"The Author, it must be remembered, writes from his own standpoint!"
My personal "Interpretive" Lens!

"One thing has always been true: That book ... or ... that person who can give me an idea or a new slant on an old idea is my friend." - Louis L'Amour


"Providing a first step on a path to self-reflection." - C. E. James

"Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider..." - Francis Bacon

"What is true today may be reevaluated as false not long after. Judgements are frequently based upon a set of "temporary" circumstances surrounding them. Conflicting ideologies can exist simultaneously. Antagonistic dualities are complementary aspects of a unified whole: are seen as mutually dependent mirror images of each other." - Nahum Stiskin

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.


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.

Kenpo Gokui

The lines of the ken-po goku-i are set from an atomistic aspect simply because it is the manner in which the brain learns. Its nature is completely holistic and like the I Ching must be in a form that promotes learning and understanding so a person can see, hear and grasp the nature of a holistic system. The gokui is a method to teach us how to be holistic. Its terseness is the best that can be done to convey its holistic meaning.

A person's heart is the same as Heaven and Earth while the blood circulating is similar to the Sun and Moon yet the manner of drinking and spitting is either soft or hard while a person's unbalance is the same as a weight and the body should be able to change direction at any time as the time to strike is when the opportunity presents itself and both the eyes must see all sides as the ears must listen in all directions while the mind must grasp all the tactile, olfactory and gustation data not seen on all sides and not heard in any direction


Master Zeng said, "Am I preaching what I have not practiced myself?"

All Bottles are Truly Good

All Bottles are Truly Good

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The Universe

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

In the ken-po goku-i reference is made to the Heaven and the Earth as well as the whole Universe but it took a quote from Einstein to make another aspect of the goku-i a bit clearer. 

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe,” a part limited in time and space. Man experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.” 

Me vs. Others, if we are unable or cannot identify with others, those resonance circuits of our brains shut off. We see others as objects, as “them” rather than “us.” We literally do not activate the very circuits we need in order to see another person. This shutting off of circuits of compassion may be one explanation for our violent history as a species.

Under threat, we may distort what we see in others, project our own fears onto their intentions, and imagine that they will harm us. We may also perceive malevolence where none exists, and then retreat to the fight-flight-freeze survival reactions of a threatened state of mind. If the threatened state creates within us a “Fight” response, than we get the object out of our way however possible. 

Feeling threatened takes over our perceptions, sometimes to our benefit and other times the same brain mechanism can dramatically affect the way we behave toward others. 

When we see people like us we become kinder and extend ourselves ore to care for their welfare. We see them as members of our tribe, our clan, and fellow inhabitants of our cave, and we protect them from the harm we’ve been primed subliminally to fear. The people not like us, others, are more likely to be treated with disdain, disregard and contempt - as if they are potential enemies and perpetrators of harm. We banish them more easily, create more intense punishments for any wrong doing, and judge them more harshly. 

Without awareness of these issues and mechanisms of the ind that classify “us vs others,” during moments of threat, our survival is at risk. In the modern instant-information, instant-gratification, high-tech world, not having the mind-state to disengage the rapid, sub-cortically driven alarms can have dire effects. 

When driven by survival, we lose any or all of the nine middle prefrontal functions, we become reactive, we revert to primitive behaviors without flexibility or compassion or empathy. We act impulsively, lost our ability to balance our emotions, and fail to exert moral reasoning. Instead of being guided by understanding and compassionate concern, even for those who threaten us, our mind-states response is to become hostile and inflexible, and to lose our moral compass. 

Dissolving fixed mental perceptions created along the brain’s firing patterns and reinforced relationally within our cultural practices is not simple accomplishment. Without an internal education that teaches us to pause and reflect, we may tend to live on automatic and succumb to these cultural and cortical influences that pus us toward isolation. We need to learn how to examine the ways in which our cortical processes create the top-down influences from prior experience that cloud our vision. We need to develop enough mindful mind-states to clear us of these restrictive definitions of ourselves so that we can grow toward higher degrees of integration within our individual and collective lives.

How do we dissolve our top-down automatic processes? We need to see our own minds clearly. We need to understand and believe that physical separations and differences become less paramount as we see our actions have an impact on the interconnected network of humans without which we are just a part. 

