Lessons from My Masters 25: Observations - Synthesis Part I

“There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. There will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.”

           ― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

First of all, I want to thank all of the folks who've been following my posts on my Masters and thanks for all of the feedback. I hope folks enjoy reading them as much as I like writing about this stuff because it also brings back a flood of memories of things that I had even forgotten about that they had taught me. So this is just as beneficial for me as for those who are able to glean something from them. So once again thanks for all the support.  

So what I’m going to go through in these next installments is how I view the fight from the perspective of things that my Masters have taught me and my own experiences. Understand, as always that these are my impressions and mine alone and I’m sure others will have their own interpretations and opinions on these matters.

I offer this without apology but merely to enlighten and educate folks so that the one thing that I say here that may offer that spark. Create that ah-ha moment, that epiphany in their mind where the final piece of the puzzle falls into place. Then I’ve accomplished what I intended in this series. For some, this will be old news since I teach on these things all-of-the-time for others this will be brand new. No matter who you are "hopefully" this helps you in your development.

Okay, here we go…

On Mindset

“If by setting one’s heart right every morning and evening, one is able to live as though his body were already dead, he gains freedom in the Way.”

                ― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

It starts with the space between your ears. What you do with that space is up to you. How you develop that space is up to you. How you choose to define your world is up to you but how the world perceives you, is up to the world. If you choose to live in fear, the world will treat you as such for people can sense fear. I’ve seen it all too many times in combat. You can always tell who those guys were because they were wearing every piece of protective gear created by man.  Their irrational fears made them a prisoner in their own heads. No need for an enemy to instill fear in them they did it to themselves and frankly, probably a better job than the enemy ever could I might add. But you see it in people in everyday life as well. You hear it in their voices, in the words they use, in their actions.

"What I'm afraid of..."

"Well, what concerns me..."

"My fear is..."

The problem is most of this is created in our own heads. 

“Courage is knowing what not to fear.”

             ― Plato

Plato had it right! Listen you get no argument from me that there are real dangers out there, but to me isn't that the reason you study the warrior arts in the first place? To overcome the fear, the danger?

However, if you choose to live as a Lion, if you choose to own your fate, the world has to deal with that as well.  You almost always have a choice, especially what goes on in your own head.  I remember when I was a young Officer going through Infantry Officer Course and back then at that time in history, you had very few officers who had combat experience. Most of what you were taught was standard operating procedure and basic military theory which was fine. But as Yogi Berra used to say,

“The difference between theory and practice is this, in theory, they’re both the same in practice they are not.”

Anyway, I’ll never forget we were in a training session and we were discussing the use of roads. And there was a debate of whether you should risk using a road for all of the advantages it offers such as speed and ease movement or stay off the roads since it made you vulnerable to ambush. And I’ll never forget Capt. Smith, who had served in Beirut saying something like,

“Listen, you either own the road or you stay the Hell away from it…when I was in Beirut we used the roads all of the time and basically dared the enemy to hit us.”

As an aside, I ran into him years later when he was a Battalion commander and then full Colonel. He was hardcore and we loved him because he was. He’s also the same guy who showed up the night before our graduation from Infantry Officers Course (IOC), just in from the field training another class smelly, filthy, unbathed in over a week at the Hawkins Room or as we called it “The Hawk”. Named after Medal of Honor winner, 1st Lt. William Deane Hawkins (April 18, 1914 – November 21, 1943). He died leading the scout-sniper platoon 2nd Bn 2nd Marines in the attack on Betio Island during the battle of Tarawa. The Hawk was a bar that was embedded in our living quarters. Imagine living in a college dorm-like setting with a full-blown bar right down the hall from your living quarters. You gotta love the Marine Corps, they give you all the rope to hang yourself with.

Anyway, he comes in and demands all of us head to the bar with him. He then takes off one of his boots, and let me tell you when he took that boot off I could have sworn I saw evil spirits depart. Even the picture of Gen Chesty Puller turned its nose up (okay I made that last part up but I did see the spirits come out of that boot). He then places his boot on the bar and has the bartender fill it with beer and proposes what I thought was original toast but later found out was an old Gaelic toast. He says,

“To Delta Company IOC,

Here’s to cheating, stealing, fighting, and drinking.

If you cheat, may you cheat death.

If you steal, may you steal a woman’s heart.

If you fight, may you fight for a brother.

