The Way of Martial Arts

Lesson 14

M O N T H L Y I N T E R A C T I V E L E S S O N S T O H E L P I M P R O V E Y O U R D A I L Y L I F E

B Y M A S T E R E R I C S B A R G E

If you have a beaker of clear water and you start adding drops of muddywater, it doesn’t take long before the clear water becomes cloudy. And ifyou pour a full beaker of muddy water into a beaker ofclear water, it all instantly becomes muddy water.

Conversely, if you take a beaker of muddy water and youstart adding clear water, how much do you need before themuddy water becomes clear? If you add a full beaker ofclear water to the muddy water, it will still be muddy water.Ten beakers of clear water won’t do the trick. Even adding100 beakers of clear water will still leave you with cloudywater.

Well guess what, your body follows this same model. We’re kind of likea big beaker, filled mostly with water. If you add even a small amount of“dirt” to your clean and pristine body, your body becomes “cloudy.” If youadd lots of dirt, your body turns to mud.

And once it turns to mud, figuratively speaking, you can’tturn it back into a clean and pristine body by simply

adding a little clean water. You’d need hundreds ofbeakers of clean water!

T H E R E A L P R O B L E M : T O X I N S

Last month I wrote about the option of a meatless diet, urgingyou to examine and make purposeful decisions about your eating

habits. This month I’m going to continue with the theme of eating and

Get Healthy – Fast!

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lifestyle choices and their impact on your health and well being, your ener-gy for martial arts, and the well being of our environment.

The subject this month isn’t about meat or vegetables, it’s about cleanand natural versus artificial and toxic.

The truth is we are bombarded with toxins on a daily basis. It’s true thatwe have a liver and kidneys and other body systems that were designed byGod (or whomever) to filter and clean the body. But they were designed fornormal levels of waste – not for the severe levels of toxic debris that we nowsubject them to.

Your car has an air filter to keep the engine clean and running smoothly.Under normal conditions you can clean or change the filter once or twice ayear and be fine. But if you always drive through heavy dust storms, youmight need to clean that same filter weekly or even daily. Failing to do sowill quickly make your car run worse and worse until it soon won’t run any-more.

Maybe evolution or God (or whomever) will eventually equip our bodieswith super heavy-duty filters to deal with the massive amounts of modernday toxins our bodies must cope with. But it won’t be in our life time orour children’s or our grandchildren’s.

J U S T W H A T A R E T H E T O X I N S I ’ M T A L K I N G A B O U T , A N DW H E R E D O T H E Y C O M E F R O M ?

I’m talking about man-made chemicals as well as natural elements in the airthat are now out-of-balance due to combustion of fuels for cars, factoriesand our industrialized lifestyles.

You might argue, “Well, I eat pretty well and I exercise every day withmy tai chi and kung fu, so I don’t think I have a lot of toxins in my body.”

If you doubt that you have a massive toxic build-up, take this simpletest. Answer Yes or No, then count how many of these questions you sayYes to.

1. I eat out at restaurants sometimes.2. At home, I eat foods that are not all certified organic.3. I barbecue or cook with non-stick pans sometimes.4. I eat at fast food restaurants at least twice a month.

5. I drink soda, diet soda, non-organic coffee or tea, or bottled juice.6. I drink unfiltered city tap water at least once a week (even in coffee).7. I shower without a water filter on my shower head (your skin absorbs asmuch city tap water in a 15-minute shower as drinking an 8 oz. glass ofwater)8. I take over-the-counter medication (aspirin, athlete’s foot medicine, forexample) or prescription medication sometimes or always.9. I have taken antibiotics in my life time.10. I have gotten vaccines in my life time.11. I periodically swim in chlorinated or public pools.12. I use a cell phone, lap top or remote electronic devices.13. I drive in heavy traffic often.14. I use soap, cream, shampoo, deodorant or makeup that is not certifiedorganic.15. I use sun screen that is not certified organic.16. I use standard cleaning supplies in my house.17. I use standard bug sprays or air fresheners in my house.18. I use standard soap or softeners to wash my clothes.19. I use non-organic fertilizers and standard products on my lawn.20. I live within 100 miles of an industrialized city.

If you answered Yes to more than five of these questions, you are likelyquite toxic. If you answered Yes to more than ten you are surely quite toxic.The unfortunate news is this list of 20 items could easily be expanded to ahundred or more.

W H A T A R E S O M E O F T H E S Y M P T O M S O F T O X I C I T Y ?

1. Tiredness despite enough sleep2. Inability to lose weight despite exercising and eating less3. Periodic or frequent headaches4. Periodic or frequent backaches or body aches5. Joint stiffness, inflammation and soreness6. Allergies or difficulty breathing around smokers or bad air7. Excessive bloating, heart burn, gas8. Constipation9. Depression

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10. Skin problems11. Erectile dysfunction12. Excessive PMS symptoms13. Frequent colds or infections14. Failure to heal quickly from illness or injury15. Yeast or parasite buildup in the body16. Feeling stressed, anxious or angry without good cause17. Worsening vision18. Loss of hair or hair luster19. Bad breath20. Body odor requiring deodorant

The symptoms of toxicity appear differently in each of us, and theyworsen as we get older – often resulting in cancer or other fatal illnesses.Many of these symptoms now appear in teenagers or even children, whichwas unheard of a few decades ago. If you have even a couple of these symp-toms, you could certainly benefit from detoxifying your body.

Amazingly, detoxifying the body and changing to a natural diet andlifestyle actually cures most of these ailments. The blood changes back fromacidic to alkaline, the intestines can again work with their natural efficiencyto assimilate nutrients, and thousands of other problems correct themselves.The body will naturally heal itself once it isn’t over-burdened with toxins.