Remember, physically and genetically, our brains may not have evolved much in the last forty-thousand years - but our minds have. The minds uses the brain to create itself. 

Bibliography (Click the link)


The Brain (The Cortex), The Hexagram and Karate (Ken-po Goku-i)

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

The cortex six layers; the six layers of the hexagram; the six layers of karate.

  • Karate's Six: lower three is Shin-go-tai. Upper three is Shu-ha-ri.
  • Cortex Six: 6, 5, &4 are the upper layer; 1, 2, & 3 are the lower layer.
  • Hexagram Six: top three are the upper trigram; lower three are the lower trigram.

Lower is earth and  upper are heaven where the lower is an entry to the lower from the external Universe and the lower draws from our inner Universe to create reality.

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Represents the creative.

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Represents the receptive.

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Represents the Hexagram’s six lines; upper three are our inner world; the top-down cortex path.The lower three are our outer/exterior world; the bottom-up cortex path. The two worlds of realty, Earth, taken in through our sensory systems transmits those signals from the bottom-up to the third line; the creative, Heaven, worlds of our inner reality are extracted from our memories of perceptions of the past experiences, etc., and transmits those signals from the top-down to the fourth line. The outer world signals upon entry trigger the inner world extraction of like-historical perceptive signals from memory where the meeting point allows a comparison, with the inner creative world data dominant status, extracting the outer worlds signals that will fill in and adjust the inner worlds data to create a new whole perception data packet and transmits that whole to the area of our brain the tells us this is our reality, a combination and morphing of the inner world with the outer world to create our world of reality. 

The six layers of karate consist of the top-down model and the bottom-up model, i.e., we use our sensory system to extract data from the teachings, practices and training done and transmit those up to the third line while our inner world extracts any relevant and associated data from our memories of past historical experiences and perceptions then creates a whole that we learn from. The process starts with the beginner’s mind and the outer world data will be pulled in each time, repetitive appropriate training and practice, to continue to fill in the voids/blanks until we reach the next stage. This explains how the shu-ha-ri of training and practice as extracted and encoded from the outer world to make our inner world and finally are wholehearted holistic whole of our realistic created world. Shu-ha-ri being the three represented in the three lower lines.

The upper lines then represent the concept of “Shin-gi-tai.” That which is created and encoded into procedural memory zombie sub-routines consisting of functions that are principled based multiple methodologies where the sub-routine draws on principles and methodologies to create the sub-routine that will get the job done. A culmination and “Integration” that makes shin-gi-tai and shu-ha-ri a holistic wholehearted applicable simplistic encoded program that will run creatively to every situation while being receptive to on-the-fly changes and modifications the outer world of reality tend to impose on our applications of karate and martial arts for self-defense. 

Principles are separate functions; multiple methodologies are separate functions; Type of Forces to apply are functions; the basic senses or sensory system are functions; and all functions are used by created zombie sub-routines where the functions are called by the sub-routine to fit each unique situation so that all can be properly, appropriately and expertly applied to achieve our karate, martial arts and self-defense goals. 

The Cortex Layers: The six layers of the cortex are three lower, bottom-up oriented, layers; the three upper, top-down oriented, layers. The outer world reality data stream as transmitted to the lower first layer at the bottom so the signals are sent upward to the third level while our triggered extraction of like perceptive memories from the input stream of the lower pulls that relevant data and sends those signals from the top down to the fourth line where comparisons and integration of the data occurs thus creating our whole, holistic perceptive reality, inner world. This is then stored into permanent procedural memory for future reference and extraction. 

The actions always begin at the bottom line, i.e., input data streams from our sensory systems; other brain functions called and trigger the top-down data signal extractions input stream from our memories, etc. with the overall layered system working in a bidirectional manner until appropriate whole data patterns form the reality of both the inner and outer worlds so that proper sub-routines are called, functions are triggered and actions taken. 

Mind-sets/Mind-states are triggered, extracted and/or created to fit each moment and situation. The entire process that also connects and utilizes other brain areas to make it all work in an integrated way make up our character, personality and ability to function and live and survive - all of it can be achieved in a matter of micro-seconds, the OODA or the Observe (sensory detection, extraction and submission),. Orient (an attentive focus on the data), Decision (the entire cortex process as described), and Act or Actions as triggered from the OOD to call sub-routines that trigger the functions and apply the action accordingly. 

