Tag Archives: karate spirit

Making Oneself Aware to Find the True Martial Art

Posted on July 2, 2019 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 975

The True Martial Art of Awareness

Got a student here,
having a rough time with Tai Chi.
When doing the form
she wants to go to a posture,
strike the posture,
and that’s all.
But the problem is one of awareness.

When I was doing a lot of Pa Kua,
one of the drills I made myself do
was walk the circle
while staring at my finger.
Focus on the finger.
And the point was this…
DO NOT GO UNCONSCIOUS!
In other words,
grow more aware.

When you strike a pose,
this is common in Karate and kung fu,
you have a moment of awareness.
When you follow the finger
as you walk the circle,
you create awareness at all times.
So striking a pose might result in 10% awareness,
but you need to achieve
100% awareness.
Awareness at all times.

If you go to a party,
and you are aware 10% of the time
and a fight breaks out,
there is a 90% chance
you will get struck.

But if you are aware 100% of the time
you will probably avoid getting struck at all.

People think the martial arts are about fighting.
Or building the body,
or quickness or strength,
or winning tournaments,
or making an image to impress the girls.
Martial arts,
TRUE martial arts.
have nothing at all to do with that.
They are about building awareness.

You have to break through the obsession with the body,
then even put aside energy,
and just become aware.

When I walk the circle in Pa Kua
I hold a finger and stare at it without break.

When I do a Tai Chi form I create circles
around my body with my hands,
and I never have a corner,
never pause or speed up,
just hold awareness in every motion I do.

When I do a freestyle drill,
the point is NEVER to beat the other person,
it is to create awareness,
to create a shield of awareness around myself
so that nobody can penetrate,
so that I can deal with anything
because I am aware.

And,
forgive me for the obligatory ad,
but if you are interested in Tai Chi especially,
but any art,
Matrix Tai Chi creates awareness
about ten times better than the classical form.
It is a simple matter of applied logic.
Maybe I’ll go into this in a later newsletter,
but for now,
remember this…
if you want your martial arts to be true
you must create awareness.
Period.

Here’s the link…

2ba Matrix Tai Chi Chuan

Now have a GREAT Fourth of July!
Al

A WIN!

Al, Very early this morning I downloaded the Matrix Tai Chi package and wow! I read through the manual and am very impressed. I cant wait to start practicing what I am reading. The posture matrix and the application matrix, it makes so much sense. It took me a long time to learn the Yang short and long form as well as the Cheng Man Ching 37 form. Using the matrix I could have learned that all much quicker. I also glanced at the form video that came with the download and it reminds me of both Yang and the Cheng Man Ching forms run together but it all makes such perfect sense having read over the manual. I will read the manual over and over as I go through the course. I did the 5 Army Tai Chi course first and love it but I am seeing a lot more in the 5 Army form now having read the manual and all this after a quick read! This is great, I cant wait to get heavy into this program. I will keep you posted and as always, Thanks! ~ Kurt

“If you want to learn to swim jump into the water.
On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you.”
– Bruce Lee

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True Meaning of ‘Empty’ in the Martial Arts

Posted on June 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

The Empty of Martial Arts

Gichin Funakoshi changed the name of karate.
It was naha te, which means ‘China Hand.’
He changed it to Karate, which means ‘empty hand.’
There have been all sorts of interpretations
regarding the ‘empty’ in Karate,
and why Gichin did this.
There have also been a lot of interest
in the significance of the word ‘empty’
for the whole martial arts.

I think it is Kenpo that says something to the effect
that no matter if you have a weapon,
I come to you with empty hands.
This is not born out,
however,
because Kenpo, and karate,
and other martial arts
have a lot of weapons.
So what does the word ‘empty’ mean.

Take a look at a sentence from The Tao.

‘Do nothing until nothing is left undone.’

This weird statement of redundancy
and a sort of a ‘double negative’ concept
gives hint to the true meaning.
But to understand the true meaning
one has to study both the hard and the soft.
Study just the hard and you are only studying one half the art.
Study just the soft and you are only studying one half the art.
You have to study both,
then put them together,
then think a lot to figure out the significance
of the word,
of the concept,
‘empty.’

In Aikido,
you empty the space in front of the punch
so that the person falls into the empty.
That’s easy to understand.
Defines a concept of harmony.
though it is sometimes harder than stuff to make work.
But that is the soft side of empty.
Works for Aikido,
Tai Chi,
and other arts, and techniques, of that ilk.
and understanding that kind of empty
leads to a lot of hard to explain abilities.

