Category Archives: kung fu

A Real Church of Martial Arts!

Monkeyland…Here We Come!

Great Day in Paradise!
Monkeyland may be as little as two weeks away.
Man,
that’s worth a dozen work outs!
So here is the URL so you can take a look at this gem in the wilderness.

http://churchofmartialarts.com/the-church/

Give the page time to load,
there’s a couple of large pictures.
And make sure you hit the FB LIKE button at the top of the page!

church of martial arts

The Church of Martial Arts!


Now,
let’s talk about Monkeyland.
Let’s talk about how it got started,
how it developed,
and how it is going to progress.

First, I wrote a book,
and it is called Monkeyland,
and the tagline is…
‘Another word for Freedom!’

It is a story of war and corruption and disaster and man’s inhumanity to man.
Yet,
after five books,
there is a sublime message,
one that forgives the thought of war
if we can only understand ourselves,
transform ourselves…
mankind has hope.

And,
I kept working out,
developing matrixing,
nibbling into Neutronics,
and I started thinking about a real Monkeyland.

A place where people were free to be themselves,
without the regulations and intrusions of government,
without the interference and distractions of evil people.
A place where the martial arts could flourish,
and people could experience what the true martial art was like.
A place where people could be free.

And I used to sit and wonder,
How the heck was I supposed to pull this off?
How could I make this happen?
And I mentioned Monkeyland in the newsletter.

Frank was one of the first people I ever taught matrixing to.
Back about 1984 we locked ourselves in the dojo
and worked out until he was a black belt.
Frank read the newsletter,
and he had his own bad case of good dreams.
He wanted a place where, among other things,
he could escape the grind of a society going bad,
where GMO could be defeated,
where solid stock, animal and human both,
could be raised.
And our dreams were going in the same direction.

It took a couple of years, some very intense negotiating,
a bunch of hoops to jump through,
but within a couple of weeks we will be on the land.
Monkeyland.
A ranch free from the contaminations of society.
A Church where people can be encouraged to plumb their depths,
find the true art that is within themselves,
is their inherent nature,
just waiting to come to the surface.

Of course,
there is going to be an immense amount of work,
but,
we are in the right time,
and the right place.

Did you know that people actually love to work?
The country only gets depressed when people aren’t working.

Did you know that people love to solve problems?
With a government telling them no,
with a society of political correctness,
where you have to ask permission to pee in ocean,
people are miserable.

But set them free,
tell them to build something,
tell them that nobody is going to stop them,
and you have paradise each and every single day.

Did you know that some people love the martial arts?
Yes, it’s true,
the brighter and more industrious members of mankind all LOVE the martial arts.

What better gift to the best on earth
than to give them a place where they can let loose their talents,
change the path of mankind,
elevate ALL martial arts!

So,
more to come,
I’ll probably have to set aside a separate section of the newsletter
just to deal with the happenings at Monkeyland.

But,
remember this…
if you are a true martial artist,
if you want to find the truth of yourself,
and if you are willing to work your fingers to the bone,
then you have a bed up here.

Within the month I should have some sort of plans started
to enable visits and instruction and even some possible live in arrangements.

But,
let me say this right now,
study your matrixing.
When you come to visit,
the first thing we’ll do is check out your matrixing.

If you can do your Matrix Karate,
right out of the box,
then we won’t have to spend time teaching you things you should already know,
and we can get right into the deeper teachings.

So here’s the URL for Matrix Karate…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/

And in a future newsletter
I’ll lay out the complete sequence of study.
But for now,
remember,
it all starts with Matrixing.
Matrixing led me to Monkeyland,
and it’s going to bring you here, too.

Now,
thanks to all,
and special thanks to Frank,
and I’ll be talking to you later.
Have a great work out!

Al

Congrats to New Master Instructor

Taken from newsletter 625,
Subscribe to the Monster Martial Arts Newsletter Now!

Hello and great day to you ALL!
And a great work out,
which will make you smarter and faster and stronger
and lead you to your dreams.
It’s true.

martial arts instructor
Congrats to Master Instructor Luis Lista!
Here’s his win…

Hi Al,

Thank you for this amazing course!

I had to watch the DVD 3 or 4 times, and I realize there are still a
lot of things that I understand intellectually but have to practice
further to make them natural.

