Sunday, February 24, 2013

A Spiritual Experience

Mae-geri (front kick) to Yogo-geri (side kick)
to Ushiro-geri (back kick)

A. Assume the right-front stance in the ready position.
B. Apply a front kick with the left leg.
C. Return the kicking foot to the knee of the supporting leg and then apply a side kick to the side.
D. Again return the kicking foot to the supporting leg and kick to the rear with a back kick.
E. Reverse the position of the feet and practice the sequence of kicks with your right leg.

Dynamic Karate - M. Nakayama

A single cut to the right .. a divine cut to the center .. I fell.
One thrust through the solar plexus .. and darkness descended, before the light.

My Masters and teachers at the Buddhist temple never liked my ability to fight. They discouraged me from practicing that which I could not know .. as they secretly discussed my ability to know the unknowable. They did not understand and I did not understand. I was hundreds of years before my time!

Lost... Out of place .. and alone.

Day after day I would practice moves that I should not know! Not really understanding why I chose this path... Times change. In the next few hundred years, respect for the Monks within the temples would reach an all time low. A time when spirituality was perceived as a threat. Where peace was dangerous and where the minds of those who see were the most dangerous sword of all.

Deep in the middle of this conflict were the innocent Monks...
Trying to attain enlightenment in times of future war.

A Spiritual Experience
I told no one at the temple about the Invisible Guides... They were not part of the scriptures and they laughed at enlightenment. The Guides laughed so hard and so long that I had to consider: Why is the Buddha laughing? That was it, wasn't it? In all the statues and paintings there was the enigmatic smile of Buddha. The fat Buddha was laughing no matter what form he took: Medicine Buddha, travelling Buddha, wealth Buddha, spirituality and love... and they were all laughing. Why were they laughing?

I would leave the temple each day and the Guides would show me .. through my body .. complex moves .. kicks .. blocks and jumps. All of these moves hundreds of years ahead of the times I was born into. Why did they show me? How is it I could understand them? My body and my mind understood all the moves .. as I watched in amazement.

To the other Monks .. my brothers .. and to the Masters .. this all seemed like a form of violence. They tolerated me and my strange ways. They prayed for me. They tried to dissuade me from my strange behaviour. No one understood that, for me, this was a spiritual experience. I felt alive when I moved with the Guidance. I felt alive! But I could not teach... I was alone.

Times change .. and times changed within my lifetime! A brutal warrior class was born who cared nothing for spirituality and the sanctuary of respect.

They were highly skilled killers - on sale to the growing power of the warlords.

The chicken or the egg? Which was created first? Without the egg, there is no chicken .. and without the chicken, there is no egg. Who came first .. the ruthless warlords or the warriors? And .. why did both have the same brutal characteristics of mind? Perhaps, chicken or egg is the wrong question... As, both appear to have the same impulse at birth.

Who or what gave birth to the warlords and the warriors at the same time?

I was a Master of the peaceful fighting arts by the time I was killed.

I was not a killer... That, is the difference.

They came to kill my brothers .. and that is why I stood between them and the temple. It was not an act of war .. it was an act of defence.

I could hold to the last moment...

Seeing the fight .. the Masters began to move the Monks secretly from the temple. The older Monks would lead the younger apprentices out into the paths of the night. They fled as I fought .. and they suddenly understood .. we all understood.

The warrior never let go of his sword .. even though all I had was my body.

In reality, all I had was time.

He was an experienced killer .. whose sword had hacked countless opponents to the ground. His blade was thirsty for blood and more deaths. That was his way .. but it was not my way. I would not defeat him .. simply delay him. By the time I had finished .. my brothers would have disappeared into the night, never to be found. By the time I was finished .. the temple would be empty and eventually burned to the ground.

Only one man remained behind and did not move .. and that was my Master.

Go .. go .. why don't you move! Why does he not leave?

He did not leave .. he stayed there with me until our end.

Buddha says: It is easier to die than watch others die...

Master! Why don't you leave? Leave now!

The warrior opposing me was highly skilled. I felt sorry for him as he attacked me. Swinging his killer sword against a force he could not comprehend. I effortlessly sucked in and moved aside his violent power and deflected it with a power unknown to man. His muscles began to ache... The longer he had to fight .. the weaker he became.

I deflected him using his own violent force and intent to kill.

I never intended to kill him nor defeat him.

My defensive moves sucked in the mind of the whole attacking warlord's force. Why did they want to destroy the temple? Why did they want to destroy our world? Why were we a threat? I pulled their attention with the force. No one moved .. they all watched .. brutality was their focus. For the first time I felt compassion.

With desperate eyes the warrior gaze at me between stokes.

Eye to eye I saw his fear .. his despair .. and death.

How he feared death...

Master, why do you not leave... Please leave... Why does he stand there?

It was a spiritual experience .. a moment of compassion.

I could not kill the warrior. That was not my purpose!

Chicken or the egg? Buddha or disciple?


I was stronger .. as his arms began to show signs of weakness and fear.

I leaned my body into his right cut .. I lunged into his center swing and I forced myself into the final solar plexus kill.

The last thing I saw .. before I died .. was his fear.

May the Buddha bless you.

The warriors expected my Master to oppose them in the same way I had held them back .. but he did not oppose them. Together, with me, he simply died. The Master died as our beloved brothers silently disappeared into the dark strategic landscape we knew so well. Into the darkness .. into the light.

I fell for a long long time .. through the darkness .. through the shock. The Earth was changing. The Planet was in turmoil. These were physical spiritual wars. The force of violence against the force of peace. Why do the violent fear peace? I fell for a long long time.

We were happy .. we moved with the seasons .. we are not fighting people by choice. Legend says that c. 480 A.D. a wandering Buddhist teacher came to China from India. He was called Buddhabhadra, also known as Batuo or Fotuo in Chinese.

No one knows our true history.