Some cute "List" verbiage from Amazon:

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The theory goes that alpha males get all of the chicks.

And, all you have to do to get all of the women to love you is to be an alpha male. And, most alpha males are jerks--actually all alpha males are jerks. So, that's why all of the women are attracted to jerks.

Note that all jerks are not alpha males, so you can't get a woman to like you by being a jerk. The being a jerk is just an after effect. The alpha male is what will make women want you. So, don't try to be a jerk. Try to be an alpha male, and you will naturally be a jerk. You don't have to try.

Alpha male originates from the animal kingdom, where all groups of animals rank themselves in order from alpha to omega.

This is not much different than the social system with men, the only difference being that the hierarchy of men has people at the the same level as each other sometimes, but I'm getting off the subject.

Nowhere is there more proof that women are attracted to the alpha male than in the book 'The Rules(TM) : Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right'. This book talks about how to get the alpha male to fall in love with you. It doesn't talk about betas or anything but alphas. It only talks about how a woman can attract an alpha male.

The best book that I've read on how to be an alpha male is 'The System: How to Get Laid Today!'. The incredibly surprising thing about this book is how almost exactly similar this book is to The Rules. The tactics are almost exactly the same in both books, which is surprising, because one book is about how to go to bed with a woman within 15 minutes of meeting her, and the other book is about how to get a man to marry you and love you forever.

More simply, regard everything as a dream. Life is a dream. Death is also a dream, for that matter; waking is a dream and sleeping is a dream. Another way to put this is: 'Every situation is a passing memory.'

It is said that with these slogans that are pointing to absolute truth - openness - one should not say 'Oh, yes, I know,' but that one should just allow a mental gap to open, and wonder, 'Could it be? Am I dreaming this?' Pinch yourself. Dreams are just as convincing as waking reality. You could begin to contemplate the fact that things are not as solid or as reliable as they seem.

Have you ever been caught in the heavy-duty scenario of feeling defeated and hurt, and then somehow, for no particular reason, you just drop it? It just goes, and you wonder why you made 'Much ado about nothing.' What was that all about? It also happens when you fall in love with somebody; you're so completely into thinking about the person twenty-four hours a day. You are haunted and you want him or her so badly. Then a little while later, 'I don't know where we went wrong, but the feeling's gone and I just can't get it back.' We all know this feeling of how we make things a big deal and then realize that we're making a lot out of nothing.

Gentleness in our practice...is like remembering something. This compassion, this clarity, this openness are like something we've forgotten. Sitting here being gentle with ourselves, we're rediscovering something. It's like a mother reuniting with her child; having been lost to each other for a long, long time, they reunite. The way to reunite with Bodhichitta is to lighten up in your practice and in your whole life.

That's the essential meaning of the absolute Bodhichitta slogans - to connect with the open, spacious quality of your mind, so that you can see that there's no need to shut down and make such a big deal about everything.

- Pema Chodron

JS: Does it mean that all Bagua movements are designed in such a way that one must have Neigong first to be really able to use them?

MR.MA: Exactly. Without Neigong all Bagua techniques are good for nothing and there is no use to practice them. For this reason I'm not willing to teach any techniques to students who do not have Internal Skill - it's waste of time for them and me.

JS: I guess very few people can learn in this traditional way?

MR.MA: Yes, practitioners often feel that walking exercise is very boring and give it up after some time. However once your Neigong develops, once the Small Heavenly Circle opens, the practice becomes very interesting.

Be ahead of all parting, as if it had already happened,
like winter, which even now is passing.
For beneath the winter is a winter so endless
that to survive it at all is a triumph of the heart.

Be forever dead in Eurydice, and climb back singing.
Climb praising as you return to connection.
Here among the disappearing, in the realm of the transient,
be a ringing glass that shatters as it rings.
Be. And, at the same time, know what it is not to be.

That emptiness inside you allows you to vibrate
in resonance with your world. Use it for once.
To all that has run its course, and to the vast unsayable
numbers of beings abounding in Nature,
add yourself gladly, and cancel the cost.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

"The thought 'who am I?' (or 'what am i') will destroy all other thoughts, and like the stick used for stirring the burning pyre, it will itself in the end get destroyed. Then, there will arise Self-realization."
~ Ramana Maharshi


In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better. -- Ellen DeGeneres


http://www.livejournal.com/users/whonowz/
It seems a lot of folks want to change something (psychological) about themselves, be less angry, more compassionate, less judgemental, more tolerant, less compulsive, on and on. There are countless methods/practices/schemes across myriad cultures to supposedly help in this endeavor. Can't help but feel though, that the one wanting to improve itself only exists as a mental image, an illusion. An image can certainly be improved (according to imagined ideals), become more tolerant, less compulsive, etc, but it doesn't seem to be what we are, more an image that is identified with. What we are appears to remain untouched by all these 'shenanigans'.

When faced with this realization, thoughts, ideas, and schemes all tend to come to a halt. When I don't push or pull to be somewhere or something else, what is simply is. In this 'stillness' there is attentiveness. It's felt that this silent attentiveness is beyond all ideas of love or compassion, all concepts of meeting or relationship. In the intensity of the moment all distance disappears and whatever comes into awareness is simply felt, intimately.

Besides, what interest do I have in doing karate “properly?” Just who am I doing this karate for, anyway?

Rob Redmond

Death Experience

Rainer Maria Rilke

We know nothing of this going away,
that shares nothing with us.
We have no reason,
whether astonishment and love or hate,
to display Death, whom a fantastic mask of tragic lament
astonishingly disfigures.

Now the world is still full of roles
which we play as long as we make sure,
that, like it or not, Death plays, too,
although he does not please us.

But when you left, a strip of reality broke upon the stage
through the very opening
through which you vanished:
Green, true green, true sunshine, true forest.

We continue our play.

Picking up gestures now and then,
and anxiously reciting that which was difficult to learn;
but your far away, removed out of our performance existence,
sometimes overcomes us, as an awareness
descending upon us of this very reality,
so that for a while we play Life rapturously,
not thinking of any applause.

What's the spring breathing jasmine and rose?
What's the summer with all its gay train?
What's the splendor of autumn to those
Who've bartered their freedom for gain?

- Both Sides the Tweed (trad.)

People who believe that things will get better if we can just get rid of Bush are like smokers who believe they can avoid cancer by changing brands.

-Jay Hanson

"Never interrupt an opponent when he is making a mistake"

- Napolean Bonaparte

When begged by some devotees to cure himself with yogic powers, Ramakrishna agreed to ask his Divine Mother Kali. He went to the temple and humbly requested, "Mother, please let me eat a little in order to keep the body together." Goddess Kali replied, "You are eating through all mouths. Why do you have to eat through this mouth?"

When a poem speaks to you
it's as if you just spoke to yourself.
- Eric Ashford

Let us consider Ramana Maharshi's death. At seventy, he developed a tumor on his arm which was operated on several times without anesthetic. Ramana tried to clarify the meaning, or lack of meaning, of pain and illness for the totally illuminated person: "They take this body for Ramana and attribute suffering to him. What a pity! Where is pain if there is no mind?" The approach of Ramana was not that of the healer who removes pain but that of the sage who perceives all phenomena, including pain, as Ultimate Consciousness. Years before, Ramana had elucidated this point: "If the hand of the jnani, or knower of Truth, were cut with a knife, there would be pain as with anyone else, but because his mind is in bliss, he does not feel the pain as acutely as others do."

The seed of wisdom did I sow
And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow;
And this was all the harvest that I reaped --
I came like water, and like wind I go.

~ Omar Khayyam, The Rubáiyát

"Sometimes, getting what you want tastes even sweeter than loving what is."

- last line of an article reporting an interview that a reporter conducted with Byron Katie

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.

- D H Lawrence

"Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbours, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling, filled up the horizon of their minds.

No attempt was made to indoctrinate them [the proles] with the ideology of the Party. It was not desirable that the proles should have strong political feelings. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working-hours or shorter rations. And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice."

~George Orwell

LOVE.

Nature, everywhere the same,
Imparts to man a lustful flame;
In Russian snow or Indian fire,
All men alike indulge desire,

All alike, feel passion's heat,
All alike, enjoyment greet,
So that wheresoe'er you go,
Still the same voluptuous glow

Throbs through every purple vein,
Thirsts enjoyment to obtain;
'Mongst the dark, or with the fair,
Woman is empress everywhere.

Exercise is bunk. If you're healthy you don't need it. If you're sick you shouldn't do it.

- H. Ford

"My son, much tried by the fate of Ilium, you must know that Cassandra alone declared to me this fortune.

Now I recall her predicting these things as our people's destiny, often naming Hesperia, often the Italian realm."

[Anchises 1 to Aeneas (in exile). Virgil, Aeneid 3.182]

If the gambler's version of the First Law of thermodynamics is "you
can't win" and of the Second Law is "you can't break even," the
gambler's version of the Third Law of thermodynamics is "you can't get
out of the game."

-Eric Schneider ("Into the Cold")

(from Nathaniel Hawthorne - 'The Christmas Banquet')

"And looking back on your serene and prosperous life, how can you claim to be the sole unfortunate of the human race?"

