Please take a look at Articles on self-defense/conflict/violence for introductions to the references found in the bibliography page.

Please take a look at my bibliography if you do not see a proper reference to a post.

Please take a look at my Notable Quotes

Hey, Attention on Deck!

Hey, NOTHING here is PERSONAL, get over it - Teach Me and I will Learn!


When you begin to feel like you are a tough guy, a warrior, a master of the martial arts or that you have lived a tough life, just take a moment and get some perspective with the following:


I've stopped knives that were coming to disembowel me

I've clawed for my gun while bullets ripped past me

I've dodged as someone tried to put an ax in my skull

I've fought screaming steel and left rubber on the road to avoid death

I've clawed broken glass out of my body after their opening attack failed

I've spit blood and body parts and broke strangle holds before gouging eyes

I've charged into fires, fought through blizzards and run from tornados

I've survived being hunted by gangs, killers and contract killers

The streets were my home, I hunted in the night and was hunted in turn


Please don't brag to me that you're a survivor because someone hit you. And don't tell me how 'tough' you are because of your training. As much as I've been through I know people who have survived much, much worse. - Marc MacYoung

WARNING, CAVEAT AND NOTE

The postings on this blog are my interpretation of readings, studies and experiences therefore errors and omissions are mine and mine alone. The content surrounding the extracts of books, see bibliography on this blog site, are also mine and mine alone therefore errors and omissions are also mine and mine alone and therefore why I highly recommended one read, study, research and fact find the material for clarity. My effort here is self-clarity toward a fuller understanding of the subject matter. See the bibliography for information on the books. Please make note that this article/post is my personal analysis of the subject and the information used was chosen or picked by me. It is not an analysis piece because it lacks complete and comprehensive research, it was not adequately and completely investigated and it is not balanced, i.e., it is my personal view without the views of others including subject experts, etc. Look at this as “Infotainment rather then expert research.” This is an opinion/editorial article/post meant to persuade the reader to think, decide and accept or reject my premise. It is an attempt to cause change or reinforce attitudes, beliefs and values as they apply to martial arts and/or self-defense. It is merely a commentary on the subject in the particular article presented.


Note: I will endevor to provide a bibliography and italicize any direct quotes from the materials I use for this blog. If there are mistakes, errors, and/or omissions, I take full responsibility for them as they are mine and mine alone. If you find any mistakes, errors, and/or omissions please comment and let me know along with the correct information and/or sources.



“What you are reading right now is a blog. It’s written and posted by me, because I want to. I get no financial remuneration for writing it. I don’t have to meet anyone’s criteria in order to post it. Not only I don’t have an employer or publisher, but I’m not even constrained by having to please an audience. If people won’t like it, they won’t read it, but I won’t lose anything by it. Provided I don’t break any laws (libel, incitement to violence, etc.), I can post whatever I want. This means that I can write openly and honestly, however controversial my opinions may be. It also means that I could write total bullshit; there is no quality control. I could be biased. I could be insane. I could be trolling. … not all sources are equivalent, and all sources have their pros and cons. These needs to be taken into account when evaluating information, and all information should be evaluated. - God’s Bastard, Sourcing Sources (this applies to this and other blogs by me as well; if you follow the idea's, advice or information you are on your own, don't come crying to me, it is all on you do do the work to make sure it works for you!)



“You should prepare yourself to dedicate at least five or six years to your training and practice to understand the philosophy and physiokinetics of martial arts and karate so that you can understand the true spirit of everything and dedicate your mind, body and spirit to the discipline of the art.” - cejames (note: you are on your own, make sure you get expert hands-on guidance in all things martial and self-defense)



“All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.” - Montaigne


I am not a leading authority on any one discipline that I write about and teach, it is my hope and wish that with all the subjects I have studied it provides me an advantage point that I offer in as clear and cohesive writings as possible in introducing the matters in my materials. I hope to serve as one who inspires direction in the practitioner so they can go on to discover greater teachers and professionals that will build on this fundamental foundation. Find the authorities and synthesize a wholehearted and holistic concept, perception and belief that will not drive your practices but rather inspire them to evolve, grow and prosper. My efforts are born of those who are more experienced and knowledgable than I. I hope you find that path! See the bibliography I provide for an initial list of experts, professionals and masters of the subjects.

Power -n- Force -n- Energy

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

Often used together and actually one cannot be achieved without the other, i.e., to apply force you need to generate adequate power and power requires energy.

You generate power and apply force ... all of it takes energy …

Power: supply (a device) with mechanical or electrical energy; move or travel with great speed or force; the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.

Force: strength or energy as an attribute of physical action or movement; coercion or compulsion, especially with the use or threat of violence; make a way through or into by physical strength; break open by force; make (someone) do something against their will.