But your statement was true. One cannot watch this DVD and read the course book seriously without having some huge realizations about the Art, and the way to practice it.

I’ve been able to correct my own stances and sharpen my “good
reflexes” in a dramatic way! I still have a lot to learn and
practice, but wow what a change, a true “mind-shifting process”!

And frankly that is not the best of it. I share the practice of your
Matrix Karate System with some people of my neighborhood, and I noticed that I can now see way better their eventual mistakes AND I’m able to propose simple and direct solutions AND show them why and how they work. That is fantastic!

At my small scale this as been the most beneficial course for helping people learning the Art… and for helping me structure the way I share the practice.

I even could make some valuable suggestion to a friend who is a master in a traditional Japanese Koryu… even I was surprised! Suggestions came by themselves because I was just seeing things you showed and explained in your course.

And I now this is a course that will follow me trough time, I’ll have
the opportunity to return to it and evaluate and learn regularly from it… what a joy!

Al, I must sincerely thank you for your wonderful work of
dissemination of Martial Arts!

Luis L.

Thank you, Luis!
and thank you for sharing with others.

Sometimes I don’t think people truly appreciate teachers,
but teaching others is how mankind actually progresses.
No teachers = no evolution.

You know,
I’ve said it before,
but perhaps it is time to say it again…
how,
exactly,
I came up with this course.

I studied,
and I wrote things down,
and I made connections,
and I thought everybody was doing the same things as I.
I didn’t think I was doing anything unique,
I thought everybody did the martial arts the way I was doing them,
I thought everybody had the same realizations,
understood about how the physics worked,
and so on.

I think the first person who abused me of this was Mike Baron.
He was my partner in one of my schools,
and actually pushed Monster into happening.
He said,
‘You know, Al, nobody else is doing the things you’re doing.’
As I recall,
I just grinned.
I thought he was just unaware of everybody else.
Then we released a couple of courses,
among them was the Master Instructor course,
and the wins started coming in.
It blew me away.
Far away.
People with lots of experience,
were telling me how
they finally understood the martial arts,
how everything had been obscured and mixed up and jumbled,
and they were finally able to see how the martial arts worked.

I was surprised,
to say the least,
and it changed the way I was doing things.

And,
it is changing the way other people are doing things.

So,
thanks Luis,
and thanks to all for being part of the martial arts.
And,
that said,
let me explain something about the martial arts.

The Martial Arts are the only field
that deal with the actual force and flow of the universe.
School and religion certainly don’t,
they just talk about dry facts,
or esoteric theories,
but don’t relate to the fact that everything in the universe
is an object that has trajectory.
And,
Martial Arts are the ONLY field on this planet that actually deals
with the force and flow of objects,
and thus with the whole universe.

This leads directly to awareness.
People who don’t study the martial arts are car crash victims.
Life happens to them,
and they don’t understand why.
Martial Artists see the way objects fly,
from the fist to the car to the whole darned planet,
and they are trained to handle the flow of objects,
and the potential collisions.

And,
even more importantly,
the martial arts provide a discipline
which leads down the path
to greater awareness.
This happens no where else.

Go to school and your intelligence actually goes down.
This is true by actual, tested statistic.
People in school study facts
until the flow of objects in this universe is obscured.

But people who do the martial arts
have quicker and cleaner intellects.
They have good health,
they handle problems as they come,
stay away from drugs,
help people learn how to be aware.

Do you understand how valuable you are?

Well,
forgive me for ranting,
but it is true,
and you really should know how special you are.

So thanks to all,
and thanks to Luis,
and here’s the URL for the Master instructor Course…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4-master-instructor-course/

And everybody have a great work out!
Al

Learning Martial Arts Straight from the Animals in New Mexico

Greetings!

And…work out!
There is no greater gift one can give oneself,
than just working out.
Becoming pure through sweat,
divesting oneself of distraction
and finding the purity of the self.

Beyond what the world expects.

We were driving up this long, long road
to a place to pitch a tent for the night.
As we drove I noticed that the road was littered with rocks.
Little chunks that looked like sparkly granite,
maybe half the size of baseballs.
I veered this way and that
attempting to miss the rocks,
but knew I wasn’t successful.
Yet there was no sensation of tire over rock.
There should have been a hundred, little bumps,
things rolling under the car,
bouncing up against the undercarriage,
yet…
there was nothing.

