For those of you who remember me as the Purple Dragon of the 60's at Keesler Air force Base in Biloxi, Miss.; Rochester, New York in the 70's, and Denver, Colorado in the 80's, I'm still around, as active as ever, and still pursuing my martial arts dream of 36 years. My absence from the martial arts scene and the tournament circuit is only temporary due to a 15 year phase of reorganization of the Purple Dragons Movement. In the near future I will definitely return to the martial arts scene, and show up at major tournaments with my mighty Purple Dragons, as I will compete to win more grand championships. Feel at liberty to browse our website and get an imaginary picture of just how dynamic and exciting the Purple Dragons Movement will explode in the future.
While I was stationed in the Air force, on the Island of Formosa I had the golden opportunity of watching oriental men and women living past the age of 100 years old, and practicing Tai Chi in the park every morning at sunrise. This exciting experience relieved me of the depressive feelings I harbored as a teenager, thinking that I had to retire after the age of 65; become inactive; grab a cane or wheelchair, and wait to breathe my last breath. I saw with my own eyes how exercise, discipline, vegetarianism and a spiritual way of living affected the physical, mental and spiritual condition of health and longevity of senior citizens in a dynamic and progressive way. This eye witnessing experience cast a spell of everlasting effect and influence upon my life and being. I returned from the orient in 1968, and for 36 years I have been practicing, training and teaching martial arts; eating one meal a day as a vegetarian; self-educating myself; meditating, and pursuing my life long dream of becoming a Zen Master, by traveling a spiritual journey of austere life.
My martial arts training from a Taoist priest; my experience of the dynamic tradition of oriental culture, and the lasting impression made upon me by the character and behavior of Shaolin Monks, created a passionate desire to emulate my Master's state of being, (mentally, emotionally, health and vitality) as a 91 year old martial arts teacher and Zen Master.
Since the age of 12 years old I have been a die hard karate fanatic. My presence in the orient sparked an extraordinary fantasy of joining a Shaolin Monastery. My Master teacher empathetically explained to me why my fantasy could never come true. Shaolin Monks, as I was told, are descendents of a long lineage of members of the Shaolin Temple; their fathers, their fathers' fathers, and so on, makeup the historical legend and tradition of Shaolin life. Although such bad news was very disappointing to my mind and emotions, it certainly did not destroy my dream of some day becoming a world renowned Zen Master.
At 19 years old I dreamed of living a spiritual life 24/7; continuing my martial arts training on a daily basis, and still winning Grand Championship trophies well pass my hundredth year birthday.
In 1970 I constructed a rough draft of the blueprints of a spiritual movement that would cultivate higher consciousness, health, happiness and longevity in the lives of all practitioners of the movement. I created my own style of martial arts and made sure that it focused upon a philosophy of life, which would direct all students down a path toward spiritual consciousness, who took my teachings seriously. Self-discipline is the foundation of my martial arts. I have always opposed self-defense as the centrality of martial arts training. I named my martial arts style and philosophy of life, Nungkyyii.
Three and a half decades later, Nungkyyii has evolved from just a style of martial arts to a martial arts system of Nung-Do, Nung-Chi, Nung-Fu, Nung-Qua, Nung-Jitsu and a form of Zen called Nung-Budo-Ky. Nungkyyii is now defined as: the science of self-evolution and the art of self-discipline; it is the philosophical art and practice of obtaining the meaning of life through the expressions of love, faith, intelligence and discipline; total submission and obedience of the law of being; living in the truth, and becoming one with the Infinite Mind of Intelligence. I taught philosophy before the beginning of every adult martial arts class and again every Sunday morning.
By 1972 I had created an organization of students and disciples that had evolved into a spiritual commune and a martial arts movement called the Purple Dragons. By 1975 the organization membership numbered 100 or more students with full time disciples. Our spiritual movement occupied three floors of the Triangle Community Center, downtown Rochester, New York; a sizable organic farm in Alfred, New York; three large group homes, and several cleaning contracts for the organization's janitorial business. The transformation that spiritual life, vegetarian diet, martial arts training and self-discipline had upon the body and mind of my students and disciples were astounding. Participants of the movement were ecstatic over weight loss and the relinquishment of alcohol, drugs and tobacco. Self-esteem flourished in our group.
