This Post will also be in my Blog as I restructure it. Hope it is of interest.
I have a theory: as events in our country become more immanent, more at hand and in your face, people will realize that rolling around on a mat, throwing hands, etc are not bad skills to have, but are incomplete. There are older arts that were complete and developed through trial and error on the battlefields of ancient Japan. There are other arts that also have combat pedigree, such diverse arts as the real Sikh arts (Not Gatka!), older Chinese Boxing styles, the Gendai arts, Daito Ryu, South East Asian, etc. There are even modern arts that have been creatively developed with combat principles in tact... I would argue that Sayoc Kali is such an art among others. These studies have tremendous potential to empower people. There is also, as we will see, an incredible potential for abuse.
First and foremost making a commitment to studying a comprehensive warrior system, will mean studying weapons...and it is our duty as teachers to explain things that people will generally not understand, because these things are counter intuitive. This means there is a certain amount of trust inherent in the moat basic level of transmission. For example, what if I told you that studying Japanese classical battlefield sword technique would make you an incredible shot? Makes no sense does it? Or what if I told you that you need to work with a partner who you can really really trust honest with the feedback loop because you will not know what works and what does not. What makes a lock, a hold, a position effective is ultimately counter intuitive...what looks and feels like it works often does not,
and what feels like you are doing "nothing" when done properly, often can break the other person if you are not careful. Yes your partner screaming on the ground is not pulling your leg! (or maybe she is pullin your leg the right way!). Often a student will look up at me when this happens as if, Naww!! then I do it to them and they begin to see that what they thought was counter intuitive to what actually makes something effective....This requires TRUST.
Training properly involves an incredible amount of trust...from everybody, your life may depend upon it. As a teacher when doing scenerios, I have to convey that I am as vulnerable to being overcome by a force, if it is sufficient, as anyone else...I am after all a 52 year old man who is no longer in the best shape he has been, and we can all be overcome at a certain level... At the same time I have to show you that you, me, that 110 woman in the corner, that 250 pound ex special forces guy...can all make a difference and win. Winning this game means who gets to go home in one piece tonight...who gets to leave with the same IQ they came into the situation with. Assaults are designed, by their very nature to be unfair, no predator says "gee there is the 250 pound ex special forces guy coming from the dojo tonight...I want to test my meddle...." NO, predators will look for the weakest link, the sick, the physically lacking, etc.... and the predator will either attack suddenly, use a social context to put the prey into a situation where they will hesitate to act, or some other ruse...like "say hello to my little friends" etc!
Perhaps the predator will come up to the 110 pound lady in the group, he will be well dressed (with a 10 dollar thrift store suit) and address her as "Mam." Nothing is left to chance when the predator uses social norms to create a trap. A well dressed Black individual probably knows that a progressive white lady will hesitate backing off when he approaches because that woman is down for the cause! and wouldn't want a decent African American man to think she was reacting to him because of his race! All fodder for the trap because now the predator has a way to get close to her...violating her social distance means opportunities. If you think I am being racially insensative, politically insensative, etc....what can I say.
predation comes in many forms. Another type of predation is the abuse of power and authority. This can be institutionalized authority, or informal. The Gurkas are/were some of the toughest mother fuckers to ever walk the earth...Allegedly when they were mercenaries fighting with McArthur the plane was flying in over an area where they would be dropped. McArthur explained this to them where upon the head Gurka rather sheepishly tapped the general on his shoulder and said the following "Sir, let me say for the record that we have no problem jumping from the airplane, but won't the fall cause a problem for my men?" The Gurkas did not know yet about parachutes....McArthur could at that point as a general, in the military industrial complex, save their lives, or as a person respected as a fellow fighting man, save the lives of the Gurkas by describing that they were being provided parachutes. Keep in mind that if the head Gurka did not make a commitment to the institution, or, if he did not respect McArthur, he probably would have noticed how crazy it would be to jump from the sky with no protection...Those of you who get this will probably experience the uncomfortable reality of how much predation can be abused because we are social beings, those of you who do not...its a hell of a yarn!
Teachers are given a tremendous amount of respect... one need not be hit in the head by a Gurka coming from the sky to understand this point. Much of this respect comes from political reified structures and NOT ability, or character. The Gurkas may have seemed crazy but they were very sane: They respected McArthur because of his achievments and not because of his rank...and the general took care of them after all. Most people in our society are insane from the Gurka's perspective, they look at measures of rank and not actually what individuals achieve ability wise.
