What the F*&! is so Great About Calasanz?

Here is Calasanz showing one of his best exercises based on Physical Arts under his self-titled 'Calasanz System'.  Physical Arts is Martial Arts, but Martial meaning in a general balanced term.

The Calasanz System - What is it?

Calasanz has spent a lifetime studying various martial arts and fitness trends. Over the years, he has dissected the best parts of each and combined them into what has become known as THE CALASANZ SYSTEM – a unique and effective style that has wide range appeal. THE CALASANZ SYSTEM includes a physical conditioning program that improves your overall strength, flexibility and endurance. This conditioning program builds a more functionally fit body than traditional weight lifting programs or other fitness routines.   

Calasanz has spent the last 30 years here in the U.S. developing and perfecting his system of martial arts and fitness training.  His unique teaching methods have helped countless men, women and children of all shapes, sizes and fitness levels enjoy the martial arts while getting fit.  His professional expertise and unique approach are why people like you have made Calasanz their number one destination for superior martial arts and fitness training.

 

We're Unique, - What Makes Us Different? 

Many martial arts clubs have a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching. Calasanz tailors an individual program specifically for each single person that walks through the door.  Whether you’re a seasoned martial artist looking to improve your skills or a beginner looking for a great way to get fit, Calasanz and his team will work with you in creating a program that meets your fitness and Martial Art goals. In this system a natural athlete can be passed on to more challenging feats while extra attention can be spent on developing the abilities that will help advance those at the dawn of their athletic experience. Our One-on-One training is the most superior method of enhancing your body and your skills.

Combining the Three Aspects

First is breathing.  Next comes awareness of the breath.  Then comes control of the breath.  Afterwards the breath is forgotten.  Followed by remembrance of the breath.  And finally a return to just breathing.

The three aspects of martial arts are the Physical, Mental and Spiritual.  Discussed in an earlier entry rudimentarily we will now delve deeper into these different facets and discuss the interplay between them for a deeper understanding and more open discourse about them.

At all times these three realities are present and are constantly being expressed, independent of the user's being aware of it or not.  In fact, it is not possible to consciously express all of them at once, for the simple reason that as soon as consciousness gets involved the moment becomes primarily mental.  For example, at this moment the processes leading to comprehension of these words puts the mental understanding of their meaning at the fore-front of the current experience which is being used to affect spiritual change within; all the while this comprehension is only achievable with the assistance of the physical events of eye-movement, sensory input, and brain synapse activity.  These physical happenings are combining with the mental capacity to understand in order to produce an amalgamation ending in a significant and inner spiritually altering experience.

This "three way amalgamation" is at all times occurring to create the present experience in which genesis and conclusion are in exact equilibrium through what is properly called time.




The concept of Nirvana within the Indian Tradition is described as a state of pure bliss or "ultimate reality".  It's opposite being "samsara" or a state of "non-nirvana".  Yogis and gurus have discovered certain methods of achieving this state of "ultimate reality" (most are based on awareness and control of the breath) and here I will let the proverbial cat out of the bag and let you all in on the big secret.  Nirvana, again might be described in this discourse as an instantaneous and simultaneous realization of the association of the three aspects: physical mental and spiritual.  Nirvana, however, cannot be experienced through solely a spiritual, mental, or physical means by itself.

One reaches Nirvana through a combination of mental and physical stimuli affecting the entity in the present to induce a spiritual realization and mental state.  It can occur at any moment, either through extended practice or even by surprise for no explicit reason, or anywhere there inbetween.  The moment of realization culminates into what has been referred to by Alan Watts as the "cosmological experience". and this experience is embodied by two different extremes at opposite ends of a spectrum.  One may feel as if he is the Omnipotent himself, a feeling that one is simultaneously producing and maintaining the entirety of reality (sometimes leading to delusions of grandeur among the unpracticed) or as if he is completely subordinate to reality under complete control of his surroundings / environment. (sometimes leading to a more nihilistic outlook or a feeling of ultimate surrender).

This state, however, is as temporary as anything else and does not usually last very long.  Understand that as one approaches an extreme, eventually there will only be one way to go.  As a great teacher once told me, "Something that turns so far into itself will begin to turn into its opposite."  This reversal can happen both spontaneously, or over a duration of time, just the same as the achievement of Nirvana.  However, the effect of the user achieving this state or having this realization is ever-lasting and never forgotten.

