Author: Michael Glenn

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Memorial Cathedral for World Peace, Hiroshima. photo by scarletgreen

What is the point of Budo? Training in a martial art is a strange endeavor. You learn how to bruise, break, maim, and kill all in the name of peace and love for humanity. At least that's what most teachers would tell you. None ever admit to having a love for violence.

But most martial arts have their roots in violence that was either forced on them by lovers of war, or developed by those who loved war. True peace lovers would never train to do what we do, right? I don't know. I don't think it's that black and white.

武道 Budo means martial way. The character of Bu 武 is composed of three different kanji radicals two 二, shoot or spear 弋, and stop 止. So the essence of Bu is the way of stopping two people from shooting at each other or from fighting! Budo prevents or stops fighting among people. Martial arts are to promote harmony and act to stabilize society.

During the 1860's in Japan, a time marked by bloody infighting among various samurai factions, this meaning seemed lost.

For training to cut human flesh, men were forced to perform executions or to act as seconds for those condemned to commit seppuku. I guess this is how they learned to decapitate. It is said that if the trainee even grimaced or turned a little pale at the sight of the gore, he would fail the test.

They would then skewer the bloodied heads onto bamboo stakes and leave them near bridges with a note attesting to 天誅 Tenchuu or heaven's revenge.

The author Kan Shimozawa wrote about how they bragged of their bloody feats:

"Every day the men would go out and cross swords with the enemy. One corpsman claimed the blood of the man he had killed today splattered on the ridge of the adjacent house. Another said that the blood [of his victim] hadn't splattered beyond the white paneled wall. Still another boasted that the blood of the man he had cut down had reached the roof of the house."

One of the men's mistresses described their bloodlust:

"People would talk about whom they had killed today, and whom they were going to kill tomorrow. It was all so frightful."

One group of hit men even adopted the nickname 人斬 hito kiri which is like calling yourself "the beheaders".

Not all were so enamored of blood. Katsu Kaishū, founder of the Japanese navy said,

"I despise killing and have never killed a man. Take my sword for example. I used to keep it tied so tightly to the tsuba, that I couldn't draw the blade even if I had wanted to. I've always been resolved not to cut a person even if that person should cut me. I look at such a person as no more than a flea. If one lands on your shoulder, all it can do is bite a little. This causes nothing more than an itch, and has nothing to do with life."

I think that whether you have an affinity for violence and martial arts bring you some measure of peace, or you are a peace lover who wants to understand the other side, training taps into some very primal aspects of our dual natures. To be a whole complete human requires knowing the dark and light and gray.

So go ahead and learn how to bruise, break, maim, and kill… all the while embracing the understanding that our training leads us to a place of never needing to use these violent skills. If you have a good teacher they will show you the path from one to the other. Do not neglect the depths of real combat and violence with the power contained therein, nor the heights of love and peace and the great powers that arise from this stillness.… Read More

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

正拳 photo by  *嘟嘟嘟*

I love it when I get to spar with a martial artist who has great conditioning. Not only is it a great test for me and what I think I know about martial arts, but I have a secret weapon in our Bujinkan taijutsu that allows me to defeat them even if they have superior conditioning. This weapon is the conditioning itself. I can use it to trap them.

In martial arts, sports, or combat training people strive to develop fast reflexes. Reflexes don't require conscious thought. In fact the action of a true reflex follows the reflex arc to create a near instantaneous response to stimuli.

This is an advantage in dangerous situations where there isn't time to think about your choices. You just pull your hand out of the fire. In our training we are not usually studying true hard-wired reflexes. Instead we are conditioning our muscles and bodies to develop responses that have proved effective in our training and in combat.

Some people call this muscle memory. Or another term is procedural memory. This is where you commit a specific action to memory by training it over and over. This repetition strengthens neural pathways allowing the brain to access these patterns more efficiently. A medical definition for this might be more like the word reflexive as opposed to reflex.