The empty in the hard side of the art is harder to explain.
First you learn focus.
Your whole body becomes rigid with power
but just for a moment.
Before and after…the body is empty.
If the instruction is good,
or the student is unusually smart,
he figures out that he need not make the whole body rigid.
He makes just the fist rigid,
the rest of the body is empty.
And,
I should add at this point,
the mind learns to become empty to make this step.
It is hard to empty the mind,
to focus on one thing (an opponent)
to the exclusion of all else.
But that is what is needed.
Then,
if the student happens to be blessed,
he figures out that he need not even make the fist empty.
He can just empty his fist
and stick the sticks of his bones
through the watermelon body of his opponent.
You find out all about this,
and all the necessary drills to make it happen,
in The Punch.

And,
to reach this level you have to understand
a few rather incredible things.
Stuff like:
the body is nothing but space…empty.
Or:
the universe is backwards.
But I will leave that for another time.
The truth is that,
unless a person has figured out how to make an ‘empty’ punch,
this stuff tends to be very scary.

anyway,
the subject of ‘empty’
is crucial to the martial arts,
and really needs to be understood
if one is going to get past the pain of bashing,
and into the true sublime nature of the martial arts.

Al

A WIN!

I’ve ordered several courses from you, but didn’t feel like it was time to write in until now. When I first got Matrixing Chi, it didn’t really make sense to me. Then I got The Punch and things started to click. The two flowed together and complimented each other incredibly well. I began to feel energy inside me, and my punches were beginning to pack a bit more power. But it wasn’t until I ordered The Master Instructor Course that things really changed. I began to notice (and fix) mistakes I hadn’t seen before. The most noticeable was the back stance. After correcting it, my punches have become much heavier as I’m able to more efficiently channel energy up my leg, through my arm, and out my fist. ~ Mylan B

“The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”
– Bruce Lee

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How to Evolve Spiritually Through the Martial Arts

Posted on June 16, 2019 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 973

Evolution Through Martial Arts

An interesting thing to think about,
when you do martial arts,
is how much you are evolving.

If you do a form
you might be doing a certain number of squats
by doing the horse stance,
a certain number of lunges
by doing front stances,
and so on.
This is all physical.
You get in better shape through
the simplicity of body weight exercises.
But what about the spirit?
How do you measure the progress of the spirit?
Actually,
there is a way to measure your spiritual evolution
through the martial arts.

What does a white belt have?
hopes and dreams,
not much discipline,
that’s all.

What does a green belt have?
a bare understanding of movements.

What does a brown belt have?
better understanding of movements
with power.

What does a black belt have?
He understands the movements
and he has control.
Control is so-o-o much more important than power.

What does a master have?
Wisdom.
His techniques are so polished
he can do them without muscle.
He knows what is happening
without having to think about it.
So what is the difference between these ranks?

Time.
And…the number of times they have done their forms/techniques.
The number of times you have done a technique
is the most important thing here.

So you go to class,
two hours a week
for a year.
You make it to green belt
and you have some understanding of what you have done,
and you have done the forms ten times a week for a year,
or 500 times.

You go for brown belt,
you practice for another year,
and you have done the forms 1000 times.

You go for black belt,
practice for another year
1500 forms

A few years pass,
let’s say ten,
you make it to 4th degree black belt
more forms,
add them up at 500 a year…
13 years
6,500 forms

But what if you did the 6,500 forms in one year.
Would you be a master?
You might have the wisdom,
you probably need a bit more physical work,
but, yeah.
If you could do 6,500 form in one year,
you could cut 12 years off the runway.

Unfortunately,
most people practice inadequate forms.
Random movement,
incorrect physics,
dictate that they will go slowly
no matter how much they practice.

But what if you had perfect forms,
that condensed the material of the random motions
that make up the classical forms?
What if you had a form that focused
only on the true and correct technique,
and was totally logical?
Would you have to do the forms 6,500 times?
Or,
if the forms were ten times better,
could you just do the forms 650 times?

Interesting question, eh?
With an interesting answer.
You see,
after selling matrixing course,
specifically Matrix Karate and
The Master Instructor Course,
since 2007,
I have seen that people have a rough time with this idea.

They think it takes 13 years,
because some bozo who wants to make money off them
tells them so.

But if this idea was correct
we would have no rock and roll.
Takes too long to master the guitar,
you know.

If this idea was correct
we would have no army.
Takes too long to make a soldier,
you see.

If this idea was correct
we would still be cavemen,
chipping flints
and scratching our armpits.