Herein lies the needs and complexities of study, training, practice, application to experience, and understanding we achieve from our beginner’s mind, initial discovery of the mountain, to the maturity of the process where we can lose sight of the mountain thus developing a discriminate mind and overcoming the obstacles of losing sight of the mountain and finally seeing the mountain again but from a new light, position and paradigm so that we mature and become enlightened and as a result master our lives, our efforts and our various disciplines of life like karate, martial arts, self-defense and the many other ways and means of growth, maturity and mastery. 

You find that the top-down, the bottom-up and the whole of the cortex, the hexagram as it represents live and the universe represented in the I Ching, and the practices of karate as a whole rather then a sum of all its atomistic parts, i.e., the “One!”. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

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KEN-PO GOKU-I: The Tao of Karate and Martial Arts

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

It is the inner world and it governs our perceptions of the outer world and it governs changes that arise in the outer world when the inner world, the Tao, makes comparisons then fills in any blanks from the inner worlds accumulated data input from the senses of our mind and bodies. It may not be measured or defined because it runs as a zombie procedural memory driven set of sub-routines that is in need of constant change and updates through the input of the outer world to the inner world where the sub-routine is removing the fill-in’s so that more reality oriented data can fill in and complete the sub-routines that in time become in need of changes rather than change and corrections. 

The Tao, the inner world of our minds that is run as a subconscious autonomous sub-routine ergo the label of zombie sub-routines, is where we understand as the place, deep in our deepest reaches of the mind, resides our inner awareness, and our undifferentiated knowledge accumulated from our very genes to those sensory data inputs called experience. It is this inner world in which things are measured and defined and governs change  that seems hidden within our inner worlds that accompanies our very existence. 

As our sensory data is input and processed it creates that incomplete image that gets filled in by our inner world, the Tao, to create a whole “one” image of the outer world. This is the basis for human studies, human understanding and a repetitive effort to input data over and over and over again in the learning processes so that multiple learning exposures to the outer world will fill in the fill-ins of the inner world that in the end create the comprehensive and completed images of the outer world that makes living, interacting and changing to the outer world. A complex dichotomy that allows us to be influenced by the Tao or the Inner World of sub-routines. We can call this as the intuitive knowledge and understanding of the Tao as the unifying principle that brings the unconscious Tao into conscious awareness. 

The process of data sorting and mining is so that our inner world called the Tao can “hold to what is essential and let go of the trivial, incorrect or the filled-in data from our inner worlds. Herein lies the concept of the “Void,” that space within the lies between the lines of code in our procedural zombie sub-routines, where the origins of our thought processes are able to be perceived. Thus we encode that which says, “We hold on to what endures, endures through trial, test, validation and reality-based proven experience(s).”

Mokuso is that tool of the external outer world where we practice to “Keep Still” that is the trigger to meditation, for through the processes of becoming perfectly quiet and detached from the cares, trials and tribulations of the external world our internal worlds can become detached from our cares, trials, tribulations and negativity to find that empty space, become still and let the inner world, the Tao, provide is the sagely guidance to live our lives. That still place and stillness that allows the void to empty itself and plant the seeds, to germinate them to grow, of our actions that can exist to the given moment and situations. 

It is the manifestation and stimulation of the stillness in the Tao, the minds inner world, that provides us the references to the principles that are constant and therefor endure to manifest, when needed and necessary, as zombie procedural sub-routines of the inner world to the manifestation in the external world from the Tao, the inner world. 

This is why karate and martial arts ways teaches us to first, look within and listen within to connect naturally and instinctively to our subconscious and unconscious zombie sub-routines of procedural memory to act accordingly to our teachings and so on. 

As stated by Lao Tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching, “Few things under heaven are so instructive as the lessons of the stillness, the silence in the void, or as beneficial as the fruits of meditative contemplation.” He also teaches us, “Thirty spokes converge upon a single hub; it is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges. We make a vessel from a lump of clay; it is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful. We make doors and windows for a room; but it is the empty spaces that make the room livable. Thus, while the tangible has advantages, it is the intangible that makes it useful.” 


Bibliography (Click the link)