Warriors

My closest friends are warriors of all genders, who do not wear panties of submission, who go out on non-existent limbs, until the limb materializes beneath them, then go on from there. Great and boundless hearts.

Kajutsu in the wrestling ring

I told this happening to James Jay the other morning during our conversation. He suggested I write it up. so here it is.

Returning from my martial art experiences with Tatsuo Shimabuku Sensei on Okinawa, I began teaching karate and jujutsu, which I called kajutsu, in Atlanta (1961). A pretty good following of students developed at several locations. After the trainings hit the local paper (martial arts was new to Georgia at that time), a fight promoter approached me and wanted to book me into a match with a wrestler. I had already had some experience with a golden gloves boxer in which I spear-handed him into the armpit when he jabbed. He stopped jabbing. I said sure.

Luckily, I had a wrestling friend at the gym where I taught and worked out. About a month before the event, he sauntered over, over 6 feet tall and heavily muscled, and said, George, put your best hold on me. I said okay, lay down. That should have been my first clue, that I would have to get any wrestler I was fighting supine on the mat before I made my first big move. Not me. I was a young buck full of piss and vinegar and fresh out of the Marines. 

I put one leg over his throat and the other over his chest while I held his outstretched arm by his wrist in such a manner that I could raise my hips and break his arm at the elbow.

He stood up with me hanging on his outstretched arm and slowly bent his arm with me hanging on it like a helpless nerd. Hahahahaha!!!

He said, George, in order to win you are going to have to kill the guy.

He spoke truth. I contacted the promoter and withdrew.

I relearned what I already knew. If you ever have to use this stuff, escape and run like hell.

Sensei Dream

Sensei Shimabuku appeared this night in vivid dream.
He was strong, vibrant, eyes flashing, positive energy.
He greeted me with an energy merge, chest-belly to chest-belly.
We were happy to see each other.
He showed me how to make poultices.
One was a green paste.
He laughed at the last one, saying
"This one is stainless steel."
I am grateful.

unperturbed

turb -- a head wrap, such as turban
per -- completely
perturbed -- to have one's head completely wrapped
unperturbed -- head unwrapped, wide open, free

memory

Memory: We lay in our bunks, six to a tier, steel rectangles with canvas laced to form a bed, if bed you could call it. Hundreds of us in the hold, Marines. Ready to leap off when directed and slam our bodies into whatever awaited. Constant thrum of engines, snores, and intermittent farts. We did not care. We were young, brash, and foolish. Which somehow amounts to bravery.

sphere transformation

Aikido Sensei Koichi Tohei taught us to sit quietly, to visualize a small sphere at the core of our being, to be that sphere. With each breath exhalation the sphere that you are doubles in size. This can continue until you are as expansive as the cosmos. When you have expanded as far as you wish (encompassing the planet can be far enough), allow each breath inhalation to halve the sphere you are. Half and half and half, until you are back to the size of your original sphere. Continue halving in size until you are in the realm of the subatomic or as far in smallness as you feel comfortable. Reverse the process and double in size again with each out breath until you are back to the original visualized sphere. Sit quietly. Smile, get up and be on your way. No longer bound by rigid body image, the world is different to you now.

WuChiKu Practices

CONDENSING -- Energy can be withdrawn to an infinitesimal core.
EXPANDING -- Energy can be extended outward in all directions.
CONDENSING/EXPANDING -- Both occur simultaneously.
ENERGY TRANSFER -- Energy transfer is a natural daily occurrence.
NO HESITATION -- Allow the sword to swing itself.
STANCING -- Stance affects trance.
DANCING -- Dance affects trance.
GROUNDING/ROOTING -- Embody Earth.
OPENING/RELEASING -- Embody Heaven.
ATTENTIONING -- Attention directs Energy; Energy follows Attention.
TRANSFORMING -- Energy quality can be consciously shifted/changed.
ENERGIZING -- Energy can be called and it will come.
NO-MINDING -- Head and Heart entrain.
INTENTIONING -- Intention sets the universe in motion.
BREATHING -- Breath is inspiration and letting go.

learning how to die

"Keep one-point" is the most powerful and most essential practice taught me by a martial art teacher (Koichi Tohei). Keeping one-point has served me through my life and is now serving me as I continue learning how to die.

The one-point or center in the body is two to three inches below the navel and deep inside. One moves from one-point. This allows one to get out of the head chatter, out of entangling emotion, out of fabricated illusion and move with full attentiveness and clarity through life.

But how about through death? One does not want to stay attached to one's body. Where then shall one keep one's one-point? Where shall one center oneself?