And if you drink, may you drink with me…”

He then says,

“You Marines are getting ready to go on the greatest adventure of your lives. I know you’ve heard us say that many times but we truly mean it. Fair winds and calm seas, Semper Fi! Marines! Now drink with me from the sacred boot of foot fungus, trench foot and 30 miles of week-long toe jam.”

Then, he takes a big swig places the boot back on the bar and bartender, without batting an eye filled the boot again with the demon rum and we drank ourselves all night till we were “comatose”. He said some other things that night and I even reminded him of it when I saw him years later.

Part of why he did what he did was because he also knew that some of us were going to die wearing the uniform, and some did. It was his last chance to bond with us and get our minds right before we entered the heart of darkness. He understood as he use to say all of the time, that history is full of wars that were never supposed to happen. You don't get to pick the time and place of when the next war will start and as Marines, the time to get your mind right was not when you were heading to the front but in all that you did "beforehand".

You see, we were “his boys”, “his Lieutenants”, “his Marines” because "he" trained us and he understood something that I would not learn to appreciate until later on. No matter what you do, no matter how well you train your men, you never feel you’ve done enough for them. Especially if they die in combat and you carry it forever.  I've been fortunate to not have lost Marines in combat but I've had Marines who died while I was their Commander. So I can only imagine for leaders who've lost men in battle. The second-guessing and self-doubt guys go through as they play it over in their minds as to whether they did the right thing. Such is the way of things.

It is this same attitude I try to carry forward in my training whether training others or myself. This is why I’ve started this part of the series on bringing it together discussing such things. The mindset you have to develop, the overcoming of fear, the Ruthless Intent and the will to do what must be done, is far more important. I'll say it again, FAR MORE IMPORTANT, than anything you train physically.

You can have all the physical ability in the world, but in war, unlike sports, if the mind is not right, you could be running headlong into an ambush to your death or leading others there. Not good!

“No matter if the enemy has thousands of men, there is fulfillment in simply standing them off and being determined to cut them all down, starting from one end.”

        ― Tsunetomo Yamamoto, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

This quote reminds me of the “Game of Thrones” Episode: “The Battle of the Bastards” where there’s that one scene at the beginning of the climactic battle where John Snow, King of the North, is facing down a charging army by himself standing there with sword in hands bravely bracing himself against certain death. Only to have his comrades finally rush forward and join the fray. It’s one of those scenes that even though it’s entertainment where I had to admit, there was a moment where I could actually feel a little tension in my body. It’s funny how even with all my experience I could still feel riled up watching a TV show. But I guess it makes sense where if for but a brief moment you become engrossed in something, that you can almost relive a previous but familiar feeling or experience in the comfort of your home. Go figure.

But this is the mindset, the Intent, the will, the girding of the loins you need to develop beforehand, well before the battle, before an altercation or whatever. This can only start by working this into all that you do in your training. Folks who train with me regularly know I like to have fun when I train. Guided Chaos is and should be fun to do. But let's cut the shit here, hitting people is a lot of fun. To their credit, this is one of the reasons why MMA is so popular. No forms, no fancy techniques just people getting after it. I totally get the appeal. From that perspective, it's a fun sport.

Well, in the same way, Guided Chaos is a lot of fun because we get to hit people and even though it's still controlled about the only rule is if you don't try to put my eye out I won't kick your balls up into your throat. Works for me. Now I will tell you and students can vouch for this. I do some crazy stuff, off the wall stuff and I'm always having a good time. Not as crazy as some of the stuff John does but it's close. But the reason I do crazy stuff is 1) it's a lot of fun doing crazy stuff and to see if I can make it work and; 2) to show people what is possible. Some of the things I do have no other purpose but to show what is "the art of the possible" if you properly apply the principles with the right mindset.

Students have often heard me say things like,

"You know why I did that? Because I can. But so can you!" 

"I can't believe you let me get away with that?"

"Really? You're going to let me get away with that?"

"Dude, trust me I'm not that fast, don't ever let me do that again, focus!"

"You know why you got hit? Because you didn't hit me when you had the chance. Don't hesitate any more take the shot and make me deal with it. If you don't take the shot you don't know if you can do it and I don't know if you're hitting the right way. Also, should I avoid it you never learn how I get out of the way and how to cut it off etc."

And on it goes. 

I play what I call "5th Dimensional Chess" with them to also "change" the way they view fighting and moving with their body. In my mind, I'm playing a more lethal version of "tag". I call it 5th Dimensional (5D Chess) because unlike 2D and 3D Chess from Star Trek. In 5D Chess, all of the pieces on the board are moving at the same time. 

