Clearing Away Clouds: Nine Lessons for Life from the Martial Arts

by Stephen Fabian and Stephen Fabian

In this personal account, Stephen Fabian presents lessons for mastering life and self. While each lesson is gleaned from a distinct phase Fabian's life experience or martial arts career, taken... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0834804689
• ISBN13: 9780834804685
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Weatherhill
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Essential to the Martial Artists Library

I have been studying various forms of martial arts for a long time before I found hontai yoshin ryu. Fabian Sensei is an amazing example of how one should walk the path of the true warrior. I read his book after taking a class with him and it's really helped open my eyes to what a traditional martial artist is, and how he sees the world. It's autobiographical, but he uses his own experiences to explain his steps along the path. The main thing that he stresses throughout the book is that the Nine lessons are FROM Martial Arts, not just FOR martial arts. He expresses the lessons one must learn to master things, and they can range from a study of martial arts, to tea pouring, to flower arranging. The lessons are life lessons.An amazing book!

Guidelines for the Way

The book "Clearing Away Clouds: Nine Lessons forLife From the Martial Arts," by Stephen Fabian, iswritten as an autobiography of Fabien sensei'straining and development as a martial artist. TheFabian sensei takes the reader from his initialexposure and introduction to the martial arts,through his development to a point when the studentthen becomes the teacher. Along the way you Fabiansensei shares the trails and challenges of a youngcollege student, on learning to living on your own,on the hectic, sometimes daunting demands placed ona graduate student, to learning to function in aforeign country.Though the book is not necessarily meant to beinstructional, at least not in a traditional sense,Fabian sensei provides a set of nine "lessons" orguidelines to help the aspiring martial artistthrough the travels along the Way.These lessons are presented in a defined order, eachbuilding on the previous lesson. The lessons arepresented in an abstract way, supported bydevelopmental stories from the author's life, whichforce the reader to think about and internalize theinformation.This is not a "become a martial artist in nine easysteps" type of book; this book provides real lifeexperiences of someone that have used the martialarts to help shape their life, and become a betterperson for it.It several subtle ways, the author helps todifferentiate between the fast-food type of martialart school whose primary objective is thedevelopment of "martial athletes" and the moretraditional dojo's (dojang in Korean) that cultivatetrue "martial artists".As a practitioner of Japanese martial arts, I foundthe chapters of the book related to the challengesof living in Japan particularly interesting. The book is very well written, and has a goodstructure and flow to it. I highly recommend thisbook to anyone that is interested in the martialarts, particularly those that truly embrace theirtraining as a path along the Way.

A westerner's walk with eastern ways.

Clearing Away Clouds tells the story of a western martial artist who has opened himself to the wisdom of the east to a degree that is truly uncommon. We meet a man walking his Way with integrity and humility, and in the process we receive sensitive guidance for our own journeys. A very fine book which will be of great assistance to many.

Mesmerizing account of everyday life and martial arts.

Fabian takes 9 tenents from various martial arts and illustrates how they shaped his own life, whether in the United States, Brazil, or Japan when he was both with and without a master under whom to study. He demystifies the mind/body connection within Eastern philosophies without losing the magic that focused attention to any activity can bring. I read it from cover to cover, stopping only to fix dinner. A must read!