We Can Rebuild Him

Father Time has once again taken its toll on my body. I'm annoyed, to put it mildly, that a lifetime of clean living, diet, and fitness has resulted in a now-beaten up body. Over the past three years I've incurred numerous episodes of arthritis that has resulted in herniated discs, knee and elbow pain, and as of late, a full-shoulder replacement surgery that has kept me out of work since roughly the beginning of the year. (See above—yes, that is my new left shoulder!) 

It's been suggested that my years of sparring and performing endless drills of kihon (karate basics) may have led to this, but I don't think so. My chiropractor friend says I should be able to punch through cement blocks now with my bionic implant. Yeah, sure.

While I was awaiting my procedure it was revealed during a pre-op test that I had atrial fibrillation (a-fib), and a later discovery of right-handed weakness and atrophy, the latter diagnosed by a pinched nerve in my cervical spine. I'm currently wearing a Holter monitor to address the a-fib. As funny as this may sound, I'm in otherwise good shape.

Though I haven't been working for several months, my union is still paying my medical insurance. I'm very grateful my other health issues came to light now so I can address everything during my leave of absence.

Sometimes good news is disguised as bad news, but you never really know. There may be a cosmic lesson hidden in this so-called misfortune of mine, but who knows? As the Stones sang, "You can't always get what you want...you just might find you get what you need."

For clarification, a Zen story:

 

There was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically. “Maybe,” the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed. “Maybe,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “Maybe,” answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

“Maybe,” said the farmer.

Toxic Masculinity

There was a movie a few years back called The Art of Self Defense. Despite the unassuming title, the film explores the pitfalls of encountering the wrong dojo to train at. The lead character is a milquetoast pushover who's afraid of his own shadow. After getting beaten and robbed he decides he's had enough and ends up taking karate lessons from a deranged sensei who encourages his new charge to be a violent psychopath. The student takes his misguided teachings into the real world with predictable results. I won't spoil things by revealing more, but not surprisingly, the story does not end well. Cultish behavior is nothing new in the martial arts, and with the advent of social media, young men are finding inspiration in the rather vile corners of the internet. 

My son asked me recently if I ever heard of a retired kickboxing/MMA competitor named Andrew Tate. I hadn't, so with a little digging I found that after Tate retired from competition he started to monetize online courses on how to get rich and "male-female interactions." His Hustler's University turned out to be a pyramid scheme targeting young men who were buying into his hype to become an alpha male. An alpha is the apex of male aggression and dominance hierarchy in the animal kingdom. Primatologist Robert Sapolsky has studied this in non-human primates and its relation to the highly stratified social structure of baboons*. In humans, being an alpha male is associated with narcissism, entitlement and even misogyny. In layman's terms, human alpha males are highly predisposed to just being assholes.

Tate's net worth supposedly puts him in the neighborhood of 50 million USD, but has since been kicked off numerous social media platforms (where he earns most of his money) for inciting violence and dehumanizing speech, particularly aimed at women. As of this writing, Tate sits in a jail cell in Romania awaiting a judge's decision regarding Tate's (and three others') involvement in a human trafficking scheme using women to create pornography for profit, among other charges including rape. I don't know if Tate's years as a world champion martial arts competitor led to his self-indulgent dysfunctional worldview of male dominance. Maybe he got messed up as a kid. A long held psychology axiom states that events that occur during childhood can reveal themselves in unpredictable ways later in life. I doubt that an undertaking in a traditional martial art style during his formative years would've put him on the right path (budo), but who knows? Would an early-life intervention have made a difference in a guy like Tate?

Jason Wilson runs a youth program for troubled boys in Detroit called The Cave of Adullam Transformational Training Academy, a quasi-martial arts facility that "is not a martial arts school but a Transformational Training Academy." Wilson, the chief instructor who cites a background in jiu-jitsu, judo, and kempo (but doesn't hold rank in any of these styles), teaches young men in a traditional dojo-setting the values needed to become an upright man and a decent citizen. Wilson muses how some martial artists can attain a black belt in their chosen style, but remain a white belt in the game of life.

