received so called wisdom in this form, and became disillusioned by it. They think “That’s just the way it is, I’ve invested so much time is this big lie, and since my livelihood depends on it I’ll just be the one to lie to others as I have been lied to”.

But perfection does not have an enemy, nor does it make mistakes or errors. Perfection, of course will never be achieved, it just orientates us in the right direction. That is why it is without form, and greater than form.

Like the earth around the sun, we must become “Centred” around the high ideal5 which inspires us and keeps us in motion, keeps us revolving. All people posses this faculty, but they often spend their whole life not knowing how to use it. Some people think that they must resemble exactly the perfect form, other believe that having an ideal is a waste of time because it can never be attained. But really it is something for our will power to strive towards, representing essential truths symbolised by martial arts practice. All the forms are merely different representations of the same truth.

Our will power must desire perfection, because it has an infinite scope which can reach far beyond physical limitations. Only the best satisfies it and will empower you towards real success, and by success I mean reach your full potential6. It does not matter if you achieve the ideal, but the important thing is to keep trying.

1 Steve Morris http://morrisnoholdsbarred.com/

2 Alignment and Tension exercises https://harmanater.com/2020/03/22/alignment-and-tension-exercises/

3 Which Moves? https://harmanater.com/2020/04/30/which-moves/

4 High Intensity Work and Balance https://harmanater.com/2020/07/05/high-intensity-work-and-balance/

5 The High Ideal https://harmanater.com/2020/07/26/the-high-ideal/

6 Will power https://harmanater.com/2020/05/10/will-power/

Which Moves?

Posted on 30th April 2020 by joeharman8 | 8 min read | 89 views

There are hundreds of martial arts styles out there each with thousands of different moves. It can be challenging to know which ones are the best to focus on. One things for sure though, you should focus on a few key skills and repeat them as often as you can so that they become part of who you are. Which particular skills you chose will depend on your background and experience, and developed capabilities. Personally, it would be no use me jumping around like a gymnast and doing head kicks. I’ve tried that and I’m simply not built that way. Instead I go for football style low kicks, as I have been playing football all my life, and boxing punches essentially. Boxing, as far as striking goes, contains the most true form of hand fighting.

Whichever you basis, these skills will serve as your simple exercises, through which to understand everything else properly. This will never happen if you do a bit of kick boxing here, and a bit of wrestling there, followed by some Juijisu after that. Your few daily exercises are a vehicle for practicing the truth if you like, they symbolise an idea representing the truth. For example, the jab in boxing represents the left hand being a kind of searching hand: quick and light. There is no “true” system, because truth is without form.

Often it’s the case that you’ve been doing a martial art for a long time but you’ve grown tired of its limitations. Great! You’ve just made further progress possible. Often people fear losing their abilities in one area by practicing something else. They reason that they might give up on their new discipline, so they just stick with the old one and practice the same old tired routines. But if you know one discipline well enough, the “essence” of it will remain in you. And you’ll never be bored of the truth, even if it’s limited to practicing just a few basics. Yes, it is by getting to the core of it that you learn the truth, not through the peripheral aspects. Peripheral aspects aren’t important.

Capturing the essence must be what Bruce Lee and others were talking about with the water and the cup. Lots of people thought he meant you must always be adaptable and change according to circumstance without form. This makes no sense on the physical level because we have a human form, it can’t change. This form of detachment would lead to death. In fact it is very dangerous to attempt to change the physical form and what it’s capable of beyond slight parameters. We must be Like water, but no ones saying anything about becoming water, taking the form of a wrestler at one moment, and then a mantis the next.

Lots of people attempt gymnastics style martial arts by leaping around all over the place. This usually ends with a hip replacement or knee surgery. Others learn mechanical routines resembling lizards, snakes, or robots, hoping to become super human. No, our core composition doesn’t change, but the way we use our form, the peripheral aspects, can. In the same way the arm is peripheral to the core stability. However, this doesn’t stop people building massive biceps in the gym hoping to improve their power. It might look good, but it’s far from optimal and it’s a huge waste of time away from what’s vitally important.

