From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

Hatsumi Sensei gets into Michael Glenn's head. photo by @seanbonner

Last week in class with Hatsumi Sensei, he remarked that this year's theme is really hard. What he meant was not that it was particularly hard for him, but that it seemed hard for all of us to understand it. During all my classes with him this year, he has provided glimpses, feelings, and filled me with images of what he is leading us to in training. I think this type of imagery is the point in itself and a strategy for fighting.

For many years, Soke has been advising us to move beyond common sense and technique. To do things that can't be understood. Because this type of fighting cannot be countered. It is a very Ninja strategy.

So I was watching him get his ukes to jump this way and that around the hombu tatami. They were filled with pain, but also great mental confusion. In most cases they appeared to be fighting themselves. How do you get opponents to fight themselves? To do the work for you so you can just play?

Soke gave us a tip that night that he described as 反応 映像 hannou eizou. You use the image of your opponent's reaction or response. Use the image that this creates in their mind. So they are fighting a mirage. Their own imagination.

No enemy is more frightening than the one hidden in the dark corners of the mind. This is why Ninjas were so scary. Their invisibility and mystery left only people's imagination to fill in the blanks.

Soke told us that to be able to do this in training you must simulate reality so that you'll be able to face it. Free up your imagination this way. He said that it is crucial that you get to a place where you are not trying to fight. You are not trying to do harm. You just keep going.

Have this relaxed state of mind to keep going in the midst of danger. Not denying reality. But staying calm enough to see images or having this kind of imagination that will carry you beyond danger.

The moment that you decide to fight back, that is where you will fail. Hatsumi Sensei said that if your mind is working too hard, it's just like you are whiting out everything. This kind of blindness to reality will make you the one fighting imaginary enemies. And they are really hard to kill.…

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

無 mu near Kitasenju, photo by Michael Glenn

My classes with Hatsumi Sensei for the last week have had an intense energy. Not because he is more intense than usual. His training is of a high level and never fails to surprise. But the intensity comes in the form of my own resistance to what he is sharing.

He has been really emphasizing the 無 mu in muto dori. As some of you may know, muto dori has been a strong theme throughout training this year. After my other visits to Japan this year, I studied this from the feelings he gave us.

But the difficulty for me now is that when he embodies mu, I get nothing. He is not presenting any feeling that I can key in on. This is instructive yet difficult to parse. It cannot be broken down for study.

Soke is removing himself from the equation. He doesn't exist so he cannot be hit. But he seems to be doing this on a personal level too. Sensei made a very intricate and intense painting of a lion. He was asked, how long did it take? He said, "only a couple of minutes. But if I stopped to think about it it would have taken much longer."

There seem to be other things like this at work in the Bujinkan as well. Some key people have passed on. There is no Daikomyosai this year. But the hombu dojo still stands, despite all the other buildings around being dismantled. This is the mystery of mu.

But one day soon it will be gone too. Maybe the natural progression of the Bujinkan leads to this kind of dissolution. 

Soke said last night that the important things in life cannot be seen. This is where the life force or spirit is. When death happens the form is emptied. Where does the unseen go?

This kind of emptiness will never be cut by any sword. This is muto dori.…

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

Michael Glenn being a good tourist, Bujinkan Hombu Dojo

I am preparing for my third trip to Japan this year. In my preparations I came across some old notes from another trip I made many years ago. Before one class I had with Oguri Sensei, I encountered a common attitude among visitors to the Bujinkan Hombu Dojo.

The Ninja Tourists.

On my way to Oguri Sensei's class, I bumped into one of these tourists from Los Angeles. Since I know him from back home, I stopped to chat a bit. This was his first trip.

He was very happy. Beaming in fact. He showed me some photos he had gotten of himself with various teachers. But then he said something that sounded off to my ears,

"We are part of history!"

I asked, "How do you mean?"

He said, "Being here."

That seemed wrong to me at the time.  To me it was just class, just training.  You would be part of history sitting at home watching TV too.  But for him it was like visiting a holy place.  That's one extreme of the tourist attitude.

The Japanese people and Bujinkan teachers are just normal people with lives. Not Ninja fantasy characters.