"When I first started the CATTA, there were many “Scared Straight” programs in Michigan, and I had even participated in a couple", says Wilson. "However, I quickly discovered that inflicting trauma will never help a boy release it but instead teach him to suppress it. Nowadays, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a Scared Straight or Bootcamp program because discipline without love is ineffectual."

Maybe that's the antidote to toxic masculinity in young men: The understanding that the best and even worst of us have an innate need to love and to be loved. And the sooner the better. As The Beatles famously sang, "Love is all you need."

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

*Robert M. Saplolsky 2017. Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. Penguin Press.

3D Martial Arts (And An Old Tale)

Here's a visually dazzling site that includes a catalog of some Japanese budo (martial ways), ceremonies, calligraphy and stage performance arts. While the computer graphics and 3D renderings are impressive, the descriptions, interviews and demos provided are comprehensive and well done. Of the non-martial-art themes featured it was the art of the Tea Ceremony — Sado (also called Chadō) — that caught my attention. Tea Ceremony has a long history in Japan which was influenced in part by Zen; Zen also influenced the development of Japanese martial arts. This inspired the fable of The Samurai and The Tea Master:

A tea master came into the service of a nobleman named Lord Yamagouchi. He poured and prepared tea for his master gracefully and with perfection. Lord Yamagouchi was so pleased he presented his esteemed tea master with the robes and rank of a samurai, which was quite an honor. Occasionally, the lord took his tea master with him on trips.

On one excursion, the tea master found himself in a precarious situation while out and about by himself. After turning a corner, he was confronted by a samurai. Appalled, the samurai questioned why the tea master wore the robes of a bushi (warrior). The tea master explained that his lord presented him with the outfit and rank.

Outraged, the samurai then challenged the tea master to a duel to test if he was worthy of this accolade. The tea master, being who he was, could not reject such a challenge. He agreed to the duel, which was to take place the next day. Terrified, the tea master quickly enlisted the help of a local swordsman to teach him the art of combat. But the tea master was no warrior and a crash course in swordfighting proved to be futile. Having an idea, the sword teacher simply asked his charge to do what he knew best — to prepare him some tea. The tea master kneeled in seiza and cleared his mind. With the dignity, grace and calm required of any master he prepared the tea.

"That's it!" exclaimed the sword sensei. "What do you mean?" replied the tea master.

"You don't need to learn anything from me. When you meet your adversary tomorrow just pretend you're preparing tea. Your state of mind when you perform the tea ceremony is all that is required. Just hold your sword like you hold your chashaku (tea scoop)." The tea master could not comprehend how his respectful ceremony would prepare him for a fight to the death, but with no other recourse he took his teacher's advice and prepared for the showdown.

The following morning when he met his opponent, the tea master performed exactly as his sword teacher had instructed. The samurai had expected to see a quivering wreck of nerves, but instead his eyes fell upon a quietly confident, unshaken opponent. In fact, he thought that this was an entirely different person than the one he encountered the day before! So awed was he by the man before him that he bowed respectfully, asked for forgiveness, and retreated from battle without once raising his sword.

Blindsided

Here's a clip of Joe Rogan talking with biologist Rupert Sheldrake about threat awareness in the martial arts. Rogan lamented the ineffectiveness of certain "self-defense martial arts", quoted Musashi, and extolled the virtues of expanding human potential resulting from a lifetime pursuit in the martial arts. But he largely sidestepped Sheldrake's important question of whether someone could be trained to develop an intuitive sensitivity to threatening intent. Although not a practitioner, Sheldrake delves briefly into the aspect of threatening intent in his book The Sense of Being Stared At from the martial arts perspective. The following involves an investigation of a so-called ancient technique called to-ate — attacking someone without physical contact from a distance:

In order to rule out the possibility that the person attacked was responding to visual or other sensory clues, or to suggestion, the researchers kept an "attacker" and a "receiver" in sensory-shielded rooms, three floors apart. The "attacker" was a Chinese qigong master. They videotaped the receiver, and measured his skin resistance and his brain waves, by means of an electroencephalograph (EEG). In a series of trails, the qigong master directed to-ate at the receiver at times randomly chosen by the experimenters. In many of these trail periods the receiver visibly recorded and showed alterations in EEG and skin resistance. The results of these randomized, double-blind trails were highly significant statistically, indicating that the to-ate involved an "unknown transmission"; that is to say, a form of transmission currently unknown to science. From the point of view of the qigong master, what was being transmitted was ki or chi.

I must warn you that Sheldrake is not without controversy in the scientific community as some of his theories are held as quackery or the stuff of woo. However, the previous example was actually in reference to a 2000 study conducted by medical-imaging researcher Mikio Yamamoto at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba, Japan.

In the past I've trained with the blindfold prop with limited success. Maybe my psi abilities are subpar. There are blind practitioners in grappling styles, such as I've posted about, but striking arts for the most part require physical sight to work. Not everyone agrees, though. Ninpo exponent Glenn Morris recounts testing for rank while blindfolded that involves avoiding a strike from behind delivered by the master wielding a shinai (light bamboo practice sword):

I crawled forward, sat on my heels in seiza [seated-kneeling position], closed my eyes and reached out with my feelings to connect. The first surprise came as I encountered "nobody home." Hatsumi [the master] was in mushin [state of no-mind] and I was in deep s---. As far as my body was concerned, no one was behind me. (There is more than one level of disappearing in this art and sometimes you don't connect things until you experience them. I had expected to be able to feel him.) I watched the white light behind my eyes and waited, saw a flicker in the phosphorous, and rolled. The sword smacked into the floor where I had been kneeling. Victory.*

The historian Donn Drager discusses the subliminal sense a medieval Japanese warrior would acquire called kan-ken futatsu no koto, a type of intuitive "seeing" that enabled him to deal with an opponent laying in ambush, or in a more practical example, "to step instantly over a log, body, or rock lying out of sight behind him in the path of his backward movement."^† Draeger maintains that this skill is developed through meditation and tireless practice. I still train and even meditate. But I won't be donning a blindfold in the dojo anytime soon.

* Glenn Morris 1993. Path Notes of an American Ninja Master. North Atlantic Books.
† Donn Draeger 1973. Classical Budo. Wheatherhill, Inc.

Profile of a Martial Arts Cult Leader

Here's a story about a guy from my neck of the woods that exemplifies what a martial arts cult leader is all about. For years he's adorned lampposts and telephone poles with his hand-written signs that beckons all to "Fight Back" that includes his phone number and lists aiki-jiu-jitsu, aikido, and kung-fu as part of the package, along with a drawing of a singular sai (tri-pronged truncheon).

I've never met "Sensei Jerry" but I know of two people who briefly trained with him, one of them a former instructor. The stories that have come back include students having to defend against (or threatened with) a myriad of weapons, such as bats, live blades, 2x4s, and spears.

Another account:

Hell, there was even an annual outing called, “The Hunt”, where the students would be let loose to survive and scavenge in an open area while Sensei Jerry, and assigned “hunters”, would hunt the hiding students. And the hunt didn’t start in the woods, no, it started that week and you could be attacked at any time, even while at work, at home, or even in your bed. The website’s last noted hunt was from 2012 where Jerry described a team leader who was kidnapped in his sleep the night before the hunt was to begin…

An anonymous source from the same site corroborates with his experience at the school:

Enter Sensei Jerry. “Class” began with a recap of the most recent “hunt” that took place in Connecticut. Those who had somehow performed in an unsatisfactory manner were punished…with swirlies. I kid you not. Four other members of the group picked them up, carried them to the bathroom, and did the deed. The Sensei then congratulated everyone on a job well done, and began espousing the benefits that come with training – being able to disguise oneself in any situation, stretching out one’s “meridian system” (according to Sensei Jerry, computers and TV were a government plot to lower life expectancy and the only way to combat this was with the “good fear”). Then, it was time for class to begin. What followed can only be described as: absolutely f*#!ing insane.