The typical practice in our society is not to detoxify the body and get tothe root of our ailments. The typical practice in our society is to cure the“symptom” by taking over-the-counter or prescription medications whichonly aggravate the problem. All drugs are toxins!

Unless you regularly and systematically take steps to clean and detoxifyyour body – beyond the essential practices of exercise and drinking plentyof filtered water daily – your body will remain toxic even if you decide youwant to change to less toxic practices and habits.

You must detoxify your body before you can really get the benefits ofimproving eating habits or any other habits you decide to change. It’s likethe beaker of mud: You can’t expect that by adding a little clean water youwill change the mud. You need to remove the mud! If you think that tak-ing a few vitamins, or eating a few healthy meals, or doing a little exercisewill “clean” your muddied body, god bless you.

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H O W D O Y O U D E T O X Y O U R B O D Y ?

The most efficient, effective, tried-and-true way is with periodic fastingcombined with herbal purgatives or mechanical colon cleansing. Onlywhen you fast can your organs purge themselves of the toxins and waste thathave been trapped for years or decades.

Fasting and cleansing was practiced by ancient Greeks, Hebrews,Buddhists, Taoists – you name it. Even China’s famous Yellow Emperor’sClassic advocated fasting nearly 4000 years ago. If they needed it then,imagine how much more we need it now!

You don’t need to do a “water only” fast, though a modified seven-daywater fast is often my personal choice for my body type and lifestyle. Thereare juice fasts, fruit and salad fasts, even grain fasts.

If you ask your average western MD if fasting and detoxifying is impor-tant for general maintenance or to cure an illness you may have, it’s like ask-ing the Chemlawn guy if compost is good for your lawn. You’re talking tothe wrong person with an obvious conflict of interest. You need to ask anorganic gardener who is informed about natural approaches to lawn careabout the benefits of compost.

Likewise you need to ask an alternative medicine physician about alterna-tives to drugs and surgery such as fasting. Standard MD’s have theirstrengths – accident surgery, diagnoses of many diseases, surgery foradvanced disease – but naturally cleansing and building the body to elimi-nate and cure disease isn’t a strength of most MD’s.

I hope you will consider integrating fasting and detoxification into yourlifestyle. If you do decide to fast, follow a plan. Either do it under theguidance of an experienced alternative physician, or follow a program out-lined by reputable authors or practitioners. Don’t wing it – it is possible toharm yourself.

I’m not a doctor or medical expert, but I can tell you from personalexperience that fasting is tremendous. You’ll feel clear-minded, light andenergetic after a proper fast. It’s not only great for your physical health(and a great way to quickly lose 5 – 10 stubborn pounds) but it is spiritual-ly rejuvenating as well.

Fasting remains an important part of the Taoist and Shaolin traditions

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that we follow, and with each passing day it is becoming more, not less,beneficial or even essential.

E X E R C I S E :

Take a few minutes at home and walk from room to room. Just eyeballall the toxic sources in each room and closet, including your garage. You’llprobably see lots of obvious ones such as electrical devices, Doritos, cleaningfluids, etc., but also look for synthetic carpeting, pressed glue furniture,foam mattresses and the like that continually give off toxic fumes. This isn’tto depress or scare you, just to make sure you’re facing the facts. Like defi-ciencies in our character, we can only fix them if we recognize and facethem.

A S S I G N M E N T Write your “score” on your quiz of toxic sources in your life, and list any

ailments you might currently face that you believe might be impacted by atoxic and overloaded body. Explain how you feel about your score andsymptoms, and whether you feel compelled to do anything with this infor-mation. Send your thoughts to Master Sbarge atlessons@thepeacefuldragon.com. Please put “Lesson 14” in the subject line.

R E C O M M E N D E D R E A D I N G

This month I’m recommending two books:

The Tao of Health, Sex & Longevity, By Daniel P. Reid

You’ve probably already read Daniel Reid’s “The Complete Book ofChinese Health and Healing.” In the “Tao of Health, Sex & Longevity” hefully explains good eating habits from the Taoist perspectives of TraditionalChinese Medicine, as well as perspectives from modern science. Mostimportant, however, he includes chapters on fasting and body cleansing. Ihave personally followed his recommended system with just a few of myown modifications for over ten years now and I highly recommend it.

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Natural Cures They Don’t Want You to Know About By Kevin Trudeau

I know, this is a “pop” book as “seen on TV.” But if you still think natu-ral diets, detoxifying and avoiding most “regular” doctors are only for ex-hippies, this book will help you see why they are imperative for all of us.And it will help you really see how every other commercial on TV is forfood that is not organic and healthy, and drugs and medications to help uscope with the poisonous food they just enticed us to eat. As the authorputs it, it’s all about the money. But the good news for us is it costs noth-ing to decide to do something about it!

SSSSEvery month a book or article will be suggested by Master Sbarge.

Reading about topics related to the arts you are training in will help you getthe most out of your practice. Just remember that reading can never replaceyour practice! Each month’s recommended reading is purely optional,though Master Sbarge may on rare occasion ask that you do read a particu-lar book.

For additional reading suggestions by Master Sbarge, go tohttp://www.thepeacefuldragon.com/books.shtml. For any book or otheritem you purchase through The Peaceful Dragon website’s link toAmazon.com, a percentage is automatically sent to The Peaceful Dragon.We appreciate your support of our school.

Note: All Peaceful Dragon students are urged to complete monthlyassignments because they are important for you to fully benefit fromyour training.