Avoiding Chogyam's Supermarket

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche was not your average Tibetan Lama, but he had a key lesson for today's budding martial artists. In between getting married, which monks aren't supposed to do, and founding a university in Boulder, Colorado, the Rinpoche wrote a book called 'Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism,'. In it, he described the array of teachings on display in America in the 1970s as a a 'spiritual supermarket.'

Mr. Trungpa, born in Tibet, 1938, was recognised as a reincarnation of a great teacher of meditation and Buddhism. He was to become on of Tibet's most famous, but most controversial ambassadors. He had great charisma, and according to his many students, teaching ability. But he also indulged in 'crazy wisdom,' which including sexual cavorting with numerous students and drinking alcohol heavily. He died in 1987.

But his ideas live on. 'Spiritual Materialism' has an important message for martial arts students bombarded and tempted by a smorgasboard of books, magazines, websites, YouTube clips and choices of styles. The message is beware. In sampling everything, you can end up learning nothing deeply. Styles like Jeet Kune Do, for all its great merits, enable the habit of the martial arts collector/junkie, by telling students to 'take what is useful and discard what is useless.' I, Sumo Semar, are as guilty as anyone, with a stack of CDs, DVDs, magazines, and books to prove it. My white belt, after five years of training is further evidence.

This post isn't meant to argue against educating yourself, especially in world of so much Bullshido. Perhaps just a plea, if not to remember Chogyam Trungpa's advice, perhaps the example of John Coltrane, a master of the 1950s style of cool jazz. Coltrane was famous for his wild improvisations, seemingly without form. But a landlady of his said she heard him practicing scales every night.

Salam Budo and...Merdeka !

Kusanagi Research Project: Month 1

We've come to the end of the first month of the 9-month Kusanagi Research project, aimed at developing a 'reality-based' training curriculum. Actually, reality based just means effective and realistic, I hate using George W. Bushes pet phrases. Next we'll be saying don't 'misunderestimate' your opponents. Steven Seagal hasn't responded to invitations to teach, either. But anyway, who wants the job of cleaning up after him?

Kusanagi, by the way, was a fabled Japanese sword, akin to Excalibur in Britain. Possessing it is said to give the owner control of the wind. (As for control of the bowels, Seagal Sensei, who knows ? Give it a shot).

For no paticular reason, I've included an image of Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess from whom the entire nation sprang.

Anyway, Joey Danu and I have been furiously downloading and cataloguing. The results are available on Google documents. Let us know if you want to see the list.

Our goal in the next month is to come up with a blueprint for the first two levels of the course. We'll be focusing on:

* Expanding our database of CCTV footage actual fights.
* More on training methods and attributes.
* Evaluating all the techniques we've downloaded so far.

- The most useful 'thinkers' we've come across so far are Paul Vunak, thestreetfightssecrets.com gentlemen, including Bob Spour, as well as John (not Charles) Perkins :-).

- We've found a place to train drills; the Rasuna Stadium behind Pasar Festival. There are also abandoned building lots nearby, one behind Menara Imperium and one behind the Four Seasons hotel, which are almost park like, a small miracle in Jakarta.

Anything to add, Joey ?

Gene "Judo" LeBell...

Choking people out. Gotta love the guy.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5462632226047446203&q=gene+lebell

How do you put actual videos in this blog anyway?

A Soiled Reputation ?

Action movie star Steven Seagal (above right), is a 7th dan master in the elegant Japanese martial art Aikido, translated as 'way of harmonious spirit'. In the ancient art of bowel control, however, Mr. Seagal can't be much more than a white belt.

Aikido is Zen in motion. From the whirl of spirals and turns, the rustle of black Hakama, and flashes of bare feet on the mat, emerges emptiness in form, form in emptiness.

Seagal Sensei brings Aikido's gentle spirit to life with subtle and nuanced films such as 'Hard to Kill,' 'Above the Law,' and 'Half Past Dead.' In his movies, Mr. Seagal breaks wrists, dislocates elbows, and deploys his ultimate weapon - the grimace - at bad guys in a career-length essay on the human condition. Move over Akira Kurosawa.

Actually, on second thoughts, he grimaces at everyone. (Again, above right).

Mr. Seagal was once on a set with stuntman and American grappling legend Gene Lebell (above left). The Aikido master invited Lebell to apply a jujutsu choke to demonstrate the ability to resist any technique due to superior 'ki' control. Unfortunately, the good Sensei then blacked out, completely losing bowel control and 'soiling' himself, not to mention his reputation.

Maybe he was just practicing the Japanese self-healing art of 'Shitsu'. Ah, the sweet smell of success !

Guided Chaos

Recently, I've been (again) practicing the drills from the book Attack Proof by John Perkins while on hiatus from dojo practice (which by the way, has gone on for like... two years straight now?). The book claims to be The Ultimate Self-Protection Guide. No kidding. We know how true that is... marketing wise.

