Year: 2014

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Moonlight Enters the Bujinkan Hombu, photo by Michael Glenn

Below is a video preview of my latest notes from Japan about 神韻武導 Shingin Budo.

When I was training in Japan last week, I wrote extensive notes. I also recorded some video. This is part of my own learning process.

If you've been on a training trip to Japan yourself, you know how compressed that experience can be. Maybe you go to 2-3 classes everyday for 2 weeks. That is more classes than some people who live in Japan attend in a whole year! It is a huge amount of information crammed into a short time.

Hatsumi Sensei told us last week that when we are fighting we have to read the signs or hints (気配 kehai) that our opponent or the situation show us. So I record my notes as I discover these signs. If I get a hint of something important from my teachers, I make a record of it for later.

Then I come home and unpack my luggage. But also unpack my mind and body. I use my notes to debrief myself. They are like a compressed computer file that needs to be unzipped.

This process takes a few months and many classes while I uncover the treasures of my own experience in Japan. Then, when I start to feel confident that I understand, I go back to Japan for more mind, body, and heart transmission.

If you are reading this, then I'm not worried about your drive to learn. You have the ability to get more from training than most people by using all the resources available to you.

Here is your invitation: You can read about my Japan training and also get personal notes here: get your notes.  And an even bigger resource I offer is what I bring back from Japan for my own students, you can purchase this intensive training here: http://www.rojodojo.com/

Here is a preview of my latest:
and the preview link: http://youtu.be/JZl_Lcdy_6U
*|YOUTUBE:[$vid=JZl_Lcdy_6U]|*

In this video, I share 2 specific strategies I discovered about how to use this year's theme of 神韻武導 Shin Gin Bu Dou. I learned from Hatsumi Sensei to create your own kukan and resonate with this divine space. This can be something subtle and hidden, or powerful like entering a sacred space.

In conversation, this may seem more metaphysical than combat related. But doing this physically opens you up and frees you from using your own ego, your own muscle or force, or even your own technique. The results are techniques that the opponent cannot counter.… Read More

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Cameraman Enters Torii, Shibamata Hachiman Jinja 柴又八幡神社. photo Michael Glenn

Our Bujinkan theme for 2014 is spiritual culmination. Hatsumi Sensei said last night that it has been 42 years since the passing of Takamatsu Sensei. He said that the students of the Bujinkan have finally matured enough so that he can share these teachings with us.

Maybe you have seen the scroll hanging in the Hombu. Or have heard the theme of 神韻武導 Shin Gin Bu Dou. It is easy to hear these words, but very difficult to understand and include them in your training.

After training with this idea in Hatsumi Sensei's classes, I have a suggestion for how to open up this theme in your training this year.

Soke tells us that the theme this year is about not doing your own techniques, but rather letting the divine techniques work through you. He told us that this happens with a divine resonance in the kukan. The space itself becomes divine.

Harnessing this theme requires the clarity created by 大光明 Daikoumyou. When we start each class, we ask for protection with the chihayafuru uta, and recognize the opportunity for enlightenment that comes with daikoumyou.

Many people bow in and clap without reflecting or opening up to this experience.

But the dojo is a sacred space. It may not seem like much. In fact a dojo can be anywhere with the right spirit. This year Hatsumi Sensei is helping us to find this same divine space in the kukan.

You can find it even in the middle of a fight. Open up the kukan for yourself and create this peaceful space where you can live. The peace you bring will be contagious. Hatsumi Sensei told us it will protect us like 冥加 myouga. Then everyone within this space, even your enemy, can be protected.

Don't enter the dojo and do your own technique. Don't use your own power in a fight. Hatsumi Sensei said,

"if you use your own movement, your lack of skill will appear. Use God's movement. Let divine movement come out through you."

This is kamiwaza. This may seem esoteric or mysterious. But we are all capable of it.  It is the most natural ability that comes with our birth. A butterfly can balance on a flower or the edge of a sword with no training.

When you enter this divine space the change is subtle. Subtle like the opening that occurs in the Godan test.

When you pass into a sacred space like this, walk through a 鳥居 torii or into a church, the change you feel reflects your own spirit. Some feel nothing, others feel a great deal.

Sensei told us during one technique, that it didn't matter whether we used a kodachi or a bo. It becomes space, it becomes 神韻 shingin. He said, "this year I'm teaching this kind of divine space."

So we can walk through a 鳥居 torii or pass our godan test. It's all the same. As Hatsumi Sensei told us right after we bowed in at the beginning of class, this is how we are able to see what real budo is.
 More 神韻武導 Shin Gin Bu Dou Japan Training Notes… Read More

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Today a most extraordinary thing happened in Hatsumi Sensei's class. As you probably know, the Hombu Dojo we currently have in Japan is slated for demolition. Many of us will miss it very much when a new Bujinkan honbu dojo is built.

But my friend and student William Kelly O'neill did us all a service. He spent the past many weeks painstakingly (emphasis on pain) recreating the Bujinkan Hombu dojo in miniature as a gift for Hatsumi Sensei.

Hatsumi Sensei and Bill O'neill with mini Hombu

What he didn't know was that it was a gift to the entire Bujinkan. Tonight he presented it to Soke Hatsumi.

Hatsumi Sensei checks out mini Hombu

Bill has been sending me pictures and explaining his design process over the last few weeks. The amount of detail, research, and thoughtful personal elements in his project have been very inspiring to hear about. At first I thought he was a bit crazy, but when you see the results...

Hombu Miniature

I know Bill put his whole heart into this project in a genuine spirit of giving. And everyone who was there was touched. Hatsumi Sensei decided tp present Bill with a Bujinkan Gold Medal. Well, this is when Bill was overcome with emotion and gratitude.

Hatsumi Sensei told me he was going to put the miniature in the new Hombu dojo.

Bill keeps appologizing to me for missing classes back home while he was in a race to finish his artwork for this trip to Japan. I told him, don't worry, you have your own dojo to train in. But since he gave his dojo to Hatsumi Sensei, he'd better come back to class!

Thank you Bill for the inspiration. This was a wonderful gift for Soke and all of the Bujinkan.… Read More