Posture

 

The least amount of leaning or twisting our torso tremendously decreases our stability. Keeping vertical and straight is extremely important no matter what we are doing, meditating, walking or fighting (from a standing position).

A common advice given to help us keep this proper posture is to imagine a golden thread glued to the crown of our head is pulling it upward.

Now it is a beautiful image, but it is not easy for everyone to imagine this kind of things. 

Last November, my Sword Master Carl Long Hanshi told us to make sure to always see our belly or chest in our peripheral vision when looking horizontally. 

I like this much better than the Golden Thread way, and it also works for Martial Arts as well as for Meditation. It is easier for most of us to see things than to imagine them. 

Positive secondary effect : Deeper breathing.

Additionally, while this should be part of our formal Zendo and Dojo practice, it can and therefore should also be practiced in everyday's life. 

This is primordial.

Zen, Budo and Flying.

Back to the Pilot analogy

You can try to learn everything about the theory of flights. You'll never will be able to fly. 

Buddhism and Martial Arts are the same.  If you spend your life trying to understand, you will become a Buddhist or a Martial Arts Scholar. You won't have acquired any useful skills and all you'll have learned won't really help you when you need it. 

On another hand, some believe they practice Zen by spending hours in a row sitting without moving or thinking at all. They are like someone who would sit in the cockpit of the plane, close their eyes, and believe they really are flying. 

Some other people practice and teach crazy things (Yes, you can become a certified light saber fighting instructor !) and believe they could actually fight. 

Buddhism and Budo first and for all are practices. 

Find a teacher, learn how to fly ! 

 

The 9 Confucian Ways of Thinking

Even if they don't always know how it happened, most Westerners have heard about the influence of Zen and Taoism on traditional Asian Fighting Arts. 

What is less well know though, is the immense influence that Confucius had on them. 

Let me give you just one example :

Confucius elaborated on the concept of "thinking" by saying that if you wish to become a cultivated person you should possess nine ways of thinking, these being:

1. when looking at something, think about seeing it clearly;
2. when listening to something, think about hearing it clearly;
3. when showing facial expressions, think about keeping a warm attitude;
4. when behaving, think about keeping a manner of respect;
5. when speaking, think about speaking honestly and plausibly;
6. when conducting some business, think about doing it carefully;
7. when you are puzzled or have a problem to solve, think about seeking advice from others;
8. when becoming angry, think about calming yourself; and
9. when seeing there is a profit to be made, think about whether it is proper to pursue that profit.

If you now consider the 5 precepts of Yoshukai Karate : 

Respect and Manners

Be prudent in Speech, 

Be prudent in action

Keep High spirit

Keep yourself clean

It becomes quite clear how much our arts were influenced by Master Kong...

In this remarquable video, Masayaki Shimabukuro Hanshi and Carl Long Kyoshi demonstrate the details of the 2 waza Tsukikage and Suigetsuto. These kenjutsu waza are performed with a boken - a wooden sword. They are part of Tahiuchi no kurai set of the Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu school of Japanese Swordsmanship.

Carl Long Sensei  goes a very long way to explain all the details of these 2 techniques, how it's done, and why it's done that way. This is very important, too often, in Iaido, Karate or other Budo, you see people perform techniques in a way that may be at times elegant, but is also wrong, because they were never told (or they forgot) what these techniques really were about. When you get to that point, you don't do Martial Arts anymore, but a sort of aerobics... If you can remember the details exposed here, and try to practice keeping them in mind, you should improve your own technique.

This segment is part of a set of 3 DVD available on line.

Buy them, train with them

(don't just leave them on a shelf...)

Self-Control vs Self-Esteem

In some Martial Arts Schools or tournament, every kid receives a trophy or medal, there are no losers, you don't want to hurt these little creature's feelings or self esteem. I have always thought that this is not the way to prepare people to behave in the real world. 

I believe that Martial Arts help us become better people who can positively impact our environment, society, community and country through cultivation of self control and self discipline - this is not an easy task. Self esteem acquired without working to improve one's self control is a worthless and even possibly toxic luxury

Angela Duckworth, is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Following her research on the importance of grit in achieveing success,  she was called in by West Point to predict which cadets have what it takes to survive the tough atmosphere at the academy...

Question to Ms Duckworth : Which is more important, self-discipline or self-esteem, for being successful as a student?


Answer : Ah, how great to be asked this question!

We did a study in which we followed kids for four years. We took their self-control ratings from parents and teachers and the kids themselves. We tracked them every year, and we kept their grades from school records, not from their own reports on their grades. We pitted self-control and self-esteem - we also took measures for both - against each other. Here's what we found: When kids increase in self-control, their grades go up later. But when kids increase their self-esteem, there is no effect on their grades. 

The bottom line is that our research shows that self-control is more important than self-esteem in determining achievement. 

People have been studying self-esteem for a long time, and this allows you to compare the self-esteem of kids who grew up in the nineties with, say, those who grew up in the seventies or eighties with regard to self-esteem. Self-esteem has gone up in the United States; achievement has not. 

