It’s NOT Personal

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

I write, a lot, and I am honored to have people view, read and comment on what I write. I find topics in a variety of ways such as other blog articles where some part triggers something in my mind and I write about it. Sometimes, folks will perceive this as being critical of the source material but I want to ensure everyone who reads this blog, “It is NOT Personal!”

As a fledgling author I write and I love to write. My goals in writing is to learn, build knowledge and create ever greater understanding of those things to which I write about. In Boyd’s OODA it is understood, by me, that a process of analysis and synthesis is an ongoing process that helps to meet goals such as mine. I try to do that a lot but being human, I sometimes mistakenly write in a way that seems and may be perceived as “Personal” to the reader. 

One thing I have tried to add at the end of each article is to express, at a minimum, a form of acknowledgement to the person, blog and/or article that inspired the one I write, wrote and posted. It may seem that because I ‘tip my hat or ritsu-rei’ to that person, etc., that the article must be a critique of the other source and author - sometimes it is true, but mostly it “IS NOT PERSONAL!”

I am saying this here and now because, similar to Colonel Boyd when addressing seniors at his lectures, I want to ensure that the person on the receiving end understands that it is not personal and that everything I write is about “ME” and my learning process along with allowing others to be exposed because one of the most critical aspects of learning, studying and coming to an understanding is through the exchange of communications with others who have something positive to contribute. This occurs, if done properly, on the dojo floor, in the classroom, at seminars and thorugh exchanges in blogs, video’s, books and other media (through comments and reviews, etc.). You cannot achieve understanding in just your own mind because it just doesn’t work. 

Humans have survived and become the animal at the top of the food chain, so to speak, because over the centuries a few have used such strategies and tactics in learning thus building our societies and species into what it is today. If not for this we all would still be hunting with rocks and sticks, running from predators and gathering food on the Serengeti plains of a thousand years ago or so. 

If I got something wrong, if you feel it needs correction or if you just think I am full of shit, comment constructively because it is how I learn, change and grow - change is critical but only change that involves many, not a few and especially not just the ‘one’. 

Thanks!

Bibliography (Click the link)

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)

Anti-matter

This particle, which is called the positron, is the antiparticle of the electron, and it was the first example of antimatter. a proton has a positive electric charge, but an antiproton has a negative electric charge. The existence of antimatter partners for all matter particles is now a well-verified phenomenon, with both partners for hundreds of such pairings observed.

anytime a particle meets its matching antiparticle, the two can annihilate each other, that is, they both disappear, leaving their energy transformed into some other form.

Note: could I use the above as a fictional means of creating a craft propelled by this event, i.e., using the concept of anti-matter?

Modern theories of particle physics and of the evolution of the universe suggest, or even require, that antimatter and matter were equally common.

Note: This would validate the Chinese concept of yin-yang and yin-yang if valid would support and validate the above.

imbalance between matter and antimatter is a puzzle yet to be explained. Without it, the universe today would certainly be a much less interesting place, because there would be essentially no matter left around; annihilations would have converted everything into electromagnetic radiation by now. So clearly this imbalance is a key property of the world we know.

Note: If true, that there has to be an imbalance between matter and anti-matter for the universe to even exist that requires an imbalance from a strict yin-yang concept. This means that if matter exists and anti-matter exists they both must exist and since the two tend to eliminate the other then we have to consider that matter and anti-matter are separated by something allowing for matter to exist therefore out universe to exist. Is it gravity? Is it a dimensional separation? That divide might provide many answers to the matter-n-antimatter conundrum.

subatomic world unfolds: the stranger this world, the quantum world, actually behaves; atoms are made of electrons that whiz around the fixed protons and neutrons in their nuclei, which are made of quarks. These particles all interact with each other by means of "force messenger" particles, such as photons, gluons, W's and Z’s; Particles and anti-particles have the exact same mass and equal, but opposite charges and magnetic moments; if they are unstable, they have the same lifetime; the existence of positively charged electrons. The result was an equation describing both matter and antimatter in terms of quantum fields. 