No matter how great they are as martial artists, what can anyone learn from them with that attitude?  You'll see what you want to see and learn what you want to learn.  Which may or may not be what is being taught.  More than likely what is being taught will be a little more grounded in reality.

Some foreigners treat the visit like a martial arts mecca.  Meanwhile Hatsumi Sensei is showing various ways to punch somebody in the throat.  It seems like there may be a dangerous disconnect there.

But, all these years later, I've softened my attitude about this. Most of the Japanese teachers seem happy to meet all these excited visitors from around the world. And as Nagato Sensei told me a few months ago, Fate has brought us all together.

What is right for my training is not what is right for anybody else's training or life. And what was right for me that day so many years ago was getting myself to Oguri Sensei's class.

I said goodbye to my friend from LA. Then I sat on the train thinking about how happy he was with his tourism. When I got to the Hombu dojo, Oguri Sensei had a smile for me that I will not forget.

There were only 4 of us in his class that day.

My friend from LA was not there but I guess he was right. We are part of history. I had a great class with lots of personal instruction from Oguri Sensei.

He has passed on, but I shall always value those classes because they are now part of my history.…

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

Kashiwa Annex Frosted Window, photo by Michael Glenn

Bujinkan fighting is an illusion. You will never find two witnesses of a fight who see the same thing. Even if you haven't seen this in a fight, you have in the dojo. Most of the time, no two students in the dojo witness what Hatsumi Sensei has shown in the same way.

One day Soke said this was like  詒転三転 iten santen. I had no idea what he meant until I realized it was a play on words as he is fond of doing. The standard phrase is 二転三転 niten santen. This means being in a state of flux, a sequence of never ending changes.

The way Sensei said it was to imply that these never ending changes are full of deception. A result of 虚実 kyojitsu. This is why Bujinkan is an art. You might say that art is neither truth or fiction.

Soke told us that the real essence of the technique or of kyojitsu exists in

"The place where one cannot see. It's here where changes to the extraordinary happen."

This is akin to the short story 藪の中 Yabu no Naka by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. If you haven't heard of it, it is better known as the basis for the movie 羅生門 Rashōmon. The plot has various witnesses to a murder describing what they saw. Of course no one's version of the crime matches.

What happened? What happens in Soke's classes? What did anyone actually see? Something extraordinary that will never be discerned with the rational mind.

The name of that story, 藪の中 Yabu no Naka has become a common phrase to describe an event where no one can really say what happened.

When I train or teach, I am striving for something that cannot be comprehended. Beyond technique and form. When I succeed I have the pleasure of seeing the confused looks on my student's faces.

That part is amusing. But what really is fantastic for me is to see my students do something I myself cannot comprehend! When that occurs it is sublime.…

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

Michael Glenn at 王子神社 ōjijinja, Mabashi, Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

I wrote earlier this year about my experiences in Japan with the iconography of Aka-Fudō holding the 倶利伽羅不動剣 Kurikarafudō ken. Back then I was seeking to understand what felt like a bomb Hatsumi Sensei dropped in the middle of our taijutsu with one part of the Bujinkan theme for 2013, The 剣 Tsurugi/Ken.

This Chinese style sword holds lessons and qualities of movement that challenge what you think you know about Japanese martial arts.

So it was really a sweet surprise that just the other night, after 10 months of study with this weapon, I found a personal breakthrough in my movement with the tsurugi.

If you want to attempt what I discovered, try two things, one difficult, the other absurd. Or even better blend these two for the full madness that is the tsurugi.

剣 Tsurugi Madness Number One:

You see the pointy end of your ken? It is tiny and sharp. Let that one point become immovable. Just like the immovable spirit of 不動明王 Fudō Myō-ō, it will occupy the kukan and expand out from its physical position to embrace all the combatants.

Then you pivot around it. This is like 要 kaname that Soke taught us about last year. The confusing part comes when you learn that this still, immovable point doesn't have to stay fixed in space or time. This feels like a contradiction but isn't.

