Who knew? TanDao has gone viral in India. Our video Bodhidharma and True Power, suddenly has jumped to over 1,000 hits a day for the past two weeks. We’ve received thanks from proud Tamilians from Southern India, who express appreciation for our video introducing this legend.

Lawrence Tan

Tweet

Check out our Tiger Combat book on Smashwords

There are life lessons everywhere, even in the most unlikely of places. For the Evolving Martial Artist, fighting is a metaphor for life. Engaging a daunting adversary who hits and inflicts pain is like entering the every day battles of life. Hell, it hurts.

Tough lessons are often employed by Shaolin kung fu masters to teach the tough demands of combat. And life. In American history, the Gold Rush brought people to the Black Hills of South Dakota and as the camp grew, a town sprung up around the prospecting. David Milch’s ground breaking Western HBO series Deadwood, based on real characters and events in the Old West, was a study in human evolution and our struggle to bring chaos to order.

In this scene from Deadwood, Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) the complex protagonist, ruthless and brutal, yet with his own morals, loyalties, and even at times, kindness, imparts a life lesson to the Deadwood’s newspaper publisher, A.W. Merrick (Jeffrey Jones) who is demoralized by violent misfortune, after being threatened, finds his office and printing press vandalized and in ruin. In Swearengen we see a classic example of the Eastern zen slap or as we say in the West, a kick in the ass.

However crude, it is wisdom for martial artists and non-martial artists alike.

Lawrence Tan & Toni Josephson

Tweet

Our recent special edition TanDao Fight Lab, titled Moon Dragon, is lyrical and reflective – different from our usual high testosterone fueled videos on the science of fighting. Instead of tips on biomechanics, strategy and techniques to enhance the martial warrior’s strikes and kicks, this piece goes further down the martial path to the mysterious realms of Zen and the Dao.

Many martial warriors, practical fighters and combat athletes focused on reality fighting may view the ephemeral side of martial arts movement as irrelevant for the street and ring. Of course, there is the problem of form and function: it is one thing to devastate imaginary opponents with techniques by gracefully waving your arms through the air. It is another, to adapt those movements against a real attacker, unpredictable, uncooperative and dangerous.

But Evolving Martial Artists, already proficient in kicking ass, are open to exploring the aesthetic and spiritual aspects. The way of movement transcends fighting. Yet our world is violent. So when push comes to shove, the martial monk’s peaceful moving meditation is transformed into the science of combat.

Let us know how you feel about this video.

Power and peace,
Lawrence Tan

Tweet

Do you know this guy? If you are a student of Okinawan, Japanese, Korean or Chinese martial arts, you recognize him as Bodhidharma or Damo. Legend says he was a Buddhist monk from India who taught moving meditation exercises (Yi Jin Jing) to strengthen the bodies of the monks. These yoga-like mind/ body postures became seeds from which Shaolin warrior monk fighting styles evolved.

Apart from being the founder of Shaolin kung fu and zen meditation which profoundly influenced karate, tae kwon do and kung fu systems, we don’t know the true significance of this enigmatic figure. Does this bulging eyed monk have any relevance to training on TanDao Fight Lab or surviving on the streets or ring?

True, Damo’s martial connection is obscure. Lets face it: there are no tales of him unleashing his martial skills. Not even against bandits that roamed the land. Yet his power is alluded to in the tale that he crossed the Yangtze River floating on a leaf. Spiderman couldn’t have done it without his webbing. Another tale: while sitting in meditation for nine years in a cave he could hear the ants scream. But how does this relate to side kicks, hip throws and wrist locks?

Zen and kung fu teachings are always subtle. Underlying these two stories are basic keys to power: balance and awareness. Standing poised on a reed adrift on the river’s tumultuous currents implies the importance of balance taught in stance training. A stable and maneuverable stance is the basis for powerful and efficient techniques. Consider how supreme physical balance and body control is vital for combat.

The second tale points to the power of the mind. Zen meditation develops heightened intuitive awareness that augments all physical techniques. With a heightened development of the senses and mental perception, you can detect an opponent’s intentions before they manifest in a technique. Who knew that mental and physical principles of power could be concealed in Damo’s exploits?

Balance and awareness are principles underlying martial arts mastery be it mma, tang soo do or capoeira. Evolving Martial Artists awaken to practical meaning veiled in traditional tales. Review our TanDao Fight Lab videos. How will Damo’s hidden principles of balance and awareness maximize the power behind the techniques? Think about it.