When a particle and its anti-particle collide, they annihilate into energy, which is carried by "force messenger" particles that can subsequently decay into other particles.

the laws of physics treat matter and antimatter almost symmetrically. If the cosmos began with equal amounts of matter and antimatter, where is the antimatter?

Note: Maybe, it is because through the theory to the great tai chi, the yin-yang duality of all existence, our universe is on the far end of the yang, the matter side of yin-yang where yin is the anti-matter side. As indicated by yin-yang there is always movement and it through the connectedness and mutual beneficial relations means that matter and anti-matter exist and shift, change, and ebb-n-flow back and forth explaining the big bang, i.e., when matter and anti-matter are in perfect balance of yin-yang onc or the other reacts causing a bang, i.e., one the big bang that we are aware of today, while the other causes the opposite of the big bang, i.e., likened to the existence of the black hole or some sort of vacuum the reverses the universe, etc. We are currently in the yang of yin-yang and it would seem since the universe is expanding that we have not reached that point that causes a reversal of expansion to contraction. Once contraction exists everything in the universe begins its process of reversal as if we reach old age and the aging process reverses until we revert back to the very seed that caused us to exist through the impregnation of egg and seed. In our universe through the act of contraction will bring us back to the balance point where matter and anti-matter balance out resulting in anti-matter triggering matter out of balance toward dominance of anti-matter creating what ever could exist as the opposite of the Universe - call it the under-verse. 

there is an approximate symmetry between matter and antimatter. The small asymmetry is thought to be at least partly responsible for the fact that matter outlives antimatter in our universe. 

Note: this could validate my theory because in my description above our current universe presence means matter holds a stronger hold over anti-matter, i.e., anti-matter has the smaller asymmetry so that our universe can exist? It may be our inability to see and believe such things is a result of human psychological reliance on the reliance/compliance principle, i.e., our belief systems of perceptual contrast from our commitment of what we currently know toward our human drive for consistency of past to present effecting our acceptance of things out of that realm for a future new paradigm belief. I quote, “Humans have a nearly obsessive desire to be (and to appear) consistent with what they have already done. We tend to have a strong pull to behave in a consistent manner with any commitment we have made, i.e., we make choices or take a stand so we are strongly pulled to those responses that justify our earlier decisions. What we experience are self-imposed, genetical instinctual if you will, personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with those prior commitments. These pressures move us to respond in ways that justify those earlier decisions.”

Note: In the yin-yang you see the smaller dots of opposite colors and these represent that even in our matter dominant universe there must be a certain amount or level of anti-matter that validates that one cannot live without the other, a small amount is necessary to achieve existence of either matter or anti-matter. If matter and anti-matter at what ever ratio didn’t exist then nothing exists, i.e., there is always a small amount of both that exist together at a ratio that supports its very existence and what makes our universe of mostly matter possible and that smidgeon of anti-matter may be what makes the very fabric that separates the dimensions of our very universe. 

Note: It must be considered and remembered that we are subject so the commitment and resistance principle especially when it comes to knowledge and understanding that is often derived strictly from and within our human sensory systems, i.e., sight, sound, touch, smell, etc. We already know that more exists outside of our ability to detect it and detection is often about some form that allows the undetectable to be detected by our sensory systems. We therefor assume that matter obliterates anti-matter and vice-versa but what if something exists as a result of that obliteration that is yet undetectable to us that would mean that matter and antimatter coexist even when it appears to not exist. The obliteration on one or the other may simply push one or the other into a realm or dimension, if you will, that is yet to be detectable and observable to the sensory systems humans are contained and restrained by so our minds can handle things.

Note: Who can truly say without question that matter and anti-matter CANNOT exist together and who says when they do come in contact that the proverbial obliteration of one or the other takes one or the other out of existence when in truth their meeting merely pushes one or the other into some other existence that travels in parallel as if some fabric exists, also undetectable to humans, that allows them to travel the same path where one or the other traverses that fabric for some unknown reason in time, space, gravity and dimension that supports and triggers evolutionary events that actually allowed humans to come into existence. 