"You will not understand it," replied Gervayse Hastings, feebly, and with a singular inefficiency of pronunciation, and sometimes putting one word for another. "None have understood it, not even those who experience the like. It is a chillness, a want of earnestness, a feeling as if what should be my heart were a thing of vapor, a haunting perception of unreality! Thus seeming to possess all that other men have, all that men aim at, I have really possessed nothing, neither joy nor griefs. All things, all persons,--as was truly said to me at this table long and long ago,--have been like shadows flickering on the wall. It was so with my wife and children, with those who seemed my friends: it is so with yourselves, whom I see now before one. Neither have I myself any real existence, but am a shadow like the rest."

"And how is it with your views of a future life?" inquired the
speculative clergyman.

"Worse than with you," said the old man, in a hollow and feeble
tone; "for I cannot conceive it earnestly enough to feel either hope or fear. Mine,--mine is the wretchedness! This cold heart,--this unreal life! Ah! it grows colder still."

What Practice Is Not -- Joko Beck



Many people practice and have strong ideas of what practice is.
What I want to do is to state from my point of view what practice is
not.

First, practice is not about producing psychological change. If we
practice with intelligence, psychological change will be produced; I
am not questioning that - in fact, it's wonderful. I am saying that
practice is not done in order to produce such change.

Practice is not about intellectually knowing the physical nature of
reality, what the universe consists of, or how it works. And again,
in a serious practice, we will tend to have some knowledge of such
matters. But that is not what practice is.

Practice is not about achieving some blissful state. It's not about
having visions. It's not about seeing white lights (or pink or blue
ones). All of these things may occur, and if we sit long enough they
probably will. But that is not what practice is about.

Practice is not about having or cultivating special powers. There
are many of these and we all have some of them naturally; some
people have them in extra measure. At the Zen Center Los Angeles I
sometimes had the useful ability to see what was being served for
dinner two doors away. If they were having something I didn't like,
I didn't go. Such abilities are little oddities, and again they are
not what practice is about.

Practice is not about personal power or joriki, the strength that is
developed in years of sitting. Again, joriki is a natural by-product
of zazen. And again it is not the way

Practice is not about having nice feelings, happy feelings. It's
not about feeling good as opposed to feeling bad. It's not an
attempt to be anything special or feel anything special. The product
of practice or the point of practice or what practice is about is
not to be always calm and collected. Again, we tend to be much more
so after years of practice, but it is not the point.

Practice is not about some bodily state in which we are never ill,
never hurt, one in which we have no bothersome ailments. Sitting
tends to have health benefits for many people, though in the course
of practice there may be months or even years of health disasters.
But again, seeking perfect health is not the way; although by and
large, over time, there will be beneficial health for most people.
But no guarantees!

Practice is not about achieving an omniscient state in which a
person knows all about everything, a state in which a person is an
authority on any and all worldly problems. There may be a little
more clarity on such matters, but clever people have been known to
say and do foolish things.

Practice is not about being "spiritual," at least not as this word
if often understood. Practice is not about being anything. So unless
we see that we cannot aim at being "spiritual," it can be a
seductive and harmful objective.

Practice is not about highlighting all sorts of "good" qualities and
getting rid of "bad" ones. No one is "good" or "bad." The struggle
to be good is not what practice is. That type of training is a
subtle form of athleticism.

We could continue our listing almost endlessly. Actually anyone in
practice has some of these delusions operating. We all hope to
change, to get somewhere! That in itself is the basic fallacy. But
just contemplating this desire begins to clarify it, and the
practice basis of our life alters as we do so. We begin to
comprehend that our frantic desire to get better, to
get "somewhere," is illusion itself, and the source of suffering.

If our boat full of hope, illusions, and ambition (to get somewhere,
to be spiritual, to be perfect, to be enlightened) is capsized, what
is that empty boat? Who are we? What, in terms of our lives, can we
realize? And what is practice?

Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen

You want to know how to be like Indians?
Live close to the earth. Get rid of some of your things. Help each other.
Talk to the Creator. Be quiet more.
Listen to the earth instead of building things on it all the time.

Neither Wolf nor Dog - On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder

Popular revolt against a ruthless, experienced

modern dictatorship, which enjoys a monopoly

over weapons and communications, ...is simply

not a possibility in the modern age.

- George Kennan

"Neither shall they say, Lo here!
or, lo there! for, behold,
the kingdom of God is within you."

Luke 17:21

"If someone throws a rock at your head, what you do, that is your martial art"

"...There is a real Self underlying the three states, who is by nature immortal and would survive the reduction to nothingness of the unreal, the ego.

Happiness is the very nature of that Self,and hence the Egoless State is the one thing that is desirable, beyond all comparison with anything that there is in relativity.

The one great difficulty that the intellect finds in accepting this teaching is this.
The intellect demands a rational link between the world it knows and the Self or Reality it is told about.It wants a bridge over which it can pass and re-pass between the two. Such a bridge does not exist,and cannot possibly be built by anyone--even by a Sage.

The reason is extremely simple, namely,the fact that the world and the reality are negations of each other. We have seen before that what appears as the world is just the Reality.And this was made intelligible to us by the analogy of the snake seen in a rope.

So too the world and the Reality are negations of each other. They cannot be seen simultaneously. The rope is unrelated to the snake; it did not give birth to the snake.

So too the world and the Reality are negations of each other,in the sense that he that sees one of them does not and cannot at the same time see the other. The two cannot be experienced simultaneously. He that sees the world sees not the Self, the Reality; on the other hand he that sees the Self does not see the world.

So one of them alone can be real-not both.Hence there is no real relation between them.The world did not come into existence from the Reality. The latter is wholly unrelated to the former. Therefore, it is clear that the bridge that the intellect demands does not exist and cannot be built...."

-Ramana

"I do not seek to follow in the footsteps of men of old: I seek the things they sought."

-- Basho

"When all is said and done, an artist is simply someone who is tortured beyond endurance by the lack of tenderness in the world"

- Lawrence Durrell

For me, I'd have to say that it came about when I was training with my buddy Ian, and I remarked that I had noticed that he gotten better since the last time we trained together, and he said, "I just don't care anymore," meaning that he had decided not to care so much whether or not a particular movement worked or not and would allow himself to figure out how deal with a particular situation in his own time, and in his own way. This type of mentality allows for true relaxation, and for the subconsious mind to take over more during training.

-Brian Holland

'I wouldn't do it.' Ulla said, frowning. 'I hate sadness. I can't bear it. I would rather have nothing at all than even a little sadness. I think that why I love to sleep so much, na? It's impossible to be really sad when you're asleep. You can be happy and afraid and angry in your dreams, but you have to be wide awake to be sad, don't you think?'

- Gregory David Roberts, 'Shantara'

To flame or not to flame, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous trolling,
Or to take arms against a sea of N00bz,
And by opposing end them?

"Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable."

- The Wizard of Oz

"We must remember that one man is much the same as another
and he is best who is trained in the severest school."

-Thucydides

"It takes a special type of asshole to brag about being humble."

- anonymous internet guy

Q: Don't I need a guide to see God ?

Maharshi:

Who was your guide to see Ramana Bhagavan ?
With whose guidance do you see the world every day ?
Just as you are able to see the world yourself,
so you you will also be able to see your Self
if you make a sincere attempt. It will be your Self alone
that will guide you in that quest as well.

Robinson Jeffers - The Purse-Seine

Our sardine fishermen work at night in the dark
      of the moon; daylight or moonlight
They could not tell where to spread the net,
       unable to see the phosphorescence of the
       shoals of fish.
They work northward from Monterey, coasting
       Santa Cruz; off New Year's Point or off
       Pigeon Point
The look-out man will see some lakes of milk-color
       light on the sea's night-purple; he points,
       and the helmsman
Turns the dark prow, the motorboat circles the
       gleaming shoal and drifts out her seine-net.
       They close the circle
And purse the bottom of the net, then with great
       labor haul it in.

                                     I cannot tell you
How beautiful the scene is, and a little terrible,
       then, when the crowded fish
Know they are caught, and wildly beat from one wall
       to the other of their closing destiny the
       phosphorescent
Water to a pool of flame, each beautiful slender body
       sheeted with flame, like a live rocket
A comet's tail wake of clear yellow flame; while outside
       the narrowing
Floats and cordage of the net great sea-lions come up
       to watch, sighing in the dark; the vast walls
       of night
Stand erect to the stars.

                               Lately I was looking from a night mountain-top
On a wide city, the colored splendor, galaxies of light:
       how could I help but recall the seine-net
Gathering the luminous fish? I cannot tell you how
       beautiful the city appeared, and a little terrible.
I thought, We have geared the machines and locked all together
       into inter-dependence; we have built the great cities; now
There is no escape. We have gathered vast populations incapable
       of free survival, insulated
From the strong earth, each person in himself helpless, on all
       dependent. The circle is closed, and the net
Is being hauled in. They hardly feel the cords drawing, yet
       they shine already. The inevitable mass-disasters
Will not come in our time nor in our children's, but we
       and our children
Must watch the net draw narrower, government take all
       powers--or revolution, and the new government
Take more than all, add to kept bodies kept souls--or anarchy,
       the mass-disasters.
                                      These things are Progress;
Do you marvel our verse is troubled or frowning, while it keeps
       its reason? Or it lets go, lets the mood flow
In the manner of the recent young men into mere hysteria,
       splintered gleams, crackled laughter. But they are
       quite wrong.
There is no reason for amazement: surely one always knew
       that cultures decay, and life's end is death.

And now the sick man opened his eyes again and looked for a long while into his friend's face. He said farewell with his eyes. And with a sudden movement, as though he were trying to shake his head, he whispered:

"But how will you die when your time comes, Narcissus, since you have no mother? Without a mother, one cannot love. Without a mother, one cannot die."