Economic hard times fell upon the city of Rochester. The three largest employers in the city, Kodak, Xerox and Rochester Products had massive layoffs. Kodak canceled our biggest cleaning contract, and the movement lost the financial resources to continue its spiritual lifestyle. Members abandoned the organization and soon returned to their old habits and patterns of lifestyle. I realized that my spiritual movement had not really succeeded in elevating my students' mind toward the consciousness of spirituality, but had instead, established impressive patterns of disciplinary behavior. Without the exaltation of higher consciousness in the minds of organizational members true spirituality would never be realized. This fact of conscious realization called for re-planning, restructuring and reorganization of the entire Purple Dragons Movement.
After leading a spiritual commune for over 10 years, I knew now by experience that spirituality was not a condition achievable by routine and rigorous patterns of disciplinary lifestyle. Spirituality is definitely a transformative state of being, accomplished by the transition of reality from a mundane world to the world of the spirit. In other words spirituality is a process of learning, not a process of conditioning. Learning placed spirituality in the arena with education as a concept that was in desperate need of a dynamic process of manifestation.
At such time spiritual education had particular group identities, with mystical and ritualistic means of learning; specificity of expression; exclusivity of movement, and self-centered agendas of purpose. Adding the Purple Dragons Movement to someone else's spiritual education definitely would not suit my purpose. My purpose for adding spiritual education to the movement was to establish a methodology of instruction that would succeed in elevating consciousness and generating greater levels of human development of all members. In my planning I realized at this point that reorganization also meant creating my own system of spiritual education. In my mind, the structure and process of spiritual education called for a much different structure and process than that of academic education. Academic education is more concrete, and spiritual education is more abstract. How do you get students to understand, realize and adhere to something that their senses and physical reality can not register; that the expression and process of faith is the key factor, and that experience is the final step of manifesting reality?
I had to create a spiritual program of specific patterns of thought and behavior that would direct the mind of my students inward toward the "self;" a program that would place the consciousness of the "self" and its specific development at the center of the lifestyle.
I created The Omega Program as a set pattern of lifestyle that would concentrate on the six most important phases of self-development – self-consciousness; self-confidence; self-discipline; self-respect; self-worth, and most importantly, self-esteem. For more details see The Omega Program.
Since the objective was to create greater human beings, the development of the whole of the person (spiritually, morally, socially, physically and academically) had to be included in the educational process. This reminder sent me back to the educational drawing board in search of a curriculum that would include the necessary knowledge of the appropriate fields of learning. My new educational blueprint was given a philosophy of progressivism, and I proceeded to create a matrix of Spiritual Education; Moral Education; Social Education; Physical Education, and Academic Education. I called my new Progressive Education system – Exceptional Education. (See Exceptional Education for details)
After experimenting with my education system through an alternative education program approved by the board of education of New York, I stumbled across the obstacles of learning and problems that students were bearing as poor learners. Most of my students had very poor reading skills, and those who could read fairly, had poor comprehension skills. Communication skills of a greater majority of students were appalling. Their speech patterns were loaded with colloquialism, or so called "hip hop" jargons. Attempting to exercise their imagination and arrange their thoughts and ideas into text (writing) of understandable composition shrouded them with inferiority. And the subject of math seemed too abstract for their concrete thinking process. The bottom line was that students weren't properly prepared with the adequate tools and skills of learning to build confidence as learners. All of my poor learners reluctantly admitted that schooling was their greatest antipathy.
It grabbed my undivided attention that my poor learners of academics were my best learners of martial arts. No matter how hard the coordination drills; how intricate the techniques, or how difficult the memorization of the katas, they excelled above the other martial arts students. This observational experience alerted my consciousness of the various processes of learning that students develop due to influential forces of their backgrounds. I needed a process of teaching that was versatile enough to reach a wide variety of learning processes. I needed a teaching process that could hurdle the barriers of learning and avoid student inferiority. I needed a learning process that would cultivate the will and desire to learn, and make learning an experience of interest, excitement and rewarding enjoyment. I needed a teaching process that challenged and rewarded its teachers, and resulted in the success of both teaching and learning.
