Karate has been my number one passion ever since the age of twelve. To become the world’s greatest martial artist is a sacred ambition that I have held deep in my soul for over forty-three years. I had no imagination that such an ambition would engulf my life so completely, with such a dynamic transformation of my body, mind and spirit. I shall forever count the blessings for what a dedicated lifestyle of martial arts has contributed to my youth, health, state of mind and emotions and my overall level of spiritual consciousness.
The essence of the idea of Nungkyyii originally started out as a desire to revolutionize martial arts technique and its strategic application. My study of several forms of martial arts broadened my consciousness of the diversity of martial arts techniques. To me technique was the superior component in the execution of martial arts. Speed, power, balance and strategy in my mind were secondary enhancements that gave accent to the technique. I discovered that technique was held sacred and even cherished as cultural pride in most of the traditional styles of martial arts.
During my military tour in Vietnam and Taiwan I experienced martial arts training in Tae Kwon Do, Savate and Gung-Fu. When I returned to the United States I selected a Korean school to further my training because I had recently received my black belt in Tae Kwon Do. While sparring with the instructor I made the mistake of using a Gung-Fu foot sweep in a Tae Kwon Do class. The instructor immediately informed me that my technique was not a Korean technique, and he asked me to please refrain from insulting the art of Tae Kwon Do by executing inferior techniques from other styles of martial arts. Because I managed to sweep the instructor off of his feet, I could hardly agree with his description of the technique as being inferior. I left the Korean school out of disappointment and discouragement in my desire to become a super technician of martial arts. I later joined a Chinese school of martial arts, practicing the style of Kung Fu. While sparring one of the Kung-Fu students I recognized the execution of a foot sweep in progress, so I decided to counter the foot sweep with a leaping side kick that I had learned from practicing Tae Kwon Do. The timing of the execution of the side kick made the technique superior to the foot sweep. The instructor of the Chinese school gave me somewhat the same warning I had received at the Korean school. At that point I knew that if I was to achieve my goals in martial arts I had to have the freedom to practice any technique that I knew for a fact through experience was a superior technique. I also wanted the freedom to create techniques that I imagined to be superior in combat. At that time all styles of martial arts were closed systems of ancient tradition. Making changes in techniques would have brought tremendous negative response. I knew then that I had to have the courage to create my own style if I was to have the freedom of creativity and escape the restrictions of tradition. I definitely didn’t want to become just some fly by night renegade that threw together a bunch of techniques, forms and movements and called it a style of martial arts. Therefore I decided to take my time and create a serious and dynamic form of martial arts. I spent considerable time researching the various martial arts styles, their origin and their techniques. I purchased a movie camera and started recording the techniques, movements, forms and strategies of some of the best martial artists on the tournament circuit. I wanted to create a style of martial arts that would definitely produce superior students, physically, mentally and spiritually. In my mind, producing superior students was the only way I was going to be taken serious and respected as the Master of my style.
I spent the next two years structuring the exercises, movements, techniques, strategies, belt system, qualifications for ranking, and overall development of the physiology of my style. All exercises and techniques were arranged in a progressive order according to the increasing development of muscle strength, flexibility and coordination. My concept of progression assured the fact that every upgrade in rank meant that the students would increase in their physiological development. I purposely programmed the qualifications of my first color belt of 6th degree purple on a level that would be equivalent to 1st degree black belt in any other style of martial arts. Student superiority was going to be my trademark reputation as the Master teacher of my style. I promised myself that I would never ever have a student wearing a belt rank that he or she didn’t have the proper training, skill level, courage, or confidence to deserve. I have always felt that promoting students because it’s good business or good for the student’s spirit and morale was a grave disservice to the student’s future development into a dynamic martial artist.
