Zen and Martial Arts complementarity

It is common belief that Zen practice will help someone progress in Martial Arts. 

Matsuoka Roshi, himself a black belt in Judo as written at length about it. Taisen Deshimaru even dedicated his book Zen Way to Martial Arts to this subject.

Tameshigiri

In an article about  Zen and Martial Arts the author writes : 

"The Samurai achieved perfection in martial arts such as kenjutsu, kyujutsu, and jujutsu through the practice of Zazen"

But I have met several Martial Arts Masters who reached  a high level of mastery without practicing Zen.

Even if it had a deep influence on the ways of the samurai class,  saying that Zen was THE basis of their spiritual training is a questionable generalization.

Now this being said, here is this week's question to you all :

Do you think the practice of Martial Arts can help someone progress in Zen ? 

I hope you had a happy thanksgiving and saved lots of money by not spending any during black Friday...

Culavedalla Sutra

Us Zen people do not care too much about Buddhist scriptures. We might be missing on some things. The Pali Canon has many gems...

As I was researching Mindfulness of Feelings, I discovered 2 weeks ago the Culavedalla Sutra and found it very interesting in 2 aspects :

• In this sutra, the teachings are given by a Nun named Dhammadinna while the Buddha is sitting beside her listening. After the talk, the Buddha said that he could not have taught any better and praised her. This is a good reminder of the importance of the contributions of Nuns to the Dharma.

• I finally found some clarification about the "neither pleasant nor non-pleasant" feeling, the one that leads to delusion if you let it take you away on arising. I had had quite some problems understanding what the damn thing could be. And there it was quite clearly : 

"Pleasant feeling is pleasant in remaining, & painful in changing, friend Visakha. Painful feeling is painful in remaining & pleasant in changing. Neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling is pleasant in occurring together with knowledge, and painful in occurring without knowledge."

Beside that, this Culavedalla sutra is very insightful about the 5 aggregates and the Noble Eightfold path. You might enjoy it... 

 

May all beings be happy...

 

TAMESHIGIRI training

Our next  Tameshigiri training session will be held this coming Saturday November 18 at the Mokurai Dojo in Headland, AL.

Please contact me at (334) 798 1639 or by email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com if you would like to attend.

Tenshin Ryu Kenjutsu : one origin of Yoshukai Iai

In 2014 I spent 2 hours at Mr Culbreth's residence with Soke Yamamoto to discuss Yoshukai Iai with him.

Soke showed me some bunkai for several of the waza and we also discussed the origin of Yoshukai Iai which he had not learned Iai from Dr Chitose but from 2 different masters from Kyushu. 

Although I am not exactly sure I fully understood Soke Yamamoto, I believe he had been training in Kumamoto in the 2 styles of Tenshin Ryu and Jigen Ryu, until one of the masters he was training with quit teaching.

In this Tenshin Ryu video, you can see where some of the Yoshukai Iai moves probably come from.

Although Tenshin Ryu Nodachi is much longer than the regular Katana used in Yoshukai iai, the waza at 1:40 is very close to the Yoshukai Waza #8, and the next one at 2:00  is very similar to our #7. 

Also, Chiburi and Noto are the same. 

I teach Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu Iaijutsu at the Yoshukai Karate Dojo in Dothan , Alabama. You can contact me at 334 798 1639 or by email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com