Year: 2016

From Shiro Kuma's Blog by kumafr

As often, before I return for training in Japan, I like to read the notes taken during previous trips. I don’t understand everything that I wrote, but I’m not the only one.

So, I was reading notes taken in July 2014 during my 55th trip.

In one class Sensei spoke about Dōshin Ikkan Suru or “keeping/ make everything with a child mind”. (1)

Dōshin Ikkan Suru is another way to express the Sanshin of a 3-year old kid (2). If there is one secret in the Bujinkan, well, this is that. When you move with a child mind, you do not think; you only react to the outside. In fact, you do not know what you will be doing next. When you reach this state, you are “zero”.

Zero, as Sensei explained last August, zero is not nothing, it is full. To be entirely yourself you have to be empty and have no intentions. Zero is the secret. It is not hidden. It is right in front of you, but you don’t see it because you “want” to do a technique; because you “want” to win. There is no such thing as winning or losing repeats Hatsumi sensei quite often. Many practitioners hear it, but they don’t get it. (I’m not saying it is easy though)

This Dōshin Ikkan Suru is the key to the Mutō Dori of this year. “Sanshin”, “zero”, “no intention”, is the result of your evolution as a martial artist, and as a human being. Values like honesty, resilience, commitment, honour, morality are the aspects of your Budō personality. Maybe this is why Sensei used this secret formula of “Dōshin Ikkan Suru”. Because when you change the Dōshin 童心 for Dōshin 道心, the sentence then become “keeping/ make everything with a moral sense”. (3)

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1. Dōshin 童心, child’s mind; childlike innocence; naivete / Ikkan 一貫, consistency; coherence / Suru 為る, to do, to make,
2. 三心 mind, heart, spirit; by extension, the mind of a 3-year old
3. Dōshin 道心, moral sense

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