Be true to yourself, always and in doing so, if it is required you must be prepared to shake the tree of conventional wisdom, and in turn you must be prepared to be ignored then ridiculed and finally attacked before it is that you are finally accepted.
My view of budo is at last acknowledged and confirmed, if not fully approved of. My view of budo is the result of all my personal experiences to date, including my long years of training, my experiences in the security industry, plus the highs and lows of my life. Out of that melting pot I decided in June 2000 that I would once again tread the rubble strewn path of becoming an instructor of budo, I had tried once before in the mid 1990’s, and I had failed. Principally I failed as I had not learned the above wisdom that I have now shared with you. I taught my budo as I felt that I must, because that was how I was taught. I was taught not to question, I was taught to just do. This idea of ‘no talk, no think, just train’ is fine in principle for outright beginners only. For the instructors who themselves do not think and thus in turn do not teach their students to think, none of them are studying budo, it will only be quality historical reenactment at best. Being you, is a stunning act of creativity, but like any art form it has its dark side.
The budo that you train in and train for is for you, and you only. Your methodology will be the best methodology for you. All the changes that you will ride along with on your budo journey will be the best changes for you. You must respect the personal journeys of your fellow students and that of your instructor, and indeed anyone who offers any advice. Think deeply about that advise and put your best efforts in to understand that advice and be completely prepared to accept new and differing advice, and in turn to treat that advice with equal inquiry and effort. It is only in so doing that you will become a pure student of budo. To live a fruitful life you must continue to question and adapt when change is necessary or advantageous, it is the some with budo.
Form and technique is vital as a structure and framework for organising movement, distance and timing, nothing more. Just as a diary is the vital structure for a busy life, the diary is only a tool with a limited functionality, the diary does not become you. It is the same with form and technique within your budo. Just as your diary has a habit of letting you down with things pile up, when it feels there is just not enough time in the day, when you start running behind you will then have a bad day when the structure collapses. It is the same with form and technique within in budo, when the sticky brown matter collides with the device producing a current of air by the movement of a number of broad surfaces the things that will most likely let you down are form and technique. I believe that there is just too much emphasis on pure form and technique, the culprit of this state of affairs is that it is the easiest thing to teach. Life and conflict can be viewed as a game of chess; conservation, the study of cause and effect. I have been told by many who have not trained with me that I have poor form, what I would say to these people is please come and train with me and you will find that I have trained and worked and studied to lose that set of obvious postures and movements that are called form and technique.
In a game of chess form and technique are pawns while strategy is king. Strategy is a well identified set of congruent thoughts and actions specifically tailored and targeted at pitting your natural and learned advantages and strengths against your studied weaknesses of your enemy. This is strategy, this is the art of the advantage. The strategical fighter does not just draw on existing strength but creates strength through the coherence of movement distance and timing and the application of fear doubt surprise and confusion. The first natural and often times overlooked advantage of a sound fighting strategy is that more often than not your enemy will not have one. If you fail to identify and analyse the obstacles dangers and the strengths of your enemy, you are only left with hope. A strategy must have a diagnosis of the situation an overall guiding system and the ability to apply the coherent action. Think of instinct as a question and not as a decision. Judgement begins with the self-understanding of your abilities and biases. It will then extend to the knowing of other individuals and then to knowing of small groups and finally to large groups. Chance events, imperfections in execution and the independent will of your enemy all cause friction, any effective strategy has to evolve according to continuously changing circumstances.
This is my understanding of budo. I will live and die by my budo.
Hello good readers. It has been a long time since I put my fingers to the keyboard. My words may have gone into a state of coma, but I had not. Life and budo move on. Much has happened to me in the meantime. Much of it I can’t recall. Much of it makes me smile and makes me younger than I was.
I have been, for some time dubbed ‘remarcmoorable’ by some of my students. I don’t tell you this to surprise, shock, or to worry you. I tell you this because it still surprises, shocks and worries me. These students hold me, their budo instructor to the high standard of my words thoughts and deeds, and it is my stringent duty not to disappoint them, if at all possible. What do they, see in me, and what do they aspire to be with me as their short, muddle aged, and increasingly forgetfully instructor, guide and keeper of the way? I have no idea… But, I suppose that being ‘remarcmoorable’ means strangely little more than the aptitude, and capability of observing and moving in an un-habitual way. It’s not theoretical physics and I’m not a theoretical physicist; I’ve just been around for a long while and I’ve led and still lead an interesting and non conventional life. Anyone can do it, if I can because I’m certainly not remarcmoorable. I just firmly and religiously believe in the incomprehensibility of love and budo, and that with love and budo, I will live forever. So far, so good (fingers crossed).
I have a simple yet powerful idea for you all and that is, don’t squander yourself in rejection, back stabbing or politics, or scream into the night, or rant and shout at those most close to you, but sing the beauty of the good, pass on the positivity and spread the love. Those of us who continuing to strive and put ourselves on the line every day, will always have our ups and downs. That is only natural and it is the way of things. Only the characterless and the second rate are always at their best.
If we are unable to find harmony and contentment within ourselves, it is pointless to set out on the great hunt for it elsewhere. Most of our miseries spring from stupidity, bitterness and those great motivators and justifiers of bitterness and stupidity: idealism, discrimination and polarising fanaticism on behalf of religious or political ideas. We must strive to go someway beyond what we have already mastered and have understood. Onward and upwards to new plains of ideas and understandings, to stretch the elasticity in our minds and souls, because once stretched to new capacities they will never recede to what they were before. This is the only sustainable growth for our souls and psyche.
