Books for your background reading:
The Shaolin Grandmasters' Text:
History, Philosophy, and Gung Fu of Shaolin Ch'an
Order of Shaolin Ch'an, Tuttle Press, 2008
"The Shaolin Grandmasters' Text: History, Philosophy, And Gung Fu Of
Shaolin Ch'an is a richly informative and very strongly recommended
survey of Shaolin history, Buddhism, and the martial arts associated
with Shaolin practitioners. The authors purport to be two Shaolin monks
with a direct and unbroken lineage to the Shaolin Order of dynastic
China. Enhanced with charts, photographs, and themed artwork, this
304-page compendium is informed and informative as to Shaolin martial
arts practices and the Buddhist philosophy that undergirds them.
Especially commended to the attention of dedicated martial artists, The
Shaolin Grandmasters' Text will also prove to be of particular interest
to students of Buddhism and will correct a great deal of modern
misinformation put out from the People's Republic Of China's attempted
commercialized resurrection of Shaolin -- as well as the American
cinema's distortions of authentic Shaolin practices." This book review is taken from Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) an Amazon.com user's review on Amazon.com.
Soja Martial Arts sells copies of this book onsite.
Meditations on Violence
A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence
By Sgt. Rory Miller, (2008)
Ever wanted to understand the differences between martial arts training and real world violence? This book is the definitive work on this subject. This is required reading for all Soja martial arts students.
A Tooth From the Tiger's Mouth, 2004, Thomas Bisio
How to treat your injuries with powerful healing secrets of the great Chinese warriors
A renowned expert in Chinese sports medicine and martial arts reveals ancient Eastern secrets for healing common injuries, including sprains, bruises, deep cuts, and much more.
For centuries, Chinese martial arts masters have kept their highly prized remedies as carefully guarded secrets, calling such precious and powerful knowledge "a tooth from the tiger's mouth." Now, for the first time, these deeply effective methods are revealed to Westerners who want alternative ways to treat the acute and chronic injuries experienced by any active person. While many books outline the popular teachings of traditional Chinese medicine, only this one offers step-by-step instructions for treating injuries. Expert practitioner and martial artist Tom Bisio explains the complete range of healing strategies and provides a Chinese first-aid kit to help the reader fully recover from every mishap: cuts, sprains, breaks, dislocations, bruises, muscle tears, tendonitis, and much more.
* Examine and diagnose injuries
* Prepare and apply herbal formulas
* Assemble a portable kit for emergencies
* Fully recuperate with strengthening exercises and healing dietary advice
Outliers, 2008, by Macolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell poses a provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the "self-made man," he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don't arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, "some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky."
Outliers can be enjoyed for its bits of trivia, like why most pro hockey players were born in January, how many hours of practice it takes to master a skill, why the descendents of Jewish immigrant garment workers became the most powerful lawyers in New York, how a pilots' culture impacts their crash record, how a centuries-old culture of rice farming helps Asian kids master math. But there's more to it than that. Throughout all of these examples--and in more that delve into the social benefits of lighter skin color, and the reasons for school achievement gaps--Gladwell invites conversations about the complex ways privilege manifests in our culture. He leaves us pondering the gifts of our own history, and how the world could benefit if more of our kids were granted the opportunities to fulfill their remarkable potential. --Mari Malcolm
Born to Run
Christopher McDougall, 2009
Inteview the author question from Amazon.com: Born to Run explores the life and running habits of the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyon, arguably the greatest distance runners in the world. What are some of the secrets you learned from them?
Christopher McDougall: The key secret hit me like a thunderbolt. It was so simple, yet such a jolt. It was this: everything I’d been taught about running was wrong. We treat running in the modern world the same way we treat childbirth—it’s going to hurt, and requires special exercises and equipment, and the best you can hope for is to get it over with quickly with minimal damage.
Then I meet the Tarahumara, and they’re having a blast. They remember what it’s like to love running, and it lets them blaze through the canyons like dolphins rocketing through waves. For them, running isn’t work. It isn’t a punishment for eating. It’s fine art, like it was for our ancestors. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle—behold, the Running Man.
The Tarahumara have a saying: “Children run before they can walk.” Watch any four-year-old—they do everything at full speed, and it’s all about fun. That’s the most important thing I picked up from my time in the Copper Canyons, the understanding that running can be fast and fun and spontaneous, and when it is, you feel like you can go forever. But all of that begins with your feet. Strange as it sounds, the Tarahumara taught me to change my relationship with the ground. Instead of hammering down on my heels, the way I’d been taught all my life, I learned to run lightly and gently on the balls of my feet. The day I mastered it was the last day I was ever injured." Amazon.com
Note: This is how Soja considers martial arts training - fun and healthy, and creates great community bonds. Read the book and rethink your approach to why and how you train...whatever you train. Beware of the long character sketches....that can bore you to tears..things start to get really interesting after page 200.
