Combat Magazine Readers Section

Welcome, if you read the March Combat Magazine Article and came here for more information first I'd like to thank you. I am providing the following links which will be helpful toward the material that was mentioned in the article.

I'd like to mention that after reading the article in print, some of my responses may be misinterpreted as painting with a broad brush. When I state 'many' masters or 'most' organizations that does not mean every master and every organization. I hope this would be obvious and common sense.

There are many masters that not only are exceptions to this; take Grandmaster Andy Ahpo and Grandmaster Charles Ferraro for example, there are also organizations out there making an honorable effort to provide the best training they can.

I was remiss in not thanking GM Ahpo for his guidance over the years and I worry some may think I was lumping in GM Ferrao and his wonderful Mi Guk Kwan organization and other fine organizations as well in my statements. Both of these men are dear friends and I hope they accept my apologies if I offended them in any way.

So I hope that the readers see the statements as they are and not misinterpret them as anything else. There were an indicator of the reality of the state that I saw my old organization in and also others.

I thank the many of you that have given me positive feedback and I look forward to sharing more information with you.

Sincerely,

Dan Segarra

Here are the following links to help you further understand the content of the article;

For the New updated Ship Sam Seh book (30 pages) simply email me; mastersegarra@aim.com and I will send you one. I am gathering emails of those interested in my articles, books, videos and seminars. (I promise it is worth it and I won't bother you, just an occasional email to keep you apprised about what I am up to)

The Ship Sam Seh discussion area of this board: http://www.warrior-scholar.com/smf/index.php?topic=86.0

And below my retranslation of the Ship Sam Seh:

I have found that the Ship Sam Seh can be very confusing to people when they first approach it. I have been toying with reordering the lines and expanding on the translation slightly to flesh it out in a more meaningful way for practitioners inexperienced with eastern culture and thought. I reorganized it to sound more like advice from a teacher, starting with the overall vision of the purpose and philosophy of the martial arts and then moving on to posture, movement then meditation (stillness in motion), followed by what the desired results would be (effortless mastery) and ending like the original with stressing the importance of the song. Nothing was left out, simply reorganized and fleshed out at certain points. It seems to flow better from a western ; ) standpoint.

Feel free to contribute your thoughts;

The song of the thirteen principles.
Author Unknown
Reorganized by Daniel R. Segarra

What is the purpose and philosophy behind the martial arts?
Living Masterfully, rejuvenation and prolonging of life beyond the normal span.
So an eternal spring.

What is the main principle of the martial arts?
The mind is the master of the body.

To pass through the gate and be shown the way,
you must be taught by an instructor.
Gradually when you apply these principles in your life more and more your skill will develop naturally.

First hold your head as if suspended from a string.
Keep the base of your spine and posture erect, your energy will rise to the top of your head.
Use that energy to create a relaxed clear awareness in your abdomen, your power will be activated.
Let that power flow through the whole body continuously

Keep your body flexible and ready.
But remember at all times pay attention to your center.

When you move be natural, bending, stretching, opening or closing, let nature take its course.
Remember the source of your power is in your waist, center the mind in the waist.
Pay attention to the slightest change from full to empty.

When you move give awareness and purpose to every movement,
Your energy will flow through those movements
and surprising things will happen when you meet your opponent.

Stay alert and seek the meaning and purpose of your art at all times.
Stillness embodies motion, motion stillness.
Seek stillness in motion.
When done correctly all you do will appear effortless and masterful.

So never neglect any of the thirteen principles.
Every word of this song has enormous value and importance,
failing to follow this song attentively, you will have wasted away your time.

If you have any questions feel free to ask away. And PLEASE take the time to write combat office@combatmag.co.uk and tell them what you liked about the article. I'm hoping Combat gets enough feedback that they will want more.