The Intelligent Warrior: Command Personal Power with Martial Arts Strategies

3 The Street Fighter School. This is proliferated by people who see themselves as ‘hard’. Their attitude is that Martial Art has to be as aggressive as possible because street fights are so bloody and brutal that you can only win if you are ‘hard’, and think that the best way of training is either for you to beat people up or to get your fellow students to try to beat you up. From one point of view, this is probably the safest of the misrepresentations and the closest to the truth but it is two-dimensional and these people are dangerously missing the point: actual physical confrontation for most people is fairly rare, but conflict exists everywhere. It can also be a very dangerous attitude to take because it increases Yang energy (aggression, anger etc.), which increases the chances of you starting an unnecessary fight and getting hurt or seriously hurting your opponent, consequently increasing the chances of ending up in prison with plenty of time to contemplate what you have lost. I therefore reiterate my point that physical confrontation for most people is a fairly rare event, but conflict is a natural part of life and is present much of the time.

The Media

The misrepresentations proliferated by the media are too many and varied to go into here, but the most dangerous are the ridiculous types of fight scenes we see in movies today. These lengthy scenes comprise bodies flying, jumping and running along walls, and I am sorry to say that real street fights are never like this. Instead, they tend to be brutal, messy and quite short. It is important to understand that the roots of Martial Art are very far away from the acrobatics and gymnastics portrayed by the entertainment industry. Moreover, you must be clear in your mind what it is you are training for; if you want your Martial Art training to have an effect in your life then you must spend time studying the situations and scenarios that you may encounter.

The Difference Between Martial Art and Martial Sport

So, having looked at some of the more common misrepresentations of Martial Art let us now look at what it actually should be. As mentioned previously there is a great difference between Martial Art and martial sport; in fact, most things described as Martial Art are actually martial sport. Martial Art deals with the art of expressing the human body and develops man's innate sense of harmonization, adaptation and exploration. Martial sport, on the other hand, is far more concerned with domination and emphasizes winning as the primary objective; this can have a very detrimental effect on those who practise it as it breeds a very limited two-dimensional perception of the world. It does not teach the human being how to evolve or how to accept Yin and Yang with equal respect or how to accept winning and losing with the same spirit.

Nor does it teach of the presence of the third dimension: balance. The tradition of Martial Art teaches us how to respect our bodies and exercise them in a manner that will preserve them in older age. Martial sport uses the body as a vehicle for glory and utilizes high-impact exercise to get the quickest results possible. The martial sport practitioner seeks material affirmation of their worth as a martial artist, which might include building bigger muscles, acquiring as many trophies as possible, wearing the most elaborate clothing or breaking the most boards. This is a highly dangerous form of training as it tends to build a false image of oneself and bring an overestimation of one's abilities. If correct focus is not taught, the mind will learn to daydream repeatedly seeing itself always as the “star” of one's own show, but anyone who has a modicum of experience in street fighting knows how crippling this image of oneself can be. The pure barbarity of real combat wipes out this illusion mercilessly. The most common effect when faced with an actual conflict is that the practitioner will freeze and engage in negative internal conversation about how they should be doing better or what friends are thinking of them. I have seen many skilled martial sport practitioners freeze and be reduced to the most basic form of body mechanics when faced with a drunken, little delinquent who was not afraid of violence.

Another aspect of martial sport, which I personally find astounding, is that so many practitioners end up with serious injuries, which can never really heal. These include destroyed knee ligaments, broken and arthritic hands, various back injuries, detached retinas, fallen arches, and breathing problems caused by broken noses and poor posture. Such injuries usually occur in competitions or regular training that allow full-contact sparring or from trying to attain a material goal such as large muscles or the next coloured belt. By training in this way, the wish to learn how to defend oneself ended up with the practitioner being even less able (due to injury) to defend himself than when he or she first walked in the dojo’s (Japanese word for training room) door.

It is also true that training in martial sport tires the body and makes it age quicker. It takes many years to build something of quality and authenticity, and your body is no different. Remember that the term ‘Kung Fu’ means time spent working on yourself (which means body, mind, and spirit), so patience and perseverance need to be cultivated in the practitioner in order to build a quality ‘vessel’ or body that is integrated and whole.

Key Concepts in Martial Art

An intelligent warrior should begin cultivating the ability to express themselves from the inside outwards, not to seek an image of themselves from the outside in, as if looking in a mirror, or imagining yourself as if playing a role in a movie. Similarly, they must cultivate an understanding of discipline as a self-imposed (or by a teacher) set of parameters that helps attain goals, and not as an outside force beating them into shape or a bitter pill that has to be swallowed. The Chinese use the analogy of pruning a tree, for if it is pruned correctly it will bear greater fruit in the spring; so too, if we curb some of our overextended branches (such as putting a stop to engaging in negative emotion or thought) we will gradually develop more internal power. Martial Art should work to develop the body in a holistic manner in accordance with nature, which means evolving the body, mind and spirit harmoniously so they gradually can manifest as one force.