Have calmness and composure with others, because this is the way to harmony and contentment, and in this way we show and spread the love. Otherwise by means of shrewd falsehoods and lies that is to lead you and them to believe that black is white, and that heaven is hell; the greater the lie, the greater the certainty of its truth. To have and to appreciate achievement and ambition is to have calmness and composure with ourselves, and finally to have calmness and composure with budo is acceptance and belief. The green shoots of growth can only ever come from the readiness to take personal responsibility. There are many people who can only be happy when they hate. There are many great haters that I have met, and I pass them by, as I do to a careless fart, never to become Farcebook ‘friends’s’. 🙂
Budo should always be the practice of strategy, by reasoned thoughts and actions governed by natural laws that pit your strengths against the studied weaknesses of your enemy or antagonist, by means of fear, doubt, surprise and confusion, for the general benefit of mankind. And love should be the reason for it all. It is not what you know, but what you feel that concerns budo. The rest is just style and window dressing. While you are enjoying your budo, you are not failing it, and it is not failing you, and by not failing in budo you will never know what it is to become old. Do not desert your budo, keep it to your heart and make it your thread of talent, and you will become what nature intended for you, and you will know the embrace of success. Let others find their standard by which they will judge you, as the very breath and essence of budo is in it’s creativity and permutations, and so their standards will never apply. Because that which is understood and acknowledged by everyone is usually a lie. Budo cannot be manipulated. Budo won’t go away; push budo away, or pull it apart and it will always instantly regroup and reform, like smoke slipping through a firm grasp. Technical skill is in the mastery of that which is complex, while creativity is mastery of that which is simple. Be the first to training and the last to McDonald’s. There is nothing marvellous in budo, anyone can do it, and they usually do.
When you become truly skilled in budo it will be like seeing through the smog while still enjoying the view. To master budo is to master your destiny, and so for some people you will have to take an unpopular stance. The greater your kamae, the greater your progress. Budo is truth, and armed with the truth you will have infinite power supporting you along the way and illuminating your path. If you don’t like your current path you can change it, indeed you have an obligation to change it, one small, singular step at a time. The truth of budo is only in it’s credibility, and the credibility of budo is in it’s believability, and the believability of budo is in it’s persuasiveness. Budo taught and performed correctly is very persuasive. Budo is change, budo is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun. Budo is also about discomfort, don’t waste it. Discomfort is one of natures most precious gifts. This is the truth, the good, the bad, and the budo.
The way of learning is to observe and ask questions. When you have more knowledge, observe more closely and ask more questions. He that cannot observe can only make excuses and he that only makes excuses cannot make anything else. Do not concern yourself about other students and instructors stealing your ideas, for the solid and simple reason, that If your ideas are as good as you think they are, you will have to ram them down their throats, because if you want to create enemies and a whirlwind of politics, just try and change something. Have courage and do not let anyone turn you around; courage is the art of being the only one who knows the truth and the truth is you are scared to death. Courage is perseverance in a heavy coat on the hottest day of the year. Courage is the integration of what you believe in, into every facet of your life. Courage is being prepared to see both sides of the story. Courage is protecting your students from your prejudices. Courage is taking the hits and the criticisms aimed directly at you, although the slings and arrows may well be fired at those you love. It is said that it is difficult to differentiate between who gets criticised the most, the successful person or the failure. Whoever it is, it’s a close run thing. It is useful to ponder on the fact that success and failure are never permanent or final, and that faults are sooner copied than correctness, bad habits, they say are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of. Success and rank should not wield power or privilege, yet it is the weight of responsibly that is the prize and price of success. Whatever success you have, be good at it.
Because what our minds can take in is governed by our endurance, we will continually makes lots of mistakes. That’s a promise. But as long as you are true to the correct path you can do no lasting harm, as you are working within the universal laws of nature, because when you pull at a single chord in nature, it is always attached to the rest of the world; you can never lose by pulling those strings, you can only lose by not pulling them. Curiosity is the key to the big engine. Success is something that everyone should try, more than once.
Until you can measure something and then express it in budo, you have only the begining of understanding. Enthusiasm without knowledge is a bucket with a hole in it. Every step of budo is taken from the kamae that makes the conscious into the unconscious. Budo must combine the toughness of the tiger and the softness of the kitten, a strong mind and a playful heart. The self, yourself, myself, the I, me, mine is not something ready-made, and preordained, but rather something in continuous formation through the practice of budo. One side effect of studying budo, is that it peels away at the layers of fear that endure through our existence. There are a lot of people who are healthier then they have ever been before, because a lot of their fear is gone, and replaced by the faith of budo. The history of budo is not the history of fighting, budo is the rich history of stories, the stories of man. The stories of men alone can become too small a peg to hang history from. If you acquire the learning of budo and if you do not practice, daily in your life of what you have learned, you will become like a fireman without a hose, an officer without authority, a bird without its wings. Life with budo is the balance of justice, control and power. Without justice, control and power you will only find a hole in the world, one which you will constantly avoid in your waking hours, and yet fall into at night.
If you want to create enemies, all you have to do is to change something or do something differently. I have grown used to the critics and even the haters. This post is a series of emails between myself and one of my milder critics. It is offered unedited, apart from the removal of the names involved. I hope that it is enlightening, illuminating and possible amusing as to how two grown men who share a common love of Budo can so easily be sidetracked into trivialities.