I practice the answer to this question even now. I center in the Formless that is producing this form. Rather than being a body that is embodying the Life Force, I practice being the Life Force that is embodying. In other words, I am practicing dying before I die. I identify with the Formless rather than the form.

Where is my one-point? I center in the vastness that produces all that is. I hear comforting laughter and feel warmth and peace. Centering and opening. No attachment. Boundless capaciousness. As Stephen Levine put it, a spiritual being having physical experiences rather than a physical being having spiritual experiences.

whole body breathing

Sit comfortably. Close eyes or look at ground or floor.
Breathe in through nose. Breathe out through nose. 3 times.
Breathe in through nose. Breathe out through eyes. 3 times.
Breathe in through nose. Breathe out through throat. 3 times.
Breathe in through nose. Breathe out through heart. 3 times.
Breathe in through nose. Breathe out through belly. 3 times.
Breathe in through nose. Breathe out through pelvis. 3 times.
Breathe in through nose. Breathe out through soles of feet. 3 times.
Breathe in through nose. Breathe out through crown of head. 3 times.
Breathe in through nose. Breathe out through whole body. 3 times.
Get up. Laugh. Go on your way.

beneath death

When the elements wanted to become an embodying, "Death became the out-breath, and entered the navel (Aitareya Upanishad). The warrior of spirit (life force) centers in the body just below the place of death entry [tantien (Chinese), hara (Japanese), the one-point). One is not above death. One is beneath it. No fear. No hesitation.

two energies combine as one

tyger tyger burning bright

There is an old story of a tiger cub found and raised by goats. The goats taught him to eat grass and to bleat. One day an old male tiger came by. The goats scattered. The cub stood there alone. The older tiger said, WTF you think you doing? Come with me! The young tiger was given tiger food. His body transformed. He roared with energetic awareness. No goat no more.

becoming a sphere of confluence

Nonlocal Mind

“The atom thus became a center of the dynamic field; and since it could not be separated from the field, which pervaded the fields of other atoms, each atom pervaded the whole universe.”

-- The Encyclopedia of Philosophy

“A courageous scientific imagination [is] needed to realize fully that not the behavior of bodies, but the behavior of something between them, that is, the field, may be essential for ordering and understanding events.” – A. Einstein & L. Infeld, The Evolution of Physics

“Although we seem to be different individuals inhabiting separate bodies, we are intimately connected with each other at some level of the mind. This image has surfaced consistently throughout human history. It permeates the language of poets, artists, and mystics, and has been repeatedly understood by spiritual adepts of all the great religious traditions.

The view that human consciousness is unified and connected, however, has largely been considered heresy since science began its ascendancy three centuries ago. The predominant belief holds that the mind is a product of the brain, and is therefore confined to the body and to the here and now. This means that we are limited by our senses, that we cannot possibly perceive or convey information at great distances or outside the present moment. This point of view has become dogma in our century…

But, as Aldous Huxley once said, facts do not stop being facts because they are ignored. And the evidence has never been greater that consciousness can act outside the brain and the present, defying the constraints of space and time.

In Miracles of Mind, Russell Targ and Jane Karta provide compelling reasons why the limited view of consciousness must give way to an expanded one in which the mind knows no bounds. Their thesis, which is based both in empirical science and personal experience, is that the mind is nonlocal – that is, cannot be localized or confined to specific points in time, such as the present moment. This means that in some sense our consciousness is infinite – soul-like and boundless, limitless and immortal.” – Larry Dossey, Preface to Russell Targ & Jane Katra, Miracles of Mind: Exploring Nonlocal Consciousness and Spiritual Healing

“In this space-experience, the temporal sequence is converted into a simultaneous co-existence, the side by side existence of things in a state of mutual interpenetration, and this again does not remain static but becomes a living continuum, in which time and space are integrated.” – Lama Govinda, Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism

“We work with being, but non-being is what we use.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“If the mind stops, the enemy appears; if the mind remains fluid, no enemy exists.” – Yamaoka Tesshu, The Sword of No-Sword

“The Master observes the world but trusts her inner vision. She allows things to come and go. Her heart is open as the sky.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Whither shall I flee from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me.” – Psalm 139: 7 – 11

Body

Q – What is this body?

