Author: Steve Rowe

Martial artist, philosopher, author, writer,
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Closing All The Windows

Steve Rowe

Closing All The Windows The computer was designed by and is like the human mind. When you close all the active windows, what’s left? It appears to be nothing, a blank screen, but it’s actually the potential to do anything the computer or its programmer can do. When we sit still, breathe deep and close all the activity of our mind, the mind appears to be inactive but is in fact in a state of readiness to accept the insight and wisdom that our ‘windows’ (thinking mind) has been blocking that has always been there in the background. Closing the … Continue reading Closing All The Windows

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Old Was More Effective

Steve Rowe

What’s lacking in most modern marts? Power. People are derisory toward 70’s and 80’s Karate and Kung Fu because of their simplicity and training methods, but the truth is that the good practitioners of those days would smash straight through most of the modern technicians. They may have been raw but they had the components that worked for real and they tested it every bloody, bone crunching training session and in security work where there was no badges or cameras, only hard earned reputations. Why were they so much more powerful? Because they practised hour after hour of rock solid … Continue reading Old Was More Effective

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The True Meaning Of Karma

Steve Rowe

Our oligarchs and their puppet politicians are telling us that the only way out of the ‘predicament’ that they have put us in, (where they have multiplied their personal wealth and multiplied the poverty of the masses as a natural balance) is to treat us as ‘straw dogs’, to tighten our belts, work harder and create more wealth for them to the cost of our peace, happiness and the environment. Lao Tsu wrote “the space between heaven and earth is like a bellows, the shape changes but not the form. The more it moves, the more it yields.” When they … Continue reading The True Meaning Of Karma

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I Am Beautiful

Steve Rowe

I am beautiful. That’s not a ‘guru’ style bogus affirmation, at 74, with a barrel rather than a 6 pack, riddled with arthritis, a missing leg, more wrinkles than a crumpled crisp packet and more scars than a Russian gangster my body is my best friend and a record of an exciting life. I am beautiful. Because despite its battering my body is suffused with chi (life energy), alchemised and educated into geng (warrior energy) and then shen (spiritual energy) by trained emotions and a mind that has trained and meditated twice a day for over 50 years. I am … Continue reading I Am Beautiful

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Trust Your Gut

Steve Rowe

Over the years, I’ve learned the hard way to trust my gut. The moment I meet someone I know whether they are a ‘wrong ‘un’ or not. Unfortunately I’ve not always listened to it, only to discover in the end that I should have – and sometimes it’s cost me dearly. It’s important to meditate and learn about your instincts and how important it is to rely on them. Your head and heart can mess you up, but your gut never does. Continue reading Trust Your Gut

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I’m Not To Blame!

Steve Rowe

There’s nothing worse than having walked the road and got to the destination in the martial arts to watch those that want to get to the same destination, but you know that what they’re doing won’t get them there and they are convinced that it will. The irony is that if you try to tell them they will be offended and defensive, they’ll come to you for instruction in the art but then not believe you if you try to tell them why what they’re doing won’t get them there. We’re not always right, but with the experience we have, … Continue reading I’m Not To Blame!

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The Missing Leg

Steve Rowe

Sat in the consultants office.The leg is infected, hot, red and swollen. The metal prosthetic rod that ran through the entire leg had now broken through the shin bone. It was a mess. “Go home, dial 999, it has to be amputated within 24 hours or you will die. It was 2021 in the middle of Covid, I was blue lighted into a hospital in chaos. By that point I’d had over 20 surgeries on my legs, 3 sepsis infections, 3 knee replacements in that leg including an antibiotic spacer, lost all my quadricep muscles on both legs, eventually having … Continue reading The Missing Leg

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What The Prophets Knew

Steve Rowe

The word ‘religion’ comes from the Latin ‘religare’ meaning ‘to bind’. The root of the various religions as taught by their prophets is to ‘bind’ or ‘stay bound’ to the infinite energy that formed us and to that which we return to when our body ceases to be. Politicians then overlay those teachings with dogma creating doctrine to control the masses, but those with penetrating insight can still see the common root – and that’s what humanity needs to get down to. We need to care for each other, whatever our roots. I’m long enough in the tooth to know … Continue reading What The Prophets Knew

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Emptying Hearts & Stuffing Bellies

Steve Rowe

Lao Tsu talks about a wise leader ‘emptying the hearts and stuffing the bellies of the nation’, and this has many levels of understanding. The word ‘karate’ often translated as ‘empty hand’ Funakoshi explained the ‘Kara’ part ‘empty’ as empty of (violent) intention and ‘te’ (hand) is generally understood as a term for martial art. Therefore an art of peace. Draining the chi (ki) from the heart to the belly calms the body, emotions and mind. Filling the belly is to retain and store power instead of losing it. This gives an absence of negative energies like fear and anger … Continue reading Emptying Hearts & Stuffing Bellies

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Demons Dressed As Martial Artists

Steve Rowe

Watch carefully. There are people in the martial arts world that will worm their way in to your world to try and control it to suit themselves. They will be very ‘gollomy’ and try to blow smoke up your backside calling you ‘Master’ or whatever they think will please you. They will do you ‘favours’ even when you haven’t asked for them and do anything to get in a position of power or control and get their name associated with yours. When you finally realise what they’re up to they will turn and try to use everything possible against you. … Continue reading Demons Dressed As Martial Artists