In 1970 I felt I was ready to make my début. I had spent two intense years doing my homework. Several hundreds of hours had been invested into research, creativity, choreography, physical training, experimenting and tournament competition. I launched my new style of martial arts at the Arnett Branch YMCA in Rochester, N.Y. I named my school of martial arts the Purple Dragons. I contemplated giving my style a name that would definitely be recognized by sight and sound. The name project turned into a quest of numerology. Since the number nine represented completion in numerology, I initiated my search for nine letters that would equal a nine vibration. (See numerology diagram) Three months later the name Nungkyyii (nung-ki-yi-ee) emerged from meditations. I was still lost for an appropriate definition for Nungkyyii. I remembered a particular teaching given to me by my Master in Taipei, Taiwan that stood out in my mind with memorable meaning more so than any of his other teachings – "To teach martial arts without teaching a philosophy of life is compared to giving a blind folded student a loaded gun." Although I had no philosophy of life at that moment, I knew I had to develop one if I was to become a great teacher of martial arts and true Master of my own style. Therefore I set out to give Nungkyyii a definition that would represent the manifestation of a great and dynamic philosophy of life. Nungkyyii finally became defined as: The science of self-evolution; the philosophical art and practice of obtaining the meaning of life through the expression of self-discipline, total submission and obedience of the law of being, living in the truth and becoming one with the Infinite Mind of Intelligence.
Discipline became the foundation and main focal point of the teachings of Nungkyyii. Students were taught that the greatest knowledge in the world was the knowledge of self. To achieve such knowledge a practitioner of Nungkyyii should live in the truth and discover the law of being. Once a student has achieved enough self-control to obey the law of being, live in the truth and become one with God, he or she would enter the conscious life of spirituality and experience the dynamic sensations of divine happiness.
At ninety-one years of age my Master was living proof of the health benefits of a fruit and vegetable diet. As a vegetarian I knew that diet was a mandatory discipline for health and development of the body, mind and spirit. I initiated vegetarianism by providing meatless meals every evening after class for students who were interested and serious about becoming students and practitioners of the philosophy of Nungkyyii. I introduced fasting as a discipline of maintenance of the enzymes and the digestive system. Fasting took place from 5am until 5pm seven days a week. I taught classes in spirituality before every adult martial arts class. On Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings I held spiritual classes for disciples only. My spiritual teachings were based upon the principles of creation – consciousness, energy, activity, intelligence, progress and necessity, and their relationship to human development. Major emphases were placed upon the development of higher consciousness and greater moral behavior. Meditation was introduced as a spiritual discipline practiced in order to raise every student’s level of consciousness. Meditation became a mandatory practice for all disciplinarians of the teachings of the philosophy. I taught three types of meditation. The meditation of receptivity, concentration and spiritual communication were practiced on a daily bases. A special prayer was created and ritualized in order to help disciples develop the habit of meditating. The prayer is called The Ahkquraam. We pray three times a day. The first prayer takes place at sunrise. When the first rays of the sun are released at sunrise we attune our minds to the cosmic frequency of the universe with high expectations of receiving wisdom and knowledge for guidance along our path of truth. The second prayer takes place at noon or when the rays of the sun are perpendicular to the Earth. At this time we pray for strength and support to help overcome the obstacles and negative forces that we encounter daily on our spiritual journey. And the third prayer takes place at 5pm or when the sun sets for the evening. In this prayer we show our appreciation by giving thanks to the Infinite Mind of Intelligence and counting blessings for being physically, mentally and spiritually healthy. As disciples began to notice progress in their mental, physical and spiritual development they became more interested in committing themselves to a life of spirituality. Several disciples quit their jobs and dedicated themselves to the spiritual movement of Nungkyyii. In order to accommodate the living expenses of full time disciples I created a maintenance company and a construction business. I received contracts from hotels, Kodak and Xerox, which provided enough financial resources to allow the movement to develop into a prosperous organization. With an estimated 50-manpower organization we were able to generate a substantial income to expand our movement. We leased three floors of an eight story building in down town Rochester, New York. We rented two very large houses for the residence of disciples, and we leased a farm in Alfred, N.Y. in which we grew our own organic fruits and vegetables. We were fortunate that the farm had a natural well in which we were able to enjoy the nature and taste of spring water. At this time the movement had evolved into a spiritual commune. Disciples were entering matrimony and starting families.
