The Way of the Sword

The Way of the Sword

Dr. Gregory T. Lawton

The Way of the Sword

Dr. Gregory T. Lawton

The Way of the Sword, Copyright 2015, Revised 2017, Revised 2019 Dr. Gregory T. Lawton All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from Gregory T. Lawton.

Muyblue Productions 2040 Raybrook SE, Suite 104 Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 616-285-9999

Writing, Photography and Design – Dr. Gregory T. Lawton 1

Dedication I dedicate this simple and small book to all my remarkable teachers with the hope that I have lived up to my responsibility to pass along the gifts that they generously provided to me.

If this book embraces any wisdom that wisdom is not from me. It is rather passed along from my teachers, and their teachers before them.

“No sword cuts as keenly, no spear pierces so deeply, as a spirit centered and surrendered to God.�

Scent of a Forgotten Flower

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Foreword To my students, I have written this training manual on the sword for you in the hope that you will take this knowledge and build upon it. To my peers in the martial arts, relax, I have never claimed to be an expert in anything. I would suggest that we build upon our strengths rather than expose our weaknesses, this is a better path to peace and unity.

This book has been written with the wisdom of Baha'u'llah in mind from the Asl-i-Kullu’lKhayr (Words of Wisdom), “The essence of faith is fewness of words and abundance of deeds." Therefore, I have written this book for the purpose of explaining the essential elements of training in the way of the sword and not burying the subject in an avalanche of words.

A seed is in essence a simple thing. It is a shell and a germ and from a seed can come food, beauty, and useful things.

Hopefully this book is such a seed‌ This training manual has been written in my favorite format which is a 3-ring binder which allows easy access to the teaching materials and lessons in the manual for training purposes and that allows the addition of new lessons as the student progresses with the course curriculum.

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Dawn to dawn, day to day seek to forge the sword of your soul in the heat and cold of constant training.

Strive to polish the blade to a mirror like finish with the burnish of daily life. When you feel dull and blunted return to your center, train harder, and raise a mighty cry to summon divine assistance to your aid.

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The Way of the Sword – Lesson One This morning with the dawn came memories of my first lesson on the use of the sword. My first teacher of the Asian martial arts was a remarkable man. He was not only an Army Ranger, he was an Army Ranger instructor at the Ranger school at Fort Benning, Georgia. He had also trained in Japan for two years at the famous Kodokan Institute in Tokyo, Japan where he had witnessed amazing demonstrations in Aikido by the founder of Aikido Ueshiba Morihei. Of course, at the time, and being a teenager, I had no idea how fortunate I was to study with someone of his caliber.

Although some of my early martial arts lessons were taught outdoors, most of my lessons were taught at the Merit Shoe Store in downtown Benton Harbor, Michigan. I worked at the shoe store as a salesclerk while I attended classes at Saint Joseph High School.

The shoe store work hours and pay provided me with the money that I used to buy my first car, a black 1958 Ford Fairlane convertible. My Kenpo Karate lessons occurred at the shoe store because the manager was also my martial arts instructor. The pace of selling shoes was often slow and that led to many hours of martial art storytelling and training.

In the early 1960’s my first sword lesson was taught in a semi wooded area punctuated by sand dunes and close to the Lake Michigan shoreline just outside of St. Joseph, Michigan. In order to begin the study of the sword it is important to first have a sword and that was the objective of my first lesson. To find my sword.

I remember trailing behind my teacher as his eyes appraised the thin oak trees around us. I had no idea at the time what qualities he was looking for in a suitable tree but over the years I have come to recognize and appreciate his knowledge. He selected a young tree about 4 to 5 inches in diameter and he hacked away at its base until he had cut it down. Then we sat together while he stripped away its branches and its bark. As he worked on my “sword” he talked about the history of the sword in Japan and told me unbelievable stories about Ueshiba Morihei and a famous Japanese swordsman and cultural hero by the name of Miyamoto Musashi. I would later come to study the lives and writings of both men. In the late 1500’s a teenage Miyamoto Musashi killed his first man, with a wooden sword. I was about the same age when I began my sword training. The similarities stop there!

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The thin oak tree was cut down to about 5 foot in length. A hilt or tsuka that was about 9 or 10 inches in length was carved into the base end. The hilt was measured by the width of my two hands as they comfortably encircled it. The bark was stripped from the “blade” end of my sword and a wedge-shaped point was carved into the point or kissaki.

So thus, began my first sword lesson as I sat at the feet of my teacher as he carved me a sword. taught me the parts of the sword and inflamed my imagination with tales of distant warriors and their valor. It was a perfect beginning.

