Be Dead

Imagine for a moment you are on your death bed. Death is imminent...soon your body will be a corpse.

Will your mind be full of 'how to become wealthy?' or 'who am I?' or 'I am going to get revenge on so and so?' or 'Tomorrow I am going to go on a diet?' or so on and so on?

Allow your mind to take the composure of a dead man or woman. You recognize the uselessness of struggle.

Now live your life from this point and see what happens.

Hands palm to palm,
Shinzen

What a Dream

Saturday morning and enjoying the aroma and taste of my first cup of coffee of the day. This cup of coffee reminded me of a dream I had Thursday evening. I was enjoying my last cup of coffee.

The dream started off being chased and shot at by Nazis while outside my home. I quickly ran into my house as fire bombs began to hit. My family was in the basement and I joined them huddled on the floor as smoke was filling the air.

In my hands I had a thermos and a cup of coffee. I sipped the coffee and it tasted sooooo goooood! I then huddled with my family and the dream faded away.

When I awoke, I felt fabulous and had one of the most well-rested feelings I have ever had. This sense of peace and everything is okay stuck with me all day. What a dream.

I wonder what Freud would think of this one.

Hands palm to palm,

Shinzen

Self-defense Tip: Become the Blender

If you are attacked in a tight spot and you are in close quarter's range of fighting it is important to become a human blender. Use your knees, elbows and head butts. Practice these over and over and over in the dojo in many different combinations and angles. Make them flow and you will become a human blender, slicing and dicing your way to safety.

Knees, elbows and head butts are your blades. When used properly, your opponent will feel like he has been dumped into a blender going full speed. He will feel pain, feel lost and be confused as he is being hit high, low and in between from many different levels, angles and positions.

Blenders are also loud. So should you be. Scream, Kiai, Yell...go berserk with loud noise like a blender's blades chopping chunks of ice. This will make your opponent's mind turn to gel and you will add further confusion and pain with knees, elbows and head butts. My students think I am nuts because when I kiai (karate spirit yell), I often am screaming, 'Die!' I call it a direct hypnotic suggestion.

In fact, when SWAT teams enter a home, they are loud and noisey and screaming, "Get down, get down." When the mind gets confused it tends to listen to what is being said and will follow with minimal effort....not always, but usually more than less.

Now this may all seem violent, especially for some of my peace loving readers, but it is part of training for yourself to understand how to receive some of this ...and to find that still and calm place within yourself. How do you respond to being in the blender?

Life many times can make us feel like we are being pureed, liquified and smoothied out. To learn how to stay calm, we need to learn how to create confusion and become the blender. The Dojo is the place for you to practice this safely and to learn how to not only 'be the blender', but to be in the blender and not be 'cut'. To become the blender and be able to bring yourself to this level of violent craziness can, with proper instruction, help you realize that calm and peaceful place within yourself.

This is the paradoxical Way of the Empty Hand: Karate-do.

Hands in Gassho,
Shinzen

A Martial Artist's Secret

My last post...and Doug's comment... reminded me of a post I wrote a few months ago. For me this is an important topic worth repeating.

Why do you think in the practice of Budo we bow in and out, have rules of etiquette for respect and politeness and most importantly meditate before and after each Karate class? What does this have to do with defending ourselves?

Everything.

Buddha spoke of how important our thoughts are...he spoke of how we create the world with our thoughts. All that is and will be has arisen with our thinking, manifested through our thoughts.

Look around you right now. You are most likely sitting in a chair...and reading this on a computer, which is either on your lap or on a desk. Your chair, desk and computer...and yes your lap too, are manifestations of a thought. Everything around you right now is created from thinking...from thoughts placed out into the vast realm of Ku: Our friend Emptiness.

As I have written in previous posts, Ku is Pure Raw Potential waiting to materialize. All it needs is a thought. Remember Ku and Kara have the same root. An Empty Hand (Karate) when given the thought of 'fist' shapes into a fist. Think or intend 'knife hand' it takes the shape of a knife hand, think eagle claw it takes the shape of an eagle claw and so on. It takes the shape of your intentions or thought.

Well, your life is like this as well. A Dojo is a place where we practice our Martial Art, but it is sandwiched and infused with politeness and respect. This is to counterbalance any negative energy put out into Ku. Classes begin and end with Zazen to cultivate Peace...and to send out those 'vibes' so peace will reign in our lives and we never have to use the techniques of violence. These positive vibes are stronger than any of the 'violent vibes' created during class.

