My Greatest Obstacle

Credentials, I write a lot and I understand that what I am writing and teaching may or may not be accepted by the karate and martial arts communities simply because of my credentials. I am not talking about my rank, rating or level - dependent on how certain groups look at belts - but about the type of credentials most of us tend to lean heavily on to validate presented information and teachings. 

I don’t have an active dojo; I don’t have a horde of trophies (Note: Chuck Norris once stated he didn’t start to prosper as a teacher until he went out and won tournaments, trophies and recognition by others of like ilk); I don’t have direct connections and associations with the karate and martial art world of luminaries or what some call first gen students, now teachers; I don’t have names to drop as my teacher and I are kind of loner type who appreciate a certain solititude; I don’t have hundreds of black belt students; I don’t have thousands of students out teaching in their own dojo; yadda, yadda, yadda and I could go on but the idea should be detected by now. 

I had a dojo, of sorts, that I created after I achieved yudansha status. I opened a training hall at every duty station after Camp Hansen in Okinawa circa 1979 and taught Military, Civilians and Dependents through the military special services, now called MWR or Moral, Welfare and Recreation. I can count the black belts I promoted on one hand and the overall students over those many years amount to about thirty or so. 

I retired as a civil GS-11 Physical Security Specialist (Officer) and opened a garage dojo after and that gave me about twenty-five years experience in teaching karate. I now study, practice and train on my own. I participated in a dojo of my preferred style for a year in the 2001 or 2002 year(s) and then stopped group participation to seek out my own dojo once again and due to circumstances remained in training and practice in a solo way. It gave me time to work toward a final retirement, in about a year from now, and study, train and practice to master myself and my karate. 

There are other aspects to my life that I would consider a huge contribution to my karate and martial arts discipline and expertise. I am a inactive-duty Marine of ten years active duty experience. My experiences during those years and the following years after until 1998 gave me some personal learning that also contribute to my overall expertise and master of self, karate and martial arts. 

In a nutshell, that is it - so you can see that compared to what the general public understands and expects I don’t have the type of credentials that would garner the attention of others in the karate and martial arts communities so the outcome is the lack of attentive study my articles, etc., contain. Then add in the subjects I write and teach are not mainstream thinking and beliefs, i.e., for instance, I dropped kobudo at least ten years ago to focus on self and empty handed self-defense, so that what others believe is karate and martial arts are not the same so the majority see my efforts as outside their paradigm of karate and martial arts. 

It is not enough that I spent about forty years or more in a personal state of study, understanding, practice, training and application of my karate and martial arts with emphasis on the reality of self-defense. Since I don’t have the media type attention and the awards, accolades and publications of accepted authorities I am not considered an expert that one would WANT to pay attention to over others who fill the bill. You get the idea, and all I can say is this, “I am very OK with that”, I followed my own path and I didn’t let or allow others to lead me as I let myself. I allowed others to present their views, theories and expertise so that I could expand, grow and live the way without closing myself off to possibilities. 

I look at my practice, etc., as a type of, “Backyard Dojo.” I didn’t advertise; I didn’t rely on my karate and martial arts as a form of income; I didn’t compromise my studies for the glory of recognition, accolades and other such things; I didn’t compromise my teachings to retain students, if you didn’t like it you leave or you stay if you have the intestinal fortitude to practice, practice, practice then train, train, train; I allowed my mind to learn how to be open to other ideas, theories and disciplines so that mine could flourish as much as my self allowed creating a greater depth and breadth, for me, of my system of training and practice. 

My greatest obstacle to acceptance is me, my self and my way because that way toward acceptance would mean I needed to compromise in a way that would have stunted my growth potential. It would mean I would have had to focus on what others think and allow that to influence the way I travel a most difficult road. You get my drift.

To the individual who asked, thanks for asking but I have a path and although it changes as needed to remain on the path while flowing with the currents of ever changing modern times I still travel my path and mine alone - when things happen I can see me as to why, not to put blame on others because I allowed them to control my self on their path. 