Please contact me directly if anyone would like any additional information regarding this post.
Hi Marc,
As I was commenting on ……
pictures, I didn’t realise that I should have addressed my comments to you, and I don’t actually think about you enough to want to get rid of you, maybe that’s a touch of Paranoia creeping in ?, my comments were and always will be about people handing out bogus certificates, yet going under the Bujinkan Banner, while I realise that we all have to make ends meet, most of us try to keep some measure of integrity towards our teaching and training. As strange as it may sound, I have nothing personally against you, or any of your students, I do however find it a bit odd that from what I have heard, very few of your students, or even their students have Hombu memberships ?.
But as I see that I have been blocked from commenting or liking posts, it makes me wonder what it is that you have to hide ?
I await your response with baited breath 🙂
……
….. I would normally start by saying what an honour it is to receive correspondence from someone of your rank. Though, we both know that you have only contacted me directly because it was decided to block you from the Budo Warrior Schools Facebook page. I am easy to locate and find yet you repeatedly chose to direct your words to …… who is a very junior rank to you. Your actions have not added to your cause. You should have always contacted me directly.
It appears to me that you continually put more emphasis on the affairs of others rather than your own proficiencies. It was said publicly by yourself that you were an expert with hand guns, but the appearance of your criminally negligent video of ‘defending yourself’ by guiding the attackers pistol across the back of your exposed neck was laughable in the extreme and thankfully enjoyed in that vein by many. Also I have heard in a way that I believe it to be true that you were under pressure at a recent seminar in Bristol to produce and impromptu display of taijutsu, I understand that you, let’s say under-performed in a rather public manner… Having received your advice, I shall offer some of my own. You should find an instructor who can help you with your deficiencies in your budo. You will find my rates very reasonable.
I do not care a jot about what you or anyone else thinks of my affairs regarding membership cards or certificates. I may have ruffled a few feathers in Japan, that is not for the first time. I have never been a yes man, in my martial studies or out of them. I am a maverick, people love or hate me and I am glad of that because it proves that I have the ability to make a difference to people and not just tow the line because that’s what your supposed to do.
I have been my rank now for five years. I know of quite a few who have gone from 4th Dan to 10th Dan well within that same time frame. That ruffles quite a few feathers. The fact that I cannot increase my rank because for no other reason that I simply cannot afford to get to Japan ruffles my feathers. So, feathers as you see are always being ruffled one way or another. We all have to put up with stuff we are not particularly happy about.
So, to summarise I am waterproof as I nor the vast majority of my students simply do not care what you or anyone else may think. I do not care that I have continued to ruffle feathers in or out of the Bujinkan. I do however have a specific page on Facebook for the specific use of my students and any other students who treat it with respect, as you did not respect it you were blocked. It appears that your feathers are now ruffled too. Join the club
Marc
Hi Marc,
I have never said that I am an expert in anything, I am however experienced with many firearms, and the technique was a valid one, I’m not sure where you are getting your information, but I didn’t do any impromptu demonstrations at my recent trip to Bristol, and nothing was under performed. As I explained in my email to you, I was commenting on something on …… page, not your’s, therefore saw no need to direct my comments at yourself. Like you I have and still do ruffle feathers, as is obvious by this thread, and on the subject of Rank, I have held mine for the last 11 years, so I agree with what you say about the fast trackers, but I never feel that this is any concern of mine.
As we have only met a couple of times, and are not on each others friends list, I don’t feel that what I said is relevant to anything you are doing, and the fact that …… is a junior rank to me ha nothing to do with the situation.
I do feel however that some of the messages he sent to me yesterday, show a slightly unbalanced character, I am still deciding what to do about that, and the fact that after blocking me from his page, he sent me a friend request under an alias, as were the messages, sort of says it all.
……
……, I along with others distinctly recall reading the thread on Facebook; …… had placed on his group page a series of photos of his students at his class praciticing practical pistol applications. You stated that you thought what he was doing was incorrect and you added that an expert on such hand gun matters was booked to do a seminar at …… class. …… asked who the expert was and you replied that it was yourself. It was at that point that …… deleted you and your comments from his page.
If you firmly stand by that gun disarm, you will have a long lonely vigil. Even …… eventually saw its shortcomings as he deleted the video from public display.
I stated in my last email that your failed impromptu taijutsu display was at ‘a’ recent event in Bristol and not the most recent, and as I say I heard it in a way that I believe it to be true.
You say that as you were only commenting about …… activities on his page and so therefore you did not see the need to take the matter higher. That statement is patently untrue, a lie. By your recent actions of informing Hatsumi Soke, you did take it higher but you still did not have the nerve nor the moral fibre to contact me directly.
The fact that …… was emotional in his responses to you after you had firmly pushed all his buttons is no indication of an unstable character. A clearer indicator of an unstable character is one who habitually presses his uninvited opinions upon others in such a way as to cause hurt or embarrassment for those parties for the perpetrators own ends. Also it would not take a genius to work back on all the threads to find that all the issues were started and fanned by you. You have a victim mentality, take a shot of man-up and take responsibility for your deeds and actions and shortcomings.
You say that we have met before, I sadly have no recollection of those occasions. If you wish it that if and when we meet again that we do so as honourable Shidoshi of differing opinions the ball is in your court. You need to refrain from interfering publicly or privately in Budo Warrior Schools affairs and that if you have anything that you must say, all comments must be directed privately to me and only me. If you can promise to abide by these simple rules of common politeness and decency I will be happy to reinstate you on the Budo Warrior Schools page.