剣 Tsurugi Madness Number Two:

When you embrace that previous contradiction, then you let the sword shatter stillness. As I wrote recently in my training notes, at that moment, all hell breaks loose when the ken flashes and writhes through the kukan from one point to another. To manage this, you must embody 不動心 fudōshin.

Not many people know fudōshin in the midst of combat. It is hard enough to do just sitting in meditation, without someone fiercely trying to gut you.  But I think the power of the tsurugi doesn't just require it, it causes it.

When Fudō Myō-ō wields the Kurikara ken, he is cutting through ignorance with wisdom. I must really need to swing that sword around a lot. Lucky for me, Fudō Myō-ō is the patron of people born in the year of the rooster. And so I was.

Here is the Fudō mantra if you want to say it while cutting through ignorance with your sword:

なーまくさーまんだーば さらなんかん
Naamakusaamandaaba saranankan

Don't ask me how to pronounce it, I think I need more training.

…

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

Michael Glenn Holds Hatsumi Sensei's Chaplin Caricature. photo by Lisa Peters

Hatsumi Sensei did a quick drawing of Charlie Chaplin for me. This was after he had just quoted Chaplin in one class at the Hombu Dojo. I even witnessed Sensei emulate the shuffling Chaplin "Little Tramp" walk with a pantomime cane when he was explaining how to walk in 義鑑流 Gikan Ryu.

This drawing that Sensei made looks cartoonish. But it contains a very deep insight for our Bujinkan training. This comes from a Chaplin quote that Soke is fond of. The quote that Hatsumi Sensei frequently refers to goes like this,

そんなチャップリンに新聞記者が質問をします。「あなたの最高傑作の作品は何か？」と。そのとき彼はこう答えます。すなわち、「次の作品だ」と言ったのです。

To paraphrase, a reporter asked Chaplin, which of your films do you consider the best? Chaplin replied, "the next one." This means the one that hasn't been created yet. Or as Sensei implies, the henka that hasn't happened yet.

This concept in Japan is tied in with the idea of 改善 kaizen. or continuous improvement. You continually work, evolve, and change. Never stopping because the next one will always be better.

Hatsumi Sensei told us that this next one is the one you cannot see. It is shrouded like 幽玄 Yugen. Floating in a world of potential. Thus, it cannot be countered.

Soke described it further,

"It's almost like a ghost or a ghoul. If you look at the classic films of Chaplin and the other mime actors, they're creating that space. If you understand this, this will take you in a very different path in your long progression."

He wants us to have that space in our movement. To be comfortable in not deciding anything. No technique. Just floating in that kyojitsu space that you create. This is a safe space for you, but deadly for your opponent.

Below the drawing of Chaplin that Sensei made for me, he wrote:
次 次 次 tsugi tsugi tsugi
Next next next...…

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

Asura in Kōfuku-ji, Nara. photo by 小川晴暘

Sanshin is one of the most basic, fundamental, and important concepts in the Bujinkan. Yet even after years of training it remains mysterious and elusive, even one the most misunderstood aspects of our training.

Ask your teacher what it is. Many will give you their pat, standard answer given to all beginners. Others will wander off in a glassy-eyed, meandering philosophical and esoteric treatise. And there are even some who will try to tell you how to stand or step while delivering a punch.

They may not be wrong. But they probably will be missing key ideas. I will not try to correct anyone except to say, please discard what you think you know.

Hatsumi Sensei recently gave us a clue to the secrets of sanshin when he was teaching us about kaname:

全体を捕るということは、要をとる。三身一如のことは言う。

Soke suggests here that you take everything together by only taking what is essential in the moment (kaname). This is sanshin unified as one reality. Three as one.

To me this is like the hidden door of Togakure, an opening to understanding sanshin. When you open this door you find your reflection in a mirror. The secret is polishing the mirror (and your heart) with training so that reflection is pure like the clear water of 平常心 Heijōshin.

You may have heard about 三心 sanshin. And that is good. In Budo this is 心技体 shingitai: mind/spirit/heart; technique; body. Or if you want to be more philosophical: 身心識 body; heart; consciousness.