If anything, compared with other countries, we have done worse, but our kids feel really good about themselves on average. What seems particularly interesting, and there is an article by J. P. Tangney on this, is that there is an uncoupling between your perception of your own competence and how much you like yourself. Many American kids, particularly in the last couple of decades, can feel really good about themselves without actually being good at anything. This is the problem with the "self-esteem at all costs" message. 

Self-esteem should be earned. I find that parents today, at least those in a high socioeconomic bracket, never want to say anything critical of their children. Everybody has to be a winner. You take your children to a soccer game, and they don't keep score anymore. They don't want anybody to lose. Well, it's a good thing for kids to lose sometimes. They see what it's like to get up again. They realize it's not the end of the world. 

Self-Control...

The scholar Roy Baumeister began believing in self-esteem as a predictor of success, but he did studies and it isn't. Self-control is.   


Read the full article

Early mention of Martial Arts in the Ryu Kyu Islands.

In 1816 the ships Alceste and Lyra made the first known British government contacts with both the Koreans and the Ryukyu Islanders. Captain Basil Hall was captain of the Lyra and he left us an interesting journal of this trip.  (Captain Basil Hall : Voyage to Loo Choo and other places in the Eastern Seas in the year 1816.)

I was mostly trying to find information about the practice of Martial Arts in the Ryu Kyu islands (Okinawa is the biggest Island of the Ryu Kyu archipelago, in these times named Loo Choo. Leu Cheu, or Lew Chew by the Brits.)

The Brits recorded the great gentleness of the very peaceful natives, and the fact that there were no weapons to be found anywhere on the islands.

However, after describing the amazing dancing abilities of Maddera – the highest ranking official in charge of the communication with the Brits - Captain Basil describes the following incident : 

... Maddera, who, to use a common phrase, was up to everything, ran amongst them, seized one of the dancers by the shoulders, and pushing him on one side, took his place, and kept up the reel with the same spirit, and exactly in the same style and step as the sailors. The other dances were left off, the music played with double spirit, and the whole ship's company assembled around Maddera, cheering and clapping hands till the reel was over. The chiefs joined in the applause, not less surprised than we were at this singular fellow's skill; for his imitation of the sailors' peculiar steps and gestures was so exact as if he had lived on board ship all his life. The officers and midshipmen then danced together, after which the chiefs, unasked, and with a sort of intuitive politeness, which rendered everything they did appropriate, instantly stepped forward, and danced, as they had before done in the cabin, several times round the quarter-deck, to the unspeakable delight of the sailors.

On returning to the cabin to tea, the chiefs amused themselves with a sort of wrestling game; Ookooma, who had seen us placing ourselves in sparring attitudes, threw himself suddenly into the boxer's position of defense, assuming at the same time a fierceness of look which we had never before seen in any of them. The gentleman to whom he addressed himself happening to be a boxer, and thinking that Ookooma really wished to spar, prepared to indulge him with a round. Maddera's quick eye, however, saw what was going on, and by a word or two made the chief instantly resume his wonted sedateness. We tried in vain to make Maddera explain what were the magical words which he had used; but he seemed anxious to turn our thoughts from the subject, by saying, '' Loo-Choo man no fight; Loo-Choo man write, No fight, no good fight; Ingerish very good; Loo-Choo man no fight." Possibly he considered Ookooma was taking too great a liberty; or perhaps be thought even the semblance of a battle inconsistent with the strict amity subsisting between us.

So here we have several interesting facts : 

• The head of the delegation was very good at dancing. Okinawan Kata of a long time ago were practiced and demonstrated at public celebrations as dances – a way to fool the Satsuma samurai occupying the Ryukyu, who could not openly tolerate the practice of martial arts. (This tactic was also used by Karate Masters at the beginning of the US occupation in 1945-46 when Martial Arts had been banned). Dr Tsuyoshi Chitose - founder of Chito Ryu Karate was himself a very good dancer (Note 1)

• Wrestling was openly practiced by the natives of Ryu Kyu.  When Ookooma,  under the influence of Sake, proposed to box against one of the sailors, he naturally put himself in a boxing position, and took a very fierce look. A little strange for one of the Natives deemed so peaceful by the Brits. It seems to me that this guy had been training before...  
• When this happened, the head of the delegation immediately stopped everything and explained that the sailor was very good, and the Native did not need to fight him. Was this an other instance of trying to keep actual fighting abilities hidden from the general public, and even more so from foreigners ?

• The Brits had absolutely no clue of what had been going on.

Note 1 - Mr. Van Horne had been in Japan training in 1971 and one day he was watching a local television program depicting a group of dancers going through an old dance routine. As he was watching this program he happened to notice others in the room looking toward the doorway and, there, going through the same movements, was Chitose, and as Mr. Van Horne stated, "with more grace and fluidity than those on the program". He spoke with Chitose concerning what he had just seen and was told "this is one method we used to cover some of our early training sessions when the occupation was being enforced". The American Military had banned most martial training and to get around the rules some other format had to be presented to hide what was actually taking place. Chitose said that in this manner, dance, kata could be practiced without the foreigners understanding what was happening.  

Extract from an article in the Dragon Times about Tsuyoshi Chitose - Founder of Chito Ryu Karate