Energy: the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity; a person's physical and mental powers, typically as applied to a particular task or activity; a degree or level of energy possessed by something or required by a process.

ENERGY: One of the most important concepts used in the description of natural phenomena. The body has energy when it has the capacity for doing work. Energy can take a wide variety of forms, it can be energy of motion (kinetic energy), energy of heat, gravitational energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, and so on. Electrical and/or chemical energy can be transformed into heat energy, energy is always associated with some process, or some kind of activity. 

The bodies mass is a measure of weight, i.e., the pull of gravity on the body. Mass measures the inertia of an object, i.e., its resistance against being accelerated. Heavy objects are harder to accelerate than light objects. Relativity tells us that mass is nothing but a form of energy. The amount of energy contained in a particle is equal to the particle’s mass, m, times c to the power of 2, the square of the speed of light; thus E=mc squared. 

Power and force from expressed energy does not always physically manifested for both force and power can come from other sources as can be seen by the previous explanations. There is the physical expressions of force, power and energy but there is also a psychological form as well such as the spoken word. 

The very words most often supported and expressed with body language, especially facial, tends to exacerbate conflicts causing escalation that leads to the physical. This is often a more social type of violence and regardless we don’t forget that words often lead past social and lead to more predatory asocial types of violence. 

If I had to say what the leading cause of most physical violence is it would be the very words we speak to one another. A word, an inflection and the expression of the unspoken communications of the body, emphasis facial, would lead to greater conflict and violence. Deescalation being the yin of that yang also leads toward deescalation. 

There is a whole set of materials that teach us about verbal violence written as, “The Verbal Art of Self-Defense,” that speaks to how we humans tend to trigger the best and the worst in us simply through verbal/physical forms of communications but that is not all. As proponents of fense through martial arts we also study more esoteric teachings that should lead us to this knowledge and understanding such as:

POWER/FORCE OF THE WORD: Both the analects and the Tao Te Ching are written in the compact suggestive style which is typical of the Chinese way of thinking. The Chinese mind is not given to abstract logical thinking and it developed a language which is very different from that which evolved in the West. Many of its words could be used as nouns, adjective or verbs, and their sequence was determined not so much by grammatical rules as by the emotional content of the sentence. 

A sound symbol which had strong suggestive powers, bringing to mind an indeterminate complex of pictorial images and emotions. The intention of the speaker was not so much to express an intellectual idea, but rather to affect and influence the listener. 

The written characters, correspondingly, were not just an abstract sign, but was an organic patter - a gestalt - which preserved the full complex of images and the suggestive power of the word. Writings and sayings could be short and  inarticulate, and yet rich in suggestive images. This imagery is mostly lost in English translations. 

When I also speak to force I also speak to those forces not just applied through the physical but also psychological because words and deeds are the complementary to the other side of conflict and violence as well. One type of force often overlooked is the force of change for change through proper application of the spoken word and those actions taken as appropriate to any and all situations leads us to deescalation, avoidance and escape and evasions tactics. 

The very nature of power, force and energy are about change for change is evident in all things  In the philosophical fundamental principles many of the Asian Esoteric aspects are covered such as the very force of nature, the force of change.

FORCE OF CHANGE: Due to the fact that space and time are intimately connected and interpenetrating, the world view of modern physics and of Eastern beliefs are both intrinsically dynamic views which contain time and change as essential elements. It is the ceaseless mutation and transformation of all things, a philosophy of change that reduces substances, souls, things to forces, movements, sequences and processed into a dynamic concept of reality. 

The Eastern View is an intrinsically dynamic one and contains time and change as essential features. Motion and change are essential properties of things. The Easter view of the divine is of a principle that controls everything from within ergo why focusing inward in training, practice and applications as demonstrated by the start and finish of dojo efforts is through mokuso or meditation toward our inner selves.

One of the “Noble Truths” of the Buddha is that the notion that flow and change are basic features of nature and lies at the root of Buddhism. The doctrine of impermanence includes also the notion that there is no “Ego,” no self which is the persistent subject of varying experiences.

The Chinese believe that flow and change are the essential features of nature, but also that there are constant patterns in these changes, to be observed by men and women. Hai Nan Tzu said in the second century B.C.: “He who conforms to the course of the Tao, following the natural processes of Heaven and Earth, finds it easy to manage the whole world.” 

What are the Patterns of the Cosmic Way? The principle characteristic of the Tao is the cyclic nature of its ceaseless motion and change. The idea is that all developments in nature, those in the physical world as well as those of human situations, show cyclic patterns of coming and going, of expansion and contraction. Deduced from the movements of the sun and moon and from the change of the seasons also taken as a rule of life. When a situation reaches its extreme, it is bound to turn around and become its opposite. 

