Year: 2015

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

I get the distinct feeling I'm being watched. I wonder if he would approve?

I sat across the dojo from Hatsumi Sensei. He had just thrown his opponent to the ground. Then he kicked him in the skull. I felt the thud in my legs where I sat. The impact vibrated across the entire floorspace.

Then Soke said something that made everyone laugh, but he was quite serious…

"This is a bad feeling."

He used the words 悪い感覚 warui kankaku. He went on to add that you have to take what's bad, and make it good. This idea hits on many levels for our current Bujinkan study.

Of course when someone attacks you it creates a bad feeling. The bad feeling can also arise when you find yourself in a bad situation. It can even help you avoid trouble before it starts. Take the "bad feeling" and turn it to something good by winning the fight, or by escaping before the fight.

But Soke also meant 悪い感覚 warui kankaku on another level. He meant that we should take our bad technique and make it good. Not just to get better as a martial artist, but to use this as an actual strategy in combat. Use your own bad technique to win!

How do you do that? The answer has a big clue for this year's theme. Soke said,

"Don't think of trying to make it work. You don't have to make this work. Don't be tied up in whether it works or does not. No one ever teaches you that it's ok if it doesn't work."

and,

"It's ok if it doesn't work, because you can change. You can keep going."

Hatsumi Sensei even gave us an example of how to do this. First, you may try to do a technique. Maybe you use a technique that you are skilled with. When the opponent senses this, when he thinks you are about to do a technique, you just take that away from him.

Then you do a bad technique. Maybe one that you've never studied. Or a random henka that doesn't even exist in the densho. This kind of "bad feeling" is a way to steal the fighting power away from your opponent.

This leads to 自然力 shizenryoku, or to a power greater than yourself. Soke looked up from his defeated opponent on the mat. Many of us in the dojo were stunned. He said,

"There's no decided outcome, but because of that, there is. You're not deciding the outcome. You let that be decided naturally. This is this year's theme."

This happened during my first class when I got off the plane and went straight to the dojo. After 20 hours of travel, I could have just passed out in my hotel room because I was "too tired" to go to training. But I would have missed this experience. I'm glad that I took that bad feeling and made it into something good instead.… Read More

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Rain brings Summer Flowers to the Bujinkan Hombu. photo by Michael Glenn

During the tea break today, Nagato Sensei said some profound things. He began by speaking about how Soke has said that we should not teach bad people. Then he gave some examples.

Nagato named names. He listed some of the bad people that have passed through the Bujinkan. He aired some dirty laundry with details I won't write about here. Then he also shared how they are dealt with by Soke and the Japanese instructors.

Nagato commented on the interesting fact that Soke does not eliminate these people from the Bujinkan. He said we need these bad people around to learn from them. They are the devils we know. Keep your enemies closer, as they say.

He said in the Bujinkan, we need to be capable of doing worse than the devil himself. He used the mafia or the yakuza as an example of evil. They may be bad, but we are worse. He said they should be afraid of us.

But then Nagato explained that the most important of all is to protect the goodness in yourself. Don't allow your ability to destroy evil, or to be more terrifying than the devil, color your own heart black. How do you stay clear of the bad around you?

Nagato used the word 初心 Shoshin. This is beginner's mind, or the spirit of a newborn. It can also be your original motivation for training. He said people forget why they began training. Then they lose their way.

They get caught in ideas of rank, power, politics, or building territories. And the purity of budo is lost to them. This purity that can both protect and destroy is a gift. Throw it away at your own peril.… Read More

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Warm People, 日本民家園 Nihon Minka-en, photo by Michael Glenn

My friend Sleiman Azizi has a new book out called Dancing Embers. I’m not sure if Sleiman wants anyone to know, but besides being a martial artist, he is also a poet. Being a poet myself, that was one of the things that drew me to him.

I met Sleiman many years ago during one of my trips to Japan for Bujinkan training. He was not one of the loud, in your face foreigners that one often enjoys in the raucous atmosphere of the Bujinkan dojo. In fact, I may never have noticed him at all had my teacher not introduced us.

I felt a quick bond because of the subversive twinkle in his eye. I often gravitated towards his corner of the dojo during my many visits. Over the years we continued to trade training ideas along with plenty of dry humor.

One day, without knowing why, I turned to him for advice about a pending complication with my upcoming godan test. My mind had been in turmoil for days because of a premonition I had about it. Sleiman gave me a quick suggestion that immediately felt right. I thought, “ok, that’s what I will do.” My premonition turned out to be correct, and it was Sleiman’s advice that carried me through.

For this I owe him my kansha (gratitude) for being a kansha (person of sense).

But, like so many of the people I meet in training, I never felt I really knew him. This connects with one of the central ideas of his book, that you cannot really know budo because it is not there to be known. Especially with Hatsumi Sensei’s expression of Budo. It is like like the sun trying to find a dark place to hide.

So how did I begin to know the author of this new book, Dancing Embers? One day I discovered his poetry. Poetry can reflect the inner world of the author. Poetry and budo have a long history together. This poetry tries to express the inexpressible nature of life and death. The writer may fail, but in the effort we can find beauty.

And it may bring us the closest to knowing the essence of budo.

The closest I can get to knowing Sleiman is by following his thoughts. Or, as he suggests in the book, his 随筆 zuihitsu are the miscellaneous writings he shares so that we may follow the brush of his thoughts. This is like my own experience riding along with him on the train after a great class at the Hombu dojo.

Remember that subversive wit I mentioned? Well, while applying poetry to thoughts of budo, Sleiman often confronts himself and the reader with the ridiculousness of it all. It is like the sufi story where Mulla Nasreddin was throwing handfuls of crumbs around his house. "What are you doing?" someone asked him. "Keeping the tigers away." "But there are no tigers in these parts." "That's right. Effective, isn't it?

With the teaching methods of a trickster, Sleiman’s thoughts and writings often pass judgement. But it is the judgement of fire that burns both the judge and the accused. No one escapes. Not even the author.

This is a common trickster approach. Some of the deepest lessons in Budo are found in this space. Sleiman writes,

“Just as a good chef can taste the mindset of the person who made the food being eaten, so too a good reader can read the mindset of the person who wrote the words being read.”

If you wish to approach your budo from an oblique angle that will provide insights that cannot be found elsewhere, get a copy of Sleiman’s book, Dancing Embers (Amazon link). You will be included in the private conversations and thoughts of someone who has lived many years in Japan and studied Hatsumi Sensei’s budo with a heart full of reflection.… Read More