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| Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 | | 8:32 pm |
| | Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 | | 9:30 pm |
God thought you up
You are of immeasurable worth to God, and your value is not determined by your appearance or performance, or how much time or money you can contribute, or how well you sing or teach – or how long you live. The value of any container is determined by its contents, and you are a one and only, custom-made container of Uncommon Stuff – as a believer, you contain the very life of God.
Rejoice in this truth, and be set free.
-- Jon Walker www.GraceCreates.com | | Monday, October 29th, 2007 | | 9:08 pm |
Happy Halloween!!!  | | Friday, August 24th, 2007 | | 3:11 am |
Mark Twight Here's some cool philosophy by mountaineer Mark Twight - i found this on a link from Tom Callos' Ultimate Black Belt web site... "Why should your words mean anything? They aren't learned by heart and written in blood. If you cannot grasp the consciousness-altering experience that real mastery of these disciplines proposes, of what value is your participation? The truth is pointless when it is shallow. Do you have the courage to live with the integrity that stabs deep? Use the mirror to cut to the heart of things and uncover your true self. Use the razor to cut away what you don't need. The life you want to live has no recipe. Following the recipe got you here in the first place: Mix one high school diploma with an undergrad degree and a college sweetheart. With a whisk (or a whip) blend two cars, a poorly built house in a cul de sac, and fifty hours a week working for a board that doesn't give a shit about you. Reproduce once. Then again. Place all ingredients in a rut, or a grave. One is a bit longer than the other. Bake thoroughly until the resulting life is set. Rigid. With no way out. Serve and enjoy. But there is a way out. Live the lifestyle instead of paying lip service to the lifestyle. Live with commitment. With emotional content. Live whatever life you choose honestly. Give up this renaissance man, dilettante bullshit of doing a lot of different things (and none of them very well by real standards). Get to the guts of one thing; accept, without casuistry, the responsibility of making a choice. When you live honestly, you can not separate your mind from your body, or your thoughts from your actions." http://www.gymjones.comhttp://www.tomcallos.com | | Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 | | 2:47 am |
A Rabbinic Story
"In a dream a devout disciple of the master was permitted to approach the temple in paradise where all the great old sages who had studied the talmud all their lives were now spending eternity. he gazed in at them and to his amazement, they were all sitting around tables, just as they had done on earth, studying the talmud still! The disciple watched them passionately exclaiming and arguing and reverently fingering the texts. He wondered, 'is this really paradise? It seems like the earth.' But then his thoughts were interrupted by warm laughter. 'You are mistaken. This is not paradise. The sages are not in paradise. Paradise is in the sages."
from The Misunderstood Jew - Amy-Jill Levine Harper Collins 2006 | | 12:14 am |
More Wendy's Wisdom!
Walking along Mud Creek Trail in Fayetteville recently, I was enjoying the sounds of the water in the creek and the wind in the oaks and pines and white ash trees that separate the creek from the encroaching subdivisions and banks and chain restaurants. A clacking sound in the brush made me look toward the water, where a large doe was crossing the creek. This not 100 yards from an 8-lane highway exchange and the northwest arkansas mall.
I've been mulling the question, "more kata or less kata" for a few weeks, and discussing it with students, friends, and my co-instructor Phil - as we've been training i've been tossing in kata from here and there and basically just monkeying around, but as i wandered the trail i had a realization that maybe more isn't necessarily better for one of the most obvious reasons.
What instigated this course of self-inquiry was Phil's observation that our school of shorin-ryu karate only has 7 katas - 8 if you include naihanchi, which i added in from my stint in Isshin-Ryu and which i use mainly as a beginner's kata just to teach right from left. (nevermind that one of karate's most infamous fighters, choki motobu, only practiced naihanchi shodan and nidan!)
Phil's point is that most schools have the pinans, kihon kata, and 3 naihanchis as introductions to the "black belt" kata - whereas our shorin-ryu, which comes from the chotoku kyan lineage, starts out with Seishan (which is typically taught at black belt level)... His point is that maybe that's too much to start with and discourages students.
I agree(d) in theory, but as i was walking i was struck by the thought that you don't prepare for, say, a marathon by just running around the block a few times. you have to run longer and longer distances, and work up to running the full 26 miles, and train for that type of running.
with kata, if the "good stuff" is in the black belt level kata, why train in kata that are by and large simplistic and boring (here i am referring to the heians, pinans, chon-jis - the dull, rather rote block punch pivots)... the pinans were created for school children in the 1900s so they could practice martial arts without hurting themselves or others... for adults, i think the pinans have limited usefulness. also they are arguably derived from the advanced kata, so why monkey with partial forms for 3 or 4 years before you get to the real deal? why not just start at the top of the food chain... why eat spam when you have steak in the fridge?
i've been debating the whole kata thing pretty fiercely anyway, and am down to seeing them mostly as interesting textual dances and codified fighting templates, (an idea the great Patrick McCarthy puts forth with much credibility)... but be that as it may, if you are going to have kata in your system, why have kata that have limited developmental potential?
granted there are tons of shotokan guys out there who will howl in anguish at the idea the heians are a waste of time... and of course they aren't, but they ARE deadly dull... so if you don't HAVE to do them, why on earth would you? | | Friday, August 3rd, 2007 | | 9:18 pm |
wendy's bowels wisdom part I
martial arts is a spiritual path because our ultimate goal is the harmony of our selves with the universe. we approach this lofty achievement by working on our bodies - we strive to coordinate simple things like our breath with our stepping, or stepping with our punches, our feet with our hands... once this physical harmonies are achieved, we start trying to find greater balances, our breathing with our mind, our mind with our opponents mind, or with no-mind, or with nature... we learn the timing, the rythm of our opponents, and our selves, and then bigger, more important ones - nature, life, other people... the beginning goal of simply harmonizing our feet with our hands, our eyes with our breath, leads to bigger harmony, controlling our emotions as well as our bodies, our minds and our hearts, and harmonizing ourselves with nature, with god, with reality and beyond - whatever you want to call it.