These are important ideas. But Soke used the kanji 三身一如 for sanshin ichinyo. This implies more of a Buddhist cosmology. 三身 is the trikāya or threefold body of the Buddha. This symbolism is complex but I will polish the mirror a bit.

The first is the Dharmakāya, truth body. This reflects your essential nature and character. This begins with a new student who studies hard, rarely missing a class. Staying true to the kihon and forms until a breakthrough of understanding occurs (for some students, around Godan level). Looking for the limits of your nature, you discover your truth to be limitless.

The second is the Sambhogakāya, or reward/retribution body. If you trained well, you may reap the reward of joy in life and training, or blissfully enduring battle. Your reflection will be pure in the mirror. If you did not train well, your frustrations in life, the dojo, or losing and being injured in battle, will surely shatter the reflection.

Third is the Nirmāṇakāya, the manifested body or actual physical form. This transformational form also embodies henka. Take your clothes off to see this one in the mirror. Maybe you don't want this reflection to be too clear!

So how do we use this in class or combat? Soke says 三身一如. Bringing the three together as one at the essential moment (kaname). If you have not been polishing well, this will be impossible.

Another three faced symbol shows us what NOT to do: the 阿修羅 ashura or fighting demon. These are the reflections of students who are obsessed with ego, force and violence. They may be quick to anger, full of pride, envious of others, insincere with their motives, false or fake in their persona, boast full, lazy or worse... bellicose.

The mirror of the heart dims. What this means is that they are unable or unwilling to learn or train Bujinkan as it is taught. If they are teachers, they often trap themselves along with their students.

But if you unify 三身 sanshin in combat, the results are really miraculous. I've witnessed it. I've experienced it myself. Trust me, you want this. Are you ready to study Sanshin?

…

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

三つ鱗 Mitsu Uroko photo by Michael Glenn

Since I am a ninja, I am part of a secret society. Secret societies are fun to learn about. One of the most obvious ways into a secret society is through its symbols. I recently stumbled across one mysterious symbol called 三つ鱗 Mitsu Uroko in a place I didn't expect to find it.

You have probably seen this symbol. For Legend of Zelda fans it is known as the Triforce. But you may not know that the creator of this game, Miyamoto Shigeru, took much of his inspiration from the mountains and temples of Kyoto. And if you travel around Japan, you will encounter this symbol yourself.

What does it mean? And why should anyone in the Bujinkan care? Let me explain.

The origin story of this symbol is tied with one of the most powerful Shogun and clans in Japanese history.

As told in the Taiheiki 太平記, Hojo Tokimasa went on a pilgrimage of fasting and prayer to the island of Enoshima. While he was in one of the Iwaya Caves, the Goddess Benzaiten appeared to him. She said that since he had been a priest in a previous life, he and his family would prosper and rule over Japan.

After her blessing, Benzaiten returned to the sea. As she slipped beneath the waves, Tokimasa caught a glimpse of a dragon's tail sliding across the sand from beneath her robes. This vision caused him to investigate her tracks in the sand and he found three dragon scales that had flaked off.

Benzaiten Appears to Hôjô Tokimasa (notice she holds 3 scales)

These three dragon scales became their 紋 mon (family crest) as the Hōjō clan rose to prominence during the Kamakura period in Japanese history.  They changed history by facing off with invading Mongols, spreading Zen Buddhism, and the foundation of Bushido. But they also had secret police and had very secretive meetings at private locations to control Japanese society.

Sometimes when you find this symbol in Japan it is part of an antique shrine. But sometimes it is in places that could represent a secret meeting spot. Does the secret cult of Uga-jin 宇賀神 still have power?

Could there be secret meetings still happening to this day? Nahhh……

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

自拍的藝術 photo by 【Ｊ】

The Bujinkan is not for everybody. It is only for people who get it. My way of teaching the Bujinkan is not for everybody. But it works for me. And it works for those of you who get it and who want it.

If you study with me, I add a secret teaching technique that I will call "Michael Glenn's Patented 秘密 Himitsu Bujinkan Strategy™." I use this silly name because I want you to try to figure out what it is. If you can guess it, I will send you a free DVD.