So, once again, thanks for the question and hope the answer is adequate, now I need to get back to my studies and practice and training and living …

Hijacking the Brain: How it Works

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In the following I provide information on how our brains work when we are struck with the adrenal stress-conditioned chemical dump and some hints on how to train to handle it, to get back some semblance of sanity before it is too late. Some very critical points are provided that help us understand why some seemingly innocent (explained as to why we feel and react the way we do; not so innocent to the brain) events tend to send us off on a monkey run dangerous reactions. 

The amygdala captures the prefrontal area, driving it in terms of the imperatives of dealing with the perceived threat/danger at hand. When the alarm triggers, we get the classic fight-flight-freeze response, which from a brain point of view means that the amygdala has set off the, “HPA axis (the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis) and the body gets a flood of stress hormones, mainly cortisol and adrenaline. There is a problem here, the amygdala often, more often than we like in these modern times, makes mistakes. 

The amygdala gets data from sight and sound senses in a single neuron from the eye and ear - that is super-fast in brain time - it only receives a small fraction of the signals those senses receive (appropriate training can achieve success in how those signals are interpreted). All the rest of those signals go to other parts of the brain that take longer to analyze these inputs - and get a more accurate reading. 

The amygdala, in contrast, gets a sloppy picture and has to react instantly. It makes mistakes, particularly in modern life, where the “dangers” are symbolic, not physical threats so we overreact in ways we tend to regret (note: the brain when confronted with symbolic dangers does not know the difference so reacts as if life or death) [Top modern triggers of the amygdala: condescension and lack of respect; unfair treatment; being unappreciated; feeling you are not listened to or heard; being held to unrealistic expectations] 

In such circumstances humans tend to operate day-to-day in what amounts to a chronic, low-grade, amygdala hijack. Like being in a hyper-vigilant state of mind. (training is often about creating a mind-set and mind-state) Combating this state of mind is about two things: One, is self-awareness through knowledge, understanding and ongoing experiences; second, is through the act of paying attention, i.e., pay attention by noticing that you are in the midst of a hijack and to understand as long as you remain unaware you have not chance of getting back to emotional equilibrium and left prefrontal dominance until the hijack runs its course. 

Steps include: Monitor what going on in your mind and brain, i.e., “I am really overreacting,” or “I’m really upset now,” or “I’m starting to get upset.” Notice familiar feelings that a hijack is on its way - like butterflies in your stomach, or whatever signals that might reveal you are about to have an episode. It is easier to short circuit the hijack in the earlier stages so it is best to recognize it and head it off at the bare beginning. 

Additional Data:

First, realize you are in the amygdala’s clutches and all that entails. Second, realize if you don’t head it off that it can last for seconds to minutes to hours or even days and weeks. Remember, for some it is consider a normal state and can be seen as, “Always angry or always fearful.” There are more clinical effects of being in this hyper-vigilant state such as anxiety disorders, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, etc. 

Other ways to get out of the hijacked state of hyper-vigilance: Have intention to cool down when detecting the state; a cognitive approach of talking yourself out of the state; reason with yourself and challenge what you are telling yourself in the hijack; apply empathy, imagine yourself in that persons position; use meditation or relaxation to calm down; breathe a deep slow diaphragmatic way; practice the ways continuously and diligently because without regular practice they will not be available when the hijack hits. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

FaceBook Disabled

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I just disabled my FB account and feel sad and sorry the step doesn’t actually remove all the data especially the data’s connectivity and residence in other forms of data-collections, etc. It is too bad our Internet systems are collection grounds for both data-brokerage as well as cyber-criminal use and abuse. It is a shame that activities of the average individual cannot be protected as well as that of cyber-criminals, cyber-terrorists and terrorism, criminal activities and so on. 

Those who followed me on FaceBook (friended and followed) will have to remember to seek out my articles on the blogs. I don’t for one instance assume that blogs are any safer but taking the action to NOT allow CONNECTIONS to other media sources like FB and Twitter as examples means I can continue with caution writing my articles. Like my recommendations in this blog, it may not remove the danger but it might just reduce the probability making my victimization less definite. 

