Newsletter 810
Defeating Distractions to Find the True Martial Art
Good afternoon!
Special day tomorrow,
I’ll tell you about it down the page,
but before we get to it,
remember this:
the only way to celebrate this special day is to…
work out!
Okay, hope your interest is piqued,
but before we talk about that special day,
let’s take a moment to talk about emotion.
Ultimately,
you don’t want to have any emotion in your martial arts.
You don’t want to cry,
or feel fear,
or anger,
or any kind of emotion.
Emotion is a distraction.
It gets in between the thought of what you are going to do,
and the reality of what you do.
There is this thing called emotional content,
Bruce Lee mentions it in ‘Enter the Dragon,’
but even that,
ultimately,
is a distraction.
To get to the pure state
where you can read the mind of the attacker,
see what he is going to do before he does it,
and move with perfection,
you must get rid of ALL emotion.
There is a problem,
however.
The problem is that nobody really knows what emotion is.
If you can stick with me through a couple of points
I can help you understand,
which is to say that I can help you understand
something that nobody understands.
Here’s the dictionary definition for emotion:
a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others: she was attempting to control her emotions | his voice was low and shaky with emotion | fear had become his dominant emotion.
But that doesn’t tell you what emotion is.
That is like saying electricity goes through wires,
but there is no mention of where electricity came from,
what a generator is,
or how electricity ‘flows’ through a wire.
It is an inadequate definition.
Here are three more definitions:
1 she was good at hiding her emotions: feeling, sentiment; reaction, response.
2 overcome by emotion, she turned away: passion, strength of feeling, warmth of feeling.
3 responses based purely on emotion: instinct, intuition, gut feeling; sentiment, the heart.
Again,
these don’t tell you where emotion comes from,
what has generated it,
and how it really works.
So,
here we go,
here is what emotion actually is.
Emotion stems from motion inside the head.
And here is a truth,
there are only people in this universe.
Everything else in the universe,
all the objects and non-living things
(or ‘low living’ like animals)
are the effect of motion in the universe.
A bug sits on a stalk,
a frog sees the swaying stalk and must flick his tongue.
A coyote sees the motion of the tongue,
and is compelled to eat the frog.
The universe happens like dominoes.
And,
the ONLY thing in the universe
that can upset the dominoes,
can change the path of the falling dominoes,
can change cause and effect,
is a human being.
A human being has choice,
and that ability,
that decision making ability,
is apart from the universe,
and can cause the path of the universe
to change and change and change.
So a human being can change the universe,
but how does he change it?
by having a thought first.
So he thinks,
and does what he thought about,
and what he thought about comes to be.
But,
in between the thought and the accomplishment,
is emotion.
Think about it:
A man wants to accomplish something,
he sets out on the task,
then he gets angry,
or fearful,
or otherwise emotional,
and his ability to make accomplishment is lessened.
He was distracted.
Which brings us to the crux of the matter,
why does man create these (his own) distractions?
Why does he create emotion
and waylay himself?
Why?
What happens when you squeeze an lemon?
Juice squirts out.
Gets in your eye and you cry.
So a man creates emotion when he is squeezed,
like a lemon,
and ‘things’ squirt out.
things like fear,
anger,
hate,
and so on.
And these things disrupt the mind,
cause distraction,
and obscure the basic thoughts that one may have.
When I was a child I was spanked,
which is to say I was squeezed.
I experienced fear,
and pain,
and anger,
and that stuff,
because I didn’t know what it is,
it stayed with me for a long time.
It would even be fair to say that,
like dominoes,
certain of those emotions
caused me to study martial arts.
How weird.
So when you feel pain and anger
and all those unpleasant things
just say ‘no’ to them.
Just refuse them.
Refuse to dwell on that emotion,
refuse to have motion inside your head,
refuse to feel the lingering effects of being squashed (squeezed),
and go about your life.
Refuse the distraction
and accomplish your thoughts.
Of course,
it is not always easy to do that.
Sometimes what is big in your head is greater
than your ability to ignore.
That is where the martial arts come in.
The martial arts train you to accomplish an attack,
no matter the distraction,
and the heck with emotion.
No other practice on earth does this
more efficiently or to greater effect.
You face your partner on the mat.
He growls,
people yell,
you are tired,
but because you have endured training,
and pain and other distractions,
and gotten to your black belt,
you are able to ignore the distractions,
move forward,
and accomplish the thought of the strike,
or the lock,
or the takedown,
or whatever.
You simply train yourself to ignore
the motion inside your head,
to ignore anything in the universe that tries to stop you,
and you accomplish your thought.
Here’s a cruel trap,
people who start the martial arts,
then quit,
were distracted.
They let something squeeze them,
and they quit.
And the cruelty is that if they had kept going
they would have found the ability
that would have enabled them to ignore distractions,
and accomplish their thoughts.
Catch 22.
Yes?
One last thing I want to say about this.
There are many people who fail,
and,
there are many people who are studying something
thinking it is a martial art,
when it isn’t.
You have to study the true martial arts.
You have to find forms that work,
and you have to make them work.
You have to cleanse your techniques
so they become pure
and can show the thought that created them.
That path creates the discipline.
Just fighting does not.
Fighting teaches you to fight.
Doing the real martial arts,
practicing techniques until you can make them work,
that is the discipline of ignoring distractions
and getting yourself to the point
where you can make your thoughts work.
The best method,
because incorrect movements
(which are distractions)
have been removed,
is Matrix Karate.
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/
Okay,
that special day I was talking about.
For me it is the most important day in the universe,
for it is when I decided to have physical presence on this planet.
Birthday.
And,
if you have been following this blog
for the last couple of decades,
then you know I always ask for one, specific present.
Forgive me.
If I have sent out the wrong order,
didn’t answer an email,
didn’t answer an email quickly
said the wrong thing,
didn’t understand something,
failed in some way,
if i have done
ANYTHING
that might have offended you,
or caused you ANY sort of distraction…
Forgive me.
Help me clean up my universe,
help me not have the distractions
of bad service,
poor communications,
or ANYTHING else.
It will help me,
and it will help you.
Thanks.
Now…
HAPPY WORK OUT!
Al
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/matrix-karate/
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