In the late 60's and early 70's I was using a super 8 movie camera to record my students practicing katas and their participation in competition events in tournaments. Watching movies gave a surprising boost to my students learning their forms, techniques and strategies. I was impressed with the progress of visual learning. In 1972 the video camera had reached the consumer market. Such a recording device revolutionized my methods of teaching martial arts. It was the performance of the video camera that sparked my idea of an audio-visual teaching process. Visualization would allow me to evade the learning barriers of poor reading and comprehension skills. I believed that audio-visual methodology could be used to teach better reading and comprehension skills. In order to challenge teachers and excite students I imagined that teaching could take on a form of drama that would engulf the minds and attention of students with the dramatic action of learning. I have long known that experience was the best teacher – an act that the brain had to transfer the motion of events into a process of realization through involvement in order for understanding to manifest. At this point I was confident that I had stumbled upon the three principles that would make a dynamic teaching and learning process – Drama, Audio-Visual aids and Experience. I called my new methodology of teaching and learning – DAVE (Dramatic Audio-Visual Experience).
Fate and fortune opened a door and I wound up in the city of Byamon, on the Island of Puerto Rico with an opportunity to test my teaching skills and my new methodology of teaching and learning. The mayor of Byamon gave me permission to use an abandoned recreation center, and found funds for renovation and startup from a government grant with extra money left over from a Man Power program. An eager and supportive father of one of my students was an executive for IBM who talked his corporation into giving me a grant for my program. Six months later I gave a karate demonstration, a promotion and awards ceremony. The mayor, city officials, IBM executives and a rec-center full of parents showed up to watch children show off their learning skills. DAVE had proven to be a successful method.
After having created a dynamic duo of a progressive education system (Exceptional Education) and a new methodology of teaching and learning (DAVE – Dramatic Audio-Visual Experience), I needed a special facility that would properly accommodate a progressive system of education. Not just a vacant school building to move into, but a state of the art, technological super complex, built from the ground up, and tailor made to facilitate my educational idea. I created the idea of the University of Nungkyyii. You can't have a super institution of education with just a super complex. You have to have super educators if you are to succeed in accomplishing the objective of producing super students. I created the idea of the Purple Dragons Pedagogue Society as a unique social structure whose cultivation of a spiritual lifestyle would dedicate its citizens to a life long commitment to the success of education and its contribution to the progression of humanity. To make sure that I recruit the best educators available and train them to be the best pedagogues on planet Earth, I created the Purple Dragons Teachers Academy designed to succeed in teaching teachers how to teach successfully.
With the Purple Dragons Pedagogue Society; the Purple Dragons Teachers Academy, and the University of Nungkyyii in the making, I felt that I had succeeded in setting my plans of education in motion. Now I had to be super patient for such a mammoth project to materialize under divine manifestation.
My 36 year dream of becoming a world renowned Zen Master far exceeded my plans of education. After achieving the authentic state of Zen (Satori and Nirvana), I wanted all the things that would reflect my status as an American Zen Master. I needed a Sanctuary and a Monastery – a place to count the goose bumps from my ecstatic state of mind and emotions, and a place to teach my disciples the magnificent way to enlightenment and happiness. So I created the Purple Dragons Zen Monastery to be built on the Island of Puerto, Rico near the Atlantic Ocean.
