Dear Students and Friends,

The last few months has seen a great deal of change for us. Our new Association is up and running, and we are looking forward to a close working relationship with all of you. We are in the process of formalizing promotion certificates, member charters, etc. All of this should be complete by around Thanksgiving.

The success of our group is totally up to you, the members, though. I know that you will all make me very proud. Some of our members, however, have opted to drop out and go their separate ways, and we wish them all the best of luck. This just strengthens those who have chosen to participate with us because we are now bound together closely to a common purpose of training and thought, and demonstrates one of the key aspects of true character: loyalty and trust in my judgement to lead our Association as an instrument all can use to accomplish their own goals in our Art. It is unfortunate that others were unable to have this same trust and purpose to their past training, but that is just human nature.

The last thing I want to happen is to have people affiliated with us who really do not believe in the same process of training that we do; I do not envision my life's work to be that of a Martial Arts Cheerleader for those who constantly need their hand held to be reassured that all will be well. What I teach and share with you works. It works in the street and it works in our spirits. We are now a like thinking family, all striving toward the same goals under the same basic process of training. It will be a pleasure working with and training with all of you in the years to come.

Just remember that is not our intent to be a large Association. It is our intent to be small and tight knit, and to flourish under my guidance toward all of the rewarding aspects a serious study of the Art can lead to. By remaining small, we can avoid all of the problems that we see happening in larger groups where politics many times seem to take precedence over the training and the Art.

In fact, C&S Self Defense Association really has no true identity: it is only a name that identifies our group of students training in a similar manner for similar goals under my guidance. The true allegiance is due your individual instructor: it is he or she who will be directly responsible for guiding you along the path to success in the Martial Arts, and in attaining peace and harmony with all of Nature.

I have placed great responsibility on all of you to perform to levels even greater than I would demand of you (and I can be very demanding). I expect you to train to a level of your own demands, not mine or your instructors. The true test of your character (and of your ultimate ability to succeed in the Martial Arts) is demonstrated by your willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed for yourself, as opposed to doing it because someone else expects you to do it.

You must take responsibility for your own training as opposed to waiting for me or your instructor to tell you what to do. If you want to spend your life sitting on your hands, that's fine- but don't kid yourself that you will fool anyone but your dog that you are living your life to its fullest capacity. We share information with you, and give you a goal to strive for. It is up to you to work at that plan to achieve that goal for yourself. I know this is tough, but if it wasn't tough it wouldn't be worth our time striving for it. I know it because I went through it, and I am still going through it. I am still going through it because training and learning are an ongoing process that is fulfilling in direct relationship to the effort that is put in.

The Art will have as much meaning for you as you are willing to work at it. Abraham Lincoln said that, "People are about as happy as they have a mind to be." Master Brock taught us in his Basic Self Realization Training that, "The only way that we can change who we are into who we would like to become is to alter the way that we think because we are a product of the way that we think." And if we do a little research into life philosophy, we find that this process is consistently spoken of. Yes, it is hard to work for yourself, but the rewards are worth it.

It is far better to strive for success and fail than it is to strive for failure and succeed. Sitting on your hands doing what most folks do with their time is striving for failure. All you have to do is to look around you to know that is true! As the leader of our Association, I call on you to work. To work at making the most of your life based on the principals of the Art that I share with you on a daily basis. If each of us does just a tiny bit of positively directed work every day, then the influence that we as a group can have on our society will be great. If we cannot be great musicians, or artists, or architects, or whatever to contribute to the betterment of all, then at least let us be a great person based on the fundamental teachings that I share with you from our Martial Art.

Open your eyes to what a "great person is". To be a great person is: to have self respect, to have purpose to ones life, and to share this with our fellow man. This is the charter of C&S Self Defense Association. Believe in it. Trust in it. And above all else: do it.

In our art,
Grandmaster Peter M. Rose