Mindset – Page 3 – Intuitive Martial Arts

Uniformity or Organised Chaos? [Part 2]

Posted on 18th August 2023 by joeharman8 | 14 min read | 81 views

If you are hungry, you seek. If you are satisfied, you no longer seek. So remaining hungry is not in terms of winning a match here and there, or some other magnified glory which mimics day to day ordinary experience. It is to do with staying hungry for self expansion, which is the real urge. This can never be satisfied, it is just a question of ever expanding horizons. This is known as innovation, which can’t happen unless there is openness and space to become active.

Maintaining this awareness, there there is never an end point, is a tool in the arsenal of the fighter. Planned outcomes are limited. There is nothing wrong with pre planned strategies, it’s just they aren’t for everyone, but they are prescribed to all increasingly. They are important for professional contests which have to have a certain feel to them. It is entertainment and business. The crowd expects to see it play out in a certain way. There are institutional requirements. You’re paid to win in a specific organised way.

You can’t be crammed with conclusions and still remain open. So for the competitive athletes, there are certain conclusions to be drawn in advance about what to do rather than spontaneously deciding. At the same time, there are methods that top level athletes use to maintain a constant state of awareness as to what they need to do. When you pay attention to the organised chaos around you, which is the nature of the universe, you will not lose focus. In any event, what you are focusing on in terms of technical training is a reflection of the inner experience. The boundary line is so thin, but definite. Say for example you are in a martial arts match. The experience going on between you is very similar, it’s just that there is an outside experience and an inside contained experience. The key is to learn how to define the experience is terms of the whole thing, rather than just what you have accumulated in terms of impressions and technical expertise. This is known as letting go of assumptions. You don’t need to worry about forgetting, just pay absolute attention, the organism knows what to do.

How can you think more holistically, rather than just on technical details? There are some simple methods. In martial arts, if you train moving backwards rather than forwards, you are able to spontaneously know what to do because you maintain a space and awareness, including what your opponent is doing as they come forwards. This means you are adjusting all the time, rather than just because you want to or not. This may be confusing at first, because it is a new way of doing things. It’s not to be confused with evasion and escaping the contest. This is a positive strategy to maintain your awareness on you forward momentum whilst at the same time pulling back so they you keep that equal and opposite force to maintain equilibrium. This will bring inner balance.

In Muay Thai your strategy is to break down the opponent over several rounds, not avoid such a contest. So here, in Muay Thai, they are known to be able to fight moving backwards as well as forwards. This does not mean they are evasive, it simply means that they are active if the opponent rushes them, or they maintain their balance even if they miss the opponent whilst swinging at them.

The Creative Process

In modern martial arts training these days, it is more and more about practicing what you are going to do before hand, rather than remaining creative and spontaneous. This is a negative strategy which does not empower the fighter to systematically break down the opponent. If they thought only about doing this as a process, moving around in such a way as to remain constantly aware of their mission, this would empower them greatly. This takes time, and this is also what can’t be coached. However, it can be imbibed and transmitted through the right atmosphere quite easily over time.

Having an excess of rules and regulations simply makes it hard to understand what one is actually doing. when a culture has no room for diversity of individual flair, where no one has their own rhythms, then what you are left with is uniformity and stagnation. So the rules make it difficult to become creative, even if that creatively is supposed to be the goal. For example, as a fighter are you there to push yourself, or maintain a steady result? Many people want the experience of martial arts, not the so called results of winning a contest. Martial arts is what you can do, or it is what you can become. These are questions to ask sincerely. This is not at all clear in peoples minds, so what you often get a situation where you have people become disillusioned or get crushed by pressures they did not consider.

So the reason for centralised or regulated sport is not to control people or simply to use them as a commodity for the industry. This only leads to limited aspiration. Centralised control originally meant not for profit, either for glory or for funding. Martial arts has always been about aspiring for more than just fulfilling institutional requirements. The institution should provide some simple structure and organisation.

In the past, the knowledge was kept separate across the land or according to different disciplines, even within the same population. It was necessary to develop new ways of doing things by travelling from temple to temple, and from discipline for discipline. This was not centralised but there were people who could direct you. This was when there was a culture of seeking, rather than having everything under one roof. At the same time this united people across the land, because you had the opportunity to perform a different discipline which required a commitment and travel to that particular culture within a culture. For example, even in the West, American wrestling requires you to commit to that discipline, which later gave many mixed martial arts fighters an unbeatable foundation. It is then a case of add bits on to the foundation, rather than having a foundation that changes according to the latest popular trends. There are many kinds of Chinese martial arts across China, each insisting on similar commitments in their own ways. this is not really to suppress the martial artists, but simply because most people won’t make it by chopping and changing disciplines constantly.

Minimising Loopholes

In Mixed martial arts (MMA) which is one of the more realistic style of martial arts in many ways, you can avoid the fight by exploiting the rules in some way. There are all sorts of loopholes. This has mainly come about because people no longer see why they are keeping for any meaning other than winning. For example, you can avoid a contest by simply appearing active without doing as much as somebody else. Nobody would do this is the spirit of martial arts and the competence levels were fully on. Entire strategies have developed in terms of looking active to get points, but not doing much in terms of real activity. In an atmosphere of open honesty, if you were to ask people about this who are involved in martial arts, I would say that ninety percent of them would say that this is normal and they would also consider do this. There’s nothing wrong with any of this really, but let’s not dress it up as something it isn’t. In my opinion, to allow people to flourish in competition, what we need are simple rules and minimum loopholes, so that what has been practiced can be transmitted to the arena itself, rather than someones individual expectations.

What are these loopholes? In MMA they are not allowed to hit each other in the back of the head, so all you do is present the back of your head as a target to the opponent to shield your own face, which they would otherwise hit. This strategy has given many athletes the edge in key situations. Because you turn the head away from them in certain situations, they are forced to attack only that. Now if they hit you, they get penalised, not you. If you do this in a fight, you’re dead meat.

In Taekwondo, a style which I used to practice originally, it pays off in terms of points to fall down after kicking, pretending that you slipped so the opponent can’t get you back with a counter strike. This would not happen if your strategy was to break down the opponent and win by superior strategy. For example, if your attack was aimed at kicking the opponent and then landing in such a position that you were strong, there would be no need to fall down because you would exploit your own strength and superior positioning. This is why the greatest fighters have often been those who can fight moving backwards rather than stalling. Fighting is about superior will, and when the opponents will is lost, only then can it be called a true victory. This may sound brutal, but this is the reason for the harsh training conditions of the past, so that even if you failed, you failed spectacularly and won at life. If there is anything left, then the only way you can be defeated is if you give up. If none of this happens then you haven’t lost anything, just a petty scoreboard result at most. This is the law of the jungle, if you know how to live you will find a way, even if you are beaten down.

Winning the Match, Not the Result

The original aim of MMA in the West was to see which style was the best and most effective. This is what Art Davey, the original Founder of the UFC said in his book. Obviously MMA existed elsewhere, such as Vale Tudor competitions in Brazil. Some of these early matches, which can easily be found on Youtube, involved the competitors fighting in a mixed style and then backing off to give each other a break if for some reason the opponent got a cut or something. The fight would then continue promptly. They didn’t do this very often but it happened. I’m only mentioning this because these examples show how the culture has changed from upholding the contest to winning it for yourself. Letting the opponent back up may be seen as an act of weakness to finish the fight by many, however, these were the best competitors around at the time. And if an opponent is broken down, it doesn’t matter much if you allow them the courtesy of checking with a doctor if they can continue.

When you consider that the goal was not just to win but to win properly in a fair match, it immediately becomes obvious that although there were no rules as such there was an agreement of practice that the contest must be allowed to be true.

In previous generations of mixed fighting, there were no rules as such but there were points to follow, such as a fighters code. This may seem like a worthless agreement, but when there are no rules, trained referees, vast sums of money, or security, then the procedural knowledge of conduct is paramount. Otherwise you have a war on your hands when the different teams of trained martial artists feel cheated. There is simply no standing in such a community if you are seen as a cheat. When I say community, I don’t mean an organised governing body or anything like that. That is a governed community, not an organised chaos. What I’m talking about is an organised chaos between rivalled groups, which understood the dynamics were such that you couldn’t go round asserting yourself without paying certain consequences. This is life, which can lead to unecessary war if you’re careless about such matters.

Mixed Approaches to Martial Arts

There are various rules sets all with their own backgrounds and cultures within them. For example, in and around China, there are hundreds of styles of martial arts. It’s not like there is one system which created all the others. Each of them believe themselves to be authentic. When you consider that each group is free to develop themselves uniquely, this becomes a real possibility for all. I used to travel to Taiwan from time to time and I discovered that they had a self defence system which involved joint locks and other self defence practices. This did not look like a Chinese system as we are familiar with. Lots of people suppose all they re doing in Kung Fu or Tai Chi out in the far East. However, what I also found out was that the systems of self defence had evolved in the context of police training, rather than mixed martial arts competition. So these weren’t taught to everyone. Everyone needs a different approach. This makes sense when you thing of whether things are relevant or not to certain people, rather than getting the same system out to everybody.

Mixed Martial Arts is nothing new, the idea that it is prescribed as a sport or to everybody in a systematic way is the new idea. Not every has the capacity or cultural set up to endure such emphasis on brutality. This is why many of the MMA fighters who have retired have taken to violence or drugs outside of their careers. If you engage in violence without the right social structure, then it is very possible that the intensity of the situation will destroy you. I’ve seen this myself many times. So it is not because of the lack of knowledge that these things were reserved for only certain segments of society in the past, but because they didn’t want a culture of barbarians. In my experience, martial arts is such a powerful tool for transformation, and as such you can easily open yourself up to severely negative experiences if you don’t take precautions. This must have been why it was banned in many Countries following certain wars.

A very widely skilled martial artist will have to break hundreds of rules to reach the potential in what they are doing. That is if they confine themselves. However, just because you might be practicing Taekwondo, Shaolin styles, or any other type of martial art, does not mean you are confined to them. So what needs to be understood is that very specific practices, such as sports practices, aren’t the answer for everything. For instance, in Taiwan they were practicing Taekwondo and Tai Chi in various forms. That was for competition, and for health. As I was saying, the practical stuff was mainly taught to the police and authorities. So it’s not that they were unfamiliar with anything to do with what people call mixed martial arts, it’s just they that didn’t use it for competition so widely. Since nobody is attacking each other much out there, there seems to be no point investing so much into it when economic growth requires much more attention than survival necessities.

Say for example you are defending the border of your country. You won’t actually fight that often unless it’s an emergency because you have to be diplomatic, find ways around conflict, and plan in advance how to do all this. It is the same in martial arts. In a Country like Taiwan, there is virtually no crime. At the same time, there is a constant looming threat of potential invasion one from neighbouring Countries. Nobody attacks each other in the street, however the authorities themselves must be highly trained and have a certain martial attitude with practical value. So the only difference is that their practical styles of martial arts are mainly taught to the police and similar authorities, rather than the man on the street.

Feminine Energy and Intuition [Part 2]

Posted on 12th August 2023 by joeharman8 | 16 min read | 91 views

When it comes to training, the level of structured organisation often means that the athlete has to experience the fight largely in terms of imagining the outcome in advance. For example, they train various scenarios, and then think back to what they did in the past rather than responding in the moment spontaneously with something new. So they are in the moment, responding to the past. This can be disastrous for the creative energy of an individual, even if it yields short term results. It is as if you are looking at the truth of something evolving and you are trying to make sense of it by historical facts only. Obviously this is not enough.

So, often, when when martial artists are in the ring itself they have to experience the contest through memory of what they planned to do rather than what actually needs doing. This is ok as a support system, but not as a long term solution for growth. The common argument here is that it’s supposedly too difficult for intuition to govern response. If this is the case, it just means you aren’t good enough to use intuition effectively as a faculty, that’s all. There’s nothing wrong in that, it can be great to develop the more masculine side of doing things, although it is still possible to express intuitive action even under rigid social structures.

Actually, it isn’t necessary to burden yourself with knowledge, carrying it around like a collection you’ve gathered. When the integrity of your physical structure is bent and stretched through training, you might think that the body then resets to a state that it was in before. No, in fact it the body is warped by gravity and the space you create. So you take on a new composition. There are several ways of looking at this. In terms of the Karma you carry, whatever you do creates new possibilities. It is not a case of repeating the same karma, although that is a choice. It’s not like you are doomed to repeat things over and over. It is like how sometimes people are defined by genetics. This is the more modern way of enslaving people to certain societal notions which have no existential basis. This only becomes reality in your experience if you continually make the choice, consciously or unconsciously, to remain in a fixed state. So in a way, rigid training which does not evolve keeps one in a state of sameness. This is good until you have worked out your karma, or what is known as pre birth Chi in Chinese systems, into a greater possibility.

Stretching the Gravitational Pull

When you act according to the body’s intuitive need to expand and work with gravity, for example when you stretch a punch out, sinking down into your centre at the same time, you are stretched one way, and pulled in another. You take what you are and expand it. This can be done in a seconds, for a minute, or for year. There are different ways of going about it. The idea is that you transform you capabilities and potential through training, rather than just refine the existing capabilities. This is a subtle yet powerful way of transforming yourself over time. Because your composition is always changing, your potential is also changing. That is why genetically it is possible to overcome hereditary dispositions, just as it is possible to develop the same dispositions later even if there is no genetic basis. For example, say you inherit a bad heart. It is just as easy to develop this later through various lifestyle choices, and there are many examples of people overcoming such conditions through life. This is done in various ways by stretching out what was weighing them down.

