MMP Talks (26) : "Journey of Transformation: Unveiling the Yin & Yang of Life" - Fay Goodman

[00:00:03] What amazing philosophies we can take right today? I think that subuteive has come in together. What I wanted to talk about was a spose, my journey, a little brief insight into the journey,

[00:00:21] into how I felt that martial arts and music have played a crucial role in how I've sort of developed as a person, I suppose, and my big desire to share, which I think has been the theme of today,

[00:00:33] we all want to share what we've learned and hopefully help others, you know, be bring the best out in themselves. But my journey started quite strange, I started to learn music

[00:00:45] first so that was my first love music. I was aged five and six and apparently I was a little many and I was terrifying the cows in the field to the point that the farmer came along

[00:00:57] and said can you put the strengths on your child? And my mother said yes but she's only two and she said don't care how old she is, she's actually terrifying the cows. And when cows are in car for

[00:01:06] apparently it's quite dangerous. So anyway so that was my journey and then eventually tried everything and I think I should have known my martial arts journey to start it apparently was quite strong

[00:01:16] and they bought a big wooden pay pain, pinned me in there and it didn't keep me down. I just lifted it up and carried it around and destroyed all the furniture so they had to find something else

[00:01:27] and eventually my father being a musician bought a piano and that was it. I was a dea-lovedy and I was quiet. I found I could channel my energy, my spirituality into creating songs and it wasn't a hours age, 13, 14 when my life has been changed again quite dramatically

[00:01:45] I was actually attacked by three men. I was just walking home, it was a beautiful summer's evening and out of nowhere three men attacked me and tried to drag me to a car. But fortunately one of the young men

[00:01:58] didn't want to be party to this and this shows that sometimes peer pressure is very dangerous I'm so grateful to that young man because it was his determination to go against what he was

[00:02:09] being encouraged to do that helped me escape because I don't know what the outcome could have been Now bear in mind this is a summer evening, lovely summer evening. There's people walking about I'm saying help, help and everybody knows me so the lesson I learnt that day

[00:02:25] was never to ever feel so isolated that I couldn't do anything because you need to know you can do something So I also learned I had nowhere in this, I didn't see them come up they were just suddenly, attacking me

[00:02:37] so that was one big lesson we learned in martial arts, isn't it? To be aware The second one was them get surprised, well I was very surprised and thirdly learn how to get out of difficult situations and meet each challenges

[00:02:51] So these are the lessons I learnt that day But the interesting thing is about a year later my brother because we've mentioned Bruce Lee who's got the Bruce Lee T-shirt on Oh look at that beautiful beautiful

[00:03:06] Well I have to thank Bruce Lee as well actually for my journey because my brother went to see a Bruce Lee film, I think it was Mr Fury and he came home full of the joys of martial arts

[00:03:17] And he wanted to join the club, so he joined the local martial arts club The combination systems of Chinese and Japanese arts And he came home and he thought oh I've got a practice these great skills Who can I practice on? Oh I've got a sister

[00:03:31] That's why I practiced on the practice on my sister The next thing you know, you've seen the pink panther K to inclusive that was my home So I've come back from school and climb over the tack me from every conceivable angle

[00:03:46] Next thing I knew I have to have to protect myself or I know I'll join So I did and that was my opening to martial arts I went onto an adjorny of doing this combined system, karate, archaic, and then by accident

[00:03:58] But I didn't think it was accident I think Sometimes our spiritual path leads us somewhere And I met somebody that started the idea of the way the Japanese sword I was in my early twenties and I was fascinated So climb my brother, we went along

[00:04:15] And he gave me a very old military sword that was very heavy And I was trying to cut my couldn't it was jingle jangle, terrible table techniques But I just couldn't let it go I was really challenged, I just loved this sword

[00:04:27] There was something about it, there was an energy in it I suddenly found my whole body, it was changing I felt this wonderful, you know, I felt like I was very spiritual crawling

[00:04:37] I couldn't do the art, I was dreadful but I thought I'm not going to carry on In fact, you might listen to this, so This is my funny squeaky sword Sometimes we have students and that's quite gotty

[00:04:50] I should remember these, hit them on the head, because I think you may be a good person It's important, fun and humor, you learn really well from that So I just loved it myself, I thought yes, I can't go

[00:05:02] But am I ever going to be any good during the sword? Probably not, but what a challenge, so I can't really don't Anyway, as the years went by, I met this wonderful teacher called I'm at Sufugi He had a great personality, lots of laughter

[00:05:16] And he was really amazing, and I started to learn from him And then I was introduced to my very main teacher, a room in Sensei who was an eighth down that's the top in Japan And he had the most beautiful spirit

[00:05:30] And just to go a little bit further forward in time I managed to progress in my hearts, I still did my other martial arts I keyed to the karate that you see on everything But I was really hung on, and I met that sort of right word

[00:05:44] But I really attached to the sword And I eventually managed to do my sixth hand And I found I was on my own in more university And I was really nervous, really nervous, and I was practicing

