anger vs aggression vs bhuddism vs tenacious resolve

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hey richie,

i have been teaching and studying self protection for some time now. i am especially fond of your work and bob's. the thing that has been in my mind is the issue of anger or agression in a fight, and especially when you focuss on your general mental state, or your ethical compass really.

i am a practicing buddhist and i must say that there has been a time where i kind of got lost in the mentality of agressive forward motion in self defence, especially since i am teaching it as a vital mentality in a fight. i just got a bit neurotic about it and i could sense it in my zazen very much. i just became a constantly 'switched on' person. my girl complained i behaved like a tough guy, wich i am not specifically. if some macho asshole made nasty comments about my girl i was ready to fucking kill him, and i basically would. also, i get questions a lot from my students about this. my view on this is there is a big difference between anger and agressive action. in the first i don't believe, in the second i believe; it is the best option in high level conflict, constant agressive forward motion.

so i wonder how you feel about this. assuming you see the difference between anger and agressive action; how do you make a high level conflict such a small part of your life, so that you can adopt the attitude when needed? often people are still constantly switched on (especially when practicing rbsd or krav maga), or constantly switched off.
how do you get that switch to be just a small part of your system, but when switched on "unleashes hell"?

also, i get some doormen in my group who are just plain bullies. do you have any ctiteria to who you teach?

your thoughts please gents before I get into this one?

I’m not an instructor or an expert, but here’s my angle:

Firstly, recognising that there is an internal ‘switch’ is a good start, you just have to find out how best to turn it on an off and decide exactly the mentality you’re trying to cultivate.

What you train for, you will get. So if you want to be able to produce that ‘forward drive’ in real life, that’s what you need to be doing in practice. Each time you work on it in training is a chance to ‘switch on’, power through the threat and then bring back your rational thought processes at the end – that’s when you will be needing to assess a real situation, maybe call for help or find the exit in a real scenario.

It’s a good idea to think through your world view, Buddhist or otherwise, and how it relates to your RBSD training. Do it in a quiet moment or over a period of time but get it straight so that you’re not trying to make decisions under the stress of violence. For me, it’s about recognising that I am protecting myself and loved ones. I know that if I ever have to use the stuff I’m learning (and I never have so far except the awareness and avoidance) then I will need to give it 100%. I’ve been guided through visualisation exercises to experience and harness the kind of fury I would feel if someone harmed a person I care about, which was helpful.

‘Anger’ is not the quality I’d be cultivating. I usually like being softly spoken and keeping a low profile. When I ‘switch on’ I want to have the fearsome forward drive and combative mindset that I associate with the best RBSD instructors and soldiers in the world. It’s extremely powerful, but as soon as the threat is taken out, it switches back to a rational and professional attitude to face the next challenge.

The key to limiting the aggressive state to it's intended area of use seems to me to be in anchoring it to a specific mental trigger. The one that brings you from orange into condition red in the Jeff Cooper color code system, or simply put, your fence. Before that point you can do the whole cool and clearminded thing, keeping out of the common RBSD warzone mindset. Unless your fence - physical or psychological - gets transgressed, you don't have to go into state. That's my take on it anyway.