Note: Is it possible that the existence of gravitational existence is that very fabric that allows the two to exist and when events like black holes, etc. occur those are the breaks between the matter and anti-matter that drive the existence of ‘existence?’

Note: Lets look at matter and anti-matter according to the space-time, focus time, where relativity speaks and the duality of time exists, i.e., the moment vs. the non-moment where non-moment is about the time that has passed and time yet to come is what the moment takes in that moment to create the non-moment that we perceive as the past. Matter when encountering anti-matter doesn’t obliterate it but merely pushes it past the fabric making it not just take another dimensions but merely pushes it a single moment into the past that follows moment-to-moment that present-moment of existence followed by the past-moment that follows creating a chain of past-moments. Our minds perceive a moment only to obliterate it into a past-moment therefore making that moment non-existent except in our memories. Existances is about the moment and the moment of existences is constantly being obliterated to make room for the next moment, i.e., matter obliterates anti-matter to make room for the next moment of existence of the matter aging the universe toward that moment of change from matter with a smidgeon of anti-matter so anti-matter turns into a dominance over matter and so on. 

Note: Is it possible that string theory speaks to the very connectedness of matter-n-antimatter existence and is that very fabric made of the strings that connect one to the other for a complete tai chi or yin-yang duality that is the universe?

Striking Opportunity

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

In some karate circles there are these terse teachings of the ken-po goku-i and one of those meme’s is, “The Time to strike is when the opportunity presents itself.” Good advice in the most general ways of things but warrants considerable study and understanding because without that effort many end up fighting and as we have come to know in modern society, “Fighting is illegal.” 

In a recent article the author created a quote that made me think of this meme, i.e., “ … You must be the one leading the dance, not the one following, so move first.” 

Granted, in certain specific situations you may have to resort to striking to achieve your self-fense goals. In just those particular spots the present those very opportunities you have failed self-fense already and are in the fight-zone. That is why I liked the second quote because regardless of the stage of conflict and violence if you move first, if you move earlier that your adversary or perceived threat you win. You are inside that persons loop and as long as you move quickly, change rapidly and vary the methods, etc., you are using you are going to overcome and find success. It is just a fact and proven by fire through the efforts of the loops creator.

If you take the lead you force others to follow or to miss the dance altogether. Your goal is to have them miss the dance by your moving first into avoidance mode along with escape and evasion. Finding those opportunities often presented long before conflict and violence manifest is actually striking, with a method of avoidance, escape and evasion (a part of avoidance), first but not with the fist or foot, with your mind, your mind-set and your mind-state. 

If you want to exploit all the opportunities that are presented along the way to conflict and violence you begin by exploiting those opportunities you have in training and practice to learn and understand all those factors of conflict and violence in yourself, your ego and how you act and do things in life, this is the early opportunity and to strike down those foibles in yourself goes a long way to leading the dance, your ego following the logical human mind-set you created and the staying inside your own loop of destructive behavior. 

If circumstances lose you that path then you will find, with this awareness, those other off ramps on the road to conflict and violence that you can take at the very first opportunity presented (cough cough, snicker snicker, you knew that was coming). 

It just goes to show that not everything is as plain as the nose on your face, that face covers up a mind that has many wonderful traits and aspects and personalities and character that when properly led tend to create a person of character and personality who takes the very first opportunities presented through the travels of life to include conflicts and violence of all levels and types so as to strike first for yourself toward those lofty, honorable and morally right goals you created. Ain’t life grand.

My dance card is full and I often work diligently to take the lead, create the opportunities before they are presented in other ways outside my purview and then apply them as best I can - ain’t life grand. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

Hat tip to <Sword and Circle> as the inspiration for this post.

OFF TOPIC: In a Nutshell

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

What is missing in modern society and the cause of all this mess is this, “We are not in a state where everything is important and nothing is taken for granted and the world should be about the importance of human relations that is governed by whether you can trust the other person with your life.” 

If we could establish a culture and belief that every facet of life here is important and that nothing in our world, society and culture is to be taken fro granted and then if we can all establish and live a relation with others governed by how well we trust one another with our very lives I feel we could get back that spirit that made this country and its people great so long ago. 