The doctrine of the golden means is “avoids excess, extravagance and indulgence.” It boils down to a degree of moderation in all things, to have not to much and not to little. 

The Tao has a definite structure by the use of polar opposites symbolized in the yin-yang. They are the two ends which set the limits of nature through the cycle of changes. “The yang having reached its climax retreats in favor of the yin; the yin having reached its climax retreats in favor of the yang.”

The I Ching or book of changes, is the first among six Confucian Classics and must be considered as a work which lies at the very heart of Chinese thought and culture. The seasoned wisdom of thousands of years has gone into the making of the I Ching. There are sixty-four figures, or ‘hexagrams’, which are based on the yin-yang symbolism and were uses as oracles. These hexagrams were considered as cosmic archetypes representing the patterns of the Tao in nature and in human situations.

The Taoists saw all changes in nature as manifestation of the dynamic interplay between the polar opposites yin and yang, and thus they came to believe that any pair of opposites constitutes a polar relationship where each of the two poles is dynamically linked to the other. 

The movements of the Tao are a continuous interplay between opposites. When ever you want to achieve anything, they said, you should start with its opposite. The goal in life is to maintain a dynamic balance in all things

When we talk about the Taoist concept of change, it is important to realize that this change is not seen as occurring as a consequence of some force, but rather as a tendency which is innate in all things and situations. The movements of the Tao occur naturally and spontaneously. Spontaneity is the Tao’s principle of action. Acting in harmony with nature thus means for the Taoists acting spontaneously and according to one’s true nature. It means trusting one’s intuitive intelligence

Eastern philosophies are based on world perceptions through experience of phenomena in that world, i.e., the one being intrinsically dynamic in nature, and its dynamic nature as a basic tenant of Eastern Philosophical schools. It is an emphasis on movement, flow and change as an essential aspect of the world view that has stayed its course throughout the ages.

They view the world of reality as dynamic and alive constantly in motion and progressing in a evolutionary sense, i.e., an unformed, immortal, moving, and associated with the motion that transcends all forms. 

Ri - to move: the course of things; the order of nature; the dynamic principle which is inherent in the universe. To see the world in terms of flow and change giving the idea and concept of the cosmic order as an essentially dynamic connoted myriad things. 

The word, “Karma,” means ‘action; and denotes the ‘active’, or ‘dynamic’, interrelation of all phenomena. It extends the idea of dynamic interconnectedness to the sphere of human situations. Karma has come to signify that a never-ending chain of cause and effect of human life involved in the attainment of a state of enlightenment. An organic, growing and rhythmically moving universe; of a universe in which everything is fluid and ever-changing. 

It is the ceaseless mutation and transformation of all things, a philosophy of change that reduces substances, souls, things to forces, movements, sequences and processed into a dynamic concept of reality.

Enlightenment is living physically and mentally without resisting the flow of life while keeping that flowing moving with them. The flowing and ever-changing reality is called, “Tao,” and is seen as a cosmic process in which all things are involved, One should not resist the flow, but should adapt one’s actions to it.

Our universe, our cosmic web is alive; it moves, grows, and changes continually. The world is conceived in terms of movement, flow and change. To go with the flow of the Tao is to be a sage. 

The basic elements of the universe are dynamic patterns; transitory stages in the ‘constant flow of transformation and change’, as told by Chuang Tzu. 

Easter philosophy believes wholeheartedly that motion and change are essential and intrinsic properties of all things. The vacuum is far from empty, on the contrary, it contains an unlimited number of particles which come into being and vanish without end. Like the Void of Eastern philosophies, a vacuum is not a state of mere nothingness, but contains the potentiality for all forms of the particle world. These forms, in turn, are not independent physical entities but merely transient manifestations fo the underlying void. The relation between virtual particles and the vacuum is an essentially dynamic relation; the vacuum is truly a living void, pulsating in endless rhythms of creation and destruction. 

“When one knows that the Great Void is full of ch’i, one realizes that there is no such thing as nothingness.” - Chang Tsai, Chinese sage

This all reminds me of Boyd’s Cycle, the OODA that is often assumed as linear and mechanical, which is true as to individual tactical methods, but takes on more as you expand beyond that simplistic tactical application toward the analysis and synthesis of his discourse processes. We can apply our power to create the appropriate force against an attacker through efficient and conservation of our intrinsic energies generated by the body through its association and connection to things like gravity, movement of mass, and the structure and alignment of our application in physiokinetics adding in methodologies and the types of applied forces, i.e., “tactics and attack methodologies of impacts, drives (pushes), pulls, twists, takedowns/throws and compression are best for stopping a threat (types of force applied such as spiraling, scissoring, carving, vibrating, and/or sheering forces.”


Bibliography (Click the link)

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