As I reflect backward over half a century, I realize that this moment was a moment of awakening, a rite of passage, and the birth of manhood.

Then came my first lessons in the use of the sword. How to hold the sword correctly, how to place my feet, how to assume a proper “cutting” stance, and how to move forward and backward. But most importantly, how to cut through any object placed before me.

Over the years as I have picked up my sword and practiced the skills that I was taught that day in the dunes of Michigan, I have continued to hear the voice of my teacher whispering to me and guiding me in my practice.

I continue to practice with a hand cut and carved wooden sword, I have learned how to seek out and find the perfect tree willing to sacrifice itself for the sake of my art and advancement.

I understand now what my teacher was looking for in a sword, and a student, a young tree, strong but not hardened to the breaking point, resilient and pliable, and able to be shaped and crafted to the task at hand.

My first sword lesson provided me with more than just a sword, it made me the sword.

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My sword and spear are symbols of my power and strength, of my resolve and determination to stand firm, to hold my ground and never waver from my duty or my destiny.

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The Woodcutter – Lesson Two In Lesson One, The Way of the Sword I wrote about my first sword lesson and I wrote about how my teacher began my introduction to the sword by taking me out in the woods and dunes and cutting down a tree and carving me a wooden sword as he taught me about the way of the sword. My lessons and practice with the sword have continued from that first day on the shore of Lake Michigan through the present time.

There are many ways to learn a skill. You can become skilled with a remarkable and highly competent teacher, through diligent practice and self-study, through reading literature on the subject, through scholarly research, through teaching others, through fighting and combat, through real life experience, and through prayer, meditation and communion with your soul.

Over the years I have utilized all of these methods.

In the early days of my training, however, my teacher directed me to cut wood and over the years I became a proficient woodcutter. Whenever the opportunity arose to go into the woods with my axe, I would locate a fallen tree and begin to cut it into cords of wood which I would leave neatly stacked for someone else to put to good use. Such as heating their home.

On one occasion a new homeowner needed a large stand of trees in a woodlot behind their home cut down and removed. In stepped the “woodcutter”, not with a chainsaw, but with his trusty axe and the woodlot slowly but steadily went from a crisscross of fallen trees to multiple stacks of wood ready for the fireplace.

For my tools I had my axe, a sharpen file and sharpening stone, a machete, and a Swedish saw.

In my frequent backpacking and camping trips these loyal friends were always strapped to my pack or tucked in a canvas bag on the bottom of my canoe.

So you may be asking yourself, how does woodcutting relate to sword training? Many of the earliest swordsmen were either farmers or woodcutters and the cutting movements of felling trees were no different than those used to fell men on a field of battle.

An actual sword fight is a brutal endeavor and is far from the sanitized versions of most Hollywood movies. Rarely, was an opponent dispatched with a single blow. Real sword fights typically involved two men sweating, struggling, and bleeding from multiple wounds and fighting until one of both of them died from a loss of blood. Real sword fights are ugly and “inhumane”.

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Most students today that study the sword do so under controlled conditions and as a competitive sport. The use of a foil with an electronic sensor is a far cry from a vicious cut to a major muscle and artery. Because the intention of sport sword play is so different from the violent brutality of actual sword combat the similarities might be the same as comparing modern sport sword play to a domestic cat and an African lion, or a poodle and a timber wolf.

Woodcutting, using an axe properly closely mimics the full power cutting stokes of the sword and requires that the correct body ergonomics be employed by the woodcutter.

For example, woodcutting, like the use of the sword, requires the coordinated use of the entire body. Of course, the hands must be strong to hold the axe, the arms and shoulders and upper back muscles are all important, but the power needed to cut wood or to use a sword comes first from the feet and legs, is moved through the waist and core muscles of the trunk, and lastly is directed and delivered by the upper extremities.

When you are cutting wood, such as when you are cutting down a large tree with an axe you have to know how to cut through the tree. This ability is called focus. When you swing your axe you not aiming at the outside of the tree you are aiming either deep into the tree or entirely through the tree. The same cutting principle applies to the use of the sword.

Based upon this cutting principle, the development of my sword “style” and technique became the ability to cut through my opponent’s sword or weapon, and to move through the opponent’s defenses as quickly as a hot knife through soft butter. I can remember the surprised look on my training partners faces as their swords were knocked downward or completely flew out of their hands from the power of a single stroke. This method of cutting through an opponent’s weapon and focusing on through the opponent is not only difficult to defend against, it is dangerous to employ in sport or training environments.

When training with my sword, whether wooden or steel, I train using either a heavy bag or a large log at least 12 inches thick. I practice repeated cuts against the log until the wooden sword breaks and it is time to make a new one. I have used old oak boat oars for my swords.