I know that what I put out there via social media is not actually all that personal, I have managed to keep the more personal sides at a very minimum, i.e., in all probability anything out there actually of a personal nature was accidental but who really knows. Regardless, in the last day or so I came to experience something I felt was less likely, my Apple iMac actually froze up, locked completely as if a Windows machine and that made me anxious. I gravitate toward a feeling that if I had not participated in such social media the probability might not have existed let along exposed me to such events. 

In a nutshell, I don’t do twitter or other socially driven media and I did FaceBook only as a means to express theories, ideas, and information on my favorite life subject of karate and martial arts and self-defense but still, it was publishing a comment on that media that led to the freeze and hard boot of an Apple system, something I thought might not happen for a longer span of time. It is and was inevitable but still ….

So, no more Facebook and a more restricted participation in such things until someone somewhere is able to create a safety net like they use, called Tor, in the dark underworld residing below our Internet. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

Goodman, Marc. “Future Crimes: Everything is Connected, Everyone is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It.” Doubleday. New York. 24 February 2015. 

Rules, rules and more Rules

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In a recent article by Marc MacYoung he simply put it, “Relying on the rules to stop you from taking action - especially punitive.” The complete article is about straddling the circle where the inner circle is societies rules and proverbial protective blanket we, “Think,” protects us against the punitive actions when we tend to go ballistic against others. It is best to read his article to get a better picture.

Read it HERE: “Circle Straddling (Ealing with subtle unacceptable behavior)” by Marc MacYoung

The article just reminds me of how karate and martial arts seem to be based on, “Rules.” Society seems to be based on, “Rules too.” What happens that matters is when humans come to rely on the rules over responsibility for ourselves. In this instance we then become dependent on those rules and their enforcement to take over our responsibilities and by that we lose our natural and socially built coping skills that would normally tell us when to shut the fuck up and when to talk, when to walk away and most important, when to run like hell. 

I am not advocating there shouldn’t be rules, rules are about survival and even in our modern times rules are necessary. There is a difference here, there should be some rules governed and enforced by society but there are far more rules that govern human behavior. It takes work, a whole hell of a lot of work and humans are pretty much, “Lazy.” 

We as humans need to self-govern and it is far more critically important in modern times then when we were in smaller clan like tribes. Due to the easy mixture of different socially driven belief systems we come in contact frequently enough to cause friction, let alone the normal clan like friction of years past. It has become much harder to self-govern especially since the collective is occurring much faster than our evolutionary natural survival allows. 

We have lost site of our very nature and that is just a sorrowful state of society today. Due to the proximities we have taken with larger populations the need to expand means we move closer to one another and those distinctive belief systems will clash causing conflict and its often resulting violence.

Conflict and violence are as natural to humans as breathing but that means self-governing/self-regulating and with this closer proximity means we have to learn far more social conventional differences to remain in a state of detente or peaceful coexistence. 

In karate and martial arts communities the whole of the systems are governed by rules, rules and more rules. We try to implement tribal clan like collectives where the hierarchy itself governs under the auspice of natures survival instincts even tho that survival is seldom about life and death - yet, the mind itself does not perceive that distinction even tho modern social times indicate to the conscious mind otherwise. 

Because of our nature it is easy to fall into these tribal, call them dojo and associations although pretty much the same, groupings for reasons we tell ourselves but in reality it is still about tribal survival instincts with its status seeking efforts within each dojo, association or tribe-like collective. It is actually a type of religious belief set under more acceptable labels but the end product is still pretty much the same. 

I mean the dan-i system is hierarchal in nature where the belt colors indicate levels and status within a dojo or community or tribe-clan system. Adding in the physical manifestation of the belief of warrior like expertise, although not necessary in most cases and seldom tested or used, that stimulates and feeds the natural inclination toward natures survival instincts. Ain’t life grand?