So if you want to be successful in your Bujinkan class, there are 3 simple steps:

(add Michael Glenn's 秘密 Himitsu Bujinkan Strategy™ first) then,

1. Attempt
2. Observe
3. Repeat

So let's consider these steps in order.

Attempt. It is better to start by trying. Until you try, you don't even know if you can do it. Until you try, you don't know where your mistakes will be. This is the only way to know what to look for in the next step.

Next, Observe someone who is successful. In your Bujinkan class, this can be your teacher, the senior students, or even your training partner.

(This is another great spot for more of Michael Glenn's 秘密 Himitsu Bujinkan Strategy™.)

When you repeat, you will make your next attempt more knowledgeable based on your observations. Your next try will be more refined, with less mistakes. Soon you will be the example that other Bujinkan students want to observe.

If you are a teacher, set up your Bujinkan class with these steps for success. Too many teachers teach for the wrong reasons. Know your purpose as a teacher: The focus is not to teach, or to test. A teacher’s job is to facilitate learning.

The funny thing is, everyone reading this article is a Sensei. I firmly believe that our whole lives we are our own greatest teachers. But you are at the same time your own best and worst student.

Who demands smart training? Who will do this with intention? I have no doubt that my students will succeed.

The question is, are you going to be your own best teacher? Will you keep going? Will you be the example?

PS. send me an email with your answer to What is Michael Glenn's 秘密 Himitsu Bujinkan Strategy™?  get a free DVD if you guess my secret teaching technique.…

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

地蔵尊 Jizouson Altar at 万満寺 Manman-ji. photo by Michael Glenn

Henka is like a ritual of birth and death. One essential fact of existence that everyone seeks to forget, is that we are born to this world and guaranteed to die.

Everything dies. Thus the way of Bushido is death. But Hatsumi Sensei would like us to flip this idea to rebirth and to give life, protect life. How do we do this if we are half dead already?

The traditional rites of passage used to teach people to die to the past and be reborn to the future. I feel this process every time I travel back to Japan. It is always a new birth.

Sensei seems to demonstrate this in every henka and even by the way he moves through his day. This is what we should strive for in every class and in our lives.

Why die to the past and be reborn? What does that even mean? What is the point?

Everyone comes to class for different reasons. But most hope to improve themselves in some way. What kind of improvement are you seeking? To be a killing machine? or to find life inside of death and protect it?

If you are having trouble answering this question, your Bujinkan training may be broken or dysfunctional in some way. How do you fix it? When something is broken in life people take different approaches.

Some deny it. You can try to recapture the good old days when everything was "better." Sink into nostalgia of dead martial arts. But burying yourself in the past is digging your own grave because the past is already dead.

Some people work furiously and with hard headed determination to repair what they think is broken in the Bujinkan. To patch together whatever pieces of the past that they can grab onto. And maybe insert some modern creative approach onto the gaps to try to hold it together. This Frankenstein method may work for awhile, but a corpse is still a corpse, and this new body of training will rot from the inside.

A third mistake people make in trying to "fix" their Bujinkan training is to attempt to design a better martial art. This takes ambition, intelligence, and ego. Some of the ideas will be great. But they are like a house of cards because they assume an ideal future and a clean foundation on which to build. Neither will ever exist.

We've all seen people make these mistakes or have made them ourselves.

How do we overcome death or dead martial arts?

Only birth can conquer death. Not a birth of anything you recognize, but something new. Within the Bujinkan, within Martial arts in general or within your own life, there must be a continual recurrence of birth if we are to survive.

Soke teaches this way. He often cites Charlie Chaplin, who when he was asked what the favorite film of his career was, said "The next one." This means the one that hasn't been born yet. The one that is full of potential. This is the way Sensei speaks about henka.

Hatsumi Sensei has spoken to the passing of generations and the birth or renewal of the spirit of the Bujin in every generation, every Soke, every teacher, every student.

It begins in every class. Being reborn. Bujinkan Henka. As I have heard Sensei say so many times, it's not this technique, but the next one... And the next. The one that hasn't happened yet, hasn't even been thought of, or born into existence.

Train like this if you want to live.…