A – “Our lives are a part of the universal ki enclosed in the flesh of our bodies. Though we say that this is ‘I’… it is actually the ki of the universal. Even though that ki is confined in flesh, it is in conflux with and active as a part of the universal.” – Sensei Koichi Tohei, Ki in Daily Life

A – “Man has no body distinct from his Soul: for that called Body is a portion of soul discerned by the five senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.” – William Blake

A – “The body radiates several forms of energy that can be measured by the instruments of Western science… Each of us is surrounded by an aura, if you will, of radiant heat; this heat may be perceived several inches from the skin by a sensitive hand, and from much greater distances by thermister and infrared sensors. We are surrounded by what anthropologist Edward T. Hall terms an ‘olfactory bubble;’ individuals of some cultures…feel uncomfortable when talking to someone they can’t smell. There is also an electromagnetic field, associated with the pulsing of the heart, in and around the body; highly sensitive instruments have measured this field at a distance of several inches. In addition, the body is surrounded by a cloud of ionized sweat that can be measured by electrostatic indicators. We might also bear in mind that we trail a cloud of warmed air, water vapor, carbon dioxide, bacteria, and viruses from our breathing, and that all this material, which has circulated through a most intimate cavity within our bodies, is very rapidly intermingled with that of all the others who share our breathing space.

All in all, we are not nearly so separate and skin-encapsulated as we are generally led to believe. In the 1930’s, psychologist Kurt Lewin theorized that people exist within a psychological ‘life space’ and that they interact with the outside world by means of this permeable and malleable field rather than by direct contact. It becomes clear after only a moment’s thought that we are by no means imprisoned within our skins. Our interactions with the world are multiple and various. That we exist as intermingling fields, that we possess many ways of sensing one another at a distance, is not really remarkable.” – Michael Murphy, The Future of the Body: Explorations Into the Further Evolution of Human Nature, quoting George Leonard, The Ultimate Athlete

Real-I-Zation

“Normal reality is like a spell… The problem arises when you can make the spell but not break it.” – Deepak Chopra, Quantum Healing

Q – Why do we not see, not comprehend nonlocal time/space?

A – Because of “defects,” knots, contortions. The Sanskrit term is dosha: “a defect, something clouding or impeding or spoiling the existence or proper functioning of a thing. In spiritual matters, doshas are states such as anger, hatred, unwillingness to share, absence of meditation, and above all Ignorance – feeling the Self as imprisoned and of special qualities. They [doshas] are based on false notions.” – Trevor Leggett, The Chapter of the Self

Q – How does one comprehend, realize, nonlocal time/space?

A – “Be still, and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10

A – “…establishing the center of the universe, [and] also his own center; he so ‘expands’ that the six directions of space are actually brought within himself. It is by this ‘expansion’ that a man ceases to be a part, a fragment, and becomes whole or holy; he shatters the illusion of separateness.” – Black Elk

A – “Freedom from anger, freedom from thrill, non-irritation, freedom from greed, being without delusion or self-display or spite, truth-speaking, moderate diet, no back-biting, freedom from jealousy, sharing with others, giving up, straightforwardness, gentleness, calm, control, the yoga which has no conflict with any being, nobility, kindness, contentment -- these apply to all stages of life. Practicing them in the approved way, one becomes all pervading.” – Trevor Leggett, The Chapter of the Self

A – “Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.” – Isaiah 26:3

A – “Shankara’s reply is that it is just this conviction ‘I am so-and-so, and now I will do this’ which is the cause of imprisonment in a body. If [you] want freedom…give up this conviction and feel ‘I am the universal spirit.’” – Trevor Leggett, The Chapter of the Self

Q – What happens when we do realize?

A – “If you don’t realize the source, you stumble in confusion and sorrow. When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused, kindhearted as a grandmother, dignified as a king. Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Q – Shouldn’t  I rush around, create a great commotion, let people know I’m here, leave my mark in history/herstory? Isn’t this my duty, the supreme aspiration, to BE somebody?

A – “The heavy is the root of the light. The unmoved is the source of all movement. Thus the Master travels all day without leaving home. However splendid the views, she stays serenely in herself. Why should the lord of the country flit about like a fool? If you let yourself be blown to and fro, you lose touch with your root. If you let restlessness move you, you lose touch with who you are.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Q – But won’t I be a wuss, a weak nothing, if I, as a particulate, allow my going “gentle into that good night?” Must I not “rage, rage against the dying of the light?”

A – “He who is harmony with the Tao is like a newborn child. Its bones are soft , its muscles are weak, but its grip is powerful. It doesn’t know about the union of male and female, yet its penis can stand erect, so intense is its vital power. It can scream its head off all day, yet it never becomes hoarse, so complete is its harmony.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Q – You mean let go of the particulate and open to the universal? What about my fear?