Something to Mull Over ...

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The Tao of Yin-Yang (Physics)

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

When speaking of the physics of four dimensional space concerning the time-space relativity element physicists use a model that helps us visualize this due to the human sensory system and mind that just cannot fathom that through visualization. In this light, it came to me in a flash, that this representation and explanation also describes a visual representation of how true yin-yang works through the yin-yang symbol. 

Using the sphere shape seen in the tao of physics drawing, see below or attached “tao-physics-circle-on-sphere.gif”, you can readily see how yin-yang flows and ebbs not just in a linear circular fashion but actually in that four-dimensional way that makes life so interesting and byond our perception through our sensory systems. It speaks to how in meditation, Eastern belief and philosophy, the mind then can expand beyond the normal three dimensional view of our senses, i.e., sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. 

Looking at the drawing, “yin-yang-sphere.png”, you see a cross section of lines much like the lines the cover a globe used for navigation that shows how the sphere is also in the shape of a ball and then go back to the first drawing and imagine the lines interconnection and at each point of connection another line is drawn and connected to the other side of the sphere/ball to criss and cross over passing through the space of that inner ball/sphere - this is how the mutual dynamic connectedness of yin-yang works. (see also the sphere_wireframe.png drawing)

Now, once you get a picture in your mind of what is a wireframe cross grid line covering the surface of the ball/sphere then you imagine the cross lines form one side to the other connecting all the cross-points of that wireframe shown in the sphere_wireframe.png you thin add in more connected lines that traverse all those cross lines in the space of the ball itself. This gives you the four-dimensional space-time visualization that also speaks to the power, depth and breadth of the yin-yang concept represented and symbolized in such a way to allow us to imagine and visualize the complexities of both. 

Now, as you visualize that add in liquid, much like the void but in reality the void is not truly void of things, that fills that sphere/ball, now visualize a miniature set/dual like balls floating around inside, one is just like the outer sphere but white while the other is just like the outer sphere but black. As each travels and moves using a magnetic pull and push that keeps them equal distance no matter where they float and move in the main sphere also have an equal amount of the opposite balls color in fluid that as the two move the two colored liquids flow, ebb and move accordingly to the travel patters of the two balls causing, at one frozen point, the appearance of the yin-yang symbol we are all familiar with but visualize it as dynamic, moving and not governed by any set pattern, etc.

Bibliography (Click the link)

Click for larger view/readability.

Click image for larger view, this one symbolizes a bit
what I am trying to convey here, found it today - thanks to
the person who created it, awesome. 

Click for LARGE view.

It’s Not Personal

Listen, it truly is not personal. I can’t tell you how many folks read my stuff, especially for the first time, and take immediate offense as if I attacked them and their belief systems in a personal way. In my mind, that is impossible especially if you have the confidence and understanding of what it is you do in martial arts, karate especially since that is my main squeeze martial art practice and study.

My sole goal on my blogs and wherever I find myself writing or talking about my personal understanding of my personal training, practice and applications of karate-martial arts. I often find other articles and extract things that trigger my mind into its meandering and wandering way of learning using Colonel Boyd’s “Analysis and Synthesis” model of study. I have exctracted from many authors and even if my writings and talks stray away from the original intent of that author doesn’t mean I am taking aim at the person themselves or even their intent in the original article. 

I often find things said and then deliberately take them out of the original article and the author’s intent in that article because when the quote or meme or other derived information is extracted like that it is NO LONGER a PART of the original. What I do tho is give credit to that author and their article not to make it personal but to make it known that the inspiration of the article I write comes from that extraction.

After all, analysis often, as you can find in Col. Boyd’s explanation, is taking individualized parts of a whole to study separately and then work toward rebuilding into something else that most often has nothing to do with the origins of the used extracted data. 

If you end up taking anything I write and way personally then that is ALL ON YOU, not me. If you find you become uncomfortable with anything then simply write me or a comment expressing your concerns and beliefs - you may be able to change my mind about what I wrote and guess what, many have done just that over the last decade or so - Whopee, I learnt somethin!

