Developing the “Counter Intuition” of Kihon Happo

March 12, 13

Atlanta, Georgia – Stone Mountain Bujinkan Dojo

Contact: Randy Sessions   Rsessi307@aol.com Phone :770 630- 7450

March 19, 20

Chicago, Illinois – Bujinkan Jigokoro Dojo

Contact: Tony Brooks

March 21, 22

West palm Beach, Florida

Contact: Paul Fisher

March 26, 27

Joao Pessoa, Brazil

Contact: Simao Freitas  simaotaijutsu@hotmail.com

April 1, 2, 3

Bogota, Colombia

Contact: Andres Bernal    director@ninjacolombia.com  Phone: 3174373261

http://www.ninjacolombia.com/indes.html

April 9

Washington DC – Jujutsu Dojo of Colombia

Contact: Charles Collins  clcollins41@aol.com Phone: 443-956-0506

Everyday during training we are trying to learn more about balance. Actually in sensei’s first dvds you could read: “bujinkan: martial arts of distance”.

Proper distancing is given by footwork and proper footwork is created by balance. Take a cat for instance. Cats have this ability to always land onto their feet when they fall. This is what we are training to do in the dôjô. But this training requires years of hard work and can only be achieved through trial and error. Cats learn that from early age and when they grow up it is a natural ability they have developed.

Learning balance is learning from being unbalanced. It is the permanent teaching in the dôjô that will help you improve your own personal skills. As Malcolm Forbes put it: “Failure is success if we learn from it.” – so learn from your actions. “Shikin haramitsu daikomyô”, “in every action in our life there is something to learn from.”

Often I am amazed by how much we can learn from our daily mistakes. Accepting to make mistakes is accepting to learn. In the dôjô nothing matters and being wrong often ends with only a few bruises. There is no risk to be wrong in training as long as we learn to learn from this practical teaching. An error is not like a black spot on a white linen, it is a reason for improving ourselves. One of the Japanese shihan said one day in class that when we learn a new waza we make many mistakes and that by repeating and learning from these mistakes we make gradually less and less mistakes. This waza will never be perfect but at least will be heading towards perfection.

Balance in your taijutsu will bring balance in your life and this is the most important in the Bujinkan martial arts. Errors are making it possible for us to become better practitioners and better human beings. This is why accepting changes is of utmost importance. If you think you know and never change what you take for granted you cannot evolve. The things you know will work for you well in some occasions but will also bring more troubles in the long run. Remember the tao (道), and its “don’t do anything and nothing will be left undone”. Inaction will never bring action, actually by not accepting those permanent changes you are preventing yourself from success; it is like betting your life on a toss of a coin! This is wrong.

Whatever you do always consider that things are not stuck, everything evolves and everything flows. This is the nagare (流れ) that we are looking for. Footwork, distance and balance are linked and we accept to change. As Aristotle said “change in all things is sweet”, so we need to look for these changes in our lives and become true human beings.

photo by ghindo

In the Densho for Gyokko Ryu Kosshijutsu, one of the 9 schools we study in the Bujinkan, there is a precept which is expressed like this:

 Bu Shin Wa O Toutonasu 武心和を尊 The heart of the warrior holds peace righteous, or, a warrior heart holds harmony as sacred. 

Of course the idea of Wa or harmony is vital to understanding the physical aspects of our training. But there is something deeper in this idea. An idea that is deeply Japanese and connects us to the roots of our art and the history of Japan itself.

Wa 倭 until the 8th century, when the Japanese replaced it with 和 is the oldest recorded name of Japan. The idea of harmony in Japan is expressed in art, the tea ceremony, philosophy and even in daily manners or enforced through law. Many of the codes of honor of the Samurai were the result of an attempt to preserve harmony.

Honor of a bushi was most important in this code. Abusive language was punished by confiscation of the samurai's weapons and property or even banishment. All because it could lead to an armed fight over honor that might end in death. Striking a bushi was such a grave insult, that the offender would pay with his life or serious physical injury.

Hatsumi Sensei says that this Bushinwa idea from the Gyokko Ryu Densho can be traced  back to ideas expressed by Shotoku Taishi (573-621, the Prince of Holy Virtue, a Japanese regent, statesman, and scholar) in his Jushichijo no Kempo. This was one of Prince Shotoku's most important written pieces, the so-called "Seventeen-Article Constitution" completed in 604 AD. The title "constitution" does not accurately describe Prince Shotoku's writing. But, Shotoku's document does set forth 17 specific laws or principles applied to nation-wide behavior.

Hatsumi Sensei says,

 Early Samurai were strongly influenced by the teaching of Shotoku Taishi.  The first phrase from Shotoku Taishi's Seventeen article constitution, "Cherish the harmony among people" is assimilated into the Gyokko Ryu idea that "Bushin (the warrior heart) cherishes the harmony among people."