[00:05:58] And to room Sensei came up to me, and he said two words Which I think is being quite interesting, a theme of today He said, Kakora, Kamuchi He was your true heart and your true feeling And those two words I felt almost transformed in a way

[00:06:18] So when I walked out and buried mine, I'm using a live blade My machine can buried 400 year old blade And I'm thinking, I hope I don't cut myself And I hope I don't throw it because one of the judges definitely won't get regretting me

[00:06:33] But I just performed with a true heart And I thought, if I'm not deserving of passing, I won't pass If I can hopefully display my true heart, I'll see what happens And the lovely thing was, I did pass

[00:06:49] And I remember when I'd finished my grading, so I was really a certain event of transformation I wasn't really that nervous, although before and after was But during the performance, you sort of transcend And I think those that you do martial arts will understand

[00:07:03] What I mean, you have this sort of feeling that something is happening That you can't quite explain So when I turned around and saw all these people, very much about 250 people watching my grading And on the only one taking it

[00:07:18] And I saw all these gesture cat greens, everybody was smiling I thought, what this smiling at? If I dropped my hat, I'm gonna say something Looking around, and I walked out and they said, no, you should've got that I thought, oh my don't know, I don't know

[00:07:30] But the good news was that I was successful But I have to say, I feel in my heart That was why I wrote that music, a coro spirit of the heart So that's how it connects to the dance

[00:07:43] Because in the dance performances, I'm actually doing some sort movements But they're translated through the song, there's a bit of a tight chain there But if I keyed out, so what you're seeing with all these movements is actually martial arts sometimes

[00:07:56] See, good thing to tell you about things Anyway, so I went on to the next challenge I've just released my lady summarized the final cut It's really the pun in there actually, the final cut You ready to film because we know what that means

[00:08:12] Cut the film and don't cut yourself with the sword And we released it a couple of weeks ago But it took a long time, I took my 7th anniversary Sadly that time, ruin sense in my teacher was passing He was dying and he just passed away

[00:08:28] So I suddenly felt I was alone on my journey And I think some of you all know, you know, the alonus And I found myself writing more music again Which is why I connected to the union young So I felt going down the dojo and practising

[00:08:41] Doing any martial arts, the sword, the jo The time she, whatever I suddenly found, I was pre-helping to create the sound of music And I would do it to music sometimes And I was first, and that gave me the courage to then

[00:08:55] As I say, continue to do this sort of thing I created I failed the first two attempts because I was borrowed swords And this doesn't have a lesson I was using swords that didn't spiritually connect with me

[00:09:08] So on the third attempt, I thought, I must have my own sword And I couldn't take my 400 year sword with me Because that would have been taken by the police in Japan Because they would, you can't get back to the country It's a treasure

[00:09:23] So I asked the makers in Japan, could you make me a sword As close as to this sword as you can And to come along so I shot they did I went to Japan and I was told to go to Japan Quite late, don't tell anybody you're going

[00:09:37] This was by the then Japanese teacher Who was lovely, I was just saying And I couldn't understand why I think some of you are all understanding Unfortunately, there's politics and difficulties Some of the words people can't, they try to obstruct you

[00:09:56] And I'm sorry to say being a female in the martial arts world It was really hard and there were lots of times when I felt extremely lonely But now I realized that was a gift Because it taught me how to bear it And how to come through

[00:10:11] So and how I can share the strength of that Whether the ladies or men, you know, it doesn't matter man Or when I was a person child We all get these blockages and feelings How do we transcend them and go through them?

[00:10:27] That was very, very important, less and for me And eventually through the determination and the passion I was successful and I came back I had filmed the journey But I'd filmed it for my brother who was then suddenly dying And I wanted to share the experience with him

[00:10:44] We shared all our martial arts together We taught children, corporate businesses, social services Oh gosh, you know, if we were teaching also to pay for more of a self-defense system And I loved being with my brother he was wonderful

[00:10:57] So to know he wasn't going to be there to share that was really hard But there was another important reason I just felt, it didn't matter if I passed or successful My journey, but I was going to try

[00:11:09] So if I could try it, why can't other people try it Whatever is your chosen ambition, vision, your desire Why not really really try to do it? So that was my reason And it took me over 20 years to release it Because I felt the time wasn't right

[00:11:28] There was a lot of negativity and jealousy And all sorts of things that you experience in life And I was my worst enemy And I thought, I'm stopping myself because of the fear of what people think Why did it and who am I?

[00:11:44] And I just thought, no, there's a really powerful message here I want to help her, I want to share it Love that me if you want to, yes I put my chopstick in the wrong way in the bowl

[00:11:56] Yes I left my earrings on because I just did a 27 hour flight into Japan I was going to be a really big company, I didn't expect it to be But things were really, really big, you know?

