Dances With Knives
Remember the header at the top of this page? It says: "sometimes irreverent, often opinionated, and always brutally honest?" This blog is one of those moments. It is based on the cool reception our knife demo received at the Taikai. When we finished we felt as though we had exposed something primal and unsettling. As it was often inscribed on ancient maps, "Beyond this point there be serpents." For many of the people there we had gone beyond that point.
If you take reptile brain thinking and polish it over and over, long enough and hard enough, polish it with focus and sincerity, add in some pain and suffering, you know what you get? Eventally you get a person with a warrior mentality. I already see the questions and concerns forming on your brow. You’re thinking why would anyone want to do that? You’ll tell me that your martial arts school is all about creating peace and harmony, polishing the soul and improving your character. Those are admirable goals, and part of the true warrior’s makeup, but they are not a martial art, nor are they a self-defense. I think you have your definitions mixed up.
Modern martial arts are suffering from a case of piñata syndrome. With piñata syndrome you take a lot of goodies and place them inside a hollow form created by building up layer upon layer of bland paper mache’. To make it more attractive you paint it with bright flashy colors
. (You know its still only hollow paper mache’ but you don't tell your students that.) Your piñata is worthless, its what is inside that gives it value. To get to the goodies you have to ruin the paint job and break through all the built-up layers of paper. How do you do that? You use your reptile brain, and a big stick, and beat on it until it breaks wide open. Depending upon how many layers thick it is it might take a few seconds or a few minutes.
Statistics say that the average knife fight lasts no more than five seconds! That’s right, five seconds. Even if you have learned all of the right techniques, but you have buried them (along with your reptile brain), under layers of philosophy, civility, morality, and legality, can you get to the goodies in under five seconds? My insurance agent says that funerals are running in the $7-10,000 range. That’s a big out of pocket expense for a five second lapse in judgement. One of my sword students told me he would rather be dead than spend his life in prison for defending himself! Really? Folks, based on the questions in response to our knife demo, I am worried. It bothers me when honest, upright citizens, and trained martial artists, tell me they are more afraid of facing jail time for defending themselves with a weapon, than they are of the injury or death that might result from being attacked by an armed assailant! This is ludicrous, it is unjust, and it is unbefitting a nation and society such as ours. Our personal timidity, false morality, layer upon layer of ambiguous laws, and our liberal minded court system have made victims of us all. We are fruit on the vine for thugs, muggers, and murderers, who have the skills, the intent and the desire, to simply reach out and take what they desire. These people have not polished their reptile brains but through concerted training, whether on the streets or in prison courtyards, they have strengthed the body it drives.
My student brought up the old argument: "what good does it do to know how to fight with a katana when no one carries them on the streets?" He studies kobudo, the use of farming implements as weapons. Well you don’t dare use real weapons today since that would be incompatible with peace and harmony. Kobudo in martial arts schools today is more like dancing with weapon look-alikes. Schools use rubber Nunchaku, and blunted wood or aluminum Sai and Kama. The real articles are illegal in most states. Therefore, I’m going to turn his question around and ask you the reader, what good does it do to train with these non-weapons? Indeed it does no good to train at all if the intent of the student is only to learn how to dance with weapons. These canned routines (often performed to music) may teach coordination and rhythm and maybe improve your focus. The dance itself will not polish the reptile brain nor will it develop a warrior mentality. More importantly, learning to dance will not extend that five second window of opportunity you have when someone comes at you with a knife. If you polish the reptile brain, hone the warrior mentality, everything becomes a weapon. You will not need to carry a katana or a kama, but if you do you will know how and when to use it, and when not to. Dancing with rubber knives, kamas, or sai will not save your life nor will it prevent you from going to prison, but it may give you the peace and harmony that that you say you are training for, that peace that comes from entering into eternal rest.
Modern martial arts are suffering from a case of piñata syndrome. With piñata syndrome you take a lot of goodies and place them inside a hollow form created by building up layer upon layer of bland paper mache’. To make it more attractive you paint it with bright flashy colors
. (You know its still only hollow paper mache’ but you don't tell your students that.) Your piñata is worthless, its what is inside that gives it value. To get to the goodies you have to ruin the paint job and break through all the built-up layers of paper. How do you do that? You use your reptile brain, and a big stick, and beat on it until it breaks wide open. Depending upon how many layers thick it is it might take a few seconds or a few minutes.Statistics say that the average knife fight lasts no more than five seconds! That’s right, five seconds. Even if you have learned all of the right techniques, but you have buried them (along with your reptile brain), under layers of philosophy, civility, morality, and legality, can you get to the goodies in under five seconds? My insurance agent says that funerals are running in the $7-10,000 range. That’s a big out of pocket expense for a five second lapse in judgement. One of my sword students told me he would rather be dead than spend his life in prison for defending himself! Really? Folks, based on the questions in response to our knife demo, I am worried. It bothers me when honest, upright citizens, and trained martial artists, tell me they are more afraid of facing jail time for defending themselves with a weapon, than they are of the injury or death that might result from being attacked by an armed assailant! This is ludicrous, it is unjust, and it is unbefitting a nation and society such as ours. Our personal timidity, false morality, layer upon layer of ambiguous laws, and our liberal minded court system have made victims of us all. We are fruit on the vine for thugs, muggers, and murderers, who have the skills, the intent and the desire, to simply reach out and take what they desire. These people have not polished their reptile brains but through concerted training, whether on the streets or in prison courtyards, they have strengthed the body it drives.
My student brought up the old argument: "what good does it do to know how to fight with a katana when no one carries them on the streets?" He studies kobudo, the use of farming implements as weapons. Well you don’t dare use real weapons today since that would be incompatible with peace and harmony. Kobudo in martial arts schools today is more like dancing with weapon look-alikes. Schools use rubber Nunchaku, and blunted wood or aluminum Sai and Kama. The real articles are illegal in most states. Therefore, I’m going to turn his question around and ask you the reader, what good does it do to train with these non-weapons? Indeed it does no good to train at all if the intent of the student is only to learn how to dance with weapons. These canned routines (often performed to music) may teach coordination and rhythm and maybe improve your focus. The dance itself will not polish the reptile brain nor will it develop a warrior mentality. More importantly, learning to dance will not extend that five second window of opportunity you have when someone comes at you with a knife. If you polish the reptile brain, hone the warrior mentality, everything becomes a weapon. You will not need to carry a katana or a kama, but if you do you will know how and when to use it, and when not to. Dancing with rubber knives, kamas, or sai will not save your life nor will it prevent you from going to prison, but it may give you the peace and harmony that that you say you are training for, that peace that comes from entering into eternal rest.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment