Peter Ralston

from cover

Since winning the 1978 World Championship Full-Contact Martial Arts Tournament in China, Peter Ralston has become a leading practitioner of martial arts, investigating and teaching applicatons of psychological and spiritual growth. He directs training programs and workshops at Cheng Hsin, The Center for Ontological Research and Internal Martial Arts, in Oakland, California, and conducts staff training workshops for Lifespring, the Institute of Self Actualization, Robbins Research Institute (NLP) and other human potential organizations.

Personal, reflective, and gently investigative, these early esays have a raw, fresh quality which predates the more formal theory and practice of Peter Ralston's two best-selling books, Cheng Hsin: The Principles of Effortless Power and Cheng Hsin T'ui Shou: The Art of Effortless Power.

Many of the questions for which the martial arts work of Cheng Hsin is a vehicle of discovery-identity in relation to others, authenticity in the face of belief systems, the draw we have to pursue ineffective self-serving urges, and our tendency to conceptualize rather than experience things-are described here in simple, almost conversational language. Attempting to grasp what authentic knowledge is, Ralston's queries become a quest for how humans can develop a deeper sense of themselves as active participants in the world.

'With gentleness and humor, Ralston leads us to see new dimensions of ourselves in the present and possibilities for further growth.'-Ole Larson, Founder, Institute for Self Actualization

'Peter Ralston has found a clear way to communicate how we deal with confrontation: he confronts you with your personality and shows you very directly what is going on.'-Guido Sleddens, martial arts teacher, Holland

Contents

Preface
Introduction-Beginning
Somewhere to Begin
To 'I' or Not To 'I'
On Depression: Or-Love And A Heroin Fix
On Selfishness: It May Not Be What You Think
Completing Relationship: Balance; Practice
The Guru Syndrome: Or-It Ain't Me, Babe!
Changing State: Or-How to Take a Warm Bath on the Subway
LIfe: Or-Why Me?
Being Precedes All Known Qualities
An Essental Mistake: Or-Did I Do That?
The Warrior of the Truth
Where Does It Come From?: Or-That's a Good Question
This 'Whole' Matter
The Warrior of the Heart: Or-Conscience is Not a Cricket!
The Practice of Integrity
What, More Paradox?
Unsought in the Heart… (plus d'informations)

True innovators are, by definition, ahead of their time. Therefore, they remain largely unrecognized, except by a few. How many of us wished we had met Bruce Lee, sat in a session with Carl Jung, or walked around Walden Pond with Henry David Thoreau? Too late for that, but not too late to take notice of Peter Ralston. His creativity, commitment, and clarity shine through his teachings as he articulates higher principles based on direct experience and piercing insight. A superlative martial artist and caring teacher, he has been to the mountaintop and bathed in the underground spring of Being. His insights speak to us all.-Dan Millman, author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior

For the last twenty years Peter Ralston has directed workshops and the apprentice program at Chen Hsin in Oakland, California. Skilled in a wide variety of martial arts, he teaches in Europe, at Esalen, and has conducted staff trainings for LIfespring and other human potential organizations. His previous books are Cheng Hsin: Principles of Effortless Power, Cheng Hsin: The Art of Effortless Power, and Reflections of Being.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface by Richard Grossinger
Introduction-Gathering the communication
The Cheng Hsin spirit
The cornerstones of the Cheng Hsin endeavor-Honesty; Not-knowing and questioning; Direct and authentic experience; Grounded openness
Current forms in which Cheng Hsin is pursued
The art of faciliation
Listening that makes a difference-
Listening for a new experience
Examples of 'Hearing'
Changing your experience
The nature of 'Experience'
Belief is only hearsay
Is it live or memorex?
Interjecting peerecptive-Mimics into our cognition
Experiencing the models
An insight (Breakthrough) is an experience, but it's only known as a concept
Experiencing a concept
The relation between belief and suffering
Listening for being
The skill of hearing: Merging with the experience
Insight: Get, lose it, get it back
Unformed mind
'Doorways'
An open question
Trapped in an ability
Outisde the stream of humanity
The power of being in your body
Responsibility
Being present
Being in your body
Changing your mind
Feeling-Awareness and the force of life
Feeing is a form of intelignece
Concept isn't experience
Even mind is life force
Developing functional interactive skill
Laying some groundwork
Where to look
It's all about relationship
Relationship (thus effectiveness) is found in an experience of THEM
The 'Before' place
It's only ONE relationship
The power of questinoning
What is the center of the truth?
Questioning
The principles vs. winning
A commitment to mastery
On the nature of communication
The question of communication
Communications vs. being at effect
Long dialogue I
Short dialogues
Long dialogue II
The truth vs. minipulation
Integrity and communication
The communication is not the form
Being and communication
What is enlightenment?
A direct experience isn't an 'Experience'
The context of 'I'
The context of time
The 'Tabloid'
The 'Lollipop talk'
The function of pain
The 'lollipop talk'
Thinking beyond objectificaton-On the formation of 'Mind'
Thought and emotion are distinctions within the same event
How does objective perception determine concept?
Perception without associaton
Perceiving our projections
Creating 'Mind'
The mind as creeatively reproduced mimicry of sensory perception
Mind, self, and survival… (plus d'informations)

'The Principles of Effortless Power is one of the most profound books ever written about the martial arts. It has completely changed my thnking about my owne art, Aikido. Every time I read the book it opens up entirely new areas of inquiring, possibility and realization.'-John Stone, Aikido in America

'How many of us wished we had met Bruce Lee, sat in a session with Carl Jung, or walked around Walden Pond with Henry David Thoreau? Too late for that, but not too late to take notice of Peter Ralston. His creativity, commitment, and clarity shine through his teachings as he articulates higher principles based on direct experience and piercing insight. A superlative martial artist and caring teacher, he has been to the mountaintop and bathed in the underground spring of Being. His insights speak to us all.-Dan Millman, author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior

'What Peter Ralston does remarkably well is to clarify what the classics have been trying to tell us, and to offer concrete directions on how to continue growing and become better in the internal arts....You can't fix Cheng Hsin on the wall with a pin, because, as you try, you realize that Cheng Hsin is the wall, and the pin, and the action, and the intent.'-T'ai Chi Journal

Peter Ralston was raised in Asia and began studying martial arts at the age of nine. By the age of nineteen he was a black belt in Judo and Jujitsu (Nidan), black belt in Karate (Shodan), had been Sumo champion at his high school in Japan, Judo and fencing champion at the University of California at Berkeley, and had demonstrated proficiencey in Kempo, Ch'uan Fa, and Northern Sil Lum Kung Fu. Later he studied T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Hsing I Ch'uan, Pa Kua Chang, Aikido, Japanese and Chinese fencing, and western boxing.

Consistent with his Zen studies, his investigation into martial arts came to include a questioning of reality. In 1975 Ralston founded the Cheng Hsin School of Internal Martial Arts and Center for Ontological Research which operated for twenty years in Oakland, California. In 1978 he became the first non-Asian ever to win the World Championship full-contact martial arts tournament held in the Republic of China. He currently teaches workshops and training seminars all over the world.

Peter Ralston is also the author of Reflections of Being; Cheng Hsin Tui Shou: The Art of Effortless Power, and Ancient Wisdom, New Spirit.

Contents

Foreword
Introduction, or 'How to read this book'
Chapter One: The principles of Cheng Hsin
The five principles of an effortlessly effective body-being
Concluding chapter one
Chapter Two: A look at body-being development
Eight points on structuring the body-being
Some posture points to remember
Chapter Three:
Establishing a relationship with Cheng Hsin
Questioning our own event
Intrinsic strength
A sense of timing and unified actions
About body-being transformation
Posture
Functional mind
A precious word about function
In pursuit of being (Hsin)
Chapter Four:
The Cheng Hsin body-being: A further description
On the Nature of energy
On adaptation to the great force known as inclusion
On absolute presence in objectified reality
On the intrinsic force of the body-being
An exercise of the life force
Study, contemplation, and practice
The Cheng Hsin symbol
Chapter Five:
An introduction to functional considerations
The Cheng Hsin four principles of function
The power of union and inclusion
Conclusion
Chapter Six: A fundamental consideration of creating ability
The principle of inclusion
Lending being
Giving being
Chapter Seven: Cheng Hsin applied to an art form
Part 1: The practice of an art
Part 2: What does fighting have to do with consciousness? Some points on the art of fighting
Chapter Eight: In conclusion
The question of confusion
Another word about intrinsic nature
Reality: A concept, perhaps?
The principle behind the principles
Chapter Nine: The basic principles of Cheng Hsin-Revisited
An honest heart
The fundamental principles of body-being: An overview
The principle of effective interaction: A summary
It's true
Appendix One: An interview with Peter Ralston-January 1979
Appendix Two: Discourse on the art of swordsmanship by Chozan Shissai… (plus d'informations)