After finally having achieved the state of being of my Master teacher over three and a half decades later, I proudly took both the liberty and audacity to self-proclaim myself an American Zen Master. Through 36 years of treading the path of a spiritual journey; philosophizing; teaching; suffering; sacrificing; serving humanity; obeying the law of my being; living in the truth; meditating, and developing a greater oneness with the Infinite Mind of Intelligence (God), I achieved the consciousness of my soul, and the consciousness of that which I consider to be God (the Omnipotent; the Supreme Architect, or the Infinite Mind of Intelligence). I have definitely achieved the objectives that my Master informed me were the true qualities of any authentic Zen Master – Satori & Nirvana. My life long quest for enlightenment (Satori) and happiness (Nirvana) has totally consumed my life to an unbelievable and unimaginable magnitude. I have suffered the abandonment of family; the persecution of friends and love ones; the deprivation of the vital necessities of living, and the loss or sacrifice of everything I've ever been connected with, minus my soul. When I committed myself to accomplishing Mastership 36 years ago, I had no real concept of the true meaning of absolute detachment from all mundane existence. Although I knew very well that a true Zen Master only lived "in" this physical world and not "of" such a world, I truly misunderstood love as an abstract emotion, as being part of this physical world.
When the destined time came for my absolute detachment from the physical world, I was in no condition, shape or form of preparation for such a devastating assault on my mind and emotions. The guiding force of my life and destiny knew quite well that I would never voluntarily detach myself from: the love of my life of 28 years; the woman of my dream; a wonderful one of a kind female who gave me six lovely children; supported me through poverty, hell and high waters; loved me unconditionally throughout my long lasting journey of spirituality, and the person God chose to bestow upon me her blessing of freedom to obey the destined pattern of my divine purpose in life – so God took the Omnipotent authority to brutally and unmercifully detach me from her. It was a very shocking experience of temporary insanity to finally realize that not only had my dearest wife been having an affair, but that she had also moved herself and my children into her lover's house. I had been gone away from home on my spiritual journey for several years, but not without constant communication and hour long conversations of "who loved who the most." So I guess with my being gone so long it wasn't difficult emotionally for her to deceive me for so long.
I'm very glad that God chose to wait until I had spiritually grown and properly developed the genuine strength to survive my last detachment of the mundane world. I thought that I was going to lose my mind; wind up in an asylum, or have to get a heart and brain transplant! I couldn't function as a rational human being for at least three months. I cried uncontrollably for hours at a time, as I struggled day by day to get from point to point in my life.
This awesome experience initiated my final transformation from the physical world to the spiritual world – an event often called "Crossing Over"; a permanent stage of Satori (enlightenment). The final stage of destruction of my mundane reality was executed and my new spiritual reality began. My level of spiritual consciousness made a quantum leap. The reality of the spirit world was now joined with my physical senses through intuition or my sixth sense. My "Third Eye" took charge of my vision of life. And all the effort, energy and diligent work I had selflessly given to the spiritual movement for over three and a half decades suddenly showered me with honor, pride and esteem. This emotional feeling has gripped my entire being with permanent absorption. I am experiencing an emotional high that is beyond mortal description. I wake up with this dynamic state of mind and emotions in the morning and I go to bed with it at night. The more activity I contribute, and the more work that I accomplish each day toward God's Will the greater the level of vibrations of my body that I experience, and the more profound my goose bumps. This experiential state of mind and emotions is what is called a paradise of "Divine Happiness," or Nirvana.
I have genuinely paid my dues, and truly earned the proper merits of my status. My identity and character as a Zen Master is adorned with the greatest of esteem, and my intelligent reasoning and moral behavior is the trademark of my claim to Mastership.
I call myself an American Zen Master because I am first of all a very proud American; second, I'm thrilled to the stars to be born in the greatest country on Earth, and have the everyday experience of the freedom of faith, thought and expression that would make Socrates, Plato and Aristotle roll over in their graves to be alive in my day and time; and third, all that I have spiritually accomplished has manifested from an American social culture.
To me, Zen is simply a particular way through a particular experience in which Satori (enlightenment) and Nirvana (happiness) is achieved and realized. This simplistic definition of Zen is exempted from the affiliation of Buddha hood or any form of dogma.
Zen is a spiritual journey to a higher state of consciousness, resulting in a greater understanding; a circumspective view of the picture of life; an identity of purpose, and a transformation of the human being, by way of character, conduct and conversation. Zen is by no means a religion. There is no God to fear, only an Infinite Mind of Intelligence to wholeheartedly submit to through greater oneness and Godly behavior.