Much like our karate and martial arts, we as social humans have lost our way as warriors and hunters and gatherers but still have to deal with the emotionally driven needs to survive even if today presents less dangers of grave bodily harm and death from nature, and except for humans who still have rules that they either follow or don’t according to where they stand as to the circle. 

Anyway, rules, rules and more rules dependent on others to enforce tends to leave us assuming that they will enforce them for us instead of us taking responsibility for ourselves, our actions and how all that effects us as to self, family and others. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

Goodman, Marc. “Future Crimes: Everything is Connected, Everyone is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It.” Doubleday. New York. 24 February 2015. 

folklore vs. history

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In a recent article a photo held a quote, a meme, that simply stated, “ … Together with the dissemination of karate into mainland Japan and the Occident, karate and martial arts folklore from Japan and the Ryukyu also found its way to the rest of the world. In the process, sometimes folklore was confused with history?” 

Folklore: It is the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth. It is a body of popular, “Myth,” and beliefs that relate a particular place, “Activity,” or group of people like in Okinawa and regarding karate as well as martial arts. 

An important term to note in this definition is, “Myth.” Myths are, “A traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. It is a widely held but false belief or idea.” 

Both terms are often associated with synonyms like, “Folk tale; folk story; legend; tale; story; fable; mythos; lore; mythology and so on.” When you look at these definitions and their meanings then study the very stories and meme’s or quotes told in the karate communities even in their natural origins of Okinawa you will readily discover that although wonderful and inspiring stories they are still, “Stories, folklore and myths.” 

As I study and research I find more and more quotes, stories and the believed history of karate to be just stories to tell children at the evening meal and have no substance, reality or factual validation in history except in very rudimentary ways. 

History is, “The study of past events with emphasis in human affairs, a whole series of past events connected with someone or something and it is a continuous, typically chronological, record of important or public events or of a particular trend or institution.” 

As I see it, historical data of any kind should be verifiable and validated by such proverbial, “Historical Records.” The passing of word of mouth data tends to change in the passing and therefore may lead to actual history but often pollutes it or changes it inadvertently in the passing from one human to the next especially over time. Add in that each person telling the story is also effected by the environment, the culture, the social belief systems and the personal/family belief system along with individual perceptions over time and so on - making a word of mouth transmission flawed. Regardless, any society who finds historical data important, since the advent of writing and books, etc., will document it for posterity and longevity. 

This all has not occurred regarding karate from Okinawa. Any type of history of the system started at the earliest in the late 1800’s and on. Even then, through the WWII era and many years after the Okinawan’s give a lot of credence to documenting and recording karate’s history. It seems to be a more recent endeavor. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

OFF TOPIC: Our President: The Race

Not long ago my brother paid us a visit and during that time the discussion came up about our presidents. In that discussion he mentioned leadership, it was missing from our presidents. During this race with all the hoopla going on I got to thinking about presidential leadership.

Leadership to my mind and especially in regard to our president is a critical trait that I believe is solely missing and has been missing for a while now. When I think of leadership I think of the military. In my mind that means to be president I feel the candidate must have military experience. 

Not just any military experience but the kind of experience we have seen in presidents past like John F. Kennedy. I don’t mean spending a minimal amount of time uder reserved status going through boot, then spending one weekend a month and a couple of weekends a year but a minimum of two years military time out in the bush working with your brothers and especially in this time experience in combat. No where else can you achieve a level of leadership where you and your brothers lives depend on the team and its leaders. In this zone when a leader fails, people die and that type of experience translates to a better presidential leader.

A leader is one who is respected, experienced and inspires not just one person, a group or a particular social or racial type but everyone regardless of race, creed, color, political affiliations or belief system. A true leader is such that all others, “Want to follow them; want to do what they feel is right and just and moral and best for everyone, not just a particular separate group personal emotional need. It is about us, as in U.S., because to lead and to follow means we put aside our individual needs for the needs of the many, the U. S. 

Leadership is not about what one can get or to achieve some egoistic status driven personal goal, it is about leading everyone toward a better life and toward the achievement of goals for all of U.S.. So far I have not seen one candidate who fills this bill, not one. 