this harmony is the true goal of the martial artist, and the freedom to exist in harmony with whatever happens, whatever is. bruce lee describes it as floating in totality. float on! | | Thursday, July 19th, 2007 | | 11:31 pm |
The Ancient One  The Ancient One sat in the shade of a tree in front of his cave. The Red People came to him, and he said to them, "Tell me your vision." And the Red People answered, "The elders have told us to pray in this manner and that manner, and it is important that we only pray as we have been taught, for this has been handed down to us by the Elders." "Hmmm," said the Ancient One. Then the Black People came to him, and he said to them, "Tell me your vision." And the Black People answered, "Our mothers have said to go to this building and pray in this manner and our fathers have said to bow in this manner when we pray." "Hmmm," said the Ancient One. Then the Yellow People came to him, and he said to them, "Tell me your vision." And the Yellow People answered, "Our teachers have told us to sit in this posture and to say certain things when we pray. And it is important that we do this when we pray." "Hmmm," said the Ancient One. Then the White People came to him, and he said to them, "Tell me your vision." And the White People answered, "Our Book has told us to pray in this way, and it is very important that we follow what is written in the Book when we pray." "Hmmm," said the Ancient One. Then the Ancient One spoke to the Earth and said, "Have you given the people a vision?" And the Earth said, "Yes, a special gift for each one, but they were so busy speaking about which way is right, they could not see the gift I gave them." The Ancient One thought that this was very sad. He called the people and said to them, "The ways taught to you by your Elders, your Mothers and Fathers, Teachers and Books are sacred. It is good that you respect those ways, for they are the ways of your ancestors. But the ancestors no longer walk on the face of the Earth Mother. You have forgotten your own Vision. Your Vision is right for you and no one else. Now each of you must pray for your own Vision, and be still enough to see it, so you can follow the way of the heart. It is a hard way. It is a good way." Do not get lost in the world. Our purpose is to go within and find ourselves. North American Native Indian Tradition | | Thursday, July 5th, 2007 | | 7:50 pm |
What Does A Black Belt Really Mean? (A great article Shannon found about the real meaning of rank in the martial arts - written by the late aikido master, the Rev. Kensho Furuya.) What Does a Black Belt Really Mean? *********************************** Reverend Kensho Furuya **********************  Through the popularity of this column, I get correspondence from all over the country. And the most commonly asked question is, \`How long does it take to get a black belt?\' I don't know how this question is answered in other schools, but my students know that asking such a question in my dojo would set them back several years in their training. It would be a disaster. Most people would be overjoyed if I would say it takes just a couple of years to get a black belt, but unfortunately it does not. And though I am afraid most people would not be happy with my answer, I think the general misconceptions about \`what is a black belt?\' should be clarified as much as possible. This is not a popular subject to discuss in the way I am going to. Indeed, I warn my students not to ask the question in the first place. The answer is not what they want to hear. How do you get a black belt? You find a competent teacher and a good school, begin training and work hard. Someday, who knows when, it will come. It is not easy, but it's worth it. It may take one year; it may take ten years. You may never achieve it. When you come to realize that the black belt is not as important as the practice itself, you are probably approaching black belt level. When you realize that no matter how long or how hard you train, there is a lifetime of study and practice ahead of you until you die, you are probably getting close to a black belt. At whatever level you achieve, if you think you \`deserve\' a black belt, or if you think you are now \`good enough\' to be a black belt, you are way off the mark, and, indeed a very long way from reaching your black belt. Train hard, be humble, don't show off in front of your teacher or other students , don't complain about any task and do your best in everything in your life. This is what it means to be a black belt. To be overconfident, to show off your skill, to be competitive, to look down on others, to show a lack of respect, and to pick and chose what you do and don't do (believing that some jobs are beneath your dignity) characterize the student who will never achieve black belt. What they wear around their waist is simply a piece of merchandise brought for a few dollars in a martial arts supply store. The real black belt, worn by a real black belt holder, is the white belt of a beginner, turned black by the colour of his blood and sweat. Training Pattern **************** The first level of black belt in Japanese is called shodan. It literally means \`first level\'. Sho (first) is an interesting ideograph. It is comprised of two radicals meaning \`cloth\' and \`knife\'. To make a piece of clothing, one first cuts out the pattern on the cloth. The pattern determines the style and look of the final product. If the pattern is out of proportion or in error, the clothes will look bad and not fit properly. In the same way, your initial training to reach black belt is very important; it determines how you will eventually turn out as a black belt. In my many years of teaching, I have noticed that the students who are solely concerned with getting their black belt discourage easily, as soon as they realize it is harder than they expected. Students who come in just for practice, without concern for rank and promotion, always do well. They are not crushed by shallow or unrealistic goals. There is a famous story about Yagyu Matajuro, who was a son of the famous Yagyu family of swordsmen in 17th century feudal Japan. He was kicked out of the house for lack of talent and potential, and sought out instruction of the swordmaster Tsukahara Bokuden, with the hope of achieving mastery of the sword and regaining his family position. On their initial interview, Matajuro asked Tsukahara Bokuden, \`How long will it take me to master the sword?\' Bokuden replied, \`Oh, about five years if you train very hard.\' \`If I train twice as hard, how long will it take?\' inquired Matajuro.\' In that case, ten years,\' retorted Bokuden. Finding a Focus *************** What do you focus on if you don't focus on attaining your black belt? It is easier said than done, but you must focus your energy on practice. However , to think, \`I will concentrate on my training to get a black belt,\' is simply playing mind games with yourself and will ultimately lead to your own disappointment. Can you simply think \`I forget about rank completely?\' Can you simply say to yourself that you will never achieve it? Will you always be attached to your black belt, allowing the idea to linger in the back of your mind? In other words , can you simply concentrate on your training without regards for anything else? Can you finally realize that your black belt is nothing more than \`something to hold up your pants?