Marc
Hi Marc,
Just a couple of points here, #1, most of the gun disarms I demonstrated were from seminars and courses I have attended in America, taught by Police or military personnel.
#2, I have never firmly pushed …… buttons, we would know if I had.
#3 I didn’t actually take the post to Soke myself, but I did re-post it on my page.
As for what …… does, or doesn’t show is up to him, but maybe, it’s more about who he lets see what he posts on his own page.
I hardly think someone in your position is in any way qualified to try and lecture me on nerve or moral fibre, and I would refute any sort of claim about me having a victim mentality, or needing a shot of man up, I’ll stick to the occasional Bourbon thanks, and the comments I make on people’s pages are never designed to cause hurt, if I have something I think will do that, I always convey it in a private message.
Quite frankly Marc, I actually have very little interest in what Budo Warrior schools do, and I will continue to comment on all the McEmpire, and McDojo posts on my page, any time I see them.
Regards
……
Before I reply to your points raised in your last email I would like to confirm that it was you who declined my genuine offer of an amicable resolution based on a mutual understanding of our differences.
……, no matter how many times you repeat a bad idea it does not make it a good idea.
Are you really trying to say that your attempt to, in your opinion ‘expose’ …… was not firmly pushing his buttons, on top of all the other issues you instigated against him?
I have been told by a very close and longstanding friend that you had emailed him and admitted that you were responsible for Hatsumi Soke seeing that post.
Whether …… removed your video or placed it in restricted viewing is by the by, because it is still proof that he was embarrassed by it, or felt sorry for you. ……, as many know is very eager to point out deficiencies in the videos and training methods of others but, on this evidence is extremely reluctant to offer similar opportunities on his videos to anyone else.
I too have spent some time training in the USA. For example I studied the Mosaic system of personality profiling and threat assessments as used by the FBI. Basically it’s a point scoring system which results in remarkably accurate assessments. You definitely have a victim mentality. I shall explain why. You consistently fail to take responsibility for your actions: the poor technique that I taught was not my fault as I learned it from someone else; I do not push people’s buttons people are just unstable; it was not me who told Hatsumi soke, i just posted it on facebook; I have no interest in Budo Warrior Schools but people keep telling me things… The problem with this psychology of avoiding responsibility and accountability is that you are saying that you are not in control of yourself or your actions. Stuff just keeps happening to you to which you have no control. That is how victims think because victims have no sense of responsibility or personal accountability for their actions: I had to walk down that dark alley as its the short cut; ok, I had a bit to drink but the guy just hit me for no reason; every man I’ve ever dated ended up abusing me… Yes ……, I have doubled checked and you do have a victim mentality. On top of that ……, you are a bully. You are a verbal and psychological bully. Not a physical bully because as we both know you are not proficient enough in that department.
Bully – noun a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people.
……, no one is perfect. For example I have been pegged by many as an immature selfish show off. I am guilty as charged.
Working as an international bodyguard I had the very great pleasure of spending time with the singer, song writer George Michael. One day he gave me some sound advice, he said “Marc, handling publicity is easy. Don’t read it, weigh it!” On that note when you feel inclined to post or mail anything about me or Budo Warrior Schools or anyone connected to me or it, please make sure your spelling is correct.
Marc
Hi Marc,
I haven’t declined anything, and the message I sent to ….. was more about the fact that …… had no involvement in what happened. If you ever see anything on my page, you will find that I’m quite consistent, in what and how I post things, what are theses other issues I have instigated ?. As to your time in America, maybe you misunderstood some of the points you were being taught, after all a Maverick like yourself, probably understood everything they were trying to teach you.
As to your accusation of me being a bully, well I could say that I have heard that about you from various sources, but that is beside the point, I would agree that my proficiency to be a physical bully, is probably lacking, although my ability to defend myself physically is more than adequate.
Regards
……
……, you do avoid and deflect responsibility in a remarkably consistent manner. I congratulate you on your steadfast adherence to your negative character trait.
Can you please confirm or decline my genuine offer of an amicable resolution based on a mutual understanding of our differences? The answer to the question only requires a yes or no answer.
As regards the iPad incident at the hombu dojo, I believe that you deliberately engineered the incident with the involvement of an accomplice. I have yet to decide if I can be sufficiently bothered to ask the identity of the iPad owner, it could well turn out to be an interesting answer.
I am happily completely uninterested in your Facebook page and I am totally ambivalent to you personally. I will though consistently reply to your mails as is only right and proper in these circumstances as it was you who sought to interfere with and pressurise …… and his students in their in pursuit of martial arts as part of Budo Warrior Schools. It came to my notice and it is my job as principal instructor to deal with such issues, and this is me dealing with you.
While I agree with you that I may not be the sharpest tool in the box, the profiling is fairly idiot proof. With or without the profiling system you do consistently place yourself as the victim as you do not and cannot take responsibility for your actions. Another interesting side issue that you consistently display I must confess, I find quite endearing and so I will not divulge what it is. Finally, on this subject it is fascinating that a great many of the people who have a victim mentality have a substance issue, typically marijuana or alcohol.
You are obviously confused on the bullying issue I was not accusing you of being a bully. I was stating a fact. You are a bully. Here is the dictionary definition once again. ‘Bully – noun a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people.’ Could you please clearly explain what exactly it is that you believe that you are at odds with regarding the above definition and its application to your recent actions aimed at …..?
Thank you for confirming that there is a great deal of information about me in the public domain. I’m loving the weight of it all. I am grateful to you for confirming my happiness.