What he murmurmed after that could not be understood. Those last two days Narcissus sat by his bed day and night, watching his life ebb away. Goldmund's last words burned like fire in his heart.

- Narcissus and Goldmund (Herman Hesse)

I repeat, tomorrow Thou shalt see that obedient flock who at a sign from me will hasten to heap up the hot cinders about the pile on which I shall burn Thee for coming to hinder us. For if anyone has ever deserved our fires, it is Thou. Tomorrow I shall burn Thou. I have spoken.

"When the Inquisitor ceased speaking he waited some time for his Prisoner to answer him. His silence weighed down upon him. He saw that the Prisoner had listened intently all the time, looking gently in his face and evidently not wishing to reply. The old man longed for him to say something, however bitter and terrible. But He suddenly approached the old man in silence and softly kissed him on his bloodless aged lips. That was all his answer. The old man shuddered. His lips moved. He went to the door, opened it, and said to Him: 'Go, and come no more... come not at all, never, never!' And he let Him out into the dark alleys of the town. The Prisoner went away."

"And the old man?"

"The kiss glows in his heart, but the old man adheres to his idea."

- Grand Inquisitor, F. Dostoyevsky

Gold dust is precious, but in the eye it blinds.

Real spiritual growth begins with an act of betrayal.
You drop the assumptions that govern the world around you.
Watching the world collapse, you see beauty where others see only a gaping hole.
To the rest of the world, this is a betrayal of the highest order.

When one is pretending, the entire body revolts.
- Anais Nin

I read a thousand books;
memorized algorithms, names
and concepts; traveled through all knowledge centres;
asked all wise men. Now I only have one question left
to answer: What was it all useful for?

I think every spiritual teacher should take a month out of every year to travel alone and incognito. He should interact with many people in many situations where a guru has no standing, no identity and no authority. That would be an excellent reality check and retreat.

The attacks I "learned" in Yoshinkan:

- the wrist grab with no follow-up
- the lapel grab with retarded hand position and no follow-up
- the "shotokan white belt" step-through punch
- the "what the fuck is that for" shomen uchi blade hand to the forehead
- the "looks like a haymaker, but doesn't work" yokumen uchi blade hand to the temple.
- the rear wrist-grab with no follow-up

Should I go on?

Mits

What brought everything together for me was the Brazilian Jujitsu of the Gracie family. A policeman who was one of my students told me about a new form of Jujitsu that focused on ground grappling, and my ears perked up. When I went to look at the art, Rorion Grace (who later became my teacher) introduced me to his father, Master Helio Gracie, who was then 75 years old. "Mits, this is my dad," Rorion said. "He says that he wants to wrestle you." Knowing that Helio only spoke Portuguese, I said to Rorion, "I'm stronger than he is, and I'm in great shape. Your father looks old to me." To my surprise, Rorion translated what I had said for his father - and then he translated the reply for me: "My dad says that now he really wants to wrestle you - and, if you go easy with him, he's going to hurt you." I thought, "Oh, my goodness!"

When we grappled, it was no contest. I attacked this man, who was 75 years old and weighed about 130 pounds, with everything I had, but there was nothing I could do to him! He would neutralize my attacks without breaking a sweat. He would hold me down, laugh, and talk to his son while I was struggling. If I did manage get out of a hold, he would put me in another. For 30 minutes, I was humiliated.

That convinced me that there was something to Brazilian Jujitsu. Until that moment, I thought a martial artist had to be big, strong, and quick. I thought that all the stories about 90-year-old masters defeating 20-year-old football players were just fables. But on the ground Helio Gracie would neutralize my movements without using strength - just as, in the stories, Ueshiba Sensei would neutralize his attackers' movements from a standing position. Brazilian Jujitsu, I came to see, is Aikido on the ground.

It is perilous to make a chasm in human affections; not that they gape so long and wide--but so quickly close again!

-Nathaniel Hawthorne (from 'Wakefield')

How bad could it be to let the universe just wash over you?

-John Kaminski

The great sea
Has sent me adrift

It moves me
As the weed
in a great river

Earth and the great weather
Move me

Have carried me away
And move my inward parts
with joy ...

The arch of sky
and mightiness of storms
Have moved the Spirit
within me

Till I am carried away
Trembling with joy ...

- Uvavnuk - Inuit shaman

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself in this love.
When you lose yourself in this love,
you will find everything.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Do not fear this loss,
For you will rise from the earth
and embrace the endless heavens.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Escape from this earthly form,
For this body is a chain
and you are its prisoner.

Smash through the prison wall
and walk outside with the kings and princes.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself at the foot of the glorious King.
When you lose yourself
before the King
you will become the King.

Lose yourself,
Lose yourself.
Escape from the black cloudthat surrounds you.
Then you will see your own light
as radiant as the full moon.

Now enter that silence.
This is the surest wayto lose yourself...

What is your life about, anyway?
-Nothing but a struggle to be someone,
Nothing but a running from your own silence.

- Rumi, from In the Arms of the Beloved,

"Some people said Taiji practitioners should not do weight lifting and should not use force. This is not true. Before we learn Taijiquan, our whole bodies are stiff and our force is not flexible. Once we have learned Taijiquan, we are very relaxed, our qi circulates and we can get rid of the stiffness but keep our force. Our rigid force has become resilient force. The rigid force usually comes from the shoulders and is not controlled by the waist and manisfested through the fingers. In business term, our rigid force is our capital, and relaxation is the method we use (know-how) to run a business. If we know how to run a business, with a small capital we can still do big business. If we do not not how, then even with a big capital, we cannot run any business. Therefore, after you have learned to do Taijiquan properly, there is nothing you cannot do, be it weight-lifting, wrestling, or running. Do not let the misception to worry you."

(Dong Ying-jie: Taijiquan Shi Yi.)

On nearing the surf
every footprint becomes
that of the sea

J. W. Hackett

When Japanese people are frustrated, they become silent, very, very silent.

Aside from our small training group everyone at the seminar was coming to Systema for the first time. The participants also included a few brave masters of other martial arts who had stepped out to come and join us. It was immediately obvious from their movements who they were and Alex did a wonderful job of putting them at ease and making them truly welcome. It is difficult to explain in a few words the cultural significance in Japan of an established teacher on another martial art coming with an open mind and an empty cup to learn something entirely new as a ‘beginner’. I take my hat off to these individuals and prey that their attitude and kindness prevails amongst us all.

- Andrew Cefai (writing about Systema Tokyo seminar, Sept 2005)

Through early morning fog I see
visions of the things to be
the pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see...

That suicide is painless
it brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.

I try to find a way to make
all our little joys relate
without that ever-present hate
but now I know that it's to late, and...

Suicide is painless
it brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.

The game of life is hard to play
I'm going to lose it anyway
the losing card I'll someday lay
so this is all I have to say

That suicide is painless
it brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.

The only way to win is cheat
and lay it down before I'm beat
and to another give my seat
for that's the only painless feat

Suicide is painless
it brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.

The sword of time will pierce our skins
it doesn't hurt when it begins
but as it works its way on in
the pain grows stronger...watch it grin but...

Suicide is painless
it brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.

A brave man once requested me
to answer questions that are key
is it to be or not to be
and I replied "oh why ask me?"

'Cause suicide is painless
it brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.

...and you can do the same thing if you please.

Ki work

QZH: arm rotations
QZH: cat washes face
SYS: stick pressing
ZMQ: form (w/sokushin breathing?)
QZH: cat washes face
SYS: stick pressing
SYS: 5 min pushup top - hold
IAI: seiza sit
SYS: 10 halfway breathing pushups
QZH: cat washes face
QZH: dragon raises head

"Masochistic perseverance in the fulfillment of complex social obligations is a basic cultural trait of Japan."

Noel Burch, in a book on Japanese films

Fiery lust is not diminished by indulging it,
but by leaving it ungratified.
As long as you are laying logs on the fire,
the fire will burn.
When you withhold the wood, the fire dies,
and God carries the water.

- Rumi

Don't wish for union!
There's a closeness beyond that ...
Fall in love in such a way
that it frees you from any connecting.
Love is the soul's light, the taste of morning;
no me, no we, no claim of being...
As eyes in silence, tears, face:
love cannot be said.

-Rumi

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For every force applied, there is an equal force applied back. The 'world', the universe, maya only exists because of resistance to it: you push against it, it pushes back.

The only way to freedom is surrender. You stop pushing, asserting yourself, and illusion stops pushing back, asserting itself. Stop pushing, putting energy into the system, and there is no energy in the system to push back.

Stop telling the story, and without that constant input of energy the story collapses.

-David Carse

Don't knock Monkey style kung fu !!!You can't kick the ass of a guy who is up a tree and throwing coconuts at you !!

Most of self defence has nothing to do with hand to hand combat, or any comabt at all. That much is true. However, the part of it that does deal with actual confrontations is simply not adressed by all of the scenario training and model muggings they advocate. Being able to fight requires a certain psychological characteristic, call it "toughness" that is simply not achieved by this type of training. Some people have it naturally, they are more or less born fighters. Others, like me, are softies, and no ammount of model mugging or low-contac sparring will ever get them to the point, where they will be able to stand up for themselves when push comes to shove. The only way you can become tough is formal or informal competition, or actual fighting experience. You have to go up against an opponent that is trying to actually take your head off, and not just simulate a mugger. This sort of fighting is a whole different kind of animal from friendly sparring. The agression, adrenalin, and fear for your safety change things a hell of a lot more than most people realize. This is why most of the reality self defence types will fold under real pressure, while most sports fighters will not.