\' You should also realise that although you master all the requirements, the correct number of techniques, all the required forms and put in the appropriate amount of hours of training, you may still not qualify for black belt. To achieve black belt is not a quantitative entity which can be measured or weighed like buying string beans in the market. Your black belt has to do with you as a person. How you conduct yourself in and out of the dojo, your attitude to your teacher and fellow students, your goals in life, how you handle the obstacles in your life, and how you persevere in your training are all important conditions of your black belt. At the same time, you become a model to other students and eventually reach the status of teacher or assistant instructor. In the dojo, your responsibilities are greater than the regular students and you are held accountable to much, much more than those junior to yourself. Your responsibilities are great as a black belt holder. Achieving Training Focus ************************ How do we focus on our training? Successful training means, to a great degree, that we look at what we do from a reasonable and realistic viewpoint. More often than not, we are not looking at realistic goals but dreams and delusions. Do you want to excel in martial arts as a way to improve yourself and your life, or are you motivated by the latest cops and robbers movie? Is your practice motivated by a strong desire to enlighten yourself, or do you simply want to imitate the latest martial arts movie stars? Although experienced martial artists may snicker, it is amazing how many inquire about martial arts saying they want to be just like Chuck Norris or Steven Seagal. But those people are themselves by their own efforts. You are yourself. We all have our hero, role models, and our dreams, but we have to separate out fantasies from reality if our training is to be meaningful and successful. Reality ******* Training has nothing to do with rank or black belts, trophies or badges. Martial arts is not simply playing out our fantasies. It has to do with your own life and death. It is not only how we protect ourselves in a critical, lethal situation, but how we protect the lives of others as well. You cannot be another person, whether he is a movie star, great teacher or multi-millionaire. You must become yourself - your true self. As much as John Doe dreams about becoming James Dean, Bruce Lee, or Donald Trump, he can only be John Doe. When John Doe becomes John Doe 100 percent, he has become enlightened to his true self. An average person only lives 50 percent, or maybe 80 percent of his life and never knows who he is. A martial artist lives 100 percent of his life and becomes impeccable. This is what the true black belt holder must come to realize within himself. He is no other than himself, and his practice leads to enlightenment into nature of his true self, his real self. This is the essence of out training in martial arts. Achieving your Black Belt ************************ Think of losing your black belt, not gaining it. Sawaki Kodo, a Zen Master, often said,\'To gain is suffering; loss is enlightenment.\' If someone were to ask the difference between martial artists of previous generations and martial artists today, I would sum it up like this. Martial artists of previous generations looked upon training as \`loss\'. They gave up everything for their art and their practice. They gave up their families, jobs, security, fame, money, everything, to accomplish themselves.Today, we only think of gain. \`I want this, I want that.\' We want to practice martial arts but we also want money, a nice car, fame, portable telephones and everything that everyone else has. Shakyamuni Buddha gave up his kingdom, his palaces, a beautiful wife, and everything else to finally seek out enlightenment. The first student of Boddhidharma, considered the founder of Shoalin Kung Fu, cut off his left arm to study with his teacher. We don't have to take such drastic measures to learn martial arts today, but we should not forget the spirit and determination of the great masters of the past. We must realize that we have to make sacrifices in our own lives in order to pursue our training. While the student looks at his training from the standpoint of loss instead of gain, he comes close to the spirit of mastery, and truly becomes worthy of a black belt. Only when you finally give up all thought of rank, belts, trophies, fame, money and mastery itself, will you achieve what is really important in your training. Be humble, be gentle. Care for others and put everyone before yourself. To study martial arts is to study yourself - your true self. It has nothing to do with rank. A great Zen master once said: \`To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to understand all things.\' Edited by K.W.Pang from \`Martial Arts Training\' (July 1991) | | Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 | | 11:03 pm |
Hopping Ghosts Cool info about Hopping Ghosts, kinda the Chinese version of vampires, courtesy our friends at www.PlumPub.com  A Hopping Ghost is an undecayed corpse whose main soul, the PO, has not yet left for the other world.If it can inhabit a corpse it can move about - hop. Ghosts hop because they are so YIN. That is, they have so little mobile energy left that they can't even bend their knees one of the signs - in human beings - of the ability to move. When they come in contact with even more YIN they over loaded and hop around. Being light and bodyless they can sometimes fly. They smell horribly. They are armed with long, long fingernails that can tear. They sleep in coffins or graves and fear sunlight's strong YANG energy. If you chance upon such a pest DON"T BREATHE. The sound of breathing allows them to detect us. Paste a Taoist warning on their bodies to stop them. But if you are serious about getting rid of them burning their coffin with them in it is the major method. Watch out for them grabbing your neck. Definitely an unpleasant experience. Oh, by the way, this is the traditional reasons Asian bridge zigzag because ghosts hate to cross running water (like in almost every culture in the world) and twisty bridges are the toughest. Also the doorways of temple have step-overs to prevent the entrance of spirit who can't hop that high. | | Sunday, June 24th, 2007 | | 7:22 pm |
