Ex-Romantics

I'm Mr. Negative (Mr. "Nego" for short) when it comes to Romantic ideas like; "You've just got to believe," or "Everyone has an inner Genius waiting to be revealed," or "Revolution now," or "Peace," or "How do you feeeeel about it?," or "I need a cleanse," or "Inner truth is found through embracing the mystery," or "Natural is better than synthetic."

There are a lot more of those slogans which define the rigid Romantic mind-set. I could go on ridiculing it all day, but I won't. Sometimes natural is better than synthetic, sometimes not. The reason I bring this up at all is that I used to be a Romantic, I used to believe all that stuff, so I'm sympathetic. I viscerally understand why this kind of simplicity is appealing.

Actually I'm more than sympathetic. As pathetic as this might sound-- being a Romantic was a gateway to learning about the body, the mind, martial arts, and Daoism.

If I can point my students in the direction of a bridge, that is preferable to gate, but if a gate is the only thing they see, then by all means, they should take the gate!

Kung Fu Panda

Yes, I saw it. I'm a very easy reviewer when it comes to anything with kung fu in it. I liked it. If you have a child or two to take with you as an excuse, definitely go see it! It's fun--even if the sweet parts are really too sweet for anyone over age eight.

Philosophically it has something to offer. First of all I should get out of the way that modern-romantic obsession with "you must believe." What a lot of nonsense. Think: Yoda talking to Luke Skywalker about how to get his little rocket ship out of the swamp.

Noooo, kung fu is about hard work my friends, belief has nothing to do with it.

But philosophically the film explores fate, both personal and collective. It gives great attention to the power of accidents. The joke line in the film is, "There are no accidents." But actually it is about how important it is to accept accidents and work with them. Accidents can reveal a lot about how rigidly we try to control our fate.

Perhaps the most important aspect of martial arts is the ability to improvise, and improvisation cannot happen if you are struggling to control outcomes. In an improvisation, an accident is something to embrace, a thing to work with.

Falling on your face is no reason to stop the action, heck, I meant to do that!

Lesson Plan for Kids

One of my Kungfu lesson plans has been posted on the internet at Performing Arts Workshop. Because kungfu is dangerously close, in people's (closed) minds, to a sacred category called Physical Education, and because of Teacher's Union absurdly protectionist rules in the public schools-- what I do is sensibly under the category of World Dance (scroll to the bottom.)

And you can check out my biography too, by scrolling down here--alphabetical by first name.

Auto-Blogging

While I was out exploring the Mt. Lassen area for a couple of weeks, my blog was posting all by itself.  So if you commented or sent me an email during the last three weeks, I have finally responded to all of them.

Thanks for all of the great comments.

Kicking

I teach two types of kicks.  Maiming kicks and friendly kicks.

Friendly kicks include swipes, sweeps, traps, stops, and ways to get your partner's legs jumbled up so they fall down.

Maiming kicks are designed to be used only once.  They usually sever or snap ligaments.  Sometimes they tear tendons, and sometimes they break bones. When they break bones it is usually a small bone like a collar bone, pubic bone or a bone in the foot.

I've never actually used a maiming kick to maim, but I'm pretty sure they work because I've almost had my ligaments snapped a few times.

These two types of kicks go together.  You practice the friendly ones at real speeds and the maiming ones at gentle slow careful speeds.

Both of these technical categories are different than most of the kicks used in sparring.

Golf

I've never played golf but I've heard from some of my private students that one of the secrets to a good swing is keeping your feet completely still and relaxed.

Break a Leg, means Break a Leg

Before a performance I told a group of my 3rd and 4th graders to "Break a Leg." One of the students said to the others, "He means good luck." I said, "No, Break a Leg means Break a Leg."

The expression comes from the 2000 year old Indian text known as the Natya Shastra, also sometimes called the fifth Veda. I have a copy on my shelf. It's pretty cool, they talk about how auspicious it is if the performers on the stage get so rowdy and out of control that someone breaks a leg.

Update:

In response to the comments.

My copy of the Nâtyašâstra was translated into English by Dr. Adya Rangacharya, and published by IBH Prakashaha, in Gandhinagar, Bangalore, 1986.