How curious!

So I slowed down,
rolled down the window
and peered down at the rocks on the road.
Grasshoppers!
BIG…and beautiful grasshoppers!
Their acutely folded legs moved,
and they leaped,
but,
like as not,
I squashed them with my Firestones.

So I slowed,
drove more slowly,
and navigated the road filled with giant grasshoppers.

At the tent site there were only the occassional insect,
and I found one and squatted down to watch it,
to matrix it.
Colors to match the sparkle of dew,
perhaps to draw in smaller insects for a meal.
And there weren’t any larger insects,
so no fear there.
And if a bird,
or other beast came to feast upon it,
it jumped.
The quickness of the jump was savage,
an attack in flight.
And,
the sagacity of the insect,
it landed in twist,
so that it literally bounced off its rump
and faced the way it had come.

Well,
of course.
To flee again…in attack.

Is that good martial arts…or what?
I mean,
positively brilliant!

And what was the alternative?
To land facing away,
and to become a target in flight?

No,
better to flee as if in fight.
Surprise the foe with savage thrust,
yet always end up facing,
towards not away
ready to flight again.

Fight or flight,
flight and fight,
a marvelous yin yang of martial arts survival
and something that most people just roll over,
or swat away,
or laugh at.

Yet,
in mass,
grasshoppers are one of nature’s most ferocious armies.

Interestingly,
I was brought to think of the book by McMurtry,
‘Lonesome Dove.’
During a cattledrive the cowboys are overwhelmed by grasshoppers,
so they catch bagfuls of the critters,
dip them in molasses
and fry them.

Ummm!

Cowboy treat!

And even the hardiest,
most savage warrior
become naught but food
for those who can overcome their fear.

So,
in the midst of scorpions and tarantulas,
giant grasshoppers and other denizens of the enchanted land,
I pitched tent and had dinner.

And,
no.
It wasn’t a mess of fried grasshoppers.

Every place I go I see contest and battle,
creatures struggling for survival.
Interestingly,
it is only man that has a chance.
Only man has the ability to overcome himself.
To fight or flight and land so that he faces the true enemy…himself.
His cruelties and tortures,
his naked desires and covetness.
His desire to worship warped gods and think that
it is God that made him right.

And it is only by divesting ourselves of these cruelties and nightmares
that we can ascend to the truth of ourselves.

And it is only through landing in the correct manner so that we don’t fight ourselves,
but face ourselves,
that we will succeed.

Martial Arts creates this path.
Martial arts is where we learn to fight
so that we never have to fight.
This is a truth that we must take to ourselves,
and faster than we have ever done before.

And that is the message from the enchanted land of New Mexico,
the message I received just because I drove down a road
and didn’t want to kill
some of the most beautiful grasshoppers you have ever seen.

My apologies to those who wait an email,
or a fix on an order.
Everything is working,
but there are are a couple of things I just can’t do
until I get back to my computer.

I am able to connect to the net every day,
so if anybody wants to tell me off,
or wish me well
I can handle that.

BTW,
take advantage of the KangDukWon.com
I haven’t been able to raise prices
because of being on the road,
so,
temporary reprieve,
but prices are going up.

So,
if you want to learn how to fight like an animal,
if you want to learn the wisdom of nature,
you can start with the Shaolin Butterfly.
The animals covered in that include
the snake,
the dragon,
the crane,
the tiger,
the mantis,
and more…
here’s the URL…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/6-shaolin-butterfly/

Have a great work out!
Al

Don’t forget to subscribe to this newsletter at MonsterMartialArts.com.

The Arizona Spiritual Martial Art Workout!

Have a great work out from Texas!

Got here last night,

and immediately did a workout!

The only way to survive the insanity of traveling!

 

So,

I was in Arizona the other night,

and a couple of interesting things to note.

Upper Arizona is beautiful,

trees all over the place,

lots of wildlife.

 

Really gives a lie to anybody who says

we are running out of things.