Oh, smell the people!' yelled Dean with his face out the window, sniffling. 'Ah, God! Life!'"
-Jack Kerouac, On The Road

"Love is all.'
-Jack Kerouac

"I went with him for no reason."-Jack Kerouac on Neal Cassady

"What's your road, man? -holyboy road, madman road, rainbow road, guppy road, any road. It's an anywhere road for anybody anyhow."
-Neal Cassady as Dean Moriarty in On The Road

"Who are all these strange ghosts rooted to the silly little adventure of earth with me?"
-Jack Kerouac, on the final gathering/Snyders going away party

"...Ah, life is a gate, a way, a path to Paradise anyway, why not live for fun and joy and love or some sort of girl by a fireside, why not go to your desire and LAUGH..."
J. Kerouac- Big Sur

"Offer them what they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic-stricken."
-Jack Kerouac

"I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was- I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn't know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds."
-- "On The Road”

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."
-- "On The Road”

Gurus I Have Known and Loved

My friend Peter has made a suggestion to me....that I write a bit about the effect that certain spiritual teachers have had on me. I said immediately that seemed like too big of a job, to review gurus."No," he replied, "just talk about the effect they had on you." And so I begin with Peter himself.

Peter came into my life a number of years ago. I had begun my website to write about my husband's multiple myeloma. It quickly turned into a place where I began posting spiritual essays that I wrote. I posted them on Jerry Katz's Nonduality Salon as well. One day Peter posted something there about spirituality and illness. I wrote him privately and thus began an instantaneous friendship. It was based on nothing but hands clicking away at their respective keyboards. And Peter apparently has a hard time with his, given that he has been ill for many years. He prefers that I not discuss that part of his life. He has overcome the illusion of having a separate self. As far as he is concerned, it is all the same...suffering or enlightenment are indistinguishable.

Peter's statements about life are inherently simple and therefore effective. When you can not do anything but sit in the sunlight with a cat on your lap, then that is what you do. Capice?
He once sent me a sound bite of himself playing the bagpipes in earlier days. I sat at my computer listening, tears winking in my eyes. I have seen his picture and he is an incredibly handsome man. I do not know his last name or where he lives. In that way he is a perfect mirror for what is beyond words and thoughts.

When my husband decided to die slowly, enduring chemo just to keep himself on the planet as long as he could, Peter would say, "For what it is worth, I hold your hand in this." Indeed. What verbiage printed in ink or online can match the clarity of caring. I knew that Peter's days were just like mine....hardly endurable. But we were both choiceless in the matter. My job was to care for my husband and his was to get through the day as best he could without falling. "Ho ho!" he would say, after confessing to aanother episode of crashing into tall grasses.

So Peter has come to be a guru for me. He lives in the moment as a matter of course. If coaxed, he will admit that at some point in time, he lost his "me." That should be a profound relief, but given that he also lost his balance, strength and career, etc., things have not been hunky dory for him. It does no good to try and figure it out.

I go long periods of time without hearing from Peter, understandably so. If I write about him, the love is activated as I click clack the letters on the keyboard. He vows his cat holds the key to enlightenment and I am not at all sure about that. Maybe it's even simpler and he is just using words to keep me from experiencing cosmic bliss. I mean, somebody is keeping me from it. I might as well blame Peter. That is how much I trust him.

People whose lives have been drug down to the baseline of existence and kept there for many years grow clear or crazy, one or the other. Having lost a child, I know what baseline feels like. It is forcing yourself to put your body through the motions while your heart is scattered all over the universe. You cannot call it home; it justwon't come. It is stubbornly holding out on you. Mine wanted a little girl named Laurie to come back. With Peter, it was his ability to use his body.

But Peter and I found each other serendipitously. Forget enlightenment, gurus and every word written about them. Loving what is does the trick. When you can love the lost things in your life and stumble forward knowing they will not return, good for you. Good for Peter and good for me. We know the essential truth of life. It will not change at our whim, but we can change in the moment of our suffering. It's called love.

Vicki Woodyard

Dear Aging Becomer
by Bob Cergol

A letter written by Bob to friends, many of whom have been "on the path" for 25 or more years, and read by him at the April 2005 TAT Spring Gathering:

You consider yourself more esoterically informed than most -- way, way ahead of the common masses and "Joe-six-pack." from animated postcard by Jeff Victor In the last 30 years, haven't you figured out yet -- how to become a reverse vector? Is it by more and more "doing" and "thinking" -- by running faster and faster, in ever decreasing concentric circles -- until ... you become like the "Do-Do Bird" Rose described. Is it through bodily action, or mental activity? Which of these follows which, and which is more substantial than Omar Khayam's "... snow upon the Desert's dusty Face, Lighting a little Hour or two -- [and] gone"?

If death equates to the absence of doing, thinking and experiencing, -- i.e. nothing, then aren't you on your way to becoming nothing -- with no effort required? Isn't that the direction of your life? Can you actually become something, fundamentally different, than what you are right now? Who or what is becoming? You used to be convinced that you could become, now you only hope that you can, that this leaden "YOU" that you know and love so well -- and hate -- can become a golden you, that will deserve your love forever -- and live forever -- PROVING ONCE AND FOR ALL WHAT IN YOUR HEART YOU DO NOT REALLY BELIEVE -- AND MOST FEAR. You the body-mind fantasize a vision of becoming something PERMANENT, and superior to yourself -- and that somehow YOU will remain anterior to everything -- intact as "you" -- containing God himself -- the timeless. WHERE DID YOU GET SUCH A DELUSION?!

I think it is your distorted seeing and hearing of the essential desire that comes to you from your true Self -- your Essence -- for even God does not have the power to split himself, and everything He touches was never separate from Him. (It is the INVISIBLE CURRENT from Rose's Jacob's Ladder diagram. This is pure metaphor, attempting to explain the mechanics of a creation that does not exist.) You the Shadow-Man cannot fail to act in accordance with your essence, your true source and fundamental nature. However, your actions are refracted according to the fixation of your attention on experience, refracted according to the resulting need for self-definition and personal survival, and refracted according to the resulting fears and desires generated by the experience. In other words, you the shadow man do not become or evolve or will your attention away from the false. You the shadow-man are watching two movies: one is the movie of your destruction, one is the movie of your denial and acceptance of this destruction. The theme of denial is depicted by the vision of becoming through acquisition. The theme of acceptance is depicted by one's own deconstruction through simple looking -- with acceptance.

Are you looking -- or acquiring? It is by virtue of your essence that your attention cannot be 100% glued to that which is separate. The desire and attempt to define your self, and to survive, is simply what manifests in the shadow of experience cast by the "Light of the body," that Christ said was "the eye." You, the Shadow-Man, are what manifests when Awareness reflects upon itself and finds no object to reflect upon. Your attempt to become is doomed to failure. This is beautifully stated in these thematic and climactic phrases from the poem The Hound of Heaven: All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.

Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me.
Naught contents thee, who content'st not Me.
All things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!
Thou dravest love From thee, who dravest Me.

If your attempt to become transcendentally different is doomed to failure, what can and will you do about it? Can your actions lead to a change in anything other than your circumstances? You believe that it can because you mistake the after-the-fact reactive experience as you-the-doer. It is a wish of you-the-somatic-mind. Have you noticed that your actions have an effect upon your attention? What motivates your actions? The action of looking will further affect the focus of your attention. Becoming a reverse-vector is the opposite of external, worldly becoming. It is un-becoming.

It is your un-doing! It is the breaking of your fixation on all experience -- including the experience of identity -- until the attention collapses in upon itself and all experience either stops or is recognized as non-existent. Spiritual becoming is worldly and personal un-becoming through the reverse vector of the attention -- "that power of noticing" which is not your possession. The potential value in your activity aimed at becoming lies in the effect that it will have upon the direction of your attention -- not in becoming something other than what you already are or are not. Your desire to become was wisely exploited by your teacher, who coined the phrase: "milk from thorns." He also liked to recall the Radha Soami guru who answered his question about what can be done: "All that man can do is desire."

Rose knew full-well the ultimate Source of this desire, and how this desire manifested in the "mind realm" and in the "body realm." Your experience generates experience. Experience is to the identity as food is to the body. Your identity weaves itself in a self-perpetuating chain-reaction -- so long as the attention is glued to experience -- and so long as the body fuels the reactor. The "fabric" of identity unravels as the attention is turned to watching -- first experience itself, as an outside observer rather than a participant, and then when the attention is turned to watching the experience-er. Experience is binding.
Observing the process of experiencing is liberating. Good hunting, and may your life experience be decidedly disconcerting. As your faithful friend, I remain.... Bob

-------------------------


Only through the simple process of self-observation can this thing called the "self" be seen. We may need years of looking at it, seeing why it does what it does, thinks what it thinks, until we know it well enough to cease to believe in it. All of our energy, for all of our life, has been poured into this thing: our personality, the little self, the ego. A few moments of seeing, while of monumental importance, will not cause its complete demise. This demise is what we fear most; for it is seen by the thought-pattern we call "us" as death. At some point, the initial joy of seeing will turn to the pain of ego-death, as the Truth becomes known. It will not be pleasant. In fact, the pain and horror felt by the ego as it faces its own death, will be felt as yours. Hartmann's words again ring true: "Conquer the pains resulting therefrom." While all this may be just words to you for now, know that after you have gone beyond this realm of thought, beyond this self-surviving collection of reactions seeking nothing but its own continuity, "seeing" will still be there. You will then have no more need of thought or reaction to give you meaning and value, as the simple act of seeing will once again be enough. The world of thought will no longer be your home, having become a movie, a dream, as much a comedy as a drama, wherein the bit character you used to call your "self" is merely another player. Your interest will be only in a pure amazement at your own unknowable Being … and perhaps the need to help another find freedom from the trap of reaction, the world of "self."

