Walking the Martial Way: Forever in Love

                                         

Hi, this is me, Iggy Spirit. Today, I am going to write to you about my road to Self-Defense mastery (on which I am still), and to the understanding of the so-called "Martial Way".

Of course, you probably don't know much about me, judging  from my previous posts, but I am a martial arts student! So here,

My journey into the Martial Way started around the tender age of 6 when I picked up some Chi Gong exercises and breathing techniques from the health magazine to which my grandparents used to subscribe. Then, I started studying Wu Shu, a Shaolin style, at the age of 12, and was a co-creator of the basement gym in my building where bunch of us kids, young and old worked out, punched and kicked bags, and sparred. Occasionally we would study with some Army guys upon their return from the service. From them I picked up some moves in hand-to-hand combat, some Kyokoshinkai and a little bit of Western boxing. I also saw and played with a pair of real nunchaks. Simultaneously I tried to study some Freestyle Wrestling at the middle school.

At around the year 1998 after a long depression that came from my 1st relationship and not knowing what to do with myself I started to read Plato. Particularly, I was influenced by the "Protagoras", who claimed that it is not enough to just study the philosophy, but one also has to study and exercise the body in order to become a complete man. Thusly, I came upon a soteriological approach to training. I started doing some push-ups and run a little, just to awake myself from what seemed to be a prolonged slumber.

About a year later, around 1999 I came upon some yoga books that my Dad gave me, and I felt that that was something that I wanted to get into. At the same time I was going to the park and was doing some calisthenics, but yoga and particularly its meditative aspect has grabbed me from the off-start. Yoga offered liberation, salvation and many other great things, like the supernatural abilities, and unity with the Universe. On the rational level I had no idea what that meant, but liked the way it sounded and thought it was something worth studying. Of course, at the time, I was looking for an easy way to mastery. "Dedication" wasn't my favorite word, and I was arrogant enough to think that I already got it. That was good in certain way as it propelled me to unceasingly explore, and yet, perhaps I could be humbler.

Then, my practice came to a stand-off, when around the year 2003 I felt that I was missing something in my practice. I have been doing this yoga posture called vajrasana, which is what they call seiza in Japanese. It is basically sitting on your knees/heels with a straight back. I was also doing quite lots of meditation in the lotus posture, and others. From those of you guys who are yogis, you know that meditation/concentration, the dhyana is something that becomes inherent in any posture in hatha yoga when you start holding it.

Anyways, back to the story. Are you with me?:) I was sitting in the vajrasana and I realized one evening, that I was missing something from my life. That something was the martial way. Or the martial arts and sciences. Yoga is cool, but I felt that I had to do more to be complete. I had to use the skills of yoga to evolve and grow.  Discovering that was like being hit by a bolt of lightening, and I hastened to Barnes and Nobles trying to regain that which I had so seamlessly lost. I looked through many books, and bought many, but one that was particular to my liking was a sleek T'ai Chi: The Supreme Ultimate Exercise for Health Sport, and Self Defense by Cheng Man Ching and Robert Smith. And so I started to learn the 37 Posture Yang Style form.

...To be Continued

The Panther I

She walks, grace herself exemplified, in the dark; two pointed quartz crystals held in each hand between the middle and the forth finger. She is challenged by love, by the out there. She has no concrete goal but to poke into something out there. Her plumage reins high despite the incursions of the warnings...Every step as if on the razor, almost painfully carefully calculated. Proudly swinging side to side like the Mother Toltec taught. Awareness, awareness, awareness awareness recedes. Darkness around, something creeping in the dark, and darkness is the message in itself. Luminous bleaks, sometimes sparks, as though there is a potential for a relief from an ongoing message..

Left foot steps at a forty-five degree angle to the left and the right hand thrusts almost simultaneously in the same directions knuckles up. The high roar flies out of her breast and pierces the darkness together with the thrust. The response from the darkness is more silence, and the increased tension, of the realization that nothing is responding. More sweat running down her forehead, the neck...

She was told that the Spirit of the Panther ancestress would enter her thus making her infinitely stronger, wiser and braver  if she does everything "right". She kept wondering what it all meant. Of course she wanted to be stronger and braver, but wiser?...  No one told her what the "right" thing is, and all that was required was just to enter the sacred grounds, crystals in her hands.

Further, there was an increased noise, not even clear inner or outer, but it seemed to her that somebody was hitting some very deep and big round drum. Intuitively, she started walking towards the noise, but it stopped. She wondered if the map appears only if one is completely silent....

She is young but savvy, naïve but full of strength, fearful but masterful, tall but supportive, clear intention is her most powerful weapon. With it, no darkness is dark enough, no wind can blow her of the path...

"There is only skill", she keeps telling herself, and that feeble thought was the ESSENCE OF PANTHER.. WELCOME TO THE PANTHER TRIBE, the loud voice....within or without?
Where did she hear it before......

.....To be Continued