Oct 25 I was with two friends at the beginning of my trip in June who represent what I would call balanced individuals. Hector and Auka. Both with brilliant minds, strong bodies, successful in their chosen careers, and both grounded in the empowering practice of knowing the skills of self defense. When we met we sat around a table at my friends home on the mountain top. John. My martial arts friend. My brother/friend. Nothing about these three would suggest machismo, bravado, or would give you the impression that they were the types of personalities that enjoyed a good street tussle, or as my Irish friends would sometimes express, is this a private fight or can any one join in? No, these three friends and so many other martial artists I have had the pleasure learning with are some of the most outwardly kind and gentle, yet confident and self expressed people I know. But unlike others without the high skills to apprehend an attacker on the street these martial arts friends have an added measure of confidence. They understand what to do in the event that they or someone in their sphere of awareness is taken advantage of. Martial artist are trained body guards. It doesnt mean that they will win. It means that their mind and body will not shrink from someone attempting to intimidate and subdue them with force. Is this important, a friend asked me over a dinner table recently. We have effective police agencies. Just call the cops. Yes, by all means, call them. But know that they cannot read a criminals mind. Unless luck is on your side, and a police officer is right there, you will be on your own during an attack. Learning the arts of self defense will give you the edge. That edge will make a world of difference. The difference is this. Without skills of self defense we are all victims. With those skills we have a strong chance to win. The one who wins in a fight gets to establish the rules for peace. During the 1500s a young and brilliant Indian scholar, Guru Nanak, became so thoroughly fed up with the Hindu caste system and the abhorrent behavior of men toward women as second class citizens that he rose up and formed a ideology based on the belief that a god force existed everywhere in everything and all the time. All people where equal in this god force. Therefore all people should live as equals. Women no longer walked behind men, no longer were beaten by men, were given all the freedoms and rights a man is given. And not just women, but all people, even the untouchables, like guys like me who walk around on crutches. But how exactly does such an ideal not get crushed by surrounding kingdoms who live within the confines of a slavery market. They realized that each member of their country needed to become a martial artist. A saint soldier. They became so effective in learning the arts of self defense that during the British military occupation of the Sikh state, Punjab, there came a stalemate between the British and the Sikhs. Finally the Brits, whose fire power far exceeded the Sikhs, realized that annihilation became certain, the British handed out a flag of truce in which they offered the Sikhs a elevated military post within the expanded empire. This way the Sikh army could survive and be honored. At the most empowering level, the rule every Sikh lives by is that if a person sees an crime being conducted and does nothing to stop it then the watcher is just as guilty as the criminal. To learn the martial arts in such a world is a duty. In such a world criminals would become scarce. Learning the martial arts, or developing the skills of stopping an attacker is a duty that every person with a benevolent heart, I believe, has a responsibility to learn. I am proud of my martial arts friend for taking on this duty and freedom. Today I am traveling home, thus fishing my 900 Mile End Polio Now Bike Tour. Thank you for your many, many words of encouragement. To learn more, go to endpolionow.org I will release my eBook about this journey shortly: Moving Fast, Sitting Still
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 18:11:57 +0000
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