The direction of your movements in space as well as the waves of energy you send through the body create what scientists call “Gravitational memory”. This has a universal as well as individual basis to it. This gravitational memory leaves a lasting impression on the body’s centre of gravity, the Hara Centre or abdominal area. This is stretched continuously as a child, when you run around endlessly. This is actually the body’s maintenance and growth centre, which means you experience yourself from here in many ways as well as the possibilities presented to you. So this growth happens unconsciously in children, but it must be done consciously in adults.

Just as gravitational memory happens in the universe as it interacts with energy, this is what happens in your own centre of gravity when you take action. Your own centre mixes with that of the wider environment, just as your own inhalation takes from plants and gives back to them. So half of you is actually outside, and the other half is inside. So as one gets older, they tend to move towards stretching themselves, either as part of a family or into wider society for example. This can be done on the individual level by bringing a more meditative dimension to your practice.

Changing Your own Memories

The body remembers just like gravitational pull within an object remembers. Memory is not just remembering in the brain, it happens outside too. For example, the brain and gut interacts to produce various hormones and states within the system itself, which we call experience and we remember this. This is because the memory is contained between two objects, the body and brain, it’s not an isolated system. So the more activity you perform, the more this impacts the memory. This memory builds up in terms of substantial potential energy over time within the human system, much like the karma you accumulate through action. For example, say you do a good deed, immediately you might not see the benefit. But the congruence and harmony you create in yourself and others around you allows energy to function within you more smoothly. So the wider environment impacts you, and you impact it. Your experience is to do with both. It is not a case of doing a good deed to be congratulated, I’m just talking in terms of causing less friction within yourself and therefore others. It’s then a matter of time before the structure begins to experience visible change, but it’s a process going on all the time. It’s the same with martial arts movements.

When you follow the line of least resistance physically, you are actually lightening the load of karma and becoming more receptive. This changes the foundation of your memory. It is even possible to experience many different lives in this one. This means in many ways you are becoming more feminine, as if you were creating a new child and experiencing its needs and life energies. Instead, you are becoming life’s creation rather than forming a new separate body. This is the meaning behind reincarnation, which is not separate from this life. You are part of the cycle itself. It is possible to become a process rather than an outcome. It is not necessary to die to be born anew, but death happens anyway. So this self transformation creates new memories or interprets the impressions you have received up until now in a new way, transforming your experience right now rather than the next time round. Otherwise there is no point in striving for much more than your allotted karma or pre birth Chi energy.

From Feminine to Masculine

Obviously, you need to work out the masculine side of your energy first, which is what the forms are all about in martial arts. So at first you are just working your way through the inherited karma, or what the Chinese systems refer to as pre birth Chi. This is used to create a platform rather than establish anything. This is known as the fire element, which requires activity and is the masculine in action. After a while of doing this, say ten or twenty years, you end up providing yourself with immense potential energy for conscious activity. Then if you chose to continue the same training, it becomes conscious rather than routine and becomes more to do with the water element, which is to say the feminine. So whether you are a man or woman, you move towards the feminine in the same way. You include both of course, its not an either or thing. The post birth Chi in Chinese systems in known as the Water Chi, which is to say what you acquire after birth. In other words, you move from masculine to feminine.

By making your actions conscious, as in becoming aware, you more wisely utilise energy which would otherwise dissipate at a more initial level during compulsive unconscious acts. This is what martial arts competitions were historically about, working out the fire element within the fighter. It was not about winning but transformation. It is only in recent years that the notions has come about that this could become a commodity or system to be sold as a solution. But if you get rid of the karma only to create more of the same then this is known as getting caught in a cycle. It is believed in Tibetan Schools of buddhism that the path to enlightenment involves escaping this cycle. So accordingly, once you evolve and transform yourself , you have done just that and you have become a life process rather than a repitition of the past. This can happen only by embracing the feminine, because the feminine does not know organised repetition.

Organised Repetition

Obviously it is is normal to act according to institutional demands in sports situations, where the athlete is paid to win. Here, in martial arts research on the opponent is done in advance, as well as the setting and other details such as time and place. However, when the outcome cannot be known in advance, nor the weight of the opponent or their character, this approach hinders direct perception of the unfolding reality in front of you, as in the self defence situation of life or death. Acceptance of death was always talked about more traditionally, but today this is seen less and less. This is like avoiding the elephant in the room, it just becomes more and more obvious. Because martial arts has largely moved away from matters of life and death, there has been an increased movement towards the theoretical rather than the experiential learning. All of these things were normal in the past, there were no weight categories or advanced preparations, time constraints, etc., so there were different ways of preparing. You needed an attitude of fearlessness, which is what black belt means.

This attitude of plunging into the unknown can be seen in mixed martial arts as early as 30 years ago, where there were no rules. You needed to be more spontaneous and exuberant in the moment, which is what the feminine energy is all about. Too much organisation simply dampens such faculties. When spontaneity and aggressive energy mix together, you can create an entirely new energy, which is at once intelligent as well as reckless. This cannot be understood theoretically, but experientially. So there is a need for the feminine, unbridled striving, fuelled the masculine, which is is raw externalised energy. If raw energy has nothing to aim at, then it just ends up blowing up. If the famine is not brought in then it just remains outside your experience, even though it is there.

Becoming Receptive to Transformation

The dimension of thought which is to do with acting in the real world, in the present moment, was in the past kept clear rather than stuffed with ideas. You cannot ascribe meaning to the process of martial arts, because martial arts is what is. Traditionally, conclusions were not formed in advance, but rather during the unfolding situation according to time and place. This was to develop and cultivate the feminine aspect of intuitive knowing. Any number of temples were consecrated so that this space could be supported in society. In terms of martial arts forms, any exercises were based around performing them until the raw energies of youth were worked out. Afterwards, it becomes choice.

So the true disciple in a way was willing to waste their time repeating the same things over and over again. It was only after some time that the value of this was perceived rather than known in advance. The platform for the development of the feminine is the masculine energy, which has to do with fire or heat. The heat needs something cool to temper it and channel it into something more than it is. At the same time, the feminine needs some energy to express itself. The fire is used up in this exchange to create an entirely new expression of energy. This is the meaning behind the burning of devotion, or the fire of belief. These were just things to get you to act, rather than conclusions to understand in advance. Whether this is religious fervour, or martial training, these thing shave been used to make the recipient more receptive to transformation by channeling the energies. Of course there is potential for misuses, but that’s true of anything.

According to modern notions, it seems as if little is being taught in terms of practical value if people are given space to transform themselves from within. For example, in traditional martial arts they told you how to do the move exactly, but never how to apply it in every situation. You were to go away and ponder rid. When you look at the temples of the past, they were wide open spaces, which would seem boring by todays standards, which are characterised by busy and colourful gyms. In addition, people are often sold conclusions rather than ways of seeking. If you have been sold a conclusion, it looks as if someone who is seeking is simply clueless. However if you make a conclusion, that’s the end of seeking. So to question and to believe at the same time, this was the way the masters encouraged seeking as well as activity. This ensured progress and transformation, if the disciple became receptive enough to the process.

Evolution cannot be known in advance, even if there are various possibilities which can be practiced in advance to reach some kind of end point. So these conclusions we make are just tools rather than outcomes to prove or disprove. These scenarios were seen as a support system rather than as a reality to aim at. However, those who practice martial arts with a spiritual side to them, are considered frauds in many circles. This is because their styles have been proven wrong in various scenarios. Anything which is not practical is often considered totally wrong, and especially if you have a master to guide you in this. such masters are considered total idiots by pragmatists. There are many instances of how people go and challenge martial artists from schools which are considered impractical, and the first thing they do is beat them up. However, some of them are able to fight back well, and the others are quite capable of socially handling confrontations without getting physically embroiled.

The need for planning everything derives from fear of the unknown. This modern variety of the fear of the unknown is largely a western phenomenon, which probably started after the Second World War due to the massive wars that went on previous to that. Following the Second World War, there was a move towards planning in terms of industry, education, and peace, which had been existentially threatened severely. In martial arts, this meant that the largely traditional arts were converted into exercise regimes and outcome based practices with a mass production framework to them. This is not a bad thing, but if structures are to function properly, there needs to be an element of spontaneity to compliment this organised structure so that it can evolve naturally.

Prisoners respond to excessive structure and routine, and are known as hard men, but often they lose all hope and competence when the certainty of their environment is gone and they get released. For example, prison has certain rules, and you just put fear in everybody to get by. On the other hand, there have been rare individuals who have functioned well in the outside world, and then if they end up in prison they just go with it without attachment.

Upgrading your Hardware and Software

In martial arts, the physical form is considered exact, but the expression it takes in changing reality must be kept fluid and formless. So the form is the dimension which should be analysed, the energy must remain fluid and open to evolution. The physical form is the hardware, the way it is used is to do with the software you upgrade. The capability of the software does not decide the potential of the hardware. Its just running at a certain point in time. This software also impacts the hardware and how it is used. This develops the form from within, rather than from the outside.

The problem I that today the hardware is hardly used in people, so for the physical movements to evolve their capabilities need to be stretched rather than becoming inert. Just going through routines isn’t enough to do this. The expression which martial arts forms take in various situation cannot be known in advance, except by those who have been through it. Even then, each individual is different, which is why there have been many factual versions of one truth. For example, it is a fact that many different martial arts are effective. But it is true that in order to reach a competent state you have to work and overcome many difficulties.

So this is the difference between fact and truth. It is true that in order to win, you need to overcome many difficulties and work. However, in fact, not everyone who wins has done this sufficiently to ensure their evolution. So in a way, winning does not represent truth. Truth is an evolving state, whereas a fact is according to time and place. Obviously all individuals want to win. Take the example of two competitors. They can win according to the process of the contest, or simply gain from it in a more personal yet limited way. So they can run the software as it is, according to a particular situational demand, or they can upgrade it. There is an in-between way too. So the contest is not entirely logical, or though logically it makes sense to win at all costs. By logical I mean the masculine aspect of the mind. So the feminine, which involves respect for the situation as a whole, rather than how it can be exploited, is a completely different way of looking at it. It even has a logic of its own which you can experience as truth.

Overcoming Tension – Stretching: Your Experience [Part 2]

Posted on 3rd August 2023 by joeharman8 | 16 min read | 77 views

Psychologically, people build up winners and losers in a contest. But experientially this makes no sense because the whole thing is experienced as one. This occurs in many different situations other than martial arts. Say for example you are on stage and lost in the music you are playing as part of a group. Where it comes from is not important, it’s that you feel it enlivening you that counts. It’s not that you cause it it someone else doesn’t, how you feel is how you are. So here there is a fusion of people and a union between them, which is experienced in the situation as a whole.

Psychologically, you might get some boost knowing that you were at a certain situation, like a music concert. But there is no need to see this from the egotistical point of view. None of that would be possible without the atmosphere, the onlookers, the rest of the band, all of those factors. So when a start is born, it comes out of that atmosphere. So when you experience something to the full extent and it becomes part of you, it doesn’t matter where it comes from particularly, only that you are receptive to it. This is important in martial arts. Even the air you breathe isn’t fully yours, it’s coming from outside and you and running through your system, which you count as you. So in this way, you are both in and outside of the physical structure in your experience. There is no need to think it is you that produces all that you are doing by yourself. I use the example of breathing because this is the basis upon which all other others experiences are lived.

Create Room for Growth, not for the Ego to Take Over

When you stretch your body, or its capabilities, you are creating a space for growth. For example, if you stretch a muscle, you create new room for growth. This allows extended possibilities which have yet to manifest. It is not about cramming this space immediately. If this new room for growth is not established, there is no gap to fill, and there is no space to grow. When it comes to the body, If the muscles are continuously compressed over long durations, the cells actually actually die off eventually or degenerate into a fixed state without the flexibility they once had. They change composition, allowing less pliability and transformative properties. Modern science has proven this, because the wisdom of the body is such that compressions from every direction can cause tumours to form in otherwise healthy cells. This is because the fascia of the body stiffens. For example, you have two muscle tissues that begin to fuse together which were once two differentiated separate connective tissues gliding over each other. This is the beginning of problems.

So when cells no longer feel themselves being stretched, they begin to reduce the production of fibres and the entire structure becomes more hardened. This is because your cells no longer respond to the need to expand because there is no demand. The ego likes this because it means an easy existence where everything is in an established way. So you can become a tree that is solid but snaps in the wind. Instead, you want to become solid yet flexible, which involves challenging the ego.

How do you become solid yet flexible? We will look at this. Basically, the body naturally sinks to the earth through gravity, and it is you who must trigger and expansion in various ways. The higher nature within you, which is consciousness, needs to work against the natural earthly tendencies of inertia and stagnation over time. It is not a question of excluding this inertia but of working with it. This arrangement of expansion of consciousness and compressional forces of nature mutually interacts to produce an ongoing journey. This is what we call the wheel of life, because the inside forces are compressed by the outside forces to produce a certain stability.

Shaking the Bottle

There is so much going on in the ring or in a fight, that you tend not to notice the pain at the time. For example, you might get punched but usually the adrenaline will cause your energies to become so external that the pain is not experienced at the time. It is there, it is just that it is beyond your awareness. This idea, that you override potentially negative influences which are present, is true on many levels. This allows you to shake things up rather than stagnate. It is as if you are shaking up the bottle so that the bubbles expand into a given situational space which you are filling by your actions. They then go back down again changing form into a settled surface film1. This process has a survival basis to it too. By externalising the energies, you don’t notice you are in pain so you survive an event because you have changed your state in that moment. You have expanded the bubbles.

If you go to the office, once the initial apprehension is over with you fly though the day with nervous energy that gets channeled into productivity. You are more flexible. More than that, your state has transformed. Have you noticed this? Living in a state of perpetual anxiety is largely avoided by staying busy and channeling the energies properly. For most people, if they can find an activity they enjoy and can engage with, this sorts out the problem and they can convert their energies into something positive. They expand their experience to more than themselves.

