| THE COSMIC PUNCH... (continued) |
One day, I put the argument to Sensei. “Unarmed combat?” Sensei asked. “Yes,” I said. “In a situation where no weapons are used and strictly with what nature gave us. What is the best blow to develop?” “The cosmic punch!” Sensei replied. “Of all the blows which can be delivered by a human being against another, the ‘cosmic punch’ is the most effective. Don’t get me wrong, any blow delivered properly and correctly has merit and can be very effective, but,the cosmic punch stands by itself.” Trembling with excitement, I waited, eager to pounce on each word that came out of Sensei’s mouth. “In other words, Sensei,” I said, “what goes up must come down; we are talking about the law of gravity, are we not?” “Yes. That is natural law, as I said,” Sensei replied. “But, to utilize the law of gravity for physical self defense, that is the secret that few realize.” I ran through my mind everything that I had learned in the martial arts and its correlation to the law of gravity. Somehow, the gist eluded me. I could feel it but I could not put it into thought, much less into words. Then Sensei said, “Do you know why Harigaya Sekiun was the greatest?” And before I could answer, Sensei continued, “Sekiun utilized the law of gravity fully in his style of swordsmanship. He cut out all the frills and developed just one blow with his sword, the cosmic blow, and with it he became the greatest swordsman in Japanese history. Nothing fancy, no frills, just the cosmic movement.” Japanese history is full of stories of great swordsmen who caught the imagination of noted writers, and many such stories have found their way into the movies and television. The heroes of the Japanese sword are just as popular and well known to the average Japanese as the knights of the Round Table or the Three Musketeers are with English-speaking people. | BACK TO TOP | However, in the popular stories, none depict the adventures of Harigaya Sekiun; he is never shown on the celluloid of Japanese films, and if any mention is made of him, it barely covers one page or more. Whatever accounts may have been fictionalized for romantic reading have escaped the eyes of the general public. According to Sensei, Harigaya Sekiun was too good for his own good. And to top it off, he was a man of Zen. The populace could not relate to him except for those who made the martial arts their way of life. Only to these lucky few, Harigaya Sekiun has come out of the pages of history to share his secrets. One day, when Sekiun was over 60 years of age, he was in his garden pruning a tree. He was suddenly interrupted by loud voices, and he could distinguish the voice of his servant from those of the others in the argument. His servant was saying, “My master is busy, so please wait until I announce you.” “Wait nothing,” one loud voice said. “My partner and I have come a long way and we are tired of the run-around.” Sekiun stopped pruning and called out, “Let them in.” His servant came out to the garden, followed by two men both wearing battle helmets. They were young, in their early 30s at the latest. Both swaggered into the garden and stood braced arrogantly in front of Harigaya Sekiun. They peered at him and a flicker of surprise crossed their eyes. “Why,” the younger said, “you are an old man. Are you truly the Harigaya Sekiun?” Sekiun, ignoring the rudeness, went back to his pruning. “Old man,” the young one yelled out, “I am talking to you. We have heard of your mighty blow and do not believe it, and now that we have seen you, an old man, we believe more that our belief is right.” Sekiun said, “If you do not believe what you have heard, you can leave. It is not important as far as I am concerned. As you can see, I am an old man, as you say, so why bother?” “You see this battle helmet, old man?” said one of the youths. “It is specially designed to take any kind of blow. Not believing in the stories that we have heard about you, we have come to test your blow. We hate to do this old man, but you know how it is; we have come along way and we have our reputation at stake,” the speaker said. | BACK TO TOP | “I cannot accept your challenge,” Sekiun said, and kept on pruning. Both men left when they saw it was futile arguing with him, and in their ignorance broadcast all over town that the great Sekiun was afraid of them. After a period of time, it dawned on them that the townspeople did not believe them, and they went back to Sekiun. “This is the second time we have come,” both said. “And this is the second time that I am asking you to leave,” Sekiun answered. The two went back to town and broadcast again the fact that the great Harigaya Sekiun had turned down their challenge to a match. “He is afraid because he is old and washed up,” they said. “We do not believe you,” the townspeople said. “Probably he does not want to kill you.” This remark so infuriated the young men that they both charged into Sekiun’s residence and issued a challenge to the death. “Well, if you insist, be sure that you have your helmet on, and be sure that you use a real sword so that you have a fighting chance. I shall use a wooden sword to make the match more equal,” Sekiun said. In the words of the elder of the two young men, “Sekiun faced my friend with a wooden sword in his hand, and as soon as they squared off, Sekiun hit my friend with a seemingly light tap on the helmet; to my surprise and