The Intelligent Warrior: Command Personal Power with Martial Arts Strategies

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.

The Principle of Relativity

When your body receives an impression of an attack, it will instantaneously react with the fight-or-flight response and, depending on the nature of the impression, will react with different levels of intensity. Generally speaking, the more extreme the attack the greater the reaction. So when dealing with the concept of self-defence we must understand the scale that these reactions can fall into. The attack does not necessarily have to be a physical attack against you; it could be something on a smaller scale such as verbal abuse or negative thought. As you can see from Figure 4, at one end of the scale there are life-threatening attacks, including attacks with weapons or by multiple opponents. At the other end of the scale are the ways in which we attack ourselves, including negative and depressive thoughts. Initially it may not be clear why we need to study such a wide scale but, as you will see later, we respond to many of life’s minor conflicts with our instinctual fight-or-flight response and we can gain valuable insights and experience of ourselves in such situations, which will help immeasurably to deal with the more intense reactions of extreme situations.

FIGURE 4

Principle of Resonation

The Principle of Resonation is one of the governing principles of vibration that I will refer to frequently throughout the book.

The principles of sound dictate that the vibration of any object is communicated through the atmosphere in waves. Each note of the musical scale vibrates at its own frequency, thus each sound wave is shaped uniquely according to its pitch. When two objects with similar pitches are in close proximity to each other, such as two guitars, the vibration purposely caused on one – say, the plucking of the B-string – will cause the B-string on the second guitar to also vibrate (with less intensity) because it resonates at a similar level. This principle is also known as sympathetic vibration and it relates to holistic self-defence in two basic ways:

1 Being in close proximity to someone who is in an emotionally agitated state will tend to make you resonate a similar state (this is similar to when someone has an ‘infectious’ laugh).

2 If you develop a certain quality or skill in the body (such as a sense of balance) it will tend to resonate a similar quality in the mind and emotions. The Chambers Dictionary (1994) uses this example in its definition of the word ‘resonance’: The complex of bodily responses to an emotional state, or of emotional responses to a situation.

Internal Conversation

Internal conversation is a subject broached by almost every system of Meditation that I have studied. Awareness of the continual conversation that churns inside our heads and the gradual conviction of its totally habitual nature is one of the first goals of Meditation. Internal conversation has a tendency towards negativity and being judgmental. Gaining a certain degree of freedom from internal conversation is essential for the Intelligent Warrior for internal conversation prevents us from receiving the impressions from the outside world directly. For example, something someone says triggers (action/reaction cycle) an association in your mind and you immediately start engaging in an internal conversation about it. This means that you are not only taking in the impression of the person talking directly but also listening to your own conversation, which is likely to lead you to lose track of what they are saying.

Internal conversation is also sometimes known as associative thinking because it uses associations to self-perpetuate. For instance, you are reading these words when suddenly your stomach grumbles, you tell yourself you are hungry and deserve a break, you start to think about what you are going to eat, perhaps imagine going to your favourite sandwich shop and recall bumping into an old friend the last time you were there, recall some of the things you used to do when you were younger, think ‘What a long time ago that was, is it really 10 years?’, ‘What have I done with that time? I should have taken that other job…’ and so on. At the same time, you sat in exactly the same place trying to read. If left unchecked this associating will go on relentlessly from the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep and rob us of many experiences and opportunities available in the present moment.

Internal conversation walks hand in hand with daydreaming and provides a running dialogue to the pictures thrown up by your mind. As mentioned previously, there is a tendency for this habitual talking to turn negative so our daydreams can end up with a picture of ourselves begging on the streets or something equally catastrophic! The Intelligent Warrior must learn to protect himself or herself against internal conversation because it burns a tremendous amount of energy, destroys self-esteem and has a tendency to increase in intensity when in a stressful situation.