Martial arts cults are nothing new, of course. A while back a reader recommended a book called Herding The Moo that describes the experience of training at a cultish school, from white to black belt. I never got around to reading it, but I've read other accounts about how cults actually develop from the psychological perspective of an adept in Eastern philosophy who has researched phony spiritual leaders or gurus.* "Characteristics of Pathological Spiritual Groups" could be readily applied to sociopathic martial arts instructors and their credulous students, to wit:

• The leader assumes total power to validate or negate the self-worth of the devotees, and uses this power extensively.
• The leader keeps his followers in line by manipulating emotions of hope and fear.
• There is a strict, rigid boundary drawn between the group and the world outside.

In addition, many of these "sensei" either claim some high rank in a made-up style (or styles), or have a rather tenuous one in a legit system they no longer are really affiliated with. For example, certain exponents of Ryu-te kempo such as George Dillman and Jack Hogan claim to be able to KO anyone without having to touch them! But Ryu-te founder Seiyu Oyata (d. 2012) has never advocated, much less demonstrated, a "no-touch knockout.". Needless to say the no-touch KO has since been debunked. Only duped students have been brainwashed into complying with the herd mentality. More people need to say the emperor has no clothes.


*John Welwood 2000. Toward a Psychology of Awakening. Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Abuse of Power

Recently a karate school owner told me he picked up an entire family of students courtesy of abuse attributed to their former instructor. Apparently the young boy spilled water on the deck and was summarily back fisted in the chest by the burly sensei. Great marketing ploy. One wonders if this genius has a good attorney to counter these episodes. Sadly, stories of this ilk are fairly common. In fact this particular account is relatively tame.

The following comes from a news report concerning a judo club in Japan:

A Japanese court on Wednesday found a martial arts instructor guilty over the death of a six-year-old boy, a court official said, in the first criminal case over judo training in Japan.

It is the first criminal case filed by Japanese prosecutors against judo trainers, according to a victims' group, despite over 100 child deaths blamed on harsh training or hazing between 1983 and 2010.

The 36-year-old instructor, who owned a private judo club in Osaka, admitted he threw the boy excessively in training. The boy died in November last year from brain swelling, local reports said.

In Japan, judo hazing has a lengthy history and I suppose it was only a matter a time before this practice had a trickle-down effect to the kids' class.

Whenever there is a rigid hierarchy in place with passive or helpless bystanders there exists the propensity for anything from bullying to full blown physical abuse. We see this in institutions such as prisons, public schools, hospitals and nursing homes.

In 1971 the social psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment at Stanford University to simulate a prison environment using students as prisoners and guards. The "prisoners" were even picked up at home donning jail garb and brought to the basement of the school's psychology department to begin their "sentence." But the experiment had to be stopped after just six days as the behavior of the "guards" far exceeded the expectations of Zimbardo and his colleagues. Prisoners were subjected to being sprayed with fire extinguishers, cleaning toilets with their bare hands and performing pushups with the guards standing on their backs, among other things I'd rather not go into.

This sort of dehumanizing behavior can translate into the power structure of a martial arts school. Some sensei let their own sense of power get the better of them. As one blogger puts succinctly:

The instructor's ego is one of the most dangerous opponents the student will ever face. Sometimes it is obvious. Martial arts has a hierarchy and a power dynamic and in too many places competency is not tested and compassion is assumed. It is a sweet spot for bullies and predators. Where else can you hurt people and they pay you and say, "Thank you, Master." What bully wouldn't get off on that?

Indeed. The following illustrates thusly:

DISCLAIMER: explicitly violent

Tale of Two Students

The following accounts are true and happened this past week. Names have been changed for obvious reasons.

Marge has been training at our school for about three years. She works two jobs, has a young child and is occasionally harassed by her loutish ex-husband that she finally managed to get an order of protection from. Three nights ago this dumbass shows up at her apartment, drunk and feeling amorous, and grabs Marge by her wrists. Big mistake. I teach two counters for this maneuver. Marge used variation #2: hop back into neko-dachi and forward leg kick the assailant in the groin. Her ex drops like a sack of bricks, gets up, swings with a haymaker that barely misses and is greeted with a projectile glass pitcher to the head (not taught by me). The jerk runs out of her place bleeding from a nasty head wound while Marge goes to a neighbor to call the police. (Fortunately her youngster was with a relative while all of this was going down.) He's in jail now for a variety of charges and is recovering from a mild concussion. Marge showed me the glass pitcher she hurled at this guy. It never broke, the thing's huge and feels like it weighs about ten pounds. He should consider himself lucky to be alive. Marge is doing okay and attributes her training to her ability to survive and get through all of this.