We have lost our way and those who choose to sit in leadership labeled roles (I say labeled because although a leadership role those who take those seats in our times are not leaders) don’t lead, don’t inspire and are not leading us but achieving personal goals leaving U.S. as mere vehicles to self-gratifying economic and personal ego stroking goals. 

I had hopes with President Obama but so far I have not seen anything that says, “Leader.” This is not just about leadership in the office of the President but also in other government leadership roles such as Congress and the Senate. I also see a drop in leadership in the Supreme Court but that one is harder to assess. 

Our constitution is about these government agencies leading U.S. to what we once had, toward respect and admiration by the entire world. We have lost the worlds respect, they simply laugh at us and our mindless efforts toward individualism over U.S., as a team, a tribe, a clan as an U.S. over a ME and Others with others being less human then ME. We are turning into a ME tribe and as nature and history prove, a tribe that is individual over U.S. or united as one for a common purpose of, “Survival,” means like many great tribes of our past dooms us. 

In closing, I believe to truly return to our greatness as a nation we must return to thinking about U.S. and putting individual emotional ego seeking instant gratifications aside and thinking how we as a unified U.S. can return to and gain back our own respect for ourselves as a nation and gain back our respect for our leaders then the world can once again respect and admire the U.S.. We can once again not only lead ourselves but lead, set the tone of leadership, the world. Instead of resisting U.S. they can look to us to inspire their own leadership and efforts to gain more and greater tribe like cohesive progress that embraces peace and respect for everyone regardless of race, creed, religion, and belief systems. 

I still hope that we in the U.S. can see and return to a U.S. that leads all toward progress and prosper and enlightenment. In this election process I still cannot see anyone who will lead, follow or get the hell out of the way of those who will lead, inspire and change us back to the U.S. 

The Line of Three

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Three in numerology comes into play a lot, you see it everywhere but unless you are attuned to seeing in three’s you miss it - mostly. In my personal life the number three presents itself to me in situations and circumstances that I took as, “Signs,” of good fortune and a tiny bit of luck. In karate and martial arts studies some of us make reference to several philosophical sources such as the ancient Chinese classic, i.e., Tao Te Ching, I Ching and others. Numerology is prominent in Asian cultural belief systems.

Karate, as well as martial arts, utilize, “Three’s.” In kata, many of them, are executed in sets of threes. There are many reasons for this and some of those will appear at the end of this article in case you become curious. I have a theory toward the sets of three, they are like executing combinations. It is not of any concern as to the exact techniques involved but rather as a principle where three sets becomes a line. 

I am trying to hypothesize and theorize from a karate self-defense model. If attacked either socially or asocially you will find, more often than not, that it takes a minimum of three applications of any methodology appropriate to get ahead of the situation. But one must NOT assume that all it takes is a set of three. It is about an awareness to the ongoing situation from moment to moment. You have to feel things, hear things and then see things in a kind of unconscious instinctive way so that you can judge on the fly when force is no longer needed.

When you apply the set of three as a minimum you have to discern if the adversary is unable to continue so you can back off according to the legal systems but you also have to realize that you may need to take it further then a set of three and/or you may have to change methodologies to get-r-done. It is this balancing act while under the influence of the chemical dump, the adrenal stress-conditioned effects that make the job - difficult, but not impossible. 

You also cannot take the set of three in kata practice as a set of three identical but applied on opposite sides of our bodies because that would be ineffective and just stupid. You have to learn the set of three principle then practice and train using a set of three out of all the defensive multiple methodologies to get-r-done. 

Just thinking out loud with my keyboard and in practice don’t ya know!

Bibliography (Click the link)

Zen’i Karate Do [善意空手道]

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The characters/ideograms mean, “Virtuous Empty Hand Way or Road.” The first character means, “Virtuous; good; goodness,” the second character means, “idea; mind; heart; taste; thought; desire; care; liking,” the two combined mean, “virtuous mind; good intentions; good will; positive mindset,” the third character means, “empty; sky; void; vacant; vacuum,” the fourth character means, “hand,” the fifth character means, “road-way; street; district; journey; course; moral; teachings,” the third, fourth and fifth characters combined mean, “the way of karate.” 