Our Purple Dragons martial arts movement had exploded on the east coast. We had Purple Dragons branches in Syracuse, N.Y., Buffalo, N.Y., Alfred, N.Y., Webster,N.Y., Denver, Co. and Puerto Rico, with 3 dojos in the Rochester area. Purple Dragons were dominating the tournament circuit. I won Grand Championship 12 times out of 13 matches during my years of competition. In the Empire State Karate Championships held in Syracuse, N.Y. by Greg Tearney I was the reigning Grand Champion for 6 consecutive years before I retired. After my top black belt student defeated the world heavy weight champion, Joe Lewis in Binghamton, N.Y., respect finally started to gravitate toward me as the Master of Nungkyyii. It took ten long years for other Masters to start addressing me as a Master. After demonstrating my superiority as a strategic technician of martial arts I wanted to achieve greater accomplishments than just championships and huge trophies. I felt that my particular martial arts style and its philosophy of self-discipline had something more to offer humanity above and beyond the physical plane. My heart and mind was set on achieving greatness on a spiritual plane.
The correlation between learning academics and learning martial arts was brought to my attention by a half dozen of my students who were classified as having a learning disorder (dyslexia). Previous to enrollment in my school of martial arts, the parents of these children were at the borderline of hopelessness trying to find a working solution to their children’s’ learning problems. Within six to nine months of martial arts instructions parents began to notice significant improvement in their children’s learning ability and academic performance. This experience prompted the idea of merging the discipline of martial arts with the learning of academics. In order to experiment with my hypothesis on the positive effects of the discipline of martial arts practice on academic learning, I approached the board of education in 1974 with a proposal that would allow me to teach martial arts in local schools as an extra curriculum class and activity of physical education. At that time in Rochester, N.Y. schools were plagued by gang violence. The superintendent of schools rejected my proposal. His logic was that karate taught in schools would only make hoodlums better hoodlums. That same year the state of New York lead the nation in school dropouts and high school graduates whose literacy was below sixth grade level. The government applied pressure on the state of New York and the governor was forced to address the problems in education. The governor passed an amendment that solicited alternative education programs. To qualify for the program I created the Youth Corp Movement and became a non-profit registered youth agency with the Rochester Youth Board. Each applicant had to demonstrate their organization’s ability to improve the academic performance and learning ability of failing students over a course of the summer. By the end of the summer all of the students in my academic martial arts program had passed their GED tests. My program received extensive media attention when the executive director of the youth board of the state of New York at Albany came to Rochester and paid our youth agency a personal visit, took a tour of our facility and observed our program in operation. The executive director gave me a certificate authorizing my school as a legitimate alternative education program. We took over the third floor of the Triangle Center located downtownb Rochester, which we already presently occupied space for teaching karate. The third floor was already equipped with classrooms, chalkboards, desks and even a library, which use to be a Jewish elementary school. I named our new school the Purple Dragons Martial Arts Academy of Self Discipline. I gathered volunteer teachers from within our organization and structured our curriculum. When word got around to students that our school was a legal alternative education program, with the authority to award high school diplomas, chaos began to brew. Rumors got back to the superintendent of the school board that a mass of students were planning to quit public schools and enroll in the Purple Dragons Martial Arts Academy of Self Discipline at the beginning of the school year. Since there was no legal way of shutting our operation down, the school board undermined our operation with a barrage of political assaults. Our first attack came when the grant that we were awarded by HUD for $250,000 was denied because we didn’t have a 501c3 certificate from the IRS. And we couldn’t get any non-profit agency to properly administrate the funds for us. Next, our application for a 2.5 million dollar liability insurance policy was rejected because of the high injury risk martial arts added to the liability of the students. And out of nowhere the owner of the building that we were leasing space from increased our rent from $1,500 a month to $3,000. Negative publicity from the media disturbed parents and our school became taboo. As the old saying goes, "When it rains it pours." Economic hard times fell on the city of Rochester Kodak and Xerox were laying off record numbers of employees. Our contracts with both Kodak and Xerox were cancelled. The loss of contracts financially devastated the organization’s financial resources. The banks confiscated all of our vehicles and the landlords of the farm, houses and the building issued us eviction notices. We lost everything. Most organization members couldn’t handle the stress and pressure of such a level of suffering and sacrifices, therefore, they returned to their jobs and old lifestyles. The organization disbanded and everyone went their separate ways except a very few loyal and dedicated female disciples.