Stretching the Bubble

When you consciously apply yourself to a task, you realise that there is nothing to lose because everything has to be gained. It is not that you need to seek reward, but that you become receptive enough to open yourself up to the changes experience within the system if it is kept in a certain healthy way. It is as if the bubble is being blown bigger as it takes in more air. When this is done for a long enough duration, as well as repetitively, you self initiate this process from within.Just as the stretching of a muscle can produce changes in gene expression, you can produce changes in yourself by making yourself more flexible when needed, like a bubble that expands.

When a muscle is hydrated and the surrounding fascia is flexible, this fascia acts like a bubble containing pressurised air. This allows for expansion of the muscle tissues, and greater oxygen flow to the muscles. Blood contains a larger percentage of oxygen than air. So it makes sense to increase circulation of blood more than it does to just increase the size of your lungs or the amount of chemicals in the blood stream. For example, it is common for athletes to turn to testosterone replacement therapy2. But these are back up systems. By expanding the bubble, which means increasing blood circulation to the muscles and creating that space for oxygenation, you bypass the need for external supplements to a large degree.

Testosterone is needed to produce heat and increase oxygen levels in the blood. So when you perform certain breathing and physical martial arts exercises which demand you to warm up and circulate energy, there is an increased amount of these chemicals produced. This is because there is an increased amount of oxygen in the blood which you obtain outside of yourself which transfuses into the blood. This is why traditionally, before artificial methods, certain martial arts forms and breathing exercises were taken seriously. The difference is that they are used up in the process rather than externally manufactured and placed into the system artificially. The problem today is that athletic performance has become totally disconnected from this process and in many ways seeks to extract work from an athlete in a non sustainable way.

A way of life

It’s not like you one day make successfully and you no longer have to put effort into transforming a given situation to your advantage. It is an endless cycle in which your are in the middle. You are the dot in the middle of the circle. So what seems like chasing your own tail becomes a journey towards self fulfilment. Like I said before, gravity pulls you down and creates a certain stability and compression when you counteract it with efforts to expand. Your efforts to expand create space. This goes on and is the life process in action.

In martial arts, it was traditionally the effort which was sustained for as long as possible rather than the results or outcomes. This is why it was a way of life rather than a results driven thing. In other words, the effort to support the life process was seen as more important that gaining this or that. For example, note taking did not take place traditionally in the Chinese Monasteries, for example the Shaolin Temples. This was not to keep anything secret as is popularly believed, but instead this was to ensure that knowledge was experientially transmitted rather than intellectually studied. It is useless to take notes unless you understand somthing through experience, you can only get a theoretical grasp. When something is analysed intellectually it is bound to be misunderstood. When it is experienced from within properly, there is no question of misuse or misunderstanding, there is just an evolution which goes on and on.

This is why there was an insistence in experiencing the training with full involvement, you wouldn’t notice anything in particular, it’s just that you were just observing a particular exercise until at sank in over time. You became a process of doing this, which was a way of life for those who chose to. You didn’t need to remember any secret moves, because when it is known from within, when the time comes to act the wisdom of the body knows what to do and it happens naturally. This is if your perceptions are fully switched on. It makes no sense at all to know somthing and then switch off the machine and expect it to work somehow. This is mastery, which initially takes a leap of faith according to some factual studying, but then becomes an experienced truth.

A change of State

Even if someone was totally inept, transformation is possible. In this way it is even possible to transform if you start out with no potential. Potential has to be created in an ongoing way. The potential for growth, that is. If you throw a stone in the air, it can easily come back down unless it is kept up. When you sustain an effort towards expansion, you welcome in change and transformation. Eventually this cause a change of state within, because the energies running through you allow for more experience as well as better health. With the example of the stone, you are not changing the stone, but you are changing how it operates by making it airborne. In other words, you are not transforming the aspect of you which takes flight, you are transforming the part of you which is a stone, which sinks you to the earth. The stone is becoming airborne. In this way it is like you were a meteorite which came from space as a meteor. You are just returning to a more original state, which you forgot you were.

The part that expands limitlessly, the spirit as we might call it, does not need to be transformed, because it includes everything in its experience ultimately. You just need to rise to meet it. This need not be physical effort, it may be energetic effort in maintaining a still posture in meditation for instance, or simply keeping the system in an optimally functioning way through day to day tasks such as walking, or even actions in the service of others. There are many paths. This is why students traditionally served the master, it was not for his benefit but for theirs. The Master asked them to work, that is all. So with positive action towards extending your range of activity, In doing so, the fear of loss or decline in motivation is largely taken care of because you have created a change within the system itself. You have created an upsurge that requires maintenance not only to keep it that way but to continue transformation. This is the nature of transformation, it is a continuous state not a fixed one.

Fear of Loss

There is fear of losing financial independence through some sort of debilitating injury, or losing the respect in the eyes of others. But this has no real basis in fact. For instance, when two warriors go at it in the ring, this makes for an exciting exchange where both fighters are immortalised in the eyes of others. Many fighters fear that they will never make such an impact. They play it safe and never get fully involved. This has some advantages, but will never be fulfilling totally. So the key is to become the best possibility that you can, always striving towards improvement and expansion of your own possibility. This will vary according to each person developed capabilities as well as circumstances outside of their own control. This is why it is important to focus on what you can control, which is your own conduct and behaviour, your own effort.

Outside of the ring, even if a person dies defending others, their memory is also immortalised. It’s not about glorifying death, it’s just about realising that no one actually loses face going out as a full blown expression of courage who has surpassed themselves. It’s not about going out and dieing for some cause. But in various situations, people that push themselves develop their capabilities by stretching themselves to the maximum. Once again, they can come back down just as a stone does that loses momentum. It is a question of keeping up that momentum which creates the best state. So in a less extreme example of losing a martial arts match and giving it your all, there may be a loss, but it’s a good one if it inspires many others and even yourself. There is no failure in taking flight only in landing and never taking action. Many fighters have felt honoured to be involved in a contest which was a full expression of the human possibility. An empty victory is less impactful in this way. So whether one wins or loses, both parties gain from the exchange if they prize the importance of the contest above their own personal results.

Some people may fear looking less powerful to their children or spouse if they were to lose a fight. So the biggest fear people often have is whether or not they can provide security for those around them they have chosen to defend. However, opening oneself up to the vulnerability of caring for others more than themselves has been a method employed in various ways by people to overcome their own self importance and limited identification. For example, when a monk is sent to a temple, they are charged with feeding others ahead of themselves and looking after those weaker than themselves. This means even looking after the humanity and life of an attacker who opposes them. This is why there is respect for the dead, even if they are your enemy. For instance, if an attacker is seriously injured by you when you defend those weaker than yourself, you at least must respect the life process acting through them, the same one you are reaching for. It is not about respecting their cruelty. This means constantly being aware of the humanity within yourself which does nothing unnecessarily gratuitous to a violent attacker. There is no need to respect the cruelty within yourself, so you just transform it. With the enemy it is the same thing.

The Purpose of Stretching

When you stretch the area of you concentration, you widen your awareness. In other words, you experience a larger expression of life. This can even apply to the somewhat distorted expression of life which is the violent attacker. If you can do that, you have ensured your own evolution because you have understood the reasoning. It’s not a moral thing really. This is the fundamental reason for showing compassion to the opponent. This doesn’t mean that you go and beat them senseless, and then if there’s time you think about whether to hold back and show some mercy. If you know this is what you are likely to do, then I suggest some preparations. For example, after you have performed your martial arts training, try returning to a state of relaxation in the muscles and system via stretching activity. You keep vibrant and fully alive, but the muscles are relaxed to circulate the energy. it’s not a passive state. This can last just a few minutes, and may seem a bit pointless, but in fact in doing so you will come down from the stress of intense training. By coming down, your energies are actually raised to a higher pitch and less rigid. This will allow your to become less hyped up about yourself and view things in a more balanced and reflective way. It might even save your life.

If you performing some stretching exercises before performing some activity, your system can take more pressure before fatiguing or stiffening up. If you do so after, you can return yourself to a less reactive state so that you can more appropriately respond to any kind of stressful situation more consciously and with intelligence. If the strength of a wheel were on the outside, the inside of the wheel would break. Essentially, this is what can happen to the human being if the energies remain too externalised for too long. This does not mean you do nothing in the face of danger, or second guess yourself when it’s time to act. It just means that you judge the situation more effectively so you can deal with it with confidence. Otherwise, it is easy to slip into a pattern of chronic stress and externalising thre energies as a matter of compulsion rather than choice. This is the danger of the macho martial arts practices.\

In the same way, if your temperament thickens in such a way, it is easy to become attached to this identity as an alpha, and fail to let situations slide over you. This is why so many martial artists have become so hyperactive over time. So situations often get out of hand not so much because this is what needs to be done, but rather because of a lack of return to a normal state of decompression. This dampens the faculties of rational thought and perceptions over time, leading to largely non voluntary response to stressful situations.

References

1 https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2023/06/29/inner-physical-practice-karma-and-riding-the-wave-of-the-inner-fight/ Riding the Wave of the Inner Fight

2 https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2023/04/24/conquest-at-all-costs-drugs-and-the-evolution-of-martial-arts-part-1/ Conquest at all costs

First There was the Word: Sound and Stillness.

Posted on 27th July 2023 by joeharman8 | 12 min read | 107 views

Martial Arts is an activity which can provide access to the inner most being of the individual. One way to achieve this is through sound. This is not really expressed through the industry as such. And so in this way what we refer to as martial arts should never be seen as an industry. What works and what doesn’t is not a matter of business but of experience. This experience can be sought well beyond industry boundaries. So there is an industry around martial arts, which includes trends, history, and commercial enterprise, but this is not martial arts. Martial arts itself is an internal form which includes a variety of factors. The industry itself, with multiple styles and forms of practice, may have become larger than the art form itself, whilst minimising the very nature of the art. But as an individual martial artist I don’t think you should ever allow that to become the main focus. One of the main focuses of the inner experience is sound.

One thing that is in everyones experience, but is not necessarily the focus of an industry, is the sounds you utter when practicing. For example, when you are performing a hard kick, the sound reverberation supporting the movement tends to match relative to the movement itself. Say you perform a hard kick. You send out a sound through the air waves, which transmits itself to some degree through the opponents apparatus. It also gives you some internal feedback. This feedback is felt internally, and also felt externally by the opponent. it is heard through the ears too once it is converted to a certain frequency. Otherwise you wouldn’t hear it. But really, It’s is all over the place, inside and out.

So the quality of the sound is important. When you express the sound, where is it coming from, and where is it being experienced? It is both inside and out. You don’t hear the inner sound because it is not tuned to the frequency of the ears. But it’s still going on. As soon as it is converted through the mouth at a certain frequency, you hear it. When the sound is converted appropriately into words or expressions, which also resonates with the interiority, then there is a sense of oneness about activity. Everything around you becomes a form of sound as well as everything within. It is difficult to put this into words, ironically, but it is an experience which unifies ones practice. So through working with sound, you create the basis for activity and a doorway to truth.

Some styles of martial arts focus intensely on the sound, and use it to perform various moves. They may demonstrate techniques very precisely, but these are not yet effective actions. Going through the motions of a technique is just a way through the door, to create an opening for the sound to travel and express itself. The Chinese systems emphasise the “Ha” sounds when exhaling. Thai Boxers tend to make a long “Shuu” sound to accompany the kicks. Both of these sounds, “Ha” and “Sh” are known sounds that make the exhale full and powerful. They achieve different results but the goal is to unify body and mind through sound. Instead of shallow sounds coming from the top of the lungs, the core is involved in the breathing to create these sound reverberations. These reverberations come from the depths of the core.

The effect of sound on the body is profound. You do not need to have any knowledge of a particular technique, but if you listen for the right sound and practice it yourself, you will be able to quickly learn a technique and perform it effectively. With some basic experience at this level you can transform your understanding of martial arts techniques, so that they are no longer empty just gestures requiring emotional force or physical strength to do the job. For example, if you listen out for a sound, this is an indicator of whether or not the attacker is going to do some serious damage. He need not express this through emotion or technical prowess. Everybody remembers the noise of a hard attack from a Thai boxer against the opponents body. This makes more of a lasting impression than the attack itself in many cases. The content, however, is not expressed solely through emotions or visual cues. This is because, actually, the sound and the technique are not actually separate. More than that, sound and emotion are not separate.

If you were to inflate a bag with air, it would lift off and make various forms. In many ways the human bag, the lungs, inflate and deflate which causes added or reduced pressure. More pressure means a greater sound potential for release. This makes you more or less grounded depending on your breathing techniques and practices. For example, if you exhale fully after a full inhale, you tend to make a loud noise conducive to a hard attack. This is why the exhale is so important in martial arts, because you are releasing the pressure, emptying the bag, in order to become more grounded. The sound you make as well as the loudness affects the output. Not only is air released, but there is a compression of the abdomen which allows you to sink down into the movement, whether that is a punch, kick, or whatever. All of these factors can be seen as supportive of sound. This is why in many ways martial arts is primarily to do with sound. Everything can become a sound.

So the most fundamental aspect of martial arts is the quality of the sound. Not only the audible sound, but the sound which goes above or below the frequency we can listen to with the ears. Whatever sound is being perceived cognitively is being interpreted through the ears and into the brain. There are still reverberations which occur elsewhere which go below the level of consciousness. For example, the sounds of the vocal cords aligned throughout the body are known to have an effect deep into the core muscles. So by creating the right sounds you are also training the abdominals. So they reverberate into the gut and organs, which relieve tension in the body and stimulates the organs by releasing pressure there. This need not make an audible sound, it can go on internally and still produce a result.

