Customer Reviews

Zen and the Art of Street Fighting: True Battles of a Modern-Day Warrior

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This book was a poorly written, pseudo spiritual, account of Mr. Sabat's experinces in Karate training. There were no streetfights of any kind, only accounts of bouts in various dojos around the world, and very verbose descriptions of his training rituals.

He is disrespectful of other artists that do not follow his style or reflect his views of "enlightenment." I noticed that he made sure the "Wado Ryu boys" were thoroughly tired and winded before he "defended the honor" of his dojo. He is also disrespectful of professional fighters.

He might be a great person, but that is not how he comes accross in the book. I'm sure he trains hard and is a great Sensei, especially if your goal is to heap abuse on yourself.

This was a very distasteful book. Save your money.

The book wasn't what I expected. It is of a very poor prespective on martial arts. I thought, I was in a bar hearing macho beer drinking fight stories and not reading about martial arts. It wasn't a good read, nor informative about martial arts or zen. I don't recommend this book at all. It doesn't properly portray karate or zen at all.

Mr. Sabat may indeed be as tough and skilled as he claims, but it appears that physical prowess has not translated into mental prowess. The book's prose is unforgivable, and it forced me to commit the unforgivable sin of the bibliophile: I threw the book in the garbage before my eyes had a chance to bleed.

Several reviewers have written about how the book resonated with their own martial arts experiences. Fine. But if one has to make a choice between this masterwork of goofy bloviation or the simpler, more elegant account by Gichin Funakoshi ("Karate-do, My Way of Life"), the prospective reader would be well advised to choose the latter.

Funakoshi's accounts of his own prowess are a far cry from the inarticulate chest-beating of Sabat, who could learn a thing or two about the true budo from the sensei's book. The samurai were not brutes; their ethic was well-rounded to include the intellectual and the esthetic. One detects an undercurrent of humility in Funakoshi that seems almost completely absent in Sabat, who would rather concentrate on a bone-crunching, bad-action-movie narrative.

Find the book in a bookstore, pick it up, read a few awful paragraphs for yourself, place the book back on the shelf, and then ask yourself why this is to be found in the "Asian Philosophy/Religion" section of the store. Then go pick up something by Alan Watts, Shunryu Suzuki, Thich Nhat Hanh, or Seung Sahn. And if you absolutely must read a westerner on martial arts, try Peter Hyams's modest little tome, "Zen in the Martial Arts."

Of course, if you really want to find that obvious-but-elusive Zen, go enroll in a dojo, kwoon, or dojang. A decent one, mind you.

I found this to be a disheartening book. Although the author's descriptions of the intensity he brings to his training (and fighting) are amazing, most of the book represents, to me, the dark side of the martial arts. Sabat's highest view of spirituality seems to be the degree to which he can endure physical privations, that he never loses a sparring match or fight and that he shows no mercy. Although the samurai, his apparent models, are to be respected for their training and fighting intensity and prowess, they serve as poor models for a citizen of the 20th century. Their ethics never rise higher than "honor," expressed in doing only what is good for me or my "tribe" (family/clan/nation). Spirituality that doesn't ascend past "us vs. them" will only bring us more war and conflict.

I bought this book awhile ago because I thought it would be a good read, I found out my first insights aren't always right. I like the intensity in his training, but his ego almost took away from the whole book. Sabat makes himself out to be invincable and thats not what the arts are about.

As a novice student of Hapkido, I was interested in reading this book because of the reference to Zen in the title. I was soon to learn that the book had little or nothing to do with Zen. It seems to me that the author wanted to let everyone know how tough he is and get paid to do it.

Sabat's writing style is so poor as to be almost unreadable. The editing was so poor that I am convinced that my nine year old daughter could do a better job.

I bought this book awhile ago because I thought it would be a good read, I found out my first insights aren't always right. I like the intensity in his training, but his ego almost took away from the whole book. Sabat makes himself out to be invincable and thats not what the arts are about.

Want to read a book about a dufus who likes to bully people with his meager martial art skills and lack of any buddhist enlightenment? Read this. It won't teach you self-defense or offense but it is a guide to getting yourself killed or killing someone by accident because you lack any foundation. Also the title is very unoriginal and Sabat seems half-illiterate.

Stupid book supposedly about the silly subject of street fighting. But there are almost no street fights in it! Poorly written. If the author had trained in a Mixed Martial Arts gym and taken his beatings regularly via sparing, he probably would have been alot more humble than what he comes across in this book. Why the publisher went with this book is beyond me. Do not buy it. However, if you want an unwitting expose of alot of the things wrong with traditional martial arts, this would be a good.

Captainhightops@hotmail.com from MICHIGAN,USA , MAY 13, 1999 ALL KARATEKA CAN LEARN A GREAT DEAL FROM SENSEI SABAT AND KOEI-KAN KARATE-DO OSU!...THIS BOOK WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO TRAIN HARDER...TRUE-LIFE INSPIRING STORIES... FORGET HAPKIDO BOY...LIKE I SAID EARLIER IF YOU REALLY WANT TO TRAIN.... DONT JUST BUY THE BOOK....JOIN THE SYSTEM!!!....(I TRAIN IN KOEI-KAN KARATE-DO UNDER SENSEI JEFFREY MASON,5TH DAN UTICA MI. DOJO)....SAYONARA!