Teachers do need to be able to show that they got the ranks they claim, small consolation that this may be. Yet even this simple truth has been abused and is a big problem in the martial arts community. I have spent a good amount of my time working on this problem at websites like Bullshido, which is a website devoted to this very issue. Other systemic problems are the efficacy of the skills martial artists claim. Bullshido and other sites believe in testing all technical applications and in using controlled conditions to judge the efficacy of various self protection techniques. This is not a bad idea. Japan originally adapted the use of "Boken" wooden swords to resolve debates about technique. With a Boken one need not die when determining the cutting efficacy of a sword technique.
Unfortunately this creates a host of other problems, unless these tests are ego free, based on using techniques that achieve the stated goal and can be duplicated. In the days of Anarchy in feudal japan things were simple: If one came back from the battle field with their head, they would record what they did to the rest of the clan. Forms and notes would be created and the technique codified for future generations. There was no room for ego, or for some licensing committee. There were teachers who had licenses (Menkyo Kudan) but these licenses were granted by the heads of various Ryu's in ancient Japan and were based on reputation vis a vis ability. Lets also remember that at that time the Japanese aristocracy, Heian culture, was based in Confucian Chinese education which did administer state exams....so institutionalized authority was not unknown in Japan. Its just that when it came to the trust, the ability to transfer fighting skills (Menkyo Kudan, Moku Roku, etc sp?) the preference was to do so according to formalities based on the clan and not the state.
State authority is always artificial authority and states abuse this process. New Jersey wanted to become the first state to have a state sanctioned martial arts process....the instructor would have had to be state certified and pay the state for a license....Very bad precident! Imagine who would be the certifiers! The state has no expertise and that is always the problem. So when the state demands that African American hair weaving artists take a test and pay fees how does it benefit the art? The state is not a good arbitrator for ability, it has no intention of being helpful, only of taking money out of the artist's pocket.
There are times when the state is the best arbitrator, primarily to prevent abuses ...I would argue that inspite of Common Core, if the States at least did not exorscize some control over educational policy, private enterprise would destroy education for profit. The state is good at regulating. In martial arts there has to be an internal understanding where the community polices itself: hence my involvement with Bullshido.
It falls upon teachers to regulate and police martial arts activity. Teachers of the martial arts are not born better, more responsible individuals. As a matter of fact many people are attracted to things like the martial arts because of the power and dominion over others it gives them. Many of the Guru issues that one sees in alternative communities, share a similar pattern. I will chauvanistically asset something here... Self protection involves your life. When you trust that with an individual who may have the character of a sociopath, you are trusting a bad apple with something that is very important. We are playing this game with real money folks. For example, our own Chico, and his shenanigans are harmless when they involve simple issues, but the pattern of these issues is destructive and dangerous. This behavior can have consequences. I want to repeat that last sentence....bad behavior can have consequences.
I came to this board to share some of the material I am working on. And the issue of power, its use and abuse is primary. In a word, how do we deal with, determine falsehood/truth, and the ability of individuals to abuse power, to lie about events, to use power to manipulate individuals, etc. The following story I am relaying to you is real... Truth is relative, real means this happened in our consensual reality. It illustrates how far this abuse can go up the chain informally... Most of us study martial arts as a hobby after all, so is it such a big deal?
There was a teacher in Northern California. This teacher is/was a very good personal friend of Michael Aquino. He had been on the same psychological warfare special ops teams, etc. He was teaching a class and in this class were two individual with little, to no previous martial arts experience. My own experience at that time was considerable. I was already in for about 20 years, had multiple belts, etc. The teacher for this class was nice to me but regarded me as a liability because he knew my experience level. I was in some ways a threat to his authority...let me make this clear, I was very well behaved and did not challenge his authority, but I was there for the art, as opposed to the teacher who presented the concepts in his particular way. Because of the teacher's background (described above) he knew how to control a group. I had asked him about the training for psychological warfare and he would actually get a bit peeved at me for attempting to understand his experience. It was obvious he didn't want to share certain aspects of his past, though he was fourth right about these aspects (a great technique by the way to confuse!).
After a year or so of study the teacher of this class decided to give them a Black Belt test. This test was to disarm an opponent with a wooden knife. This teacher perceived me as a threat to his control over these two students. I would help them and we would train together often because we were friends. the teacher figured out that he had to make them beholden to his power...Being a professional he quickly figured out a way to do this: He knew that my friends were not confidant in their abilities. A good teacher interested in the good of the student would either build up the confidance, or not give the test yet (I would have not given the test yet). This teacher had not really taught the students how to work against a knife, the students were, as said, not confidant so now...the students were totally dependent on the teacher.
