Personal Development Blog Entries
The modern martial arts mystery
Martial Arts as a whole are often shrouded in mystery with an ever present degree of highly political infighting.
Jeet Kune Do is no exception, despite being developed in relatively recent times by THE greatest modern Kung Fu superstar and the existence of such a tremendous amount of physical evidence and documentation.
It's interesting how many of the more ancient arts have histories that tend to develop a life of their own, changing with time and the people practicing it. The true history and meaning behind the art tends to change from teacher to student and eventually evolves into something entirely different.
If it's ancient, it's true
Within the Chinese culture, it's common to distort "ancient history" by attributing certain accomplishments to mythical figures, gods, dragons, immortals, etc. The more ancient and mythical a story is, the more weight and truth it has. Makes perfect sense!
The lost art of Jeet Kune Do
The real question, is why and how is this happening with Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do? Why is there so much disagreement about virtually everything within the martial art. Why is it so difficult to separate genuine Jeet Kune Do flag bearers from the Trojan horses and paper tigers?
It's been less than 40 years since his death, and many of this first generation students, friends, and family are still living. There are volumes upon volumes of his published notes and countless hours of authentic Bruce Lee footage. Why then is there so much confusion as to who he really was and represented.
Much of this remains a mystery, but there are three primary elements that seem to fuel the "Lost Art" phenomenon within Jeet Kune Do.
- Bruce Lee, himself an enigma, subscribed to the Eastern dualistic model of thought that describes completely opposing views as part of a unified whole.
- Most Martial Artists are completely lost on the personal development aspect of Bruce Lee's philosophy, promoting a lopsided view.
- The lack of synergy and cohesion between first generation JKD students creates disharmony among practitioners and obscurity within the virtual JKD compendium.
The solution
How can we, as martial artists, solve this dilemma and help preserve Bruce Lee's original Jun Fan Gung Fu and Jeet Kune Do for future generations?
- Setting aside egos and being truthful about what is known and unknown
- Being open to other's interpretations and input, regardless of background
- Referencing sources and time periods
- Keeping discussions within the context of the appropriate Bruce Lee era
- Acting from a place of harmony and trust rather than anger or fear
- Basing exchanges on practicality over theoretics
- Being respectful and courteous
Personally, I model my actions after my mentors at the Wednesday Night Group, reigning in political issues and focusing on what counts -- preserving and promoting the art of Jeet Kune Do.
Walk on!
-Nhan
Injuries can be some of the most frustrating obstacles a Martial Artist, or anyone for that matter, can come across.
Given that most reality based or combat sports Martial Arts training involve explosive, high energy activities that involve hitting and getting hit, it's no wonder that physical damage of all sorts are common place. Ranging from sprained fingers to bruises to pulled muscles and countless others.
Furthermore, injuries have effects on all levels. Physically, injuries hurt, limit range of motion, reduce speed, strength and quickness, they might even hamper stamina etc. Mentally, they affect concentration and create seeds of doubt which fester into over thinking, uncertainty and hesitation. On a spiritual/emotional level, injuries summon fear, depression, frustration, anger and even hopelessness.
If an acute injury becomes chronic, the long term effects are even worse as they become rooted and set. Overall behavior, temperament, and physiology changes to accommodate the new burden which also becomes mental and emotional weight, in turn, leading to new injuries and a vicious cycle.
"Again! Again! We don't quit!" -Detective Clouseau (from The Pink Panther)
All too often, Martial Artists buckle under the stress and throw in the towel on their training.
Frankly, this is a cop-out.
I'll be the first to admit that knowing when to stop has it's place, but running away from challenging issues does not eliminate the source of difficulty -- you. Moving on because something no longer has value for you is one thing, but quitting is saying no to life.
It's a hard pill to swallow, but it's an empowering one. It's kinda like taking the red pill in The Matrix in that the reality might not seem pretty at first, but the freedom, potential, and ultimate fulfillment that it offers is unlimited.