I can’t quite work out why it is that you care so much about how I at Budo Warrior Schools organise my system of membership cards and certificates, something that does not effect you directly than you care about the fast trackers in the Bujinkan who advance to top rank in remarkably short spaces of time. Because as you state that you have not advanced your rank in eleven years, and that clearly effects you more directly.
……, I sense that you are getting a little tired of all this and that you are running out of steam, excuses and deflections. Any team knows that it is much harder to always play on the defensive. The ball is your court once again.
Marc
Good evening Marc,
I can hardly believe that it takes you this long to think of an answer to my emails, but regardless of that, I have no idea what ipad incident you are referring to, so I’ll have to leave that one. I find it equally strange that you seem to be obsessed with my character, when your’s seems to be in need of improvement, I do maintain that I have not bullied ……, I only commented on the dodgy certificates, now I do understand that there are some people who don’t send Kyu grade fees to Japan, they seem to use them to pay the rent or whatever, and I always comment the same when I see theses certificates posted on Facebook or other forums, so that is just my stance on it.
I have not referred to you as not the sharpest tool in the box, so where you get that from is beyond me ?, as to the profiling thing, none of the people I know over in America that are involved with security services have heard of you, but then again, that is your business not mine, unlike yourself, I don’t try to make a living out of this Art, I do seminars when asked, and almost always get invited back, I have no ambitions to create or run an empire of any sort.
You will find Marc, that I never run out of steam in these sort of situations, to me it’s a bit like doing crosswords, I just keep giving the answers till it goes round in a circle, one of my main character traits is tenacity :-).
I suppose your firearms experience is down to some sort of bodyguarding course, so of course you would have more knowledge than me, and I totally disagree with your contention that I am a bully, as I don’t bluster,badger or try to intimidate people, can you say the same ?, also I have no problems with any form of substance abuse, the fact that I do like a pint, or the occasional Bourbon, is only abuse to a none drinker
Good morning Marc,
That’s a very adult response, I would like to apologise for the brevity of my reply to your last email, it had been a long day.
Firstly, who is this …… you mentioned ?, and I am certainly not on the defensive over any of this, you keep claiming that I’m a bully , when it seems to me that you are probably more of one then myself, but maybe as a self proclaimed Budo God, the rules don’t apply to you ?, you then try to attack my character and morals, but I have never entered a relationship with a student, how is your ex and the children ?.
I’m starting to think that maybe you are just another of these pedantic little pissant’s that should as you say man up, and get from up yourself.
I guess that from the reply you have sent today, that you have run out of ideas regarding this thread, if so, that’s fine with me, you were not that much of a challenge anyway.
Regards
……
……, my blah blah response was a parody of your continuing mails. ……, obviously a typo.
Though I am regularly called remarcmoorable by some of my students I have never thought of myself as a Budo God. Thank you for the recommendation and the upscale of my persona. I shall enjoy quoting you on that.
It is difficult for me and probably anyone else to understand the connection between purely budo matters and my private life. That is a monumental deflection on your behalf. I suppose your thinking maybe is that as you have now promoted me to a Budo God that my private life is open to you as of right. Well as ever I have nothing to hide.
Until the present I had never entered into a relationship with a student. Well, it does have its benefits. We are very happily over eighteen months into the relationship. Thank you for your enquiry.
If you are trying to join the dots between my ex and my current partner I shall have to disappoint you as I was single for over a year before my new relationship was begun. My ex is coping pretty well she is a strong woman with much that gives her credit, she now has a new grandchild to dote on which brings her grand total of grand children to three.
My children are all doing rather nicely thank you. My oldest daughter married the tv celebrity Nick Knowles last year in Rome, perhaps you saw us all in Hello magazine? Next daughter finished Durham University last year with a 2:1 in biological anthropology and is working in London. Youngest daughter is now in management in the hotel industry and she still lives in Cirencester. My boy who will be eighteen in October is autistic and at college doing very well in maths and sciences. So, they are all doing very nicely.
I will close now and state than unless you can return to the original and specific aim of these mails which was your public harassing of one of my students, a purely budo matter, I shall take it upon myself to exercise my right of non reply.
“Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed.” – Bertrand Russell
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Thirteen years ago I had an idea. Thirteen years ago I formed Budo Warrior Schools. From humble and noisy beginnings above four squash courts in Cheltenham, Budo Warrior Schools was an instant hit. I had just wanted to run a martial arts school in such a way that I would have loved being taught myself. That idea has worked in many more places across the UK and the Budo Warrior Schools bug has bitten deep.
Now at age thirteen, Budo Warrior Schools, like any adolescent worth its salt needs to start growing up. We are here and it is now, and so there has been and will continue to be subtle changes of emphasis and direction as befitting a gifted teenager. These slight amendments or alterations have already begun and have been received incredibly well by all.
These thirteen years have flown by and every day I am happy and grateful for the sheer joy and happiness that Budo Warrior Schools has brought to myself and to many, many other people. We now have a vast array of talented and experienced students and instructors from a wide variety backgrounds and experiences. Any such organisation or movement is only as strong and as vibrant as the people involved, and so the great success of Budo Warrior Schools is down to each and every member, regardless of age, experience or rank and not to me. Gambatte kudasai.
To understand one thing is to understand one hundred things.
– japanese proverb
Life is action and passion, and so if you want a case full of both this may
be of some help. Your action and passion first aid kit.
