Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers: Hi, this is Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers from Ohio Martial Arts. Most people know that martial arts is practical self-defense and getting people in fantastic shape, but people also know there’s something more going on. There is this idea of learning to focus the mind. This show is designed to address that third component, how people can focus their mind to get more of the things life that they want and less of things that they don’t. Thanks for listening to my show. I hope you enjoy.

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Dr. Tom: I was flipping around Netflix the other night, and I came across Enter the Dragon. I haven't watched it in forever, but he's so eloquent. And he talked about this idea of once you—I'm going to butcher it but—once you get more advanced, once you know more, there are no opponents. Could you elaborate on that? [CROSSTALK 00:01:04].

Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers: Sure, sure, sure. I'd be happy to. Let me come back to that.

Dr. Tom: Yes, sir.

Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers: That's such a great question. Ms. Erica, please.

Ms. Erica: Yes, I have a question. So, when we're hitting with our jabs and then our uppercut punch, how should our fists be placed? So that we're safely hitting without jarring our wrist or our fingers or our—

Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers: Yes, that's a great question as well. So, what we're really trying to do is create a straight line of bone between the first and second knuckle and the elbow. One way to do that is to take something with a flat edge—you take like this notepad. If I put the edge of that notepad between the edge of my first and second knuckles, and I lay it on my wrist, I shouldn't be able to see anything. But if I can look through there, and I can kind of peek through there, then it means that there's a little tiny—it doesn't look like hardly anything, but at high speed that'll really hurt your wrist. On the other hand, if the space is down here towards my knuckles, then there's a space. So, you practice that until you feel—you know you stop at a stoplight. Instead of texting, you can check it out in your car even sometimes.

But the point is that will make your wrist really really straight, and then you're experimenting with whatever angle that it takes to be able to get it in there. Sometimes my punch will be a little bit more like that. It really won't be this way very often. It'll be more elbow down because it'll keep that wrist straight. Here's the word of caution. The caution is the tendency is to go, "Well why don't I just get some of those boxing wraps, and I'll just wrap my wrists, and then that'll keep me from doing that." Well, it's kind of like don't learn that way. Learn to do it correctly and slow it down until it doesn't hurt at all because you really want to get this without those wraps on your wrists, because you don't want to be feeling like, "Oh, I need wraps in order to do things properly." And then one day you won't have the wrap and then you'll really hurt your wrist. Make sense?

Students: Yes, sir.

Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers: Okay, any other questions? Good, let's go back to Dr. Tom's question.

He's talking about Master Lee talking about this idea that there are no opponents. So, the first thing that we have to do is go back to the three promises that we always make when people come into the dojo. Promise number one is that we're going to teach people to be able to defend themselves in a practical way that works for the adult body. The second promise is we're going to get you in great shape, and we're going to do it in a structured way so that you're so busy doing the workout, and the learning, and the enjoyment of the practice that you're not really focused so much on the workout. And, at the end, you don't know really how hard you worked until an hour or two later or even sometimes then next morning. Then the third promise is there's this hidden internal mental part, the focus part of martial arts, and that's really what the philosophy of martial arts kind of relates to.

So, there are a couple of principles that govern the mental part or the focus part of martial arts. One of those principles is called the law of momentum, and the law of momentum just simply means that whatever I focus on I get more of. So, wherever I put my focus, that's where I go. So, some years ago at Sifu's retreat, he used to do a high ropes course, and it was a lot of fun. How many of you in here have ever done a high ropes course? So, a few people have. So, a high ropes course is like everything in life, it looks really good and easy from the outside, and then when you get 50 feet in the air all of a sudden it gets really hard. It's perfectly safe. You're in harnesses. They got the stuff hooked up to you, but you would think—you know you put a log on the ground, and you can walk around it. You can probably tap dance on it. You could skip across it. You raise that log 50 feet in the air and put a harness on, and you know you're perfectly safe, and almost everybody ends up doing the butt scoot across the log.

So, the question that we have is what changed? We introduced an element of danger, and what happens is when the mind is now not just thinking about staying on a log but thinking about what would happen if you fell, all of sudden your attention goes to falling and the equilibrium gets destroyed. Even some of the most brave and strongest people cannot maintain their equilibrium unless they've practiced it for a long period of time. Does that kind of make sense?

Students: Yes, sir.

Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers: And that's an example of law of momentum in action so that if my conscious mind has a belief that's in conflict with it, the belief will always always always win. So, there's a second principle, and the second principle is what we call law of guidance. And law of guidance is a little bit tricky because people will say, "Well how do I fix this idea of going across the log, and now I've got to learn to concentrate. And I've got to put my mind where I want, and I've got all of this and the other thing." But you can't not think of a pink elephant. In other words, if I say, "Don't think of a pink elephant." What are you thinking of?

Doug?: Pink elephant.

Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers: And if I say, "Doug, whatever you do when you're on that log don't think about falling."

Doug: [LAUGH] I'm falling.

Sensei Joseph Hurtsellers: He's falling, right? Even to the point where if we say, "Just think about staying on the log," it still causes you to think about staying off of the log because of the yin and yang. We live in a universe of opposites, and the moment I think of one thing often times I'll introduce the other thing based previous experience and previous momentum and so on and so forth, alright.