"If life gives you lemons, make a margarita" -Chris Howard
In 1970, Bruce Lee hurt his back during an overzealous strength training session and was bedridden for months. He was told that Martial Arts training would be difficult at best and that he would never be able to kick again. Rather than accept the prognosis of failure, Bruce Lee took the opportunity to train his mind and spirit, delving deeply into Martial Art through writing.
It was during this period of convalescence that he filled multiple volumes with notes and diagrams explaining and exploring his art of Jeet Kune Do. The end result -- a Martial Arts legacy that has inspired millions and lives on to this day.
So then, assuming you're willing to take the red pill and claim your power, what can you do when injury strikes? Here are three key strategies that can quickly resolve your Martial Arts injuries and get you back to training.
1. Rest
Pain is your body telling you that it doesn't like what you're doing. That's all. It's simply a signal for you to stop doing whatever it is that caused the pain and injury.
Barring emergencies and severe trauma, rest is the first and most important treatment to any injury.
The "No pain, no gain" maxim, does not hold water here. Pushing your limits beyond your threshold without proper guidance and support will only lead to chronic injury and burnout.
If it hurts, stop and your body will take care of the rest.
2. Listen
That nagging pain in your knee, or the tightness in your back probably didn't appear suddenly and without warning. Listen to your body.
Allow enough stillness within your mind and spirit to really feel yourself.
The noise caused by the usual hustle and stress of  modern life is like a mute button on your internal systems diagnostic, so make it point to take a moment and listen.
In the case that the injury did suddenly manifest due to an accident or other event that seems outside of your control, keep in mind that there are always other issues that directly or indirectly relate to the injury that are within your control. These issues could be emotional, mental, physical, or any combination thereof.
Did anger or frustration at work leading to tension and strain during practice? Is preoccupation about a relationship sapping your focus and causing carelessness? Either way, just relax and be still. Reflect on your condition and performance on all levels.
Remember that all injuries involve physical and non-physical elements. Be honest with yourself and take a step back to have a "conversation" with your body.
3. Adapt
Be like water. The concept is simple but the practice can be very challenging.
The idea here is to try something different. Physically, this gives your body a chance to heal in one way and develop in others, given the adapted action is not aggravating the injury. On a mental level, you now have the opportunity to acquire new skills and expand your horizons. Emotionally, you'll be stepping outside your comfort zone and growing as a conscious being.
For example, if you hurt your primary defensive hand, start working on your other defenses like evasions and footwork, or simply use your other hand. This simple change will deepen your understanding, improve awareness and sharpen your skills in unexpected ways.
Injuries and illness happen to the best of us, but they don't have to be sources of limitation. Instead use them as reminders to nurture and bolster your health. Transform negative events into opportunities to expand your practice and grow your potential.
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Self defense, fitness, and badassness.
These are the three most common reasons people start martial arts training.
Martial Arts, whichever the style, can be a physically demanding practice so fitness applies without question. As far as badassness goes, I couldn't think of another word that really encompasses the concept of power, freedom, connectedness, and raw awesomeness combined into one, but that's pretty inherent also. Self defense . . . now this is where it gets sketchy . . .
Self defense meets the Law of Attraction.
The conventional understanding of self defense involves the concept of "scenario training." This means that the student is given a theoretical scenario in which an aggressor is in some stage of attacking the defender (student) such as a surprise bear hug, a choke, a sucker punch, threat at knife point, etc. The student is then shown how to disable the attacker and escape.
Sounds practical right?
In theory, this is a solid approach to self defense training and in cases whereby an individual has a high percentage of encountering an aggressive situation such as military personnel and peace officers, scenario training is warranted and essential.
For the rest of us however, regular use of scenarios for Martial Arts practice and self defense will increase the likelihood of encountering a dangerous self defense situation.
This is obviously an observation rather than a proven statistic, but it's an observation based on more than two decades of personal Martial Arts experience.
The concept at work here is simple and one that is well understood within the realm of personal development, it's known as the Law of Attraction: the focus of one's thoughts and attention will attract more of it.
