markusan

I like to think of death as the next natural progression. I specualted on what it would be like to leave home once, and when I did it was much better than I expected, I did the same with having children, couldn't have imagined how good that would be. As I grow older I think I'm learning not so much to speculate about the next stage and maybe not necessarily look forward to it but at least welcome it with confidence. Death is bound to be an adventure, or nothing at all. If it's the latter it doesn't matter.

If your meditation ever has any dreamlike quality, refocus because you are not meditating. In meditation you are only concerned with reality and truth. If thoughts arise that are dreamlike, scary, whatever, pay close attention to them and if they are delusion they will disappear. But you must turn your minds eye one them. When you are meditating you are always in control, alert and wide awake, though not in your normal mindstate. Experienced meditators might say that your normal conscious waking state is more like a dream than meditation is. Dreams are basically illusion, as is the idea often experienced in dreams that you can move objects with your mind, fly etc. If you have those ideas when you are meditating, look at them, recognise them for what they are, merely distractions, and let them go. Your brain does not like the quiet of meditation at first so it creates lots of wonderful things to think about, but they have no substance. Focus on the breath coming out your nostrils and going back in, that's all, when interesting thoughts arise about dreams, levitation, superpowers etc you've lost concentration so get your mind back to your breath. Practice.

My organisation has at least six black belt women, three of them now instructors, who started because their children were training. They live for it. Looks like life's pushing you in a certain direction go with it. And I bet if you assume that you're going to start training, a solution will appear for the finances.

Well done WW on your thousandth... quality as well as quantity, always thought provoking.

One of the things I love about MA is that its action teaches you philosophy directly and that philosophy is then yours and not necessarily the same as your sensei's. At one stage of my training I was very aggressive and found I was getting injured a lot. Then it dawned on me that my opponents were mirroring my aggression. I would not have believed this simple truth if I had only been told it by my sensei. I am a sceptic at heart. Then I noticed this was not just the case for the martial arts but for all my relationships and hence the devlopment of a part of my personal philosophy. Sensei's are very important, you must have a good teacher, but the most important thing is to train. The physical act of training is where you learn most directly and develop your own philosophy. Your Sensei, if he is good, will guide your training. Listen to your sensei and train hard and the answers will appear like magic. After training go home and just sit for a while quietly. Explore all the other philosophies, but test them in training. Remember some of the traditional philosophy of the martial arts was developed in very different times and cultures. It could be deemed a bit anti social if we adopted a strict sumurai code for example today. And don't be rigid or afraid to change your mind. Your philosophy today probably won't suit you in ten years time. Living by a strict honor code is okay in theory but can lead to a pretty hefty guilt complex if you're not careful.

Maybe I expressed it wrongly, as a species we are the most successful killers on the planet. The brain, opposable thumb, the weapons, the ability to store knowledge externally and add to it, are all part of the deal, as much a part of our evolution as a lion's claws. From where I sit the bears and the lions aren't doing all that well, unfortunately.

it made me think Kyle San, thanks and keep writing

I like running as a daily endurance exercise. You can run long distances, or fast or both to build up speed and endurance in the legs, sprints for anaerobic capacity. You can use your run as a warm-up. I also like circuit training and you have enough equipment to do it as long as you have a friend to work the focus mits. But I'd also invest in a skipping rope and a clock with a second hand to time your sets.. start with 1)mobility exercises for a couple of minutes, then a light stretch, calves, hamstrings, quads and hip flexors, but keep it light. 2)20 minute run as a warm up or skip for a few minutes. 3)harder stretch, sepecially if you've run 4)put some good pumped up rock on your cd player (ACDC preferably) 5) start your circuit with a minute boxing into the mits. 6) down for situps, and maybe throw two punches as you're crunching. 7)grab your weights and do walking lunges 7)down for pushups back to the skipping to get your breathing rythm back. 9)tricep dips on a chair 10) tuck jumps 11) Kicking practice sets of 10 each leg per technique. 12) back to focus mits alternate kicks and punches. finish with a wrm down and good thorough stretch Experiment with the timing, do what you can without killing yourself, and build up gradually over time. Keep a record of what you do each day and for how long. That way you can see your progress.

I'll second that, and every time you throw a fast technique you have five pound travelling at speed trying to over extemd you joints and ligaments.

This is doing my head in...most of us wouldn't think twice about punching each other's lights out and yet......lol Oh and another thing, the very best person to advise you not to smoke is someone who's been there.

Why wait til next year, do it now (next year you'll be 24 and that's way too old!!!)

Lots of TKD practitioners wear light martial arts shoes. They have a very flat thin sole so you would have to check if they could take your particular orthotic. Like the other folks said, I have a student with a prosthetic leg, another with a knee brace, a girl whose shoulder keeps popping out in class (and pops back in by itself) and I personally have tendonitis in my hip. I have a great young student with downs syndrome and another who is deaf (doesn't listen to a thing I say!)

most traditional martial arts have forms. Kata for the Japanese arts, Hyungs or Poomse in TKD. Many of the moves in TKD forms have strong similarities to Karate Kata, generally Karate forms are done in deeper stances. Allstyles competitions have open forms sections, even sections for forms that you make up yourself. Personally I love doing forms but am not big on kata competitions, but plenty of great martial artists are, it's just a personal thing. Though I have not studied them myself, the Okinawan Karate styles have great forms combining pressure point striking, blocking, and self defence moves. My advice is to find a dojo and instructor you like and who has good skills and good students and start. You're not a martial artist till you start.

