Japanese Plural

This is a small point. There is no plural in Japanese.

Most nouns in Japanese have no plural form, (we have the same in English with Sheep, Shrimp, Deer... although not always true in the South) so you use the same word whether you're using a singular noun or a plural noun. There are rare exceptions when a Japanese noun does have a plural form, but it is not marked by adding an"s" at the end of the word. (Usually the plural form simply repeats the word using the "voiced" sound for the first consonant. Ex: hito - person - becomes hitobito - people - and kami - god - would be kamigami - gods. 

So you would say one waza, two waza. You would not say two wazas. You don't add the English letter "s" to Japanese words to make them plural.

 Two Sensei - Toyama and Culbreth

 

Thus, I would say that I have two sensei, not two senseis. I would study five kata, not five katas. I would visit two dojo, not two dojos. I would also refer to the two Rohai kata rather than the two Rohai katas.

The Samurai and Hell

A samurai named Nobushige came to Zen Master Hakuin and asked: 

"Is there really a paradise and a hell?"

 "Who are you?" inquired Hakuin.

"I am a samurai", the warrior replied.

"You, a samurai!" sneered Hakuin, "What kind of Daimyo would have you as his retainer? You look like a beggar". 

Nobushige became so angry that he began to draw his sword, but Hakuin continued: "So you do have a sword! Too bad it's probably too dull to chop my head off."

As Nobushige drew his sword Hakuin remarked: "Here open the gates of hell!"

The samurai, perceiving the master's discipline, put away his sword and bowed.

"Here open the gates of paradise", said Hakuin.

BADUAN JIN - 8 Pieces of Brocade Qi Gong

The Baduanjin (simplified Chinese: 八段锦气功) is one of the most commonly practiced forms of Chinese qigong.

Usually translated as Eight Pieces of Brocade, the name of the form refers to the way the body should be able to flow as a piece of brocade or silk due to the beneficial effects of this exercise. Baduan Jin includes 8 moves.

Some of Baduan Jin moves resemble some of Yi Jin Jing's and are stretching meridians and muscles in very similar ways.  

There are 2 versions of the exercise - standing and sitting. 4 years ago I used the standing version in my warming up routine at the beginning of my classes. Actually, we are still performing some of the moves, in a slightly different form. I will consider reintroducing this exercise next fall, as it is easier to practice and memorize than the Yi Jin Jing we are currently practicing.

Michael Garofalo has published a very interesting study on this Qi Gong, (Link to Eight Section Brocade Qigong)

3 Treatises on Swordsmanship - and Zen...

The Battle of Sekigahara on October 21, 1600 cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu. Though it would take three more years for Ieyasu to consolidate his position of power over the Toyotomi clan and the daimyo, this battle is considered to be the unofficial beginning of the Edo period, or Tokugawa shogunate.

At the beginning of this period, 3 short treatises on swordsmanship appeared which would become influential far beyond what their authors originally intended.

The First classical treatise on swordsmanship was The Mysterious Record of Unmoving Wisdom, (Fudochi Shinmyoroku) written by Zen Master Takuan Soho around 1632. This treatise looks at Swordsmanship from the perspective of Zen. 
It specially emphasizes the importance of keeping the mind free of attachment and fixations.  
On the battlefield, this means keeping the mind from stopping on anything, whether the stance, the opponent's sword, the technique, anything that could prevent the mind from moving freely.

The Second classical treatise on swordsmanship was The Life Giving Sword (Heiho Kandensho) written by Yagyu Munenori around 1632 also. The philosophy of this treatise is based on the above mentioned Fudochi Shinmyoroku written by Takuan for his friend and disciple Munenori.

It emphasizes in a similar way the importance of keeping the mind free of attachment to details of techniques, or even to the idea of winning. This treatise is however much more technical in its description of certain techniques Munenori inherited from his father and his father's master, the legendary Kamiizumi Ise no Kami Hidetsuna.

The Third classical treatise was the famed Book of Five Rings (Gorin no Sho) written by Miyamoto Musashi between 1643 and 1645. Although the Philosophy underlying Musashi's book is also to keep the Mind Free from any attachment, Musashi puts high emphasis on the technique of Swordsmanship, and does not consider the willingness to win as a hindrance, but as a mean to complete one's duty to one's Lord, but the willingness to survive the fight as one attachment that could mean defeat. 

Yagyu Munenori was a disciple and friend of Takuan. It is not clear whether Musashi ever met Munenori, although they were together in Edo(Tokyo)in 1623. Musashi also very likely met Takuan around 1630 after he had been temporarily banished to Northern Japan.