I had a long pep talk with the principle of West High School. Mr. Wilson was a personal friend of mine. He informed me of the battle I was about to face attempting to introduce a new concept in education. He warned me that the politics that protected the status quo of present day education would never stand by and let me uproot the tradition of one of America ’s oldest institutions. He recommended that I take my education project to a desolate area where education wasn’t so much of a political and economical instrument, and demonstrate the dynamics of my education system. With Mr. Wilson’s advice at heart I took off to Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The mayor of Bayamon allowed me to occupy an old abandoned recreation center in the village of Baya Vista. After neighbors pitched in and assisted me in cleaning and painting the old recreation center, I handed out flyers advertising my martial arts program and Karate took the neighborhood by storm. Karate became the major attraction for children in the area. I started a Concern Parent Organization and received surprising support from the parents of my students. I organized volunteer teachers and initiated my methodology of education that I call D.A.V.E. (Dramatic Audio-Visual Experience). I discovered that drama demanded so much of a student’s expression of will and desire that the experience of dramatically participating in academic learning had tremendous impact upon the student’s mind, memory and being. Since reading and comprehension was an obstacle of learning for majority of students, I used visual aids accompanied by just enough audio to move the student beyond the inferiority of illiteracy. By assimilating the lessons in real life situations students enjoyed the experience of applying what they have learned under meaningful circumstances. The president of my Concerned Parent Organization was an executive for IBM. He was so impressed with his son’s improvements in academic performance and personality development that he talked his company into donating the school a grant of $2,500. The mayor of the city of Bayamon discovered funds in a manpower program allocated for a computer class that never manifested, so he requested that the funds be administered to my school. Within six months we had our first promotion. It was a very emotional event. Parents were overjoyed and filled with pride as their children received their trophies, awards and certificates for their diligent work and disciplinary training. The rain of unfortunate clouds poured once again. The mayor’s secretary informed me that the funds in the manpower budget for the computer class had been mysteriously removed, and that funds for my school were suspended pending an audit and investigation. Baya Vista was a poverty-stricken neighborhood and parents couldn’t afford to financially support the school, therefore, I thought my time was up since I had really achieved the original objective of my mission of coming to Puerto Rico. I had proven the dynamics and successful performance of my method of Audio-Visual learning by experience. I was so excited about the dynamic effects that the discipline of martial arts had toward the performance of academics that I decided to incorporate academic learning as a mandatory curriculum in the operation of all of my martial arts schools.
As the Grand Master of Nungkyyii and founder of The Purple Dragons Organization I drafted a letter to all of my instructors and informed them of my new plans. Upon my return to Rochester, N.Y., I scheduled a meeting with all of my instructors in Syracuse, N.Y. to inform them of the details of the future plans of the Purple Dragons martial arts movement. My plans were met with fury and anger. None of my instructors wanted to interrupt their dojo operations with academic learning. They strongly opposed the idea stating that academics should be left up to teachers in the public school classrooms where it belongs. When I expressed by authority as the founder and Grand Master, and made it known that the synthesis of martial arts discipline and academic learning was definitely the future direction of the Purple Dragons martial arts movement, every instructor walked out of the meeting. I guess the message of my meeting detonated the perfect bomb that gave every instructor a legitimate excuse to break away from the organization and become independent operators of their own karate studios. I was left all alone to further develop the future of the Purple Dragons organization and the destiny of its martial arts movement. I continued to passionately embrace my dream of designing and building the world’s most advanced technological learning institution that educated students in spirituality, academics, technology and martial arts. I moved to Denver, Colorado and started to structure my plans on paper. I spent a considerable amount of money getting architectural drawings of the University of Nungkyyii, the Purple Dragons Academy, the Private School of Self-Discipline, the Youth Corp Center and the Castle Farm Ranch & technical school. Each structure played a major role in helping implement the threshold of the idea and its movement.
