Nice one Monabooks!!

Apparently the Essence of Internal Martial arts books I and II are sold out. I really shouldn’t have to repeat what I said in an earlier post about the necessity of reading these, but I really think that you need them in your life!

If you can brave the awful [sorry guys, but it's my professional opionion ] Monabooks website (don’t worry about the company behind the website, they’ve been going for years and a lot of people in the UK have them to thank for reading material over the last few years) you can get your hands on a copy or two before they disappear all together.

Go here and search for ESSENCE OF INTERNAL MARTIAL ARTS” and send them then link to this blog!

For those of you in the US, you might be able to get hold of them here

EDIT: Also try here at ryukyu books

EDIT: Table of contents for both books

Book 1

Table of Contents

---

Acknowledgements ………………………………….	v
About the Author ……………………………………..	vi
Preface …………………………………………………	xvi
Forward …………………………………………………	xvii

---

Section One:
Fighting Method and Theory

• Chapter 1. Foundation Movement and Applications
• Chapter 2. Rolling Hands: Kun Shou
• Chapter 3. Two-Man Sets
• Chapter 4. Free Form Fighting: San Shou
• Chapter 5. Internal Boxing Awareness Skills: Nei Ch’uan
• Chapter 6. The Six Combinations & Eight Methods
• Chapter 7. Establishing Realistic Training Goals

Section Two:
Eight Animal Fighting Methods and Theory

• Chapter 8. Eight Animal Fighting Characteristics of the I-Ching
• Chapter 9. The Lions & The Heaven Trigram: Ch’ien
• Chapter 10. The Unicorn & The Earth Trigram: K’um
• Chapter 11. The Snake & The Water Trigram: K’an
• Chapter 12. The Falcon & The Fire Trigram: Li
• Chapter 13. The Dragon & The Thunder Trigram: Chen
• Chapter 14. The Pheonix & The Wind Trigram: Sun
• Chapter 15. The Bear & The Mountain Trigram: Ken
• Chapter 16: The Monkey & The Lake Trigram: Tui

Section Three:
Palm Training Methods and Theory

• Chapter 17. Palm Training
• Chapter 18. Classical Palm Liniments
• Chapter 19. Stage One Palm Training
• Chapter 20. Stage Two Palm Training
• Chapter 21. Stage Three palm training
• Chapter 22. Harmful Side Effects of Incorrect Practicing

Section Four:
Death Touch Methods and Theory

• Chapter 23. Death Touch: Ssu Chu Chueh
• Chapter 24. Attacking the Nerves: T’ien Ching
• Chapter 25. Attacking the Blood Vessels: T’ien Hseuh
• Chapter 26. Attacking the Body’s Energy: T’ien Hsing Ch’i

Section Five
Healting Methods and Theory

• Chapter 27. Herbal Medicine
• Chapter 28. Tui Na: Massage and Acupressure

---

Glossary of Terms ……………………………………	300
References …………………………………………….	303
Also Available by the Author ……………………….	307
Book and Video Information ………………………..	310
Preview: Volume II Energy Theory & Cultivation……….	312
Afterword ……………………………………………….	315