The ones that have been weathered by the sun and water for many years are the best, but eventually even they will shatter.

Obviously, I only use a wooden sword on a canvas training bag and after a certain number of strikes to the bag the canvas will begin to split and will need a judicious amount of duct tape for repair.

The reader, at this point, might be wondering what possible benefit sword training might have in a world where we no longer use them for protection or fighting and where wearing a sword around town would not only be uncomfortable (try it in a small sized car), but would most likely get you arrested. The answer to this question will be provided in the next lesson on the sword.

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With faith in God there is no need to draw your sword.

With knowledge of God there is nothing to be learned.

With the love of God the impossible is child’s play.

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What is a Sword? – Lesson Three In a modern world how relevant is sword training? I believe that this question can be answered two ways; not very and very. The “not very” answer relates to how impracticable and illegal it is to walk around town with a sword hanging from your belt. The “very” answer relates to several essential concepts that are associated with traditional and modern sword training.

In the traditional martial arts, the sword has been prized as the supreme weapon. This is certainly true within the Japanese culture. The sword, in some cultures, has risen to mystical significance. In some Asian traditions the sword became a symbol for the human spirit and soul. Sword training in certain countries became a method (way) by which a person could train and purify their soul.

I obviously, I fall into the “very” category and for me the sword is a symbol and a metaphor for personal growth and obtainment. However, for the practical minded martial artist I would recommend sword training simply as a training method to improve concentration and focus, to enhance the ability to attack and to enter an opponent’s “space”, and to improve striking, penetration, and the quality of “pung”. Pung is the ability to hit into an opponent and could be called penetration but the word pung does not translate well into English equivalents.

But again, in a practical real-world sense are there direct benefits from sword training (other than physical conditioning and self-esteem) and do these benefits translate into personal selfdefense? I can only answer this question based upon my personal experience.

In 1975 in Evanston, Illinois, and while walking down Main Street past a small health food store that I occasionally shopped at, a young salesclerk in the store frantically attempted to get my attention. Assuming that he had some urgent need to talk to me I entered the store to find that an armed robbery was occurring. A young man had entered the store and had demanded the contents of the cash register and had picked up a large 10-inch chef’s knife that the store used to cut vegetables at its juice bar.

As I stepped into the store I began to chat amicably with the clerk and the robber. I maintained a respectful distance from the robber and the large intimidating knife. As I had entered the store, I noticed that by the front door there was a mop and a galvanized bucket full of dirty water. I took the mop from the bucket and I began to mop the floor and as I mopped the floor, and while acting as if I could care less about the knife, I began to mop in front of the armed 11

robber and to force him to step back away from the sales counter and the clerk. I “accidently” splashed water on the robber’s shoes and while keeping direct eye contact with him I smiled and apologized for my sloppiness. Others have seen this smile on my face and remarked that I looked like a cat appraising a potentially tasty mouse.

Please keep in mind that while I am describing this scenario lightly, there was nothing “light” about my attitude during this dangerous encounter. I learned long ago how to project a calm and pleasant demeanor while internally evaluating life or death decisions. In my hands the mop was far more than a domestic tool for cleaning floors, if needed I planned on literally “mopping up the floor” with the robber.

Consider my weapon. A mop full of dirty water, a wet string mop head that could act as a bludgeon, and a 5-foot wooden handle, just the weapon that I had spent years training with (except for the mop part). As part of my early training with a wooden sword I was required to demolish concrete blocks. Human bones, the skull, collar bone, and humerus, ulna, and radius are no match for a strike from a well-placed “mop” sword.

All such potentially violent encounters have a significant psychological component where a perpetrator is making quick decisions (called an interview) regarding his or her chosen victim and whether to attack or to move on to easier prey. From the moment that I walked into that store I was engaged in a mental exchange with the robber and attempting to keep him mentally off balance. Apparently, I gave off the right (or wrong) signals because the robber put the knife down and began talking like nothing out of the ordinary had occurred and then left the store. It was only after he had left that I returned the mop to its bucket.

The police were called, I left the store, and the robber was caught attempting to rob another store just up the street.

This was not the only encounter that I have had where access to a walking stick, a shovel, or a garden rake was needed in order to prevent an aggressive challenge from becoming a violent encounter. From my personal experience and perspective my training in the way of the sword has been a valuable component of my overall training as a martial artist.

Of course, I would not take a mop to a gun fight…

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The foolish have usurped the swords of valor and courage and laid claim to the warrior craft, but the heart of error can never prevail. Stand strong within your circle, Red Lions, Black Dragons are we! Have you not heard that the poor shall inherit?