At this stage in my martial arts career I had already revised Nungkyyii several times. My spiritual growth had allowed me to develop the philosophy of Nungkyyii to greater levels of spiritual teachings. The martial arts phase of Nungkyyii was in need of a new vision. New styles of martial arts were popping up from creative minds of innovative martial artists with very impressive techniques. The Gracie family was dominating the martial arts scene with their unique style of grappling called Jujitsu. One of the Gracie brothers had already proven the capability of their style’s superior technique by winning the Ultimate Fighting Challenge several times in a row. The thought of ever entering such a contest just to put Nungkyyii to an official test would insult my intelligence and spiritual understanding as a humble disciplinarian of Zen. Such expressions of brutality contradict the objectives of true martial arts training. But the acknowledgement of the superiority of the techniques of Jujitsu in head to head combat did concerned my desire for Nungkyyii to be the greatest form of martial arts on the planet. After meditating and exploring my imagination of what it would take to realistically achieve the objective of having the number one system of martial arts, I began to reevaluate what components of martial arts would actually create the all around best system. An all around best system would have to be versatile in technique and appeal to so many martial artists of different physique and muscle capability. Such a martial arts system should have exercise programs that range from toddlers to senior citizens. I set off on my mission to recreate Nungkyyii. With twenty years having gone by since I first created Nungkyyii, the world of martial arts had developed to impressive levels of talented young martial artists with incredible skill and technique. I felt that it was going to be a very worthwhile challenge and rewarding experience to upgrade Nungkyyii to a much greater stage of martial arts. I started my research out by visiting other schools, participating in their exercises and techniques during class, and sparring the instructors and students. With in a year I had developed the framework of methods and techniques that I considered to be the makings of a very unique and dynamic system of martial arts. I began to organize my knowledge of techniques and exercises from the various martial arts styles that I had had the privilege of learning through experience.
From my experience of Tai Chi I noticed that the traditional forms were monotonous and boring to students. Younger students seldom participated in more than two or three classes. In my research on Tai Chi I learned that the complete art was centered upon an energy called Chi and its development and expression. With this understanding I realized that Chi could be developed and expressed in a variety of different forms. Therefore I set out to create forms of techniques and exercises that were interesting, challenging and saturated with energetic development and expressions of Chi. My creativity spun into a style that I now call Nung-Chi. Nung became a prefix used to represent the meaning of art and practice. I gave Nung-Chi the definition of the art and practice of developing muscle strength and flexibility and the expression of spiritual energy (Chi, Ki or Prana). Since its development, Nung-Chi has become a very popular and favorite exercise among senior citizens. The progressive structure in which the exercises of Nung-Chi are taught has resulted in a very high success rate of relief of arthritis for elderly practitioners.
In my study and training of Kung fu I noticed that the movements and techniques that were taught were circular in motion but were not relative to the movement of the opponent. Rehearsal of techniques requiring several repetitions had created habitual movements. The mind of the student was not flexible enough to relate his or her movement to the movement of the opponent and make necessary adjustments as the opponent changed motion and technique. I felt that the application of relativity and a certain level of consciousness of body language were missing in Kung fu. Therefore I set out to incorporate flexible thinking, relative movement and consciousness of body language to what I had learned in Kung fu. The art of Kung fu required much more advanced muscle strength, flexibility and coordination than normal martial arts styles. I felt that advanced students of proper physical and mental development could only successfully acquire the dynamics of Kung fu. So I organized the techniques of circular movements into a style to be taught to advanced students. I called this style Nung-Fu. The definition of Nung-Fu is the art and practice of circular movement.