I call my Zen Experience Nung-Budo-Ky. It is the ritualistic expression of the Philosophy of Nungkyyii. Nung-Budo-Ky is defined as: 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.
(For greater details of Zen American style see Nung-Budo-Ky)
It greatly behooves one who's dream and intentions is to be one of the greatest Zen Masters of all times, to enjoy his sanctuary in one of the greatest Zen Monasteries of all times. I have designed such a sanctuary and monastery. Plans have been set in motion to build the Purple Dragons Zen Monastery on the Island of Puerto, Rico near the Atlantic Ocean, right next door to our Space Embassy. This mammoth pyramid will be the spiritual headquarters of our Purple Dragons Movement, and residence of all Sages, Yogis and Gurus of the Zen Monastery.
I strongly feel that the spiritual reality of enlightenment and the spiritual reward of happiness in the forms of self-worth, self-respect and self-esteem, achieved through a committed lifestyle of Divine love, Meditation and a Rightful life of Truth will greatly interest any human being seeking concrete answers to the questions of life in the here and now.
I find it quite amazing to realize to what extent that spiritual rebirth or spiritual transformation actually changes an individual's patterns of thought and behavior. If someone would have told me that my dream of becoming a Zen Master would eventually convert me into a male feminist, I probably would have felt that someone was trying to discourage me by rattling my masculine cage to provoke the macho animal inside me. There is an old proverb, "You can't see the forest for the trees." Well I never saw my true nature of maleness because of the forest of patriarchy. Patriarchy gave me a definition of masculinity and a male privilege that shaped my social role and self-identity as a man. I was told that I was superior to women. In order to experience and feel such superiority I needed a woman to respond in an inferior manner. And in order to accomplish such a status of power, I had to express my superiority with force. Forcing a woman into subjugation is an act of power. "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The more power you wield the more vulnerable you are to corruption. This is not the way you see yourself in the patriarchal mirror on the wall. In patriarchy the more power you wield the greater you are as a man. Before you know it you are addicted to power and headed for self-destruction out of blind ignorance. Enlightenment or spiritual transformation opens your eyes to the truth. Your level of spiritual exaltation raises you above identity by gender, and you acknowledge all human life as that of your own. "Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you," carries greater meaning when you are not blinded by sexism. No human being who is definitely reborn of the spirit; spiritually transformed, or truly enlightened can take part in harmful behavior toward another human being with out losing their status of spirituality.
My state of spirituality is so astoundingly rewarding that I dare not jeopardize it with thoughts and behavior of inhuman character. What does all of this have to do with femininity and my being a male feminist? Femininity is the expression of the nature of feminine principles. Feminine principles are love, unity, collaboration, submission, passivity, peace, freedom, integration, creativity, nurture and spirituality. The dedicated expression of these feminine principles as a way of life creates a feminist whether the individual has a problem with the feminist identity or not. In my goal of becoming a greater human being I chose to adhere to these dynamic principles as a way of life. Such a feminine way of life has revolutionized my relationships with women. Feminism has taught me that imposing my desire upon a woman's will is just as much a form of subjugation as keeping her barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. Enlightenment allows me the intuitive vision to see a human being long before I see and feel the identity as a woman. My radical approach to feminism is so ground shaking that other mainstream feminists are shaking their heads and questioning what planet am I from or from which asylum did I escape. I am totally committed to the "Feminization of humanity as a whole." To get a more personal impression of my radicalism toward feminism, please feel at liberty to visit my feminist website and get a deep breath of my Nu-Feminism Movement. www.nufeminism.com
After completing a 36 year journey of Zen and spirituality, being exalted to the conscious state of mastership, and finally finishing 15 years of blueprinting the reorganization of the Purple Dragons Movement, I am one excited human being knowing that I will reap the dynamic rewards of three and half decades of my dedicated commitment, and eventually experience the rise of the Purple Dragons Movement to a level of reality that I have never witnessed in my entire 36 years of leading the movement. Language is incompetent in describing my state of mind, emotions and my mode of life as a Zen Master.