So we make sounds with the organs, bones, vocal cords and elsewhere throughout the body. So when you are making any kind of sounds to reinforce a technique, it should be performed with the entire body. What the Shaolin systems refer to as “Bone marrow cleansing” is just this, martial arts practice through the bones, transmitted through sound waves. It is said that the Shaolin warriors add weight to their bones rather than their muscles or tissue. This is a kind of practice with sound with is non verbal. In the same way there are techniques of organ washing, which transmit reverberations through the organs. These are all performed through breathing exercises primarily, supported by basic martial arts movements. Modern science is doing the same thing by transmitting energy, heat, and stimulation through areas of the brain and organs to counter act depression for instance.

So it is not a case of making a sound just with the mouth. If if you make no verbal sound at all, the sound can be transferred in many different ways. Everybody knows that bones are good conductors of sound, so next time you make an expression such as with sound to support technique, do so with the bones of the face and body. You will find that not only does the sound transmit and reverberate more successfully, but that it has an invigorating effect on the system allowing you to express movement and sound more effectively in general. In some situations it can be used to even transfer into and through an opponent. This is known as fighting without fighting when you send a positive energy through an opponent which reverberates in such a way that pacifies his nasty intentions towards you. In many ways, practicing self control uses energies of anger to transform them into an inner intensity which can be channeled and used to invigorate the system. This is not a passive acceptance but an intense energy which requires time, perseverance, and patience.

So there can be a pressure within the system, which builds up, and then is released through certain sounds. Otherwise it just externalises or dissipates at a low level. so what you want is to raise the pitch. This is the basis and reasoning behind mantras for instance. The sound A U M (om or aum) is used in yoga to create engagement throughout the body in breathing. Each sound relates to a particular area. A is related to the perineum, U or AU is related to the thoracic area, and M is related to the throat or neck. In addition, A starts off with an open mouth, and you gradually close towards M. There are different ways of looking at it. So together these sounds create a reverberation across the body and across the entire spine, which is also related to the jaw and head. The tongue is important here for articulating these sounds further into particular forms.

The syllables of AUM are not just a yogic phenomena, it is an existential reality that these sounds can be made without the tongue. So anything on top of these sounds involves the tongue and is an extension of these syllables. What kind of form this takes depends on the context and activity. We are looking at martial arts, but it could easily apply to music, performance, or whatever else. Whilst it is a fact that a word can be uttered which doesn’t contain these three letters, the truth is that without the tongue anything you say is one of these letters. In other words, they are a foundation for words and further sounds which we create.

Try this; close your mouth and perform some punching or other actions and feel the movement of the tongue. Do this subtly at first, because otherwise you are likely to need to open the mouth if you start heavy breathing. You may notice that the tongue moves to support the movement. If the mouth were open the sound would be expressed verbally to support the movement. As the mouth is closed, the tongue supports the interior by extending the possibilities of muscular action through a kind of soundless sound. This tongue movement is to extend the head or neck for example to support posture and an upright spine. Here, since the mouth is closed the non verbal sound happens internally and supports reverberation throughout the system in various ways. Where does this reverberation begin? It happens at the base of the spine, near the perineum, which extends to the tongue and even into the brain. This unifies top to bottom.

So even if you just sit there in meditation, you can feel this reverberation expressed through the breathing. This is why nostril breathing is important when the mouth is closed. This form of mediative practice may not be like a sound you are familiar with, but none the less it is an internal pressure through the system which is happening as sound at a band of frequency not experienced through the ears and brain in the same way. You are not creating a song to listen to verbally, or a noise through the air, but it is instead travelling internally through the breath. It is still music none the less. This soundlessness is what is known as the mute sound, or the door of muteness in Chinese scriptures, which is said to exit through the top of the spine or neck rather than the mouth. In stillness, no external expression of sound is produced so it is here you leave behind the noise of everyday life and plunge through.

When under extreme threat or pain, one tends to move from sound to soundlessness. Think of the deer in the headlights, ready to freeze and assess what to do next. They inhale air to prepare for an exhale. This prepares us to recuperate energy or conserve it to attack at a moments notice, like a cobra. Otherwise, it is quite possible that the venom we are experiencing may turn on us and strike from within. What this means is that when the stress hormone is released, further agitation through unnecessary movement is an expression of this stress but also lets everything in from the outside, making it worse. This includes impressions from the outside as well as conflict. It is like if you are attacked from the outside and you let the firewall down, you lose what you have contained within your system as well as exposing yourself to unnecessary attack. The firewall is there to shield outside dangers so that if there is a breach it is manageable. This firewall is the human discernment and wisdom to act effectively.

The Chinese scriptures say to lock the gate behind you when you reach the door of muteness, atop a twelve storied pagoda. The throat, where the door of muteness is said to be, is also the location of the Vishuddhi chakra in Indian systems, which is known as the filter. The throat lock, Jalandhara Bandha, locks this door and activates the filter. In other words, by performing jalandhara bandha you filter out the outside noise from within. This is done by raising the breastbone to the chin, extending the jaw slightly, and by using the tongue to reach for the upper pallet, sound becomes internalised as you focus on the rhythms of breathing. Touching the tongue at the roof of the pallet is known to produce vibrations towards the brain, which are used for mediative practices. In the video below, I go through various ways of using the neck to achieve internal stability through posture.

Creating the form

Posted on 21st July 2023 by joeharman8 | 12 min read | 82 views

When you are training, it is important to remember that you are not merely copying an action, but rather you are creating it anew. So, according to the your personal development and understanding, the original form may take a different shape, size or proportion in its present day environment. This does not mean it is a fundamentally different in quality, but rather than the outward manifestation has changed, the superficial aspect. For example, if I do a punch it may not look like Mike Tysons’s, even if that is who I am emulating to begin with. According to my own experiences, it may take on the appearance of a may Thai or Karate Punch for instance. However, fundamentally, the energy and motivational forces behind the expression can still be of the same intensity and power. Of course, it is hard to emulate that intensity and power of Mike Tyson, but it can be done.

So when you are practicing a form, even to mimic it, you are creating it from the very beginning, rather than starting at the end. For instance if you were to bake a cake you would need to cook and mix the ingredients before heating things up. So it is important to get the right atmosphere and ingredients together to cook the meal. This includes focus, the training environment of dedication and attention to detail, as well as clarity of thought and emotion. This all goes towards correct channeling of the energies, which is the number one factor in performance.

When you have successfully baked a meal, you get a meal which not only looks the part but has transformed the original components into something new. This new form is what we are looking for in martial arts at its core. We take the hormones, stresses, and other raw materials of the body, and performing various kneading and grinding actions, to mix the ingredients and cook them. Otherwise, if the ingredients fail to mix properly, they might end up burning or dissipating at some other level of manifestation. So, what you don’t want is a partially cooked meal which has not fully transformed the components. If this happens we know for next time to do something differently. What this means is that the right level of energy and biochemical synthesis is need to generate the form from within effectively.

The Form is the Blueprint

When we take in a visual impression of an action, for example a punch, we are recreating it in the mind based on a refection of light.This creates an outline or roadmap for the journey, or if you like a list of directions. Using the example of the cake, what we are seeing is the cake as finished, not how it is made. we need to do the work of transforming the list of ingredients. For now, let’s look at why the image isn’t enough. Light takes on a certain distortion when it is presented to us through the sense organs. So it is likely to be confused and limited if we look to recreate the image superficially based on appearance, rather than cook it from within. When we perceive light, we are seeing colours through the cones in our eyes due to the pigments on the surface of an object. We are not seeing how it came about or what is within it. So this is just a reflection of light which goes through various distortions as it is reflected off of various pigments, solvents, and resins. This is further distorted because we ourselves can only see certain frequencies of energy and light through the limitations of the visual senses. So this gives us an outline, a blueprint, it is not the entire reality.

If you want to maximise success, the main ingredient for practice is not copying the look exactly, but a sustained vigilance and attention towards creating the form for yourself. This is based on the blueprint of the image you are looking to mentally and then physically recreate. The image is just the map, or the sign post. When the evolved form of this image takes place, it is an experiential reality rather than one of thought and past impressions. Thought and past impressions are to do with the blue print or map, it is just an exercise. Obviously, experience can be had at this level too, but it’s just that there are limitations as to what can be done. For instance, if you try and recreate the past, you often fail to capture the dynamism and energy that went into its creation.

There is more to the image than meets the eye. So what you are doing is not copying a particular form, but actually recreating it as a migration of it within yourself. It is like when you go to another country and take some of its culture back with you, through your behaviour, and through the experience you soaked up. This experience takes on a form of its own, which begins to act through you rather than you. So in many ways, when you simply look and absorb something, the very act of being this way produces certain activity of an entirely different nature than logical thought or mental attention. You yourself begin to live and experience this as if it were you, but in fact it is absorbed from experience. So it happens within but is inclusive of the outside to the same extent. It’s a 50/50 arrangement. This experience is not pre determined but is an evolving and transformative process unfolding within.

Migrating experience

Imagine how a culture is transported successfully across the world. Rather than just the practices and the forms copied by other nations, an entire energy can be transported and taken on within a population so that it migrates and reproduces itself. This reproduction is not a carbon copy, but is an evolved state, suitable to the new time and place. This is the purpose of reproduction, so that a species is reproduced which is better suited than the originals forms. The form may look a lot different according to the background and nature of the new population. It may simply look different because of the limitations of the environment. However one thing is clear, history tells us that if a superficial lifeless imitation occurs, then there is no dynamism behind a culture and it fails, even if it tries to looks exactly the same. What has this got to do with martial arts? Martial arts is a migration of an inner reality expressed in many ways, which can be far or close to the ultimate truth.

When we look at the surface of how a system is formed or dressed up, we see the refection of the true form. as I was saying before, this reflection is distorted by nature itself. For example, if a buddhist practitioner came to a temple and began martial arts training, these techniques will be passed down over to the next generation. The original nature of buddhism would be replaced by a warrior system of rituals and practices of a different sort. Due to the need for defending the temple, the buddhist may have taken on a certain social and practical form of a warrior, even if within himself that’s not what he is. Gradually, they and others begin to identify with this image, this reflection, and conclude that what he is doing has nothing to do with monkhood or spiritual practice. so this temporary shift marks the beginning or a fixed arrangement of new rituals and practices, which look authentic but in many ways become more and more superficial over the next few generations.

When the part becomes the whole

This process of temporary modification becoming more and more entrenched happens on all levels. For instance, when we are of a particular age is is often the case that we begin to build a certain social image for ourselves, for practical reasons at the time. This can involve increased productivity in learning skills, or simply accumulating tendencies and behaviours to attract a mate. Obviously this is entirely natural. The nature of this is not to become an eternal preoccupation, but as a phase to move beyond and transform from. So, it need not become a full time occupation for the entirety of ones life necessarily. in addition, it need not define who you are to any great extent. In terms of martial arts, ones prestige and physicality in the ring has been taken to define not only who they are but what the entire reality of martial arts is about. This is a huge distortion, because what should be a minor happening has turned into a whole reality in many peoples perceptions.

In terms of martial arts, the practitioner goes through various stages. Or if you like, parts are learnt which eventually contribute and make up the whole. There is a stage of skills development. Particularly at a young age this is important for its own sake for the individuals physical development and competency. Then there is accumulation of prestige, titles, belts, etc., which is amore of a socially relevant phenomena. This involves testing ones developed capabilities against others. These are obviously important stages, but it need not end there. Notice how at an early age none of this matters, it is about learning for its own sake, but then it becomes important to take on the world with the increased levels of hormones, maturation, and general physical peaking. Then comes reflection and mental development, the more artistic side of martial arts, which also involves emotional well being practices.

All of these phases of development and experience are just additions to the core of ones being. They are layers to the cake which are not separate, and neither ones is more important than the other. It certainly isn’t wise to label any one part or layer of the cake the cake itself. In other words, your layer of development may change but you need not. So how do we get back to the core, working at the appropriate level with a view of the whole?

Stripping Back the Vehicle.

If you took a car, stripped it down of excess metal, and then powered the engine, you would find that it functions in an uninhibited way, even if there are not wheels and weight to it. So these are just additions to the engine. In the same way, the limbs are just additions to the spine, which is the body’s engine. When we look at it from an engineering point of view rather than physical prowess and performance, this becomes clear. Without the appropriate postures and fluidity of movement, no effective technique can take place. This is what the various breathing and meditative exercises are about, letting the engine run without becoming encumbered by the peripheral parts. At a certain stage of development, as well as age, accumulation and growth of parts becomes important. Later on, according to ones inclinations, it becomes more important to become more slim line or streamline, functioning without so much baggage. For example, if you were 90 you would not carry the same baggage weight as when you were 20.

In the same way, this is what happens in martial arts. You build a certain form from within, and then if you want at any time when the parts begin to wear out you simply strip off the Excess. This includes any aspect of life, from diet, to physical training, to skills and health practices. This need not be for any reason other than just to function differently than before. When the body is still developing and growing it makes sense to maximise on this investment. When the growth is not so great, it simply becomes a strain for the engine to keep up health as well as the same level of muscular and energetic development of the cars body. In martial arts, the cars body is the physical athletic side of training, which naturally winds down after the age of, say, 30 years old or so. This is the reason for certain forms of hormone treatment in athletics, because people want to artificially prolong this aspect of their lives.

So when you are functioning uninhibited, you feel more vibrant, even if you are not carrying a hunk of metal and bolts around. This increased vibrancy and functioning can be used to run the engine more easily. Personally, I eat less and do less physically demanding sessions in martial arts, and yet I’ve found that you can at the same time feel more efficient and vibrant. This will not be everyones experience. However, when you take out the excess, there is not the same need for insulation or maintainence for instance, that there was when you’re carrying a batteship around. All these running costs can make people think that they are acting with great intensity, when to anybody else it just appears to be costly.