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Making the Cut – Lesson Four In both my opinion and experience training with the sword, as is presented by several different systems and styles of martial arts, has been made overly complicated. I would also observe that the more complicated a move or a technique is the less likely it is to be remembered, used, or to be effective. Especially, under high stress and duress, or when fear is involved.

Offensive sword techniques can be organized into two categories. In category one are the cutting strokes (or striking if you are using a non-bladed weapon such as a mop handle) and category two are the thrusting techniques. Add to these two categories defensive techniques for blocking, deflecting, and redirecting attacks and you pretty much have summed up the kinds of things that you can do with a tool such as a sword. However, I prefer to skip the defensive techniques and move right to the attack, or to make the defense and attack a single movement.

If you think that you have a reason to use a weapon you probably do, so use it.

I feel that the most important sword technique that you can learn is how to cut or strike.

Second to this is how to close the distance on an opponent and to get within striking range.

However, I will concede that these two qualities are equal in importance. A separate lesson will be dedicated solely to how to close the distance on an opponent.

In this simple book and in Lesson One I discussed the process of finding your sword, how to shape it, and the reasons why I train with a sword made from a living tree. A living tree will provide you with a sword that is strong and pliable and that is able to handle full power cuts and strokes without breaking (too quickly). When I have attempted to do this with manufactured wooden swords made from dried hard woods or even rattan they have broken after only a few strikes. This gets tedious and expensive. I have snapped wooden swords in half and in fact I once completely severed a rattan staff with one strike and the break was so clean that it looked like it had been sawed into 2 parts.

For my style of training the cut is everything. What I train to obtain is the ability to defeat an opponent with one powerful single stroke. A cut that moves through the opponent’s weapon, their defenses, and that penetrates into the opponent’s body in a manner that is both devastating and unanswerable.

To train to do this you cannot simply perform sword forms or kata in the empty air. You have to learn how to execute full power strokes against solid objects. Solid objects may include 14

trees, concrete blocks, and punching bags. But you should learn what it feels like to actually strike something and to hit it correctly. There are many reasons for recommending this kind of practice. If you have never actually executed a full power stroke, into and through an object, then you do not know how to use a sword and your practice is more like dancing than actual sword training. When you hit various objects and depending upon their mass and water content you will experience and feel different reactions from the sword including rebound.

Rebound is when the sword might hit a solid object and bounce back at you.

Many martial artists study complete sword forms or kata and these forms and kata contain many complicated and even acrobatic movements. Such movements are rarely effective in using a weapon like or similar to a sword. What is effective is to keep your techniques as few and as simple as possible.

I keep my sword practice techniques limited to a single powerful cut aimed at the skull, the clavicles, the acromion processes on the top of the shoulders, the upper and lower arm bones, and the wrist and the hands. I reserve sword thrusts to the eyes and throat.

I have known many martial artists who have trained with the sword for health and the swords esthetic beauty and I applaud this. My path, perhaps because of my earliest training with the sword and because I approach the martial arts as combat, has been different.

When I hold a sword, I hear my teaching telling me, “Never face an opponent unless you are willing to kill or to die. But do neither.� For me the intent is simple, make the cut.

There is one thing that up until this point I have neglected to mention, the sword is just a tool, you are the weapon.

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Test yourself by the two edged sword of heaven and earth for you are the physical manifestation of the divine.

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The Fundaments and Basics – Lesson Five The Wooden Sword When I go out to find my training sword in the woods, I am limited to the location in which I am searching and the kinds of trees that grow there. On one trip to Maui my search led me to a beautiful stand of bamboo trees and although less than ideal for full power sword strokes, I had an amazing time training with a bamboo sword and using it to strike against other bamboo trees standing in this bamboo forest. Each kind of wood and sword brings its own lessons.

Most hardwoods are good sword woods. Avoid softer woods like conifers, poplars and willows, unless you have no other choice. Maple, oak, beech, hickory, sycamore, cherry, and my favorite when I can find it ironwood, are good choices. Each of these types of woods have strengths and weaknesses. For example, maple is prone to cracking and chipping.

Once you have cut your wooden stave you need to sit quietly and to begin to release the sword within it. This is where I wax a bit mystical because I thank the tree and the earth for its gift, and I begin to talk to the sword to coax it from its wooden cocoon. Once released from its cocoon and fully awakened to its potential it becomes the butterfly that finds its flight in your hands.