For the most part, this conditioning is useful and good. Unless you are facing a devious and thinking opponent who can turn it against you. Soke calls this 条件反射 joukenhansha which is a conditioned response. He spoke of this while talking about how you should not take ukemi. Which I wrote about here: Why Do You Take Ukemi? So How can this conditioning be turned against you?

Well a reflexive action is a habitual and unthinking behavior; or relating to or consisting of a reflex. It's the habitual and unthinking part that gets you. When I recognize these reflexive actions in your movements, whether they are offensive or defensive, I will seek to trigger them to set a trap.

It's easy to see this in action no matter the style. Test it out on any person (choose someone who will not seek revenge). Stand facing each other, but don't tell them what you are testing. No reach as fast as you can for their ear.

How do they react? People with no training at all act with pure reflex in a startle-flinch response. People who train in a specific style will reveal their training, which is reflexive. In the 1980s the US Army conducted experiments to discover that people can be startled into their favored, trained fighting stances, no matter what those stances were.

Then set a trap so that when they react with their reflexive conditioning again, you will defeat them. All you have to do is trigger that reaction by reaching for their ear. Or you can make some other feint, kyojitsu, or threatening motion.

Hatsumi Sensei says this is like Pavlov's dogs. And he says we all know how easily dogs are controlled by people. So we should not train ourselves to be conditioned like dogs. Don't design reflexive traps into your training program.… Read More

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

恐怖!! photo By *嘟嘟嘟*

How do we overcome fear in combat? Fear can be crippling. It can make us avoid taking actions that need to be taken. It becomes an invisible obstacle to reaching a goal. It can turn our taijutsu into hesitation and clumsiness. It even causes involuntary tension in our muscles so that they will not respond the way they were trained.

I had a teacher in college who defined F.E.A.R. as False Evidence Appearing Real. The idea here is that fear is a construct of our own minds. And since our minds create it, our minds can also release it.

What is this false evidence? In combat, the false evidence is death. You don't want to die so you fear being killed. But while you are fearing, you are not dead. So the evidence is a death that has not occurred and might never occur.

Hatsumi Sensei describes it this way: "If it seems that the blade is not yet positioned at your heart, then both life or death are stopping your heart… You must immediately cast out this mind. Essentially have nothing."

There is a famous section from the science fiction novel, Dune:

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

A commonality can be observed here. The power of nothingness. This is what we speak of as Mu. Or a power we can actually harness to our favor with the 空間 kukan. I personally can attest to this power. When you learn to connect to this emptiness there is strength and power beyond any training or physical prowess. But you must discard what you consider to be "empty space."

What do you think Kukan is made of? This very question already takes us away from an answer. Groping about in the darkness of space, we are caught in a fight with our own subjectivity.

Hatsumi Sensei says if you wish to understand the 空間 kukan, then you must ask one of the ten great disciples of the Buddha, Subhūti, who understands the importance of Ku.

Subhūti shows us the potency of emptiness in this story:

"One day Subhūti, in a mood of sublime emptiness was sitting under a tree. Flowers began to fall about him.

'We are praising you for your discourse on emptiness,' the gods whispered to him.

‘But I have not spoken of emptiness,' said Subhūti.

'You have not spoken of emptiness, we have not heard emptiness,' responded the gods. This is the true emptiness.' And blossoms showered upon Subhūti as rain."

Let your fear fall softly as flowers showering down in the Kukan.

… Read More

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Racing Gravity, photo by cmaccubbin

There is a secret to 潜 moguri gata. It is of the deepest importance, yet is not taught. It is expected that the students find it for themselves, yet, how many do?

To confront death and enter. Diving down into the chaos of a moment in combat despite the danger of an upraised sword or hail of gunfire… Soke calls this 沈勇不動 chinyuu fudou, a composed and unwavering courage in diving. He compares it to a bird diving into water (more on waterbirds in moment...).

To nurture this courage we must understand the reality of what we are diving into. If we can grasp this meaning, we will understand it is more than blind faith or courage, but rather a strategy for survival and victory.

When we dive down we are diving into infinity of life and death contained in ourselves, in our opponent, and in that eternal instant. The instant that contains a swinging blade, but also is empty. The instant erupting with gunfire, but also forever silent. We are part of that same space.

