WE WILL SURVIVE

Many many years ago, I was strongly influenced by the writings of Sun Tzu and his work titled ‘The Art of War’ (500 BC). Written 2,500 years ago by this renowned scientist of war, his book has been revered by Academics and Students, Kings and Presidents and almost every warrior who has tread ‘The Path’.

One of his strongest claims for success on the battlefield was ‘Know Your Enemy’ (equally applicable in todays modern business boardroom).

In 1964, in my home town of Melbourne, I was involved in support security for the Beatles tour when they stayed at the Southern Cross hotel.

By a mere twist of fate though, I spent less than an hour with John Lennon.

Our time together was implanted in my subconscious. Seven years after that chance meeting, he released one of his top selling albums ‘Give Peace a Chance’. Ten years after (in 1980) he died a violent death with multiple gunshot wounds ripping his body to pieces.

At the beginning of this millenium, I was strongly influenced by the writings of yet another infamous martial artist, Morihei Ueshiba and his book ‘The Art of Peace’. One of his strongest points of view about how to live our lives was, ‘Your Enemy Does Not Exist’.

The John Lennon experience along with more deaths and near death experiences than l care to recall, reminded me of my own experiences of life, and if that was a book it would have to be called ‘The Art of Survival’.

It is this concept of ‘The Art of Survival’ that prompted me to create a new millennium martial art for all 21st century searchers of truth.

What you are currently reading is my way of presenting knowledge to you by way of a gift about many of my life’s experiences for you to share with me by following my footsteps on the path of the martial arts training together as warrior/hunters.

This journey I call Fighting Fit.

I recently released the first part of my autobiographical trilogy ‘Let The Good Times Roll’. This is the story of me travelling the world as a bodyguard to the rich and famous and the best known Rock ‘N’ Roll celebrities of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s…. It’s a ton of fun! I hope you get the chance to read it for the experience of knowing more about me as we now travel lifes journey together.

Another favourite book of mine worthy of note is an epic martialists ‘Must Read’….Miyamoto Musashi left transcripts with his closest students and their translation several years after his death became ‘The Book of Five Rings’.

In this book he uses the five elements of earth, air, fire, water and the void as his stratagies of survival.

I borrow from this concept in the second book of my trilogy. Titled aptly ‘The Greatest Story Never Told’, this will be the story of my martial lifestyle. How I defeated my own inner demons and how this rather ordinary guy with a limited education and background, went on to build a martial arts empire.

Then my book explains that this is only the beginning, now that the 21st century has unfolded, so now will the Bob Jones Story.

Prior to Black Belt I will take both beginners and Black Belts on a new journey.

The Fighting Fit 1-5 system has five modules (see chapter on Coloured Belt Ranking Structure). These modules are identified with five colours of yellow, orange, blue, green and brown.

From Sun Tzu’s Art of War, these modules are designed for you to totally ‘Know Your Enemy’. They will teach you everything you need to know about handling a violent situation. You will be taught techniques that if necessary could cause maximum damage to your attackers.

Through the study of the thirteen chapters in Sun Tzu’s, ‘The Art of War’ we learn to convincingly ‘Win Any War’ against any enemy. Eventually we come to realise and acknowledge our only enemy of note is within, we alone are our own worst enemy.

Armed with this knowledge it would appear the battle could be won. Am l now ready for Ueshiba’s theory in ‘The Art of Peace’, ‘The Enemy Does Not Exist’ ?

I am reminded here of yet one more book; my third book of my trilogy ‘The Violent Years’. This book is a post war story of a country coming to terms in the aftermath of two world wars, a world depression and a war no one wanted, Vietnam. It’s a story about a convict colony that was born on unspeakable mass violence, crime, corruption and church abuse. Except for the white Australia policy and mass importation of destructive narcotics….little else has changed.

Arriving near the end of this story that evolves over a little more than two hundred years is this unusual character, Bob Jones. He comes on the scene at the time of the devastation of World War 2 around the middle of last century. For much of his life, all was grim.

Enter the miracle…Bob Jones is introduced to the philosophy of the world of martial arts. He trains hard and with total dedication. Eventually he is introduced to the world of books and he begins to study as hard as he trains.

As I continue to train and read, l begin to think ‘Yes I can make a difference’. I have the John Lennon story, along with every major rock band and identity to remind me of the black dragon (ie. Narcotics: One of the worst inner demons), his violent death (following ‘Give Peace a Chance’) is a grim reminder of the state of the planet.

Even with all of this, if you and I train hard, develop as many Black Belts as we can, get ‘them’ and ‘theirs’ on ‘The Path’.

We may not always win the battles but you know and I know ‘We Will Survive’.

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