cool shaolin article The San Francisco Chronicle -  Stephen Ho dreamed that he'd be the one to introduce to America an authentic version of one of the world's most misunderstood religions. He would build a San Francisco temple to be a branch of the legendary Shaolin Temple in China, where Zen was born and kung fu emerged as its most fabled expression. The San Francisco businessman and longtime Buddhist went to China and asked the temple's abbot for his assent. In December 2004, the abbot sent Shi GuoSong, an experienced yet youthful Shaolin monk, to be a true and rare face of the ancient faith. The culture portrayed by television and movies as exotic violence would be shown in its true form: a message of peace. Ho established a nonprofit to represent Shaolin culture as a religion, sponsoring visas and shepherding believers such as GuoSong. GuoSong, through Ho's connections, dutifully led troupes in performances of Shaolin kung fu at venues ranging from a Sacramento Kings game to the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum. They just finished a highly celebrated, weeklong collaboration with Alonzo King's Lines Ballet in San Francisco. But more than two years after their journey began, Ho and GuoSong have become mired in a dispute over what Shaolin is and which one of them represents the authentic faith. They are at fundamental odds over an age-old question: To what extent can a martial art express religion? Legend says that more than 1,500 years ago, an Indian monk named Bodhidharma sat meditating before a wall for nine years on Mount Songshan in northern China. When he finished, he began teaching at the Shaolin Temple that long periods of seated meditation would lead to enlightenment -- the essence of Chan Buddhism, popularly known as Zen. But the extended meditations also atrophied the monks' bodies. So Bodhidharma developed a series of calisthenics that evolved into kung fu, a form of martial arts. Shaolin believe meditation clears the mind, preparing it for purer action. But a weak or sick body hinders clarity of thought. Kung fu, by building the body, complements meditation. Over the centuries, the Shaolin Temple in Henan province has been razed and resurrected several times. After the communist government's Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, many of the nation's religious institutions were purged or destroyed. Only a handful of Shaolin monks in the temple survived. Then, in 1982, came the Jet Li movie "Shaolin Temple," inspiring a wave of tourism the Chinese government supported; it even helped rebuild the temple as a tourist destination. There are now about 60 schools associated with the main Shaolin Temple, and they teach an estimated 40,000 full-time martial artists. But those who've been accepted and taken vows as Shaolin monks are rare: There are fewer than 200 in the main temple. From Bruce Lee's epic 1973 film "Enter the Dragon" to Jackie Chan movies to "The Matrix" and "Kill Bill," pop culture has long tried to represent elements of Shaolin practice or lore. But that has skewed understanding of Shaolin culture, said Matthew Polly, the first American disciple of the Shaolin Temple. "Westerners have this fantasy of what Shaolin is supposed to be -- David Carradine and (the 1970s television show) 'Kung Fu,' " said Polly, 35, of New York. "It's not what you wanted it to be or expected it to be. Shaolin has been, since 1982, trying to figure out what it is again, with a lot of competing pressures. Like China in general, Shaolin is still in the process of coming to terms with modernity." Into this vortex came Ho. A retired IBM engineer who says he often travels in China on business, Ho said he studied Buddhism for 40 years in Hong Kong before coming to America. In recent years, the main temple's abbot, Shi YongXin, has tried to copyright the Shaolin name. He's also been criticized for commercializing the faith. YongXin gave his approval to Ho's venture in San Francisco. Ho, 60, had never trained at the temple. GuoSong, 34, has trained at the temple since he was 13. There are roughly a dozen monks in the temple who, like GuoSong, are in their 30s and have trained for two decades, GuoSong and Ho estimate. Scores of other Shaolin monks have come to the United States and set up kung fu studios, but Ho's nonprofit is believed to be only the second attempt to establish an institution for Shaolin as an American religion. The first temple, run by a former Shaolin monk in Flushing, N.Y., is beset by its own struggles to establish itself. -- -- -- GuoSong came with a 53-year-old fellow monk and five disciples -- 10-year-old triplets and two men in their 20s. His disciples say GuoSong is a "father" to their "family." Since arriving in San Francisco in 2004, they've lived in a series of apartments and now stay in a ramshackle former rooming house near downtown Oakland, their fledgling Shaolin Temple. Their kung fu performances have been sporadic, generally coming every few weeks. But the Shaolin lifestyle consumes their days in small details. In addition to many explicitly religious rites, the monks wear simple clothing made from rough material and have an array of rituals, including one to ensure the right flavor and temperature for green tea. A simple morning practice at the Oakland temple illuminates how Shaolin strengthen their bodies, the role of the natural energy force known as qi -- or chi -- and how physical work can be meditative. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Shi ChangQiang, 22, repeatedly slapped a canvas sack packed with dried beans he'd put on top of a 3-foot-high stump in the backyard of the Oakland temple. In one minute, he hit it 38 times with his right hand. His pace gradually increased as he hit the bag of beans with his palm, the back of his hand and both sides. Seated meditations like the 45-minute session every morning are part of the group's daily routine. But GuoSong can be found meditating in many places, such as in a parked car. The meditations and ChangQiang's painful ritual are intended to lead to the same mental state -- clearing the mind of all thoughts. "The most important thing is that you must keep your mind quiet without any disturbances," Shi YongYao, the other monk with GuoSong, said in Mandarin as he explained the sack-smacking. Despite the ferocity of ChangQiang's slaps, Shaolin belief holds that breathing with intention to circulate one's qi prevents pain. It's a practice called Qigong, and it can be used to toughen many parts of the body. ChangQiang is working on his hand. YongYao, a Qigong master, is a specialist in the "iron crotch." Sometimes at exhibitions, YongYao invites people to kick him repeatedly in the groin. He doesn't flinch. At a performance at a Tenderloin community center in October, YongYao broke steel bars over his head that this reporter could not bend. At the Sacramento Kings game, a Shaolin trainee took a sledgehammer to YongYao's arm as it lay across roughly a dozen steel bars, according to a video of the event. The bars broke. His arm was fine. Qi enters the body just above the belly button, YongYao said. Through Qigong, practitioners learn to move it throughout the body. "If some part of your body hurts, the qi has not gotten through yet," YongYao said. "Once the qi gets through, you don't feel pain there." YongYao believes Qigong can help cure heart disease, cancer or diabetes, which he has, but he says it doesn't work "miracles." The group uses Western medicine, too. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! ChangQiang stopped hitting the bag of beans after 14 minutes. Two hours later, ChangQiang inspected his calloused right hand. It was dry, raw and cracked. "It hurts," he said in English. -- -- -- Ho sees little that's religious in these actions. He's come to believe that GuoSong is more kung fu than Buddhist -- possessing rare physical skills but lacking equivalent spiritual depth. Ho justifies his view by saying GuoSong and his disciples don't do enough of what Ho thinks defines a Buddhist monk of any sect: seated meditation, study of Buddhist texts and philosophical discussions about Chan. "They're really good martial artists, but how much they know about Buddhism, I don't know," Ho said. GuoSong believes there are many equal ways to practice Chan. Walking, sitting or eating can be Chan practices. "In everything you do, you always have the chance to seek the truth" and free the mind of disturbances, GuoSong said. But audiences rarely hear GuoSong speak because he speaks only Mandarin. The result is that they are left to interpret through the monks' bodies a scripture that's expressed solely through movement. One scene in the recent Lines Ballet performances revealed the challenges. ChangQiang and Shi ChangJun, 23, acted out a series of punches, sidekicks and a head butt. One kick sent ChangQiang flat onto his chest. Shaolin monks believe you can never fight to attack, only to defend. But it's not hard to see why their kung fu has been glorified as violence made beautiful. GuoSong said it's reasonable to be drawn to Shaolin for the techniques of combat -- as he was at age 13 -- and not for any spiritual reason. But he hopes a few people see deeper -- and pursue Chan. "The audience should not pay attention to one or several criteria, but the dialectic of everything," he said. "If you just pay attention to the speed -- you say 'fast is good' -- that would be wrong. If you say 'strong is good,' that is wrong. ... The right way to appreciate is the dialectic, the tension between fast and slow, the tension between strong and soft, the tension between agility and stiffness." Plus, he said, the fight is fake. Every move is answered with a block. Either of the performers could maim with a real kick or punch. Sparring "is just a way to train their reflexes." A strong mind, built through Chan meditation, requires a strong body, he said. "Each movement will make you work your body, from top to bottom, from hand to foot," he said. "The motivation for practicing is to be flexible, quick on your feet, strong. And your body will be naturally healthy." Audiences see many messages in their performances. Their speed and strength inspire awe. Some men wince at displays testing YongYao's "iron crotch." Others laugh.  Alonzo King, the ballet choreographer, said believers of any faith interpret religious texts in myriad ways. Movement should be no different, and just as valid as any written scripture or spoken sermon. "The principle expression of life is movement," he wrote in an e-mail. "Dancing and martial arts are movement. When it is well done, it is about poise, control, governance, majesty, power and grace. ... These qualities are teaching us how to behave." Gerard Hoatam, 25, watched the Tenderloin performance but had no idea that it was an expression of faith. "If your purpose is to go out into the community and tell people about your religion, it's a lot better than Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on your door," said Hoatam of Sunnyvale. Others have come to share Ho's opinion of GuoSong and his group. Many of the monks' performances, including the Lines Ballet series, have been initiated or coordinated by Bernadine Lim, Mayor Gavin Newsom's liaison to the Chinese American community. She said Ho knows more about Buddhism than GuoSong, who she said barely practices essential elements of the faith. "I've never seen them meditate," she said, adding that the ballet "has nothing to do with religion." But Polly, the former Shaolin Temple disciple who wrote the memoir "American Shaolin," said Lim and Ho have created a false dichotomy. There's no distinction, Polly said, between sitting meditation and what can happen while doing kung fu -- a meditation through dynamic movement, like yoga. "If you're practicing Shaolin kung fu properly, it is a form of meditation," he said. "It's just fast and hard meditation, instead of slow or sitting. And that's why many of those moves seem so strange -- because they're actually moves that were developed for meditation purposes as well as self-defense and not purely self-defense purposes." Gene Ching, associate publisher of Fremont-based Kung Fu Tai Chi Magazine, which has reported on Shaolin practitioners and beliefs for 15 years, believes GuoSong is authentic. Ching was stunned that directors of a Shaolin nonprofit would not understand that kung fu is an expression of Chan, or Zen. For non-Shaolin to define the faith is troubling, he said. "It's disturbing in a way," Ching said. "It's corporate religion." -- -- -- GuoSong declined to discuss Ho, and Ho is an elusive man. But some facts are plain. More than two years after GuoSong and his disciples arrived, Ho has made little headway on a temple. GuoSong is a elite teacher of Shaolin kung fu -- his martial arts training videos are sold on Chinese Web sites. But in San Francisco, GuoSong had only a handful of students through Ho's networks. Instead of living in a monastery dedicated to a life of faith, GuoSong's group of Shaolin -- including young triplets Shi LongHu, Shi HuHu and Shi BaoHu -- were crammed into apartments. Ho said he will sever his sponsorship of GuoSong, a move that would make him an illegal immigrant. If ChangQiang, ChangJun and YongYao choose to follow GuoSong, Ho said they will "be on their own." Ho said he planned to bring 30 more Shaolin to the Bay Area in the future. He said he would interview them himself to make sure they're more spiritual than GuoSong. GuoSong, without referring to Ho, said he's long been aware that others might criticize him. But that's not the point. "If you take this mission personally, you can never achieve it," he said. "Shaolin Buddhism -- Shaolin culture -- does not belong to any particular person. ... Even if I come back empty-handed, maybe there will be other people who will come in the future to continue to promote Shaolin Buddhism." If people disparage him, GuoSong said, "the words may affect my career here. However, the words will not affect the goal."  | | Thursday, April 19th, 2007 | | 1:15 am |
| | Friday, April 6th, 2007 | | 1:45 am |
Kensho or Krazy Part 2 Found an interesting essay on Guro Dan Inosanto's website, discussing the use of drills in JKD and martial arts training... Bruce Lee dismissed kata and forms as "classical mess" but now 30 years later you can buy JKD books with drills (aka "kata" or at least "waza") in them, just by another name. I myself love kata and love collecting them, exploring them, and studying them. Here's what one of Mr. Inosanto's students have to say about drills... "Drills work, and are necessary for most students. Drills themselves are not fighting – that’s understood, and this has been pointed out at every seminar I have ever been to. Drills allow students to go through a progressive learning process, and make the art accessible to many different types of students. Drills help to pass on combative and developmental insights gained over time at the cost of many lives. Drills allow concentrated repetition on important aspects of the art. Drills also happen to be fun, which is important for those of us who don’t spend every waking moment trying to “kick ass” on the next random attacker. In martial arts we are in the business of trying to modify how people act under stress. This generation has come up with the stunning revelation that personal combat is an aggressive, frenzied, painful and nasty business where things get very difficult. (I’m sure the warriors of the ages will be thankful that someone has finally discovered the true nature of combat.) It will be interesting to see how they go about passing these insights on to students of different abilities, different personalities, different values, and different needs. Could it be that creating drills of some sort would help the student get a glimpse of their instructor’s true brilliance?" see the whole article at: http://inosanto.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=120&Itemid=45 | | 1:39 am |
Late Night Ramblings...
