Hey guys and gals, Rich here.... I have completely separated myself from
the Senshido name as I have changed the name to the more generic, open and less
“symbolic” ‘tag’ of ‘martial arts’, if you will (more on why that particular
title later). The reason I am doing this
is that I personally feel that the name Senshido has become dogmatic in, and of
itself, and as titles stand for something I never believed in but perhaps was
too afraid to completely let go of but as of late, I have been doing much
letting go of many, many things so…
The Senshido ‘ball’ is now even more so in all of my team’s courts
to express, teach, share as they see fit and to let the public know that the Senshido
they are teaching is their personal interpretation and expression based on
their personal experiences with it. As I’ve
always said, it is now their Senshido to teach, express and live as they feel
is best.
I however, will still be teaching martial arts/self
defense/personal protection as the vehicle and will keep evolving it via my own
personal journey and experiences but no longer will I call it Senshido or
anything else that would crystallize, label and or place in a faction what it
is that I will be sharing/teaching, and that goes for every label within it
including the notorious “Shredder/REACT” name that would cause one’s
neuro-association to immediately shift to “Senshido”.
The only thing that will ever tie me to the Senshido name
was that I was once the founder of the spark marketed as Senshido, which I no
longer am really because the second you acquired it, the minute ANYONE acquires
it, it becomes theirs and at that exact moment, they become the founders of
what they are now referring to as “Senshido.
Senshido is an entity within itself now, one that no longer
needs me and that I no longer need, I am leaving the vehicle/luggage behind and
moving on folks and have full trust and faith in whatever it is my team will do
with Senshido. So this is it, the final transcending from me to them all, the
rest of the transcending evolves from each and every one of them at this point.
I certainly do not and never consider myself enlightened by
any means, nor more-so enlightened than anyone else for that matter. Quite the
contrary actually... truth is, I'm not seeking 'enlightenment' by any means, I
don't even think I believe in the general concept of it for to be enlightened
is often interpreted as having nothing left to learn and I don't believe that
to be possible as I truly believe we are infinite beings. My pursuit is personal and collective human
evolution; that's a never ending journey.
I have finally let go of almost every personal attachment I
had that I believed either negated my personal evolution or had an irrational
and/or illogical fear attached to it and a monumental part of that was the
entity that had become Senshido. All
along, it was the title, the faction, the label, the marketing, the business,
the crystallization of what was supposed to (as Bruce Lee stated time and time
again) be and remain - fluid.
In my opinion, you cannot name a concept, a way, an idea, a
movement or a journey, anything that is open and responsive to all new stimuli
or info without judgment or emotional dogmatic baggage relayed to it; without
by proxy limiting it within that very label creating a faction. Case in point;
the Shredder. Conceptually, it's nothing more than the 5 principles of physical
retaliation applied. Labeling it with a name, slapping a title on it and then
attaching it yet to another name that has been crystallized as a RBSD 'system'
turned it into exactly what it isn't. I need not go on as to 'Senshido' itself.
This isn't about credit or accolades either, this isn't
about me and never should have been. From my perspective; 'credit,
"deserve", want, desire, fame' etc. has nothing to do with what it is
I am imparting and sharing with the world and everything to do with me feeding
my ego. I don't want to be remembered or
credited for or with anything other than being a good friend, brother and
father to my students, friends, family, son and fellow man.
Agree or disagree with me, it doesn't matter, it isn't the
point but I do not believe in culture, race, nationality, religion, flags or
any labels designed to separate and segregate what I believe to be one
collective energy. The hypocrisy of labeling and crystallizing what I am
sharing as a 'system' or 'style' or 'particular method' was eating at me. A rather deep conversation with my friend
Jenn who helps me teach and run the classes here brightly illuminated that
truth for me just recently and it’s time to make that leap.
I can no longer hide from the fact that Senshido, the dogma,
the label, the rbsd system has been enormously stagnating my personal evolution
and that of my teaching and sharing by proxy.