Numerous translations of these treatises are available, but I particularly enjoy the ones by William Scott Wilson. 

These are :

The Unfettered Mind – includes the Fudochi Shinmyoroku and 2 other texts by Takuan.

The Life Giving Sword by Yagyu Munenori

The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi.

Mr Wilson gives us clean, accurate and lively translations of these 3 great texts. Although he is not himself a swordsman, the help he received from persons qualified in this domain make his translations very valuable for whoever is interested in how Martial Arts and Zen were related in 17th century Japan.

The Wheel of Life

In his book "The Wheel of Life", John Blofeld tells us about his life journey into Buddhism, his unusual attraction toward it during his British childhood, and his further discovery and practice of it in Asia, mostly in pre-red China and Tibet. His book, written in a beautiful style,describes the errances of an average human being on his way to something he is not quite sure about with all the tours and detours, the difficulties, the mistakes, the delays, as each one of us experience them at one time or another in our progressions in Zen or Budo.

In his quest, Mr Blofeld practiced various forms of Buddhism and finally realized that one particular Tibetan tradition fitted him the best.  Among the different traditions he practiced Zen (or Chan as it is named in China) for 9 full month in a Chinese Monastery.

Here is how he describes Zen in comparison to the other ways of Buddhism.

"In time I discovered that it had been a great error to suppose that Zen is a simple approach to Truth. Despite the absence of insuperable linguistic difficulties, it is in some ways the most difficult of all possible approaches, just a a short cut to the top of a steep mountain  is the most arduous route for the climber... "

Mountain climbing... It would come to nobody's mind to climb mount Everest without proper training; not only one needs to have developed a serious knowledge of the particulars of mountain climbing - through climbing smaller mountains, and practicing repelling, or other practices I am not aware of, because I dwas born on the ocean and don't know much about Mountain climbing; but it also requests serious physical conditioning such as endurance training, jogging, weight lifting, etc, etc... activities not directly related to the discipline of Mountain climbing, however important to practice properly. 

So, in order to successfully practice Mountain climbing, one has to master specific mountain climbing techniques. But also,  in order to enhance the efficiency of these specific techniques, one needs to know and practice other techniques, not directly related to the real goal. 

And I am wondering. Are they non specific techniques we could practice to enhance our Zazen practice ?

Iai Demonstation

A great Iai Jutsu demonstration by Sensei Javier Machado from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Sensei Javier Machado teaches MJER Iaijutsu, Shito Ryu Karate and  Kobudo at his dojo the Machado Budo Kai in Buenos Aires. He is a student of Renshi Carl Long Sensei.

An Eye for an Eye...

Here is a  passage from the General Introduction  to The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, edited by W.Y. Evans Wetz.

This might explain why after all these years of "An Eye for an Eye ", mankind has not progressed so much.

So long as men are held in the bondage of appearances, so long will they use such terms as moral and immoral, right and wrong, good and evil, and enact laws to preserve virtue and to destroy vice; not knowing that all sentient beings are members of one body, even as the Christian Seer St Paul perceived; and that therefore, whatever punishment be meted out to the one part cannot but affect all parts of the social organism. In this connexion the writer recalls how, when a student under the late Professor Williams James, he was taught that if even the most inconspicuous Eskimo within the Arctic Circle were to suffer pain and misfortune, it would inevitably affect, although unconsciously, every other human being on the planet. And the eminent psychologist illustrated his teaching by pointing put that if the tiniest pebble were picked up and p[aced elsewhere, event at a very short distance from its original resting place, the whole center of gravity of the Earth would be shifted.

For these reasons, none of the fully enlightened Teachers have advocated, as do the unenlightened multitude, the infliction of suffering and death upon others. Throughout uncounted milleniums, even as now, the unenlightened, the world-fettered, have maintained that this doctrine of the Enlightened Ones is impracticable, that if society is to be held together there must be the jungle law of eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Because of man's failure to rewrite his legal codes in the light of Divine Wisdom, the world today is probably more given to serious crime, particularly in the legalized form of war, than at any epoch in known history. And, notwithstanding that humanly instituted laws have failed to make man good or brotherly or wise after all these milleniums, Ignorance remains unshaken. Inevitably, as the Great Gurus teach, what men sow in law-courts or on battle-fields produces ever new harvests; and the sowing will continue until they recognize, individually and collectively, the Higher Law of the Divine At-one-ment of mankind, irrespective of nationality, race, religion, or social status, and, equally, of everything that lives.