This concept is alien in the martial arts because people want cookie cutter solutions to something that is chaotic at best where there is generally no time for "fight by the numbers" self-defense. Even in our own school, I've seen where on the one hand we discuss how the fight is utter chaos but then, on the other hand, we have folks when they train people who keep pushing them back into a box. First of all, there is no "box", second, why would you want to deny someone all of the possible freedom of action and movement the human body has to offer (something I'll get into in another posting because it really needs to be said...) when their very life may depend on it. But if you don't allow them the freedom to explore the possibility how do they know they can even do it? But I digress.

This is why it is "essential" that as you train you want to develop the Warrior Mindset, the Ruthless Intent, the Moral Certainty, the Mushin Mind, "the Will" to go there. The ability where in your mind, "No matter if the enemy has thousands of men, there is fulfillment in simply standing them off and being determined to cut them all down..."

You want to develop the will to take as many of them if necessary to the afterlife as humanly possible. This is especially crucial as you move, whether doing an exercise to enhance a specific attribute such as the Ninja Walk or Combat Balance Board for Balance, or Contact / Combat Flow. In all you do in your training it must always be in the back, front, side, middle or wherever you store shit in your head. This mindset needs to be there. It should be overflowing and seeping into every part of your body until it reaches a stage of unconscious competence where everything you do when you go into action falls to your will. 

[Special Side Note: maybe in one of these pieces I'll talk about how my Masters are able to move in a way that "influences" the movement of others. It is arguably the most astounding thing that John does because you don't see it. It is even more subtle than a football player or basketball player faking people out because they are doing it within movement whereas everything you do seems just "so right" until it "ain't"! And then you get hit. I'd be a liar if I told you I fully understood it. I can only offer my impressions and opinion on the matter but I'll tell you this. In "my opinion", it is a level of "adumbration" or foreshadowing of movement, that I'm sure others in ancient times where people fought up close all of the time.  Could do to varying degrees but couldn't explain it because they probably weren't aware they were even doing it. Because they damn sure didn't teach it to anyone! I've looked everywhere and no one on planet earth, "no one" has this and no one has ever written about it outside of fantastic tales of "fists of fury" or some other nonsense. "This" in my mind would go a long way to explaining why people thought the ancient masters had almost supernatural abilities. Sort of like drop hitting,  while there's a logical scientific basis for it until you feel it, it looks like magic or some sort of cheap trick.]

Anyway…

Dangerous Freedom

"Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem." ("I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery")

                             --Thomas Jefferson 

I've always loved this quote by Thomas Jefferson because it really cuts to the heart of the matter. The notion that you would rather live a life of freedom even if danger abounds than be a comfortable slave. I'm all about this mindset.

Sort of like the movie "I-Robot" where in order to protect humans the robots chose to enslave us to "protect us from ourselves" mind you, for our own good.

Riiiiight.....

Let's see if any of this below sounds familiar. 

"We may need to restrict some of your freedoms in order to protect you better."

What?

"We need more power, money, and control in order to better protect and provide for your safety." 

What?

Such talk is "the siren song of tyrants". 

Being a "security expert", I can tell you that for many Americans and Europeans whether they know it or not we already on some level live in a "prison" or surveillance state". But it's no one's fault but our own because we've allowed our fears to override our common sense and we've lost much of our pioneering spirit as a result. Without getting specific let's just say the Founding Fathers of this great nation are turning in their graves over the indignities we allow to happen to us on a daily basis. And we accept the narrative that we are safer now without any proof than before just because our governments at all levels or the media says so. Sure there have been improvements but at what price? When it costs us hundreds of millions of dollars to kill one terrorist you have to wonder. Just sayin...

"Free men" know better.

"In times of peace, a gentleman keeps his sword by his side."

                 --Old Samurai Maxim

I'm sorry, but my God, the God of Abraham, has already answered my prayers for the safety of my family in the form of "steel and black powder". Now, make no mistake no matter what a man does in life after they leave the military, "their hands never forget the rifle". 

Amen!

Recently, like the other day as of this writing, a friend of mine sent me an email stating that the Governor of “The People’s Republic of New York”, was going to pass legislation to make it easier for the state should the need arise, to confiscate firearms. Now, to be honest, I don’t know how much validity there is to this because you hear this sort of thing every time after an election, but I only had but one reply to the friend who sent me the message.

“Bring It!”.

Don’t get me wrong I’m all about obeying the law and upholding the rule of law but you can’t be "a Warrior" and fear the Shogun either. The last time I checked the Governor put his pants on the same way I do. And that’s what I mean. Our elected officials are public servants and I’m sorry but to be blunt, I am not their fucking subject! 