But the idea is correct.
Kids pick up the guitar today,
and next year are rock and roll stars.

Young men are given weapons,
and go into combat a few months later.

We aren’t cavemen.

But,
we have to give up the idea
that learning is slow.

If learning was slow
we would still be children!

No.
You can learn the martial arts fast.
And you have to.
It is a dangerous world,
riots,
home invasion,
crooked cops,
a government in love with abuse…
you have to learn fast.
Period.

Here are the fastest, best, most logical martial arts courses in the world…

All you have to do is scroll down the page,
pick the art that interests you the most,
and do it so darn quickly
the mugger’s head will spin.

Have a great work out!

Al

A WIN!

I have found such tremendous benefit in my study of Matrix Karate that I want to dig deeper and deeper.  It’s only been a few weeks, but the forms flow so easily; it’s like Matrix Martial Arts are the way the body is SUPPOSED to work.  I love it! ~ Ryan O

“Those who are unaware they are walking in darkness will never seek the light.”
– Bruce Lee

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Underneath Hate in the Martial Arts

Posted on May 19, 2019 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 971

Under the Martial Arts

There are people who do the martial arts,
and there are people who wander around
on the surface of the martial arts
and never get to the real depths.

Now look,
fighting is good.
It’s got to happen.
It’s martial,
right?

But what is under that?
What is under the fighting?
Fighting is when two people communicate.
Yeah.
It’s a form of communication.
The communication is pretty basic.
‘I hate you!’
I want to kill you!’
That sort of thing.

So let me ask you,
what do you feel when you fight in the martial arts?
And,
what should you feel?

When you are doing freestyle with friends
it’s all pretty light.
It’s a game of tag.
No escalation,
but the potential is there.
And you are practicing for that potential,
for when you need it.
Except…

Yeah, that exception thing,
it’s right under everything,
nobody gets it much,
but it’s there,
and here it is.

If an insane man comes at you on the street,
wants to kill you,
should you feel hate?
Anger?
Rage?
If you do then you are lowering yourself to his level,
you are just as insane as him.
Even in the middle of a fight for life.

What you should feel is joy.
Somebody is talking to you,
and they mean what they say.
Doesn’t matter if you like what they say,
what matters is that they think enough of you
to communicate such important things to you.

And,
he is giving you a gift.
That fist,
that foot,
that knife,
is the solid part of the communication,
and it is a gift.
He is allowing you to work your technique.
He is giving you a chance to present your art,
to manifest your soul.

So let me ask you,
should your soul reflect hate?
Or should you be grateful that another human being
loves you enough to communicate his deepest desires to you?

This idea,
that a punch is a communication
and an expression of love
is underneath the martial arts.
And you should practice the martial arts
not to feel hate,
or some other emotion,
but to express love.
Except…
uh oh,
one more of those exceptional things…

when you do the martial arts
you shouldn’t feel love nor hate.
Love is a contract to express affection no matter what.
Hate is an out of control emotion,
signifying that the human has stopped thinking.

The best way to understand this is this:
there is no such thing as good,
there is no such thing as evil,
those are terms we made up
to describe things we like or don’t like.
They don’t exist,
except as concepts to describe what we are feeling.

The same thing holds true for love and hate,
love is a contract for affection,
hate is an emotion we use to attack someone.
You are going towards or way,
and to be totally efficient in the martial arts,
you put aside love and hate,
not wasting energy on such emotional expressions,
and focus only on what you are doing.

Have you ever read a book
and lost track of the time?
Or even seen a movie,
and gotten so engrossed
you were unaware of the passage of time?
That is what you should be doing in the martial arts,
that is the martial art underneath
fighting and hate and love
and all that sort of distraction.

When you fight it should be as if
you are in a tunnel,
and the reduction of the situation
is at the other end of the tunnel.
Hopefully it won’t include
the reduction and destruction
of the other person.

Oddly,
I didn’t learn this through freestyle,
I learned this,
became able to enter the tunnel,
and divest myself of distractive emotions
and concepts and such
by doing the forms.
I learned to focus and concentrate by doing the forms.

And that’s what is underneath the martial arts,
and it is easy to get to
if you just focus,
concentrate,
and dedicate yourself
to a higher existence.
Of course,
it is much easier to get there
if you have eliminated distractions from your art,
gotten rid of impure techniques,
unwanted motion and such,
by matrixing your art.

Here’s the obligatory ad;
it is one of the advanced drills I use
for teaching people how to fight without distractions,
emotions, and that sort of thing.