Keep practicing and pondering,
Lawrence Tan

Tweet

We want to thank Neil Hall, Chief Instructor of London Chinatown Tae Kwon Do, for his inspiring post, The Most Important Person in the Room. In it he raises insights on on mastery, “The essence, I would say, is master yourself in context of others.”

Whether intentional or not, his message echoes the hidden spiritual seeds of Shaolin, where martial arts is interwined with Bodhidharma’s Zen Buddhism. In Buddhism, the source of many far eastern martial arts, the ideal of an enlightened master took on two models: the arhat (lohan in Chinese) and the bodhisattva.  Arhats are perfected masters revered for their disciplined journey to awakening and are role models to emulate.  But the bodhisattva took spiritual awareness to another stage.  In this state of consciousness, the compassionate master nobly forsakes nirvana or final liberation (release from the Matrix, so to speak) until all others are enlightened.

What does this have to do with martial arts? Shaolin spiritual ideals are universal.  To become a complete martial artist, power is not just about developing physical strength for a side kick or punch to defeat the opponent, but the inner strength to conquer ourselves like the arhat.  And like the bodhisattva, the wisdom to use our power for the well being of others.  As Neil Hall states, “when we focus on others, when we think of them first, only then are we on the way.”

That the popular notion of martial art mastery should expand beyond self-defense to self-transformation is to reconnect to the deepest roots of the Shaolin spiritual legacy.  Is this too much of a leap? Not for Evolving Martial Artists.

Lawrence Tan

Tweet

No Time to Train? Practice Mentally

Evolving Martial Artists practice daily. No. It doesn’t mean dragging ourselves out of bed at dawn as some do in the romanticized Asian tradition. It doesn’t even mean working out every day. In fact our hectic lifestyle and our “to do lists” crammed with career, school, personal and family responsibilities, many martial artists can only get to the dojo, dojang or kwoon once or twice a week.

But there are once secret methods harried modern martial artists can borrow from the Shaolin martial monk tradition that traces to Bodhidharma the legendary founder of zen meditation. Influenced from TanDao, we practice mentally.

Samurai, ninja, and Daoist priests understood the value of meditation –- and mental training through visualization. Sports medicine verifies that the human nervous system responds to vivid mental imaging as if the body were actually performing the activity. Visualization is a powerful technique, part of martial arts meditation practice for centuries, being employed by today’s savvy athletes.

Although sitting quietly on our butts and chanting OM or counting breaths, may seem excruciatingly boring – even stressful – or irrelevant to young warriors bursting with physical energy, learning the mental techniques of visualization is a powerful way to practice when we don’t have time or energy to train our bodies. So at odd moments during the day, waiting for the elevator, riding the subway or sipping your coffee, we can visualize and perfect that back fist, side kick or throw.

And if you can’t get to the dojo, you can watch our TanDao Fight Lab series at your computer for tips to give you the martial edge.

Practice for power and peace,

Lawrence Tan

Tiger Claw download — now available in DVD!
Check out our TanDao Fight Labs and our ebooks and videos
TanDao For Evolving Martial Artists is the first martial art vbook ever! Watch a book.

Tweet

Today martial artists acknowledge Bruce Lee as the force for popularizing the art of kicking ass rooted in China’s Shaolin Temple, source of Far East fighting arts. Yet the original force behind the Shaolin legacy is Bodhidharma. The blue eyed, bearded monk from India founded Shaolin kung fu. He was a monk, not a warrior. More importantly, Bodhidharma is the founder of Zen (Chan in Chinese) – a way of awakening based on sitting meditation.

Meditation improves our martial skills. The focused mind, emotionally calm,  and mentally clear liberates our fighting responses; they become natural, spontaneous and efficient. This is especially important during a fearful situation. True power is rooted in the mind not the body. The old masters teach meditation as a potent way to help control our body’s reactions. We learn to recover from panic. Breathe. We become more intuitive. If we think of the mind as a muscle, then meditation is push ups for the mind. After consistent practice, the mind gets stronger, flexible and concentrated. And we discover secrets of the body, subtleties in executing technique that we once thought we knew.

Beyond Bruce Lee and kicking ass, the true value of regularly sitting cross legged will enhance our daily lives by reducing stress and finding a discipline of stillness. There are further benefits for those who delve deeper into Bodhidharma’s teachings to become inner warriors who seek awakening.

The Evolving Martial Artist works to get the edge. You want it? Meditate.

Lawrence Tan

Check out our premium downloads – TanDao TIGER COMBAT ebook and video to learn realistic animal fighting.