When you strip back the car, so to speak, this allows for a certain flexibility and you find that you can reach peak performance in an instant or relatively quickly compared to a behemoth. This is because you are no longer in a slow burn endurance race, you are zero to one hundred instantly. Because the engine is uninhibited, it is able to reach full throttle straight away like a wasp rather than an elephant. This is just a thought of mine, but this may well be the reason behind such arts a mantis style kung fu, which looks to mimic insect behaviour. So there are degrees between these two states, of lightness and heaviness. It is about finding the appropriate balance between the two extremes, which can vary depending on your own needs and understanding of yourself.

Psychology of the Knife Attack [Part 3]

Posted on 1st June 2023 Last updated on 1st June 2023 by joeharman8 | 20 min read | 110 views

As a salesman, the customers need actually has very little to do with you, you just respond to their behaviour. Rather than create a need within them, you respond to their needs. It is like that with knife defence. You would know this clearly if there was some sort of looming threat of happening regularly. It’s just that because modern society isn’t under that kind of threat very often, it has become an exercise. When you desperately need food, you don’t ask how much does it cost? How much should I have? This is the sort of question people ask when there is no urgency around them. Yes there is a certain anxiety about shortage, but essentially these questions come about because we know that there is food available.

In sales, you are aware whether there is a sale or not if you are clearly looking for the signs. If you have to sell because your livelihood depends on it, then that’s what you will do. As soon as it’s there you respond. If you hesitate, then the situation has passed. Reaction times and everything else is all dependant on this awareness. So the idea is to remain keenly aware and switched on. So with the salesman, the need is already there within them, it’s not for them to createWith the starving man, the need is there. With the knife attacker, there is the same needed urgency, it isn’t just about technique. You might chose to remain calm, or you might chose to attack them viciously depending on the urgency of the situation. Your response level is dependant on awareness of the situation as it unfolds.

Your choice of action, your response, does not need to be reactive to the attackers inner state of chaos. It is like if you were extremely hungry, you would be better off taking you time to eat even if the reaction to gorge yourself were present. If the sale needs to happen, still you wait and respond as necessary, not as you might imagine or react. The potential to act is already in you, so what type of action you chose to take need not be initiated by the attacker. Your response can be instructed by the reaction but it need not become a reaction. In this way, your response is an evolved form of the reaction.

Do you attack first, or wait? You can wait until they attack you, but then it is just a reaction. Obviously this happens, but the key is to awaken within you such awareness that when you are attacked this doesn’t increase or decrease the full bodied experience of life within you. When I say awareness, I’m not talking about some little exercise you might do to block out reality, or as an escapism. No, I’m talking about awareness which is the real life kind. External events obviously have their influence, but this need not become the deciding factor in a tug of war. You still have your own input. This is how fighters and trained experts react to threat, and it is useful to practice this even for non critical situations like knife defence drills. Say you are walking down the street and someone bumps into you. Do you need to look at them insistently for an apology? or can you choose to move on immediately because there are other matters to tend to?

The Restlessness of Powerlessness

The important thing to remember in situations involving a knife is that if the attacker is wielding a knife, it is usually because they feel inadequate. They want to validate themselves in some way by making a point. Holding the knife represents feeling like you stand out and that everyone is out to get you and looking at you. This is a truly pathetic existence for the person trapped inside this kind of perspective. It’s as if your carrying an extra limb, which may seem like an advantage but actually can make one feel like a freak. when you realise this, it is natural to feel a certain sympathy even for a wild knife attacker. Not the type of sympathy which excuses them, just an appreciation that there is so much more to life.

In fact, many who pick up the knife in the first place feel do so because they feel as though everyone is looking at them anyway, so carrying a knife and hiding it in their pocket comes naturally in such a state. If you are happy and go around fulfilled, you are naturally in a state of ease. Then, the last thing you do is go around concealing your hands, darting your eyes at people, or hanging around in tense situations. It is this state of inadequacy they are trying to foster within others, because it is all they know in their present experience and to them it’s normal. So it’s not a personal attack really, it’s a reflection of the inner state.

There is a state within the knife attacker which is a feeling of unease and suspicion. There is a certain restlessness which naturally finds expression in holding a concealed weapon, which exists before a target is chosen. Once again the knife attack is not personal really, it just appears as though it is. So it is not that you need to do anything to provoke attack, it is just that any kind of perceived suspicious glance or challenge can potentially trigger an attack from them. This is why maintain an equilibrium and inner harmony in the midst of chaos is crucial for diffusing a situation. It does not matter if you can’t manage this, just working towards this way is enough. This does not mean you act without intensity. It’s an intensity that lights you up rather than burns you out. If you act with real sincerity and effort in life or death situations, not just making up a cover story, then this brings a type of intensity and integrity which is unmatched.

So dealing with a knife attack is a bit like balancing a ball on your head. You just need to make sure the ball doesn’t fall down, by walking with a certain precision and grace, even if you slip. this isn’t your decision, it’s just what needs to happen. So it isn’t about being a pacifist. Because you know that getting dragged into a confrontation is self limiting if it doesn’t need to happen. If you truly value your life, and life in general, you won’t need to fear not defending it properly.

Everybody searches for life when it is under threat, even if they themselves don’t know it. So it is not that you know how to defend or not, when there is a need to defend yourself, do as needed. When you have seen the importance of this, either intellectually or by experience, use this stimulus to plan and strategise. This is training. If you haven’t eaten for five days, you obviously don’t need instruction because the need that is already there has been brought to your awareness. The meaning of training is to bring this level of awareness even when the stimulus of desperation isn’t there. This awareness is only possible because you are viewing something that is already there, it is just that many people are unconscious of it.

Of course you could respond only to the threat of the knife just when it comes out, as if it comes from nowhere, but what is the advantage of only responding with absolute attention to the knife rather than the situation as a whole? When I say the situation as a whole, I mean the internal physiological signs, the environment, all that sort of thing leading up to it. So respond to the knife totally, the whole situation included, rather than as a separate aspect. and do so with full awareness to the situation as a whole and as it actually is.

Absolute attention to the knife is what needs to happen. There would be no need for this is security had not become a take for granted affair. And this is the problem. I’m not saying to becoming obsessed with knife attacks, even when everything clam. There is no need for this, it’s about doing what is actually needed rather than turning everything into fixation or threat. Becoming switched off because there is no threat is not a good response. That is not what’s needed. There is a definite tension in the air when situations of hostility arise. These early warning signs are apparent to certain trained people who have the level of awareness needed. But it needed require training because awareness is your birthright rather than some sort of accolade.

Expect the Unexpected

When someone attacks you with a knife, they can just jab you with it and its potentially fatal. It isn’t a case of generating power with the arm and then sending out a powerful shot. Anyone can do it, trained or untrained. When you are a fighter, the first thing you notice when you do some sparring with an untrained opponent is that they get you with some unexpected shots. When there are no weapons this is not big deal, because it is a controlled environment and the opponents power is low. With a knife, in one instance it can become fatal, precisely because you might get attacked in an unexpected way.

If you get the attacker in a headlock and hit them in the head, all they need to do is poke you in the organs a few times with the knife and it’s over. This means the real threat is the knife not the attack in the first instance. But many people go for the attacker. When you think about it, this comes from a need to dominate the attacker rather than deal with the knife. But it’s not like you hit the attacker in the head and he reduces his power enough for you to win the fight. All they need to do is slash you slightly. If you so much as lean into a knife, this is a huge problem. This is where the knife attacker is different, it doesn’t depend on their power, or even just their mentality and ferocity, it’s just dangerous even in controlled situations.

Mentality of the Carrier

The mentality of a knife attacker is not like that of a normal fighter. For instance, in a normal fight, it will often be down to who is strongest in some sort of contest. Often you see in fights, someone breaking up up and shouting “come on, he’s had enough”. Other times, there is a hesitancy to land a killing blow. In reality, a fight takes on a social dimension of protecting ones social image. This includes not overdoing it. There are times when this isn’t the case of course, but usually it is so to some degree. Since human beings do not need to hunt other humans, it is normally about image rather than hunting for the kill. The worst instances of fighting are usually down to each person refusing to let go of the image they hold in their minds of themselves in the eyes of others. This refusal to let go causes all sorts of determined anger and rage to boil over.

The reality is that if you walk away, it’s better for everyone. This is what I advise if possible. Obviously this isn’t always possible.If you have to fight back, consider the following. In fights, people say “I was defending my family” or “the honour of the clan”, something like that. It is the same as if they lie and cheat a business partner or rival in some way, to provide for the family. The question is, would the family support this if you asked whether they think you should behave in such a way? The question is rarely asked. In knife defence, It is the same thing, and the answer will be obvious. If there’s a threat respond as needed, not according to anything else.

Usually in a fight, it will be over some nonsense like who said this, or who did that in the heat of the moment. The moment you disengage with this, you disengage from the social process of the fight and you don’t trigger a challenge state within somebody. This diffuses the vast majority of fights. So obviously, you don’t run away if the situation is critical in front of you. You just act as need with total commitment and awareness of the situation throughout its unfolding, not just when its reached critical mass.

Even in a mugging, it is not usually worth the attacker assaulting to victim too much, due to the risk of being sent to prison. The threat of violence is usually enough. So in many instances the knife is just a prop. But you can’t take that chance against a determined attacker. The knife attacker is usually extremely unhinged, rather than an expert martial artist. In other words, they have no regard for their own self worth or yours. The knife can be wielded by anyone with enough ferocity and lack of empathy. In many instances, they might mistake this lack of awareness for power, which they use to reduce the victim in their own eyes. So you have a level of arrogance and reckless abandon not usually seen in martial arts or self defence. This is the reality of the knife attacker in most cases, a state of delusion.

If you want to actively avoid the cocktail of adrenaline experienced when the knife attack goes down, just put as much attention into avoiding triggering the event as you do when defending yourself physically. In other words, make passive avoidance an active and energised extraction mission from the situation. Once again, there is no advantage in drawing conclusions beforehand. You don’t need to choose to be a pacifist or a brawler. You just involve yourself totally in the process so that you are free from unnecessary consequences. This will bring out an awareness and intuitive understanding of the situation so long as you are sincere about it and committed to the truth. You cannot control the outcome totally, anymore than you can control a reckless car storming down the street, or some kind of freak accident. However, your own conduct minimises risk to such a degree that you ensure your own safety and others around you by remaining as aware as possible. This will ensure your safety overall, in ways you won’t forsee. It is just that there is a tendency to plan for what you know about various situations, which can increase and evolve. So making conclusions is often effective, but also limited.

The Difference Between Knife Attacks and Street Fights

There are other differences between the knife attack and a street fight. Normally, in a steet fight someone will jump in if it gets out of hand, because normally it is front front of others to protect ones image or their family name. There are not many examples of a fight breaking out that doesn’t involve mutual defence of vested interests. Someone spills someone else’s beer, they refuse to apologise, that sort of thing. There is no existential reason to fight over these, these are social reasons. Somebody is drunk, and instead of moving away, they start defending their honour and beat someone up in public. It is like a mob boss who beats up an associate in front of others just to show what happens to the world if they oppose him. The victim need not do anything particularly wrong, it’s a display of dominance. Who is right depends on who you ask. The knife attacker is in a similar state of insecurity, so it is always best to avoid certain social behaviours which betray someone motivated by such things.

Of course, a normal fight could be over just like that if one person took the initiative to either to buy another pint and apologise, or simply put as much effort into fixing the situation as they might into defending their own social status. It all depends on whether you mission is to recover or to destroy. They both require the same level of energy and intensity. I have lost count of the amount of times I have avoided certain dangerous situations by becoming totally committed to establishing the right energy. Not a raging inferno, but a warmth and a certain glow in my demeanour. So I assure you, this works. If someone is determined to deescalate the situation, this can be achieved simply by seeing this as the best thing to do and paying total attention to the process of conflict management. It can be totally demoralising to engage in a fight that you know is unnecessary. This has always been the case for me, and if I have doubts about something, such as whether I am in genuine danger or not, I will always feel demagnetised if I act unnecessarily.

A single poke from a knife can be fatal, this can be seen in many examples online and from accounts of survivors and witnesses. How is a victim of knife crime selected? I’m not sure that they are scoped out in advance. If someone is carrying, they might threaten or attack you by surprise based on how things go. This is my experience at least.

I was once approached by a man who was clearly off his head and looking to talk with whoever walked past on the street. I was walking past with a friend of mine, minding my own business, when I saw that he noticed me as I was approaching. Of course, I pretend not to notice him notice me and carried on engaged with what I was doing making it visibly clear I was switched on and aware but not reacting. I was on the pavement, on my way to the local park. Something told me he would have followed me across the street if I had crossed over. Once I got close the man started talking about how he’d just got out of prison, how he’d been locked up for murder and was now living on the street abandoned by his friends. He said he used to be some sort of major criminal who was caught because they planted an undercover police officer into his group, who he claims to have gotten into a relationship with.

I have no idea whether the story was true but there was a sincerity about this guy. I knew he was on the edge, and my response would determine whether he was tipped. This is somthing I have always been aware of in such situations. He stopped mid sentence a few times hesitating and looking at me. The fact he was doing this told me that he was at least focusing on me, rather than some internal state of rage which could go off in any minute. This was all I needed to know. Eventually he asked me “hold on, you look like you you could take me out in a second”. He laughed, and so did I to lighten the mood. But the challenge was made. Would I take it seriously, confirming that everyday people are arrogant and think of themselves as better than him? So he was flattering me, a method of lulling me into a false sense of security.