shock, my friend, who is very powerful for his age, collapsed like a broken egg. He fell against a tree and blood was streaming from his mouth. When I went to pick him up, he was dead. What kind of man is Sekiun?” What the man did not know was that Harigaya Sekiun had developed the cosmic blow; his sword had become the sword of Heavenly Reason; he had become one with the great ultimate (or great limit, taikyoku in Japanese, tai-chi in Chinese). What Sensei said about Sekiun ran through my mind. In his early matches, Sekiun had quite a few close calls, and somehow managed to emerge unscathed. However, in doing so he came to realize one fundamental fact: A man who is not completely incapacitated in combat is still dangerous. | BACK TO TOP | Once, when he was accosted by a ronin bent on making a name for him self as the greatest of the great, Sekiun delivered a classical cut to the body and the man fell dying. There was no doubt in Sekiun’s mind that the seeker of fame and glory was finished; after all, every opponent prior to this one had never survived his cut. “It was then,” as Sekiun explained later to his students, “that I developed the cosmic blow. Never forget that as long as an opponent who is engaged in a life-and-death struggle is not completely out, he is still dangerous as long as he can draw a breath and has control of his senses. But conk a man on his head and drop him senseless, and that man is of no danger to you. That ronin who hit me with a shuriken would never have been able to do it if I had split his forehead and rendered him unconscious. If you happen to deliver a blow to any other part of his body and your opponent is dying, never, I repeat, never, take your eyes off him until it is safe.” As Sensei said, “If you stand and imagine a circle encompassing you as high as you can stretch your hand over-head and as low as you can bring your hands below your feet, the most force that you can generate is with your hands held straight overhead and striking down in that circle directly in front of you, from a jodan kamai straight down in front with full explosion. Divide that imaginary circle in four quarters, always holding your sword in a jodan position, and in delivery exploding downwards.” “I understand,” I told Sensei. “But that is with the sword or weapon. What about empty hand combat? The cosmic punch as you said – what is the proper delivery?” Sensei had me stand in a fighter’s stance with my right hand placed lightly on my chest just above the solar plexus. “Now,” Sensei went on, “take it easy, relax, and throw your right hand as high as you can; throw upwards when your arm is fully extended; step forward with your left foot and you will notice that your hand starts downward. At the point where it is level with your face is the point of contact; that is where the explosion takes place.” | BACK TO TOP | “Naturally, you feel awkward,” Sensei replied. “I am showing you the mechanics of the blow. Now, coordinate it all in one movement. As soon as you throw your right hand, step in exploding; you will note that your right hand forms an arc, with you exploding at the exact moment your right hand is on the level with your face. Never, never tense, and use the explosion principle with the cosmic punch.” I cocked my right hand on my chest,threw my right in an arc, stepping in at the same time with my left foot as deeply as I could, and exploded as if I had a bomb in my lower abdomen with the explosion coming out of my right fist, which at this time came down in a circle right in front of my face level. It felt good. It reminded me of an overhand right – the type of right hand that Max Schmeling used to knock out Joe Louis the first time that they met. But there was a difference: the explosion and the follow-through with the mind. It was more than mere mechanics; the boxer’s overhand right may appear to be the same to an untrained eye, but, the martial artist simply uses his body and mind as an explosive device utilizing the forces of gravity for more impact. A true martial artist never tenses his body prior to any action, and simply explodes into an appropriate maneuver. And as Sekiun had discovered, the best is if you render an assailant unconscious. Then, there is no way he can come back at you. “Don’t get me wrong,” Sensei had always taught. “Any blow that hurts an assailant or makes him believe that he can be hurt is effective. But show me, if you can, anything more effective than a knock out, anything more decisive. There is no debate when it comes to a clean knockout.” Sensei’s words: “There is no debate when it comes to a clean knockout!”, brought back vividly to me a story that I had read concerning the great black heavyweight, Sam Langford. When Sam Langford was way past his prime, a group of Texans who believed that they had a future champion on their hands arranged a fight with Sam to take place in their state. “Sam,” his friends told him. “You are crazy to accept a fight like that. You haven’t got a prayer. And, of all places, in Texas.” | BACK TO TOP | “Why the worry?” Sam answered. “My opponent is just a green kid and even at my age I can teach him a lesson on the art of boxing. “That is not the point,” Sam was told. “For insurance they have the referee in their pocket. It is known that the referees are so bad that a black man has not been able to win a fight in that part of the country.” | BACK TO TOP | |