It became luggage I had to carry everywhere and that releasing myself
from it, allowing it to flourish the way I always intended it to literally
liberated me as I was almost losing my mind trying to explain not just to the
world, but to more than half my own team most of the time was also taking its
toll on my mental health.
This was never about money for me, or being in magazines or
wanting any kind of recognition or wanting to be any kind of leader in the
traditional sense of the word, but rather, I was passionate about my personal
discoveries and experiences and wanted to share them in the hopes others would
experience what I had and motivate them to better themselves via my sharing
with them what I had learned and found.
I was too young, too inexperienced and at the time, too
closed minded to accept an unconventional approach to expressing and teaching
my experiences and findings that I went the conventional route of turning it
into a business even though, I never really ran it like one, I always, always
ran Senshido with heart and intuition over the general business/corporate
approach.
And so rather than the focus being on a name or a method or
a system or a faction or label or 'particular way', the focus will shift back
to what's important... self actualization and expression of self truth through
functional combative training. No names, no belts, no factions, no labels, no
styles, no marketing in the traditional sense of the word as this is kind of
"unmarketable" anyway - literally using "no way as way and
having no limitations as limitation'....
It's never been about Senshido either, Senshido is nothing
and was nothing more than the luggage, the vehicle, the software..... that's
it..... the team, the friendships, the relationships are what's important and
critical as well as the lives changed and improved via our work. The name became the focal point and symbol of
judgment... Senshido became the proverbial "Finger" that was pointing
to the moon.... it's turned into something it wasn't supposed to be, a
crystallized method.
As for what now, I will continue teaching and sharing my
experiences here in Jasper. I'm going to run this strictly from the heart as I
always have only there will be no marketing or business or anything related for
me.... that will be taken care of on its own accord and spread via those who's
lives have been bettered via our paths crossing which is exactly what is
happening right now.
As for the 'name'.... I am not looking for any particular
kind of client, I am fully trusting that those who need what I have to offer
will find me and their way to my classes and not because of the name or branding
either. I am not looking to "mass
produce" or "sell, sell, sell" for the sake of selling, nor am I
trying to change the world or reach and teach as many people as I can; I am not
"trying" to do anything at all.
I've got something to share, I'm going to share it the way I
know how and best and those that make their way to me whose lives have been
crossed with mine via those classes will benefit from what I have to
offer. Not to come across to
'hippie-ish' but I don't believe in coincidence at all and I trust that life
will cross the paths of those whose paths need to cross because that has been
my experience time and time again. I don't want anyone coming to train with me
because of a name or reputation or because of who I taught or clever
marketing..... I'm fucking tired of that shit to be honest.
I don't want to be a leader in the traditional sense of the
word as I had stated, I want my actions and the way I live my life to path the
way. So from that perspective, yes, I
want to lead by example, not because I'm so and so attached to this and
that....
Truth is, and I know it sounds cliché but I've never felt
more liberated and free in my life until I honestly learned to 'let it go'....
we teach this shit, we better be able to fully live it or else we're being
hypocritical.... fear management is more than just managing fear against a thug
or bad guy..... It’s managing one's own personal demons first and foremost and
I found myself paying lip service to it while living contrarily to what I was
evolving too and espousing, it was time i let go of some of my deepest fears
and this was indeed one of them. Letting
go of what I labeled as my legacy project, my baby so to speak is monumental
and very much indeed everything it originated as and was supposed to be about.....
Don't concentrate on the proverbial finger be it me,
Senshido, the movement or anything else for that matter folks..... if you or
anyone are stuck on Senshido then you haven't really learned
"Senshido" have you? Learn to
let go and move on, walk on, evolve passed Richard Dimitri's Senshido and make
it your own or you've missed the entire point.
If you feel the necessity of calling it as such, then make sure you let
the world know it is no longer mine but now your expression of it that you are
sharing/teaching.