To understand this further we could represent this in a symbolic form, as symbols were originally used to bypass the intellectual functions and represent to the unconscious mind the ideas in question in an energetic format (see Figure 2). The dot in the middle of the symbol represents the centre or Tan T'ien, the point that we are first trying to stabilize so that everything else can orientate itself around it. The three circling tadpole-like shapes represent the primary energies: the body, mind and spirit. These are dynamically represented for they are continually moving in a cycle of imbalance and rebalancing. The circle that encompasses the Tan T'ien and the three energies is the outer level of your body, which includes your skin, eardrums and eyes. It is at this level that vibrations from the outside world actually enter your inner world. The energy of the body deals with our physical nature and encompasses the physiological, biomechanical and biochemical aspects of your body. The energy of the mind represents your thought processes and other functions controlled by the cerebrum. The energy of spirit deals with the emotions and a gradual refinement of emotional reaction into feeling. The Chinese character for spirit does not lend itself to direct interpretation into Western language; however, in the context of this book I will use the word spirit to represent our emotional energy rather than in any ‘spiritual’ context. Having said that, Martial Art should at some point lead us to a spiritual dimension. It is not the scope of this book to deal with this in depth, but it is common sense that our bodies are part of nature and they have been built on the same laws that this planet and universe have been built on. It therefore stands to reason that if we build a connection with our body and bring it more into accordance with the way nature intended then we should begin to resonate with life on a much larger scale. Whether you call it God, The Great Spirit, Allah, Vishnu or the Tao, the awakening to life on a much larger scale is part of the very roots of Kung Fu.

FIGURE 2

The symbol is also what is known as a paradoxicon in that it stimulates the balance between foreground/background perceptions. When looking at the symbol you may perceive the three aforementioned tadpole-like shapes or you may perceive a three-bladed Shurikan (throwing star). This stimulation of the mechanics of vision is essential in Martial Art training and is a subject we will return to.

Now that we have clarified to some degree what Martial Art is and is not, we can begin to approach the question of authentic self-defence. The following introduces some key concepts that I will refer to at various points throughout the book.

The Holistic Concept of Self-Defence

At the heart of this book lies the practice of holistic self-defence (from the Greek word ‘holos’ meaning ‘whole’, and related to the word ‘holy’), which is a viewpoint that allows us to look at self-defence from a very wide perspective and one that is in accordance with the laws of nature. The key concept in holistic self-defence is the principle of ‘homeostasis’, a term used by the medical profession to define the natural healthy state of an organism. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition for homeostasis is: ‘The ability or tendency of an organism or cell to maintain internal equilibrium by adjusting its physiological processes.’ We can understand from this definition that a continual process of balance is essential for the maintenance of health. Holistic self-defence looks at the concept of homeostasis not only in the body (as is the focus of Western medicine) but also in the realms of thought and emotion, and it expands to encompass the status quo or ‘outer’ conditions of our life. Another way of putting this would be that practising holistic self-defence protects you from actual physical attacks, negative thought, negative emotion, viruses, poor posture, addictions and anything that will throw the body out of balance.

We all have an internal balance that allows us to hold together an external balance that could be seen as the status quo or homeostasis of our life. During our daily life we are constantly making decisions, which are followed by actions to maintain our homeostasis. For instance, we plan ahead with money so that we do not end up homeless, we try to see friends and family to fulfil our emotional needs, and so on. This does not mean a homeless person has no balance, it simply means that the homeostasis they maintain in their life is different. However, from time to time something of a much larger magnitude may enter into one's life and throw it completely out of balance requiring some form of ‘re-action’ or rebalancing. Examples include losing a job, the death of a loved one, a partner having an affair, winning the lottery or getting a promotion. Imbalance can occur from both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ events, and sometimes we even need to consciously disrupt the balance of our life in order to move on and grow (for instance, taking the risk of quitting your job in order to set up your own business). The essential point is that the process of rebalancing through a sense of balance is our primary tool for self-defence, and that our bodies are continually engaged in this process of homeostasis on many different levels; moreover, it is, and has been, one of the keys to our ability to adapt and survive. In this way, an extremely negative person could be viewed as a virus entering your life, which you may or may not catch a similar illness from, or somebody trying to strike you could be viewed as a disease trying to gain a hold of your body, which you repel and so keep yourself in balance. In The Science of Homeopathy George Vithoulkas writes:

…every organism possesses a defence mechanism which is constantly coping with stimuli from both internal and external sources. This defence mechanism is responsible for maintaining a state of homeostasis, which is a state of equilibrium between processes tending to disorder the organism and processes that tend to maintain order. Understanding precisely how this defence mechanism works is vital, for any significant impairment of its function rapidly leads to imbalance and finally death.

