TREZZA-RYU

To obtain enlightenment in martial arts means the extinction of everything that obscures the true knowledge, the real life. At the same time it implies “boundless expansion.” Emphasis on training and development should not focus on the cultivation of the particular area that merges into the totality, but rather on the totality that enters and unites that particular area. The way to transcend karma lies in the proper use of the mind and the will. The oneness of all life is a truth that can be fully realized only when false notions of a separate self, whose destiny can be considered apart from the whole, are annihilated.

The aim of art is to project an inner vision into the world, to state in aesthetic creation your deepest psychic and personal experiences. It is to enable those experiences to be intelligible and generally recognized within the total framework of the real world. An artist’s expression is his soul made apparent. Behind every motion, the music of your soul is visible. Art is not a decoration or embellishment, it is a work of enlightenment, which calls for complete mastery of technique developed through the reflection and emanation of your soul.

Trezza-Ryu is a military science. It pertains to victory and defeat in combat, whether that combat is hand-to-hand, or company-to-company. Whether one-on-one, or against “overwhelming” odds. Whether winning a battle or a business contract. Most martial arts teachings become “localized” in the mind of the student. They think of and approach martial arts in small terms. Some are very proficient at taking advantage of the flick of a wrist, or executing a blindingly fast front kick. Some know how to block a punch with a slight movement of the forearm. They learn minor advantages of speed, training their hands and feet to take advantage of quick reaction time. This is wrong.

The principles of living and dying have revealed themselves through numerous combat situations in which my life and the lives of others have been on the line. Survival is not a matter of quick hands. It is a matter of an all-seeing perception, a feel for the pace and tempo of a specific combat situation – for its rhythms. It is a matter of feel for the totality of the situation, not response to a specific threat or weapon. To fight even three or four people single-handedly with your life on the line and find a sure way to beat them is what real martial science is all about. Whether one-on-two or one-on-ten, one can control a battle and win. This capability does not come from training to develop a faster kick or more powerful punch. It comes from assessing the knowledge and tactics of all adversaries and situations, knowing the strong and weak moves of enemies, and determining how to penetrate and defeat them by means of knowledge and understanding of their core, their “essence.” That is how one becomes a master of this path. By training and refining every day with the determination to eventually consummate mastery of this art. Once achieved, one gains a unique freedom, spontaneously attains calm, and is endowed with inconceivable powers of penetration. This is how cosmic law is carried out through martial arts. This is the “Zen” of it.

The “art” of martial arts, is to use your daily activity to become a master of life, to master the art of living. All vague notions must desintegrate. The aim of martial art is not the one-sided promotion of one’s own spirit, but the opening of your soul and senses to the life-rhythm of the world. Skill is not perfection, but the essence of the striving for perfection. Skill is to be found in shape or form, perfection radiates from the soul. It is the artistic process that is the reality and truth of martial arts.

Success is a journey – not a destination.

The basic flaw of most martial arts and martial artists, is a long history of imitation and rote, common among teachers and students alike. Deep traditions of rigid compliance define most styles, making an “original” master teacher almost impossible to find. Each of these styles claims to possess The Truth to the exclusion of all other styles. They establish a set rhythm of fighting that identifies their practitioners just as much as their choice of techniques and philosophy.

Their weakness is amplified by their insistence that their style is the only “right” style. This distorts and cramps their fighters, distracting them from the actual reality of combat. They train only within their own style, infusing the rhythm of the style into every technique. They do not train for the reality of combat, which is the expected unexpected. They do not view and practice other styles, so as to understand their strengths and weaknesses. They develop rigid patterns of behavior. These all combine to create their own undoing.

Instead of going immediately to the heart of things, they commonly utilize either “flowery” forms, or techniques that create the illusion of strength (based on the type of art), not its reality. These ritualistic training formulas and artificial techniques simulate combat under predetermined conditions. Therefore, instead of experiencing combat, these practitioners are merely playing at being in combat simulations. This type of training is a futile and ill-advised attempt to arrest and fix the ever-changing nature and movement of combat into predetermined forms, and to dissect and analyze them like cadavers. It is nothing more than a blind devotion to systematically practicing routines or stunts that only work against unskilled opponents, or less-skilled practitioners within that particular system.

Real combat is not “fixed.” It is very much alive. To fight without “feeling,” using predetermined steps, calcifies what is fluid. In the face of anger or fear, this practitioner focuses on himself and his predetermined techniques, listening to his own yells rather than feeling them. He becomes a patternized robot, rather than a fluid expression of harmony. He resists with a pre-chosen set of patterns, rather than flowing with the circumstances. He relies on patterns that force him to either react to peripheral attacks, or try to force one of his predetermined attack “forms” into the highly fluid situation he finds himself in. One predetermined form leads to another, entangling themselves further and further until they have worked themselves into an inextricable snare. He becomes a reactionary “technique chaser.”

“Forms” are futile repetitions that offer an orderly and self-righteous escape from self-knowledge with an alive opponent. This sort of knowledge is “fixed,” whereas knowing has flow. This sort of conditioning paralyzes the mind in its ability to conquer the unknown. Set patterns, incapable of adaptability, pliability, or “feeling” the essence of combat (whether in business or on the street); only offer a well- rehearsed, intricate cage. The truth of combat is outside of any pattern. The true Master functions totally and freely beyond any one system. In reality, as Bruce Lee said, he has no style at all. He lives only in what is. He enters the movement as it arises. His movements are fluid choices based on “what is,” which is determined by the the totality of the situation at hand, including the enemy’s movement, balance, resolve, goal, fear, perceptions, and point-in-time. Truth is living, changing, and without resting-place. You must become one with it. One with the enemy. Understand him – defeat him.

Trezza-Ryu is a departure from tradition, similar in some ways to Jeet Kune Do. Some of its basic principles are:

• “Voidness” is that which stands right in the middle between this and that. The void is all-inclusive – having no opposite, there is nothing that it excludes or opposes. It is a living void. The essence of combat comes out of it. To embrace it is to be filled with life and power. Voidness cannot be defined – the softest thing cannot be snapped.
• Move without moving at all. Be like the moon beneath the waves ceaselessly rolling and flowing. It is not, “I am doing this,” but rather an inner realization that “this is happening through me,” or “it is doing this for me.”
• Consciousness of, or focus on one’s self, is the greatest hindrance to success in any physical confrontation. The consciousness of the self is the greatest roadblock to proper execution.
• There is no “fixed” teaching. The situation dictates the rule. I provide the appropriate medicine for a specific ailment, not a single cure-all elixir. Otherwise the student will develop a preference, or a “favorite” technique, and try to apply, or force that technique at inappropriate times (particularly under extreme stress). That is a deadly error. To “see” a thing uncolored by one’s own personal preferences and desires is to see its essence, its own pristine simplicity. The art is simply to simplify.
• If nothing in you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Inner calm gives you insight into the core-nature of the enemy’s attack. Understand the core of his attack, and the rest is just details. Victory is won.

Moving, be like water – Still, be like a mirror.

• The focus of your attack is at the axis of the wheel, do not allow your energy to be dispersed in scattered activites on the periphery. Do not become a “technique-chaser.”
• Particularly under the stress of danger, it is difficult to see the situation simply and clearly – our minds are very complex. It is easy to teach the fighting skills of the kick and the punch, it is difficult to teach one to open the inner eye.
• You must avoid the superficial; penetrate the complex by going to the heart of the problem, while pinpointing the key factors. Do not beat around the bush! Do not take winding detours. Follow a straight line to the objective. “Simplicity” is the shortest distance between two points.

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