One of my favorite poems captures this spirit in a waterfowl:

The Little Duck
By Donald C. Babcock
Now we are ready to look at something pretty special.
It is a duck riding the ocean a hundred feet beyond the surf.
No, it isn’t a gull.
A gull always has a raucous touch about him.
This is some sort of duck, and he cuddles in the swells.
He isn’t cold, and he is thinking things over.
There is a big heaving in the Atlantic,
And he is part of it.
He looks a bit like a mandarin, or the Lord Buddha meditating under the Bo tree.
But he has hardly enough above the eyes to be a philosopher.
He has poise, however, which is what philosophers must have.
He can rest while the Atlantic heaves, because he rests in the Atlantic.
Probably he doesn’t know how large the ocean is.
And neither do you.
But he realizes it.
And what does he do, I ask you.  He sits down in it.
He reposes in the immediate as if it were infinity—which it is.
That is religion, and the duck has it.
He has made himself a part of the boundless, by easing himself into it just where it
touches him.

There is a very big secret in that poem. When you enter with this knowledge, or even, this truth… You make a space for yourself in infinity in which you can be safe. The kukan expands to protect you.

I know this sounds very philosophical… and it is. But it is also what lies behind something as basic as 潜 moguri gata.

… Read More

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Yoyogi kōen Sword Fighting, Tokyo. photo by Colin McMillen

We had been training with tachi all day. Then I shifted the focus of the class to katana. One of the newer students had not really done much Bujinkan sword prior to that day. So he continued to draw the katana with the same method as I had shown him earlier with tachi.

When I noticed him doing this I gave him another quick sword drawing lesson. I didn't want to slow the whole class down to teach him all of the necessary basics. But as I looked over at him, he would have his sword upside down in his belt.

It was amusing because he would try to emulate the kata I had shown the class, and every time he cut with his sword he was hitting with the back of the blade. He would then glare at his sword as if it was broken.

I told him he was unlucky to have a "backwards" sword.

But he isn't the first student to have his sword wrong way around. Many of us have done this at some point in our training careers. So if you get stuck with one of these "backwards" swords in a real battle, what do you do?

You can make use of the strategy of 峰打ち mineuchi. This is a method of striking with the back of the blade (normally on purpose). So why do this? What are some strategic reasons to strike with the back of your blade?

• Well, in the heat of the battle, or, if you are a beginner, it could happen by accident. Then just getting your weapon into play is a start and you correct as you go.
•  When the strategy of mineuchi is done on purpose, it opens up some wonderful options. For one, it can be a speed thing. It may give a slight advantage to strike whatever is nearest without having to turn your blade or adjust your kamae.
•  Another option is surprise. Using the back of the blade allows you to attack from angles and directions that are unexpected. Then through principles of 引力 inryoku or 押切 oshikiri, you can transition it into a cut.
•  A third really great reason to use mineuchi, is to open up the space. Striking with the backside of the blade up under kote before do giri is common. Or flipping down onto kote, and after slamming into his hands bouncing off this strike to cut something vital. Also, clearing the enemy's weapon while keeping the edge directed at him.
•  The curve of the sword itself allows for the tip to wrap around obstacles and build up tremendous speed when hitting with the back of the blade.  The uke may block your strike and still be surprised when the tip makes contact with his temple. Also, this curve creates wonderful effects when redirecting an enemy's strike.
•  But you may also do this so as not to seriously injure or kill. Hatsumi Sensei shows this all time. There are many important methods of using a sword without cutting or killing.

In 時代劇 (old Japanese plays),  the actors would prepare the sword in advance so the audience could see it was backwards to show they did not have murderous intent.

This principle is even more important with modern firearms. There is a saying in English, if you are holding a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Meaning you will choose the "hammer" solution just because you have that tool. So with a gun, every threat looks like a target to be shot. Even though it may the wrong choice for that particular threat.

With your sword, give yourself options besides cutting by learning more about your weapon.

… Read More