Book 2

Table of Contents..	Page
Acknowledgements…	v
About the Author…	vi
Preface…………	xvi
Forward…………	xvii
Introduction…….	xviii
Section One - Metaphysical Boxing
Methods and Theory
CHAPTER 1. Metaphysical Boxing
1-1. Introduction	21
1-2. Energy Bubble	23
1-3. Projecting Energy	25
1-4. Projecting and Listening Exercises	28
1-5. Perceiving Energy Holes in your Opponent’s Energy Bubble	31
1-6. Awareness	32
1-7. Eight Direction Perception Meditation Stage One	36
1-8. Perception Meditation Stage Two	41
1-9. Perception Meditation Stage Three	42
CHAPTER 2. Increasing Psychic Awareness
2-1. Introduction	43
2-2. The Ego	46
2-3. The Psychic Opening	46
2-4. The Four Stages of Training Psychic Perception	48
2-5. Changing Emotional Energy of Ching into Building Ch’i	49
2-6. Transforming Ch’i into Shen	51
CHAPTER 3. Extending Energy
3-1. Introduction	53
3-2. Three Levels of Energy Extention	55
3-3. Ching Plane Energy Extention	56
3-4. Ch’i Plane Energy Extension	60
3-5. Shen Plane Energy Extension	65
3-6. Uprooting with Energy Extension	67
3-7. Sound Blast Resonation	68
3-8. Energy Associated with Emotion	70
3-9. The Five Emotions	72
CHAPTER 4. Transforming Emotions into Ch’i
4-1. Introduction	79
4-2. Healing Sounds and Colors	80
4-3. Fusion of Body, Emotion and Spirit	80
CHAPTER 5. Auras and Emotional Energy
5-1. Introduction	83
5-2. Shen Kung Meditation	86
5-3. Physical Body Tissue Colors	88
5-4. Energetic Body Aura Colors	88
CHAPTER 6. The Integration of Body, Mind, Emotion & Spirit
6-1. Introduction	89
6-2. Emotional Energy and Functional Applications	92
6-3. The Four Transitions of the Internal Boxer	95
6-4. The Four Transitions of Light	96
6-5. The Four Transitions of Darkness	101
CHAPTER 7. Time Displacement
7-1. Introduction	105
7-2. The Foundation is the Mind	105
7-3. The Importance of Waiting	106
7-4. Five Stages of Attack	107
7-5. Scientific Explanation	108
7-6. Time Displacement Meditations	109
Section Two - Energy Cultivations
CHAPTER 8. Hidden Truths Of Energy Training
8-1. Introduction	113
8-2. The Three Treasures of Alchemical Dimensions	116
8-3. Internal and External Development	119
8-4. Kinetic Communication	119
8-5. Heart Communication	121
8-6. Visual Communication	122
8-7. Internal Transitions - Level One	124
8-8. Internal Transitions - Level Two	127
8-9. Internal Transitions - Level Three	130
Section Three - Vibrational Training Methods and Theory
CHAPTER 9. I-Ch’uan
9-1. Introduction	133
9-2. Purpose and Goal	134
9-3. Stillness	136
9-4. Preparation and Practice	138
CHAPTER 10. I-Ch’uan Stage One: Static Postures
10-1. Introduction	139
10-2. I-Ch’uan Postures	140
CHAPTER 11. I-Ch’uan Stage Two: Imagery and Intent
11-1. Introduction	145
CHAPTER 12. Joint Opening
12-1. Tendon and Ligament Stretching	149
CHAPTER 13. Marrow Washing and Draining
13-1. Introduction	151
13-2. The Three Stages of Marrow Washing	151
13-3. Marrow Draining	153
CHAPTER 14. Bone Breathing and Squeezing
14-1. Introduction	155
14-2. Stage One - Cleaning	156
14-3. Stage Two - Rebuilding	157
14-4. Stage Three - Squeezing	159
CHAPTER 15. I-Ch’uan Stage Three: Vibration
15-1. Introduction	161
15-2. Resonant Vibrations	163
15-3. Body Vibration	164
15-4. Alignment for Level Three I-Ch’uan	167
15-5. Stage Three I-Ch’uan Exercises	168
15-6. Exercise One	170
15-6. Exercise Two	171
15-6. Exercise Three	172
15-6. Exercise Four	173
15-6. Exercise Five	174
15-6. Exercise Six	174
15-6. Exercise Seven	175
15-6. Exercise Eight	176
15-6. Exercise Nine	177
Section Four - Discharging Energy Methods and Theory CHAPTER 16. Explosive Power: Fa Chin
16-1. Introduction	179
16-2. Discharging Internal Power: “Fa Chin”	180
16-3. Bone Linkage	182
16-4. Four main Energies of Attack	183
16-5. Rippling the Spine	184
16-6. Key Points to Remember	185
16-7. Explanation of Shaking the Spine	186
16-8. Explanation of Whipping the Spine	187
16-9. Reeling the Silk: Drilling Energy	187
16-10. Pulling the Silk: Snapping Energy	187
16-11. Shaking and Releasing	188
16-12. Meteor Shatters the Earth	189
16-13. Structural Connection and Alignment	190
16-14. Martial Integrations	191
16-15. Key Points to Remember During the Transfer of Chin	193
16-16. Sixteen Steps to Transferring Chin	194
CHAPTER 17. I-Ch’uan Stage Four: Movement and Martial Application
17-1. Introducton	195
17-2. Theory of the Ball	196
17-3. Rolling and Drawing Back	197
17-4. Striking	199
17-5. The Hands	200
17-6. Stepping or Walking	201