Stan is another intermediate trainee with a few years under his belt. He's thirtysomething, single, and works in an office for a big company. Recently he was awarded with an "Employee of the Month" certificate that, among other things, entitles him to a reserved parking spot. A co-worker took it upon himself to steal Stan's hard-earned parking spot which is clearly marked for these kind of employees. Stan locates the guy and politely but firmly tells him not to do that again while that spot is reserved for him. The space-stealer apologizes profusely and hasn't done it since. One could say that Stan had an attachment to his reserved spot at work; that he felt entitled to it, which he was. But Stan saw this in a bigger and broader context. Before karate training Stan saw himself as non-confrontational and fearful of standoffs of any kind. Stan's ability to speak up for himself like this was unprecedented and the experience left him feeling liberated and at ease.

Stories like this are meaningful because they illustrate how valuable karate practice can be. Marge's case was extreme; her life was at risk and she had no choice but to resort to the jutsu or technical aspects of karate to protect herself. Thank god she's alright, and I've been given good reason to believe that this episode won't repeat itself for her.

Stan's story was far less dramatic—he was never in any physical danger—but his self-respect was at stake. He was not acquainted at all with the co-worker who took his parking spot and had no idea how confronting him would turn out. Given this uncertainty, Stan was nonetheless resolved to fix this problem and conducted himself admirably.

Both students exemplify the spirit of karate-do: The ability and willingness to take one's training outside the dojo with effective and positive results.

The Modern Bully

Has anyone noticed the new War on Bullying? Bullying has been getting a lot of press and has become quite the catch phrase. Bullying or peer intimidation pervades many aspects of our daily existence: in the workplace, schools, and now especially, the internet. Facebook and other social networking services have been linked to a number of suicides committed by distraught teenagers being harassed online. Perceived psychological abuse has its way of being just as damaging as the physical kind. Of course bullies shaking down smaller and weaker kids for their lunch money still happens and the new anti-bullying legislation being proposed probably won't have much of an effect in public schools where "zero-tolerance" is already in force. I can't blame the school system for trying. It has been suggested that the Columbine High School massacre was carried out by a pair of chronic victims of classroom bullying that went unchecked.

The psychological profile of the modern bully has been updated to include characteristics of entitlement and narcissism from the classic version that depicts the bully as a self-loathing coward who may have been (or is) the victim of abuse, especially at home.

Children enrolled in martial arts are taught the virtues of respect and self-reliance in addition to self-defense. One wonders how many youngsters who start off as shy and awkward (perfect bully fodder) really manage to break out of their shell to lose their victim mentality. How many kids can honestly say that - thanks to karate or whatever - they now can ward off the neighborhood punk with panache? To say nothing of the internet and the effects of cyberbullying.

Surviving a Home Invasion

Has anyone taken measures to ward off the possibility of a home invasion? Certainly, the very thought of one should be horrifying. But what to do? Keep a bat or some other handy weapon in the closet or drawer? Is owning a gun and keeping it at home a good idea if you have young children?

Do you think your studies in a traditional martial art would fare well against an intruder after being awoken in the middle of the night?

I recently received a link to a home alarm systems guide which also includes a story about a woman who was robbed at home after a day of shopping. Fortunately the woman came out of it unscathed but understandably shaken. She offers the following tips:

1. Always keep your head up when walking outside, this lets people know you are paying attention.

2. Never wear headphones in both ears when outside. If you must wear them only use one ear bud so your other ear is free to listen to your surroundings.

3. Try not to carry your purse in your hand, keep it on your shoulder where it is secure and cannot easily be removed.

4. Never unlock your car door until you can clearly see the surrounding area and are sure there is no one waiting to jump into your car.

