United States Jendo Association

Concepts and Principles

The mere desire to learn the techniques of attack and defense are not the only factors to be considered in mastering the art of self-defense.  Anyone who wants to do extremely well in martial arts must understand first its basic concepts and principles for in it, like Jendo, lay the secrets of its foundation. 

These concepts and principles of martial arts, brilliant in themselves are used with a single belief in mind; building the body into a proficient, well coordinated unit.  A unit that moves in such a way that the mind and body are working together as one.  Once this harmonious interaction of the mind and body is attained, it will help its practitioner not just in mastering martial arts but also in understanding the real meaning of life. 

Tres Enerhiyas

Although partly based on the oriental system of discipline, Jendo has its own philosophy which the founder, Grandmaster Abaya called - "Tres-Enerhiyas" or the “Three Energies” (Ang Tatlong Lakas).  In Jendo, it symbolizes reality; it represents the fundamental law of actuality.  It teaches an individual to focus on the real circumstances of life. An individual who has deep understanding of these enable him to accept life, things and happenings as they occur.Paragraph.

In its symbol, these energies are represented by three dots arranged in a triangular formation. These energies, namely the Normal, the Unexpected and the Exceptional Forces, are three complimentary and inter-reliant energies that move continuously and exist around us.

Traditions identify these as two forces instead of three. Writings from practitioners of various styles of martial arts, as well as religious sectors, explain that these forces are two unstoppable interactions of movements, the Positive and the Negative forces or the Hard and the Soft forces.  In Jendo's concept of Tres-Enerhiyas, we do not view things like sound and echo or light and shadow alone. Viewing them like this would not achieve ultimate reality. 

In the Tres-Enerhiyas, we look at things or circumstances around us as a result of a certain process. Knowledge that will develop in the future is the result of the knowledge gathered from the past, harnessed and nurtured in the present. A light focused on a certain surface cannot produce shadow alone. There should be something in between to produce a shadow.   In the art of self-defense, an effective technique is an end-result from the viewpoint of a third person observing the movements of two persons fighting and exchanging kicks, punches and/or techniques.  

The first force or Normal Force (Likas) can represent normal or standard pattern of existence of things, life, occurrences, such as positiveness, negativeness, femaleness, gentleness, day, night, etc. The second force orUnexpected Force (Di-inaasahan) can represent sudden changes on the outcome of a normal process or standard pattern of life existence, things, feelings and occurrences, like positiveness into negativeness, rainy to sunny, male feelings to female feelings and vice versa, etc.  And the third force or the Exceptional Force (Di-pangkaraniwan) can represent unusual, extraordinary or supernatural happenings, existence of things, feelings, etc., like that of the simultaneous existence of positive force and negative force in one entity. One good example is the presence of male or female feelings within the male or the female body.

In Jendo, Tres-Enerhiyas has always been the guide of every practitioner for self-development and in dealings with almost anything in his daily life. Tres-Enerhiyas is like a room or a place, where we gather, nurture and store knowledge.  It can symbolize the three dimensions of life, the past, present and the future, known to few martial arts practitioners as the Triangle of Knowledge (Tatlong Angulo ng Kaalaman).
  
To better explain, the past has always been the point of reference of man.  It is where we gather knowledge and ideas about things, life and the universe. We cultivate it in the present and then we preserve it for better use in the future.Paragraph. 

Hagap ng Kalasag The Outer and the Inner Shield Theory  

The art of self-defense differs on the perspective and theories of the originator of a certain style or system. Jendo believes, theoretically, that man is protected by two shields (kalasag), the outer and the inner shields.

Kalasag is Jendo’s basis for movement in both attack and defense.  The outer shield is represented by the lead hand and the inner shield is represented by the rear hand which is called, the “on guard palm”.  
These two shields represent boundaries of movements of the two blocking arms.  They are divided into six areas, which are also divided into two sections, the bandang loob (inside) and the bukana (outside).   The boundaries of these two kalasag are the forehead on the bandang-gitna (upper area), two to three inches above the knee on the bandang-ibaba (lower area) and the two sides of the shoulders. 

Any attack directed inside and tends to pass through these two shields can be easily deflected or intercepted because both arms are trained to protect certain areas. When the lead hand goes up, the rear hand covers the other side. When the hand protects a certain area, the other always cover the opposite part leaving no unguarded spot.