Watch a martial art video

There are life lessons everywhere, even in the most unlikely of places. For the Evolving Martial Artist, fighting is a metaphor for life. Engaging a daunting adversary who hits and inflicts pain is like entering the every day battles of life. Hell, it hurts.

Tough lessons are often employed by Shaolin kung fu masters to teach the tough demands of combat. And life. In American history, the Gold Rush brought people to the Black Hills of South Dakota and as the camp grew, a town sprung up around the prospecting. David Milch’s ground breaking Western HBO series Deadwood, based on real characters and events in the Old West, was a study in human evolution and our struggle to bring chaos to order.

In this scene from Deadwood, Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) the complex protagonist, ruthless and brutal, yet with his own morals, loyalties,and even, at times, kindness, imparts a life lesson to the Deadwood’s newspaper publisher, A.W. Merrick (Jeffrey Jones) who is demoralized by violent misfortune, after being threatened, finds his office and printing press vandalized and in ruin. In Swearengen we see a classic example of the Eastern zen slap or as we say in the West, a kick in the ass.

However crude, it is wisdom for martial artists and non-martial artists alike.

Lawrence Tan & Toni Josephson

One of our evolving martial artists, Arnuld, commented in response to our Bruce Lee Mythology post. He asked if Bruce Lee invented the ideas of having no style and formless technique. Here are some thoughts:

Lee’s Influence

Bruce Lee was influential in modernizing traditional martial arts through his Jeet Kune Do philosophy. He was innovative, though not original, in his modern expression of ancient Chinese thoughts. As an iconoclast, Lee was critical of orthodox secrecy and exclusiveness, anachronistic training methods, forms and lack of realistic sparring. While he popularized martial arts, Lee used more creative rearrangement than invention.

Wu Men, Wu Pai: No Style

Bruce Lee was an avid reader of Chinese martial art pop fiction, known as knight errant tales (wu xia xiao xuo).  A common theme is a mysterious swordsman who appears out of nowhere to save the day, with unorthodox fighting  referred to as “wu men, wu pai.” This translates as “no style, no system”. The master is expressing the Daoist idea of the martial art zenith, beyond form, system and technique. It is the ability to move naturally and spontaneously in the way (the Dao) of movement. This may have influenced Lee.

Wu Xing: Formlessness

All of Bruce Lee’s “modern” ideas are rooted in ancient tradition. They are taken from Zen Buddhism and in particular, his ideas echo Daoism, China’s spiritual philosophy of nature. The motto of JKD, “use no way as your way and to use no limitation as your limitation” is classic Daoist thought. When Lee expounds on being shapeless and formless (wu xing) and to “become like water” as a metaphor for expressing technique and strategy, he is paraphrasing famous verses from Lao Tzu’s 2,500 year old text, the Dao De Jing.

Dao – The Way

Daoism teaches mastery of life and all of its disciplines through the discovery of, and adherence to, the Way (Dao). The Way means taking a path that follows natural laws. According to Lee’s interpretation of the Dao, this meant that both forms and styles are unnatural and unnecessary. While traditionalists would agree that the ultimate goal is transcendence of form, forms are first taught as an essential foundation — believing that you cannot transcend what you have not experienced.

To Lee, this ultimate stage of having no style justified his rejection of classical systems and form training, the very methodology of kung fu. Lee’s philosophy, though subjective, has liberated the arcane elements of classical martial arts. It brings to mind that “there is nothing new under the sun.” Or in this case, under the Dao.

What do you think about this question and our answer? You can read Arnuld’s comment under our Bruce Lee Mythology post. And visit his website

Lawrence Tan & Toni Josephson

Check out our latest Crane video

Download our free Shaolin Crane Ebook

The Japanese poetic form Haiku communicates these little insightful “Zen” moments. In its simplicity, haiku conveys clean expression with few words. Content, meaning and color combine in compressed form as a clear mental image captures a feeling. It is the experience of fleeting things and change, like the seasons. Little life moments. Experienced and shared. Happening.

The social media microblogging site Twitter has a Zen quality. The premise of Twitter? Answer the question “what are you doing”? Each post, called a tweet is like a haiku – a fluid expression of a moment in time. Though Twitter doesn’t follow the formal haiku structure (3 lines; 5/7/5 syllables), here one is unburdened by verbosity (there is a 140 character limit on Twitter posts) as our human travails and observations are expressed. Little life moments. Experienced and shared. Happening.

Here’s our Zen moment (really), while writing this was posted on Twitter by fakelvis:

“A cup of tea in bed, antithetical, but I love it.”

Toni Josephson

Join Twitter: http://twitter.com/

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tanandtoni