In other words, if you go to a self defense class once per week and every session involves two hours of imagining a crazed and violent assailant in a dark alley, chances are that your thought patterns will be drawing that situation closer to reality .jpg) outside of class.
It's kind of like getting a new car and suddenly you see tons of people driving the same car. Your focus on the new car has increased your awareness of the same within your environment and has therefore increased its presence within your conscious reality.
On the one hand, awareness is key to self preservation and prosperity. Being aware of the shady group of hoodlums down the street will help you to avoid confrontation. This applies to all areas of life.
The key is not to focus on the danger, fear, and desire to avoid it so intently and regularly. Once the shady group of hoodlums is identified and one's route and behavior adjusted, life goes on. The darker course of action being to identify the threat and develop paranoia and obsessive fearful behavior which in turn attracts attention and an increase in danger.
The art of fighting without fighting.
So if scenario training is out, what can we do?
Scenario self defense practices do have a place, but they should not be the focal point of one's training.
Instead, Martial Arts training should develop key physical attributes such as speed, balance, strength, control, reflexes, and reality based self defense movements and techniques without the fear, rage, and drama of a scenario.
Mental and emotional attributes such as ferocity, focus, awareness, discipline, playfulness, and love within a combative yet positive context are also essential and very constructive in and outside of class. These skills and attributes, if properly trained, will have tremendous carry over into an individual's life, not just for the purpose of self defense but in the realms of family, business, school, and others as well.
Scenario self defense training with stong negative imagery and emotions for specific, unlikely, and undesirable circumstances should be kept to a minimum and used intermittently at best.
Daily practices that enrich your life in positive and fulfilling ways while developing broadly applicable personal skills and abilities should make up the core of your martial arts training, effectively building the foundation necessary to overcome, excel, and flourish in body, mind and spirit, regardless of circumstance.
--
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
http://www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com
Who came up with the term "workout" anyway? Frankly, I rarely see it work anything other than doubt and frustration.
The idea of having to exercise and workout are mainstream concepts that are actually quite bizarre when seen from a "natural" point of view. In other .jpg) words, I highly doubt animals go about their business obsessing about having to work out or exercise. They just do what they do because it's in their nature and are always living truthfully and in the moment.
Working out is unhealthy.
There is something fundamentally skewed with the idea of separating ourselves from nature with artificial environments and habits, consequently developing all manner of physical and psychological imbalances, then seeking out the ever-elusive-holy-grail set of artificial solutions with the hope of regaining natural balance.
Technology is great and I'm certainly thankful of all the benefits and amazing achievements that human cognition allows us, but modern people are losing something absolutely essential to wellbeing. Connection with Nature.
A paradigm shift is long overdue.
Exercise is a thing we know to be critical to health yet it's also a thing that so many have come to loathe. It has even come to the point where those that do it to themselves consistently are awarded bragging rights and those that have the money to hire someone to do it to them are awarded a social status boost.
Maybe it's just me, but this just seems backwards and wrong.
The human body was designed to move and flourish through motion and there is ALWAYS an inherent positively reinforcing element to do the things that are good for us. Problems only manifest when we disassociate from our natural rhythms and environment.
It's time to re-evaluate the practice of exercise.
Function over form.
Form is really just a function achieved through exercise but it may or may not play a role in your personal motivation. Everyone is unique and therefore exercise and the respective approach to incorporate it should also be unique.
Function is the key. In other words, if your motivation is to catch the eye of the opposite sex or impress your peers with six pack abs and bulging biceps, then that's the function your exercise should be geared towards. I have to warn you however, that the function of having an appealing form is not especially empowering nor does it provide enduring motivation.
Personally, movement is not only part of my profession, but one of the major avenues through which I express myself and a primary facilitator for my personal evolution/growth. I exercise to develop and maximize that potential.
Most people don't work in fitness or health, so I might not be a good example. Let's take a look at a few examples of other individuals with lots of variation in their approach and philosophy but all with successful outcomes in terms of achieving the desired goals and respecting their personal nature.
