Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Into martial arts? Then you should also train your mind!, 29 Mar 1999
By A Customer
This book is EXECELLENT. It gives a very good background and overview of what is essential to understand behind the physical aspects of martial arts: you and the martial world. To be proficient in an 'art' you need to also think and understand. Martial Arts is exactly that.However, wether due to my immaturity on the subject or just failing to see Peter's view and his interpretation of some of the very educational aspects he covered: I was left feeling confused by some of his arguments, beliefs and ideas which I believe are personal to him and not the Martial Arts. But I said this book is excellent and I meant it: I would be 'poorer' for not having read it. In Martial Arts terms, if you know what soft and hard is: fine. But if you don't know what 'ki' 'body-breath-mind' 'spontanity' are, or you are always interested in hearing somebody else's view on this - I can highly recommend this book. Even if some of it I cannot comprehend or I am unsatisfied with - particularly Peter daring to create a view of 'thinking' between East and West that quite frankly doesn't work on paper (I would love to discuss it with him). The fact I have taken time to write this and I am not an internet surfer, the fact that this is my second copy of the book after the first was damaged by water (after I carried it around on holiday with me), gives you a good indication that I believe I got something from reading it - as well as enjoying the book (which contains some excellent illustrations and photographs). In summary, I enjoyed reading it because it informed and stimulated my thinking: what more can you or should you ask from a book.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent in almost every way!!!!, 3 Jan 2000
A great opening into the world of Martial Arts, Payne discusses all the different forms leaving very little out. Great photos help depict some truely unbeleivable events, such as the 'breath throw' where a master actually throws someone without even touching them. All in all a great read to anyone, even if you're not a huge Martial Arts fan or have had no previous experience.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely NOT what I expected, 12 Aug 2009
This isnt exactly what you may expect from either a straight spiritual or martial arts text, so I wasnt able to give it five stars. I couldnt give it four because I felt it was a bit thrown together like someone enthusiastically trying to cook up a stew using lots of odds and ends and without a recipe in mind.
There's 108 illustrations, 13 in colour, some of them are a full page and many of them are similar to the cover artwork, it's a large format book and the text is very small.
The book is comprised of pages of text and some illustrations which appear to be randomly selected from different martial arts textbooks illustrating throws or grabs or postures accompanying in the margins.
There is then a selection of "plates", some of these are photos, some are art works, each of which appears to be aged and borrowed from other books, possibly an encyclopedia. Finally there is a section called "Themes" which selects topical titles like "Grounding", "The Up" (???), "Ki", this section is almost a collage of pictures with accompanying paragraphs and script, which feels altogether a little random.
The Chapters are split into "Technical Aspects" dealing with the prime importance of the body, internal/external, external aspects:techniques, strategy and tactics, "The Martial Arts as Spiritual and Psychological Disciplines", warrior of the spirit, creative destruction, developing the will, and "Body, energy, mind and spirit", Body-Breath-Mind, The integration of the structure of breath and body, Rhythm, power and freedom, Body movements and awareness: the key to the psychophyscial energy of ki, the ego structure and the body.
This all sounds very grand but the book itself is a little bit more like some of the ill conceived but enthusiastic mind, body, spirit section reads than, for instance, Zen in the Martial Arts or Clearing Away Clouds: Nine Lessons for Life from the Martial Arts. It does avoid the biographical nature of those books, if not some of the more fanciful perspectives about grand feats of mind and body.
A much more comprehensive account of martial arts which also provides an account of the history and philosophy of each is availableMartial Arts (Practical Handbook).
This book is part of a series, the "Art and Imagination" series, which includes Alchemy, Beyond Death, Celtic Mysteries, Creation Myths, Kabbalah, Magic, Mystic Spiral, Sacred Dance, Subtle Body, Tantra, Tao, Time and Zen. I have a feeling that its aimed at a "new age" or hippy readership, which could be part of the reason I dont really appreciate it and didnt really feel like it was adding to my knowledge at all.
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