From blogurl:tazziedevil.wordpress.com - Google Blog Search by Duncan Stewart
This is some recent Bo-Shuriken practice I did at the Hombu one evening. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpQ-Z2RdOb4. This entry was posted on October 25, 2010 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to ...… Read MoreMonth: October 2010
Really Keeping it Real � Henka
From blogurl:henka.wordpress.com inpostauthor:ariesbudo - Google Blog Search by ariesbudo
Depending on what you personally desire to achieve in your Budo study you must focus your deliberate practice accordingly to reach a level of effectiveness. Soke said recently that concentration or focus in Budo is different than that ...… Read MoreNeko no Myojutsu – The Cat’s Eerie Skill
From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Bujinkan Santa Monica
People fear their own instincts. They seek answers outside of themselves when there is a powerful spirit inside that has many abilities that can be tapped. Animals in nature don't look outside themselves. And yet many are terrifying fighters. How do they accomplish this?They seem to do this through instinct and play.
We all have instinct. It is there, waiting for us to make use of it. You only need to listen. And to develop the ability and skill to use it, play is a powerful ally. Hatsumi Sensei uses that word to describe our training. So is it part of your regimen?From Neko no Myojutsu by Issai Chozan (1727):
... the cat replied, “Because of the self there is the foe; when there is no self there is no foe."When I was a boy, me and my buddies had many mock battles. Sometimes the whole neighborhood seemed mired in war. We took it seriously. But we knew it wasn't. There was a reality to our play that put us and our personalities on the line.
I see this in the dojo. Personalities are on the line. The training we do is serious, yet also play. How best to take advantage of that dichotomy?
More from Issai,
"Teaching is not difficult, listening is not difficult either, but what is truly difficult is to become conscious of what you have in yourself and be able to use it as your own. This self-realization is known as 'seeing into one's own being,' which is satori. Satori is an awakening from a dream. Awakening and self-realization and seeing into one's own being – these are synonymous.”
You must become transparent to Bushido, so that your training becomes a transparency through which light shines. This is the Budo in you, coming out through your training. Your instincts and natural ability will rise above the ego. Your eyes may open to see real Budo.
Soke says,
If you persevere in Ninjutsu as I have done, you will come to discern the ocean of difference that lies between things seen with true eyes, observed using the intuitive "feeling" you develop in this art, and those seen through the glass eyes of people who have not trained at all.
When he says "people who have not trained at all," I think that can apply to many people who visit the dojo and put on a gi. They go through the motions of training, but they are really not training at all.
Ura ni wa Ura ga aru
From blogurl:tazziedevil.wordpress.com - Google Blog Search by Duncan Stewart
I believe Soke mentioned something at training recently that resembled an old Japanese proverb. Ura ni wa Ura ga aru. “The reverse side has it`s reverse side.” Sometime ago, I remember asking him to write a proverb for me while he was ...… Read MoreControl
From Shiro Kuma's Weblog by kumafr
control is attitude
Last Sunday at the Hombu, Hatsumi sensei said that “if you cannot control yourself, you cannot control others”.
This is the secret of every learning process as we must understand our own behavior before trying to understand the one of others. The quickest path to achieve that is to master our basics.
When you learn the basics, you force your self (body & mind) into unusual forms and reactions. This is the first step. Here the opponent is not somebody else, it is only yourself. This is the kihon level. Many martial artists stopped their understanding of fighting at this level.
The second step is to learn how your movements can interact with formal ways of attacks. Here uke appears and follow a given set of movements and you apply the kihon that you learned, and you adjust them to a different reality. This is the kata or waza level and this is the main objective when you train in a dôjô with fellow practitioner. There is no surprise here as everything is predetermined, and there is no violence either. Few martial artists get to this level.
The third level is the one of shizen, here the attack is unknown and your personal ability (sainô, 才能) flows naturally and will save your life or get you killed if you did not achieve the personal control at the first two levels. This is the level of training that is given by sensei to the bujinkan practitioners.
To master and control these three levels of: kihon, waza, and shizen take a long time and only a very small number of practitioners will succeed. This is why it is said that budô is a life-time commitment. Even well polished, a mirror can always be polished a little more. Perfection is an attitude in life, not a manifested reality.
- 基本 kihon: you learn to control yourself
- 伎 waza: you learn to apply this control of yourself to known attacks
- 自然 shizen: you are in control of yourself and any attack is controlled naturally through your ability to flow into your environment. There is no surprise.
This is a 三心 sanshin.
Therefore the dôjô 道場 is not only the place where you learn the way, it becomes the place where you learn to ride with others 同乗 (dôjô). Learn to control yourself through this sanshin and you will be able to control the others.
Banpen fûgyô, 10000 attacks, no surprise.
… Read More