Attachment, Detachment and Nonattachment

The concept of attachment, detachment and nonattachment comes directly from Taoism and is basically another expression of balance in that attachment can be seen as the Yang principle, detachment as the Yin principle and nonattachment as the balancing force between them. When a conflict or powerful event occurs in our life it makes us react. Our reaction then tends to polarize into either Yang (attachment), where we become obsessed by the occurrence, cannot stop talking or thinking about it and may even take some rash action on account of this, such as accusing someone of something before we have all the facts. The opposite reaction, Yin (detachment), is where we try to deny that the event ever occurred and pretend that the problem does not exist – for example, many people get into serious financial difficulties because they are afraid to face up to mounting debts and so avoid, for instance, opening any credit card statements. What these two reactions have in common is that they burn a lot of energy and stop you from seeing the event in an objective light, in turn stopping you from taking the appropriate action, which always involves an intelligent decision. Nonattachment allows you to sense these Yin and Yang perspectives simultaneously for in reality an Intelligent Warrior needs them both. The Yang reaction teaches us not to be blasé about events; it is the power by which we take action on something and gives us the strength to ‘grab the bull by the horns’. However, without the sensitivity from the Yin perspective, which teaches us to hold back perhaps to gather more information or to read the situation fully, we will be in danger of becoming a ‘bull in a China shop’ and making a particular situation a lot worse than it was to start out with.

The way to practise nonattachment is always to move into the present moment, for it is only here that you can pull your energy away from the imbalanced reaction. This is one of the skills developed in the practice of Meditation. By doing this we learn to become more sensitive to the Yin and Yang reactions within ourselves so that eventually any small fluctuation is sensed. A good working example would be when an experienced poker player makes himself or herself very quiet inside and enters into the present moment in order to read the tiny reactions (called ‘poker tells’) given off by the other players that give away their bluffs or inability to conceal excitement over the cards they are holding. This allows the Intelligent Warrior to know ‘when to hold them and when to fold them’ as the country singer Kenny Rogers would say!

Another helpful way of visualizing this essential concept is to look at Figure 5. Here we see our Yin and Yang reactions represented in a waveform, which tends to be how emotional reactions operate – we go up but at some point there is a corresponding low. Moreover, each situation will make you react in a slightly different way (for instance, even the most aggressive bouncer may try to avoid a confrontation with his wife when drunkenly stumbling in late after work!).

The key to nonattachment is firstly to ensure that when you are up (Yang) and taking direct action on something you remain aware of the Yin principle. For instance, be sensitive to the effect you are having on the situation. Secondly, make sure that when you are down (Yin) you to try to find the Yang energy. For instance, the classic Yin reaction is depression and, as any experienced therapist will tell you, the key to relieving depression is to take action. So, instead of getting depressed about money problems, for example, face them and take action to rectify the situation.

FIGURE 5

Nonattachment does not mean that you suppress your reactions – reactions are part of what is to be human and are necessary for life – but it does mean that you become more sensitive to them in order to sense earlier when you are being pulled off balance. This is represented by the smaller waveform that is close to the straight line (the point of balance) and is a much finer level of vibration or sensitivity. In this way, you learn not to commit so much energy to your reactions, which will in turn allow you to pay more attention to your goals.

Preparation for the Unexpected

As mentioned earlier, we must always keep in mind what it is that Martial Art is training us for. The aim of this book is to gain an insight into how Martial Art strategies and practices can help you in everyday situations. Therefore, we must learn how to prepare for this eventuality. One of the main differences between martial sport and Martial Art is the fact that in a sport conflict situation (for instance a tournament bout) you know where, you know when, you know how (what rules) and you know whom you are going to fight. A real situation, on the other hand, very often means that you do not know any of these things. Martial Art should teach you to be prepared for the unexpected and then to be able to adapt almost instantaneously to the conflict as it unfolds. I once witnessed a cyclist riding down the road in a busy city centre, quite obviously daydreaming about being somewhere else. As the cyclist rode down the road, a careless van driver (who was about 10 metres away) opened his door and the cyclist continued towards it, saw it just in time, then reacted instinctively by swerving. The cyclist missed the door but his overreaction meant that he lost his balance and came crashing heavily to the ground.

This story illustrates very well what a real conflict situation is like. The cyclist was daydreaming and not living in the present moment. This state of ‘waking sleep’ tends to be extremely common in the average human being and because of it, the cyclist was not aware of the door opening soon enough to recognize it and make a controlled evasive manoeuvre. Instead, it was left to the cyclist’s reflexes, operating at a much finer level of recognition, to perform the manoeuvre. However, he over steered due to his body’s adrenaline reaction and consequently his balance was destroyed and no further riding technique was possible. The situation happened totally out of the blue – one minute the cyclist was daydreaming of holiday beaches or winning the lottery and the next minute the cruel reality of life almost literally slapped him in the face. His inner state changed with lightning speed from one of habitual daydreaming to one of extreme fear. In that split second his whole life and state of being had changed, perhaps not forever but certainly for the near future. This is exactly what happens in any unexpected situation.