The first principle to fully understand and to be absolutely certain about is that the human brain cannot tell the difference between what actually happens and what is vividly imagined. If we walk in the woods and see what we think is a dangerous wild animal, every sense and instinct in our bodies will react to that ‘fact’ until we realise that it was something very innocent; we reacted not to the reality of the situation but only to our vivid imagination. We call that huge negative reaction ‘fear’.
The second principle to fully understand and to be certain about is the nature of fear. Fear is proof that the very thing that we are afraid of is not actually happening: back in the woods when we believed we saw the wild animal, our first fear would be that the dangerous wild animal would see us, that was because it had not seen us, if the wild animal saw us our fear would be that it would run towards us, that would be because it was not running towards us, while it was running towards us we would fear it catching us…. Etc etc. the fact is that we could not have survived as a species without this principle working for us, because the fear is to allow for choices and changes in strategy.
The above two principles are always interlinked.
So, the next principle to fully understand and to be certain about is that we are not victims to what actually happens to us but ultimately we are victims to our belief or attitude to what happens to us, it is in the nature of how we frame it and how we think of it, because as we’ve just proven to ourselves we act only with imagination or belief and that belief can and will change with a change of imagination or vision. William Shakespeare could also clearly see this precise point when he said “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” (Hamlet: act 2, scene 2)
To think is to change, and to change is to practice. Like any practice it is only as good as the nature of the practice. The hollow phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ is not strictly true, because only perfect practice makes perfect. Poor practice can only produce poor results. The perfect way to practice is to hold clearly and positively in our minds only the end result of the change that we wish to take place, we must visualise and verbalise and most fully and vividly believe that particular end result in the here and now or present tense: “I am now not bullied by my past”, rather than “I don’t wish to be bullied by my past”. It is vital to understand this methodology and to only practice this way, no matter how silly it may seem. This is to faithfully replicate how the natural vivid imagination works; back in the woods if you thought to yourself “I think that is a wild animal”, you would not have that vivid and overpowering reaction that made you act with true unwavering belief. We now want to recreated that mental trick to create a new and more positive belief structure.
To help anchor this new belief structure you must now start with what you actually have in and around you, not with would you would wish. You must release yourself from grudges and petty grievances, and the only way to do that is to write a gratitude list and read it and believe it night and day. Write down everything that you feel grateful for in every aspect of your life and read the list as often as you can. In writing things down and reading them back to yourself you make a much more direct and strong connection that you would if you only thought about those things. Again, you are recreating strong positive belief structures and patterns.
Now that you have created this new you, this is how you can now create new opportunities without the old fears.
1) You will need at least twenty minutes of uninterrupted time along with lots of paper and a soft pencil or felt tip, we want to write big, fast and flowing in order to think big, fast and flowing.
Now, simply without stopping write down everything that you would want to achieve or to have in every aspect of your life, no matter how ridiculous or improbable. In fact writing stupid or silly things down can only help free up the mind for the task in hand. Keep writing for at least twenty minutes. Having done this for the first time you will have realised that it was not as easy as it sounded, but the good news is that you can repeat the process as often as you like and each time it will get easier.
Review your list and divide it between three headings of short term, medium term and long term, and within those headings you should have sufficient inspiration and direction to chart your new found direction. Again, you can repeat this entire process as often as you like.
Below is an engaging film that I recently saw and I immediately realised that it said more about martial arts and training than any martial arts film that I have ever seen before. This film has sublimely underlined and reaffirmed my belief in the beauty, practicality and subtlety of my methodology of my martial arts, and how I teach. The film is about Italian pickpockets.
I am not here to condone or pardon the nature of the work of these highly skilled people, I am though quite happy to acknowledge their dexterity and body skills, their movement, distance and timing. I will give very little away about this delightful film apart from which I most appreciated about it, and that was the plain positive proof that what is most vital is the nature of how you train and in so what you train for. Training for the very real and very demanding theatre of the street is very different than training for entertainment, sports or for show, no matter how lofty the aspirations are in that regard.
Sit back and enjoy the show, it will be forty minutes very well spent.
It is said that if you find that you have no enemies, it would be wise to create some.
I have been blessed and favoured with so many things in my life and as a consequence I have never found myself in the unfavourable position of ever having to create an enemy; I am easy to find and I am an easy target, perfect compost to propagate the haters. They have constantly sort me out and found me by their own energies and inclinations as a natural course of events like a river snaking its single minded path to the ocean. These defamers, detractors and falsifiers always serve a great, noble and defining purpose, as do ten thousand rivers that consummate the greats waters.
We are always drawn towards and magnetised by family, friends and lovers, though sadly it is a profound truth that family and friends can be fickle and lovers can be lazy with with their opinions and truths, as they see them. It is most usually so to avoid hurting our feelings. Our enemies and back biters are never so shackled in the least degree and have free reign on their opinions and truths. As humans, we are most driven by love or anger and, as it were, anger has much more commitment and reliability, it has its own constantly fuelled ready engine. With that turbo charged engine rumbling nicely, it is then that our detractors become the most predictable and consistent people that we could have any contact with in any sphere of our lives, and more so, they are compelled to express and vent their truths and opinions in the action of calling others to their battle torn banners of closed minded bigotry and hatred. These defamers are extremely useful in the same manner as plastic bollards and crude warning signs, in that they can help to keep you honest and on the straight and narrow. I will always listen intently to what my enemies say and I will continually observe hawk like as to what it is that they do or do not do, and I so learn from them a facet of the nature of my character and the frame and focus of my actions as some others genuinely see me. This is very important exercise and must be endured.
