Axioms and Paradigms.

The Sennin’s Blog – Entry No. 3

Friday, May 01, 2015

Title: Axioms and Paradigms.

²  Cognitive psychology has shown that the mind best understands facts when they are woven into a conceptual fabric, such as a narrative, mental map, or intuitive theory. Disconnected facts in the mind are like unlinked pages on the Web: They might as well not exist. – Steven Pinker

Before I continue to further introducing more of the Foundational or First Principles, and even prior to briefly considering the implications of the first two I introduced previously, namely: 1) Human beings … are evolved hominids devoid of any form of supernatural origin; and 2) the human imagination … is what most distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom”, I must first tie up some lose address some intermediary lose ends involving basic terminology, such as ‘axiom’ and ‘paradigm’.

            The first axiom in our paradigm forces us to consider not just the biological characteristics of our species, but also their origin, their evolution, in order to both discern and appreciate our true nature as natural organisms. There are several terms you must learn to appreciate and comprehend, beginning with axiom and paradigm, which although I have employed previously requires more careful scrutiny.

All First Principles are axiomatic to the MAMBA Ryu paradigm. An axiom is a statement, a declaration, or a proposition that is regarded as being accepted as true. Each discipline has its own set of axioms upon which it is founded and upon which it constructs the edifice of its knowledge and understanding of the particular aspect of reality it is investigating or upon which it is professes a degree of competence.  In the cognitive neurosciences, for example, it is axiomatic to accept that mind – which encompasses all aspects of our thinking, feeling, perceiving, remembering, conscious awareness, sense of identity, etc. – is a result of complex brain activity. All sense of awareness, consciousness or identity emerges from the live, interacting networks of the brain – influenced of course by the body and the environment. Simply put, the ‘soul’ is but an aspect of the mind, and therefore of the functioning brain. (In this sense at least, modern cognitive neuroscience is in concert with the Buddhist axiom of ‘anatman’ or ‘no soul, which is their statement of the impermanence of all things. This is the stated reason why many cognitive neuroscientists I have known were quite attracted to Zen Buddhism.)

A paradigm is a model or a framework containing all of the commonly accepted or established views about a topic, a discipline, or a subject. It encompasses the concept of a “conceptual fabric”, a “narrative”, a “mental map”, as well as an “intuitive theory”. In addition, a paradigm is also a structure that directs and organizes the nature of the research that should take place and the manner in which that research should be performed pertaining to that subject. A paradigm, therefore, determines both a) what is considered to be known and b) how to go about acquiring (and accepting) further knowledge in accordance with the established knowledgebase. While I will have more to say about paradigm shifts, paradigm revolutions, and the problems inherent both in having a paradigm and in proceeding without one, suffice it to say that MAMBA Ryu is a paradigm for what is means to be human; as such it embodies a knowledgebase comprised of what are considered to be accepted truths (axioms), as well as a philosophical framework for ascertaining and incorporating new knowledge. Our philosophical framework is known as biopsychocultural philosophy and it is a subject matter on its own right. The objective of biopsychocultural philosophy, as is the case with all forms of philosophy, is to discover “knowledge (ideally, truth) which if appropriately applied leads to wisdom, wisdom pertaining to the nature of the human condition and how to navigate its murky waters while still deriving meaning from its inevitable trials and tribulations and achieving happiness – happiness, as distinct from joy which is temporary and subject to emotions, is considered a state of satisfaction with who one is, regardless of circumstances thrust upon us. This is, at a psychological level at least, the essence of the purpose or Way of MAMBA:

The Way of MAMBA

Throughout my early childhood and into my middle adolescence my greatest concerns, my ultimate preoccupations focused on overcoming the abject terror and violence that at times defined my existence. Early on in life I realized that the solution to that problem did not reside solely in physical conditioning, technical preparation, or cognitive speculation, for in the face of life-threatening peril if we are without a resilient mental constitution such attributes can quickly uproot and leave us stranded in helplessness and despair.

I believe that it was as a result of those early impacting experiences that my interest in the martial arts and other Eastern practices and methodologies was focused more on the mental capacities that lead to enduring tranquility in the face of disaster than on the mere physical manifestations of power or technique. It was not nearly as much the fighting prowess of “Kwai Chang Caine” from the syndicated television series “Kung Fu” that captured my imagination as the wisdom and serenity of the Shaolin masters who trained him. It was not nearly as much the cinematographically dazzling dynamics and cries of the likes of Bruce Lee that inspired me, as the television images of the Buddhist monk who, protesting religious injustice in South Vietnam, self-immolated and died, immutable, motionless and silent.

Over the years it became evident to me that it is only with a strong psychological, philosophical and even ‘spiritual’ foundation that the edifice of our existence can be counted upon to weather the storms of life’s adversities, disappointments and disasters; it is this foundation that enables us to appreciate the magnificence and wonder of ‘being’ – no matter how objectionable the load we carry, how heavy the rock we must roll.

