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The Master's Scroll |
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Long ago in ancient martial arts land there was a master who lived in a village by a lake. He was known for three things. The first was the despite his advanced age he was still quite adept at the fighting arts. The second was that all knew of both his kindness and virtue, what was called Wu-De (martial virtue or chivalry). While these two traits were common among many of the masters in the land of lakes and mountains he was also known for having a third, more peculiar habit. It was also known that every night he would sit alone in his room with one of a great series of scrolls and write on them with pen and ink. But exactly what it was he wrote remained a great mystery, for he would allow no one to observe him or to view the finished scrolls. He wrote these scrolls only after all the members of the kwoon were asleep and before he himself retired for the night, and when asked about their content he would simply smile and change the subject. To the few who were bold enough (or rude enough) to continue to ask about seeing them, he would simply reply “My scrolls are not for you”, and again speak of more pleasant topics. This naturally brought up great controversy among the villagers who loved a new subject to gossip about. “What was he writing?” they wondered! Some claimed to have seen the scrolls and said they were a manual of all the most deadly fighting secrets the old man had learned. Others believed it was a philosophical text that explained the way of life and harmony, even immortality. A few coarse jokers suggested that he was simply painting images of nymphs cavorting and this was why he had such reluctance to show anyone the scrolls. But none knew the real truth. At the kwoon, the students wondered among themselves about the scrolls. Some thought that perhaps one of them would inherit them when the master retired. Others felt that if they showed extreme dedication they would one day be allowed to see them. But no matter what they did, when the subject of viewing the scrolls came up the master as always would simply reply “My scrolls are not for you.” This continued for many years until a new young student came to live at the kwoon. They too knew of the master's habit of writing these scrolls and so one night as they brought the old man his tea, they paused to ask a question, “Master, I know your scrolls are not for me, but would you teach me to write my own scrolls?” At this the master's eyes widened and a smile came across his face, “Many people have asked to see my scrolls over the years, but none have made the simple request you have. Return after all your brothers and sisters are asleep and we will proceed.” And that night the young student returned to the master's quarters, eager with anticipation of what they would learn. As they arrived they saw parchment, pen and ink arranged on the table. The master bade them to sit down and and write a certain dedication on the scroll. That done, the master said, “Now list all the training I have directed you to do and further what of it you have done this day, using a formula I will now teach you.” So the young student wrote down these things, how many dragon kicks, how many tiger punches, and how many phoenix steps they had made in practice, how they meditated under the waterfall and sought perfection within. As they wrote these things their mind raced with the subtle details that made all the movements come alive, bringing new connections they had not seen before. And the master said “This is good. Now write of several things you wish to have next, as if they already are yours.” and the young student did so, writing out “My dragon kicks are high and balanced” and “My tiger punches are fast and accurate” “Now sign your name, claiming these words as your own!” that master instructed, and so it was done. “Every night you must repeat this process, documenting each small step of your progress from novice to master, and in time just like drops of water fill a bucket you will have many, many scrolls as do I reflecting the many skills you will have learned and experiences you will have had along the way. Reflect on this, and spend time each day mentally reviewing your training in the kwoon as you meditate under the waterfall.” And with a deep bow to the master, the student retired to sleep, thinking of all that had been learned that night and feeling confident in the path ahead, knowing what must be done... This story shares some of the ideas and concepts from my latest program, “The Master's Scroll: How To Be Your Own Best Coach & Excel In The Martial Arts”. This is a field-tested step-by-step plan for physical and mental training to help you get more and better results from your practice in less time. If you have the dream and the desire, it can help give you the direction. The Master's Scroll program has three essential components. Specifically, these are doing your Physical Training, doing your Mental Training, and recording everything in your Training Journal in a special way. Each of these three components works in harmony with the other two like legs of a tripod. By themselves they are effective, but it's the specific way they are combined here that makes them exponentially more powerful. When you're following this program there is no guessing about what to do when you get up in the morning, you'll know what you need to do to succeed. If you're committed to excellence the path is there for you to follow. Of course everyone's so busy today and time commitment is a big question when starting any new program. There's lots of guys I know who'd love to be able to spend hours and hours a day training like they used to but now they have lives, jobs, and families so their time to do what they want is limited. That's why it's more important than ever to train smarter, not just harder, and that's what we're doing here! In fact, you might find yourself shifting your training around so you spend LESS time physically practicing but in a more focused way that gets you better results. And you'll learn the secrets of how to turn little periods of “down time” into super productive learning zones and get real results in under an hour a day total (not all at once). For example in our 2009 Mental Training For Instinctive Shooting Success program the research showed that by combining brief 15-minute physical practice sessions with mind training you can produce incredible gains. By doing this, in just 30 days one of our shooters went from 39% accuracy on two-and-a-half-inch diameter hand-thrown aerial targets to a whopping 93% and shot her first ever perfect set of 25 for 25 on day 3 of the training. With the Master's Scroll, the goal is to bring this same kind of rapid skill increase to people in the larger martial arts world. This new program is designed to work regardless of what martial art you practice. Whether you're a hand to hand specialist or from a weapons art, traditional or modern, sport or combative, it doesn't matter, we've got you covered! As long as you have goals that you're after, new things you want to be able to do or things you do now that you want to be able to do better, this program is designed to work for you. As opposed to the fairly rigid protocol we had for the shooters, I specifically set up the Master's Scroll program to be super flexible as far as your specific goals and intensity of commitment. You can take it easy or go it hard as your schedule allows. Things are adaptable to reflect changes that naturally will occur in life while still moving you towards your goals in the art. So, sticking with the program is easy. If you have the desire to be the best you can in the martial arts and are willing to do the work to make it happen, this program can help guide you there. If all the different arts are paths up a steep mountain, the Master's Scroll can be your map and compass to keep you on course and hasten your journey onward and upward.
Order The
Master's Scroll Program Now & Receive: In the arts we always hear about uniting mind, body and spirit but how often is the how-to of the mind training addressed beyond platitudes of “train harder” or “focus” while being told to do more push ups? Fortunately, even if you've never learned the mind-science principles and how they apply to martial arts before you can gain them now in an easy way and see the physical side of what you do get better and better. And if you have been fortunate to learn some of this over the years, in the program you'll learn to apply it in a lot of new ways. If you're ready to take your skills to a higher level and have the desire to succeed, then this program is for you. A dream needs a plan and that's what the Master's Scroll provides. All my very best to you, Pete Kautz
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The Master's Scroll |
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