Man,

there is so much space,

so much lumber,

so much wildlife…

there is no shortage in this world,

just crooked politicos who try to frighten you

by saying there is!

 

But enough ranting,

let’s move on to the good stuff,

let’s move on to that unique universe

of doing the martial arts in Arizona.

 

Lower Arizona is dry and dusty.

Wind blowing everywhere.

At first,

I was discouraged.

Then,

sitting up late at night,

listening to the desert,

I felt it…

 

Listen,

do you know how it feels

when you cram a bunch of people in a room?

100 people in a 20 by 20 room?

People knocking elbows,

bumping into each other,

sooner or late…

there’s going to be a fight.

 

And,

multiply that by ten thousand,

and you have a city.

People packed together like sardines,

not enough room,

everybody getting cranky!

 

So I’m sitting in the middle of the Arizona deseert

and there’s no people,

and I could feel the deep, deep spirituality.

The space.

The vastness.

 

The clouds overhead were surging with life.

I could feel elemental forces moving across the deseert floor.

And then there was me,

a mote,

a speck,

audience to this vast moving play,

this magnificent display of earth and element.

 

It was spiritual.

 

And,

moved,

I began doing my forms,

and I couldn’t stop!

Elements were moving me,

forces were shoving my punches,

nibbling at my stances,

making me feel ENERGY!

 

It was massive.

 

And,

of course,

I had a realization.

In truth,

I have realized this before,

but from different perspective,

which made it all the newer and more potent to me.

 

When you are starting out

it is good to be in a dojo,

to feel the bodies,

to interact with other martial artists.

But,

as time goes on,

you need space.

You are the center of the universe,

you need to look out,

to feel the massive space within which you sit.

 

Look,

your physical body is part of you,

but the real you is as far as you can see,

as far as you can imagine!

And that is space.

That is the true empty in empty hands.

That is the truth of you that is just waiting for you to…wake up to it!

 

Sitting in Arizona,

unable to stop doing forms,

I was in the middle of that realization.

Absolutely spectacular.

 

And,

it goes without saying,

I could see myself,

I could imagine myself,

doing my forms on top of Mt. Nipomo.

Monkeyland.

120 acres,

nearest neighbor four miles away.

Exuding the essence of me through the discipline of the martial arts.

 

Heaven.

 

All the best of modern society,

but isolated,

alone,

with sufficient space

to truly delve into the martial arts.

 

Now,

that in mind,

when you do Tai Chi

the image is often of doing it on top of a mountain.

Alone.

Horzons beyond horizons.

Able to see everything.

 

 

One of the most impressive images I have ever encountereed

was a cheap wookd block carving.

It was a viewpoint of a mountain range…

from above.

 

But how could the guy get above to see that?

How could he see a yin yang in a mountain range as if from hundreds of miles up?

 

By being alone,

by doing the martial arts,

and getting so much discipline

that he was a pooint of awareness

outside of his body

high in the stratosphere.

 

So,

that was the train of my thought,

and how it related to martial arts

and to monkeyland,

and all sorts of things,

as I stood in the desert

and did forms…

and couldn’t stop.

 

So,

here’s the Tai Chi URL,

 

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/five-army-tai-chi-chuan/

 

in case you want to get started on being alone,

creating space,

finding the purest,

highest,

most elemental level of martial arts you can.

 

Mind you,

don’t give up that hard stuff,

or partners,

or the blessings of living in community of city,

and don’t give up your karate forms…

but,

do your martial arts at night,

alone,

slowly,

creating massive space.

 

Becoming aware of yor true body,

of the true extent of your awareness…

your imagination.

 

Take a hike,

find a mountain top,

exude yourself,

see if you can discipline yourself to greater and greater awareness.

 

Have a great workout,

and I’ll tell you about New Mexico Martial Arts Soirituality next time!

 

Al

 

 

 

Martial Arts Power!

Newsletter 616

Putting Power in your Martial Art

Good morning, afternoon, or whatever!
No matter what time it is,
it is time for a workout!

Now,
let’s talk about putting power in your martial arts… Continue reading

The Problem with Martial Arts Teachers

Martial Arts Teachers Problems…

martial arts teacher

Yikes!