The first time Nirvana is achieved the experience is baffling, after which the user is often confused, amazed, unsettled and shocked all at the same time.  However, through practice and repeated achievement he will come to a realization which is what all religious traditions in the world today are paraphrasing in their own ways.  It is that Nirvana and Samsara are identical.  That they are, in the end, a simple pair of symbiotic opposites used to symbolize and conceptualize the contrasting perspectives of reality we experience.

In the Christian Tradition these are named "Heaven" and "Hell".  Here we refer to "heaven" and "hell" in the sense that they are not ethereal, postmortem destinations, but are instead the perceived, readily tangible and (fortunately) malleable expressions of reality here within.  For example, someone who is suffering is, at that time, in hell and someone who is experiencing joy is, at that time, in heaven.  The defiant, wayward rebellion of Adam and Eve within the Christian tradition being representative of our capacity to change and shape our own reality for better or worse towards heaven, or hell.

So how can I explain this interplay to you?  It is perhaps difficult to explicitly lay it out.  We are, after all, talking about the interaction between physical reality and abstract realms which is an incredibly complicated topic and one that is exceptionally challenging to understand intellectually. (Good on you if you are following this!)  This interplay might be described as a trinity of ever-present realms unified in concept; in which each aspect separately retains its certain individual properties while constantly adapting in accordance with the others and concurrently influencing them outwardly.  This interaction implicitly results in life and in harmony.  A harmony who's 'tune' and beauty originates from the balance between the three.

First is breathing.  Next comes awareness of the breath.  Then comes control of the breath.  Afterwards the breath is forgotten.  Remembrance of the breath follows.  And finally a return to just breathing.


Thanks for Reading and Share it if this helped you or spoke to you in any way!


Concept Develped and Written by:
Alan Wedell

Presentness Through Life and Kung Fu

When it comes to training the body for the long term, for the dedication to a prolonged life and for real longevity we are, in the end, talking about Kung Fu proper.

As a term that is thrown around in Western culture, often mentioned only in passing and almost never actually discussed or explored in any real depth, as if a joke or a farce, "Kung Fu" is very much a part of every day life and is an important practice for those living in those areas where Kung Fu was birthed and developed.  As life continues so too Kung Fu continues to develop along with it, independent of geographical location.  Do note, however, that the expression of Kung Fu in different geographical locations differs vastly from one place to the next and does not necessarily involve the complicated forms or movement sequences often brought to mind upon the utterance of the words "Kung Fu" (note: the existence and practice of said forms classically denotes a highly developed but still changing expression of Kung Fu).  For example, eating is Kung Fu, training is Kung Fu, sleeping is Kung Fu.  If you are breathing, if you are living you are in fact doing Kung Fu.

So, if we can agree that Kung Fu is synonymous with life it is also understood that any action taken which delays the Reaper's inevitable scythe is good Kung Fu, and any action which quickens the dark and final blow is directly at odds with the natural inertia of existence.  The good practitioner has a harmonious aptitude and a complete understanding, even without the understanding of every particular.  The good practitioner visualizes his life's path knowing that his present action affects his course directly.  It is difficult to consistently keep this vision front and center in sight and in mind, especially with the ever multiplying measure of external stimuli in today's world.

The good practitioner can develop and hone his ability to keep this vision at the forefront through meditation and more specifically control of the breath.  It's amazing that even the most minuscule lapse of judgment; the most concise, fleeting moment can cause a resounding deviation from the envisioned path.  Situations where this is the case might be called "accidents".  A mental consistency of awareness and a grounded recognition of reality must be maintained to a certain degree at all times to curb the likelihood of "accidents"actualizing themselves.  Reducing their possibility is best done by avoidance of the prerequisite conditions necessary for the accident to occur and using foresight to recognize those conditions.

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As we live there is a perpetual culmination of circumstances occurring at every moment in a constant fleeting genesis and it is here, within the moment, where lies the potential for all that is present to affect (for better or worse) the immediate circumstances towards a future reality.  Again, the potential there lies, in the moment, for us to bend our reality to a new extreme, or more likely to a new moderate circumstance as time passes.  Whether an extreme will actualize itself or not is uncertain, and the likelihood of a situation's development into an extreme reality a priori (meaning before the entrance of any empirical information) can properly be modeled by the mathematicians bell curve.  As we are great effectors of our own circumstance we must remain focused and resolute to ensure that as long as we are in control we do not breach over into an extreme displacement unless absolutely necessary.  But, if a breach of extreme does occur either by "accident" or through willful, deliberate action we must do our best to maintain control using our wisdom and intuition to characteristically proceed with magnanimity and honest virtue to reestablish equilibrium.

