Memory Training and Levels of Martial Art

With regard to the question asked at the Saturday morning class in Pleasantville as to what's the highest level of martial art attainable:  my answer would be any art whose techniques emphasize using an enemy's limbs as weapons against himself.  This skill is an unusual ability, requiring usage of psychic energy; and it's therefore, never learn-able by someone without this energy.  As well, it requires long, extensive physical training over many years.  Such techniques, for instance, involve squeezing an enemy's heart at a distance, without any physical contact, to kill him.  This uses mental intent, but achieving that intent requires disciplining the body. Few people in the world know these techniques, and there are no schools at all that teach them, as it's entirely a one-on-one mentoring and tutoring process of passing-on this knowledge from person to person. That's the highest level I've ever saw.  It's an extremely rare skill, and it's kept secret. Unfortunately I don't know anyone who still teaches at that highest level, but I would imagine there isn't as much demand for those kind of skills today.  Although what can be used to hurt could also be used to heal, just as well.  So it's well worth learning if one can locate such a teacher.  All higher level martial systems employ evasion as the principal means for dodging the enemy's attack, as all physical effort has to be conserved in combat since there shall usually be multiple enemies in any confrontation. Fights are seldom single contests against one opponent. Fighting is not dueling.  Nor is it a mixed-martial-arts contest.  Submit and you're dead. There is no quarter given and no terms in defeat.  For myself, I don't teach these combat skills; neither the killing nor the healing---I will write great poetry and great stories instead. That's my sole skill.  I'm one of those very lucky people---I can do something as well as anyone could ever do; so, that I shall do---I'll leave the fighting for others who are far better suited to it.  I study with Ren Guang-yi as his Ren Taijiquan is important for developing implicit motor learning (while writing develops explicit factual learning---one learns because one writes, and never because one reads).  Both types of memory training are necessary. That's good enough for me. There is also a third type of memory training besides implicit motor learning and explicit factual learning, and that's psychic precognitive learning.  It's the ability to predict the future.  For training this, some activity like playing chess is best as it conditions your ability to anticipate opponents' response.  To capitulate: to train in all three kinds of memory, implicit motor, explicit factual and the psychic precognitive; practice Ren Taijiquan, write daily, play chess.  All three are necessary.

How We Are

To the less able, mediocrity may seem like genius.  For those of us who know what real genius is, mediocrity seems more like retardation.  It should be noted that for most people, their limitations arrive early.  They accelerate quickly; reach a plateau, and then remain there until decrepitude sets in.  It's not a fault; it's simply how they are.  For us, it's very different.  We start slowly and build momentum and that momentum lasts our entire lives.  We get smarter and stronger as we get older.  We live on a different trajectory. 

Movement and Health.

Stationary, static-type exercises designed for meditation and concentration, such as one sees in Yoga and Zen, are extremely harmful for the body and for the mind.  These disciplines are dumb.  Such exercises were developed in overcrowded sedentary environments that restricted movement, and it is precisely movement that is so very necessary for spiritual development as well as for one's psychological health.  Anything that's static is bad.  Move.

Bare-Knuckle Boxing

Originally I was going to post the bare-knuckle boxing videos to YouTube, but at looking at some of the content; it might be a bit too brutal and inappropriate for public exposure; so I'll just be posting the videos to this blog so that their content will be confined to those who already have expressed an interest in the entire culture, and not in just its warrior aspect.

Combat Strategy

Unless you're a Druid, you are not going to be able to harm or to heal someone at a distance---so in this post, I'm assuming you are not...my apologies to the few that are. Close quarters combat requires actually touching someone to inflict an injury; whether done with a projectile, a weapon, or with one's limbs. In Celtic systems, almost all strikes are delivered with forearms and with shins, usually simultaneously, by a high strike to the head accompanied by a low strike to the knee...the high strike with a forearm and the low strike with the shin. Fists and feet are used to strike, but usually against soft tissue at various pressure points to paralyze the opponent. For instance, there are several pressure points right above the elbow that when struck will cause the opponent to lose control of his arm. These same pressure points also exist right above the knee and when struck will cause lost of feeling in the entire leg limb so that the opponent will collapse. In both cases, elbow and knee, these pressure points are in the center of the joint, the right side of the joint and at left side of the joint. Pressure points are found by experimenting, by pressing your thumb in, at various locations. When found, they'll produce a shock and a limb goes numb.

The World We Live In

Every day new books are published, new scores are composed, new films are released and new wines are decanted...and all are well worth reading, hearing, viewing and tasting. We live now in an age of genius. So don't despair. Ignore the ignorant and shun the craven. Honor only the courageous. Be one of them.

The Power of Nothing

The nothingness that makes something makes it out from its own nothingness. Let's see how to explain this as it's very important in the generation of one's own energy. Let's go back to a prior analogy: Two mirrors facing each other, with nothing in between them. Nothing. The mirrors are reflecting nothing, except what? Well, the facing mirror. Yes. But what happens when you face a mirror? Reversal, right? But when the two mirrors face, these reversals are repeated. Depending upon the reflective quality of the mirrors, the reversals could be repeated infinitely; reversals on top of reversals, forever. A mirror of nothing makes a perfect mirror; no distortions to interrupt the pattern of reversals. They go on forever. The cells of the body are imperfect, and they can't go on forever; but they do have the power to change and to be replicated. This replication is necessary for energy generations, and they are generations. Literally, they are generations of energy. Energy is being given power to evolve, so it can constantly be born again.

Energy

That that's not makes That that is, IS. Nothing makes something is the key to all energy generation. What this means is that both body and brain have to be "clear" to make energy. If the body is tight with fear; if the brain is tense with worry, it's impossible to store, to develop and to transmit psychic energy. Relax. Calm down. Dimple the shoulder joints so that the shoulders sag. Sink the hips so the inguinal creases are pronounced. The small of the back is stretched and is rounded, so that the lumbar vertebrae are lengthened and loosened. That's done by extending both hands forward, palms up; with the fingers spread, without forcing them apart. To get some idea of the correct posture, look at the photos of the Golden Eagle Set in the back of the book: The Chariot Way: The Dream of Crom.

The Chariot Way: The Dream of Crom

I am currently working on another book to supplement Heart-Healing The Chariot Way. The book is entitled The Chariot Way: The Dream of Crom. If anyone wishes to contact me, my Google e-mail address is: oconnor.rothcroi.william@gmail.com and my AOL is rothcroi@aol.com
With regard to Celtic Martial Arts Club of New York, the address of the club is 440 Lafayette St. in lower Manhattan, New York City. We normally hold classes on Sunday afternoons now from Noon until 2:30 in either rooms 3G (on the third floor) or in 4G (on the fourth floor), depending upon which studios become available. These rooms are rented out by NYU's Tish School of the Arts for Drama and they have first priority of any spaces in the building. That is the reason as to why the rooms change on short notice. If you come, check out both rooms to see where we are.
The cost for each session is $10, payable to the person who rents the rooms---not me---I don't charge for teaching. The holistic healing aspect is included in the teaching for anyone who may possibly be interested. We try to have an eclectic approach---whatever works, works! It might be a good idea to secure a copy of Heart-Healing The Chariot Way before attending, so that you can get some good idea as to what we are all about. We have members who also practice various other martial arts and holistic healing systems; a great variety of them, in fact. William O'Connor