The peripheral aspects are merely symbolic of the core truth, and it’s varying forms. Let me explain. Using the analogy of the water and the cup, the style is the cup which varies in size, shape and composition. The water, or the “essence” fits into the cup but remains the same. In another Analogy, the molten iron is placed in the blacksmiths forge. It can be melded again and again by heating it up and recasting it to different shapes according to different weapons. This molten metal is the “essence” which doesn’t change it’s make up. The style it takes the form of is the weapon to be created. Never change the essence because it is the truth.

The true underlying fundamentals which govern all movements don’t vary from one discipline to another. This is the core. Importantly, according to these higher principles, every discipline is of the same nature. Get familiar with this nature. This nature will verify whether your technique is right or not, because they are subject to it. The skills themselves are just different ways of expressing this nature effectively and are dead without it. You don’t adapt the truth to the peripheral considerations, or if you like the details, represented by particular skills. The devil is in the details.

All too often I have had experts approach me in the gym to tell me that according to such and such an art my technique is incorrect. To be honest, I have usually benefitted from this advice on the peripheral level. In my experience, it is often highly experienced practitioners who give this kind of advice if they sense someone might be able to take it on board. You can quickly learn a lot about a skill from this kind of advice. However, beware, because many shrewd experts out there will try to give out a few “details” and then try to claim that it was them who were responsible for the improvement at the “core” level! You have to admire the tenacity! Shrewd business sense at it’s finest!

You’ve got to create a unified martial arts style, rather than trying to bring together a load of disparate skills from all different disciplines. Of course, some skill compliment others well, and as long as they share the same underlying principles then they are compatible. If you want everything to unify, it’s got to be in accord with these underlying principles, they come before everything else and the skills have to conform to them. This unity is the causes the skills to be effective, and it has to be experienced to be felt. It doesn’t matter how dazzling someone is at boxing, if what they doing completely limits there development in all other areas. They’ve cut themselves off from the source.

It’s when you try to entertain two, or three ways of fighting at the same time that you risk being seriously injured or worse. Sure, go and do, say, a boxing a course to get familiar with the basics so that you have a fairly stereotypical explanation of the basics. But once you’ve got that stereotypical model it must fit with a higher level of understanding beyond a separate and cut off system1. Trying to get them all to fit as they are already unified is extremely frustrating, and will eventually sap you of your motivation because it will never become second nature. This way only leads to mediocrity. The key ingredient is you. You’ve got to somehow pull together all the seemingly conflicting skills and make them converge to serve your purposes by reducing them to their essentials.

This is what I do. I’ve got the basic boxing punches, I then compliment them with a few low kicks, knees, etc., and some basic wrestling techniques. After that I’ve got a few ground moves. That’s basically it. I have practiced a lot of Steve Morris’s principles so that I know how to distribute my weight properly in everything I train, from walking, to sitting, to lying down. I can do this all day and this is the bulk of my training.

When you practice aligning yourself in the activities of everyday life, there’s no limit to the scope of your training. Everything becomes a training exercise. Because you don’t want to stand one way, punch another, and then sit down in a fundamentally different way. Instead practice aligning yourself, dropping your weight into things with dynamic stability, and breathing in sync with what you’re doing day to day. If it’s true of walking then it’s true of fighting.

There you have it, a few things to think about from an endless list of possibilities. The core, the truth, fundamentals, they are just different ways of expressing the same thing – The important points to keep in mind, the sign posts.

References

1 See Steve Morris http://morrisnoholdsbarred.com/ His method is by far the best. My advice is to ignore the other “practical” martial arts systems and focus on this. Steve shows you how to develop the fundamental skills, you can then play around with them, mixing up the tempo, applying them in thousands of ways achieving a wide range application within a small range.