Vithoulkas (1986: 16)

To understand and strengthen this defence mechanism is very much in keeping with the philosophy of Kung Fu (time spent working on yourself). It calls one to practise proactive health, to strengthen the ground on which influences fall rather than trying to destroy and control influences that we deem threatening.

The Fight-or-Flight Repsonse

Throughout the course of this book I will refer to the fight-or-flight response. This response has been evolved over countless millennia and is triggered instinctively by the body (via the autonomic nervous system) when it perceives it is under attack. Some of the reactions that make up the response are as follows:

 Increased metabolism, heart rate and breathing (to increase energy levels).

 Surge in CO2 production (to prepare for increased intake of O2).

 Release of natural adrenalin, morphine and cortisol into the body (to increase power and control of pain).

 Stomach begins to shut down (to make more blood available for the muscles), which tends to cause nausea.

 Pupils dilate (to increase visual acuity), which has a tendency to interfere with our visual perception.

 Release of coagulants into the bloodstream (to stop bleeding if cut) – prolonged exposure can cause heart attacks in later life.

 Blood is pulled away from the skin’s surface (to stop excessive bleeding), which may cause leg tremors and cold sweats.

 Blood is routed away from the frontal reasoning part of the brain into the more instinctual parts located towards the middle (brain stem) of the brain.

One of the most significant points about this extraordinary instinctual defence mechanism is that it is fired when the body perceives it is under attack. This means that even if the threat is not remotely life-threatening (as when we watch a scary movie) the body will still fire the fight-or-flight response to some degree. This is the major cause of what is popularly known as stress and can, over a long period of time, have serious repercussions on our mental, physical and emotional health. The fight-or-flight response was designed for real danger, for sudden spurts of intense life-preserving activity; the body throws itself out of its normal homeostasis in order to protect itself better, and then returns fairly quickly afterwards to its normal state, which it can generally deal with quite well. However, what we see prevalent in today’s society is much less intense reactions spread over a longer period of time, and the body cannot cope well with this. The threats that might set the response off in this case might be an abusive boss or partner, money problems, bullying, anxiety about the future, regrets about the past, phobias or low self-esteem. An Intelligent Warrior must become extremely familiar with the fight-or-flight response (the body’s most powerful response) because it has a huge effect on our homeostasis.

Proactive Health and the Cyclical Nature of Health

The correct practice of Martial Art strengthens our ‘constitution’ by the practice of proactive health and understanding the cyclical nature of health and disease in the body. Western medicine spends a lot of time, money and effort researching and hunting down new microbes, bacteria, viruses, etc., and then developing powerful drugs that kill them. This obsession has blinded them to the fact that it is the constitutional susceptibility (the already existing weakness in the body, mind, and spirit) of the victims that creates fertile ground for disease to exist. This blindness leads to the deployment of increasingly toxic drugs, which themselves are becoming a significant public health menace and disturb even further the fine balance that nature has created in our bodies.

Proactive health means working at the maintenance of your health or homeostasis on a regular basis whilst you are in good health, so as to strengthen your immune and other self-defence systems in the body and therefore lessen your susceptibility to illness. This is a fundamentally different attitude to waiting until we get sick and then going to the doctor and asking them to heal us. Over the last 30 years people have generally become a lot more health conscious and are joining gyms, taking up jogging, modifying their diets or perhaps learning to play a new sport, but although this is a movement in the right direction, a greater depth of understanding is possible through the practice of holistic self-defence where each part, body, mind and spirit are strengthened. For instance, your body must always be exercised in relation to the Law of Gravity (see here), if you go jogging but are not aware of a misalignment in your spine or foot you will soon cause injury there; if you do not train your mind to focus correctly during exercise you will cultivate a dangerous split between your mind and body caused by daydreaming; and desiring the next material affirmation of your superiority (trophies, belts and so on) or cultivating the emotions of winning over losing will have a severe impact on the evolution of your emotional life.

Understanding the cyclical nature of health and disease is one of the keys to maintaining a steady input of energy into our homeostasis. For example, if a person walks with a slouch, they may not notice any detrimental effects to their health immediately, but because this slouch causes a slight compression of the ribcage, their breathing is always mildly impaired. If this slouch occurs only once it will not be dangerous, but if it occurs repeatedly over the cycle of years it will cause serious disease in later life. Proactive health uses the same simple understanding to strengthen homeostasis in the body – for example, if by building awareness to your spine you gradually learn the correct positioning for it and then gradually encourage a movement to the correct upright position at times during the day, over the cycle of years you will then defend yourself against ill health brought on by bad posture.