If I had agreed with his statement that “I could beat him up”, I’m sure he would have countered with an attack to try to prove me wrong. There was no reason to see me as a tough guy, so it was a bluff. So I just laughed along and said “no, no my friend I wouldn’t even think about it, I’m not like that”. There was no need to play false humility either, embarrassing the both of us with statements about how incapable I was. I wasn’t acting here, I was just getting behind the act of establishing a harmony in the situation so it didn’t blow up in my face. when I say harmony I don’t mean peace, I mean balance. Intensity requires balance too and there are very few situations where the balance can’t be turned in some way by our actions. Even the most depraved individuals can be influenced slightly by positive acts. anyway, fter some talking, he eventually said he was carrying two knives under his shirt. This, he explained, was because he was living on the street and pursued by his enemies, or former friends. This shows you how betrayed such people feel constantly. This was all going on in the evening in daylight.

As he went on he must have found me endearing and said thanks for listening to his story. He gave me a hug and said “see, I’m carrying two knives”. At no point did he threaten me, because I didn’t provoke anything. Eventually he broke down in tears explaining that he had a drug addiction and wanted to clean up his life. I explained that all this was possible, and that he seemed like an intelligent guy who could turn his life around. The point I’m trying to make is that it is extremely hard to attack some body when all they see before them is someone behaving in a reasonable non judgemental or pretentious fashion. It doesn’t mean something won’t happen, but when you have managed the risk, you feel confident you have done all you can and then you come to the conclusion that there is no alternative but to act. Otherwise you just end up jumping the the conclusion without engaging in the process.

If you are in a boxing match, you have to worry about the crowds of people, looking foolish if you lose, all sorts of pressures. These happen in a minor or major way on the street. Obviously, skilled competitors would be able to block these pressures out to some degree, seeing these as a distractions rather than a focus. The situation is the same on the street. You can then focus on what’s happening in front of you, and what needs to be done. With knife defence, focus on securing the threat, not the person. If you want to beat the guy due to some hatred of him trying to kill you, then you’ve wasted valuable attention and processing power. On the other hand, if by attacking the guy it is your genuine belief that that is the right thing to do, then that is what you will tend to do because. so you respond according to the truth you know best. What you know best depends on how open you are. It’s not a question of right and wrong, just allocation of resources and perceiving the truth of the situation so that you can best know how to respond. In this at least, you can’t afford to divide you attention.

Psychology of the Knife Attack [Part 2]

Posted on 1st June 2023 by joeharman8 | 12 min read | 120 views

If you saw a wild animal, its image would stay in your mind long after the threat had gone. This becomes a habit sometimes. So there is a tendency to start seeking out that image of the threat, rather than what’s actually in front of you right now. In other words, sometimes the memory of the thing holds more power over you than the reality itself unfolding. The reality of the situation is one of intensity, where every seconds counts. If we can look at it in a detached way, from an outsiders perspective, this becomes tempting and comforting. But this is a simplified reality.

With the knife attack situation as a whole, there is more than just brain activity. For example, if you are attacked with a knife, there is so much going on in that situation which is beyond the brains power to recreate. There is pressure, urgency, and awareness beyond the physical process of the fight. There is increased heart rate and nervous system activity. This makes awareness go up, so that you move beyond the analytical and cognitive stage. This does not mean reduced consciousness. It means that when your mind and body have reached a certain threshold, you break your barriers. So the reality is that you need to break these chains of physical and mental comfort. At this point you make a quantum leap in your perceptions. All of this means that you become supercharged.

When it comes to training, you might well be on passive mode thinking only of going over the superficial aspects, such as technique. All of this is useful, and I don’t discount it. But it is like learning your ABC’s. The body and brain must move beyond awareness of just the technical aspects in order to bring out a super normal potential. When I say super normal, I’m not talking about athletic ability. I’m talking about an effort which can only be achieved once you push the limits of what you can do.

So it is as if you are a different person in each situation. One aspect of you is sat in the lab, looking over the data and dissecting it. “This is the correct way to defend against the knife”. The other part of yourself has to work and apply. When you work and apply yourself you get tired. This is necessary, but it looks like a mistake. When you get tired, if you learn not to panic, this can be a tremendous energy. If you lose control of the fire within when you get tired, then it becomes a struggle. So it isa not about avoiding the fatigue of a ferocious exchange.

When two individuals are engaged in combat, there is no way they can avoid getting tired. In order for the full extent of the energies to be released, you need to break certain barriers. This can be demonstrated scientifically. When you sprint up a hill, the muscles get tired and the resources get pooled into the breathing muscles, such as the abdomen, diaphragm, and internal core. This is a good thing, because you are then energising the organs, and becoming increasingly aware of the internal side of mental and physical effort. You are then acting from within, which means you are more centred rather than peripherally aware. You even begin to physically move from an internal centre.

Behind the Mirror

The mind can only act as a mirror, projecting what has some image of what’s happened in the past. This is not reality. viewing things from the point of view of the mirror, of course the situation seems so much different than when you were in it for real. So if you were focusing on just the the memory itself, the mirror, you might tend to discount the forthcoming impressions from the environment in the present moment, the internal registers signals. This saw what I call moving beyond the mirror, or behind what it presents. If you never become tired, training in a way that you just go through the motions, you tend to avoid reaching this awareness and succumb to illusion. The present moment is what draws fourth the energy to respond successfully, because it is a full blown reality rather than an imagined picture of one presented by the mirror image.

So memory isn’t a replacement for experience right now, it just allows you to become familiar with a new situation because you can recall as similar one from memory. In this way memory triggers certain reactions rather than forming a reality. You can’t imagine in the mind something you haven’t yet experienced, only what you already know. This is memory, which can also be used to create an imagined future out of the past. Playing over in your head what you already know is useful but limited in many ways, because the reality of each situation in front of you is new each time even if looks similar. This is why it is crucial to stay switched on to possibilities, rather than utterly sure of things.

The body as a whole knows more about what to do than the mind can make out if it is going by visual memory. as we have seen, there are sorts of internal realities going on that get ignored if we are just looking in the mirror. So the visual memory can only see what has happened, not what is about to happen. That has to be experienced. The body as a whole, including the awareness and intuitive sense knows more about what has yet to happen. The mind resists this in many ways, because it is so sure of how everything should look superficially. It makes you tired and responsive to an emergency, because this sense of urgency is needed to awaken your full potential. This includes the potential of the brain too, in order for senses to be heightened.

Imagined practice

So even if you are mentally rehearsing the experience of a knife attack, practice should seek to resemble what happens in real time, which means planning for the unexpected. It is the unexpected which wakes up your attention, and the memory which familiarises you to what has happened before. The sense of what has happened in the past, memory, awakens the possibilities for action right now. This is evolution unfolding in the moment. Otherwise, what has happened in the past takes over and you don’t make that quantum leap.

The brain can become aware of what is happening know, in other words, it can operate alongside but also beyond memory. It is like if you suddenly lose your temper at somebody, it is as if someone else is acting through you, yet you are aware of some memory of yourself who wouldn’t act like this. So it is about taking responsibility for your actions, whilst accepting that is not what you would do with a cool head. What do I mean by responsibility? Simply that you will be behaving differently under states of increased energy and agitation, and to develop awareness and necessary experience of this when needed. This does not mean you become an animal willingly. No, it means that if you leave the body and mind to its own devices, you tend to just go into berserker mode or shut down in a fight. Do you want to be at the mercy of these things? Then all you need to do is work at it. This is why developing the right level of temperance and self discipline is the real lesson of martial arts.

Proper response

When you are attacked by a knife, the right response is crucial. It is like when you go and serve a customer as a shop assistant. You go through the motions, saying this and saying that, picking up the body language and working the sales floor. You are looking for the sale, and when it comes it’s not in the least bit surprising and you don’t react to it like its a surprise. You are open to the real possibilities rather than just projecting you own ideas into the situation. you have a catalogue of sales pitches, based on memory, but apply them differently each time. Everything from the tone of voice, the projection of self assurance, etc., goes into the sale. Of course, you can pressure sell, but this is really creating a need rather than responding to one. This is the equivalent of selling by memory, you already have an idea and then you force it on the present situation. This is one way of dealing with things.

When you respond to the need to pay more attention you perceive a wider reality. In the same way you can pressure a knife attacker by acting aggressively, because you know from memory how dangerous a knife is. But often this is just a way of triggering the very event you are looking to avoid, by creating a certain tension in the air. In this way, you project the past into the future and repeat it. It’s not a question of wether you should worry about knife attacks or not, there is only physiological responses occurring which you chose to pay attention to or not. These physical responses give rise to possibilities, so they are not to be ignored. At the same time, they have nothing to do with what needs to happen or the energy that can be created by these initial states which we call apprehension, anger, or anxiety. These are transient states which come and go.

One person ignores the internal signals, and acts with reckless abandon, overcoming the attack. Another person freaks out and becomes powerless. So the state someone gets in is good for one person and bad for another. It’s not the deciding factor. What is the deciding factor? It’s whether you fight back or not, whether you act as a fighter or not. This does not mean reacting physically all the time. You can experience all these things and choose not to react, based on intelligence. You have experienced the same thing as a reactive person, and yet you have created a new experience out of it.

Full awareness

The only thing to remember is stay switched on and alive because only then are you working at full capacity. If you are at full capacity and awareness, many options are open to you that in theory aren’t possible. You then ensure your own survival. It is not that you haven’t trained how to defend a particular attack that you don’t defend it. This is just a story you tell yourself if you lack the determination and self knowledge to move beyond limitations. How do you know that the knife attack isn’t jump starting you into a full blown experience of life which is just laying dormant? In other words, it could easily be you that is the barrier to understanding rather than the situation being inherently hopeless. Many people have seen situations of extreme intensity as a revival of their awareness that they weren’t conscious of but was already there. It is within all of us to reach this state and become awakened rather than triggered.

So what about the environment of the knife attack? Staying with the analogy of the shop assistant, each customer is different, and as you develop an understanding, you realise that each customer is there due to a particular need. You begin to spot the types who are receptive to sales, as well the ones who aren’t. In a similar way, spotting a potential threat, such as a knife carrier, is a little bit like this. You become aware of the environment and selectively respond to those who look out of place by choosing a certain course of action. Just as you would pick an appropriate person to sell a product to in a shop, you do the same when selecting someone who looks edgy or aggressive. Internally you get a feel the more you become aware and the more you pay attention to these aspects in the street or elsewhere.

Do you cross the street? Is it too late to do anything other than fight back? These are all the questions surrounding what to do. You do what needs to be done in that moment, and rather than reacting to it you make a positive action, because you have increased your awareness of the situation as a whole. It then doesn’t matter if you see an attacker or not because you have fully responded to the environment and got the most out of it anyway. What does it matter if you don’t confront somebody? You have responded not only as necessary but fully. This is the real victory, and the response of heightened awareness, whatever the outcome.

So wether you see an attack or not is not the point. You just respond equally to the situation wether an attack is there or not, with full awareness. It is no good being told when to become aware, because this is selective awareness. So the choice becomes yours once you are in a certain seeking mode. Otherwise your just reacting to things as they pop up. So just look. Not with tension, but easeful awareness. If you chose not to act, by seeing a situation as harmless, this is a positive action and an informed choice rather than one of unawareness and non activity. If you have to fight then you do so with full awareness.

Psychology of the Knife attack [Part 1]

Posted on 27th May 2023 by joeharman8 | 13 min read | 123 views

Many people talk about the need for effective knife defence. There are numerous exercises which can be done against armed attackers. For instance, the guy attacks you with a knife, you do certain move, he drops the knife, and you win the exchange. Obviously it isn’t that simple, but you get the idea. There are many of these exercises out there, and there’s nothing wrong with these exercises, as they demonstrate possible scenarios. Here, scenarios may or may not happen in real life, and you go through them in a step by step fashion during particular exercises. During these drills and exercises, the the particular external scenario is bringing out the effort. However, there is another aspect which is often overlooked, and that is the energy you bring to the situation, which can be internally driven. There is no reason energy should be triggered externally, because it is simply the basis of existence rather than some allowance given by an event.

The knife attack happens externally according to time, but your response to it is internally driven. The whole event is like a wave, it rises and recedes, and you ride the wave. The energy to ride the wave, the internal energy, happens in this very moment, if you are willing. So when you ride the wave there is a certain amount of energy that needs to be there before it rises to the peak. It is not just a case of technically planning what you will do to ride the wave. You cannot plan what to do in response to energy, you have to have an absence of preconceptions to divert your energy towards awareness and away from cognition. Of course cognition happens in training, which is low stakes, but becomes increasingly irrelevant at the peak of the wave. The peak of the wave involves vast awareness, the cognitive aspect of planning and over thinking was a brief aspect of this activity.

Say you walk into a busy bar. The energy hits you in the face first of all, and then you talk to the barman and shout across the counter what drink you want. At no point is there a guarantee that you will be heard, or that someone won’t jump in front of you with their order. all this requires situational awareness. You are not planning to argue with people or shout loudly over and over again. It is like that in any emergency situation, including knife defence. You are not actually planning to endure attacks and argue with an assailant. Instead you are looking to minimise this activity by increasing your awareness. At the same time, you do what needs to be done having become increasingly aware of your possibilities to respond.