JUST REMEMBER DUDES AND DUDETTE’s, It ain’t personal, was not meant to be personal and ain’t about you, none of you. Your inspired me to write something that may or may not be relevant to what you wrote or said or it might be but IT IS MY PERSONAL idea’s, theories, and understanding of what the subject matter is about - loosley. 

You can’t learn shit by remaining steadfast with what you know because it is what you don’t know or what you don’t know you don’t know you don’t know about that will cause you to not know something. Yes, all that came from someone else who said something about knowing, not knowing something and not knowing what you don’t know you don’t know thingy. Yes, I kinda borrowed it because, I liked it and you can see that in my writing too like recent studies of Colonel Boyd and the OODA, its a learning process for me and … wait for it … It is NOT personal!

Gokui, Principles and the OODA

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

These three concepts of karate and martial arts regardless of the why of the discipline are all mutually beneficial not only in relation to one another but to the relationship and connectivity of their individual parts. Everything is about “one” and everything is about “Duality of Yin-Yang.” Even these three, when combined and connected holistically, are about the one and the duality of yin-yang. Yin-yang drives them all and they all are derived from the mutual benefit of each one, the yin to yang and yang to yin.

The OODA is thought of in a linear mechanical way, this has been discussed before, and many assume a one-dimensional understanding where one “Observes” then when necessary “Orients” on the observed thing or situation or phenomena. Then once we orient we then have to make some sort of decisions such as, “Shall I cross the street or shall I remain here?” When the decision is made then we act, we stay or cross. This is how I once thought the OODA worked and that processing the loop faster would give me the advantage but in truth it is a lot more complex than that linear mechanical one-dimensional definition. 

Principles are the same way, when we thing of yin-yang we assume it means hard-soft (as to karate and martial arts applications) and that goes for other aspects of principles. We tend to take them one at a time, learn about them then apply that linear one-dimensional understanding to our practice and training. It is only when we truly look at the sub-principle of yin-yang that we begin to understand that it and other principles don’t stand alone and are not learned or applied atomistically, separately, but as a whole one principled based application toward the discipline regardless of the why of our practice and training. There is, like the OODA to be further explained later, an ebb and flow and morphed mixing of the two to get a balanced one whole product or action.

We can say the same to the gokui, the ken-po goku-i, that is a terse Zen-koan like tome that is also thought of and understood from a single one-dimensional atomistic linear mechanical meaning. When they read about seeing all sides they assume that means the eyes through direct visual signals sent to the brain provide us something to observe and orient on that could be either good or bad further influencing the decision processes. Seldom does the person or system go past the linear single dimension concept toward a more robust one holistic wholehearted continued concept and meaning beyond that singular belief. It is one reason I re-wrote the gokui into a continuous single sentence that can be analyzed into distinct and separate concepts where the individual then synthesizes back into a more robust and complete, unique, understanding that teaches us more about ourselves and our study of karate and martial arts. 

In the OODA the OO, observe and orient, are independent and distinct concepts and processes yet to work both mutually support the other in order to achieve the results intended. Humans observe everything in their environment then compare that to the perceived understanding of that environment, outer world, into an inner world. What is assumed is that the individual observing actually knows and understands what it is they see, hear, touch and so on because of their perceive inner world. They fail to understand that to orient to the observed phenomena they must first know of it and understand it completely and utterly. You must orient on what that is, what it is you must know, what you need to know and what you need to know that you don’t know. 

Orient on that first, encode that to the perceived inner world of your mind and then use that to compare when you observe the outer world so that you can make a decision that you will act upon. Still a simplistic explanation but shows how we circle around the entire loop rather than one, the next, the next then the act or actions. Orient also effects our decision processes because to find an appropriate actions you need to decide on one and that comes from experiences as perceived by our observation of things and how we orient on those things making decisions along the way as to what is appropriate to what event and what is not. You have to observe that you need to know something, you have to orient on that, then you have to decide to study and understand what it is you need to know then you have to decide on how that gets encoded in procedural zombie sub-routine/functions memory and that also takes your orientation and decision so that when you act, in training and practice, you make the right decisions according to your observation and orientation during the training and practice processes, actions and decisions along with analysis and synthesis processing in an appropriate way as another decisive actions on your part. 