And never will I be…

They are not my kings, queens, earls or dukes. I am "Mr." to them.

My mind is very clear on this as well as my resolve and my “Intent”, and how I focus it respects no persons. This is what I’m talking about, this is the mindset one needs to develop if they are to conquer fear and live a life of true freedom. This is why you train a martial art, not to be a victim nor a slave in any capacity. Not to feel afraid, nor to be perceived as such but to walk boldly into the shadow of darkness, sword in hand ready to enter oblivion if necessary. This is the place where you need to raise your level of Ruthless Intent if necessary.

On Combat

 “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

                     ― Plato

Now, combat is fluid and ever-changing. We know this. Combat is certain for death is certain. Combat is both chaotic and confusing yet unambiguous at the same time. For what needs to be done is crystal clear. It is how to accomplish it that is confusing for the enemy gets a vote and is probably not down with your plan.  This understanding is as old as war itself and as long as there are human beings, as long as there is one person who has more than another or is perceived to be better off than another or perceived to be “lesser”. There will always be war…

This idea is no different than whether it is two nations fighting each other, two tribes or two people. A fight is a fight, war is war and a real fight is but a microcosm of war. Listen, when you train you train for war. When your train you train to win the battle. When you train you train to destroy your enemy. When you train you must train through the prism of life and death combat. When you train you must always train as if your life and that of your loved ones are on the line, because someday they very well may be.

"All of Greece knows what the right thing is to do but only the Spartans are willing to do anything about it."

                     --Quote Attributed to Plato

You must develop “perfect clarity” and “moral certainty” you must see your world as it is and as clearly as possible, and move through it always as if each day could be your last. Because it could be, God hasn’t promised any of us any tomorrows and if it’s your time then it’s your time. Period. And if it's your time? May you have done it well! But to live in fear of death, the dread of it as Lincoln once said, “is to die over and over”.

This is the warrior mindset, this is the warrior focus, this is the mindset that will allow you to develop the level of Ruthless Intent necessary to “go there” if need be. There is nothing brave about accepting death, it is “overcoming fear” that makes you brave.

I had a student recently asked me about this very thing as to what do I think about when training, and I’m sure I’ve stated this before. I said “killing bad guys”. It’s not a matter of whether I’m going to go out looking for trouble and I want to be clear about that because people all too often misconstrue such statements. It is that just as when I trained in the Marine Corps I always trained for war. It’s been my observation in the martial arts and even in Guided Chaos that too many people focus on the superfluous, the noise, the nonsense.

They do not train for life and death, they train to see who can best someone in class at some point in their training. They deceive their own souls and it is the very reason why they do not progress to the levels that they seek. It is why they do not achieve the level of mental focus and Ruthless Intent to push past pain, to push past their fears and find that space between "confidence" and "fear", that space we call “courage”.

They have forgotten their way and forgot why they bothered with all of this martial arts business in the first place. They have forgotten that all men are basically the same and that you’re either trained or you’re not. As Grandmaster Carron often stated and it is something I continue to reinforce in my own mind and live by,

“I don’t know if I can kick anyone’s ass, all I know is if you go there with me you’re going to have to kill me. Because it’s going to be like that.”

There was and has never been a shadow of a doubt in my mind where he was coming from with that. In all that he did, in the back if his mind, in the Intent of his actions, in his “moral will”.  That way of thinking was ever present. For him, he had reached a state of Mushin where his body would just "do it", and whatever it was going to be, more than likely "the luck" fell on his side because he put in the time to train properly both physically and mentally. Tim was an artist, a cook, a great photographer, a craftsman, a mechanic, a Veteran, you name it, if he put effort into it he was good at it if not great. But above all, he was “a weapon”.  At the end of the day, no matter what my Master Tim did, his hands never forgot the rifle. Like my other Master, John Perkins, no matter what else they did when it came to combat, their skills are and were the pure essence of "no bullshit"! Like me, John likes to have fun when he trains but do not deceive yourself nor confuse his laid back playful manner for weakness. "That" would be a fatal mistake... Grandmaster Tim Carron was no different. This is what I'm talking about, this is what you want to develop.

Next up I’m going to discuss my perspective on “Awareness” and some other stuff and things I feel people need to be focused on. As taught to me both directly and indirectly by my Masters.

Thanks.

LtCol Al Ridenhour

Senior Master Instructor

GUIDED CHAOS

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