I have been studying birds
for 50 years, raised pigeons on a roof in downtown
Manhattan. I had the unexpected pleasure of watching
Peregrine Falcons hunt my pigeons, and performing
spectacular aerobatics unbelievable to the human
eye. Diving (stooping) up to 200 miles an hour and
striking my pigeon with the rear talons (scimitars)
and seeing feathers explode in mid air. My pigeons
would be up in the clouds, one pigeon would be
selected out of the flock and knew he was the one
chosen for some reason as the prey, due to fatigue,
slow flight, weak, but the Peregrine was selective
as our the wolves, lions, looking for the weakest
member of the flock, or herds.
So what has
Martial Arts have to do with Falconry? I studied
Falconry and wanted to be a Master Falconer, little
did I know aristocracy prevails in this art. I was
fifteen years old. But be that as it may, the beauty
of these birds of prey, their regal looks, but most
of all what attracted me to bird's of prey, was
their "bravery". Properly "conditioned", a
2-pound female Peregrine would swing boldly into
battle with a 8- or 10-pound goose or heron,
heedlessly flinging its delicate body against its
huge opponent in the air. Only a Peregrine Falcon
would face those odds. Interesting huh?
Now only a
Peregrine could succeed, could we as Martial Artists
succeed at taking on overwhelming odds? This does
not mean opponents only, this could mean life's
tribulations, when adversity is knocking at your
down. Now only a Peregrine Falcon can succeed if
they are "skilled" enough, and had their
timing just right, the best falcons could flash out
a killer hind-talon at the end of a 150-m.p.h. dive
to slice the head or wing off any aerial prey. If
missed or was knocked away, a prime hunting
peregrine's fiery spirit would send it towering back
up to attack again and again, even if that meant
dying in its final assault. Eventually this
otherworldly courage was linked to a newly minted
aesthetic of aerial balletics-----a wing-borne dance
of pitch-and -roll, throw-up and power-stoop---and
for centuries the mortal mix of art and combat
incarnate in the flight of falcons obsessed the
civilized world.
Like to
insert something here: To hide, to cower, to
appease when the odds are to great seems to humans
to be an obvious choice. "A living dog is better
than a dead lion" according to Ecclesiastes",
but that is only because the option to behave as a
metaphorical dog or lion is there for us.
We watch
flock of birds, flying in unison, turning, twisting,
bicycle racing, closely packed racers. In predator
prey relationships while the predator is watching
the prey, the predator is looking for signs of
weaknesses, but any mental circuitry the least bit
more complex than that of your companions would set
you apart. It would give you more choices, let you
change your mind in different ways. That would make
you the odd man out----and in the world of predator
prey relationships, "oddities don't survive.
Peregrines see to that. In the world of Martial
Artists this upper faculty of no hesitation is the
essence of our art.
True
reactionaries, Peregrines are always on the lookout
for the slightest aberrance in a member of the
wading flocks they regularly flush into the air.
Often it seems the Falcons put their prey to flight
just to see if one of the shorebirds is flying
unevenly, for any nonconformity is likely to mean
the bearer lacks fitness or coordination and is
therefore an easier catch.
We as human
beings, as I mentioned before (be a good animal
first) have choices, and when it comes to life
or death situations these options aren't part of a
hawk's repertoire. I think you are getting my drift
by now. Carrying the potential to make either choice
would be excess baggage----additional neural
circuitry that, even a raptor could evolve some way
to fit the software in and mange its extra weight
aloft, would hurt a bird of prey's chances for
survival. Two many alternatives would slow its swift
predatory reflex, while an injured hawk on the
ground is likely to die anyway that its species
would not benefit from having additional capacity
for evaluating different contingencies.
Without even
the possibility of a cowardly response, then, a bird
of prey makes no conscious choice to resist an
overwhelming threat , exhibits no
grace-under-pressure force of will. Those are
mankind's concerns.
In falcons are other things. Agendas of flight and
killing, allegiances to icy Cliffside places, and
the pull of the old circadian timings----of equinox
and solstice, cycles of light and darkness that in
concert with a thousand other subtle imperatives
still beyond our knowing send them, twice every
year, across half the globe. Yet, irrelevant as it
was to their own lives, those bold medieval
peregrines demonstrated that a swift, delicate
creature could completely disregard ignominious
fear, thereby making the choice of human bravely a
vivid, living possibility for every soul that ever
revered them.
Ref: On The Wing