Using the OODA processes is how you first learn of the principles, then you analyze them as individual distinct things until you understand and begin to orient them with one another to make for one holistic whole that changes rapidly in the moment and situation so that you end up absorbing and encoding the entire principles so that progressive training will allow you to draw on them in the decision and action process of the loop.

Then there is the gokui, did you know that the gokui also makes references to the Chinese ancient classic, The Art of War of Sun Tzu? It is not just the first two lines that are more spiritual or mystical as to the sun and moon or the heave and earth, that also connect to the ancient book the I Ching, but to the way and means of battle in the art of war. It comes to mind once this is accepted that the simplicity of the gokui acts as a key to open the door to what you can achieve for yourself and in your use of the disciplines as related to the art of war. 

Balance and unbalance being like a weight is not just about physically unbalancing an adversary but also is derived from Sun Tzu’s teaching that a battle best won is the one not entered into, i.e., unbalance your adversary in mind and spirit and you can avoid doing battle, or fighting. 

Sun Tzu speaks to energy, the ordinary and extraordinary forces used in battle, speaking to how they “end and recommence; cyclical, as are the movements of the sun and moon. They dies away and are reborn; recurrent, as are the passing seasons. As the sun and moon cycle through the heavens that surround us cause the Earth and man to experience the passing of seasons and those seasons matter in the strategy of the art of war. 

The OODA, the Fundamental Principles and the Ken-po Goku-i are all like the teachings of Sun Tzu in his chapter on Energy, i.e., “The primary colors are only five in number but their combinations are so infinite that one cannot visualize them all.” His teachings are inter-connected and mutually beneficial and our other concepts of karate and martial arts also connect; if you open your mind, your body and your spirit to change, chaos, and an opening of the box you can see what cannot be seen, you can hear what cannot be heard and you can touch that which seems untouchable. 

These are the concepts of the Gokui, the Fundamental Principles and the OODA and yet, they are not the end all of what is out there. You just have to let them in. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

Editorial - Opinionated Opinions - Lecturing - Teaching - Mentoring

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

There will be days like this and there will always be days like this but truthfully that means there will always be days like this that teach and where I learn. When I editorialize, where I provide opinionated opinions, theories, ideas, etc., where I lecture as a teacher, instructor and mentor, when I lean toward a teaching form my editorialization, opinions, lectures and lessons I am mentoring but with one caveat, a need to learn, a need to understand and a need to find out more so I can editorialize, express opinionated opinions, lecture, teach and mentor. Does that make even a bit of sense?

Editorials: an article written by or on behalf of an editor that gives an opinion on a topical issue. A part of a newspaper or magazine that are not advertising. The question is in our modern tech world, are blogs and other venues of electronic publication qualified to present editorials on issues, topics or in my case disciplines such as karate, martial systems and self-defense? Or are editorials a purview of only newspapers, news television, or magazine publications? There are political editorials, there are business editorials and there are debate type editorials but what are they really? Are editorials actually just opinions form authors/writers who have some expertise on the subject of editorials because I do have some expertise on the subjects I write about in my blogs? An editorial, in general, is an opinion piece written by that often expresses an opinion of a publisher and yet it can be any other written document that reflects an opinion of a periodical but can it also reflect the opinion of an author who writes on a subject they have extensive knowledge of? My blogs are of a single topic and theme with text expressed as my opinion and is often in a lecture format, is that an editorial piece?

