I agree that this is a great post. I liked the way told to meditate and the mirror thing to be prepared for sudden attack but you know someting? If you want to defend yourself than you should train yourself to hit a target...This target must be an effective target. And if you ever plan to flee but you're not sure if you can outrun your enemy than you might want to do the following:

>1st>>put them in a wrong sense about something, like Yratorm says.
>2nd>> than suddenly start running to somewhere..
>3rd>> the running has sort of warmed you up so than suddenly turn back and kick high in the head or punch in the stomach. The force of your hand and your
attacker's momentum will mount together to create a huge force that will hurt your attacker highly.
>4th>> start running again and if needed repeat the above procedured again.

This tedchinique ( ) once helped me out in a real fight. I had to once use it because five guys were trying to fight me and i had no choice than to flee, but one of them was fast.

Thank you for this tutorial Lightmage, as I understand the importance and practicality of fighting in many situations.

I also enjoyed the connections to specific disciplines and philosophies that LM and others mentioned. I am attempting to absorb a lot of practicle philosophy from varied sources and I have to say that I have little grounding so far in eastern philosophies. I also really appreciate this tutorial because of the fact that in my furthering of learning and philosophy I have neglected the important art of self defence.

I realize that ingenuity in fighting is all that has kept me from harm in encounters so far and to increase my chances of remaining intact to do something productive in the long run I should study these things.

With my life at present I have not the opportunity to go to local dojos or classes, but with items such as this tutorial and basic study of these types of advice I should be able to be better defended and ready.