Read article, “Virtuous Karate Way (Zen’i).”

I cannot tell you how many encounters, both personal and by way of articles, blogs and other means, I have experienced where the individual speaks to a certain lifestyle where karate and martial arts, outside the brutality at its very core, lead them down a path toward a more, should I say, “Virtuous” way of life with empathy, humbleness and a lean toward enlightenment. It is one of those philosophical distinctions covered in the fundamental principles that I write about all the time.

Zen’i karate do is meant to express a spirit of mind, body and philosophy that leads us toward righteousness, morality and self-betterment so that we may mentor and influence others toward a better life. Many of those who I have encountered have led me down that path by the influences expressed in their social writing, teachings and actions both in and out of the dojo. 

Zen’i is a culmination of study, knowledge, understanding, training and practice and applications that go way beyond the mere physical manifestation of karate and martial arts performance, meaning and substance that goes deeper than ego and spears us directly and deeply in our very hearts providing us meaning when we say, “Wholeheartedly.” 

Zen’i is that which leads us on the road past mere form and function creating an ideology that spans cultures, beliefs and social norms. It is that which exposes our minds to possibilities beyond what we would normally assume and believe. It opens our doors and allows us access to all the myriad-ness of the vast universe in which we live. 

To believe the unbelievable; to see the unseeable and to hear the unhearable; to take us beyond the moon and out into the stars. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

Virtuous Karate Way (Zen’i)

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Virtuous (Zen’i [善意] characters/ideograms mean, “virtuous mind; good intentions; good will; positive mindset; bona fides {legal good faith}” ). One must find and achieve moral excellence as a goal of karate and martial arts study to achieve an enlightened state with humility. (the first character means, “virtuous; good; goodness,” and the second character means, “idea; mind; heart; taste; thought; desire; care; liking.”) 

A virtuous karate-ka can have strong predatory drives as long as he or she also commands sufficient (will) braking power to surmount them. Isn’t this the goal of training, practice, study and implementation of karate and martial arts regardless of certain distinctions about sport vs. fighting vs. combatives vs. defense? 

All this is only possible when we have a clear view of the dichotomy of our brains so that we may train and practice to develop those skills that allow us to put on the brakes when the monkey is driving a truck load of nitro straight at us. The battle waged between the human (logic) mind and the monkey (emotional) mind is more nuanced that we might understand and believe. It is this struggle that allows us to realize and train toward appropriate decisions in both actions and deeds by applying the brakes when certain decisions would result in our damage and injury - psychologically and physically and spiritually. 

Lets call this, “Developing Impulse Control,” where we learn to rein in our monkey’s antics by developing direct new strategies to strengthen our long-term decision making and encoding that into procedural zombie sub-routine memory to tip the internal battle of our minds in our favor. 

This is the journey toward, “Enlightenment,” sought after through the study and practice of the disciplines of karate and martial arts and why such efforts lead toward a more humble and enlightened lifestyle. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

Is karate and martial arts one dimensional?

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In many articles and posts explaining training, practice and applications it seems they model after a one-dimensional methodology, i.e., we tend to assume, practice and train directly in front of an adversary, predator and/or opponent - dependent on practice and training distinctions. 

Looking at this from a self-defense distinction it seems very limiting and dangerous to teach only from one dimension. When I say dimension I am speaking of more that the face-on perspective because there are many dimensions that are physical, mental and philosophical that would benefit a self-defense action(s). 

Like many aspects of the self-defense world lots of stuff gets left out, forgotten or never realized and the one dimensionality of current, quickly changing tho, karate and martial arts in self-defense still exists. 

Karate and martial arts regardless of the distinctions toward sport, fighting, combatives and/or self-defense is by nature and in essence a multi-dimensional discipline and to train, study and practice karate and martial arts is to take on a multi-dimensional mind-set to train, study and practice.

Bibliography (Click the link)