Furious Angels - Boondock Video

Furious Angels - Boondock

The finest MMA highlight video I have ever seen.
Blood, emotion, glory and crushing defeats; it touched me.
So much more than the uneducated and ignorant view that ‘it’s just two men fighting’

It may be, and perhaps should be, difficult to accept the notion that a prizefighter’s work merits the same kind of attention we lavish on an artist’s, but once we begin attending to and describing what he does in the ring, it becomes increasingly difficult to refuse the expenditure. The fighter creates a style in a world of risk and opportunity. His disciplined body assumes the essential postures of the mind: aggressive and defensive, elusively graceful with its shifts of direction, or struggling with all its stylistic resources against a resistant but, until the very end, alterable reality. A great fighter redefines the possible.

Meditation Books UK

A bit of an experiment in making a website of books that are relevant to this blog.
If you fancy a look at some meditation and chi kung books then have a peek at Meditation Books UK

Gym Jones

These guys are without doubt - real men.
eg:
KNOWLEDGE
What you know does not matter - what you do matters. Physical training
produces physical memories - not simply muscle memory but a
psychophysical imprint, knowledge that is instinctual rather than
intellectual. This is useful knowledge. However, before you can forget
and allow the unconscious to take over you need to learn it by heart
and learn it well enough to write it in blood.

Go there and get a learning - Gym Jones

A training philosophy

I had a bit of an epiphany today: coming home from work and feeling hungry, I wanted to do some QiGong but also to eat. Bit of a dilemma as you’re not really supposed to eat before training, or is it after… or actually in some of the classics isn’t it no training an hour before and an hour after! So what am I going to do… I was thinking about this when I had the epiphany; simply ‘just fuck it -  train!’

Nothing too complicated there, but what has that brief insight done for me: I have now trained when I might not have done if I had allowed myself to be bound by someone else’s rules that might have suited them, I have got rid of the potential for procrastination and now I have the time available later to train some more. nice one

Extrapolating this concept, you get: I’m tired - fuck it train! I might not pay as much attention to my training because I’m a bit distracted - fuck it train! I’m in a rush - fuck it train! et cetera

I can’t help thinking that this is possibly a training philosophy that a lot of people use. clearly there’s a potential for over training, but remembering ‘moderation in all things’ will help out there, as long as I don’t start using some kind of limp wristed form of moderation as an excuse for not training when I can.

There is nothing training cannot do. Nothing is above its reach. It can turn
bad morals to good; it can destroy bad principles and recreate good ones; it
can lift men to angelship -
- Mark Twain

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ”Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.
- Muhammad Ali

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.
- Winston Churchill

Continuous effort, not strength or intelligence, is the key to unlocking our potential.
- Liane Cardes

To exercise at or near capacity is the best way I know of reaching a true introspective state. If you do it right, it can open all kinds of inner doors.
- Al Oerter

Three failures denote uncommon strength. A weakling has not enough grit to fail thrice.
- Minna Thomas Antrim

A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others.
- Confucius

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Latest Martial Arts/Meditation book releases RSS feeds

You can use these RSS feeds to always be kept up to date with the latest book releases and pre-release info from Amazon UK for the following subjects:

Internal Martial Arts	Tai Chi	Bagua
Martial Arts	Wing Tsun	Systema
MMA	Meditation	QiGong
Chi Kung	The 5 Tibetans	Aikido

Hope these help!

Edit: Turns out you can stick these bad boys into the sidebars in WordPress. Look to your right and below the Related blogs and Categories sections and you should see a lot of interesting book links!

Edit: Use these for the US

Internal Martial Arts	Tai Chi	Bagua
Martial Arts	Wing Tsun	Systema
MMA	Meditation	QiGong
Chi Kung	The 5 Tibetans	Aikido

The Modified 5 Tibetans

I reciently found out that there is a modified version of the Five Tibetans! For more information than I’m willing to give out here you really need to get this book:

Your Hands Can Heal You (UK)
Your Hands Can Heal You (US)

Now, there’s no doubt for shit titles this bad boy ranks right up there with classics like the legendary ‘Path Notes…’ But hot damn were those books good! This one is packed full of the good stuff:

Contents

Foreword by Grandmaster Choa Kok Sui

Introduction by Eric B. Robins, M.D.
Note on Nomenclature

PART I - How Your Body and Mind Work
Chapter 1: You’re Wired for Healing — Your Energetic Anatomy
Chapter 2: The True Nature of Your Mind — How It Protects You and Hurts You