As for what I am calling what I am sharing now, it's evolved
to just "Martial Arts". That's
what I am calling the sharing of my knowledge and experiences because that is
exactly the vehicle I used to get to where I am. No styles, no systems, no 'ways', no limits,
no names, no labels. We teach kicking,
boxing, grappling, ground fighting, close quarter combat, self protection, self
defense, self development, fitness etc. No belts, no rituals, no katas, no
levels, no T-shirts, no uniforms, no hierarchy, no leaders, no dogmas, and
everything shared is highly encouraged to be individually researched and to
never take our word for anything, to go our and experience, express and
acknowledge via their own perceptions which we aim at expanding.
Change confuses people though, many have made multi
references to the fact that I change my mind allot, and yes, I most certainly
do because the minute something is no longer working for me, I abolish it and
move on, the minute new information displaces old information, I roll with it
until proven otherwise and I'm a researcher.... I refer to that as
'evolving'.... having the 'same mind' and never changing one's mind, never
evolving, never growing is stagnation to me.
If you're the same person today you were yesterday, last week, last
month, last year, you've greatly wasted a day, week, month and year of your
life and potential as a human being in my opinion. It's the difference between 20 years of real
experiences VS 1 year repeated 20 times over.
I am now free of the dogma of Senshido and the shredder and
everything else that slammed us into a faction.
Teaching just 'martial arts' allows me greater freedom of expression and
choice and without judgment and preconceived notions from those that enter my
space. Some may say that the very term
'martial arts' is a dogma, and in essence, yes, it is but it's one that
encompasses everything attached to "Mind, Body and Spirit" you
see.... offering a much greater range of personal and interpersonal exploration
than "Senshido" or krav, karate, thai boxing, mma, judo, wrestling
etc. When someone asks one of my students where they train, the conversation
will go along the lines of:
Dude: So where do you train.
My Student: At the old gym at the activity center
downstairs.
Dude; No, I mean what do you train in?
MS: Oh, martial arts.
Dude: Mixed martial arts?
MS: You could say that but it's more than that, it's not MMA
in the traditional "UFC" sense.
Dude: What style is it? What's it called?
MS: It's not called anything, it's martial arts, no style.
It's my style.
Dude: No style? Oh like JKD?
MS: No, that would be like or JKD, we don't do or learn JKD.
Dude: So what do you learn then?
MS: For starters, we have no styles, no systems, no rituals, no lineages, no masters, no labels, no belts, no katas, no uniforms, no dogmas; only the process of self actualization & personal expression of truth through functional combative movement and fitness.
On a purely physical level, we share how to individually and collectively use all of our natural tools as well as extended ones, offensively and defensively in a strategic and tactical manner and in all ranges of combat.We're also put through functional physical fitness training where we learn to push ourselves through our own perceived limits. We also have much to offer on nutrition, health and peak performance.
On a more cerebral level we learn about the psychology of violence, fear, stress & confrontation management skills, deescalation strategies and survival tactics. As the mind navigates the body; by challenging personal self defense dogmas and individual belief systems, personal growth and evolution occurs.
On a human level, we learn about the ripple effect and the moral, legal, and ethical consequences of our chosen actions while self examining our darkest emotions. We are encouraged to question everything, to learn to think for ourselves, to be more accountable and research everything we learn and to be open and responsive to life without judgment.
On a personal level, the training can make you face and slay your own demons.
Everything shared is highly encouraged to be individually researched, to “absorb what is useful, add what is specifically of your own and disregard the rest.”
Dude: woah... can I come and try a class. 8)
Thanks for making it this far and for being here with us. Journey on.
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, right Chris? ;`) I say indefinitely and/or until further notice because one never really knows what life brings and I may eventually return to teaching full time at some point in my life; but as things presently stand, I’m done. I had actually struggled for several years with this decision and there were times, recently included where I came so very close to quitting teaching commercially and/or for a living for good.