I think we are just a big bundle of insecurities and MA helps relieve us of some of those, especially at the start. Then there's my theory that humans, especially men, but women too, have evolved to fight. We're the toughest meanest species on the planet after all. Living in communities has put a lid on that but the internal pressure's still there. The Martial arts let us exercise those primal urges in a socially acceptable way. I think a lot of the other reasons, self defence, fitness, confidence are symptoms of that, not the real reason we do it.

An interesting discussion on a difficult subject. I wonder though how true it is that martial artists are the main reason zen has been introduced to the west. I tend to think it is more pacifists like Thic Nhat Hahn, and the many Roshis and Japanese philosophers who have travelled from Japan like Masao Abe et al. I would also tend to extend your example of non duality. It is fine to become one with your technique, but not all that challenging I think. More of a challenge is to be one with your opponent.

I think the opposite is true. It's not mind (or thinking mind) that allows you to go on when you think your exhausted. It's that mind that is thinking that your exhausted or in pain. The trick is to switch off that mind or at least settle it down a bit. The body is capable of far more than the mind gives it credit for. I suppose that's a safety measure. That's why training beyond your limits is so important. Because once you have, then next time when your head is telling you you can't work any harder, at another level you know that you can. I had a dog that kept digging holes in my lawn and nothing I would do would stop it .Then a friend suggested I give it a bag of bones. It worked. It was too busy thinking about the bones to worry about digging holes anymore. Now I use my breathing as my focus (though you could try a bone if you prefer) When I'm tired or sore I focus on my breathing. If your concentration is good you will no longer feel pain or fatigue, just breathing.

Chasing mysterious secret "powers" is a big distraction. It's your mind fighting against stillness.

You really need someone to be watching your technique as you break. Are you breaking with a fist or knife hand? If knife hand then make sure your hand is not straight up and down when it hits the board, lean it over a little so the palm side is down. Tense the muscle at the side of your hand between your wrist and the base of your little finger. It is important to aim through the board and not at the surface. It is also important to use your body, not just your arm and hand. If the board is in a horizontal position address it in a long forward stance, bring your arm up high as if you are swinging a hammer raising your body too, breath in, then twist and strike down with all your body weight behind it and at the same time Yell as you exhale. Breaking takes a bit of confidence, you must be prepared to hit the board hard. Remeber it only hurts when the board doesn't break!!. And maybe start off with a thinner board, some inch thick boards are much harder than others. To start off, pick one with nice straight grain, and no big knots. Later on when you're used to it, it won't matter so much.

No one can tell you what is the best style for you, and I don't think its so much about build or iq, rather spirit. Go to a few classes and try them out. Don't worry about style so much as the quality of the instructor. Make sure you feel comfortable with them and that their technique is good. Also look at the spirit of the dojo. It should be positive, and people should be co-operating wit eachother and with respect for everyone at evry belt level. They should look like they're working hard, but having fun.

Zuluking, my favorite little cliche is that the only time you fail is when you give up. I think that a martial artist is not the person who never gets hit, it's the one who gets knocked down then jumps back up and keeps fighting. And I know it's hard, but you really start learning when you take full responsibilityfor your performance yourself, don't blame your sensei. He may be wrong, no-one's perfect, but you have to do what's required to impress him. That's just the cold hard fact. I've seen lots of students get to brown belt black tip in TKD and them give up. Don't do that, that's crazy. Keep training and I guarantee in a couple of years you'll look back and say this was a good thing.

how do you disguise a two metre long lump of wood?

It depends how far you are pulling yourself up with you situps. If you are doing a shallow crunch you will work your abs. If you try and get all the way up you are engaging your thigh and hip flexor muscles. These are your kicking muscles, but If you shorten these muscles by overworking them they'll end up tilting your hips and causing back and sciatic nerve problems. If you do those exercises make sure you do a good series of hip flexor stretches after your workout.

NO heated response here Ralph. I teach TaeKwonDo but with a remarkably similar philosophy to you. I don't train to get hurt and I don't want someone else's injuries on my conscience.

Musashi was born to the samurai class, but was Ronin, and Musashi was anathema to the Samurai code in a way, because the basic motivation for the samurai is service, whereas Musashi was very much a lone gun. I found I had to read the book a few times, but at each stage of my own development I found I understood it at different levels. There are two things in particular in this book that I pass on to students even at the most basic level, One is the advice on stance which is "Make your everyday stance your fighting stance and your fighting stance your everyday stance" And the other is the advice about the gaze. To look at things in the distance as if they are close and those things that are close as if they are at a distance. I interpret that as keeping a soft unfocussed gaze when fighting, not staring at a point on your opponent but equally being visually aware of your environment. In the translations I have Musashi keeps repeating, "you must study this carefully", and that's the secret I think. The other valuable thing I get from this book is the emphasis on thinking about not only the technique of your attack but also the spirit or attitude of your attack. Sometimes you attack with an aggressive exploding attitude while other times with a flowing or sticky attitude. Another book with good advice on these things is The Life Giving Sword by Yagyu Munenori, a contemporary of Musashi. The Art of War is compulsory reading but tackles strategy from the opposite extreme, from the strategies required by armies and countries. Most of that is applicable to the one fighter too but Musashi comes from the lone swordsman's point of view then expands the strategy to bigger groups. My advice is to read the Book of Five Rings through, then start again and mull over each topic and really absorb it. If you want a book that demonstrates the difference between Musashi's attitude and that of the working or endentured Samurai, read Hagakure, by Yamamoto Tsunetomo.

If your rowing machine has a sliding seat you should get a good leg workout as well as back arms and shoulders. Timing is important, slower pace going forward then explode with your legs going back and lean back at the end of the stroke. I'm not sure about your machine, but rowing machines with a wheel and rope, and a sliding seat give you a great cardio workout and build up explosive power. It's a great allover strength stamina workout, but at the end of 15 minutes your lungs should be burning.