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Tue, February 09, 2010
A Warrior Finds His Way
by Lori Ann White
"That one hasn't any ambitions, hasn't any ideas, makes no plans. From this mysterious place of not-knowing and not-doing he gives birth to whatever is needed in the moment." ?Passage 50, Tao Te Ching
In 2001, though only in his early twenties, Arash Dibazar could already look back at a distinguished career as a martial artist. Twenty years of dedicated training had taken the Iranian-born fighter all the way from a gold medal in the Junior Olympics, to membership in the highly-regarded demo team The Next Generation Action Team, to movie rolls, and finally to the founding of his own school, the IMC Academy, in San Jose, California, where he currently teaches Tae Kwon Do, kickboxing, and self defense.
Surely Dibazar, by any rational standard, could count himself a success.
Why, then, did he choose to essentially start over ? enrolling in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and becoming, once again, a lowly white belt?
Because for Dibazar, all of his external successes were only signposts on his journey ? his exploration of the Tao and his desire to live the life of a warrior.
"This is the way of Heaven: It doesn't contend, but easily overcomes." ?Passage 73, Tao Te Ching
Dibazar was already intimately familiar with the Way of a warrior as expressed by the Tao Te Ching. "'Find the natural path,'" he quotes.
Ah, but the Tao says that to everyone. What is the natural path for a warrior?
As Dibazar talks, it becomes obvious that the answer has many layers.
First, on the purely mechanical level: Learn techniques exactly as presented and then explore them, modifying them until they feel natural while still remaining effective.
Everybody is different, every body is different ? yet techniques that have been handed down, sometimes for hundreds of years, have earned their place in a system for a reason. If a technique is not immediately successful, "am I just going to give up on it?" asks Dibazar. "I'm going to look at it, and modify it for my own body."
Next, on a more philosophical level: Find your natural action in response to your opponent's aggression.
According to Dibazar, fighting an opponent with the express purpose of defeating him is counter to the Tao, because it requires "attaching a weird, harmful, end goal" to the process. At the same time, natural action is not simply reaction; according to Dibazar, on an ideal level, with personal goals (with self) removed, "Fighting is a communication ? a conversation. The fighters are almost working together to complement each other and seek harmony."
Finally, on a personal level: The natural path is the natural path for you. "Go with the flow," says Dibazar, "but keep your integrity. A boat can go with the flow, but not if it breaks up."
Ultimately, to follow the warrior's path as laid out by the Tao, the warrior must become attuned to the Tao, the constant interplay between Yin and Yang ? first on the grand scale, then all the way down to the level of an opponent's breath.
Not surprisingly, this level of attunement with the Tao takes years to accomplish. Dibazar has put in twenty years and counting. It takes constant practice to maintain. Dibazar is committed to being a martial artist until he dies. It takes intellectual as well as physical effort to be able to express martial arts as an art of the spirit as well as of the body. Flexibility of mind, as well as body, is key. Knowing this, Dibazar considers his research and writings to be as important a part of his path as his practice.
Then what was missing? What led him to don the white belt once more?
During Dibazar's time in Hollywood, his acting teacher, Fijian actor Manu Tupou, became something of a spiritual mentor as well. Tupou encouraged him to study warrior cultures ? not just the stereotypical warrior cultures of China and Japan, but warrior cultures throughout history ? in an effort to help him define for himself what it means to be a warrior.
Something that Dibazar discovered during his research was that sooner or later "every warrior class was destroyed." He includes martial artists in that list, calling them "an endangered species." His point is a good one. Given the restrictions on sparring in most disciplines, how was Dibazar to take what he'd spent so many years learning and put it to the test? How was he to discover that moment of truth that facing another human being in battle could give him ? about himself, about life, about the Way?
He could choose to pit himself against other fighters in mixed martial arts (MMA) bouts, but such fighters are in it for the win, not the Way. To Dibazar, Ultimate Fighters are a different kind of warrior, following a different path. "They're gladiators," he says. "That isn't me. I want to be doing this (studying martial arts) for the rest of my life."