A – “The best defense is complete vulnerability.” – Samurai maxim

A – “There is no greater illusion than fear, no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself, no greater misfortune than having an enemy. Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

A – “And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” – Jesus, Mark 4:40

Hara (Center)

“When a person possesses a fully developed Hara s/he has the strength and precision to perform actions which otherwise s/he could never achieve even with the most perfected technique, the closest attention or the strongest willpower. Only what is done with the Hara succeeds completely.” – Karlfried Durckheim, Hara: The Vital Center of Man

“Keep One-Point. To keep One-Point means to coordinate your mind and body by settling your mind at a single point in the lower abdomen. ‘Ningen banji wa hara da’ means that everything depends on whether one has the guts for it or not. From ancient times, the importance of settling one’s mind at the ‘Seika Tanden,’ an area below the navel, was emphasized.” – Sensei Koichi Tohei, Ki No Shu Ren Ho: How To Develop Ki

“Keep your mind on the center and do not waver.” – Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

“The universe condensed becomes myself. This in turn condensed becomes the one point which is the center of the universe. The one point is not really a tangible point, but the point which infinitely condensed never becomes zero but becomes one with the universe. While standing if you relax your whole body, your weight will naturally settle in your lower abdomen. The one point is the center of your lower abdomen about 2 inches below the navel. – Sensei Koichi Tohei, Ki No To Itsu Ho: How To Unify Ki

Die Before You Die

“I am being pushed out from how I have related to people, out to stand up on my own, being primarily related to God. I cry. I am sad to leave. Nothing will be the same. I have to go through now, out through arms, out of some belly or loins, out into the open where there are no negotiations or deals with people – just standing on my own like a tree…” – Ellen Anthony, Somebody Has To Die

“The disciple simply burns his boats and goes ahead. He is called out, and has to forsake his old life in order that he may ‘exist’ in the strictest sense of the word. The old life is left behind and completely surrendered.” – Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

“Die every morning. Think of yourself as already dead every morning. Every day, in the morning, in a tranquil frame of mind, think of yourself as already dead without fail, cogitating upon a variety of forms of death, picturing your last moments…and suddenly dropping dead…Once ‘dead,’ one’s energy and attention are set free to pass directly to the fulfillment of your purpose, beyond any necessity of worrying about the proper course of action…

Contrary to the western idea, a man who lives ‘as one already dead’ is not a dead corpse; he is a man who is free from all tenseness, strain, and fear.” – Yamamoto Tsunetomo, The Hagakure: A Code to the Way of the Samurai

“You asked for a remedy, that your problems might be cured. You do not need to be cured, you need to be slain. Quit looking for remedy and let death come. This is the only way to deal with self…Uncover everything in simplicity and holiness (wholeness) and then allow yourself to die. – Fenelon, Let Go!

what is overlooked

What is overlooked, perhaps not even understood, is that the Marine Corps did not pay our tuition to Sensei Tatsuo Shimabuku, founder of Isshinryu Karate, for us to develop a career stateside as karate masters with belt ranks and schools, but to learn to disable and kill in hand-to-hand combat.

Ki Sayings by Koichi Tohei

gateless gate

"Cast off limiting thoughts and return to true emptiness. Stand in the midst of the Great Void. This is the secret of the Way of a Warrior." -- Morihei Ueshiba

bhagavad gita report

Report on last evening's Bhagavad Gita meeting: Arjuna is on the floor of his chariot, dejected and world-weary. He asks his chariot driver, Krishna for advice. Big mistake! He may not want to hear what Krishna has to say. Krishna says we are made up of three energies: Inertia, Activity, and Light. Inertia is the ground floor, the muck from which the lotus springs. Activity is the horizontal world, the world of lists and their accomplishment, the world many of us believe to be Reality. Light is the vertical world, the realm which births all that is. We humans can choose which realm to cultivate. Our attention is the tool we use to do so. Whatever we attend to, we become: inertial muck, ceaseless frenetic action, the light of Awareness. The light of Awareness reveals our "own-being," the nature and character of who we are. Our destiny and our responsibility is to express, advance, unfold the essence of who we are at core. This ongoing flow is the river of our karma (think genetic inheritance and outpouring -- we are the ones up to bat now for our ancestral flow).

warrior of spirit

Warrior of Spirit: A warrior is one who faces and deals. Spirit is dynamic lifeforce. A warrior of spirit is an embodying of the lifeforce facing and dealing with whatever arises this moment now. A warrior of spirit, a sphere of radiant energy, follows the nine practices and principles at the core of the martial and healing arts.

