Good Bye Senshido & Thank You

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.