‘Tis a wild and wooly time at NWA Shorin-Ryu & Taijiquan. We’re cross training in Chinese Kenpo and Taekwondo currently in advanced classes, and we’re also getting some input from a great Goju stylist who is bringing some interesting chuan fa drills to the table. We’re also reworking the shorin-ryu program, looking at more and better ways to teach and drill in competition sparring, more intense kobudo drills, and more koryu uchinadi drills from Hanshi Patrick McCarthy. This summer I also hope to bring in the beginning ryukyu uchinadi drills from Hanshi’s style into our basic training.
WHY TAEKWONDO??? I can hear my diehard Okinawan-te buddies snickering, but they shouldn’t be! Most of us started out in TKD at one time or another, at least if you live in a nowhere place like rural Arkansas, where thru most of the 70s and 80s TKD was the only game in town… Two of my friends and training partners are ex-TKDers, too, and they wanted to review the Chon-Ji forms. I wanted to work on my flexibilty and endurance, which has gone by the wayside since I’ve been working 70 plus hours a week on two night shifts for the last 3 years… So we decided to start working the TKD. I was already working my way thru the IKCA kenpo material, inspired by an article in Classical Fighting Arts last year that said studying kenpo was a good method to develop your bunkai reading skills… working in a technique based art has really opened my eyes on several points of traditional training, such as the centrality of kata in an art that claims to be anything other than performance… I am seriously rethinking kata as primary teaching tool, which is pretty radical for me… I am slow to hop on the JKD/MMA/BJJ bandwagon, although I have friends who are big into that and trained briefly with Guro Marc McFann…
I know that a lot of kata is performance, and I am okay with that.. to call kata dance rehearsal or martial arts re-enactor does not strike me as an insult, just a realistic observation… But I still think there is gold in them there kata, the trick is to mine it and to be able to recognize the gold from the dross… I’m less than 4 months from my 48th birthday, and I want to reach a couple of physical fitness goals before my birthday, so ramping up the workouts is good…
One of the main reasons I started my “class” in 1994 is that I work the evening shift, which is when most karate schools have their classes. I couldn’t attend anywhere, so I started my own “off hours” club to have somewhere to workout. Over the ensuing 13 years here in Northwest Arkansas, I have met and worked out with a number of people, and have learned from everyone… My early students, Daryl, Harry and Spencer, and my first “kid” Ben, were all a blast to work with…
What do I want to work on for myself in 2007? IKCA kenpo, koryu uchinadi, TKD, xiaohongchuan, the yang family version of the yang long form (at least the 1st 2 sections)... Sun 73 and 32 sword, and i need to seriously revisit my shorin-ryu core forms and bojutsu... all this and teach 3 days a week, work from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. five or six days a week, and oh yeah, world peace.
Rock on. | | Sunday, March 18th, 2007 | | 8:04 pm |
Random thoughts on dan-level ranking
Had a bunch of weird thoughts while laid up with a stomach virus and a very high fever about dan level ranking, you know 2nd - 10th degree black belt ranks.. and i thought i would try and write them down before i forget it - it was kind of an "out of body enlightenment" experience or at least the fever made it seem that way...
it is generally acknowledged that ranking in martial arts is at best, in most cases, a superficial way of marking "time served," kind of like hashmarks in the Navy - stripes enlisted men wear on their sleeves to show each time they've re-enlisted. yellow belt 3 months, brown belt 2 years, etc., etc.
So given that the colored belts are in fable drawn from the seasons, (or from the results of not washing a piece of material for years), what about gradiations in black belt? wouldn't it simply mean that dank ranking would reflect tenure? Ideally there is an obvious increase in skill and knowledge with time, of course, but shouldn't there be time and or age requirements for dan ranks?
Of course there are such requirements, and this is where the wicket gets sticky. The requirements are wildly divergent. some schools require 1 year, 2 year, 3 year progressions - some have a strict 3 years per dan requirement... some have a requirement above 3rd dan that rank is tied with number of black belt students promoted by testing party, usually at the financial benefit of the rank-awarding organization...
And objectively, what does the rank grade mean? My dearest sensei is a sandan, and has close to 45 years' martial arts expertise in karate, jujitsu, and iaido. i have met yodans with a grand total of 10 years' experience in solely taekwondo, and just one style of taekwondo from one school in Arkansas, and he (at the ripe age of 28) had no qualms with calling himself 'master' because his TKD organization says 4th degree equals "master."
Typically in organizations these days, dan ranking is no longer linked automatically with teaching credentials, either - most organizations have teacher certification programs - some are legit, some or bogus, some are somewhere in between. But nowadays no one, i believe, assumes a 4th dan means necessarily excellent or even qualified instructor.
Once upon a time, of course, that was not the case - i have a book in my martial library authored by a brown belt, for example, and when i was a preteen in the early 70s my big brother knew a guy who was a brown belt and we thought that was really something... now of course, every third co-worker's 8 year-old is a black belt, it seems, so the mystique is faded - which is my point.
There are several organizations promoting national instructor certification - eventually one of them will get it right and that can become a standard for teaching... we need a Octagon for instruction and dan rank certification - the two need to be divided and standardized, or done away with... i would vote for the latter, i would just like to see kyu and dan ranks, and then above dan ranks come instructor ranks...
back to my fever dreams - jumping in and rings around trees... in my fevered state i saw the black belt initiation as a club initiation - sort of a gang "jumping in" (at the MMA muay thai WWF end of the stick) or a Oddfellows or FFA initiation at the mellower end of the martial arts spectrum... then i saw my own idea, that gradiations in dan rank should be other dan ranks, i.e., i get a black belt in TKD, 1st dan, then a black belt in aikido 2nd dan, then shotokan, 3rd dan... an idea of dan rank stripes showing growth and accumulation, like the rings of a tree trunk, rather than just markers of time... then i saw instructor certification as being something else entirely, which probably came from recently viewing some ATA material where they plainly show the instructor's qualifications with a rank hashmark worn on the uniform sleeve...
so did my fever dreams mean anything? probably to me, it meant i think about this silly shit too much, even when delirious. But i also think i am on the right track with what i hope to see happen in the martial arts in my lifetime, as the art and sport moves out of the closet and garage and minimall and into the real world...
next installment: what happens to my ego if i throw away my 8th degree soke decoder ring? | | Friday, February 16th, 2007 | | 1:06 am |
By What Authority Are You Doing These Things? Mark 11:27-12:12
(I found this in Forward Day by Day, a great Episcopalian daily reader/mediation booklet published by Foward Movement - it applies beautifully to martial arts)
YOU GO TO SCHOOL and graduate. then you go to college and graduate. Graduate school or seminary and you graduate again. If you haven't graduated from something, you feel you have to explain, somehow - even if you know beyond a doubt that people don't learn half of what they know in any classroom. A diploma doesn't confer authority. It symbolizes the acquisition of a body of one kind of knowledge, but there are many ways to learn that no diploma could capture.