So we bring it back now to the topic at hand which is longevity.  Physical development is something that is also perpetual throughout a lifetime until death, so it is important that one understands how to develop safely and without injury as injury is properly a physical regression, which is the opposite of the desired outcome of development, progression.  So please!  Don't get hurt!  Our Physical Arts Exercises with the anatomical logicality of its holistic movements all centered on the core are the most simple and most effective exercises to promote longevity and real, internal power.  These exercises, when performed correctly and safely (meaning not with excessive weight) promote coordination, dexterity, power, proficiency and skill simply through their execution.  With this system the physical realm can be mastered in record time leaving the mental and spiritual realms ready to be conquered.

A Master of Kung Fu lives longer through dedicated physical training, spiritual serenity, and mental patience all contributing to a stressless life and ever-present mind.

Live Longer, Live Better, Kung Fu

Inspired by Calasanz
Written by Alan Wedell

What is Martial Arts?

So..  What is it?  Let us explore the topic in more detail so our readers [thanks guys :D ] might get a deeper understanding of what we are discussing here.

Martial Art is not something that can be defined with any absolute certainty, but here we will attempt such an impossible feat.  Martial Art.  It is an art form that is never stagnant, always moving and as long as one lives one is always a participant within it.  A musician, for example, plays a piece from beginning to end.  A painter applies pigment to canvas to create a painting to a conclusion.  A writer thoughtfully scribes a story from beginning, to middle, from middle, to end.  Martial Art, in contrast, is in constant practice.  Even if one is not training traditionally or even "training" at all, one is constantly in the act of producing their Martial Masterpiece simply by their propagation of life.  Every act we engage ourselves in is a stroke of the brush, a crescendo, a poem.  Understand, this is not said to downplay artists of other mediums, but to point out that musicians, painters, writers, artists of all kinds, and all people in general are intrinsically practitioners of Martial Art.  In a sentence, Martial Art is Life.

Now, something interesting happens when we open the topic to the three aspects.  We speak of the Mental, Spiritual, and Physical (Mind, Spirit and Body respectively).  Let us discuss each individually.

The Physical aspect of Martial Arts demands much respect as it is the realm in which bodies interact and the realm in which bodily injury occurs.  We look now at fighters.  Fighters are people without fear of physical harm or even those who harbor a love of it.  Fighters are dedicated to the mastery of the physical domain and set out to build their bodies to compete.  They train to take punishment and to unleash it upon their opponents.  It is the most visible and easily altered realm.  Also, realize now that the physical realm is controlled through the mental and spiritual aspects of the user as each of these three aspects are interconnected and act on one another through symbiotic relationships.  (A topic that deserves much further discussion, but is best reserved for a composition where it is the center of focus).  

The Mental aspect is the side of analyzing a movement or a technique.  It is the quiet pondering and conscious deliberation over the physical movements.  The samurai, for example, before they would practice would go through a fight sequence or exercise, sitting quietly, executing it purely mentally first before even picking up the sword.  This is as important as physical practice as it allows the user to critically and creatively experiment with the technique or exercise prior to its execution, the fudging of which may end up being physically harmful if not performed well.  Don't be fooled though, physical practice and mental analysis can occur simultaneously and in fact should be exercised both in tandem and independently.  This sort of 'cross-training' is critical to becoming well-rounded.

The Spiritual aspect is the understanding of purpose.  Mindless training without understanding will no doubt produce a physical result, but in the end is properly brutish and nonsensicle as it is not conducive to wholesome constructive development, but instead actuates ignorant stasis.  This understanding is not easily attained however.  The user will naturally have some sense of purpose to begin with and his understanding will deepen ever deeper through continued physical practice, mental analysis and meditation, unending.

Martial Arts is the dedication to these three aspects and most importantly the wisdom to balance them harmoniously. 

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Inspired by Calasanz

Written by Alan Wedell

Obsession

Obsession is something that affects everyone in its own way.  Some people become obsessed with gambling, others with sports, others with "what-have-you".  Calasanz' obsession is Martial Art.  His obsession began when he was still a boy on a farm in the Dominican Republic.  His father took him to see the wildly famous Bruce Lee film, "Enter the Dragon".  From that moment on he knew his life's purpose and he began dreaming of going to America to become a Bruce Lee, to become the world's most well balanced martial artist.

His dream would begin to actualize in the early 1980's when he finally made it to this country, the United States of America.  Now he had some work to do.  While he will tell you that he was born with the gift of knowing martial art and especially understanding Wing Chun he also knew that in order to become well balanced he would have to learn a variety of styles and given its 'pot-luck' nature there was no better place to do that than in America.  He took a very logical approach.  He would pick some novel systems to learn to achieve his ends, study them and practice them down to their root.