This article, the problem with Martial Arts Teachers, is not meant to be an attack, rather an enlightenment. Consider the points I make, then consider yourself as an instructor, see if you are a True Martial Arts Teachers, or…something else. Continue reading

Real Aikido and the Fight with Beavis and Butthead

The Case for Real Aikido

I practice real Aikido, and the rest of the world doesn’t.

Don’t you just love a knucklehead statement like that? I mean, the fellow who makes it has broken rule number one: he thinks he is the only one, and therefore he is knee deep in loco.


real aikido
That said, let me give you a rundown on real Aikido, and what the rest of the world is practicing.

If you are learning a tradition with respect, no matter who the teacher is, no matter what the argument is between form and function, you are learning real Aikido. And, hey, while we’re at it, this statement extends to other classical martial arts, such as karate or tai chi chuan, or whatever.

And, to put it another way…are you learning, or are you fighting?

Now, here comes the part where I offend people. The UFCers and the MMAers are fighting, so they are not doing a martial art. They are doing a martial sport.

A lot of people get upset with me when I say something like this, they take it as a personal attack,and then explain how their school is different.

And that is the dividing point, is their school teaching, or is it promoting fighting?

It is a simple question, with a simple answer, and Beavis and Butthead can’t answer it.

You know Beavis and Butthead? They are the fellows with bad grammar who go to forums and sites and drop comments like UR STOOPID! (note the misspelling), and F*** U! (No asterisks)

Brilliant fellows these, and they don’t study real Aikido. They study ca ca humor and eat with their mouth open and it’s really important who won the fight.

But it’s not important who won the fight. What’s important is whethere an individual is actually learning, becoming more disciplined and aware, exploring the manifestations of spirituality that a human being is.

The real fight, you see, is not between the gladiators in the ring, it is between the edification of the human spirit, and the degradation of the human meatball.

That’s why I study real Aikido, and that is the dividing line one must find in their own art if they are to win the martial art war.

Real Aikido and the Fight with Beavis and Butthead

The Case for Real Aikido

I practice real Aikido, and the rest of the world doesn’t.

Don’t you just love a knucklehead statement like that? I mean, the fellow who makes it has broken rule number one: he thinks he is the only one, and therefore he is knee deep in loco.


real aikido
That said, let me give you a rundown on real Aikido, and what the rest of the world is practicing.

If you are learning a tradition with respect, no matter who the teacher is, no matter what the argument is between form and function, you are learning real Aikido. And, hey, while we’re at it, this statement extends to other classical martial arts, such as karate or tai chi chuan, or whatever.

And, to put it another way…are you learning, or are you fighting?

Now, here comes the part where I offend people. The UFCers and the MMAers are fighting, so they are not doing a martial art. They are doing a martial sport.

A lot of people get upset with me when I say something like this, they take it as a personal attack,and then explain how their school is different.

And that is the dividing point, is their school teaching, or is it promoting fighting?

It is a simple question, with a simple answer, and Beavis and Butthead can’t answer it.

You know Beavis and Butthead? They are the fellows with bad grammar who go to forums and sites and drop comments like UR STOOPID! (note the misspelling), and F*** U! (No asterisks)

Brilliant fellows these, and they don’t study real Aikido. They study ca ca humor and eat with their mouth open and it’s really important who won the fight.

But it’s not important who won the fight. What’s important is whethere an individual is actually learning, becoming more disciplined and aware, exploring the manifestations of spirituality that a human being is.

The real fight, you see, is not between the gladiators in the ring, it is between the edification of the human spirit, and the degradation of the human meatball.

That’s why I study real Aikido, and that is the dividing line one must find in their own art if they are to win the martial art war.

Cheesy Internet Ads and the Martial Arts!

Unlock the Inner you through…Martial Arts?

martial arts style

Find the Real You!

Speaking of Martial Arts, I just read an ad, one of those cheesy internet ads, about unlocking the inner you.

You’re only using 10% of your brain, and wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could unlock the other 90%? Continue reading

New Master Instructor!

A New Master Instructor, Plus…

Why We Study So Many Martial Arts…

Happy first day of the week!
Happy first workout of the week!
Make it a good one,
lose yourself in it,
and your whole week will glow.
True.

Okey doke,
thanks to all who are on the Kang Duk Won course,
don’t forget to set aside time each day,
whittle away at the art,
make it your own.