So, the teacher demands they take the test (it is a demand because even though both my friends asked if they could wait the teacher pushed it and one does not defy the teacher...who is to be trusted). I was not there for the test, I think I had already started training with another instructor in the art who was not playing games...but this is what happened: The teacher chose the wooden knife wielder carefully. The person he chose was a guy who had about as much experience as I did and was known never to give an inch....In other words, if I had been chosen to weild the knife for example, I might deliberately give an opening to the student being tested...the general rule of thumb, which I would follow would be to just attack slightly over the ability of the student, allow them to make a jump in progress without overwhelming them. This way they could learn, develop confidance and after the test one could go over some more effective techniques, some of the bad habits that need work, etc. This generally was the way these things usually go...
Well... the guy with the wooden knife did not think like this. He had an ego and had to win, and there was no way that either of my friends would be able to do much against this guy.... And they were, as expected, humiliated. To make matters worse the teacher....and this is where one can see the sociopathic precision of a trained, professional psych opps surgeon at work, passed them both. So now both guys NEED this teacher because they know that belt is undeserved and have no confidence in using their skills to show their ability. This guy has them totally controlled with the promise that over time they will get better and grow into the belt. When you destroy a Man's/Woman's confidence, knowingly doing so, to control them, you are engaging in sociopathic behavior.
So both guys come to me...One guy literally in tears. I spent the next weeks showing them how to disarm knife attacks...there are no guarantees with knife disarms but there are principles that work. I built them up as best I could, with the constant admonition to internalize and make the principles part of their physiology. I was ultimately succesful in this regard and these two individuals are still two of my dear friends. The point is, this teacher used his position and his knowledge as a means to gain power over these individuals. The reason I mentioned the teacher's pedigree, including the relationship to Aquino is so one can see this is hardly a simple hobby where students just blow off some steam and practice a bit. There are martial arts teachers with backgrounds in Satanism, special opps, etc. The Illuminati work on the grass roots level! I have personally trained special forces members, and again, this is an awesome responsability because the stuff you teach may impact the life and death of an individual.
Another area where one observes a lot of abuses of power, is with woman's self defense. I used to get requests to train women frequently. I had no problem doing so with the following caveat: Any woman training in applied self protection skills had to go through what is often called a "bulletman course." You have probably seen a pic of "bulletmen" they are guys all padded up... they are padded so that they can bare a full assault while role playing scenerios. Woman need to experience some course, specializing in working with woman and specifically have the gear and teachers to have women go full out during the training. Why is this? because woman are socialized not to be aggressive and often do not have the social skills involving roughhousing, fighting that men grow up with.
You cannot teach some one who does not develop comfort in physical contact...hitting things, moving bodies that are resisting, etc, to fight using technique. So, while a teacher might be able to teach a traditional martial art to a woman, teaching a woman how to hit someone hard, use a weapon(s), depends on a woman learning to be aggressive/assertive and being ready to physicallty engage. Of course this is not only women... When dealing with weapons everybody has to take a pregnant pause and consider what using the weapon entails. Its just that most guys have some social skills which allow them to act physically assertive. Some woman do have brothers and are an exception to this rule.
Ask yourself this question to start with, to get an idea what I am talking about: You have a knife you carry, and one of two situations present themselves to you....Try to be honest with yourself! Remember that a human being can use socialization to overcome virtually any situation....If you are honest and you want to change you can! for example my doctor happens to be my friend and he is maybe 110 pounds soaking wet, and looks about as non threatening as a person can look... with glasses, the whole nine yards lol. Well guess what? If you asked me to look into my wife's body cavity (she had a caesarian birth for our two boys and I was in the room for the first one...I had permission lol but did not take it) this relatively tough looking, big guy's knees would get very weak at the least...my friend the doctor? He could tell you about the weather that day while making the incisions. Its all in the socialization. Doctors learn to cut in bodies and deal with the things that are part of bodies. They are socialized by working with dead bodies, etc. It does not make them sociopathic! its just socially creating a person that can do things most people cannot.
Anyhow...I digress. So you are carrying this knife and one of two situations occur: You hit a deer on the road. You go over to the deer and see it is in pain. It is not going to make it, it is making sounds as its body tries to go into shock. Could you bring yourself to gently get behind the deer, get position and slit its throat? You are doing this to benefit the deer obviously. Thats enough for now...We don't need the bad guy!
Second situation: Your walking your small dog, a dog you love with all your heart...my dogs are like two more of my children, lets assume this dog is like a child, or... if it will inspire a non dog lover, substitute a child for the dog. As you are walking a pitbull grabs hold of the child/dog and will not let go. You can cut the dog's throat and end it...you have the right to, can you bring yourself to do it?