4ac Rolling Fists

Have a tremendous work out!
Al

A WIN!

Freestyle: I have had awful instructors who do and promote a gladiator freestyle event on a weekly basis. I hated it and never came back. What really ticked me off was that it was a TKD class. I felt like he was selling TKD as a viable street defense and I did not agree. As a brown belt in jiu jitsu I would have no problem shooting a single or double leg take down on an advanced TKD practitioner and did so repeatedly but the sparring was only stand up and people were just pounding each other. When that occurs they regressed to gross motor skills and swung and kicked wildly. That being said, your method allows the student to slowly build the skill, grown the fine motor control, and get used to the time dilation that occurs when sparring or fighting. As a person that’s deployed several times I work well in high stress environments but that took years to develop. I think your method is a scientific, controlled, and best of all repeatable manner in which to inoculate a student to stressors. ~ Paul v H.

“If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.”
– Bruce Lee

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How to Use the Four Paths to Immortality in Your Martial Arts

Posted on May 16, 2019 | Leave a comment

Newsletter 970

Martial Arts and The Four Paths to Immortality

Last newsletter I talked about the path to immortality.
I mentioned that there were four paths to immortality,
of which the martial arts are one.
Let’s talk about these four paths.
Understanding all four paths will help you better progress
on the martial arts path.

There are fourth paths to enlightenment,
or immortality,
or getting out of your body,
or whatever you want to call it.
With no particular order in mind,
one of the paths is the monk.
Simply,
you study religious texts,
and meditate (pray) on them,
until you blast on out of your head.
Here is the problem.
You have to read a lot of religious texts,
not just the ones from one religion.
This is because you need context,
and context can be had from understanding
different points of view.
Let me explain it this way:
a guy who speaks English knows some stuff,
but a guy who speaks English AND Spanish
(or any other language)
can compare and contrast words and terms.
He has a richer experience in terms of phraseology,
anecdotes and mysticisms,
he will be,
for lack of a better word,
‘smarter.’
And don’t take it hard if you don’t speak two or more languages.
I only speak one,
and sometimes I don’t understand that one to well.
So you have to study different religions
until you understand what the various beliefs mean,
and then you can progress to the deeper concept,
which is the truth.
For instance,
before last newsletter
you were (perhaps) in awe of ‘immortals’ in the martial arts,
or were, at least, impressed by what you didn’t understand.
Now,
because of the last newsletter,
you do understand,
and you understand the concept behind immortality.
Not dying,
which is something a body can’t do,
but which an eternal spirit,
the ‘I am’ that you are,
can do.

A second path to immortality/enlightenment/
knowledge of your true self,
would be the fakir.
A fakir is usually a student of Islam or Hindi.
He denies the existence of the universe,
begging for meals,
not owning anything,
putting aside family,
until he achieves the ultimate realization,
that the universe isn’t real.
Which,
of course,
makes him real.
And it’s true.
But it is a path of no luxuries,
and self denial.
Not much fun,
if you ask me,
but don’t ask me,
because I don’t want to be judgmental
concerning a path that,
like it or not,
has results.

Another path to immortality
would be yoga.
I like this path,
though there is a major problem with it.
You sit in a posture and become aware of your body.
Change your posture and you change the way you are aware,
slowly becoming aware of more and more,
until you are aware of all,
or,
at least,
aware of yourself as separate from your body.
Sort of weird,
sinking into your body,
until you blast on out of it.
But there you go.
A minor problem is that the instructions for this
vary from strip mall to strip mall,
and few wish to study ancient writings,
and then compare schools,
until they have the truth of pure concept.
The major problem is that there is no motion.
Which brings us to the last path,
the one I prefer,
which solves this problem of no motion.

In the martial arts you use the body,
and you look at it,
but only as a tool for your motion.
You deny
as a fakir,
any distractions to your practice,
to your art and fighting.
You read countless texts,
from Bruce Lee to
the Book of Five Rings to
ancient Chinese writings,
trying to understand motion
and the contortions of your body,
what it means,
the energy involved,
and so on.
Eventually,
you understand that the universe is motion,
and you come to the truth:
you are the source of motion.
Which makes you the source of everything
that happens in the universe.

Okay,
I know I have slanted a bit here,
but that is only because I love the martial arts,
and I understand everything
from the viewpoint of the martial arts.
But what I say does make sense,
and makes use of the four specific concepts of the other three paths.

Study concepts,
from Bruce to Lao Tze,
and find the pure concepts of the arts.
deny that which would distract you
from practice or from freestyle.
Contort your body,
finding the nooks and crannies of awareness,
but while in motion.
And study motion,
realizing that it is you,
the spirit,
that causes motion in this universe.