So, earlier in class today I said, "Think about these words: What causes stress?" It's so interesting to me because many people are looking to relieve stress, but they don't know the cause of stress in the first place. I had dinner with an avid runner last night, and she said, "I run because it really relieves stress." But why does running relieve stress? Why does punching a heavy bag relieve stress? Why does hard training of any kind relieve stress? Well because what happens is when you start training harder and harder and harder and harder and harder, at some point, you cannot hold onto all of your thinking and all of your responsibility and still maintain your run. In other words, if I'm thinking about bills in my inbox at home, and I'm thinking about the lawyer and I'm thinking about the thing, and I'm thinking about all these problems that I might have in my life, at some point I don't have enough energy left to think about those things and keep running. So, I let those things go.

But here's what you should know, you can let those things go without running. You can just choose to let things go. So—I promise I'll get back to you—So here's a couple of stories that might illustrate the point that I would like to make. So I remember when I was a kid in school, there was another young man, and he was struggling because he was dyslexic. He would go to read, and his whole body would tense. His brow would furrow and, is if that by tensing the body and tensing the eyebrows, and pushing the body harder, that would make the words rearrange themselves so that he could see. And we know that that doesn't work because [dyslexia] is a product of the mind/brain. It's not a product of the body.

Second story, I was with some friends and couple of weeks ago and one of the people we were with—we were at some place had a Keno. I had never done Keno before. She says, "Oh, this is fun. This is Keno!" Then you pick numbers, and you see if you win the number or whatever. But it was startling to me to sit there and be enjoying myself, and all of a sudden do a bit of people watching. And when this little computer screen is coming up—they are popping up numbers—people are going [INBREATH NOISE]. Like, as if by really focusing that 11 is going to pop up. That's also what we call stress.

Stress also occurs when I try and convince other people of other things with words. Here's what stress is. Stress is false responsibility. In other words, stress is thinking that if I tense my body or say certain magical incantations called words, or direct myself a certain way, then the universe will respond to me, and the universe doesn't work that way. The universe doesn't respond to your will—here's what I want you to take out of this—The universe responds to your vibration. Your will is different than your vibration. Your will is what you want. Your vibration is what you're giving off, and there's a significant difference between those two things.

So, I give a talk like this and then somebody says, "Well, Sensei, what do I do about that? How do I change my vibration?" And that's where we talk about law of guidance because once I know that it's not my job to change your behavior or your behavior or your behavior or your behavior. It's not my job to impose my will. It's not my job to make those Keno numbers come the way I want them by tensing up my body. Just like that runner, I give up, and when I give up there's nothing for me to do because none of it's my job.

So, what do I do? I look for ways to feel good. I look for ways to make myself feel happy. I say, well what I could go for a walk. That would feel good. I can read a new book. That would feel good. I'm going to follow the path of least resistance which is the path that brings me happiness. I’m going to take a couple of deep breaths. I'm going to chill. I’m going to take all of that energy that I used to pour into trying to get outside world to change, and I’m just going to let go of all of that. I'm just going to focus on my own joy, and guess what happens? I do this because that felt good. I do this because that felt good. I do this because that felt good, and lo and behold I had no idea that my inner guidance was guiding me all around all of my resistance all of my negative beliefs, all of this crap that I had in my head and taking me wherever I wanted to go in life. That's the way it works, but it's a big price to pay because you have to give up your anxiety. You have to give your anger. You have to give your desire to control things. You have to give your desire to know things, and you have to just sort of trust the universe.

So, Dr. Tom asked this brilliant question, and the brilliant question is what about this idea in martial arts that there are no opponents? There are no opponents because there are no opponents, because there is no assertion there is only vibration. If there's opponents coming into your life, it's because of a vibration that you're giving off. So, don't train hard to fight all those opponents because as soon as you beat them, they'll be more, and as soon as you beat them, they'll be more, and they'll be more, and they'll be more! Because, as the -words of Buckaroo Banzai, "Wherever you go, there you are!"

They keep coming. Haven't you ever seen that in people? Haven't you known people—I used to know this karate teacher from Cincinnati. He was incredible, but he was always in fights. I couldn't believe it. How do you get in fights? He's a nice enough person, but he's always in the middle of the something. You're giving it off! You're giving it off. You're giving it off. You're giving it off.

So, what we do as martial artists is we learn how to do the physical technique not so that we can fight other people, but because it's really fun to learn the martial arts technique. It's enjoyable. We're having a great time with it, and as we do the technique more and more and more our vibration gradually shifts. And we're one of those people that could be right in the middle of a battlefield, and people will go around you. They won't even notice you. They'll have nothing to do with you because there are no opponents.

The only opponents that we create are the ones that we're creating with our own vibration, and that is the most bitter pill to swallow. Here's why. If you're life is good and hunky dory and everything is fantastic, you go, "Wow, this vibration stuff that Sensei is teaching me, and that Sensei, he's a genius!" But if your life sucks, and you're going through divorce, and you're feeling terrible about a lot of stuff, you go, "That guy is stupid. He doesn't know what he is talking about." But I swear to you, if you'll follow these words and do martial arts not to overcome things and not to defeat people, but instead do martial arts for the enjoyment of it, not only will martial arts get better and better and better and better, you will see there are no opponents.