It is the clinging to the false that makes

the true so difficult to see. Once you

understand that the false needs time and

what needs time is false, you are nearer

the Reality, which is timeless, ever in thenow.

Eternity in time is mere repetitiveness,

like the movement of a clock. It flows from

the past into the future endlessly, as empty

perpetuity. Reality is what makes the present

so vital, so different from the past and future,

which are merely mental. If you need time to

achieve something, it must be false. The realis always with you; you need not wait to be

what you are. Only you must not allow your

mind to go out of yourself in search. When you

want something, ask yourself: do I really needit? and if the answer is not, then just drop it.

- Nisargadatta Maharaj, from I Am That-

Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, The Acorn Press, 1973

Otherwise, you can add some weak acid at some point in the washing process. Since you need just a tiny amount, even cheap vinegar will do, without leaving a smell. You could make a soap goo out of soap and water, and add a bit of lemon juice. You could have a jug of water with a teaspoonful of vinegar in it, to rinse your hair with after soaping. Or how about pouring it into a plastic squirty bottle, so you don't spill it.

The world of Absolute Reality,
onto which your mind has projected a world of relative unreality
is independent of yourself, for the very simple reason that it is yourself.

Examine the motion of change
and you will see. What can change
while you do not change, can be
said to be independent of you.
But what is changeless must be one
with whatever else is changeless.
The main objective to grasp is
that you have projected onto
yourself a world of your own imagination, based on memories,
on desires and fears, and that you
have imprisoned yourself in it.
Break the spell and be free.
You are universal. You need not and you
cannot become what you are already.
Only cease imagining yourself to be
the particular. What comes and goes
has no being. It owes its very appearance to reality.
You know that there is a world, but does the world
know you? All knowledge flows from
you, as all being and all joy.

Realize that you are the eternal source and
accept all as your own.Such acceptance is true love.
Having never left the house you are asking
for the way home. Get rid of wrong ideas, that is all.
Collecting right ideas also will take you nowhere.
Just cease imagining.
Don't you understand?! Enough if you do not
misunderstand. Don't rely on your mind for liberation.

It is the mind that brought you to
bondage. Go beyond it altogether.
is beginningless cannot have a cause.
It is not that you knew what you are and
then you have forgotten. Once you know, you cannot forget.

Don't ask the mind to confirm what is beyond the mind.
Direct experience is the only valid confirmation.

- Nisargadatta

Stop taking yourself so goddamn seriously and chill the fuck out. Everything is going to be fine.

"To come out in plain words and say it, it isimpossible because if you carry enough fuel to thrustlong enough to travel at say nine tenths the speed oflight you could
never have enough fuel to stop. You would have to keep
traveling forever. "

That a really good reason, but there's one that's an
even bigger problem:
Space Isn't Empty.

IIRC, the density of the interplanetary medium is
about 1 atom of hydrogen per cubic meter. That's not
much in the way of resistance, but let's say the front
of the vehicle presents a face of 10 square meters.
That means every meter distance travelled it will, on
average, collide with 10 atoms of hydrogen. Now, let's
pretend that you get this machine to go only HALF the
speed of light. That means you will collide with
149,896,271 atoms of hydrogen every second.
You're dead. The kind of kinetic energy of 150 million
atoms slamming into your ship at 1/2 c EVERY SECOND
will eventuate in your ship becoming incredibly hot
and radioactive. And God ferbid you hit a grain of
sand at that speed - it would slice right through your
ship so fast - dead meat.

So: you're going to go all star trek on me and
postulate a huge "deflector array"? Where's the energy
going to come from for that? And besides, as you
approach C, your time dilation kicks in, so you have
some tiny fraction of time to deal with microscopic
bits of grit travelling at relativistic speed.

Deflecting it will require even MORE energy, and WHERE
is that going to come from? A small little lonesome
bit of crap is floating in space, minding it's own
dull business as it had for 4.6 billion years, when
suddenly Mr HotShot space truck comes blasting out of
nowhere saying "You have to get out of my way RIGHT
NOW" the energy required to do that would pretty much
not only vapourise the little piece of grit, which
would result in even MORE heat and radiation, on top
of all the other radiation. And if you're travelling
at say, 99% of c, you're looking at 300 million atoms
of hydrogen slamming into your machine at nearly light
speed - something it takes insane amounts of energy on
earth to do, just to get a few atoms in an
accellerator up to any appreciable speed.

Now multiply that energy by 300 million EVERY SECOND
and talk to me about some silly notion of a deflectorshield.
Quite simply, Mr Patterson is correct: It Just Ain't
Gonna Happen. Period. Not now, Not later, not ever.

HOWEVER: I do think that we can, and should, get out
of the gravity well. But I think a more likely way
than building ships that travel near c, would be to
evolve a special class of "humans" who have a genetic
code that is largely impervious to radiation (there
are bacteria that have this feature), eat rocks and
ice in the asteroid belt, have enourmous wing spans
that collect solar radiation and can live in a vacuum.
Once they eat the asteroid belt, they can grow bigger
wings and go work on the Kuiper Belt and then it's off
to the Oort cloud.Sound ridiculous? Yeah, It is. But it's one HELL of a
lot more achievable than travelling at c... That's
just a stupid hollywood fantasy.

Mister Studebaker

"What then is that precious something contained in our food which keeps usfrom death? That is easily answered. Every process, event, happening -- callit what you will; in a word, everything that is going on in Nature means anincrease of the entropy of the part of the world where it is going on. Thusa living organism continually increases its entropy -- or, as you may say,produces positive entropy -- and thus tends to approach the dangerous stateof maximum entropy, which is death. It can only keep aloof from it, i.e.alive, by continually drawing from its environment negative entropy -- whichis something very positive as we shall immediately see. What an organismfeeds upon is negative entropy. Or, to put it less paradoxically, theessential thing in metabolism is that the organism succeeds in freeingitself from all the entropy it cannot help producing while alive."

WHAT IS LIFE? by Erwin Shrödinger
First published in 1944.
http://www.dieoff.com/page150.htm

I asked once if Vlad could show me how to avoid a certain strike, he said, "No. I cannot. But if I attack you with sword you will run and move like crazy man. You already know how to move and avoid."

Let sanguine healthy-mindedness do its best with its strange power of
living in the moment and ignoring and forgetting, still the evil
background is really there to be thought of, and the skull will grin in
at the banquet.
— William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience

"I built my cottage among the habitations of men,
And yet there is no clamor of carriages and horses.
You ask: 'Sir, how can this be done?''
A heart that is distant creates its own solitude.

I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge,
Then gaze afar towards the southern hills.
The mountain air is fresh at the dusk of day;
The flying birds in flocks return.

In these things there lies a deep meaning;
I want to tell it, but have forgotten the words."