These scenerios should give you an idea how much trust is involved with teaching people true self protection and discretion with respect to the use of violence. It should show you that more than martial arts technique is required to train one in self protection. It should also point out how much psychological training is involved, behavior modification, etc. Maybe the student is a pretty lady who has been abused before, Or a person who, under normal conditions you would abhore, but is coming to you as a student... IMAGINE IF YOU CAN THE POTENTIAL FOR ABUSE!!!!! By the way: i wasn't going to mention this but I shall. In my case, my original teacher is a great man, but he traumatized me to teach me. I consented to it, I am glad that I did, but I know how this feels and I only mention this to make the point that seriously training and accepting a teacher is no joke. I don't traumatize my students, but there are some individuals who need to experience a level of violence and pain that can break you.
Everyday we hear of gurus running off with students half their age, we have martial arts teachers who sexually abuse students, and we have professionals, like the teacher I described, who knows exactly how to control students. One thing about sociopaths is they do tend to be smarter...though not always and we should be clear on that point... Smarter means maximum effect. A chess player wants to take a bishop not a pawn given a choice and all things being equal.
The Guru circuit is a way to get tremendous leverage if one is a sociopath... It is a veritable market where big bounty abounds...Better wear a shirt if you come to this store, though you might well lose that shirt and a lot more. And the Guru market is shameless! After all, in this country, unlike for example India, where one traditionally negotiates the Guru student relationship, much like one negotiates the purchase of a car at the dealership , in America its all or nothing! You give everything to the Guru, you stop socializing with your friends, you pay a lot of money and try to get as close to that Guru as possible! And when Guru gi has a few failings, like sleeping around, stealing, well don't we all?
At one point in my life I lived in the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mnt Tremper New York. This community, near Woodstock, was a gift, heaven sent and I mean this with no irony. I was just out of college, and wanted to experience my practice as a Buddhist. The people at this center were kind, compitant, compassionate, etc. Coming out of this community and going to the West coast to do graduate school I went to the San Francisco Zen Center, expecting to deal with the same kind of individuals I had dealt with in my Sang ha.
Wow!!! was I blown away... People at the Zen Center in San Francisco were lecherious ( I was a 20 something nice looking kid), greedy, unkind and anything but spiritual... I had literally went to the gate of the monastery in New York and the monks I met had been charmed by me as I asked if I could stay. They laughed softly, much like an adult listens as a child tells them their plans to be president, beckoned me to a room, made sure I got a meal (the dining hall was closed) and would not accept the room and board fee, telling me to see if I wanted to stay. When I did stay, these same monks showed tremendous respect, love and were extremely protective over me as I got my baring.
meanwhile in Bagdad by the Bay? I was left wondering why this community was such a polar opposite to my experience. The answer turned out to be a man by the name of Stephen Baker, or Baker Roshi. This man, who knowingly transmitted aids to community members, whom he slept with at his whim, was a sociopath and had decimated what was at one time one of the original Zen communities in this country. The center may still house some of Alan Watts original writings and was at the epicenter of the Bakti movement that characterized the West Coast. It took them years to get rid of this man. It took virtually one man to accomplish this destruction. This is the power a sociopath can wield with the Guru set.
Sociopaths like Baker Roshi will destroy everything in their quest to become all mighty. We see this in martial arts which is part of the whole Guru circuit. This post is part of my blog. I wanted to share it because it is important to impress on people the importance of self protection, along with the potential for abuse, including issues fundamental to trust. Human beings will always, on some level depend on trust... we can all be scammed, manipulated, etc because we have the capacity for great affection, trust and creativity. With great affection comes the potential for hate and deceit, with trust comes the potential for unreliabilty and being let down...and with creatvity comes the potential for an open mind....open this mind up too much and thy brains spill out! Spider Man said it best "with great power comes great responsability."
As discussed in another thread, using the work of a teacher who imo has been the polar opposite of a sociopath, Rory Miller, I made the case that people have got to start fighting! In ancient Japan the main island is small so people came into contact with each other constantly, hence fighting skills developed and the Japanese have the distinction of having kept the Mongols at bay twice! In Europe because of the demographics, even though people lived in tribes as barbarians primarily, they developed quickly. You simply could not go anywhere without bumping into others and with cultural interactions come progress. The world is getting smaller by the day.
The trick is to get people to realize that when they put a viscious, physically demented, crook and liar with homicidal tendencies up to be president and tell us that when she shits on our heads, if we don't like it open out mouths...ITS TIME to fight back! And its time to take self protection to a new level. A level where we identify how far this rabbit hole goes, and who to go after to stop this. Our government is crumbling around us folks, this conspiracy is unfolding! We are seeing who is part of it and who we can depend upon.
Self protection is the strategies we need, it is the methods of combat we need! it is the process of engagement we need! When people threaten the elites with a real fight they will make Hillary dissappear from the stage because they know they lose their liberty and ability to control and have property interests when they threaten ours. And that is the greater context for this subject. On a micro level it is understanding how to fight precisely because we are in a fight. We better recognize this now and deal with the threat.
Last edited: Aug 17, 2016
