Mr. Hayes made a comment about how dangerous it can be to recite mantra sounds as taught but not comprehended. You can get in a lot of difficulty if you do not understand the power that the sounds carry.

This comment by Mr. Hayes made me think of something that has been bothering me for many years. One of the reasons, I believe, this art has such a draw for so many people is that it is so much more than just martial art movements. This art looks at body (physical principles), mind (fighting strategies) and spirit (or energy flow of a fight).

If the body movements and physical concepts we have are so effective and dangerous that it is literally not safe to practice them full speed unless you are padded (and even then be cautious), why should the mind and energy levels of this art be taken any less seriously?

Over the years I’ve listened to people talk about the mind sciences as if they are some intellectual curiosity that can be dabbled with sans consequences. Years ago there was even someone on the west coast offering a kuji seminar for $1500 where you ‘learn’ all nine kuji in a weekend. Who were they kidding?

If you are training with a knife are you not aware of the blade and its direction?

If you are training with a gun do you think it would be a good idea to follow these rules (courtesy of my friend William Johnson U.S. Army)?

•    Rule 1: Do not put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
•    Rule 2: Do not point the gun at anything you are not willing to shoot.
•    Rule 3: The gun is ALWAYS loaded

From my point of view the mind sciences we practice are just as powerful and as dangerous. I’m not saying this to scare anyone or to claim I understand them all, I don’t. I just believe that they should be respected like any other weapon we train with in our system.

The comment was made that “The challenge, perhaps, in the mind and spirit realms is that it’s not as obvious how results are generated, so it’s a little trickier to work with the power in an intelligent fashion. As beginners, we just follow directions as closely as possible, under supervision. What do we know about how such results are generated? What danger does that imply?”

But isn’t this what we are studying? How results are generated with our words and thoughts. What is the effect of the words that we use?

What is the effect of saying “(Bleep) you!”?

What is the effect of saying “I love you”?

How does that change depending to whom you say it to? Your spouse? Your child? A perfect stranger? Won’t these all have different effects?

It’s all part of the Go Shin Bo. Part one loosely translated; “I create my reality”, part three, “I will be aware of and use my words to obtain my desired reality”.

Words are powerful and dangerous. In the work we do with women in abusive relationships (http://www.LessonsInViolenceEvasion.com), we discovered that it is the words of their abusers that over time trap and control these women, until the abusers words become their words and they believe they are worthless. It’s slower but those words can be just as deadly as bullets.

So to finish this post and to lighten things up a little, I have come up with a variation of the gun safety rules:

•    Rule 1: Do not open your mouth until you know what you are saying.
•    Rule 2: Do not say anything you are not willing to accept the consequences of.
•    Rule 3: Your mouth is ALWAYS loaded.

Dennis
Shinobi Martial Arts
95 Plaistow Road, Plaistow NH

This conversation brought up two memories I had of training experiences that involved intent.

The first was when I was in Japan for training with Hatsumi Sensei at the Tokyo Budokan in Ayase. We were working on slipping inside two punches using our position to off balance the person then take them down on their back.

Sensei cautioned us not to have the intent of doing the technique or of even trying to avoid the punches because it would be too slow. He told us to instead find safety by creating space (kukan). Learning to create this space he said leads to the ability to do what he did with Mr. Hayes when he had Mr. Hayes throw a punch at the back of his head many years ago.

I’m not going to say I understand completely (or at all) what Sensei was saying but the feeling I got was that people were thinking too much. And were too intent on doing “it” right instead of being safe. I think somehow intent creates the kukan that allows you to control the attacker. But it was definitely easier said then done.

The second was in Boston for advanced black belt training with Mr. Hayes.

Mr. Hayes was teaching intent concepts within a Kuki Shinden Ryu sword technique. It was amazing to see people literally just fall into the place where Mr. Hayes was waiting with his sword.

What struck me most was the physicality of it. You couldn’t just think it and hope it would work as many of us found out.

You had to have succeeded at making the physical technique work before you could attempt using intention. In fact your uke had to have succeeded at making the defense to that technique work and you the defense to the defense. Mr. Hayes spent an entire session the day before teaching that to us.

These memories lead to the question; “Why do you think that projecting and hiding intent is a skill worth developing? Or, more specifically, what are its uses?

I wanted to answer this earlier but couldn’t find the right words. At the seminar with Mr. Hayes I got an answer “Competence” not yours but your opponents. How do you defeat an opponent that is better than you?

The example Mr. Hayes demonstrated showed this well. You wouldn’t need to project and hide your intent if the opponent wasn’t well trained. The physical technique would be more than enough to finish them off. But…

What if they’re better than you? How do you still survive?

Thinking about how Mr. Hayes built the instruction over the weekend from simple physical, to more and more advanced physical, to projection of intent I would suggest if you want to learn how to project and hide intention, learn how to throw a punch.

Learn to throw a punch that uses taijutsu not muscle (another subject covered at the seminar). Learn how to cover yourself as you do so there are no openings in your punch. Learn how to coordinate your breathing with this movement to create relaxed power. Learn how to focus on your target so well you can move right past their defenses. Learn where to throw your punch so the person can’t see it.

Learn these and all the other principles necessary to make your punches unstoppable. Then when you intend to hit someone with it they’ll move and you can hit them with your other hand.

Dennis
Shinobi Martial Arts
95 Plaistow Road, Plaistow NH