~Tao YuanMing

100 Items that will disappear first during an emergency

1) Generators.
2) Water filters/purifiers.
3) Portable toilets.
4) Seasoned firewood.
5) Lamp oil, wicks, and lamps.
6) All types of fuel; Coleman, propane, gasoline, kerosene, diesel.
7) Guns, ammunition, pepper-spray, knives, bows/arrows, clubs, bats & slingshots.
8) Hand-can openers & hand egg beaters, whisks, paper/plastic plates and cups.
9) Honey, syrups, white, brown sugars.
10) Rice, beans.
11) Vegetable oil
12) Charcoal & Lighter Fluid.
13) Water containers
14) Mini heater head (Propane)
15) Grain grinder (non-electric)
16) Small propane cylinders and the adapter to refill them from the larger size
17) Goats, chickens, pigeons, ducks, rabbits, milk cows
18) Mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc.
19) Baby supplies, diapers, formula, ointments, aspirin, etc
20) Washboards, mop Bucket w/wringer (for laundry)
21) Cook stoves (Propane, Coleman & Kerosene)
22) Vitamins (Critical, due to forced daily canned food diets.)
23) Propane cylinder Handle-Holder. Small canister use is dangerous without this item.
24) Feminine hygiene, hair care, skin products
25) Thermal underwear, tops and bottoms
26) Bow saws, axes and hatchets & wedges
27) Aluminum foil.
28) Gasoline containers (plastic or metal)
29) Garbage bags (impossible to have too many.)
30) Toilet paper, Kleenex, paper towels
31) Milk -powdered & condensed (Shake liquid every 3 to 4 months.)
32) Garden seeds (non-hybrid A MUST)
33) Clothes pins, line, hangers
34) Coleman's pump Repair Kit:
35) Tuna fish (in oil is preferable over water)
36) Fire extinguishers (or a LARGE box of baking soda in every room...)
37) First aid kits.
38) Batteries (all sizes)
39) Garlic, spices & vinegar, baking supplies
40) BIG dogs (and plenty of dog food)
41) Flour, yeast & salt
42) Matches "Strike Anywhere" preferred. Boxed, wooden matches will go first.
43) Writing paper, pads, pens, pencils, solar calculators
44) Insulated ice chests (good for keeping items from freezing in wintertime)
45) Work boots, belts, Levis & durable shirts
46) Flashlights, light sticks & torches
47) Journals, diaries & scrapbooks (Jot down ideas, feelings, experiences: Historic times!)
48) Garbage cans, plastic (great for storage, water, transporting - if with wheels)
49) Men's Hygiene: Shampoo, toothbrush/paste, mouthwash/floss, nail clippers, etc
50) Cast iron cookware (sturdy, efficient)
51) Fishing supplies, tools
52) Mosquito coils, repellent sprays/creams.
53) Duct tape and WD40.
54) Tarps, stakes, line.
55) Candles.
56) Laundry detergent (Liquid).
57) Backpacks & duffle bags.
58) Garden tools & supplies.
59) Scissors, fabrics & sewing supplies.
60) Canned fruits, Veggies, Soups, stews, etc.
61) Bleach (plain, NOT scented: 4 to 6% sodium hypochlorite)
62) Canning supplies (Jars/lids/rings/wax)
63) Knives & sharpening tools: files, stones, steel, oil.
64) Bicycles, tires, tubes, pumps, chains, etc.
65) Sleeping bags & blankets, pillows, mats.
66) Carbon monoxide alarm (battery powered).
67) Board games cards, dice.
68) Rat poison, roach killer.
69) Mousetraps, ant traps & cockroach magnets
70) Paper plates/cups/utensils
71) Baby wipes, oils, waterless & anti-bacterial soap
72) Rain gear, rubberized boots, etc.
73) Shaving supplies (razors & creams).
74) Hand pumps & siphons (for water and for fuels).
75) Soy sauce, vinegar, bouillons, gravy, soup base.
76) Reading glasses
77) Chocolate, Cocoa, Tang, Punch (water enhancers)
78) Lanterns, Coleman, kerosene
79) Woolen clothing, scarves earmuffs, mittens
80) Hats & cotton neckerchiefs
81) Gloves, work, warming, gardening and etc.
82) Graham crackers, saltines, pretzels, trail mix, jerky
83) Popcorn, peanut butter, nuts
84) Socks, underwear, t-shirts, etc. (extras)
85) Lumber (all types)
86) Wagons & carts (for transport to & from open flea markets)
87) Cots & inflatable mattresses (for extra guests).
88) Atomizers (for cooling/bathing).
89) Wire of all types, bailing, fencing, (barbed and smooth), electrical (all gauges).
90) Screen patches, glue, nails,
91) Teas.
92) Coffee.
93) Cigarettes.
94) Wine, liquors (for bribes, medicinal, etc.).
95) Candies of all kinds.
96) Screws, nuts & bolts.
97) Chewing gum.
98) Any type of food not listed above.
99) All kinds of pharmaceutical supplies.
100) Nails, string, twine, rope, spikes.

The beatings will stop when morale improves.

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die."

- Blade Runner

Blues for Buddha

By Jed McKenna

Being critical of Buddhism isn't easy. Buddhism is the most likable of the major religions, and Buddhists are the perennial good guys of modern spirituality. Beautiful traditions, lovely architecture, inspiring statuary, ancient history, the Dalai Lama — what's not to like?

Everything about Buddhsim is just so... nice. No fatwahs or jihads, no inquisitions or crusades, no terrorists or pederasts, just nice people being nice. In fact, Buddhism means niceness. Nice-ism. At least, it should. Buddha means Awakened One, so Buddhism can be taken to mean Awake-ism. Awakism. It would therefore be natural to think that if you were looking to wake up, then Buddhism, i.e., Awakism, would be the place to look.

The Light is Better Over Here

Such thinking, however, would reveal a dangerous lack of respect for the opposition. Maya, goddess of delusion, has been doing her job with supreme mastery since the first spark of self-awareness flickered in some chimp's noggin, and the idea that the neophyte truth-seeker can just sign up with the Buddhists, read some books, embrace some new concepts and slam her to the mat might be a bit on the naive side. On the other hand, why not? How’d this get so turned around? It’s just truth. Shouldn’t truth be, like, the simplest thing? Shouldn’t someone who wants to find something as ubiquitous as truth be able to do so? And here’s this venerable organization supposedly dedicated to just that very thing, even named for it, so what’s the problem?

Why doesn’t Buddhism produce Buddhas?

The problem arises from the fact that Buddhists, like everyone else, insist on reconciling the irreconcilable. They don’t just want to awaken to the true, they also want to make sense of the untrue. They want to have their cake and eat it too, so they end up with nonsensical theories, divergent schools, sagacious doubletalk, and zero Buddhas. Typical of Buddhist insistence on reconciling the irreconcilable is the concept of Two Truths, a poignant two-word joke they don’t seem to get, and yet this sort of perversely irrational thinking is at the very heart of the failed search for truth. We don’t want truth, we want a particular truth; one that doesn't threaten ego, one that doesn’t exist. We insist on a truth that makes sense given what we know, not knowing that we don't know anything. Nothing about Buddhism is more revealing than the Four Noble Truths which, not being true, are of pretty dubious nobility. They form the basis of Buddhism, so it's clear from the outset that the Buddhists have whipped up a proprietary version of truth shaped more by market forces than any particular concern for the less consumer-friendly, albeit true, truth. Yes, Buddhism may be spiritually filling, even nourishing, but insofar as truth is concerned, it's junkfood. You can eat it every day of your life and die exactly as Awakened as the day you signed up.

Bait & Switch

Buddhism is a classic bait-and-switch operation. We’re attracted by the enlightenment in the window, but as soon as we’re in the door they start steering us over to the compassion aisle. Buddhists could be honest and change their name to Compassionism, but who wants that? There's the rub. They can’t sell compassion and they can’t deliver enlightenment. This untruth-in-advertising is the kind of game you have to play if you want to stay successful in a business where the customer is always wrong. You can either go out of business honestly, or thrive by giving the people what they want. What they say they want and what they really want, though, are two very different things.

Me Me Me

To the outside observer, much of Buddhist knowledge and practice seems focused on spiritual self-improvement. This, too, is hard to speak against... except within the context of awakening from delusion. Then it's easy. There is no such thing as true self, so any pursuit geared toward its aggrandizement, betterment, upliftment, elevation, evolution, glorification, salvation, etc, is utter folly. How much more so any endeavor undertaken merely to increase one's own happiness or contentment or, I'm embarrassed to even say it, bliss? Self is ego and ego is the realm of the dreamstate. If you want to break free of the dreamstate, you must break free of self, not stroke it to make it purr or groom it for some imagined brighter future.

Maya's House of Enlightenment

The trick with being critical of so esteemed and beloved an institution is not to get dragged down into the morass of details and debate. It's very simple: If Buddhism is about enlightenment, people should be getting enlightened. If it's not about enlightenment, they should change the sign. Of course, Buddhism isn't completely unique in its survival tactics. This same gulf between promise and performance is found in all systems of human spirituality. We're looking at it in Buddhism because that's where it's most pronounced. No disrespect to the Buddha is intended. If there was a Buddha and he was enlightened, then it's Buddhism that insults his memory, not healthy skepticism. Blame the naked emperor's retinue of tailors and lickspittles, not the boy who merely states the obvious. Buddhism is arguably the most elevated of man's great belief systems. If you want to enjoy the many valuable benefits it has to offer, then I wouldn't presume to utter a syllable against it. But if you want to escape from the clutches of Maya, then I suggest you take a very close look at the serene face on all those golden statues to see if it isn't really hers.

-Jed McKenna

"It is apparent that in the not too distant future nature must institute bankruptcy proceedings against industrial civilization, and perhaps against the standing crop of human flesh, just as nature has done many times to other detritus-consuming species following their exuberant expansion in response to the savings deposits their ecosystems had accumulated before they got the opportunity to begin their drawdown".

Catton, 'Overshoot', Page 172

"The world of mechanism is not a manufactory, in which energy iscreated, but rather a mart, into which we may bring energy of one kindand change or barter it for an equivalent of another kind, that suitsus better - but if we come with nothing in hand, with nothing we willmost assuredly return."

[Balfour Stewart, 1883, pp. 26-7; 34]

A definition for loving-kindness and samadhi
ericparoissien

...

an attitude where you let everyone around you believe in the niceynessthat "has to be" found at the heart of each creature ... thusminimizing the risk of being rejected, ignored, misunderstood, takenfor a fool, a madman or a simpleton. Considering that there is no mystery, no beyond, no transcendence, nocore to experience or humankind, thus no hope for evolution (thereforeno dissatisfaction or disillusion) ...at Dante's inferno's gate:"Leave all hope behind you, you who enter here"is a message of freedom .. but inferno for the seeker of truth; surely when nothing i carry or believe is my heart, is taken seriously, each moment takes care of itself. What if Buddha was so enlightenend that he did not need to believe in heavens and afterworlds and tomorrow will be better because of today's effort and meritorious deeds.

Why do all these teachers have to prepare us for something glorious to come, or take us out of an undesirable state in which we are enmuddled. As soon as we had the need/fear, we rushed out to a specialist...

Do we rely on him to tell us to question the need/fear, and how to achieve that? thus entrapping us in his wisdom to tell us how much wedon't need anybody's wisdom to make it on our own. Please don't give us, any more samadhis, trips, thrills, higher states, orgasms, experiences ...WE ARE FINE... all there is to know about the world is contained in one pause. Hey teachers leave those kids alone!