If you walked up to the bar totally switched off, you would suddenly have to switch on and also shout across the bar to order a drink in a coherent way. During all this you would probably not have time to think of your order, and would hesitate. Many people experience this kind of anxiety, because they are not used to the hustle and bustle of the bar. In the same way, people imagine as though a knife just appears out of nowhere in front of them. Knife attackers are generally drawn to certain situations of high volatility or energy. It’s like a drug addict. You would generally find them out at night near a bar somewhere. Both are not really in tune with the environment, because it is one of chaos generally. So they are clinging to a knife, or a drug, or both. This volatile clinging, rather than relationship of mastery over the weapon, means anything can happen. In broad daylight their behaviour would be so obvious from a mile off, that you would know something wasn’t right. Obviously they would be even more dangerous here, as they would stick out more and feel less secure. However, your internal apparatus would alert you due to the contrast of peace in the environment, with the erratic behaviour of a potential attacker. So awareness is crucial.

When you try to defend the knife purely reactively, without being prepared and alert to the environment, then things happen in a state of fear. The fear gives you a boost of energy in that moment, a certain agitation which gives you a nervous energy. But this is not yet energy at its higher potential. I’m not against fear, it’s perfectly good, and it is perfectly normal in a life or death situation, but it isn’t something to look for, it is more a brief happening and something to become aware of more broadly. It gives the signal that you need to act. If the battery on your phone told you the power was low, you could go on using it at limited power or you could go and charge it up. The mind and body connection is similar, there are various cue and signals which tell you to become energised and attentive to the environment at key times, and to charge up ready.

Even when you are alert to the knife, you know it’s coming, and yet it still takes you by surprise. So to have confidence that if you just rely on some kind of technique, and just like that it will work, is not realistic. Not without the right level of energy awareness. When one is attacked by a knife, there is no necessary set up or end point of execution. It come can from anywhere at any time during an altercation. For example, if you hold the attack on the floor, all they need to do is poke you slightly at a key moment. This is why it is imperative to secure the knife arm. Therefore, what might happen isn’t predictable like an exercise. For example, with the boxers punch there is an initial set up and an execution. Boxers are trained to look for this and react. Because of the gloves or blunted fist, it is necessary to develop a certain amount of velocity in the swing for it to do damage. This takes a bit of time, giving the other guy time to react. Not so with the knife, it can be within an inch of the target quickly without much force, and still cause serious damage.

Situational awareness is crucial in knife defence. This involves becoming aware of the environment you are in, picking up the subtle cues. It is more effective to take notice of the entire environment than just the moves you might do inside of it. Obviously, this involves intensely focusing on one thing, the knife. But this focus is part of a larger whole, the eye of the storm. It is not necessary to go straight to the eye of the storm just because you know its on the horizon. This isn’t logical. So, remaining aware of everything whilst focusing on one thing, the knife – the eye of the storm, is not contradictory.

When a bird fly’s at your head, you pick it up peripherally as you sense it swooping in. Your focus is due to overall awareness. If you were not aware of the environment, it could be a bomb flying at your head, or just about anything. You then begin to fear just about anything! However, awareness that you are outside in the countryside, or wherever, gives you the knowledge that it is likely a bird flying past. Same with sport. If you’re on the football pitch, the looming object coming at you is going to be a ball. This gives a level of security that allows you to move beyond fear. At the same time, you are not just a spectator looking for the ball, you are a part of the game and understanding of what to do comes from within that game. Here, there is a totally different understanding from the spectator.

In this way your awareness narrows when it needs to, and requires no effort on your part because you are involved in the game. If you try to focus on something far away and not in your immediate vicinity and experience, this requires mental effort and you become more of a spectator. The spectator is free to analyse, but they are not in the game. However, because you are aware of the game, because the knife situation is there in front of you, there is no mental effort required, just total awareness of the urgency required to deal with the knife. Mental effort will then match the perceived urgency. Everything else just kicks in and you do what’s is needed. Even better if you do so after the training and exercises have been practiced. I’m not saying just be aware and stop training, the training is a support system which will never work without the right kind of awareness to reality.

If you try to focus on everything at once, what the attacker is saying, what type of blade they have, all these details, then this becomes a mental strain. Energy has to come from somewhere, and if attention is directed towards details at the wrong time, then response time and awareness goes down. It’s simple economics. You develop a muscle memory in training, rather than trying to acquire iron the street. If a football player tried to focus on on the football as it flew towards them, rather than orientating themselves on the pitch in the right position in anticipation, then all sorts of decisions would need to take place when they should be responding to the ball as needed. The right position, the anticipation, the positioning, all this takes place before the ball is in the air. So initially, you remain aware, ready to pick up certain environmental cues before focusing and deciding what to do.

With situational awareness, you are switched on the moment you step out of the door or into a particular environment. This is not something that any creature on Earth, other than the human being, has trouble with. The reasons for this is that humans are more cognitively advanced than other animals. Obviously, this has its advantages, but like any technology it can be mishandled. When people used to enter the coal mines, they took canaries with them, who would start to hyperventilate and become agitated if carbon monoxide was in the air. In the same way, the highly aware individual starts to sense signs in the environment before its too late. The problem is that human beings have become increasingly switched off from their environment, and they often dull their consciousness of the environment with drugs or alcohol. This is the equivalent to the canary in the cage being dead and still going into the mine.

So when you are aware, you are perpetually unsure. When the Batsmans is hitting the cricket ball, the bowler could throw any kind of bowl. Uncertainty and remaining aware to the possibilities is a must. Instead of being unsure and yet highly aware, many people have got for the self assurance of practicing scenarios and drilling them into their memory. This gives people a certain comfort and security. There’s nothing wrong with this, its valid training. They then play these over in different ways, hoping that it will amount to certainty. One of these scenarios might resemble the reality of a knife attack one day, but even then the resemblance isn’t an exactness. This drilling of scenarios is a back up system, a summary of what needs to take place at best. It is meant to keep the mind and body engaged during periods of inactivity, not as a replacement for activity within the environment or awareness of it unfolding in unpredictable ways.

So people sense they need to become more involved in situational awareness. Situational awareness is not like hyper vigilance. hyper vigilance is an excessive concentration and attention towards the early warning signs so that they become projected into the present moment. Awareness is the present moment as a whole. Memory of the past is an aspect of this. So, early warning signs are a fragment of reality, indicators of potential threat, which then manifests in front of you. So focusing only on the potential threat, or the fear of it, is a halfway house. And people build up all sorts of defence mechanisms against perceiveed threat. Have you noticed that when you face a situation of stress, after a few moments or minutes, the anxiety of the situation tends to wear off if you see it through? It is like if you start walking up a flight of stairs. At first you are tired, and then the body acclimatises. You just get better acclimatised, you don’t stop preparing for activity. Those familiar with exercise know this, however many people mistake the tiredness of the initial stage as the final outcome. Similarly, film stars know that as soon as they have gotten past any on stage initial nerves, they soon feel more confident.

The problem is that when people focus on these indicators of threat, rather than the situation as a whole, then that becomes the scope they view the whole world from. This is what leads to living in fear. Never get comfortable with fear, because it is a brief happening. Not only that, but at a certain stage of the journey it takes on a huge sphere of relevance, which gradually recedes over time. Fear is an intense feeling which breeds a lot of attachment to it, like a teddy bear that if it is held on to for too long just becomes a source of insecurity rather than strength. So depending on your level of attachment to fear or anger, it becomes either a vast experience or a smaller one. Both fear and anger can be tremendous sources of energy in the right hands, because they are so intense. The problem is when the source doesn’t lead anywhere else, it doesn’t reach maturity. The maturity I’m talking about is converting this intense bio chemical feeling into an energy form.

Whilst it is possible to act in fear, it is not a goal in itself. However, the instinctive reactions to threat are like a mirror of what’s happening. The mirror reflects light but it isn’t the light itself at the source. In the same way, the feelings of fear represent an aspect of energy which isn’t yet energy. So fear is also like a seed, which when triggered into action, sprouts into tree which is actually nothing like the original form. And yet, they are of the same source. All that has happened is that the limited has turned less limited. So with fear, it has to be accepted and responded to sensibly, rather than letting it drive and take over. This doesn’t change whether it is a knife or any other situation, because it is all dependant on you and the meaning you create for the situation within, which is your business. So I don’t want to go into which techniques are the best, because there are thousands of videos online and classes to attend, all with their own pros and cons.

Conquest at all Costs: Drugs and the evolution of Martial Arts [Part 2]

Posted on 26th April 2023 by joeharman8 | 14 min read | 89 views

Note: This is a continuation of the previous post, which can be found here: http://intuitivemartialarts.com/2023/04/24/conquest-at-all-costs-drugs-and-the-evolution-of-martial-arts-part-1/

In an effort to combat various aggression and behavioural problems, various athletes have taken to cannabis use. Problems such as inflammation and pain management issues can develop in martial artists, as well as depression, which cannabis is said to mitigate. Indeed, pain management is an increasing problem in martial arts, as elsewhere, because not only are athletes pushing themselves like never before, but also they are also not replenishing their reserves. This is all associated with the huge upsurge in activity in terms of training and competition in martial arts, as well as our attentiveness mentally to demands. Martial Arts for fighting and fitness has taken centre stage because people have taken it up and realised that you can get fit and powerful over a relatively short period of time. Therefore they have assumed that the benefits will keep coming and there is no need for other aspects of training, such as regeneration of ones energies and reserves.

Cannabis has been used by a number of world champion level fighters in an effort to decompress from this experience of constant connectivity to demanding schedules. Some have even gone as far as to suggest that all combat athletes should take cannabis. But rather than taking a particular substance, there are things which can be done which pose no risk in terms of side effects and everyone can do. Drugs are not suitable for everyone involved in martial arts. If a doctor got high and tried to operate on you, I would imagine you would avoid their treatment. In the same way, in order to practices various mindfulness and meditative activities, it is important to remain lucid and aware. Of course, anything can be done in unawareness. However, gradually over time, if activity is performed without lucidity, it becomes more of an escapism or relief from the stress of life rather than a positive activity. Both relief and positive action have their place, and each person varies according to their personal needs.

According to Eastern medicine, the best way is to avoid the need for external drugs in the first place by practicing internal medicine. Internal medicine simply means becoming more aware of the inner workings of the system and responding to these workings, rather than outside demands. It is not a case of internally injecting yourself with something or swallowing some kind of herbal antidote. Put differently, internal medicine is a balance between the the external and internal demands, where the hard styles of training take on a more meditative and internal emphasis. For instance, rather than taking steroids to improve strength, you could work on your breathing muscles to recruit more muscle fibres1. Here you increase the capacity to draw in air, as well as the strength to do so. Anything which can be obtained from the outside, can also be done internally. The methods however, are different.

In the human system there are substances called endocannabinoids2 which are naturally produced. What this means is that a form of cannabis is naturally produced in the system, and is designed to prevent various conditions associated with prolonged stress from overwhelming the individual. This may sound shocking, but to obtain the desired effects it does not necessarily require any special training. There are millions of cannabis receptors in the spine, brain, and elsewhere. This is why posture and flowing movements have always been emphasised in traditional martial arts. It is all about aligning the system and synchronising it to something of a harmonious nature. It is just that in the modern age there is an increased tendency to never have the appropriate amount of meditative practice or down time to let this natural system kick in. Doing something as simple as gardening or mindfulness activities can allow the body time to revitalise and relax, whilst the perceptions stay switched on. The key is to sit or move in a meditative posture for a portion of time so that the spine is fully stretched, and then to sit in stillness if possible, whilst focusing on slow and deep breathing.

Why are there so many endocannabinoid receptors in the brain and body? Many believe this is because everyone used to take external sources of cannabis. This has led people to suggest that everyone should take cannabis externally. However, because in many parts of the world it doesn’t actually grow, and such receptors are present in everyone, it cannot be that everyone evolved smoking weed. It is more likely that because such substances are naturally produced, they can be put straight in and turned into a human experience, much like food produces enzymes. In fact, enzymes or proteins from food break down Endocannabinoids. So the most important thing is to consider the quality of food and the smooth functioning of the system, which allows for the bodys natural internal medicine to work properly.

Because substances such as testosterone are naturally produced in the body, this has led people to believe that we should all be taking it externally. However, the question is this: Do you want to be driven by testosterone, or do you want to be the driver of its production and utilisation? In other words, you can put it into your system like you would oil into a car, but if the car isn’t functioning as it should you will only get so far. Whereas if you have developed an efficient engine and stable car, it will be economical enough to run well on a relatively small amount of oil. Another way of looking at it, is that if a farmer continuously plows their soil, and doesn’t allow it to sustain the many organisms that live within it, the quality of the soil goes down. You then need all sorts of artificial fertiliser. Similarly, in the human organism there are many forms of biology which sustain the system and are broken down if unsustainable practice is allowed for long periods of time. It is then no surprise that artificial fertiliser, which is to say replacement chemicals, are needed.

Neurological studies have shown that when the system is in a certain state, the cannabinoid substance is produced naturally, just waiting for the body to align in such a way that there is a smooth functioning. When this doesn’t happen, where is the natural functioning? Systems such as Tai chi and Yoga have emphasised achieving harmony through movement and posture for this reason. Organic produce can only be created from within. In this way, testosterone and other natural substances work their way through the system if it is driven by your conscious willpower towards sustainable growth and practice.

Your substance levels and your achievements are not necessarily connected. Testoterone therapy can increase activity, I will concede to that, but it does not increase functioning. You learn to regulate testosterone, and the body’s other natural chemical release systems, and everything becomes more tempered rather than wild. Testosterone or other similar substances are formed principally in the liver and intestines from such things as bile and and cholesterol. Cholesterols role is to maintain the cells, so if it is used to produce too much testosterone, as in situations of survival and stress, there is likely to be less transformation into cellular activity. This is why the traditional martial arts systems have focused on working with health, particularly of the core muscles and gut areas.