Use all four paths
to propel you through the martial arts
to truth,
to the truth of yourself,
and find out what everybody is but nobody knows…
that you are a spiritual being.

And know it.
Not like reading about water,
but like jumping into the ocean.

Here’s a link to the Yoga Kata.

4b Yogata (The Yoga Kata)

Or, if you are feeling gutsy…

Black Belt Yoga

Have an immensely satisfying work out!
Al

BTW
If you like concepts such as are in this newsletter,
check out ChurchofMartialArts.com

A WIN!

Well Al, it has been almost a year since I started working with your Matrix Martial Arts material. I am pleased to tell you that I have improved more than I ever dreamt I could with your courses.
My body is stronger, more flexible, and pain free from the Yogata I learned. My Tai Chi has become a powerful, reliable, and completely energizing martial art. I have taken up the study of Karate again after 28 years of not practicing and the work is invigorating. My Bagua has become an art that is filled with effortless power. My mind is calmed and I am happy…I’m healthier and more aware of my body than I have been in my whole life. ~ Justin H

“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.”
– Bruce Lee

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Who are the Martial Gods and Why are They So Angry?

Posted on April 16, 2019 | 1 comment

Newsletter 965 ~ sign up now!

The Martial Arts Gods are Pissed!

1967, November.
My very first class.
The instructor said:

you bow when you enter the building
to show respect for all within the building,
and the art taught within the building.

you bow to any instructors you meet
to show respect for their hard work

you bow when you step onto the mat
to show respect for everybody
who has ever studied the martial arts.

‘WAIT!’ I protested.
“Everybody?”
“yes.”
“Who is everybody?”

“The people who taught your instructors,
the people who taught the people who taught your instructors,
the people who taught the people who…and so on.”

“So I’m bowing to everybody who ever studied the martial arts?”

“Yup.”

Silence.

The instructor:
“Do you know how much blood it took
to figure the martial arts out?
Do you know how much sweat it took
to put the techniques into teachable routines?”

“Oh,” I said,
dimly understanding what I was getting into.

The instructor continued.
“When you bow to me it is not because
I wear funny pajamas and have a black belt,
it is because I represent a sacred trust,
handed down through hard work and dedication.
Got it?”

I did.

You know,
in the past I have gotten away from that explanation,
and I shouldn’t have.
I tell people that bowing is saying ‘hello,’ and ‘goodby.’
And it is,
but who you are saying hello and goodby to is pretty important.

When you walk into a church you know it is a church,
there is just a feel to it,
a spirit,
and you can feel that here is a place where people pray,
and the walls and floors and everything
have soaked up that energy.
A martial arts studio is the same.
There is a feel to the mats and mirrors and bags,
a feel different from a gym,
or a school for boxing,
it is a deeply spiritual feeling,
put there by endless ritual,
by respect,
a sense of ‘art’ that is exuded by spirit,
and deeply perceived by people who are in love with that spirit.

The martial arts spirit,
the sweat and blood and spirit
exuded by the trillions of men who ever stepped on to a mat,
who defend self and families with honor,
who believe in a better world.

Bow to it.

Have a great work out!
Al

A WIN!
I see the progressive curve in matrix martial arts, the logic, the feeling, the system (order) and the change from hard to soft, from physical to spiritual, from external to internal and how the both come together. In essence the notion of styles and belts vanishes, as does the delusional importance placed on the external, materialistic side of the martial arts…rank, fame, winning/losing, belt number and color, titles…vanity and ego. For something to be true, its opposite must also be true,… where the external is superficial and limited, the internal, the essential qualities, are deep, bound and limitless, hence the truth, coming from the source, not the human mind. Can’t take the belt with us, but the essence, the wisdom, the teachings, remain, perpetually. At least this is what I have found. On my matrixing journey from basic basics to matrix Karate, to Pangai Noon, to monkey boxing, to blinding steel, to Pakua to Tai Chi.
Now all I care about is to master the material and be the best teacher i can be. So others find their way home as well…
Thank you for all you have given me over the last 3 years.
It is a debt I can never repay in full, but it definitely brought me to the point where I am now and beyond. I humbly bow to you in sincere gratitude and respect, sensei Al.  I always considered you a Grandmaster, my teacher and a good man who cares.
Will S

“If there is a God, he is within.
You don’t ask God to give you things,
you depend on God for your inner theme.”
– Bruce Lee

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