Live with Zen Simplicity Achieve Your Dreams Laugh at Your Tormentors
Whether you study martial arts and are searching for “the philosophy,” or are just someone who wants clarity in life, this book helps.
A lot.
I’ve been practicing and teaching martial arts for over 30 years. I was a teenager when I began, and one of the things that attracted me to the training, besides being able to handle bullies, was the thought that I might someday carry myself with the regal, yet humble self-possession of a Taoist Sage!
I’m still working on that last part . . .
Whatever you’re looking for, you’re just like a lot of the people who have come into my school over the years. You want some answers, but you don’t want a lecture.
I understand.
As a matter of fact, no matter how much my students would ask me about “the philosophy,” I was always reluctant to discuss it.
I had seen too many other instructors get up on their hind legs during tests, and at seminars and training camps, and make big, important sounding speeches about “the way,” and so on.
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But then again, I thought,
A teacher shouldn’t be afraid to teach!
What I eventually ended up doing was getting a wax board for the wall of our workout area. Each week I’d post a “thought for the week” - a saying, a quote from the Tao The Ching, a proverb, anything to get the students thinking.
Then I’d ask THEM what it meant
This worked beautifully. I don’t risk turning into a “guru,” my students have to think, we learn from each other, and we all leave class with a fuller understanding of why we train and what it is we’re supposed to be getting out of all this - inside the School and out, with or without martial arts.
That’s what a good school should do for you and that’s exactly what Bend the Bow and Shoot the Tiger does.
It shows us how we can use these aphorisms in both the study of martial arts, and in day-to-day living.
This books’ contents aren’t restricted to Eastern writers. Included are such diverse thinkers as Samuel Butler, Aristotle, Tecumseh, Sir Francis Bacon, Aldous Huxley, the Navy SEALs, Oscar Wilde, George M. Fraser’s fictional rogue Harry Flashman, Heraclitus, Ed Parker, Sandor Marai, Ortega Y Gassett, Wm. James, Eugen Herrigal, and Mark Twain.
Also, the words of these philosophers are reinforced with beautiful calligraphy illustrations representing the core martial arts values.
If you’re a martial artist who hasn’t been able to get a firm handle on the philosophy of the art, or if you’re just a thoughtful person looking for practical answers, maybe the reason you haven’t found a simple, workable set of insights is because nobody ever just laid it out in straight forward language and connected it to a realistic set of human values!
Now then, before I tell you what martial arts training has done for me, and what I’ve been able to include in my book
Let me tell you what ISN'T in the book!
5 things you won’t find in Bend the Bow and Shoot the Tiger:
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esoteric theory
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a formula for pretentious living
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B.S. disguised as wisdom
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excuses for giving up or not trying, phrased in lofty language
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excuses for using martial arts to train yourself to be a hit man or a bounty hunter, phrased in lofty language (well, okay, maybe a bounty hunter – but a nice bounty hunter)
Here’s what I and my students have managed (on a good day) to learn from martial arts and the people we’ve trained with.
Or, put differently, here are 7 things this friendly, little book will do for you:
- Establishes you, in your mind, as the pathfinder to a better, more effective and profitable lifestyle
- Unravels confusion about your relations with other people
- Presents Zen in a simple, understandable, and useful five point format that you can begin using immediately for simpler, more effective living
- Conquers any tendency you may have to “psych yourself out”
- Refreshes all the good intentions you ever had and gives you the kick in the pants you need to get at it
- Focuses your thoughts, actions, and creative energies on the things that really matter to you
- Bridges the gap between wishing and being
- The philosophy of the martial arts is 100% about self-improvement and helping others. If you’re willing to do both those things, click on the order button below