So you don’t need to be wild to become active and strong. In fact, studies have shown that people involved in woodcutting to support local development have produced just as much testosterone as football players. The difference is, I would imagine, that it is produced in fits and starts during football, rather than at a steady rate associated without outdoor work. But that is just speculation. Nor do you need to be incapacitated to settle down. If you manage the bodys energies and resources strategically and well, you will want to be healthy and active all the time, and there is then no question of activity, it will just happen as needed. Rest from work will happen as a natural consequence of wanting to increase your competence, rather than becoming aggressive and hyper attic regardless of benefit.

It is perfectly natural to chase a state of external stimulus in order to reach a certain state. The problem is that many people do not have the methods of practice to facilitate its happening internally. So they go about training incessantly for some kind of event to peak. Others settle for a steady state of health and activity which can be maintained constantly. This is the meaning behind internal medicine, which is the principal behind the ancient Chinese systems. It involves steady yet vibrant activity all through the day if it is achieved properly. There is a focus on inner harmony because then, when the burdensome nature of compulsively competing against others is worked out, needing to dominate others becomes less of a priority.

So when enough down time or meditative practice is factored in, a balance is achieved. This is to equal out the huge amounts of intense physical and mental work which we are all usually expected to do these days in many different fields. When people take time off from a stressful situations, removing themselves for some time, they naturally get better over time even without any special methods or drugs. This is because their system is given a break, rather than because they have done anything actively. It is then easier to learn things properly, make better decisions, and put up with demanding work because there is an ease and fluidity of functioning within the system. You then can work at a level which is not driven by external events and surroundings.

The biochemistry of the body is like fertiliser to the soil. If the soil is drained of its nutrients, it becomes a wasteland over time. Put some organic matter back in, and it becomes healthy again. Either that, or you up your production and become a better manager. The problem is, that increasingly there is a tendency to take from the soil and not let it become healthy and living again. As it is in modern agriculture, so it is within. So, if you just charge back in doing things as you always did in a state of agitation and prolonged stress, you soon find yourself back in the same condition. If you just slow down and let the system act as needed, there is no problem. This explains the need for testosterone replacement and cannabis. This is not surprising when you think about it.

There is a need and an urgency to take better care of the human organism, because the stress related by products of training and exertion can easily be broken down into fertiliser for the inner soil. That is, if a certain amount of circulation and time is allowed for the system to breakdown, transform, and renew. So it is a question of making situations of low demand a permanent fixture of the timetable, so that the body naturally can replenish its reserves. It is the exact same principle as with soil regeneration. If there is overuse of the soil, it becomes less fertile and needs further nutrients to replenish it. If the sun started shine all day, the plants would soon deplete the soil of its nutrients. In the same way as there is day and night, in martial arts there is yin and yang practice, activity and recuperation.

When you can distance yourself from the stresses of certain situations such as constant fighting, it is possible to view them with a new sense of fresh enthusiasm rather than being bogged down with constant pressure. Modern living is extracting the organism of its natural means of growth and renewal, just as it is the crops and soil. This is essentially why people go for drugs, to escape this pressure for some time when they feel they need to keep incessantly active and keep their head above water. The problem is if drugs are abused, decision making capability goes down because you can become driven by events rather than self initiated. This is why The Eastern systems have always emphasised internal medicine, even if they have been accused of promoting ineffectual fighting methods. You need both good soil and effective methods to make a crop, not just one aspect. Of course, modern fighting influenced by popular cage matches and prize fighting are going to be more effective on the street than doing some sort of Tai Chi routine. But all of that becomes meaningless if you have exhausted your capability to live a balanced life.

Various seeds, or receptors, are planted all over the body, which need to be cultivated to grow to their potential. They need to be cared for and grown. They don’t just happen automatically any more than activity does. Progress does not happen over night, but the desire for this to happen right now is there. So, the desire for this to happen is written into the seed, much like a genome is written into any creature before its growth unfolds. The work that goes in, as well as distortions or transformations which take place all part of the process. So, you can use and harvest the crop before it reaches full maturity, which is what much of modern science is geared towards, so that the system works to uphold insatiable demand. And then, of course replacement therapies are needed. In doing so you will probably achieve more than others sometimes. But not all the time. Of course, carry on taking medications that you need to. I am not saying otherwise, because without alternative methods, longevity can be compromised. But by bringing awareness to the body’s natural energy systems, the need for such medications will go down drastically.

The big difference between substance use and inner practices such as meditation, is that meditative practices enables you to take self initiated action. On the other hand, it is quicker and easier to get a dose of some sort of chemical and get instant results. This is not an either or issue for me, because both methods can be used for different reasons. For example, using steroids is a way of externally obtaining a substance, testosterone, which the inner system cannot manufacture in the desired amounts for some reason. For example, many people want to take hormones to boost recovery, often because they don’t do any active recovery practices. For them, recovery is just some negative activity rather than a positive action.

There are side effects to drugs, which is only natural. For example, there is increased aggression and various organ disorder associated with steroid use, which may or may not be important to the individual who is on an upswing in activity. So initially, there is a certain boost, which slowly over time makes you incapable of other things, such as maintaining health. Not always, but in general I would say that a large percentage of those who take performance enhancing drugs have other qualities which would enable them to succeed without using them. Naturally, these qualities are not entirely developed in an individual who heavily relies on external means. The demand to develop internal action goes down with the supply of external means. So by balancing out the demands of training, both heavy and light work, requires a holistic outlook. And if you have consciously tempered the passions and channeled them in the best possible way, then things will develop in natural proportions, not in excess nor ever in too small amount. This is why the Martial arts traditionally focused on behaviour and personal conduct as sources of success.

Over working the system and getting carried away by the influx or hormones and adrenaline is similar to boosting the system with substances such as cocaine. Therefore, after any combative situation it was generally believed in the traditional arts that a certain amount of spiritual practice should take place. This was also the case in other life events which are taxing on the system, which today many people think nothing of. This was so that the fighter could distance themselves from such states on the energetic and psychological level, so that the intense impressions of combat did not embedded themselves over time and become behavioural tendencies in the longer term. Disasters and problems in life happen, but if they become the basis of day to day experience without relent then there is definitely a problem.

From Knowledge to Intuition [Part 1]

Posted on 27th March 2023 Last updated on 27th March 2023 by joeharman8 | 10 min read | 93 views

“Like silent cinema, traditional forms in martial arts can become strangely captivating of the attention after a few minutes of looking at them, even if at first they seem ridiculous. This is the basis for modern advertising, which can be used in many ways. This suspense would create the needed for longing to learn. Practices of this kind when developed as an art can become mystical. As far as exaggerated martial arts forms go, like advertising it developed an awakening for something beyond what was being advertised. So deliberately holding back on the technicalities can become a way in to deep learning, if it is done with the necessary properly.”
Awakening

There are two main aspects of performance in martial arts. There is control over the process, and awareness of the process itself happening. Control of the process always involves a technical focus, an externalised engineering of the body to master specific skills and techniques. For example, we learn how to punch mechanically, before then injecting it with some energy and power. These skills can be done intuitively, or mechanically. For example, a blacksmith can forge a blade according to a step by step process, or they can do so without thinking much about it. They just do it without step one, step two, or step three. This is when they know it works, they would bet their livelihood on it. Similarly, martial artists can know how to do something so intuitively, that they bet their life on it working. This kind of confidence is different from bravado or arrogance, it is a kind of inner understanding.

In Martial arts, there are punches, kicks, throws, and other movements. Such skills are then developed into strategies and ways of acting more broadly after they have been practiced in isolation. For example, a boxer will practice their technique in front of a mirror, or using a heavy bag. They will go for step one, step two, and then step three. Technically they will then get the fist of it. The problem is, if you stay at this level, there is no life to it. So after some time its necessary to move beyond this step by step process. One way martial artists do this is to look to apply techniques to a competitive scenarios, such as in the ring for a competitive bout. All the separate movements become tied together. It is not necessary to have a competitive bout, because not everybody has the time or inclination. Competition sparring also requires planning, and a certain control over the learning process in order to develop how the gameplay plays out strategically. Do you punch first? Do you start the combination with a kick? These are all considerations the trainer and martial artist work through, often in laboratory like conditions.

Due to control over not only the learning process, but also the competitive arena, it makes sense to plan various outcomes in advance. For example, we know what punches to train and what they should look like thanks to the step by step technical information available. For the first time in history, we have huge access to so much technical knowledge and systems of practice which have been created . This is true in many fields. Take music for example. In order to learn the guitar you would have to have been taught everything from scratch in the past. All the rules would be built into you, unless you picked up up by ear. You wouldn’t know how to play otherwise. Nowadays, anyone can learn these things online easily. However, it is no longer clear what actually needs to be learnt as a foundation. There is so much out there. It is no longer about just learning the Beatles or twinkle twinkle little star. So it can be helpful to become truly aware of what you are doing so that you understand the learning process and what you want from it.

In the past, a fighter would have no idea when or where the combat would take place. The need to maintain constant awareness was high due to the fact that dangers were everywhere. There was also not much of a lucrative career in professional fighting. For example, in order to become a successful fighter in the recent past, you would have just done it for the love of it. This was true just a generation ago in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). There wouldn’t have been much other pay off. The money you got would be put back into training fees. It wasn’t like today where you would be hired by a famous gym and given a contract. There was no road map to success because they were paving the way.

The same need to improvise and maintain constant vigilance was true of guitar players. They wouldn’t know when they would get an opportunity, so they just played all the time for the love of it. They started fairly basic by todays standards. But the successful ones developed such an ear for music that they would intuitively know how to play when the time came to record an album. Some of them have what they call a “composers ear”, which means they see playing in the context of the whole song, rather than just playing a chord as its written.n Much of what they created on the spot later became a method. This is also true of martial arts.

Until recently, martial arts was difficult to get into. When I first started training around 17 years ago, MMA was hardly practiced in the UK. The average martial artists didn’t know how to kick unless they had been to a specialist. Now anyone who does martial arts can kick. This is good because knowing how to get into high energy states and use the body effectively can be hugely beneficial. We are no longer in an age of people selling away secret techniques. But, as I will show, the secret technique which is hidden in plain sight is awareness and long term progress, which today is on the decline in many peoples experience. For example, the constant barrage of social media content has contributed to making peoples attention spans too short to sustain awareness and attention for as long as in the past. However, this has always been the secret weapon in the arsenal of the successful martial artist.

Due to this constant need to work, the fighter of the past would need to maintain a constant focus on improvement and gaining an edge. Just as the musician needed to constantly practice their craft, the martial artists maintained a watchful eye on anything they could observe. This is still the case. However, it is often done in a technical way nowadays, often because the survival need which brought out the need to perform is somewhat missing. When the striving for self mastery takes a back seat, there is a natural tendency towards mastering the technical side of things. And if you inject a bit of instinctive energy into an attack, it can have some decent power. But this is not yet intuitive technique. In order to develop intuition, you have to take responsibility for the learning yourself, and then the technique comes after that. Instruction is great, but this doesn’t mean an outside factor is the cause of learning, the inner faculties of awareness and attention still need to maintain vigilance.

Intuitive Sense

One of the consequences of technical dependency in training is the excessive use of performance enhancing drugs. When the love of training for its own sake has taken a back seat, or the constant threat against ones survival and is missing, stimulus is looked for elsewhere. Technical training has always had its place, but it used to be picked up during the process of seeking opportunity, rather than separately. For example, a fighter would engage in the process of learning their craft, which if they were sufficiently responsible for themselves, they would become energised and self made into powerful fighters. Today, this process is under threat, because everything is often mapped out in advance, which prevents the seeker in martial arts from establishing their own path. Once again, the availability of knowledge is an amazing thing, but it needs to become part of ones life if it is to be maximally beneficial.

Technical performance training is known to be boring and repetitive if done without engagement. When the body and mind are not engaged with the activity one is doing for a long time, lethargy builds in the system. So to maintain interest and build a career, many athletes have gone for performance enhancing drugs. Their day is not filled with being outdoors, mountain climbing, or living in treacherous environments any longer. These things in themselves are known to boost the bio chemistry of the body, so a deficit in this is enough to create a need to boost the system with drugs.

Martial arts practices have moved to the domain of technical control over the process largely. There are many reason for this. One of the main reasons for this technical shift is that due to modern technology and the resulting competition environments, which are based around many layers of rules and procedures. The other side of the coin is the intuitive approach. Successful performance is a question of balance between control and awareness, which involves intuitive knowledge about what to do. When an individual reaches the level of intuitive knowledge, action happens spontaneously. You can see this in many talented athletes, musicians, and other craftspeople. Ironically, what they have done spontaneously often gets bottled up and sold into a step by step process.

When it comes to performance, there are many factors, each overlapping and happening all at once, but a useful way of looking at it is to become more aware. What do we mean by awareness? Simply looking, looking without necessarily making an effort to memorise or comprehend completely at first. I’ve noticed that when teaching children, if I remain deliberately vague about what I am teaching, they are all eyes and ears if the situation is sufficiently engaging. This is because too much information and theory can reduce interest.

With a child like engagement, it is possible to remain attentive, constantly looking inwardly as your vision scans outwardly. You then don’t rely on the technical stuff, but if you are totally immersed it happens anyway. This is the reason for some of the obscure traditional methods in martial arts. For example, in the old days, the disciple would be taught nothing for the first year or more. They would watch strange theatrical displays which seemed over exaggerated like an old silent film. Like silent cinema, traditional forms in martial arts can become strangely captivating of the attention after a few minutes of looking at them, even if at first they seem ridiculous. This is the basis for modern advertising, which can be used in many ways. This suspense would create the needed for longing to learn. Practices of this kind when developed as an art can become mystical. As far as exaggerated martial arts forms go, like advertising it developed an awakening for something beyond what was being advertised. So deliberately holding back on the technicalities can become a way in to deep learning, if it is done with the necessary properly.