To survive through economic collapse, cultural collapse and the dominance of machines, we need to protect and defend our humanity. We need to act now, before the opportunity is lost. Maybe we can do much more than survive. With clear objectives and means it may be that we can change everything, for ourselves and the people near us.
To do this we need devotion to training. Bringing our bodies to life, making them intelligent, skillful and healthy. Bringing our minds to life, making them strong, in virtue, self-discipline and purpose.
We do this is through our approach to martial arts, by applying the urgency of the self-defense model to training both the body and the mind, for action and for peace. This transformative training pervades all aspects of our lives, focusing our effort, and freeing us from the danger and tedium which will engulf us if we capitulate to the degraded conventions of modern life.
Recovering our freedom, dignity, and honor, living a life of fellowship, health, happiness, stability and self-respect – in a world culture that assails these continually – is a present and urgent motive.
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Post copyright © 2026 Jeffrey Brooks, MountainKarateNC.com, Yamabayashi Ryu, Mountain Karate Dojo, in the mountains of western NC.
Photo by Brianna Parks via Unsplash
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read True Karate Dō by Jeffrey Brooks
“One of the best books I’ve read in years, inviting and compelling. Jeff Brooks moves effortlessly from martial arts to Buddhism to consciousness studies, self-transformation, and related fields in this wide-ranging and Illuminating study that has much to offer both novice explorers and veteran practitioners. A splendid achievement.”— Philip Zaleski, Editor, The Best Spiritual Writing series