Opinionated Opinions: first, an opinion is a view or judgement formed about something, like karate and martial arts and self-defense and philosophies of the three, etc., not necessarily based on fact or knowledge (my opinions and editorial articles tend to come from facts researched and knowledge gained from studies, practices and experiences). As to opinionated, that is a view of a person or material presented perceived as conceitedly assertive and dogmatic in one’s opinions. My question is who gets to decide what is opinionated and what is not for an opinion may be perceived as derived from that persons perception of their inner world and beliefs and may not actually be a correct perception of that opinions. There can be and seems to be a very fine line between an opinion presented in an editorial article, article or blog entry  based on an individual perception of conceited assertive dogmatic opinion. Can it be a misinterpretation of an confident presentation vs. an actually opinionated piece and how do you tell the difference? Opinion to opinionated seems to be defined by terms such as dogmatic, fixed views, dictatorial, pompous, self-important and arrogance but how can that be detected in a written piece without knowledge of the author/writer, a perception through sensory data input like body language, voice inflection or attitude? The written word is only a very small part of that communications leading a belief that when one feels a persons written word without a knowledge and understanding of the authors personality, etc., is a judgement as to the persons own personality in expressing and receiving opinions. If the author of an opinion piece, an editorial or lecture type written article, how do you determine if it is truly opinionated as to conceit and dogmatic especially if that person is presented with refuted information and/or opinions that stimulate change in the authors view, opinion and understanding and does one determine opinionated views of the author before or after making such determinations, I wonder? 

Lecturing: is a delivery of an educational lecture to a class or other audience that would include readers of a blog, of a Facebook entry, of a twitter submission or a forum site, etc. It is often used to present materials in a educational arena such as an institution of higher learning, a University lecture. Lecturing, dependent on the perceptions of an internal nature of the recipient, might be also a view of a serious talk or of reprovingly nature to someone but that too is about the recipient rather than sender although one would hope the sender or lecturer would do so after a connection is made such as an empathy connection, etc. It is a difference of a scolding, chiding, admonish like deliver that in all honestly cannot be conveyed or determined by just the written word especially understanding just how difficult it is to convey such views without first knowing the person more intimately and being in physical presence while lecturing to perceive their body language, etc., as the necessary additional sensory data output needed to make such a determination. 

Teaching: is an informal method of lecturing and discussing or a series of lecture on a subject of public interest or of personal interest to say, students in a lecture hall or participants of a tech social connection forum like a blog, a wiki or a FaceBook social site. Sensei teach and to teach such a complex and difficult subject of a skill based knowledge of karate, martial disciplines and especially self-defense you have to participate in prolonged periods of “Lectures,” speeches, and editorialized written materials, etc. conducted often without interruption by members of an organization like school faculty or invited guest speakers at other education institutions or when used as a technique in  a social protest, etc.

Mentoring: is about one who comes before or one who has a knowledge of a subject and/or skill who advises or trains someone in that subject, skill and/or discipline. A mentor promotes, advocates and is a resource for mentoring but is not all knowing of the subject or skill but rather a knowledgable person who has a good understanding of the discipline, skill and knowledge, etc.

In my blogs, in my writings and in my books I am a person lecturing and teaching on a subject and skill that is about karate, martial disciplines, self-defense and a philosophy on all of that so I mentor and I teach and I lecture and I am of a certain opinion but I am open to change when properly presented and later validated by my own efforts in research, etc.

Isn’t that they way it is? Does it mean that it is opinionated and does it mean that the lecturing is negative or is it just the excuse some give to justify remaining steadfast, dogmatic, in their status quo belief system? 

Bibliography (Click the link)

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. 

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

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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!”. 

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

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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.” 

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Yin-Yang?

There is always room for JELLO

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I have made a lot of statements and comments and OPINIONS about the various kinds of karate and martial arts there are but I have to say with a strong conviction that regardless of my thoughts, comments, statements or OPINIONS on those different types, “They all are great, they all serve a purpose and as long as they all meet the goals of their participants - IT IS A GOOD THING!

I may be of the mind that karate is a civil model and system for self-defense and I may not feel other models or systems do or do not meet that standard, which is my standard, but in truth and regardless of history, intent, essence, etc., Traditional, Classical, Modern, etc., Karate is all good, very very good.

In my rendition of the meaning behind Tatsuo-san’s statement of, “All bottles are good.” …  “All of them serve a purpose, to hold what they were intended for.” Applies to karate past, present and possible future. All bottles (forms, models and systems) of karate are good. All of them serve a purpose, to do what they were intended to do. There is no best bottle, karate, all bottles, karate, are good.