Aside from that markting hyperbole, IMO the book itself turned out to be quite good as a training resource. It opens with the standard personal safety precaution guide, then moving on to what amounts to WW2 style hand-to-hand combatives techniques (which don't take too many pages to explain, simple as they are), and then on to the meat of the book: the drills.

Aaah, the drills. Of all the training reference books I have (which is not many), this book contains more drills than I can shake a stick at. And they're mostly silly.

Silly as in Scott Sonnon's FlowFighting drills. Silly as in Vladimir Vasiliev's Systema drills. Silly, but you as hell won't dare call them silly right in the face (at least, you won't dare call Mr. Sonnon silly, right to his face or behind his back, but I figured every one else is game). But for the most part, I find them quite true to their purpose.

Though like most training resource, you'll find the book citing claims that the drills will make you the self-defence badass, in the short term the drills do develop the attributes that Mr. Perkins deemed most useful for self-defence situations: Freedom from fear reactivity (quoting Scott Sonnon on this one), looseness, body-unity, balance, and sensitivity.

You can find reviews of the book from various sources on the net.

Though Mr. Perkins extracted these drills from his self-concocted Martial Art of Ki Chuan Do (a name that's somewhat non-sensical), he is quite generous in that these drills don't actually just work for Ki Chuan Do. I daresay it works for all MAs (as claimed by the book), as the main thread of the drills is to develop Guided Chaos, a concept of movement that I believe is true for self-defence situations. It even works for the uninitiated, using the simple WW2 combatives techniques. The problem is, as always, finding the place to practice and partners, and slowly building your inventory of various pads.


Remember I said that I've been (again)...? Well, I used to practice the drills on my own, but then during dojo practice I would find myself instinctively countered any attack with rush in followed by a palm heel uppercut to the jaw or a palm heel hook to the temples. Not good, since mostly those counters connected when I'm partnered with new trainees. Now wonder not many trainees return for the next class after partnered with me (oops!). Consciously refraining myself from using those counters usually got me in trouble when later in the session I was partnered with my peers (where successfully I would just freeze and look like an idiot for taking the shots). Hoo boy.


Lately though, in my (rarely) bimonthly training visit to an affiliate dojo (mostly the same guys, just different venue and training focus), I find myself ever so lacking during free practice. Thus, the logical answer is to practice more in that focus. But...

Just but, I heeded the illogical, and re-open the pages of Attack Proof.


Well, that's just me.

Keep safe.

Hokusai JuJutsu Print.

Just to add to the Red Umbrella and spiral galaxy, here's a nice print by the great Japanese ukiyo-e, or printmaking, artist Hokusai(1760-1849), showing some JuJutsu locks, courtesy of London's Victoria and Albert Museum and a U.K. Wado Ryu Site.

The Universal Umbrella

Lately, I am finding myself inseparable from my large, red umbrella.

I started taking the umbrella with me wherever I go simply because of two lithe reason:
1. I don't trust the weather as it is, because it can always go from searing hot to sudden downpour whenever it pleases.
2. My small, foldable umbrella is broken beyond repair after mere 3 months of abuse.

All in all, aside from some snide comments I get from people for carrying such conspicuous apparatus in broad sunny daylight, the umbrella has proven itself to be most valuable. Some of the highlights include but not limited to:
1. A handy signal for whenever I want to cross the street. A simple wild swing from it, and any motorcycle that usually would have blasted through the red lights goes straight into a screeching halt. Couple that with an idyllic, innocent look, and you can't be beat.
2. A comedic device whenever rain pours. People, it's Friday, and with the clouds giving indication of unexpected sudden downpour, why do you have to pick the mosque furthest from your office and lament the fact that you don't have an umbrella and I do when the rain does pour?
3. Er... your guess is as good as mine.

Methink that the umbrella makes a good urban self-defence tool. If anyone can walk around lugging such cumbersome device (to some) without looking encumbered, then one has a very good (in a limited sense) preman deterrent. Who wants to do you harm and take the chance that you might not be able to use it to whack someone in the head when you obviously look like you can handle the umbrella well in your stride?

Ohkay, anarchistic sarcasm aside, some basic ideas on how to use the umbrella as a self-defence apparatus can be found in Fairbairn's Get Tough! manual.

Here's where you can get the manual.

Check out the "Attack with a Small Stick or Cane" section. Can't you just imagine replacing the stick/cane with an umbrella?

And Fairbairn did use an umbrella to replace the stick in his other manual, Self-Defence for Women, which I can't find the full manuscript.

Anyway, never consider this as your excuse to start carrying a large, red umbrella and acting tough and untouchable. That's a big no-no in self-defence.

Keep safe.