Here is that first article from Prince Shotoku,

604 AD, 4th Month, 3rd day.
(1) Harmony should be valued and quarrels should be avoided. Everyone has his biases, and few men are far-sighted. Therefore some disobey their lords and fathers and keep up feuds with their neighbors. But when the superiors are in harmony with each other and the inferiors are friendly, then affairs are discussed quietly and the right view of matters prevails.

Shotoku was himself strongly influenced by Confucian and Buddhist writings. So this idea was basically an adaptation of one of the Confucian Analects:

When there are no stirrings of pleasure, anger, sorrow, or joy, the mind may be said to be in a state of equilibrium. When those feelings are stirred and act in their due degree, there ensues what may be called a state of harmony. Equilibrium is the great root from which grow all acts of humanity; harmony is the universal path that guides them.
Let the states of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection, and a happy order will prevail throughout the heavens and earth, and all things will be nourished and flourish.

When Hatsumi Sensei says that we should not act out of personal desire, but learn how to fight to protect life, this is part of the depth behind those ideas. Peace, Harmony, and a better life for all! That's what the warrior's heart is all about.

As the old saying, " Bushiwa Aimi Tagai," puts it, it is customary with the Japanese samurai to understand and aid one another; and they even extend sympathy and aid to the enemy soldiers, killed or disabled in battle.

In the ego's world of illusion, all things are in flux. But continuous change is constant chaos. When the ego sees itself as the center of so much swirling activity, it cannot experience cosmic harmony.
-Han Shan

A good friend to many in the Bujinkan martial arts community, Kathy Baylor, has passed away and the community is coming together to pay its respects the best way it knows how?via Budo. In her book, Kathy gave a special thanks to ...

Sample clip from the video

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photo by katclay

Understanding Ninpo Ikkan will unravel conflict and obstacles in a way that feels like 解脱 gedatsu (being liberated from earthly desires and the woes of man to reach nirvana). Does that seem unreachable to you? It is nearer than you think. Read on so I can explain where you may find it.

What is Ninpo Ikkan exactly? Well, as with a lot of Japanese to English interpretations you will find many answers (an interesting lesson in itself).  A simple expression of Ninpo Ikkan is consistent devotion to the way of the ninja or the way of perseverance. Ninpo 忍法 being the way of the ninja, or as Soke sometimes writes,  忍宝 NinPo, or the treasure of nin.

Where is the treasure?

First, to find the treasure, you must empty yourself so that Isshi Soden becomes possible. You cannot receive this direct transmission of knowledge from a teacher or from nature unless you are free from your own life. Soke says that Bushido means "to die." This is sutemi. Throwing your life away, erasing the self, making your mind empty and feeling like you are dead. In that place is a surprising treasure! You cannot be trapped or defeated because you do not exist. You may live each day with a peaceful mind.

As Doug Wilson describes Hatsumi Sensei's Ninpo,

"It is often misunderstood that since the meaning of “Nin” in Ninpo, means to endure, that one must endure and persevere in a fight.  But the ultimate goal is to feed the fight nothing but emptiness, on a physical and mental level, resulting in no physical conflict whatsoever, and ultimately no need to exert any effort or need to endure.

This is the Ninpo that Hatsumi Sensei teaches."

Soke says you can begin to learn this through fuza,

"... straighten the spine and breathe through the belly. It is also effective generally for maintaining good health. You start to understand Ninpo Ikkan when you achieve mental patience by sitting for a long time. The value of looking about one meter ahead with half closed eyes is to teach you that if you open your eyes fully and try to look far, you may not recognize the satori right around you..."

A Zen story about Banzan describes this moment:

When Banzan was walking through a market he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer.

"Give me the best piece of meat you have," said the customer.

"Everything in my shop is the best," replied the butcher. "You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best."

At these words Banzan became enlightened.

This helps us see that if you can be grateful and take things as they are, then everything is good for you. When you accept what is, every piece of meat - every moment - is the best. The moment you are living right now is the best — because it is the only one you have and the only one you can live right now.

My friend Paul Masse describes it this way,

"No matter where you are, no matter what time it is, no matter what is happening, isn't is always the best time, the best place?  If you grasp this, you can fully appreciate this moment.  When you have appreciation, light will come into your life and you will begin to perceive the miracles all around you."

This is one way to read the air like 気学 kigaku and create your own fortunate victory!

Kihon Happou. http://www.arashi-dojo.de/dojo/download/duncan_goettingen_2011_kihon-happo.pdf.

Nagato Shihan once said that when he stopped asking questions, he received the answers. Wait for your moment. Training is about developing perseverance and patience. If you cannot do this, you will become an annoyance in the dojo and ...

Sample clip from the video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcKIC553XNY

About the download

Click here for more information about our download files and how it works!