There is always room for karate, all kinds of karate and all kinds of martial arts. They server a purpose and just because they don’t match up with my view of karate does not diminish their purpose and benefits, we all benefit from such a wide range and variety of karate practices and martial arts practices, regardless. 

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The Gokui: breathing methods are either hard or soft

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Michael Clarke Sensei of the Shinseidokan Dojo blog provided the following quotes in his recent article, read it HERE, that inspired another view of the ken-po goku-i, in the old version stated as, “The manner drinking (inhaling) and spitting (exhaling is either hard or soft,” and my version, “breathing methods are either hard or soft,” have a new meaning I didn’t think of till his mentioning of inhaling and exhaling, etc., see the quote next:

“The learning of karate is at first a little like inhaling; everything new comes rushing in. At some point you have to exhale, to allow your karate to flow outward from inside. At that point you'll know if you have been breathing oxygen or stale air. The history of karate is fractured and imperfect, it contains fewer 'masters' than some would have you believe, and more heroes than you can imagine. The famous get noticed, the heroes...not so much. So, be particular about the past that you accept, or you may find yourself reading about the people who wrote history, but not the people who made it.” - Michael Clarke Sensei of Shinseidokan Dojo

When I think of inhaling I think of a soft or yin aspect but for this one I would make a stab at learning karate as hard and that to learn, like Clarke Sensei would insinuate, learning karate is hard but you have to take it in, wholeheartedly, to truly learn karate. As he often writes karate is also about what you put out as it is influenced through karate practice matters, exhaling as yang but rather a softer side when in reality it is a soft side or yin because once you achieve proficiency of your practice and training things become easier … BUT …

When I contemplate hard and soft, inhaling karate then exhaling experience, knowledge and understanding of karate while also contemplating the difficulty in teaching or passing along karate I see the dichotomy of yin-yang or hard-soft where both intertwine to make for the holistic wholehearted essence that is karate. 

One reason I advocate the study of the goku-i as well as other philosophical and theories such as yin-yang, zanshin and shu-ha-ri, etc., is that it is a mutual yet separate effort that makes for the one whole that is karate. It is how the yin-yang of principles applied to multiple methodologies that as yin are that which are hidden but crucial to the foundation of karate while karate itself is the outward manifestation, i.e., inhaling to the inner in learning while exhaling to the outer in practice, training and applications. 

In short, the concept provides another way to see your karate, to make it a deeper and wider study of a universe of possibilities derived through the study and practice of such an eclectic form of body, mind and spirit development. 

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Void - Universe - Gokui ……….

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In my continued studies concerning the void. Martial beliefs use the void to denote emptiness, the space between "Things." 

It may turn out that what we think of as void actually is not, like the black of space the void consists of "Some Thing." 

The black of space that surrounds all perceivable matter we humans can see is filled.

What I am considering is the theory of Black Matter and Black Energy filling in those areas we see as the black of space - "The Vacuum."

When studying the "Theory Principal," of the sub-principal of "The Void," we think of the rhythm and cadence, etc., that resides between our actions and thoughts like the space, voids, between the notes in music that form that music.

The reason I venture down this path is due to a strong connection between karate and martial arts to the ancient Chinese classics studied by practitioners where the "Universe" is connected via principles such as yin-yang and so on. Granted we can always assume the ancients didn't know of or even understand such concepts but that would be a huge mistake.

The mere fact they created such symbolism grants them the leeway toward the knowledge. Such as the great tai chi from a singular great start point referred to as the "One," where some action, think Big Bang theory, created duality, I.e., yin-yang, that resulted in myriad thing, the cosmos, represented by the eight trigrams then further to the 56 hexagrams used to Devine the myriad things of nature, life and human existence.

Start by continuing to accept the void for what it currently is then add in that it is not truly a void but a substance that is as real as the principles of the mental, physical and spiritual actions manifested in karate and martial arts, the glue that makes it all work.

The material of the void likened to the strings that connect every aspect of the entire universe from the interstellar cosmos down to the very substances that are our very DNA.

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