About the Site

Posted on 21st February 2020 Last updated on 18th January 2021 by joeharman8 | 5 min read | 124 views

I’ve started a website to put out information on martial arts training. It isn’t about the mechanical approach to training, which dominates the scene to the extent that many of us suppose that’s the only kind of training there is. This is all fine as far as it goes but it’s rudimentary. What is missing is a method to dedicate your life towards, or more importantly one that enriches your life through practice of it.

An effective system of self defence recognises that the individual causes the skill to be effective through their action and motivation, not vice versa. Neither should it rob you of other things such as health and motivation. It should always nourish and enrich you. Otherwise you will be finished and merely identifying with what you were in the past. People train hard, but they don’t train properly and end up injuring themselves or burning out because they have no love for what they are doing. They are simply chasing a result rather than engaging in meaningful activity.

As far as I’m concerned, emphasis on self motivation and learning tend to have an invigorating effect on performance and interest, and it is this quality which should be cultivated. This is a pre requisite to developing abilities, in the same way as energy is a pre requisite of producing electricity. So what I am saying is that you should focus on energy production and with high motivation your body acts as a conductor to perform the moves. Otherwise it is eventually just worn out with all the meaningless routines, which although demanding often result is mediocrity. They create spiritless action.

If we are doing something natural to us, learning more or less takes care of itself as a gradual process of trial and error, guided of course by fundamental truths. But instead we tend to follow a system of some sort which is so limited and ineffectual. And even though progress stagnates, people still follow these systems. Don’t get me wrong, systems provide and outline of what to practice, a curriculum, but you wouldn’t learn the curriculum of biology so that you had to do no discovering or experiements yourself. And that is exactly what Many aspiring Martial Artistists do.

Nobody was as stupid and ignorantas me in this regard. And I was incapable of finding meaningful practice within such a set up. Yes I won some matches along the way, lost some too, but it was all meaningless to me as an end in itself. But I don’t wish to focus on myself personally, except to say that if any of the ideas here can help you along the way, it is because they contain truth. If you disagree with me personally, then please feel free to disregard the posts, but I ask only that you continue in the search for truth.

I just told you that in my early years of practice I was highly ignorant. But that’s just the way it is, you have to pass through certain trials and tribulations which test ones capabilities in order to get at the truth, history verifies this. But I carried on anyway. Why? Because I was so dissatisfied that I looked only at progress. What helped me was that I believed that through sheer will power I might make progress. So I don’t bother asking if I’m any good or not, it doesn’t matter, in fact I regard myself as highly susceptible to weakness and therefore in need of remaining eternally vigilant. Who knows what would have happened to me if I had given myself over to some false way of thinking just to be self satisfied. I’ve not reached perfection, but I’m progressing daily and it’s something.

I’ve seen many promising students give up training due to injury, lack of progress, or the popular belief that after a certain age it’s natural to deteriorate, at a time when they were showing promise. The typical pattern involves stagnation, often due to overemphasis on mechanical routines. The solution is to engage in more of the same at greater intensity. The results are Usually highly detrimental. None of this is inevitable, but is often made so due to total ignorance on the subject. Once again, my way of training caused me a lot of illness and injury, and so nobody is more aware of the dangers than me.

I always believed there was something missing from the Martial arts systems out there that I have observed and practiced. And now I can see it. My only advice it to keep on practicing according to certain laws of success which should be enshrined. Keep practcing, keep understanding more and more, behave properly towards others rather than thinking you are better than everyone, breath well, and live healthily. You will then see if what I am saying is a simplistic lie. The results will be slow, but cumulative.

The best quality is in persevering, because everything in life tries to convince us that we’re stupid, wrong, ignorant, even friends and especially certain authorities. The books, media, absolutely everything you can think of tries to convince us that we’re foolish and should give up. I have certainly had my share of filth and rubbish thrown at me, and my overriding goal is to neutralise it with the will and intense focus on truth. And how are you going to overcome this enemy? By following certain truths and principles which lead to success and defeating these invisible enemies. There may be no other enemies than these, go and conquer them, with tenacity!

If any of this sounds familiar, hopefully what I’m talking about will make some sense.