THE MANNER OF DYING

HOW you die is as important as when you die or where you die, if not more so. That everyone and everything dies is a truism everyone seems to accept. The goal of many is to live a long life and to die peacefully, but few really achieve this, and many end up in a drugged stupor surrounded by strangers and not family or friends. Their machine(s) are kept alive as long as possible by 'scientific' apparatus and other methodologies. Eventually all the systems shut down and someone tries to determine the time of actual death,etc. Then the body is given some procedures to either bury or burn it and then comes various rites and rituals, ceremonies and so forth for either remembrance(s), accolades and tribute and testimonies, or to whisk the 'soul' onits way to Heaven or Hell, Paradise, or Eternal Slumber and so forth. This happens only in countries where such can take place,but the truth is that many people simply die in the streets or wilds and GREAT NATURE consumes them. In fact, GREAT NATURE and THE GREAT UNIVERSE absorb all the released energies of life which GREAT NATURE & THE GREAT UNIVERSE utilize in many ways, mostly hidden, obscure, etc. to us! What has any of this to do with MARTIAL ARTS? Martial arts in their esoteric aspects are designed to prepare us for death as well as to assist GREAT NATURE in absorbing energies released when we kill or destroy,as martial artists,who lhave great responsibilties in this regard.

MORE ON LETHALITY AND MUCH THE SAME!

Although all martial arts practice invoke risk of injury as well as death, it is my observation that nearlyall of them as shown on Dvd,U-tube,MMA,and at tournaments,etc. with perhaps some rare exceptions, all lack what can be termed 'lethality'. It is obvious that most demos and bouts,though sometimes multiples are involved, which usually involve two persons facing each other, that no one is going to really killed or severely crippled,injured,etc. as a result. If you know this then you are really only going to evaluate it as such on the basis of certain factors(to be considered another time) and you cannot really state if they are truly 'lethal' tactics,deadly, or capable of killing. Do we need to prove such lethality? Laws and regulations,etc. are against such proofs and on today's battlefileds hand-to-hand,traditional, classical methods are seldom employed because of high-tech weaponry and the like. More to be said on this war/combat aspect another time. The point is that nearly all those taking up martial arts ahve not and probably won't ever kill anyone with their bare hands,unarmed,though some may kill with knives, sticks,etc. either accidentally or on purpose.

LETHALITY

In nearly all martial arts and various practices related to martial arts, there is always the risk of danger, injury, as well as the possibility of death, it might seem, just as there is in nearlyevery human activity. Martial arts are assumed to be somewhat lethal and are to be used with caution and discretion, as most experts and masters tend to assert and insist. HOWEVER, I notice among all the various demos and matches and antics in and out of the ring,etc. a complete lack of LETHALITY. Few persons enter such with the exact notion of killing or crippling their opponents, all in the name of sport and competition, and we are all advised to save such for what are considered 'rare',life threatening, and dangerous situations, but clearly a 'kill or be killed' attitude and effort are lacking no matter how many injuries are sustained or how 'brutal,. such instances appear. A great fear of legal implications,even in wartime, hangs over the real warrior who usually these days uses guns and other weapons. This concept of LETHALITY is difficult to explain, let alone demonstrate, in any seminar or workshop or training program and is completely ignored for the most part for all kinds of reason. The Japanese during WWII had little hesitation in showing how sharp theair swords were on the necks of Chinese, Americans, British,Dutch, Filipinos, Indonesians,and other captives. There would be little doubt in the minds of those witnessing such that lethality exists and such weapons can and are lethal. NO THEORY THAT! The same also applied to ju-jutsu, arnis, karate,etc. because they can be very lethal when this concept is fully understood(and it never is for a number of reasons) and is not necessarily the same as 'cruelty',barbarism' 'torture' or the like when you have to call upon this LETHALITY to survive. There is always more to be said on such but I think we can safely say that most practitoners and students of martial arts as undergoing training today have not intentionally killed anyone using these martial arts. There are exceptions,no doubt.

ESOTERIC

The word 'esoteric' means 'inner' whereas the word 'occult' has come to mean 'hidden'. There are three forms of knowledge, that is, esoteric/occult. Which means also there are three forms of existence among humans who pursue these things: THE ESOTERIC;THE MESOTERIC; and THE EXOTERIC-but the outermost circle, if we conceive of humanity being divided or,rather, framed within circles of existence, is the OUTER CIRCLE OF HUMANITY to which most of humanity belongs in and in which they live. The Law Of Accident operates very strongly in the Outer Circle and GREAT NATURE tends to rule over things on the earth.