Dibazar had just reached a roadblock in his path: he had learned to talk the talk ? but he had no way to walk the walk.
"The way of heaven is like the bending of a bow. What is high up gets pulled down. What is low down gets pulled up." ?Passage 77, Tao Te Ching
Dibazar is the first to admit that an ability to fight is not the only ? or even the most important ? hallmark of a warrior. For example, he considers the MMA trend to be bad for traditional martial arts as a whole. Yet it was during an Ultimate Fighting Championship match that Dibazar saw a member of the world-renowned Gracie family defeat opponents larger than himself with grace and finesse.
Dibazar was intrigued, and immediately began researching the Gracie family and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). He discovered that the Gracies "have a warrior culture in present time that I wanted to be in contact with," he says.
Dibazar's research led him to Ralph Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in Mountain View, California, where he met the man who was to become his teacher, Sandro "Batata" Santiago.
Batata, as he prefers to be known, is a long-time student of both Ralph Gracie and Roberto "Gordo" Correa, and an experienced and highly-regarded fighter with several championships to his credit, including Brazilian National Champion, Pan-American Champion, and Brazil vs USA Champion, all in the Super Featherweight Division. Batata arrived from Brazil seven years ago to teach at the Mountain View school.
At first he was bemused by Dibazar ? Batata is a pragmatic fighter who decided to switch from kickboxing to BJJ after an informal sparring match with some friends who where already studying BJJ. "They kicked my ass," Batata says simply. "I decided, okay, I have to change." He's the first to admit that the triumvirate of training, teaching, and competition now form the boundaries of his world. "It's my life," says Batata, "my whole life." His philosophy is loyalty ? to his teachers, to his style.
When Dibazar arrived and put on his white belt, Batata wasn't quite sure what to make of him. In order to open himself up completely to his new style, Dibazar, with over 20 years experience in various styles of martial arts, transformed himself into a white belt again in word, thought, and deed. He wanted to open himself up fully to everything BJJ had to offer, with no preconceptions, no ego. He came early, stayed late, practiced, kept his mouth shut, studied Portuguese ? whatever it took. And, in the all-or-nothing atmosphere of BJJ, and with Batata's blunt but honest instruction, he found himself learning once more.
Dibazar credits BJJ's emphasis on free sparring, on meeting new opponents day after day, with helping him get back on his path by repeatedly placing him "in the moment...in the 'right now.'" He discovered the perils of over-analysis, and of trying to apply yesterday's match to today. "When I can let yesterday go," he says, "when I can accept that I'm training today and today is a new day, then I can progress."
Dibazar is quick to note that you don't have to study BJJ to learn that lesson. Every style can put you on the path; every style teaches the Way. What Dibazar gained from BJJ was an opportunity to study a new discipline with the wide-open eyes of a white belt. He intends to take his new insights back to his old styles, to "really delve into them and appreciate them and practice them correctly," he says, "so that they can be passed on to the next generation."
He does firmly believe that the BJJ emphasis on daily sparring was what broke down his personal roadblocks, and he has incorporated that emphasis on free sparring and on "constant daily combat" into his own school. Now everyone, no matter what class or age, puts on the gear for a portion of each lesson.
Though BJJ is only one of the many true paths a warrior may follow to the Tao, Dibazar did find one aspect of it to be apropos. BJJ, like the Tao, "doesn't exclude the negative. It's not always hard, not always soft." Or, as Batata told him, "Strength has nothing to do with jiu-jitsu."
Sounds like a quote from the Tao.
"The sage has no set mind. He adopts the concerns of others as his own." ?Passage 49, Tao Te Ching
Dibazar intends to continue studying BJJ, learning its balance of hard and soft, listening to Batata's painfully honest critiques, until he and the lessons he must learn change again. And then, who knows? Tai Chi? Aikido? Something entirely different?
Part of the joy of following the Way is in finding out what lies ahead.
"The world is won by letting things take their own course." ?Passage 48, Tao Te Ching
Written by Lori Ann White for KUNGFUMAGAZINE.COM
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