While we examine and get into his course of study its important to know that his study of each particular style is not cut and dry.  Language will, unfortunately, limit the way in which I can convey, and the ways in which you can comprehend his progression of training but it is important to remember he as a living human was and is doing so much more than what can be exposed here through prose.  That is to say that as the topic changes schools or instructors, remember that his study and practice of previous styles or systems did not end.  In fact even today he continues to develop his skill of styles previously studied while adding the knowledge and training of newly learned systems, never throwing away what was obtained in years passed.  Still to this day he continues to develop, involve and evolve aspects of each of the styles he has trained within his system because as any real martial artist will tell you, you are never done developing.

He began his training in the Dominican Republic at a myriad of schools training disciplines including Karate and Taekwondo.  The first school he attended within the U.S., however, was under Moyat in New York City to improve and perfect his Wing Chun.  After one year with Moyat in Chinatown he moved on.  Years later Moyat would come to Calasanz' dojo for a seminar to promote Calasanz and instruct some of his more advanced students.

On his endeavor to become the most well balanced martial artist in the world he undertook the study of Cheng Chuang (translates to "Long Fist").  He studied this system with Angel Rodriguez under a Chinese master with only one English name, Henry, in New York City for 6 years, all the while improving his Wing Chun and developing aspects of body control through dance classes and gymnastics.  Cheng Chuang remains a large influence on his art and teaching style emphasizing extension and flexibility for greater range and a more capable body.


Each day he trained and learned he became aware that he could not satisfy his obsession.  He grew hungrier and hungrier.  His appetite for martial arts would grow faster than he could take it in. 

As he kept learning, practicing, and developing he would augment his previous Hapkido and Taekwondo training in the Dominican Republic with lessons under Master Lee in Darien, Connecticut. 

He would also attend Gleason's Gym in New York City regularly to soak in what he could of boxing.  I say soak in because at Gleason's Gym he could not step into the ring.  He was already making videos and doing the incredible and those who attended Gleason's thought he was crazy.  They would not even put him to spar.

As time passed he integrated all of these styles, taking Bruce Lee's ancient aphorism to heart, to take what is useful and disregard what is useless.  And like Bruce Lee, Calasanz understood the importance of dance.  He took up dance classes in several different styles including ballet, jazz, tap, modeling jazz and modeling ballet.  And, while dancing is not necessarily martial art, martial art is most definitely dancing.  Dancing, as another practice of bodily control and presentation, gave Calasanz another perspective and allowed him to grow as a martial artist in ways strictly martial systems had not.  This opened the mind and gave him another leg to stand on so to speak to be more well-balanced and more well-rounded as a martial artist.

His obsession had led him deep within the martial arts world and even outside of it altogether.  He would learn a lot by taking a step outside that realm and looking in through a different lens.  As he continued training his learned martial systems he would again branch out, this time into the world of gymnastics.  He would train under Darko, a Russian instructor in Westport at the time.  Darko is noted as being baffled at Calasanz' ability and workout routines.

The people surrounding and training Calasanz were more often than not confused by him.  They could not comprehend what he was doing, and more, how he was doing it.  His obsession drove him to extremes so far from so-called "normal" that many, including those at Gleason's Gym, dismissed him as crazy.  But this is exactly what happens to someone with an obsession so advanced and a desire so deep.  In anything he trained he would always want to know the meaning of the technique or movement.  He wouldn't stop.  For those on the outside looking in it is difficult to understand a person obsessed and their actions because they simply do not share the same motivations and desires.  Simply, they do not have the same obsession.

Surrendering to an obsession and to then pursue it with such vigor and passion does not come without a price.  As Calasanz trained doing rigorous activity for unhealthy and extended periods of time, his body paid a price.  He had successfully destroyed the joints in his body through over-training.  His obsession had become a destructive force and over time a lesson would be learned.  Even with the world's best body development system in his hands, the pitfall of excess showed its face. 

He would be the first to learn the perils of pushing one's self within his system while in the end it is better that it happened this way; that the creator should carry the burden of pushing his system too far. 

It is, however, exactly that, his obsession, and his relentless feeding of that obsession which spring-boarded Calasanz as a martial artist above and beyond all those around him including his instructors.  His inability to be satisfied, his unrelenting hunger to be the best, most well balanced martial artist in the world, and his determination and strength of will to do what was necessary to achieve that goal has led him in this lifetime to the fulfillment of that self same goal. 


This is Calasanz, the Most Well Balanced Martial Artist in the World



Inspired by Calasanz
Written by Alan Wedell