Do I use a fist or a fancy theory to knock down people in my way? It doesn't matter.

Mystery and transcendence is where the lazyness settles of not wanting to be just what is there.

That's the beginning of wisdom - when one can discard a figment of one's imagination and choose better figments.

it reminds me of a story Stephen Gaskin used to tell,
> about how he came to be enlightened. He said he was living
> with a bunch of people and he didn't like any of them. And
> he was kind of wrestling with this, because it was actually
> more than not liking the people in his household, it was
> more like he hated everyone and it was tearing him apart to
> borrow a phrase from James Dean. And he knew this feeling
> was crazy and he needed to come to some sort of resolution
> about it because it was destroying him to have this kind
> of feeling inside of him. And he went and meditated on this
> idea and feeling and eventually saw that having that kind of
> feeling created the foundation for his ground of being and
> everything was being extruded out of that and seeing this
> exploded his mind and he became enlightened, kind of a version
> of who am I? only what is this feeling?

*_* That's interesting.Could you elaborate?

-ok, sure, here's my understanding.

He said that reality ismultidimensional and the key element is the feeling/tone. Thatyou have your own personal one plus if there's more than one person in an area, there's a collective feeling/tone, similarto having an orchestra. A collective vibration. And this is the most important part of beingness. Rather than the thoughts part being the most important. If one can be shown or sees the truth of this, it 'could' cause a shift of consciousness from being anchored in thought, the usual place of anchorage. So, using this new model, attention is routed thru awareness of the energy body at all times to accurately measure the quality of one's thoughts.

GJC: The concept that cuts through the fog of ignorance and secrecy, the concept that allows the student to use Chi with purpose, to cultivate Jing, to develop and "burn" it into form, to become a dynamic self-powered individual is "The Condensing Principle." "The Condensing Process" is one of creating an inner vacuum with Chi, Jing, and Shen all at the same time. It's the process of packing the essence of things into every thought, intention, and action. Here's one basic condensing technique for developing Jing: whatever the posture, on the inhale focus on the body to expand, and at the same time focus on the inhaled Chi to contract, to condense, into the core of the body; then, on the exhale focus on the body to contract, and at the same time focus on the inhaled Chi to expand. On each inhale and exhale there is a simultaneous mental focus to expand and contract. This particular technique does two things: first, it sensitizes you to where you are in space as a physical, material body, and second, it introduces you to the first glimmer of Chi sensation, so much used in later training. This is just step one. As we go on and on, what we're doing is refining this same basic technique to the point where it goes from as gross as the body contracts, to where all the molecules in your body condense into one single atom.
(Gary Clyman)

I just had some fucker come into the gym the other day telling me that this one grandmaster's "chi" is so fucking great that my bones would melt. I'm like get the fuck out before I show you how to break bones the easy way.

--Omega

The perfect man has no self
The spiritual man has no achievement
The sage has no name

- Chuang Tzu

plane has its own illusion, which can be destroyed only by another illusion on the same plane. For example, a man takes a full meal and goes to sleep. He dreams of being hungry in spite of the jagrat food in his stomach. To satisfy the dream hunger, he has to take dream food.

Similarly the illusion of ajnana (ignorance) can be destroyed only by the illusion of guru upadesa (the Master's teaching). Mukti (liberation) is ever present, and bondage is for ever absent, yet the universal experience is the reverse.

- Ramana Maharshi, Thus Spake Ramana

He Sees the Truth

O Rama, he sees the truth who sees the body as a product of deluded understanding and as the fountain-source of misfortune, and who knows that the body is not the Self.
He sees the truth who sees that this body pleasure and pain are experienced on account of the passage of time and the circumstances in which one is placed; and that they do not pertain to him.
He sees the truth who sees that he is the omnipresent infinite consciousness which encompasses within itself all that takes place everywhere at all times.
He sees the truth who knows that the Self, which is as subtle as the millionth part of the tip of a hair divided a million times, pervades everything.
He sees the truth who sees that there is no division at all between the self and the other, and that the one infinite light of consciousness exists as the sole reality.
He sees the truth who sees that the non-dual consciousness which indwells all beings is omnipotent and omnipresent.
He sees the truth who is not deluded into thinking that he is the body which is subject to illness, fear, agitation, old age and death.
He sees the truth who sees that all things are strung together in the Self as beads are strung on a thread, and who knows ‘I am not the mind’.
He sees the truth who sees all beings in the three worlds as his own family, deserving of his sympathy and protection.
He sees the truth who knows that the Self alone exists and that there is no substance in objectivity.
He is unaffected who knows that pleasure, pain, birth, death, etc., are all the Self only.
He is firmly established in the truth who feels: ‘What should I acquire, what should I renounce, when all this is the one Self?’
Salutations to that abode of auspiciousness, who is filled with the supreme realization that the entire universe is truly Brahman alone, which remains unchanged during all the apparent creation, existence and dissolution of the universe.
— Vasistha’s Yoga, translated by Swami Venkatesananda

Do what you feel like doing. Don't bully yourself. Violence will make you hard and rigid. Do not fight with what you take to be obstacles on your way. Just be interested in them, watch them, observe, enquire. Let anything happen - good or bad. But don't let yourself be submerged by what happens.

- Nisargadatta Maharai I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

"When girls sense hesitation they get all weirded out and think you're a freak."

The Four Basic Truths of Violent Assault

By Rory A. Miller

I responded to an incident between two inmates. The first inmate was brushing his teeth. The second inmate came up from behind and struck the first on the right side of his head. The tooth brusher tried to turn, but was pressed into the corner, punched again and again with hard rights until he eventually curled into a fetal ball. Blood splashed (not smeared) onto the wall at shoulder height. Do you train for this? Do you respect the power of a sudden attack and a constant barrage?

The attacker broke several bones in his hand and did not know it. Not just the metacarpals of a boxer's fracture either. Also, one of his fingers became deformed. Something he did not realize during the attack. He just kept hitting. He only started complaining of the pain several hours later. Do you ever teach that pain alone will stop a committed attacker? That if you break a bone, it is over? I told the attacker that he was lucky- if the other guy had fallen or hit his head on the wall and suffered more serious injury, he could be looking at some heavier charges. He said, "Nah, I held his head with my other hand so it wouldn't hit the wall. I know how you guys trump up charges and if I'd let him hit the wall you'd try to get me for attempted murder."

Do you and your students realize how rational and how planned a sudden assault can be? It is only sudden for the defender. For the attacker, far too often, it is part of his plan. Do you understand that there is a sub-group of human beings who can savagely beat another human being all the while coolly thinking of their eventual court case? Assaults happen closer, faster, more suddenly, and with more power than most people can understand.

Closer: Most self-defense drills are practiced at an optimum distance where the attacker must take at least a half step to contact. This gives techniques like blocks enough time to have an effect. You rarely have this time or this distance in an assault. Give some thought as to how your technique will work if there is no room to turn or step. Remember that the attacker always chooses the range and location and will pick a place and position that hampers your movements.

Faster: When your martial arts students spar, use a stop watch and count how many blows are thrown in a minute. Even in professional boxing the number is not that impressive. Use the stop watch again, this time counting how many blows you can land on a heavy bag in a single second. Six to eight times per second is reasonable for a decent martial artist. An assault is comparable to that number. Because the threat chooses a time when the victim is off-guard, he can attack all-out with no thought of defense. A competent martial artist, who is used to the more cautious timing of sparring, is completely unprepared for this kind of speed. You can strike ten times a second, but you can’t block ten times a second. More suddenly: An assault is based on the threat’s assessment of his chances. If he cannot use surprise, he often will not attack. Some experts say that there is always some intuitive warning. Possibly, but if the warning was noted and heeded, the attack would have been prevented. When the attack happens, it is always a surprise.

More power: There is a built-in problem with all training - you want to recycle your partners. If you or your students hit as hard as they can every time they hit, you will quickly run out of students. The average criminal does not hit as hard as a good boxer or karateka can hit, but they do hit harder than the average boxer (because of gloves) or karateka has ever felt. More often than not, the first strike in an ambush lands cleanly. Fighting with a concussion is much more different than sparring.

Responses to the Four Basic Truths

There are specific ways to train in order to deal with these truths about assault. You must get used to working from a position of disadvantage. Put yourself and your students in the worst positions you can imagine (face down, under a bench, blindfolded to simulate blood in the eyes or with one arm tied in your belt) and start the training from there. No do-overs. Work from the position you find yourself in. There is no “right” move anyway, just moves that did work or did not work that one time.

Contact-response training: Condition (as in operant conditioning) for a quick, effective response to any unexpected aggressive touch. When properly trained, a counter-attack will kick in before the chemical cocktail of stress hormones does. Contact-response training allows the expected victim to perform one technique at 100% and may give the initiative to the victim instead of the assailant. What is occuring is that through operant conditioning, you can get to near-reflex speed. If that occurs, and the student is trained to counter-attack, the first response will not have the 80% degradation caused by stress hormones therefore the first response can be at 100% skill which can turn the tables.

Train to “flip the switch.” Have your students practice going from friendly, distracted or any other emotion to full-on assault in an instant. Make them play music, converse, fold clothes, write or pour tea as an armored assailant attacks. The key is that the distraction must be natural and relaxed, not the jerky half-preparation of someone who expects an attack. When slow motion training, use realistic time-framing. Do not let the students pretend that “Monkey plucks jade lotus and presents to golden Buddha” is one move and do not let them pretend that a spinning kick is just as fast as a jab.