The authority with which you do what you do comes from within. What lies within you is what made you do all that studying. It is passion and mission, that which lies within you, and it drive you into adulthood, into the place where mere knowledge becomes true wisdom.
Wisdom is hard to define but easy to spot. It was what the traditional teachers saw in Jesus. They didn't know where it came from, but they knew without a doubt that he had it. It carries a sureness with it wherever it goes. It doesn't hesitate to admit its own ignorance of this or that, and remains eager to learn and happy to teach, throughout all its days. | | 12:31 am |
Congratulations Mr. Grigsby!
On Feb. 10, 2007 Mr. Phil Grigsby was promoted to Nidan in our shorin-ryu style, Okuhara-ha, making him a full instructor in the style and co-chairman of the Okuhara-Ha Shorin-Ryu Karate Do Association.
Everyone who trains with Mr. Grigsby knows what a wonderful martial artist he is, and what a diverse background of martial talents he brings to the dojo. Besides being the 2nd highest ranking black belt in the association, he is a black belt in USTF taekwondo and a certified instructor in the late legendary Terry Gibson's martial arts association.
With over 16 years experience as a black belt and over 5 years experience in shorin-ryu, Mr. Grigsby's promotion was well overdue.
Our association grades dan ranks based on skill, time in the arts, teaching abilities, creativity, and overall contribution to the martial arts.
Among his other accomplishments, Mr. Grigsby created the rokute form for our beginning level self-defense and freefighting training, as well as creating a number of unique two-man drills based on seishan kata and freefighting techniques.
Congratulations, Phil! Oss! | | Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 | | 1:29 am |
Masayuki Ward I was sorry and very surprised to read about Mabo Ward's recent legal troubles. There was much "wrong" with the story of his arrest, and besides the obvious problems, to me it is sad that he had to repress his inner self to the extent that he found himself in such a situation. Aside from his rather minor, albeit embarassing, brush with the law, there is also a shorin-ryu site which calls Master Ward's martial arts history into question. http://www.inch.com/~sritter/oskia/currentnews.htmThe countless factions of shorin-ryu and the constant bickering between all off shoots and lineages is really annoying. Other arts suffer from this bullshit, even new arts, i suppose - you see it in american kenpo and jeet kune do, but not as badly as in shorin-ryu! One of the reasons i was driven to discover where and from whom the shorin-ryu i learned in the Navy came from was because of all the elitist shorin-ryu experts i met who suggested i was at best mistaken in my katas, at worst just faking them... even when i found schools and styles that were within the same subspecies of shorin-ryu as me, i.e. kyan-shorin-ryu, they were snippy with each other, and breaking into different factions - even seibukan has factions... my disgust with the whole factionalism has been one reason i have separated myself from shorin-ryu karateka, and have concentrated on chinese kenpo the last couple of years, along with my taijiquan practice. history is interesting, and it's fun to think about and read about, but when the rubber meets the road, history don't mean shit. either you got juice or you don't, and from everything i've heard, Mabo Ward has the right stuff. People fuck up, hell, i've made it my life's mission to fuck up at least once every 48 hours... but it isn't your fuckups that define who you are. and it certainly doesn't matter how your teacher's teacher held his pinky in Seisan. it's how you come back that counts. seven times down, eight times up.  | | 1:25 am |
Shorinji-ryu Karate (an article by the late Jane Hallander for Black Belt magazine on Chotoku Kyan-lineage shorin-ryu) visit http://www.shorinji.net for additional history and good info and bunkai videos. China's Shaolin Temple is generally credited as the root of many contemporary Chinese martial arts. Its influence was so extensive that even present day Japanese karate may owe its existence to Shaolin monks. Many people claim Okinawan karate systems developed from Chinese martial arts, primarily Shaolin styles. Since Japan borrowed its empty-hand karate from Okinawa, it's reasonable to assume the Shaolin Temple was behind it all. If that's the case, why doesn't today's karate reflect the fighting style and techniques of Shaolin martial arts? Maybe a look at one of Japan's few remaining traditional karate systems will reveal the answer. The system's name, shorinji, means "Shaolin Temple," a reference to its Chinese origins. When you know the concepts of Japan's shorinji-ryu karate system, you'll see the connection with China's Shaolin martial arts. Shorinji is different from other karate styles because its basic premise is to first evade the enemy's attack. Shorinji stylists try to avoid any direct countering blocks and instead, like some Chinese practitioners evade, counterstrike, and apply a submission technique such as a joint lock or throw. A shorinji practitioner's most common defense is getting out of the way of an oncoming attack, rather than stopping it with forceful power blocks. After that he may follow with a counter blow that leads to a submission technique such as a choke or pressure point manipulation. Shorinji evasion is done either by moving the body away from the attack or, like aikido, redirecting the enemy's blows by using kicks or punches as if they were blocks. Shorinji practitioners learn the application of their unique style primarily from a series of traditional fighting kata (forms). Although other karate systems have modernized their kata, shorinji still clings to the old ways. Don't confuse "modern" karate with the present day. In martial arts terms, "modern" dates from when karate came to Japan from Okinawa. However, according to shorinji expert Iwao Tamotsu, his is the only karate system that still practices only traditional kata and techniques. "Before Japanese kata became modernized, it was entirely fighting oriented," Tamotsu says. "Modern kata is more sports oriented." He further explains that forms tell the history of the martial arts itself. Traditional kata were strictly for self-defense training. Empty-hand techniques were influenced by weapons, because in a serious fight, weapons gave one the best advantage. For instance, the knife- or sword-hand block was named and patterned after the weapon of the same name. Since ancient Japanese rulers did not allow the practice of martial arts on Okinawa, certain fighting techniques were hidden under the guise of empty-hand forms practice. Weapons kata were especially disguised. For instance, many kata that appear today as empty-hand forms were actually staff kata. Tamotsu believes many modern karate kata techniques have been developed for appearance, with hand movements fashionably designed for competition, making them look much