The New Earth: Awakening Your Life's Purpose
Eckart Tolle, 2005
According to Tolle, humans are on the verge of creating a new
world by a personal transformation that shifts our attention away from
our ever-expanding egos. Originally released in 2005, both book and audiobook were
reissued when Oprah Winfrey chose the title for her book club this year.
The Art of War, Sun Tzu
Conflict is an inevitable part of life,
according to this ancient Chinese classic of strategy, but everything
necessary to deal with conflict wisely, honorably, victoriously, is
already present within us. Compiled more than two thousand years ago by
a mysterious warrior-philosopher, The Art of War
is still perhaps the most prestigious and influential book of strategy
in the world, as eagerly studied in Asia by modern politicians and
executives as it has been by military leaders since ancient times. As a
study of the anatomy of organizations in conflict, The Art of War
applies to competition and conflict in general, on every level from the
interpersonal to the international. Its aim is invincibility, victory
without battle, and unassailable strength through understanding the
physics, politics, and psychology of conflict. Description from Amazon.com. Comment from Amazon.com.
Book of Five Rings
by Miyamoto Musashi, multiple publishers
Amazon.com Revi
To learn a Japanese martial art is to
learn Zen, and although you can't do so simply by reading a book, it
sure does help--especially if that book is The Book of Five Rings.
One of Japan's great samurai sword masters penned in decisive,
unfaltering terms this certain path to victory, and like Sun Tzu's The Art of War
it is applicable not only on the battlefield but also in all forms of
competition. Always observant, creating confusion, striking at
vulnerabilities--these are some of the basic principles. Going deeper,
we find suki, the interval of vulnerability, of indecisiveness,
of rest, the briefest but most vital moment to strike. In succinct
detail, Miyamoto records ideal postures, blows, and psychological
tactics to put the enemy off guard and open the way for attack. Most
important of all is Miyamoto's concept of rhythm, how all things are in
harmony, and that by working with the rhythm of a situation we can turn
it to our advantage with little effort. But like Zen, this requires one
task above all else, putting the book down and going out to practice. --Brian Bruya
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
John J. Ratey, M.D., 2008
In SPARK, John J. Ratey, M.D., embarks upon a fascinating and
entertaining journey through the mind-body connection, presenting
startling research to prove that exercise is truly our best defense
against everything from depression to ADD to addiction to aggression to
menopause to Alzheimer's. Filled with amazing case studies (such as the
revolutionary fitness program in Naperville, Illinois, which has put
this school district of 19,000 kids first in the world of science test
scores), SPARK is the first book to explore comprehensively the
connection between exercise and the brain. It will change forever the
way you think about your morning run---or, for that matter, simply the
way you think.
The Body Has a Mind of its Own, Sandra Blakeslee & Matthew Blakeslee, 2008
This popular synthesis of a technical field in neuroscience explores how the brain constructs its models of the body. Entangled with the perception of self, these maps are multitudinous and dynamic, as experimenters have discovered. The Blakeslees ground the idea of mental maps in the work of Wilder Penfield, a 1940s researcher whose probes on the brains of living people localized which areas of the brain represent which parts of the body. Subsequently, scientists have refined the concept of body maps, a history that binds the Blakeslees' informative explanations of specific maps, case studies, and psychic disorders. Expressed in an amiable, we're-all-in-this-together manner, their tour describes one's personal space and its extension to one's clothes, tools, instruments, and sports gear. The body in motion generates its own set of changing mental maps, distinguishing the graceful from the clumsy. Maps are plastic, report the Blakeslees, yet they also have permanence: successful dieters may still feel overweight, and amputees retain a map of the missing limb. Varied and revealing, this will intrigue readers interested in the clinical perspective on self-perception. Taylor, Gilbert
The Lone Samurai, The Life of Miyamoto Musashi
William Scott Wilson, 2004
From Publishers Weekly:
Musashi is primarily known in the West as the author of The Book of Five Rings,
a guide to swordsmanship strategies that became a essential
business-strategy manual in the 1980s. Wilson, having translated
Musashi's book into English, turns for the first time to biography,
with as complete a life of the man behind the sword as possible, given
his legendary stature and peripatetic, largely undocumented story.
Musashi lived in the 17th century and had his first match at 13 with a shugyosha
(an older, professional swordsman); only Musashi walked away alive. For
three decades, he wandered feudal Japan, moving from patron to patron,
taking on opponents in formal and informal matches, teaching others his
art and sometimes taking part in clan and regional rivalries. He
eventually settled in southern Japan, where his martial art skills led
organically to visual art: simple-looking, highly disciplined
ink-and-brush painting and calligraphy. Toward the end of his life,
Musashi synthesized everything he'd learned into the literary work he
is now best known for. Wilson integrates a considerable amount of
Japanese history and culture into a short, dense book with lots of
specialized information. Although Musashi doesn't become fully
dimensional—and given the scarcity of primary source material, he
probably can't—Wilson provides an extensive appendix of other materials
that have depicted the legendary swordsman over the centuries.
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