Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

What appears as mystical and hidden in internal martial arts is the core of the principles of body mechanics, timing,blending and redirecting energy, structure, looseness, body unity, and many other aspects that make internal arts work. Steven Pearlman has a book on martial power which explains many of these principles as well as videos by Mike Sigman and a recent book I'm reading The art of Learning....When the body mechanics are done correctly on someone they experience something that seems magical .....There are no secrets in martial arts ...only principles when properly applied make techniques seem mystical....

I've always explained "KI" as a way of describing what a technique feels like when you do it right.

As your friendly neighborhood magician I must weigh in...


Aiki technique is magic, and the process to learn it is mystical.



Maybe we need to have a working definition of magic. Magic is a deep study and manipulation of a particular kind of energy. Typically a master will gain powers most humans do not have.

As Aiki/Ju men we study the energy of gravity and aggression, and how it affects biomechanical forces. If we study this thoughtfully and sincerely we learn to utilize the powers of nature as weapons. Time, space and the planet itself become of tools of protection. All magic has a method, just most do not study deep enough to see the intricate mechanisms at work.

The word mysticism is sometimes defined as "to draw closer to God through love and study." Budo men all are obsessed with the "loving study". We fill our shelves full of books and spend all our free time on the internet looking videos of throws. We wear monastic clothes of the warrior monk, and train the use of the spiritual weapons of a different ages. We travel across the land to train with the masters. The whole process, if done well, should reshape our ethics, and make us more loving and gentle, and fill our lives full of wonderful people and rich experience.

Indeed correct internal technique is a pure expression of magic, and the only way to gain it is to walk a mystical path.


Walk In Peace,

Eric Pearson the Sensei Strange

I have heard many a times of stories from people in the martial arts that they looked for the magical secrets of their master or art only to find themselves spending year after year training hard and spending lots of money searching and eventually realizing that there was no secret. Unfortunately there are many charlatans and hustlers that take advantage of people even in the martial arts where we all expect a higher level of values and respect.This is one of the most valued aspects of training with people you feel a connection to on more than just mechanics but who maintain an honesty to themselves and what they do.The magic we all experience when a technique is performed with correct timing and execution is trully a great high and very addicting as we continue to train looking for more of those moments.Lifting the spiritual and actively searching for peace and wisdom starts within our own hearts and minds. I like to think of it as a healthy sckepticism that just does'nt accept things because they say it it so.... I want to know and understand as much as I can and make some peace with that information, technique, or approach so that I can integrate it to my life and practice...For this I do thank the kind folks of Windsong for putting up with me and helping me learn something new everytime I step on the mat....That is magical to me .... 😄

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke's 3rd Law

and its corollary,

"Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology." - Larry Niven

As far as the definition of internal arts go what are the aspects that define internal arts vs external arts? My understanding is in a process of growing and learning both from an academic standpoint as well as from a practical experience...I would be interested in what our friends have learned about this aspect of aikido, how you define it , what examples of our practice help us understand it, how do you go about developing it, how do you teach it to others, and are there levels to understanding it and applying these principles to our practice???? How does one go about mastering these principles and making them part of our nature, or is it possible ? I remember a quote about mastery which just came to mind from one of the many books on martial arts that I have read which addressed the search for mastery by stating:
"Seek not to be like your master, but rather seek what your master seeks"

http://books.google.com/books?id=8cU3iw ... t&resnum=7

This is a link to Bruce Franzis' Book on Internal Martial Arts....It has some very good overview of what internal arts and external arts focus on and their differences.There is a tremendous amount of information that one can review and discuss. Much of this information is useful for Aikido practioners in discovering the roots and lineage of our martial practices .I hope you find it useful and I welcome any other resources and information that can help us all in understanding our art.

Came across this book review on internal martial arts aspects in aikido ...this book will be on my next read list this coming month...it sure looks interesting...check it out...
http://rumsoakedfist.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6110

Just finished ellis amdurs book -- excellent stuff--

I had the pleasure of being invited to the Daoquiquan ceremony in Arlington,Tx 2 weeks ago.They practice a menu of Daoquiqian arts including Tibetan yoga,meditation,heron boxing,snake boxing tai chi,bagua and xingyi.The seminar was all day saturday and for 4 hours on sunday. It focused on the basis of all the daoquiqian arts' martial and health movements. We started the day with guided sitting meditation followed by a standing meditation and breathing.We then broke up into groups where we all had small pieces of the 5 circles of the daoquiqian explained and taught to us .After a full day of learning the pieces of the movement from mind to intention to focus to internal energy and structure we then went from the external manifestation of the circles to an internal practice of the circles.That was an amazing and very cool practice. On sunday we spent time with each of the specialist instructors of their given art and practiced actual applications of the circles in tai chi, xingyi, and bagua....we then ended the mornign with more meditations and the practice of the circles from external to internal....All of this to say that this practice of the internal to external to internal is very much in line with our aikido practices and especially the circle energy of the body learnign to compress the circles form large to small...it was a very very cool experience and I would suggest that if yo want to read about this practice you cna find it in John Painter's book Combat Baguazhang.....vol 1 and 2....I am still reading these books and they are very instructional and again my own opinion I think that as aikido practitioners we can learn a lot from them...

John Belardo wrote:...heron boxing...

sounds like fun - but the first time I read this, I thought you said you were doing "heroin boxing"

now that might be fun

I can tell you that after growing up in Brooklyn ghettos and surrounded by the worst of drug scenes that heroin was never fun....only in movies and Cheech and Chong!!!!!!!

Put in my order for Ellis Amdur's book and got into a conversation with him. He was very cordial and informative about his research on the roots of Aikido....I will quote some of the gems of this excellent research that will open some discussions I hope as to our art and some of the aspects that have been lost or not emphasized anymore over time....I read over 50 pages last night and it's a very historical read with references and information that history buffs would love...

Where did you guys get Ellis Amdur's book(s)? Can't seem to find much on Amazon.

i got one - you can borrow -- i just finished it-- i try to remeber to leave it on the desk

Just finished Elliis' Amdur "hidden in plain sight"....This book will be one of the last reads I will do in my persuit of learning about aikido and the links to internal martial arts for a while...It took me a good part of my weekend and I read in between my tutoring my daughters in math for 5 hours...I must say Ellis has a lot to offer and I will quote some of the most memorable and what i thought were important statemnts made by him and O sensei....One of the most interesting quotes was that on his death bed O Sensei asked" what is Tomiki doing now"....Tomiki was the highest ranked aikidoka under Ueshiba as an eight degree black belt and had ideas of his own that led him to go his own way with his form of aikido....In so far as the exposure to Chinese martial arts it seems that O Sensei had plenty opportunity to come into contact either directly or indirectly with practices of the internal arts.From the people around O sensei it seems that he had a regimine of solo practice that he performed daily yet few if any of his students learned or were ever taught any of these concepts....More to come...want to quote some great passages you will find stimulating...Or just get the book and get the full dose....Just google his name and martial arts and or go to his website edgeworks where you can order his book thru paypal......very entertaining and insightful
http://www.ellisamdur.com/buy.html