The Spirit of KI

This is a second extract of an article by Zen Master Matsuoka Roshi. Matsuoka Roshi was the instructor of Taiun Elliston Roshi, Abbott of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and founder of the Silent Thunder Order. Matsuoka Roshi's teachings have been recording in 2 books : "Mokurai" and "the Kyosaku" (Now available for downloading). This part is specifically about the spirit of "KI" (CHI of QI in Chinese). The way Matsuoka Roshi explains KI is down to earth, intuitive and very easy to grasp.

             The spirit of “ki” in the Martial Arts is very important. When your mental condition is imperfect or clouded, you cannot use your whole potential. But, when your mind, or heart, or spirit, is completely pure and clear and calm, your action will be spontaneous and contain boundless power. If your mind is clear, your opponent will not be able to predict when you will attack, or defend, or what technique you may use.

To understand this further, imagine a father sitting beside his young baby. The father can look into the infant’s face and see only pure, clear eyes. The father will never be able to see that in the next moment the baby will hit him in childish gesture. And yet, the baby hits his father unexpectedly. The father simply could not foresee that his son would strike, in the baby’s innocent face. The baby’s mind is clear and pure. Such a young child does not plan or think to hit his father a moment later. He just hits when the impulse strikes him. He acts naturally, spontaneously.

If your mind is as clear as a young child’s, neither will your opponent be able to foresee your next technique. Your action will flow harmoniously from a union of your mind, your body and your spirit. Your pure mind or spirit will conquer your opponent. And your pure mind will come to you from Zen. 
 

          I would like to add to Matsuoka Roshi what I have learned from my own experience - when you act in the same way the baby acts, not only will your opponent know what you are going to do, but neither do you, actually, once you did act, you might not even be quite sure about what you did. Actually, you did not do anything. Whatever happened happened through you, without you really trying to make it happen. This is what is called the "Samadhi of Action".

          It would be a mistake to believe that such thing could ever occur without serious training...

Lineage & Legacy of the Silent Thunder Order

 

The Sangha of the Silent Thunder Order traces its origin to Master Eihei Dogen, founder of Soto Zen in 13th-Century Japan. A few generations later Master Keizan popularized Dogen Zen throughout Japan. Dogen is often called the "father" of Soto Zen in Japan, while Keizan is called its "mother." We have chosen cloud, or "un" in Japanese, as the family name for members of our Order, after the dharma name his teacher gave to Elliston Roshi : Taiun, meaning "Great Cloud." 

Our lineage founder, Zengaku Soyu Matsuoka Roshi, was born in 1912 and died in 1997. He came to the United States in 1939, when he was just 27 years old. He said his mother told him, "go die in America." He was tireless in propagating Soto Zen to Americans, first on the West Coast and later in the Midwest, and one of the first to promote the practice of Zen meditation for westerners. Sensei, as he asked his student to call him, was a student and friend of Daisetz Suzuki, the famous scholar who popularized Rinzai Zen in the West. 

A black-belt in Judo, he was very active in the martial arts, adviser to the Chicago Police Department Kyokushinkai Karate Association and National Karate Association, promoting the practice of zazen.

By the 1960s when Elliston Roshi - founder of the Order - first met him, Matsuoka Roshi had established the Chicago Zen Buddhist Temple, where he conducted his lay ordination...

Read the Full Article - with a slide show - about our Silent Thunder Order Lineage and Legacy.

Interview of Elliston Sensei

Taiun Michael Elliston is my Zen Zensei. Before him, his Sensei was Matsuoka Roshi.

The Japanese word sensei is composed of two characters : "sen", meaning previous or before and "sei", meaning birth or life.

A Sensei therefore is someone who has been "born before" you in the system you are studying and is therefore senior to you. This is not the same as the western idea of a coach. A Sensei can actually do what he teaches, he or she embodies the art, while a coach can teach you how to do something without necessarily being able to perform the skill him or herself. 

This transcript of an  Interview of Elliston Sensei provides interesting insights about our Silent Thunder Order.