Zazen is the cultivation, practice and manifestation of Peace. The ultimate in self-defense! The Ultimate Kata!!!

An important concept to understand when working with thoughts is that a thought placed out into Ku, whether it is something you want or don't want...will manifest. Even if you don't want to be attacked, if this is on your mind all the time, you will eventually invite an attack....you have manifested it into your life.

So, when all you focus on is self-defense you are manifesting a need to defend yourself. You are invoking violence, although inadvertently. The opposite of self-defense, I guess, would be 'other offense'. The best defense is a good offense. This is why Zazen is so important. Zazen is such an offense. It sends out the vibe of peace to the whole world. Nonin often told us that when we sit zen we sit with the whole world and the whole world benefits.

This is why I conduct a Zen and Healing Arts Seminar every year. This year we are raising money for our local Domestic Violence Shelter...Safe Haven. We sit Zen to create peace. The women at the shelter have been violently abused and lives turned upside down. As martial artists, sitting zen, is the best way we can help them...we are also raising money as well...but this is not so important as the manifestation of peace.This is again the One Secret every martial artist should know.

The practice of Zazen and the cultivation of peace via our practices of respect, politeness, integrity, loyalty, honor create the ultimate in self-defense. A society where hopefully we will no longer need Safe Havens or even Police. A big thought...but I put it out there.

Hands palm to palm,

Shinzen

The ONE Self-defense Secret Every Martial Artist Needs to Know.

In my last post I spoke of pit bulls and guns...and the ability to bring out the toughness in ourselves to handle a life and death struggle. As most of you are aware this is the most base of self-defense strategies and the easiest for our minds to grasp. When most people think of self-defense they think of having to do violent activity to survive...and at times they are correct.

However, most of us, and I am thankful for this, live in a fairly peaceful society. And here in lies the One Secret to Self-defense. Why do you think in the practice of Budo we bow in and out, have rules of etiquette for respect and politeness and most importantly meditate before and after each Karate class? What does this have to do with defending ourselves? Everything.

Buddha spoke of how important our thoughts are...he spoke of how we create the world with our thought. All that is and will be has arisen with our thinking, manifested through our thoughts. Look around you right now. You are most likely sitting in a chair...and reading this on a computer, which is either on your lap or on a desk. Your chair, desk and computer...and yes your lap too, are manifestations of a thought. Everything around you right now is created from thinking...from thoughts placed out into the vast realm of Ku: Our friend Emptiness.

As I have written in previous posts, Ku is Pure Raw Potential waiting to materialize. All it needs is a thought. Remember Ku and Kara have the same root. An Empty Hand (Karate) when given the thought of 'fist' shapes into a fist. Think or intend 'knife hand' it takes the shape of a knife hand and so on. It takes the shape of your intentions or thought.

Well, your life is like this as well. A Dojo is a place where we practice our Martial Art, but it is sandwiched and infused with politeness and respect. This is to counterbalance any negative energy put out into Ku. Classes begin and end with Zazen to cultivate Peace...and to send out those 'vibes' so peace will reign in our lives and we never have to use the techniques of violence. These positive vibes are stronger than any of the 'violent vibes' created during class.

Zazen is the cultivation, practice and manifestation of Peace. The ultimate in self-defense! The Ultimate Kata!!!

An important concept to understand when working with thoughts is that a thought placed out into Ku, whether it is something you want or don't want...will manifest. Even if you don't want to be attacked, if this is on your mind all the time, you will eventually invite an attack....you have manifested it into your life.

So, when all you focus on is self-defense you are manifesting a need to defend yourself. You are invoking violence, although inadvertently. The opposite of self-defense, I guess, would be 'other offense'. The best defense is a good offense. This is why Zazen is so important. Zazen is such an offense. It sends out the vibe of peace to the whole world. Nonin often told us that when we sit zen we sit with the whole world and the whole world benefits.

This is why I conduct a Zen and Healing Arts Seminar every year. This year (Sept 19th) we are raising money for our local Domestic Violence Shelter...Safe Haven. We sit Zen to create peace. The women at the shelter have been violently abused and lives turned upside down. As martial artists, sitting zen, is the best way we can help them...we are also raising money as well...but this is not so important as the manifestation of peace.

This is again the One Secret every martial artist should know. The practice of Zazen and the cultivation of peace via our practices of respect, politeness, integrity, loyalty, honor create the ultimate in self-defense. A society where hopefully we will no longer need Safe Havens or even Police. A big thought...but I put it out there.

Hands palm to palm,
Shinzen