It has been a while since I've read it cover to cover, I believe there is more than one reference that would be relevant to the martial artist/performer, but here is the quote I was thinking about:

Illumination of the stage (lines 90-93)

Holding the lighted torch one should run about the stage roaring, and cracking the joints of fingers, turning round and round, making loud noises and thus, illuminating the entire stage, should come to center of the stage.  Battle scenes must be enacted to the resounding accompaniment of conch, drum, Mrdanga, and Panava etc.  If in the course of that, things are broken or are cut or torn, with blood showing on the wounds, then it is a good omen indicating success.

A stage properly consecrated will bring good luck to the king and to the young and old of the town and country.

--Natyashastra, "Worship of the Stage and of the Gods (chapter 3)."

Ritual Blogging

Religious Daoism recognizes ritual as a something essentially human.

Earlier this year I sat next to a Nigerian named Obi while traveling by plane. We were discussion ritual and commitment. He invoked the metaphor of expectation being a piece of yarn. When you think of it as an infinite piece of yarn, expectation is less of a burden.

He objected to my use of the word commitment because he said commitment is work, effort. And he is right, not all of our commitments require work, in fact most commitments probably come to us quite easily.

Daoists created book length lists of all the various types of entities one could make a covenant with. They viewed the ability to make commitments as part of the definition of humanness. A covenant is a type of commitment.

Ritual is time. I think I read something like that in Lagerwey.

All human conduct can be viewed as ritual. This leads to a social thought perspective because it recognizes the non-spontainious, gigantic group action of millions of people bathing or drinking coffee, or practicing gongfu. Describing human conduct as ritual exposes that all types of action can be divided into smaller units of action, or time (perhaps measured by ritual itself), and linked to other simular actions by other people.

Obi is really optimistic. He said that his optimism comes his world view.

I ask the question: which is the more important enlightenment institution, the coffee shop or the University? And why? The accumulation of knowlede verses It’s free exchange. The predictable environment verses the spontainious one.
I use the term coffee shop in its historical sense, the current institution where ideas are exchanged freely and spontaneously is the internet.

Creativity (Not going with the Flow)

A few years ago I tried to teach a regular class out of a multi-purpose performance space. The place was not well managed, a few people lived in the adjacent spaces, and people kept interrupting my class, sometimes insisting they needed to cross through the middle of the room.
One day I got really pissed-off. I left my students, and went to chew out a bunch of "ravers" who had taken up relaxed poses on an outdoor sofa after having interrupted my class more than once. I don't remember what I said, but it must have been fairly direct, loud, and aggressive. The last thing the guy ever said, to me, was, "Hey maaaan, I thought Tai Chi was all about going with the flow!"

"Only dead fish go with the flow."

On the subject of where to train, check out this blog.  While you're there, check out the kind things Daniel has to say about his trip to San Francisco in the recent posts section.

The above quote comes from a book by a friend of mine who teaches improvisation. Check it out!

Trusting the Circle

One of the first obstacles a push-hands student has to overcome is the tendency to either pincer or be "against the wall."

To pincer means to bring your forearms towards each other in an attempt to squeeze off your opponent's forward attack.  A pincer motion will compress the shoulders  creating a rigid defense.

To be "against the wall" is the opposite of pincering.  It means to pull your arms away from each other as if you were falling back against a wall and you wanted to cushion yourself by having your completely spread arms hit the wall first, palms to the front.

Pincering and "against the wall" are impulses, they don't need to taken to their complete expression-- the smallest hint of either is a mistake.

Instead of these two, we learn to make a circle with our arms.  If my opponent attacks from the outside of my circle, I make it bigger.  My arms don't have to be touching each other but the arc of each arm should be on the same circle as the other arm (they should feel connected).  The most common defect here would be to push up against the attack instead of just making the circle bigger.  (This defect will force a reversal from your opponent.)

If my opponent attacks form the inside of my circle, I make the circle smaller.  The two arcs of your arms can overlap.  The most common defect with this one is pushing downward, (which will also cause a reversal).

Once the technique is mastered the opponent attacks with one arm inside the circle and one arm outside the circle.  So that you have to create two circles (arcs or partial rings really).  Then you add turning in the kua (hip region).

Once these techniques have been internalized, it becomes much easier to trust the circle.  An attack in which you can feel your opponent's jin or power, can be stopped by keeping and changing the circle.