We could equally apply this concept to poor mental and emotional habits – for example, if patterns of negative thought present at a young age are left unchecked, they can cause serious mental-health problems such as depression later in life, but by learning how to focus and quieten the mind at intervals during the day, we can protect our mental health. Equally, excessive feelings of guilt can spread like cancer. Proactively rebalancing our emotional life can protect us from the hoards of doctors trying to shove antidepressants down our throats (for a nice commission).

This simple concept of cyclical health is significant because it means you can work proactively on your health at any time in your day, for example, whilst sitting at your desk or waiting in checkout queues or bus stops, and so on. The Intelligent Warrior in this way makes a decision to become involved in the maintenance of their health at various times of the day. By cultivating this attitude, we begin to bring our Martial Art training directly into our life and so return to the original precepts of Kung Fu.

Action/Reaction Cycle

In Meditation (see here) we use our awareness to practise bringing together the perceptions of our inner and outer worlds, sensing them together as one whole. Our growing sensitivity to this allows us to study the living relationship between our inner and outer worlds. In terms of self-defence, the link between the two is achieved in this order: an event occurs outside ourselves that our senses interpret; the senses turn the impression into an electrical impulse that is transmitted to the brain via the electrical conductors, the nerves; the brain then , interprets and compares this signal based on previously perceived impressions and then manifests a reaction back through the body in response to the original stimuli. In classic action/reaction fashion, the “world” reacts back to us in a particular way based upon our reaction, which then makes us react again and so the cycle perpetuates. This is the living relationship that continues whether we like it or not. For much of the time it revolves in the background where we do not notice the subtle ways in which we are pulled off balance by various influences, and thus we are unaware of the equally subtle ways that we express our imbalance. Frequently, we carry these reactions around inside us from one environment to another. For instance, when you have a bad day at work you may “carry it” with you home where you continue your negative reactions in the form of being irritable to your partner. The cycle could also just as easily originate from a negative association within oneself, such as suddenly recalling from memory a missed opportunity, which in turn makes you manifest negativity outwardly (by perhaps frowning or cursing). The process of Meditation can build sensitivity to this ‘natural’ cycle of human behaviour, and by so doing can become one of the ways that we consciously participate in the process of homeostasis. Moreover by practising Meditation we begin to understand the action/reaction cycle from a more energetic viewpoint, sensing the stimuli as just energy vibrations coming in via the senses and then in turn sensing the vibrations of our own reaction, this frees us from being caught up in the details of a particular reaction and allows sense of the flow of energy between us an the opponent (stimuli). In this way an Intelligent Warrior stands balanced between their inner and outer life in the knowledge that this is the only place where they can truly effect their life. It understand the cycle from this more energetic perspective it would be valuable here to return to the previous symbol (see Figure 3)

The intersecting arrows represent the three dimensions of the outer world: left to right, forwards and back, up and down. To fully represent this you must imagine the symbol as three-dimensional, with an arrow coming out towards you, so to speak, from the page, or moving into the page. The outer circle is the circle of your awareness where approaching influences are picked up at an early stage.

FIGURE 3

Whenever an influence (which could be an attacker, a virus or a hefty unexpected bill) enters the body it disturbs the body’s homeostasis. Sensing that it is being attacked the body will go into its instinctual defence mechanisms, the fight-or-flight response, the strength of which will depend on the intensity of the situation (see The Principle of Relativity). If the body’s centre is weak then severe and prolonged imbalance will occur, which will lead to illness and possibly, indirectly or directly, death. However, if the connection with the body’s centre has been developed then it will be strong enough to hold the circling energies of body, mind and spirit in its orbit, allowing a quick and speedy rebalancing or healing to occur.

On a lighter note, an influence could be an inspirational work of art, the focused love of somebody near you, some valuable information gleaned from a book. In such cases, the influence is ‘food’ for your higher self, which helps you to evolve a finer sense of balance and therefore increase the homeostasis between your body, mind and spirit.

Higher Health

The concept of higher health was expressed quite clearly in Chinese medicine and is where the healing process is not only seen as restoring balance after illness but also as a means of evolving the individual into a higher state of ‘being’. Moreover, the energy we use to continually heal ourselves from all kinds of disease is not available for this higher purpose. However, participation in the action/reaction cycle allows us to make different choices at critical decision points and so cultivates the Intelligent Warrior within.