5. Car keys are an excellent weapon; they are sharp and can be used if someone is grabbing you. If they are poked with the key they will quickly become distracted long enough for you to run.

6. Never be afraid to scream; make the most of the voice given to you and let people know you are in trouble.

7. If someone grabs your arm and you can perform a distraction drill; this can involve many things including stepping on their foot, pinching their other arm with your free hand. When you do the distraction, pull your arm free. If you do not have a free hand, use your knee. You know where to hit!

8. If you cannot use your arms or your knee, head butting is always a great option. This will blur their vision and distract them. At that point you should free your arm and run for help.

9. If you have a free hand, gouge them in the eyes, this will cause their eyes to water and give you the opportunity to run. Punching someone in the nose will always create the eye watering effect.

10. Should you see someone standing suspiciously near or next to your car, do not approach it; walk back into the building you just came from and call for help!

The underlying theme here is awareness. Any additional suggestions would be appreciated.

Scare Tactics

Joe Lewis, sport karate's first badass from the 60s, is said to have had the ability to detect kyo (weakness) in his opponents. Whether in mind, body or spirit, Lewis would own you. Likewise, heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston had developed a habit of scaring his opponents half to death before the fight even happened. He perfected a glowering presence when entering the ring, and would go so far as to stuff towels under his robe to enhance his already massive frame. Both Lewis and Liston always gave the impression that the match was personal and that they wanted to kill you.

In the animal kingdom, defense mechanisms rooted in illusion bear a similarity to the psych-out fight strategies found in athletes. For example, the common house cat (a natural predator) will arch its back and raise its hair to give the physical appearance of being far more formidable than it actually is. When Miyamoto Musashi advises to "make yourself larger than your opponent" this is not strictly a metaphor.

It's interesting that in Musashi's tome, The Book of Five Rings, very little is discussed in terms of actual technique. His forte was cunning and effective cheating or whatever else would get the job done. Musashi's real weapons were psychology, intimidation, and especially, intent, which could only be forged through severe training. By his estimation, of the sixty or so men he defeated in duels, many had superior technical skill, strength, or the advantage of youth, but lacked the moxie to gain the upper hand. Overcoming fear is an obstacle that any warrior must face sooner or later, but using your adversary's own fear can prove to be a viable way to level the playing field.

Fear of Fighting

The young competitor was sick to his stomach. He made a last dash to the bathroom before his name was called. Here he was, a newly promoted black belt at one of the biggest tournaments in the US, fighting an even bigger name - an ex-serviceman with an impressive record who had started his training in Korea. "Don't worry, you'll do just fine", his adversary promised with compassion rarely displayed at a karate event.

Many people come to the martial arts because they abhor the idea of fighting, and simply want to learn some practical self defense. "I hate sparring" is actually a fairly common utterance in some schools. Part of this is due to the fact that kumite is taken personally by certain players who feel a need to prove their dominance over others. The stock warning issued by one instructor I used to know - "lighten up or I'll show you how hard I hit" - only served to reinforce the macho tendencies that were already well established. I've seen a number of decent students leave karate because of runaway sparring matches and indifferent coaching practices. Although anything can happen on the street , there has to be some semblance of fairness in the dojo.

The body is constantly eavesdropping on our thoughts and responds accordingly. Fear is negative energy that takes its toll on us physically; its debilitating effect produces fatigue. Another by-product of fear is shallow, labored breathing. While emotions do affect the quality of respiration, the opposite is also true: proper breathing can re-stabilize our emotions. Taking a slow, deep breath to calm the nerves before sparring or testing can be very effective.

Legendary boxing coach Ray Arcel once noted that no matter how confident a fighter may appear before a bout, there is still some remnant of fear beneath the image of toughness.

As for our nervous karate fighter at the big tournament - he ended up winning after all! And it would be the last time Chuck Norris would give friendly advice to someone he was about to do battle with. Never underestimate anyone, including and especially the fearful.