Get you and your students used to being hit and get used to being touched, especially on the face. For various reasons face contact between adults is loaded with connotations. Accidental face contact almost always results in both students freezing and can cause an outpouring of emotional sludge. Criminals use this by starting with an open-hand attack to the face (called a “bitch slap”) that has paralyzing psychological effects.

Teach common sensitivity. Students must respond to what is happening, not to their expectations or fears. The point is that students in self-defense training often pretend that things that are there (such as weapons on the wall or exits) aren't and that's a bad habit. This isn't about sparring, but about training for violent assault. It's one of the most important things to learn to keep from being stuck trying to make a "dojo solution" work.

Forbid giving up. Winning is a habit. Fighting is a habit. Put your students in positions where they are completely immobilized and helpless and set the expectation to keep fighting.

The Flaw in the Drill

In the end, a martial artist is training to injure, cripple or kill another human being. In any drill where students are not regularly hospitalized there is a DELIBERATE flaw, a deliberate break from the needs of reality introduced in the name of safety. In every drill you teach, you must consciously know what that flaw is and make your students aware of it.

A child on a farm sees a plane fly by overhead and dreams of a faraway place A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse and dreams of home

- Carl Burns

And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable), would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.

-Socrates (Plato The Republic Book VII)

Waves appear to be born, and to die.
But if we look more deeply, we see that the waves,
Although coming and going, are also water,
Which is always there.
Notions like high and low, birth and death,
Can be applied to waves,
But water is free of such distinctions.

Enlightenment for the wave
Is the moment the wave realizes that it is water.

- Thich Nhat Hahn

When men dream, each has his own world.
When they are awake, they have a common world.
- Heraclitus

I Have Come to Shine
I have come to pull you by your ear, and bring you to myself.
I will make you selfless, I will make you fearless,
then I will place you in the heart and the soul of the king of Souls.

I have come like a breeze of Spring to you, oh, field of flowers, so I can keep you by my side, and hold you tight.
I have come to shine on you, as you walk this path.
Like the prayer of lovers, I will help you reach the roof of the heavens.
I have come to take back that kiss
that you stole from me.

You are my catch, my game, my prey, my hunt.
You have escaped my trap so far, but run toward that trap once again. Run, run, or I will chase you there.

Remember what the lion said to the deer. "You are so beautiful, you are so lovely run in front of me,so I can catch you and tear you to pieces."

Be like the deer, accept the wounds
like a shield of a warrior. Don't listen to anything but the whooshing of the arrows heading toward you.

From the dust of the Earth to a human being
there are a thousand steps
I have been with you through these steps,
I have held your hand and walked by your side.
You may think that I have left you on the side of the road.
Don't complain, don't become mad, and don't open the lid of the pot.

Boil happily and be patient. Remember what you are being prepared for.

You are a lion's cub, hidden inside a deer's body, with one strike I will wipe that illusion
and rid you of it.

You are my ball, and you roll because of the strike of my polo mallet. Just remember, it is me who is chasing you even though it is me who is helping you run.

- Rumi, from Hush - Don't Say Anything to God - Passionate Poems of Rumi by Shahram Shiva

Your path lies before you. In each moment it is revealed. There is nowhere to go. There is nothing to do. Sit still and be patient; the secret freedom of your heart's true longing will unravel by itself.

- Jon Bernie

Ten years spent mastering Tai Mai Shu kung fu may keep you fit, flexible, and graceful. But just invest ten minutes reading these four tips and you may well save your life if violence ever does erupt.

These are simple ideas, but not common. They are easily implemented and don't require an arsenal of secret weapons to work. Since most people don't plan to be attacked, these ideas don't occur to them until they are remembering the event later and thinking, "GEE! If only I had ... "

TIP #1 - USE YOUR HEAD

First, stay calm and think as the situation develops. As soon as the adrenaline kicks in, everything will seem to happen in slow motion. If you are calm, if you do not panic, your mind will process thoughts so rapidly that it will seem like you have hours to make a decision about how to react.

Second, the human skull is an awesomely powerful weapon. Bashing your forehead into the goon's nose once is tremendously more effective than slamming your fist into his nose twice.
Similarly, ladies, if you are grabbed, bear-hug style from behind, don't waste your time trying to step on his toes, or elbowing his ribs, or kicking your heel up into his groin. It is highly unlikely any of hose moves will do anything besides anger your attacker.

Instead, start trying to bash his face with the back of your head.

All you have to do is connect once or twice with your attacker's face or collarbone and you have delivered some serious damage.

TIP #2 - ALWAYS HAVE A TOOL HANDY

Always, always, always have something easily and quickly accessible to use as a weapon. Note that I did not say, "have a weapon accessible" which is not always practical or advisable.
I mean, if someone surprises you, there should be something instantly accessible to aid in your defense.

It can be a pen,
a set of keys,
a can of vegetables,
an umbrella --
A N Y T H I N G.

If you remember this one absurdly simple rule about weapons fighting, you will see the potential weapon hidden in virtually everything around you AND be able to use it more effectively:
Anything you find that is hard and fast should be aimed at smashing against something made of bone, and anything with a point to it should be aimed at stabbing into soft tissue.

For example, if you found a blunt stick or a can of vegetables you would target bone: Aim this kind of weapon at the face, the skull, hip, shin, elbow, or kneecap.

However, anything hard or blunt would be less effective to use against, say, an attacker's abdomen.

Conversely, something with a point -- a knife or pen for example -- is much more effective when targeting something soft, like the throat, the eyes, crotch, armpit, or belly. If you do strike at something hard, like the kneecap, chances are the point will bounce off without doing any real damage.

Hard goes to bone, Point goes to soft tissue --

It's as simple as that. Remember this rule, and you will never be without an effective weapon again.

TIP #3 - MOVE ALONG A TRIANGLE (a bit of theory)

There is one tip about self-defense that is so important that entire martial arts systems are based upon it.

The tip? Don't get hit!

I mention that, because moving along a triangle goes a long way toward achieving the goal of not getting hit.

One of the most dangerous mistakes the average person makes during a fight is to move in straight lines. They will move in a straight line, either forward and backward, or side to side.
This is also the mistake that will cause the Tai Mai Shu black belt to get his or her butt whooped in very short order out on the street.

Imagine a vertical dividing line along your body, dividing your body into left and right halves. The aggressor is probably going to attack some point along or around that line: your face, your throat, your heart, your groin.

Moving in a straight line backward or forward will change the distance you are from your attacker, but it does not move your centerline out of the attack path.

Moving laterally (left or right) will change the location of your centerline, but it does not change the distance between you and your attacker.

Your attacker has mentally committed to striking at a particular target. His brain has sent the signal to his fist that your face, your throat, your heart, or your groin (the target he intends to hit) is located at a particular distance out there in a particular direction. When you change the target's coordinates, it spoils the effectiveness of the attack.

Your goal is to move that line of your body out of the path of the attack AND change the distance of the target from your attacker.

Your attacker may be able to recover from a change in target location or a change in target distance alone, but changing both factors is your best bet. Then, even if it does connect, the strength of the attack will be greatly diminished.

Moving along an imaginary triangle changes BOTH.

* * *
*
* * *
Imagine standing with both feet on the pointed end of a triangle and facing the bad guy. The other two points of the triangle can either be in front of you or behind you.

Each of the other triangle points are only about one medium-large step away from where you are now. One point is found one step forward and to the left. Then there's another point one step forward and to the right. Behind you one point of the triangle is one step backward and to the left. The other point is one step backward and to the right.

All you have to do is step one foot onto either of the two available triangle points in front of you or behind you. What have you done to the distance to and the location of the attacker's original target?

Bingo! You have changed BOTH your direction, and your distance.

Simply bring your other foot up, and you are now at the starting point of another triangle. Use this concept every time you move and you will continue to confuse your attacker.

TIP #4 - ALWAYS ADVANCE WHEN YOU SHOULD RETREAT

During a fight, as during a game of chess, the experienced player is already planning the second or third move before the first one is ever completed. In fact, many of the experienced fighters' moves are used solely to get the opponent to react in a predetermined manner.

Fight you own instinct and do not back up.


Your instinct is wrong!

For example, imagine I am throwing a flurry of jabs at you. In my mind, I "know" exactly what you are going to do: backpedal to escape my vicious attack.

In fact, I am counting upon you backpedaling into that corner behind you, then I'll pound you into a liquid, right? How surprised am I going to be when you step forward, along your trusty triangle, and not backward?

I would be very surprised because you are not "supposed" to step into a savage attack; You are "supposed" to step away from it.

Look at this scenario. You've just stepped forward along the triangle. While your attacker is busy trying to adjust his thinking to handle this unexpected event you are now inside his defenses. You now have access to his unprotected ribs, armpit, neck, head, abdomen, flank, and knee -- Suddenly YOU have a virtual smorgasbord of targets.

That's when you slip back to using tip #2:

Smash anything HARD against something made of bone,
Strike anything you have with a point at something soft.

All of these tips are simple common sense. If you are smart you'll never have to use them because SMART people never put themselves in situations which may become violent.
As I see it, the goal of your self-defense training is to have the ability to utterly destroy another person, but the foresight to avoid situations where you might have to demonstrate that ability.