And,
congrats to Master Instructor Wilhem Stockinger!
Here’s his win…

I had a breakthru in the master instructor course yesterday, man the pieces finally came together…I was…screaming in ecstasy and joy…you are a genius master Al! I am so much more grounded and aligned in movement, it’s fantastic.
I finally got the missing pieces to what was once 6 years of Iu ryu jujutsu, 2 years of Gracie jujutsu,a few years of Muay thai kickboxing, and some Krav Maga and so on…I know I never mentioned my background since it fades away against yours and I was not enrolling into your course to talk about my past but to learn. And I did learn a tremendous amount, which not only corrected my faulty basics in form and execution, but also gave me understanding of form. Sensei, the 6 secrets, man, this is all Jujutsu theory I’ve been trained in for years, but nobody ever explained the principles, unless by practical example, but never the principles behind it. The why and how, not just the what. It was so enlightening. I am starting all over, but now the proper way. Thank you so much. I finally got the crack of technique over strength, of body mechanics over brute force. I am excited to be in the martial arts again. You are the real deal Shihan Alton Case. God bless you!

No,
thanks to you, Will.
Breaking through,
sharing your win,
somebody else is going to be
encouraged to make it, too.

And,
for everybody,
it’s easy,
it’s just how to fix your thinking.
Which makes it the hardest thing you’ll ever do.

Like Will says,
everybody talks about it,
without ever talking about it.
They talk about the surface
and never go into the depths.
They never go into why things work.
Endless drills,
endless techniques,
without ever telling you why.

So,
thanks again Will.
Persistence and tenacity in the martial arts,
that’s what you represent,
which are characteristics of good martial arts.

Okay!
I’m going to write an article on this,
it follows along with what WIll says above,
but I thought I’d mention it here, first.
I like to talk to the intelligent first,
then the masses.
Grin.

Do you know why I teach so many Martial Arts?
Why I am always open to new arts?
Why I listen avidly
when my fellow martial artists talk,
instead of opening my own yap?

It’s true,
like as not,
when the talk starts
I find it much more educational
to listen.

Well,
the reason is this.
If you were drilling a well,
you would need a stable base,
so you could build a high drill,
so you could drill deeper.
When you learn more martial arts,
when you toss the techniques around in your head,
compare and contrast,
fit them into the matrix of all techniques,
then you are building a wide database,
and you can then build a high drill,
and drill deep into your soul.

Data holds you together.
The more data you have,
the more held together you are.

Or,
think about it this way.
If you were going to build a telescope
to see to the furthest star,
then you would need a solid base,
so the telescope wouldn’t be shaken by wind or rain,
or any other force.
Then your sight would be solid and true,
and you could see to those far stars,
without them shimmying and shaking
and being a blur to your sight.

Do you understand?
The more you know,
the deeper you can dig into yourself,
the more of yourself
you can understand.

Simple,
eh?

Yet,
the work to make a wide database
especially in the martial arts,
with all the technique and styles and opinions and…
it can get pretty tough.

And,
it can get tough to keep it all in order,
which is one of the blessings of Matrixing.

Look,
people study,
they get a thousand techniques,
and it can take twenty years to sort it all out,
to learn to think about things in a way
that it all makes sense,
so that all of the data is at your fingertips,
instead of buried in the mass of
thousands of techniques.

So,
instead of lumping everything together,
and training like crazy.
You just put your techniques into a matrix,
fit that matrix to a larger matrix of all martial arts,
and the procedure gets REAL fast.

Oh,
like Will said above,
it can take time,
but not as much,
but,
the rewards once it all clicks,
there’s nothing like it.

It’s not just studying hard forever,
that is taken for granted…
it is making sense out of it quickly,
as fast as you input data and techniques,
that’s how fast you have to make sense out of it all.

Oinky Doinkey!
That‘s about it,
got nothing left to say,
and,
besides,
I’d rather work out than talk.
I’d rather dig deep
than open my yap.

My time of day…
workout time of day!

Don’t forget to straighten out your art…

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/4-master-instructor-course/

Believe me,
it’s nothing but fun
when everything works
the way it is supposed to work.

Have a Great Work Out!

Al