PART II - The six steps to self-Healing
STEP 1: Clearing Negative Emotions and Limiting Beliefs
Chapter 3: All Clear! — Removing Emotionally Based Energetic Blockages
STEP 2: Pranic Breathing
Chapter 4: Take a Deep Breath — Pranic Breathing
STEP 3: Energy Manipulation
Chapter 5: Hands Up! Scanning — Hand Sensitivity and General Scanning
Chapter 6: Hands Up! More Scanning — Specific Scanning and Interpreting Results
Chapter 7: Out With the Old — Sweeping Away Congested Energy, Cleaning Your Aura
Chapter 8: Pump It Up — Energizing Areas of Depletion
Chapter 9: Rainbow Power — Using Colors
STEP 4: Energetic Hygiene
Chapter 10: Keep It Clean — The Importance of Energetic Hygiene
STEP 5: Meditation
Chapter 11: Easy Ways to Put Your Mind at Ease — Meditations for Peace and Stillness
STEP 6: Energy-Generation Exercises <— Here are the modified 5 Tibetans and the Mentalphysics excercises
Chapter 12: Plugging In, Charging Up — Two Powerful Energy-Generation Exercises

Train more than you sleep

Now, to be perfectly honest, it’s been absolutely ages sine I’ve done any meditation or Nei Gong practice. What I have been doing is training in the Martial Art I study and going to the gym pretty regularly. So I suppose all is not lost…

What have I learnt from this period of no meditation. Well, compared to when I was meditating - ie doing the 100 days and the 5 Tibetans, I can surprisingly definitely feel a difference.

• Getting out of bed in the mornings is harder
• My mental state seems a bit more fuzzy (sorry about the bad description here)
• I feel that I am having more problems concentrating and recalling knowledge

The main thing that I feel is that I’m wasting time. Why wasting time? Well what the bloody hell am I not doing practising? Not practising is wasting time in my book. Mas Oyama (who apparently graded my flatmate once!) once admonished that one should, ‘train more than you sleep.’ Now, I love my sleep, there’s no doubt about that! So how can I train more than I sleep? That seems to be another area where the meditation had helped - I felt that I needed less sleep, or maybe just that the sleep I was getting was better quality; who knows? But as far as I am concerned I’m definitely worse off not meditating, so I’m going to start it back up sharpish!

My decision to get back in the saddle has in no small part been influenced by my re-reading of Glenn Morris Soke’s Shadow Strategies book and also my renewed interest in Pressure Points as applied to combat. Some Pressure point related book I can recommend without any worries are:

‘Foundations of Martial Science’ and ‘Advanced Martial Science’ Volumes I and II by one of the Dragon Societies’ Masters, Michael Patrick - These books are without doubt the best and most lucid explanations of TCM applied to the combat arts I have ever heard of, let alone read! Just get yourself to the Dragon Society (DSI)
website or go to the Café Press website and get them to run you off some copies.

Also (and it’s been such a good month for quality books!) you would have to be a Goddamn idiot not to have these books in your library: The Essence of Internal Martial Arts - Volumes I and II by Master Jerry Alan Johnson. There is so much authentic good stuff in these books I don’t even know where to start. If I had to thank the author for every good piece of information that I hadn’t seen anywhere else that’s in these books, I’d be at it all week. Go to his website and [edit: they have changed the page location, updated the link] buy some copies.[Edit: it's out of stock there though, but try the mighty Monabooks site they have it]

As well as the books above, I managed to pick up the best Pressure Point/Kyusho atlas I now have the privilege of owning. The graphics in this bad boy are outstanding. Yes, even better than Marc Tedeschi’s - Essential anatomy for Healing and the Martial Arts. It’s called ‘Pressure Point Locations - The art of Kyusho Jitsu’ by Justin Partridge. This bloke’s an Aussie, so it’s a job well done there. You want to get this, email info@kyushokarate.com and tell them this blog sent you.

The last of the notable mentions, and defiantly not the least, goes to The ‘Okinawan Kyusho Jitsu / Tuite Jitsu Study Guide’ by Gary W. Rooks - This is the guy that introduced the energetic sound projection to martial arts in the 20th century and he manages to pack a lot of goodies into this pretty thin volume. Go to www.RooksKarate.net to get your self one of these

Gone a bit off on a tangent with post. Basically I’m going to start practising again.