different than their original application. Since shorinji kata and techniques are based on practical use, the stances are shorter and narrower than modern karate. Present-day karate systems employ wider, lower stances and footwork. The shorinji-ryu logic for shorter stances is that while wider postures better develop hip and leg muscles, the older, shorter stances have more practical mobility, allowing easy forward and backward movement. This works especially well with shorinji's tactical program of evasion. While most modern karate stylists must first pivot in their low stances before they can move or turn, shorinji practitioners just move the entire body back and forth. Modern karate forms use sequential pivoting on the ball of the foot to change direction during a kata. Shorinji stylists merely change from one point to another, with the body switching direction as a unit— much more practical and quicker action. Tamotsu believes karate stances were originally changed to meet the needs of modern man who, with more knee and back problems, doesn't move the same as did ancient fighters. Martial artists of yesteryear did much more cross-legged sitting, kneeling and squatting, which strengthens legs. Because shorinji stylists emphasize traditional kata techniques, meditation is also part of their training. There are three types of meditation found in kata --—sitting, standing, and moving. Shorinji-ryu uses all three to develop students' focus and intention, essentials for combat training. Kata are started either by sitting or standing In a meditative position, then pausing for a moment to calm the mind and set it in the right perspective. When the kata actually begins, the movements are executed with purpose and intention, which is considered moving meditation. Modern Japanese systems often lack a structured meditation method to set mental intention. Instead, they try only visualizing) the opponent. There are also more physical power movements in modern karate practice, so a kata starts fast and maintains the accelerated speed throughout the form. Shorinji kata start slower due to the meditative factor. The speed throughout the form also varies, displaying different power intensities. Some say this type of traditional kata is more internal than modern forms. A primary reason for meditation in kata is to develop fighting spirit. Tamotsu believes there is an element of mental discipline in kata meditation. Standing meditation is usually considered kata's ready position. Shorinji stylists use standing meditation at the start and end of a kata to initiate posture and breathing control. In between, moving meditation or concentration develops the external martial aspects of muscle control, power and speed. "In the beginning stages of karate training you will visualize opponents in front of you," Tamotsu explains. "As you progress, the real opponent becomes yourself, while you concentrate on application and correctness, improving your own skills. At higher levels of training, kata becomes an artistic form as you perfect minute segments, applying concentration and discipline." Many shorinji stylists believe that modern kata practice may make martial artists physically stronger, but falls short at developing combat skills. The emphasis of modern kata often appears to be on aesthetics, not actual fighting development. Older traditional styles generally emphasized kata over sparring or technique training. They didn't fully develop techniques until students thoroughly understood the kata movements and their applications. For this reason, Tamotsu believes traditional forms require more concentration than kata from modern styles. While many modern kata contain primarily simplified techniques, such as kicks and punches, older forms applied to all types of self-defense, including grabs and throws. Since modern kata is simplified, strikes are easier to visualize. Older Japanese forms are often hard to understand unless explained by a knowledgeable instructor. Even kicking techniques in shorinji kata reflect original combat karate basics. Original Okinawan karate styles used only a front and side kick. Even side kicks were really front kicks. The switch to true side kicks came after karate spread to Japan. There were no roundhouse kicks in Okinawan karate, nor are there any in today's shorinji-ryu. Even tae kwon do only recently added roundhouse kicks to its arsenal. Tae kwon do's forerunner, Tang soo do, contained no true roundhouse kicks. While traditional karate kata have no roundhouse kicks, some of today's newer forms have incorporated them. Modern karate styles use a variety of forms, each with its unique purpose. Of course, modern forms do retain some of the original influence. The most noticeable change, however, is in the basic stances. While other systems went to long, deep stances, shorinji stances stayed shorter and narrower like traditional Okinawan styles. The mobility the upright position offers is more important to combat-oriented shorinji practitioners than the added balance of longer, deeper stances. Tamotsu sums up shorinji-ryu's combat kata training in one simple sentence: "Without traditional kata, you have no martial art, merely boxing." About the Author: Jane Hallander is a San francisco based freelance writer and martial artist. | | Friday, January 19th, 2007 | | 2:53 am |
Kensho or Krazy Talk?
bruce lee was right - kata is classical mess in essence
because with a kata you are living in the past, not
the present, and kata trains reflex instead of
response - response is engaged, reflex is dead,
knee-jerk reaction... technical training (kenpo) is
only slightly better in that the tech/waza become mini
kata and again encapsulate the nowness making it the
"then"ness -
how then do we train to be engaged and responsive to
what is actually happening?
artistic expression thru kata, waza and movement is not
nowness, but it is preconditioned and predetermined by practice - nowness
comes only from originality and spontaneity ... if you are in a pattern you are by default not free... i think this was sifu lee's point...
what is the original technique? how do you train it? i
guess zazen...
yet training is the way, musashi says, and even lee saw that you had to walk down the trail to see where it goes...
this is basically notes to myself, and the invitation to dialogue... everyone is welcome to put in their two cents' worth..
i think bruce's classical mess argument has been used by many to hop into willy-nillyness and as an excuse to not train seriously, although bruce was frighteningly serious in his training... what did he see that i'm missing, or what am i seeing that he missed?
forms are beautiful, and fun, and historically significant texts. but they aren't the thing itself, they aren't combat, or expression of self, or even forms. forms are formless - look how many versions of "seisan" there are, for example! is one right or wrong?
let me know what you think! post here or email me at kyanshorinryu@yahoo.com... |
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