It is not in the moments of fashionable victory that we find the real champion; it is not in the hours, weeks, or years of celebrated discoveries or renowned achievements that we discover authentic ‘greatness’; it is in those inexorable instances lived by individuals who time and time again, whether faced with innumerable failures and tragic disappointments, threatened with dying in total anonymity, or living in abject poverty, demonstrate their unrelenting rededication to ‘the cause’.

Show me a man or woman whom, after being repeatedly beaten down and even broken by the implacable and unremitting forces of a reality beyond their control, and whom without seeking refuge either in fantastic dimensions or in fictional beings, stands up yet again on their own accord, in spirit if not in shattered body, and I will show you the true meaning of inner fortitude and personal power. Find an individual who even in the thick of life’s sometimes unpredictable trials and tribulations, cruel losses, untimely setbacks, and heartbreaking tragedies derives ‘meaning’ from the mere fact of being alive, and you would have found someone who has mastered the elusive art of being happy.

It is not the person who, if afforded the luxury of calm and comfort, can achieve a state of ‘mystical awareness’ that we need admire. Rather it is the individual who, when faced with the unpredictable disasters of the life truly engaged and is caught in the wicked clasp of circumstance, manages to rapidly recover their composure and demonstrate ‘centeredness’ that we need seek out, for these people have obtained something beyond what books can teach or techniques alone can foster: wisdom.

Wisdom, the combined knowledge and practice of that which leads to happiness and harmony in one’s life in spite of circumstances is what we all ultimately seek. Personal power alone is not sufficient, for without the mental mechanisms to guide its potential, without the philosophical/spiritual context within which to apply its resources, we are but a Titanic: unstoppable in our motion and condemned to meet our demise at the inevitable encounter with life’s innumerable and unforgiving icebergs.

The human existential condition is by its nature fraught with inevitable loss – or its threat: loss of life, loss of health, loss of youth, loss of property and possessions, loss of loved ones, loss of innocence, and so on, and therefore becomes tainted by the accompanying grief and anguish that naturally ensues. But it is in the chaos of war that we encounter all of life’s most deplorable aspects in their extreme: carnage and mutilation, devastation and dispossession, pillaging and desecration, famine and disease, etc.

It is not surprising that many individuals return from the battlefield mentally traumatized and emotionally defiled and disturbed, unable to successfully reintegrate themselves into the ‘normality’ of their previous peacetime existence. Nor is it surprising that elite warrior castes sought philosophical/spiritual methodologies – such as the Samurai and Zen – in order to develop the mental and emotional capacity to endure the vileness of warfare and inwardly reconcile the gruesomeness of their experiences within the context of a way of life and being.

It is for this reason that to me the real martial arts aim to teach more than just techniques of physical power; they must seek to set the practitioner on a path to the self-empowerment, discovery and improvement that leads beyond an accumulation of information or the memorization of movements – a path which leads to the immutable spirit that derives from mind and body coordinated in harmonious action. This is the Way of MAMBA.

Shodai Sennin James Alexander Overton-Guerra, 2005

The previous short essay was written in response to many queries in the United States regarding a more specific description of MAMBA: “a path which leads to the immutable spirit that derives from mind and body coordinated in harmonious action”. With that broad and no doubt commendable objective in mind, the purpose of the present treatise is both to expand upon the details of said objective as well as elaborate on how it is achieved, both on an individual as well as on a communal and social scale: the ryu in MAMBA Ryu.

The competitive sport of orienteering employs map and compass to navigate a route from a present position to a predetermined objective in the shortest time possible. The entire enterprise would be hopeless without a means to response to the following questions: 1) Where am I? Which is my point of departure? 2) Where am I going? What is my objective? 3) How do I get there? Which is the path (or procedure) I must take? 4) How do I know I am on the right track? How can I objectively evaluate my progress? All of the previous four questions must be specified in terms of a map of the terrain, a fixed reference point (magnetic north), and a means to measure our progress along the map with respect to said fixed reference point (a compass). This four-prong model is representative (paradigmatic) not only of orienteering or of directed travel in general, but of most any form of targeted transformation. By “targeted transformation” I mean the transformation from a present state to another state according to a targeted or predetermined objective. Any methodology that pretends to transform an individual from a current state ‘A’ to some idealized state ‘B’, must at the very least identify and address those four topics of inquiry and provide convincing answers to the same.

How that methodology identifies and resolves those four core issues are determining factors in its paradigm. In our specific case, in MAMBA (or MAMBA Ryu) we are seeking to deliver the individual from his or her own present state of fear, irrational attachments, willed ignorance, insecurities, etc., towards a state of mental, and if you will ‘spiritual’, harmony. In order to do so we must have a map – part of our paradigm – of what I will explain to be the “human condition”, an idea of where human beings typically locate themselves on that map, and how to instruct and train individuals to reach that desired state of inner peace or happiness. No two perspectives on this entire process, and on the four-prong model upon which it proceeds, are more relevant, more defining, and of greater impact that our first two Foundational or First Principles – a discussion we must postpone until our next meeting.

ROKUKEN HARAMITSU DAIKOMYO.