i am thankful

i am thankful for sensei tatsuo shimabuku who taught me how to kick ass efficiently and devastatingly with his isshinryu one heartmind karate, sensei ron lynch who taught me the jujutsu joys of hurling and being hurled through the air into submission chokeholds and bone breaks, sensei koichi tohei who reinforced and amplified my understanding of energy flow with his four principles of keep one-point, relax completely, extend ki, and weight underside

and my sensei friends, sensei partick martin my push-hands brother of menacing intent, sensei jon rudy fierce warrior and healer in a quiet unassuming package, and sensei bob frumhoff who helps me remember that i don't know shit

how the martial arts got into me

Well, yes, it's time for another re- collection, or this one might best be termed a wreck-o-lection. Today I want to tell you how I got into the martial arts. This here boy when I was maybe 14 or so invited me to his house. It was a setup but like all setups the dupe doesn't know and guess who was the dupe? This boy, let's call him Biff as in Biff-Bam cause that's what happened, had a dad who taught him how to box. Now I didn't have a dad and didn't know nothing about nothing. Biff says wanna box? I says sure. Next thing I know I got these gloves tied on my hands where I can't throw any dirt clods which is my favored form of defense and he's beating the holy hell out of me. He must have gotten worn out in there somewhere because mercy was not in his catechism. I went home with a stinging face and a determination -- you can guess what it was. It took a while though -- I had some things to do first. Years later I joined the Marines and went to Okinawa. Fast forward. I was teaching karate and jujutsu in Atlanta with a bunch of fight fanatics. A boxer came over -- it was a large open gym -- and asked if he could try out his boxing against what I was doing. I said sure. Poor guy. He knew nothing of Biff. This time I didn't put on any gloves. Every time he jabbed I went in low and gave him a spear hand in the armpit. He stopped jabbing pretty soon. We departed on friendly terms. And I had come full circle. He had given me a gift. So there you have it. How I got into the martial arts. Or rather how the martial arts got into me. I guess if there's a moral it's that getting whupped up on in life can cause one to blossom in unexpected ways.

tiger stare

From my 1961 martial arts notebook:
TORA NIRAMI (Tiger Stare) Take kneeling position facing each other, give KIAI and keep all stomach muscles tensed while staring without blinking at a spot between the eyes; and this is a form of hypnotism, and the stronger will overpower the weaker. Do not use in social gatherings or normal conversation as it will cause people to be afraid of you.

I found that "keep all stomach muscles tensed" is more accurately translated as "keep one-point" -- all action comes from the hara, the tan t'ien.

New Kata

We opened to the world premiere of the "Cell Phone Talk Outdoors" kata at our Wu Chi Ku gathering yesterday. Here are the moves.

1. Bow
2. Ready Posture
3. Whip Out Cell Phone (no cell phone actually used; that would make it a weapons kata)
4. Cell Phone To Ear
5. Disturb The Dirt
6. Kick The Rock
7. Stiff Legged Walk
8. Spin And Turn
9. Lean Back Look Up
10. Switch Cell Phone To Other Ear
11. Pick At Lint On Clothes
12. Stare At Lint
13. Open Expansive Gestures
14. Stiff Legged Walk
15. Spin And Turn
16. Close And Pocket Cell Phone
17. Ready Posture
18. Bow

Now that the "Cell Phone Talk Outdoors" Tai Chi / Qi Gung kata has been introduced into the world, I am looking forward to its eventual display at martial arts demonstrations and to, no doubt, The First International Man/Machine Interaction Kata Competition.

do you want to transform yourself?

Do you want to transform yourself?
Then follow these two principles.

1. Attention directs energy.
2. Whatever you attend to, you become.

Otherwise,
keep attending to the same old things
and die as you are.

the cosmic fight club

I belong to the Cosmic Fight Club. The Great Mystery is my personal trainer, oversees the whole endeavor, gives me good instruction. Rumi, my road man, laughing and singing and dancing backwards and sideways thru wide open spaces.

George Breed is my sparring partner. He's a wily little devil and knows all my weak spots. Buddha is my cook, serving generous portions of his nourishing Heart Sutra soup. Lao Tzu, my press agent, reluctant to say anything at all. Jesus is my cut man. He knows all wounds and their healing.

The posted training schedule is simple. No matter when I look, it says Now. I'm always at the gym, always working out, when I think I'm not, and when I don't think I am.

This spiritual athlete business is tough. But I wouldn't have it if it were any other way.

countering the sorcerers of ruin

I am struck by how similar Wall Street, corporate powers, and their henchmen (judges and congressional cronies) are to the "sorcerers of ruin" in certain African societies who are described as eating the flesh of others (profiting off other's misfortunes), employing zombies (armored goons) to protect their wealth, and sacrificing their own children (all our children's future) in order to reap wealth and societal advantage. Sorcerers of ruin are countered by sorcerers of healing who throw off the ruinous spell and open the society to balance, fairness, and beauty.