Lose Yourself

Does anyone remember the very first time they stepped onto the mat? How about the first time you were expected to kiai for a form? Did you feel strange, awkward or embarrassed? Self-consciousness is a barrier that many new students need to overcome, and as a rule of thumb, it should be approached in its own time and way. Confidence means believing in oneself. Becoming one with the task at hand is different. To illustrate this, here is a famous Zen story:

A wrestler named O'Nami, "Great Waves", was immensely strong and highly skilled in his chosen art. In private his skill was unmatchable - he defeated even his own teacher. And yet in public demonstrations, ordinary laymen could throw him without difficulty.

What happened? How could a man of such talent, who was capable of beating his own teacher, lose to anyone in public? In public, O'Nami felt pressured and threatened. He felt a sense of separation between himself and what he had to do. His occupation became a preoccupation. So O'Nami sought out the guidance of a local Zen master...

"Great Waves is your name", said the master, "so stay in this temple tonight and listen to the sound of the sea. Imagine you are those waves, forget you are a wrestler and become those huge waves sweeping everything before them."

O'Nami remained. He meditated all night on those waves - it wasn't easy though, he had distractions, unnerving thoughts interrupting his composure. But in time he prevailed with this exercise, and by morning he realized a new found vibrancy. That day, he entered a public wrestling tournament and won every bout, and from that day on, no one in Japan could ever defeat him.

When practicing martial arts, don't be the artist; become the art.

Bullies

Bully! was a term Theodore Roosevelt frequently used as an exclamation of something he thought was superb, referring to his US presidency as the "bully pulpit". Roosevelt was plagued by bullies as a youth. He wore glasses, and was weak and sickly growing up. As a teenager he took up weightlifting and boxed in college. He became a war hero. Seldom written about, but true, was that Theodore Roosevelt studied judo, eventually earning a brown belt, and even built a small dojo in the White House.

Underneath the veneer of bravado and arrogance that the bully exhibits lies fear. Fear of being stood-up to. Fear of being found out that (s)he is actually a coward. Bullies typically were themselves the victims of abuse and/or unrequited love as children. Bullies hate themselves unconsciously, and project their rage/fear onto others. When a bully is effectively confronted, they will usually back down, and attempt to seek out a new victim. Many people that take up the martial arts were/are victims of bullying. Okinawa, as a culture, was "bullied" by the Chinese, the Japanese, and later, European expeditions. The Okinawans, understandably, had little use for the concept of martial philosophy. Karate-jutsu, reality combat, became the only practical course of study. Unfortunately, sometimes bullies only understand one thing.

Living With Death: The Sojourn of The Classical Warrior

Conflict is at the cornerstone of daily existence. Not only people, but in nature as well. In the wild, predator and prey maintain a balance in the ecosystem, while at the molecular level, anti-bodies converge to fight off invading viruses and diseases. If the focal point of martial arts is dealing with conflict, then they well should be regarded as a metaphor for living.

Behind the advent of conflict is the possibility of annihilation- death. Death is a topic of major concern for all the world religions and philosophies. Carl Jung noted that the only way to have true passion for life is to embrace the fact that someday we are going to die. For the classical warrior, mortal combat was his chosen path. In his "Book of Five Rings", Miyamoto Musashi exclaims that there is a life beyond the dojo walls, that the aspiring trainee should become familiar with activities that will deepen his or her spirit; composing poetry or music, calligraphy, or painting. These become artifacts that will endure our physical lives. Martial arts reflects the art of living, of creating, and through creation, we sow the seeds for our true nature.

Courage

Peter Urban, an American Karate Grandmaster wrote in his book, The Karate Dojo, "....(only real) martial artists have no fear." Compare this to a quote from the famous author, Mark Twain, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear". Fear is an innate part of our psyche; denying fear is like denying we're human. In the martial arts, a little bit of fear is actually a good thing- it keeps our focus razor sharp, while at the same time, overcoming it strengthens our resolve. This resolve that develops, results in the very powerful human trait we call courage.

Being courageous does not mean taking some foolish chance. It really means acting in both an appropriate and responsible manner, that can involve at times, great risk. A true act of courage is always a response that is perfect for that situation. It is never about trying to be a hero, or looking good, or even about winning. Finding courage is a highly personal endeavor - may we all possess it when we need it most.