When I first observed the martial arts style of Chinese boxing called Pau-Qua, I was fascinated by its philosophy of straight-line movements and techniques as being superior in power to circular movements and techniques. There were no hook punches thrown in Pau-Qua, and the elbow was always aligned with the body during the execution of a punch. At the point of contact of every punch executed in Pau-Qua the fist had to have a specific shape and position in relationship with the wrist, elbow and shoulder. The first two knuckles of the fist had to form a straight line with the wrist, elbow and shoulders on contact so that the weight of the body could be transferred into the power of the punch using the thrust of the rear leg without injuring any area of the arm. If you are a martial artist and you are familiar with the Japanese term ipon, and you have witnessed the power of the punching technique demonstrated by a Shotokan master, then you have an idea of the punching power I am referring to. In the art of Pau-Qua the object is to deliver a single punch that will render your opponent unconscious. I immediately saw a flaw in Pau -Qua compared to the form of boxing being taught in our country. Chinese boxers were not accustomed to fakes and movements of deception. Their defenses were orientated for straight-line offenses. I developed a counter punch with a defensive block executed simultaneously. As the opponent throws a punch with the right arm my left is executed into a block as the right arm delivers a punch in the same motion of the block. Kinesics (body language) and psycho-cybernetics (thought patterns) were added to the boxing strategy. My objective in the art was to defend every offense without receiving contact and to strike only when my opponent’s offense was harmless. All of this strategic planning culminated into a style I call Nung-Qua. The definition of Nung-Qua is the art and practice of scientific boxing.
There was no doubt in my mind that grappling had a huge advantage in a one on one fighting situation. For arms and legs to be restricted by a grapple and the fight taken to the floor, meant the end of the opportunity of expression for a fighter whose strategy was only executed by kicks and punches. The art of grappling gave speed, power, stamina and wrestling strength a whole new level of priority in martial arts. In my practice of Jujitsu most of the techniques that I learned were lethal by application. To actually practice the techniques safely you had to have absolute control of technique with a cooperative partner following along as a subdued opponent. Because competition was unavoidable in order to test the skill level of students, the application of deadly techniques demanded absolute control of a student’s execution of such techniques. Therefore only advanced, high-level belt ranked students should be entrusted with such practice of lethal combat techniques. Using the laws of physics, combat strategy and the psychology of deception, I created one of the fastest methods of rendering an attacker lifeless by the execution of particular lethal techniques. Since my techniques of Jujitsu were unique and different I created my own style and named it – Nung-Jitsu. The definition of Nung-Jitsu is the art and practice of destruction.
As I observed the development of each of my styles in manifestation, the demand for greater skill and physiological development seemed to create an order in which each style should be taught in order to guarantee the safety of practice for students. This order finalized my creation of the new Nungkyyii System of martial arts. My students will be taught the basic style of the Nungkyyii System first. I call this style Nung-Do. Nung-Do is defined as the art and practice of superior, strategic and sophisticated combat. The order of the System of Nungkyyii will cause a student to progress from Nung-Do, to Nung-Chi, to Nung-Fu, to Nung-Qua, to Nung-Jitsu.
Such a dynamic upgrade of the martial arts phase of Nungkyyii has prompted the need for an upgrade of its spiritual phase as well. As a martial artist the practice of Zen has become the most electrifying form of enlightenment that I have ever experienced. Unlike religion or any other occult, Zen doesn’t focus on God it focuses upon the self – self-knowledge, self-consciousness, self-expression and overall self-development. Discovering our true identity, living rightfully, loving divinely and becoming a greater human being is the way of Zen. Since over two decades of my life had been devoted to a Zen lifestyle, I felt that I was qualified to formulate the wisdom and knowledge that I had learned from such a dynamic experience of trials and tribulations in treading the spiritual path and create my own style of Zen. I call my style of Zen – Nung-Budo-Ky. The definition of Nung-Budo-Ky is the art and practice of becoming a greater human being and the science of achieving Satori and Nirvana by way of meditation, Divine love and a rightful life of truth through the experience of Zen.
Over three decades have gone by since I embarked upon a spiritual endeavor to create Nungkyyii. From my own personal view and judgment it has been an astounding journey of spirituality, a remarkable human adventure and a dynamic experience of rewarding emotions. Nungkyyii has indeed developed into a science. The consistency of its spiritual production in the lives of its practitioners is its scientific proof. As a philosophy of self-discipline I can speak from experience and say that Nungkyyii has created a program that executes a process of self-evolution. I am an ecstatic philosopher knowing that 34 years of my life had resulted in my ability to contribute to a quantum leap in the exaltation of spiritual consciousness and the intelligent development of humanity.