Once I have my “butterfly� sword my training begins again but like every butterfly this swords life is limited and will end. When your butterfly sword becomes tattered and worn it is time to set it free again. In the case of the bamboo sword that I used in Maui I burned it on the beach to release its spirit to the sky. If fire is not an option, I suggest giving your old sword a good burial. Remember, your sword has been a conduit and a receptacle for your spirit, and it deserves to be treated with respect.

The Stance When I start training a beginning student in the martial arts a common starting point is simply how to assume a defensive/offensive stance. These stances have different names in the various martial arts but in kenpo/kempo the basic stance is called the fighting horse or the horse stance. I teach a modified version of this traditional stance that is not as wide. Wide or deep stances often require a weight shift prior to the martial artist being able to move in any direction. The best stance is a stance that provides both stability, speed of movement, and agility.

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Beginners often find basic martial art stances and movements awkward, but an effective stance and correct movement should be natural. If a student assumes a basic martial arts stance, such as the fighting horse stance, and is asked to move from point A to point B their movements are often slow, stiff and unbalanced. I teach a more natural method of movement that is more like a boxing stance and that allows easy movement in any direction. Avoid the traditional deep and wide stances. They were designed for use on wet or uneven terrain and are normally not needed on concrete or asphalt.

Relaxation is more important than speed and strength is not power. Power is an energy that is more than the sum of its parts.

The Hold Your grip on the handle or hilt of the sword should be firm but relaxed. Don’t squeeze the handle to death but also don’t hold the handle so softly that the sword can be easily knocked from your hands. I hold a sword using a double handed grip, I use fighting sticks for stick fighting styles such as kai, arnis, and escrima with a single-handed grip. I use short bladed weapons such as a machete with a single-handed grip. I use a machete to practice cutting through wood limbs that are 2 or 3 inches in thickness with a single cut. If you practice full power cuts on solid objects you will learn how to hold the sword firmly and securely.

Breathing Your breathing should be slow and relaxed. Breathe in when you are moving the sword toward your body or away from your opponent and breathe outward when you are striking, or you are moving the sword away from your body. Do not exaggerate your breathing but breathe in a natural manner. To do not make loud breath sounds when you are striking as the rhythm of these sounds can give away your timing and intent to strike. Use the abdominal breath technique for normal movement but when you are striking with great force you may wish to employ the reverse breath and to direct your explosive energy (fa jing) through the sword.

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Your Continued Training This training manual has presented the first few lessons in the way of the Sword. As I indicated in the forward my writing and teaching style is based upon action, and fewness of words. If you sincerely read, study, and meditate upon the essential elements of the sword that I have provided to you in this book you will discover that you have in your hands a significant amount of information that cuts to the heart of the way of the sword.

This is a practical training manual and as a compliment to this book I suggest that you read my book entitled, Scent of a Forgotten Flower. I wish you the very best in your continued study of the sword.

My residential students will have access to my direct teaching and training, and they will receive additional written lessons that complements the content in this training manual.

I have been teaching martial arts at the Blue Heron Academy to sincere students for 35 years, although I began teaching the martial arts a decade before that. I continue to teach a small and select group of students on a weekly basis.

Along the path to knowledge may you never confront a lumberjack who knows how to use a sword!

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About the author – Dr. Gregory T. Lawton is an author of many books, most of them in the area of health science, but also in the genre of Asian martial arts, philosophy, spirituality, poetry, and prose. Dr. Lawton is a passionate award winning artist and photographer who finds his artistic and creative inspiration in nature, and who frequently attributes the source of his images and writing to the 19th century Persian Prophet, Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, and the 13th century Persian poet and Sufi Mystic Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī. Dr. Lawton has been a member of the Baha’i Faith since 1970 and embraces the Faith’s principles related to the promotion of world unity and peace.

Dr. Gregory T. Lawton has studied and trained in Asian religion, philosophy and martial arts such as Aikido, Jujitsu, Kenpo, and Tai Chi Chuan. He is a 9th degree black belt in Kosho Ryu Kenpo Jujitsu, and was awarded the title of Yudansha Taigu.

Dr. Lawton’s main and most noted Asian martial art instructor was Professor Huo Chi-Kwang. Professor Huo was a renowned Chinese scholar, artist, and calligrapher who served as Taiwan's ambassador to France and he was a friend of Pablo Picasso.

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Other books and materials by this author –

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The Way of the Sword

Dr. Gregory T. Lawton

The Way of the Sword, Copyright 2015, Revised 2019 Dr. Gregory T. Lawton All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from Gregory T. Lawton.

Muyblue Productions 2040 Raybrook SE, Suite 104 Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 616-285-9999

Writing, Photography and Design – Dr. Gregory T. Lawton

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