It is one of the lessons of life that one must understand in order to develop into a balanced human being, that you are never a perfect specimen and constant improving and polishing is always required. Enemies eagerly offer granite hard edged help in this regard. Very occasionally and only in extreme cases have I ever knowingly changed anything about myself or how I conduct myself in any facet of my life, based on what I have taken inboard by their bare naked and vengeful honesty.
As for me, though I do freely admit that the back biters and antagonists have their rightful place in the great complex scheme of things I do not offer their kind of service to others, because those people who believe in brutal honesty get their pleasure from the brutality only, their ‘honesty’ is a mere bi-product of the exercise of delivering anger, humiliation and ridicule. This is because they are basically small minded people who can only feel any sense of self-worth by demeaning other people. Haters are unhappy people, people with broken confidences and shattered egos. They are mean minded people, and nothing is more unseemly and unpleasant than a righteous person with a churlish and malicious mind. They may, and often do pretend otherwise but the simple and elegant psychological truth outs them every time they speak or act in full accordance of their antagonist actions. Happy people do not fight, happy people do not condemn but happy people do find other expressly positive methodologies to help other people along. I am a happy man who likes to sing a happy song.
The most wonderful thing about having haters camping and campaigning in the back yard of my life is that it is proof positive that I am making a difference and I have the balls enough to change and challenge things. That makes me an easy and consistent, rational and logical target and I welcome that, more than that, I am very grateful because it proves to me that I am always more than they could ever be, in shape, form and thought and I will conspicuously and consistently strive to keep this very convenient status quo.
For those who are genuinely interested in, and or in need of an enemy or a detractor or two, for all the sound reasoning’s above. The simplest and easiest way of achieving this goal is to change something, try and make a difference to other peoples lives. It is as simple as that, try it and you will be rewarded by backbiting and verbal assassination. Job done. It is only at the tree heavy with fruit that people throw stones.
First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they fight you,
then you win.
– Mahatma Gandhi
With my chief supporter and avid none hater, the rather lovely Sinead (Shorn) Byrne.
I am what is generally called a martial artist of long standing, I first started attending Judo classes in 1964, and I also went on to make a reasonable study Karate and Aikido; it is gratifying to me to find that I am still learning my craft today almost fifty years on, and so I believe that I have earned my right to express my opinions through my teachings with my own philosophy and outlook, born of my experiences, inside and outside of my classes. I have luckilly spent my time since June 2000 in utter selfishness with regard to my martial arts, I train only for me and I teach only for me, yet somehow I have managed to gain a strong loyal student following and a base secure enough to leave a lasting legacy of my collective thoughts and strategies.
I have always had a fascination with violence as many men have, that never made me particularly unusual. I became unusual by what I did with my life and studies once I was truly smitten by the world of ferocious disorder and disturbance. From the age of eighteen until my semi retirement as a bodyguard in 2000, I deliberately put myself on the painful and sometimes humiliating path of outrageous practical studies. At the tender age of eighteen I became a doorman with the sole intent of pitting my martial arts against the rough and toughs who gave not a fig for my stances and Japanese terminology. On my first night, I got beaten up so badly that I was in bed for over a week and I had a pressing concern that I may be permanently blinded in one eye. Once I was over the shock I was left with a total feeling of invigoration, I felt more alive that I had ever done before and I had realised that I had dutifully played my part in the best martial arts lesson I had ever had, and I even got a small wage packet as well, I was truly hooked.
Writing about martial arts is strange exercise rather like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands or to hold back the moon, one day you always feel that against all the odds that you will successfully pull the trick off. I am still typing and still waiting. When I write about martial arts I only write for me because I find it a cathartic experience in that it is only an exercise in organising and clearing my thoughts. Please accept my apologies in advance.
There are only two types of martial artists, those who study to show and those who study to do. I am only talking to those who train to do. Whatever art or system that you train in it is vital to never lose sight of the fact that when you move it must make sense in every direction and angle. Hopefully this will lead you to discover that you will need to abandon your style to become formless and devoid of stylish movements and flourishes. The more style that you move with and fight with the easier you will be understood and thus more readily attacked at your weakest point. Take everything that you know to its base and simplest level and learn the principle of what you are engaged in, the technique may be irrelevant but the principle never is, and to truly understand one thing is to truly understand many things; do not forget this simple rule.
Forget strength and speed and fitness, these are all paths that lead to dead ends or to the cul-de-sac of wasted years. This is simply because as the years advance on your body it will lose its grip on all those vitalities and so, there has to be a smarter way, and the sooner that you start out on the smarter way the better, as your life may well depend upon it. I too was young and fit and strong and I too wanted to flaunt my machismo and so I do fully understand its red blooded temptations. Now, in my purple muddle age I can aptly demonstrate and teach with sound principles and strategy that the easiest three things to overcome in any antagonist are strength and speed and fitness. In consequence what is extremely hard to overcome is someone who has a sound knowledge of their personal strengths and weaknesses and is well versed in the strategies of movement and distance and timing. This must be experienced to be fully understood.
Perhaps the most important principle to understand and also perhaps the most difficult principle to master is that you cannot adequately control or become victorious over your antagonist by the power of your body pitted against the power of his body but only by the continuing adjustment and manipulation of the ever changing space between you and your antagonist. The very idea of this principle may only be understood by the more experience practitioners and then it can only be practised and polished with the correct training. This very idea of only controlling and manipulated that changing space between you and your antagonist is only one of the many methodologies that I study and that I practice and then in turn teach to those students who studies are at that point of understanding and experience.