Case studies:
1. www.VictoriaVives.com
This is my wife. We share a lot of activities together but Victoria prefers to take a far less structured approach to exercise and relies on a highly connected sense of intuition. She stays incredibly fit and healthy by doing what she loves (Martial Arts, dance, hiking, gymnastics, stunts, acting, singing, etc.) without any kind of planning or program design whatsoever and sometimes taking on a sedentary lifestyle for months at a time. This is a prime example of going with the flow and following one's nature.
2. www.IluminatedMind.net
Jonathan is a rebel with a passion and it shows in his choice of physical training and the way that he immerses himself in it. His approach is more structured, laser focused and very technical, yet still respecting the dynamic flow of nature with a resilient plyability.
3. www.QuestforBalance.com
Lisis (based on a recent post on her blog,) actually fits the perfect example of a function over form approach to fitness without any intentional exercise. Although the post focuses on diet and she makes clear her preference for a sedentary lifestyle, it's also evident from one of the comments that her primary function is of caring for her family which, I'm sure, can be a very physically demanding task. Sure, Lisis is also conscious of form and the medical statistics that compose the modern idea of health, but it seems that what is truly important is having the ability to enjoy and nurture her son and husband -- very powerful motivators in my book and also very much in line with Nature.
So, the real secret behind effective physical conditioning is knowing what you really want and what is important to you. The term "workout" should be banned from the fitness lexicon.
Don't ever settle for anything less than what makes you happy.
--
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
http://www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com
Historically, the Martial Arts have produced some of the world's wisest and most enlightened individuals as is often noted in classical Asian literature and folk stories. They were champions of peace, honor, courage, and all that is good.
If you scratch beyond the shiny surface of the chivalry and heroics however, we start to see an entirely different world. A world of fear, paranoia, treachery, and colossal egos.
Obviously, this is a huge generalization and I can't really comment on the masters of old, but I'd go so far as to say that the modern Martial Arts community is plagued by a sense of volatile inadequacy.
My intention with this post is not to call out self proclaimed masters, keyboard warriors, or forum trolls to a bloody grudge match of egos, but rather to point out a festering eyesore within our community in order to eliminate it, or at the very least minimize it and set in motion a possible solution.
Admittedly, I've been guilty of feeding the ego feud with harsh reactions and selfish pride, but at least I'm aware of it and actively working on myself in order to grow as a conscious being helping to perpetuate a sense of giving and gratitude.
Dodging Ego Vomit
I've often found it extraordinarily frustrating to connect with other Martial Artists through engaging discussion without stepping on sensitive toes and consequently eliciting what can only be described as projectile ego vomit. An energetic discharge of pent up emotions accumulated through self imposed impotence that is easily redirected towards the nearest new target.
The most common response, of course, is to retaliate with one's own vomit.
For those that prefer to avoid conflict, moving on and ignoring the outburst is always an option, or one can simply bite the bullet knowing that the outburst doesn't really have anything to do with you and is simply a reflection of the mudslinger's internal conflict.
But really, Martial Arts should be a playground for self exploration and fertile soil for the cultivation of love and respect without the need to be on guard for infantile outbursts from disparaging individuals.
Sure, the external theme in Martial Arts is conflict but the end result should be peace and growing consciousness.
Awaken the Dog Within
I grew up with dogs and frankly, they set the ideal standard when it comes to social interaction as Dale Carnegie pointed out in How to Win Friends and Influence People. One thing he didn't mention is how dogs will play fight, canine kung fu if you will, and nurture bonds within the pack in this way.
Obviously, humans have a somewhat different social dynamic than canines, but we share more in common than one might think. In any case, that's the beauty of having a conscious mind . . . we can learn and choose to be something more than we are.
Choosing the Red Pill or the Blue Pill
In all fairness, wise, kind, and loving leaders in Martial Arts do exist, they're just not nearly as vocal as the other guys.
I suppose it's the lack of ego driven pursuits that keeps them that way, but I get the distinct feeling that love and joy are being underrepresented in the community at large. This is most obvious in the internet based Martial Arts community as the little-ego-that-couldn't suddenly finds strength behind anonymity.