[00:12:07] And I thought, I just laughed at myself, I thought, oh look, it may look really silly But that gave me an inspiration again We've all got humor and what does humor do in our life Makes us laugh, makes us get through difficult times

[00:12:22] So I have found martial arts and music and my own in young I think it's all sad, then I will go and do one of the other And sometimes both And with the performance I did earlier, I was getting to a mindset

[00:12:35] Where I'm just trying to connect with a mind by a disparate Because the idea is about mind by a disparate coming together And it's very difficult to do I'm sure when some of you may meditate You know the hardest thing is to relax, to clear mind

[00:12:51] How do you know you've cleared your mind? You might be telling you one thing, but really telling you another thing So you're talking to yourself or the mind is not clear Is it if you're talking to yourself? I mean, I know from that bridge of you

[00:13:02] So I suddenly thought right, what else can I share with people And we talked about values early on And I'd like to share the values of the hack and I'm just going to put this down for a moment We have values, which I think are really lovely

[00:13:16] So the five plates here have a value, not in any particular order But we have respect, loyalty, humility, honor, compassion That word compassion, the softness of the heart And the mind, but also the importance of compassion And I feel that can release us to do amazing things

[00:13:36] Because if you hold and harbor no anger Then you haven't got a negative feeling in your heart And therefore your heart can be soft And I think that's important And these five values, there's one plate at the back here, one plate at the back

[00:13:54] So we can see that and the five plates we try to work towards becoming the one plate Which means all of those values become one I think it probably translates into your own art, doesn't it?

[00:14:09] My mission now, I've realized the mission is just to share what I've learned There's lots of things, but to suppose to summarize I have learned, believing yourself Absolutely believing yourself And it doesn't matter if people try to put you down or try to stop you

[00:14:27] Navigate your usual martial art skills like a pen, write a letter or something That will find another way, the sword is sort of they say the pen is more than the sword I think there's actually a true statement in that

[00:14:40] And also the wonderful expression, you know, perfection is a moving target What it is isn't it? Me and most of the society say that perfection is a moving target So you're never perfect at your art but you strive to be

[00:14:53] And the other thing I've learned is again, again from me and motor Massage sort of philosophy is if you enter the battle, we prepare to die That's metaphorically speaking, okay, the battlefield, do you know what you're up against

[00:15:08] But how many times in the business world in our home family life with our friends or anybody You say there's a battle going on so you have to stand up for yourself and have belief

[00:15:19] If you go in with a true heart and compassion, I have found it's a way to count things It's a way to get a resolution because you can think clearer The Chinese proverb, he who shouts loses the battle

[00:15:32] What isn't it true? Because why you're shouting, are you really listening and taking the energy into what's really going on? So I think it's important and it's why I asked the question earlier when I go into different environments And I think because you are all

[00:15:48] Practitioners as well, you appreciate, you pick up on energies You might not have met somebody but you know instantly there's some negativity or anger in them You may go into another environment which is very calm and loving

[00:16:01] Another environment where it's completely hostile and you think, oh, how am I going to manage this? But it's all lessons in life I'm just going to finalize now, we're just showing you my sword

[00:16:14] Now this actually isn't my shinkan, I don't, I try not to travel around with it too much But this is my treasure the I2 And this was a gift from my sensei Japanese sensei for passing my nanodone in Japan

[00:16:28] And I was so thrilled when he presented this with the make In fact, he shared the gift with the gentleman who made my sword, my shinkan that I passed with And I can't begin to tell you how that felt

[00:16:42] I just felt so honored and I didn't think as I said, I'd actually passed But I treasure this gift And so when we wear the sword, it goes into the, I would call the H.B.

[00:16:55] I'll just do a couple of cuts so you can hear the sound and the reason I'm doing this is because It connects with the music and the martial arts, the Ying in Yang The sword has a sound of its own, each, I'll take this off as well

[00:17:07] Each sword, scenes So if you can make it sing, you can get that beautiful sound So if I just draw the sword here, so if I just go to the side, okay So when we're learning a very, this is a very basic cut

[00:17:24] We go both the head and then we step forward and we cut Can you hear that sort of sound, okay? Find you a bit lighter, he was slightly different sound Can you hear that sound? So it's almost like a little bit of an octave, okay?

[00:17:41] Now, after this side, you can hear my bit of an sound now So from here, that was a higher sound, wasn't it? Can you see? Then if I cut a horizontal, listen to the sound again, can you see that sound?

[00:17:54] So what you have is when you're cutting and we're doing cutters, you'll get different sounds The other beautiful thing is from here, which I really like When you do, so this is what called a note, it's a cleaning of the sword

[00:18:07] It's a bit of action, can you hear that sound there but softer Because we're not cutting, then there's an action where we go up, we check the opponent It's hopefully incapacitated, oops, and then we go back

[00:18:22] And then we do what's called the note, I'll put the sword away Or put it home, okay? Now, so this is a very gentleness about it, it's a very gentle, beautiful piece of the art It's not about hurting someone

[00:18:35] But the other lovely thing about it is when I did that action of coming up and checking here And even when I'm doing the note, what I'm imparting is respect and compassion So I don't want, you know, in the imaginary world of being in the battlefield

[00:18:51] I never wanted to kill anyone but if I had to because I have to save others Then I've done it with respect and compassion And when I come up, I'm using my true heart So I think that's an amazing connection to all the presentations today

[00:19:08] So I'm on leave you with that and as you say, so to be gentle with yourself Use your true heart and true feeling Thank you