Please do not practice martial arts to only become an expert as this very attitude will hinder your studies and it must be understood that the mountaintop is a barren place, as all life is sustained only on its slopes.
This is another short article but then again, I am a short man who is short on words. Thank you for your time as that is more precious to me and more of a compliment than your agreement of my ideas based on my life experiences and training.
Perhaps the most important milestone for any martial arts practitioner is the attainment of their Black Belt. This, though can be a more contentious area particularly for instructors and their school or association. The issue can easily become highly personal to the instructor or a particularly political concern for the school or association concerned.
Throughout my many years of instruction and my granting or awarding of the hallowed artifact of a Black Belt I have never witnessed any student who did not genuinely give of their best; some indeed are better prepared than others, that has certainly been true and will always be so but I view that as a separate argument or concern. I have ceased to look upon the Black Belt grading as the acid test of ability, focus or personality of any particular or all the relevant students, but rather I have fashioned my mind to observe their humanness and thus grant them the privilege of living up to their own ideal of themselves. I award a Black Belt as a gift of things to come and not as a marker of what has come before. As any heartfelt gift that is given you are always acutely aware of what becomes of that gift, perhaps like a carefully crafted and chosen vase, will it be left in its presentation box and placed most carefully away with a host of other dry memories or will it be settled in pride of place and appreciated for the wealth of sentiment and encouragement, thankfulness, gratitude and acknowledgement that this token represents?
Having said that, I have known students to resign themselves from the group or class once their Black Belt has been attained, either eager to try their hands and feet at a new system or to leave the martial world behind them. Whether this happens or not, it does not in my mind devalue my gift to them, they can do with it as they wish, no one gives a vase on the condition that it must be displayed center stage on the mantlepiece.
The problem that all instructors have to overcome is that the less physically able student will reflect badly upon himself as the instructor, while the issue concerning the school or association is of a similar nature. Neither view is helpful to the student and is not designed for their benefit. Of course, it cannot be so allowed that students who are clearly not capable to take on the hefty responsibility as a Black Belt can be allowed to flourish. The answer is the same to most things, it is found in the balance of all relevant things.
Whenever I choose to stand on this hard compacted ground of experience and hindsight and I can boast most proudly that some of my Black Belts are technically not the best that I have ever seen, while others I am happy to state could be called average and yes, ultimately some of my Black Belts are amongst the very best I have ever seen. That though, is an exercise only in the seeing eye and not of the observing eye and of the benevolent heart. Whenever I choose to warm this old heart of mine and observe the fruits of my students constant labours and sufferings that converge and culminate in their award of their Black Belts I only see their dedication, their indomitable will and their spirit, I look for and see nothing else. As for me personally, I will hang with the consequences. As for my organisation it is always the stronger and more resilient with such personalities and skills within than without.
I salute every Black Belt that comes through my watch, they are the keepers of the way and they are all amazing. Recently, a small thirteen year old boy by the name of Jamie, who after almost nine years of training under my guidance and also more recently that under Sinead Byrne had spent over a month of continuing grading and assessment for his Black Belt. In my many, many years of instruction I had only twice before ever awarded a Black Belt to anyone under the age sixteen, so this was an extra special event. On his final night with his final task he did that which I had never witnessed before and nor would I have thought practical or possible, he took on seventeen adult students many of who were Black Belts of various ranks with the simple instructions that they could attack him in any order or combination until Jamie could take them to the ground, at which point the adult would be out of the fight. The complete task took some twenty minutes, twenty minutes that I will not forget and nor will anyone present that most amazing of evenings. Jamie, is now both the smallest and greatest example that I can ever consider as the perfect epitome of a Black Belt. No one can ever say to me that Jamie did not earn the belt that he is now wearing.
When a student is first presented with the cold words first formulated hundreds of years previously by warriors of ancient times, and when that student is filled with the expectations of their fellow students, reading, understanding and then teaching a chosen form at a moments notice this then is a daunting act of faith.
This is an exercise that I have once again pitted towards my black belt students. It is their vision of their own understandings that I am particularly interested in, it is the best methodology that I have to observe their general levels of assimilation and awareness, and in turn which areas require more polish and practice for them.
Though I find it a good test I find that it is also an unfair test as the students cannot possible hope to understand any form in such a pressurised and short span of time, but that is part of the test. The students always initially make the same mistake as they believe that the simplest forms to read are always the simplest forms to learn and to teach, this again is all part of the process.
In the understanding of a written form it is obviously important to understand what is written, but it is equally important and far less obvious to understand what is not written. Also, it is wise to never show more than you can explain.
When working on a form, you should never think about the artistry, refinement and the grace. Only try to solve the problem, but when you have finished and you find that the solution is not beautiful then you know you are wrong. You would be wrong because Budo is the ultimate sculpture because it has to constantly make sense from every angle, and this is artistry, grace and refinement. This is beauty.
You can learn many things from Budo. For example how much patience and commitment you have. The effort of understanding Budo is the one thing that can lift you above the drudgery of life towards the grace of living.
Budo has never failed in giving me a sense of consistent truth and sincerity that I have found lacking outside of the art. This is part of the feeling of which I endeavour to express and to teach.
If you want to be happy for a short time, get drunk. If you want to be happy for a long time, fall in love. If you want to be happy forever, please take up Budo.
marcmoor 