There's no need for militant activism, but a bit of self restraint and introspection is in order. Taking offense and the resulting anger are choices. They just happen to be choices that people take far too often.
Ignoring the consequences of one's actions and copping out to blame and selfishness is far easier than facing the truth, but the route less traveled will often yield hidden treasures.
Wouldn't it be great if there was more cooperation and brotherhood among Martial Artists without having to sugarcoat and censor discussion?
Martial Arts is not about being better than anyone other than your current self and the best way to do that is by being open and giving. This doesn't mean kowtow and blind acceptance, but rather thoughts, feelings, and actions born from a foundation of love a gratitude. Sometimes, a bit of tough love can go a long way to catalyze growth and awareness.
Let's make a concerted effort to add knowledge and value to the online Martial Arts world. Let's show some restraint when the urge to speak negatively is roused and instead, take a moment and reflect on why we feel that way and what it means.
This is a philosophy on which I intend to intensify my focus, and I think it would be awesome if you joined me.
--
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
http://www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com
Martial Arts training is the ultimate microcosmic training ground for personal development on all levels. It is a fully equipped laboratory where self exploration and life skill development abounds.
What is the True Self ?
Bruce Lee once said that "ultimately, Martial Art means honestly expressing yourself." I believe that this "honest expression" made possible by a raw, intimate knowledge of self is one's True Self.
It is something we are all born to develop but with which we tend to lose touch without the proper guidance and experience.
Martial Arts can help strengthen one's connection with Self and free up the ability to express it. To better understand how this happens, it's important to also understand the relationship between Mind, Body, and Spirit.
MindBodySpirit
These are rather cliched subjects in the Western world as a result of their use in marketing and the overly romanticized view of Eastern philosophy. Despite their frequent employment, very little understanding is being demonstrated by the commercial institutions that use them.
These subjects, or rather the MindBodySpirit subject, exists to describe a world full of awe and mystery where science was non-existent. I still like to use them because in today's world, science has only scratched the surface of the universe and our powers within it and so the terms are still very much relevant in encapsulating a concept that is, by nature, difficult to explain.
The Body as the gateway to Spirit
A few years back, during post graduate studies in traditional medicine, it was suggested to me that both the Mind and Spirit have direct connections with Body, but do not connect directly with each other. This was a controversial subject considering how so many spiritual practices seem to emphasize the Mind-Spirit connection, primarily due to the Western scientific emphasis of the mind and dismissal of "spirit".
Regardless of one's beliefs about spirit, there is simply no mind without the body. Hence any real change within one's self MUST include a body element.
Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, and even prayer and meditation generally involve ritual and a focus on something physical such as the act of breathing. These practices, including Martial Arts, have become mainstream, yet their true power of self development is largely not being tapped.
The issue seems to be in the modern cultural trend of shortcutting and "thinking" one's way success and thus bypassing the body.
I think, therefore I don't know
Thinking is essential, but thoughts by themselves are just noise. Thinking coupled with honestly feeling and consequently doing is considerably more involved. Sometimes we "think" we feel this and that, but again, this is the mind getting in the way of truly experiencing ourselves and a good example of the difference between thinking and knowing. As we are physical beings, our bodies are absolutely essential to feeling and thus knowing. The key is being conscious, present, and open to the feelings our bodies allow us.
Expressing yourself honestly
The practice of Martial Arts is extremely physical and can thus be used as a powerful tool to control the thought process and nurture our innate ability to simply be and feel honestly. There are times when training is easy and calming, there are times when it's fun, challenging, and exciting, and there are times when joy and happiness duke it out with anger and frustration.
The entire gamut of emotions is exercised and every moment is an opportunity to let things be while you enjoy, learn, and grow.
Martial Arts training is deeply rooted in one's ability to move, feel, and interact. It is a physically based practice aimed at honing one's Mind and strengthening one's Spirit by cultivating one's Body, effectively clearing the way for the expression of one's True Self.
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