No Sheep or Baobab Trees, Kitab el AKBAN

By Yossi Sheriff

Kitab el AKBAN, for no apparent reason, that is the name I call the book “Tree climbing for pedestrians”. I have adopted this book as ours since it speaks of many things that are important to us as martial arts practitioners. The book was written by Dan Ha’Shimshoni, one of the AKBAN veterans. He wrote it many years ago.

Dan and me have been busy lately writing the AKBAN outdoors book, the famous black belt okugi. This book will be very different from “Tree climbing for pedestrians”, it distills our knowledge and our favorite whiskey into a short, full of flavor booklet. It is written:

“Fear can cause any action, it can cause one to run home or sprint forward, but in any case, fear is a reaction to the moment. Surprise always deals with what has been in the past. Sometimes even in the distant past”.

And then more:

“The knight listened as he was galloping, and then slowed his horse down . The horse stopped, closed one eye and Gunak continued his explanation: “When you’re surprised, it is a sign that you were thinking of how things would turn out instead of watching them happen. There is no room for planning, just observe the moment”.

From “Tree climbing for pedestrians”, by Dan Ha’shimshoni, (No official English translation and the first Hebrew edition ran out).

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