Ichi Kyu Diary

Balance, Karate and Truth

Balancing On One Foot

On Saturday, Senpai DT led class. Though it was a small class due to the holiday weekend, it was challenging. She focused on both stretching and balance.

For balance, she had us do a series of kicks on first the right, then the left. During the kicks, you are not to put your kicking foot down but go straight from one to the next. Also, we completed each kick, so you could tell one kick from another. We also focused on foot position.

For example, for the first exercise, we did a kin geri (low groin kick, with toes pointed), followed by a mae geri (front kick using the ball of the foot), yoko geri (side kick using the “knife-edge,” or side of the foot with the big toe pulled back), followed by an ushiro geri (back kick, using the heel.) She also had participants name kicks, then had us do a new series of kicks, on both sides, based on the order that we named. Over Zoom, she spotlighted each student and gave each person a chance to demonstrate their mastery of the techniques.

Balance in a Narrow Space

I found that exercise particularly challenging–definitely good for balance, strength and precision. It did not help that I was trying to perform the kicks in a narrow area of our dining room, sandwiched in between the dining table and a shelving unit full of kitchen equipment!

Normally we do karate outdoors. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, it was cooler than usual. We also had a packed schedule. Short on time, I started the Zoom class on a computer normally used for monitoring. That computer has a larger screen, but the space where it is located is not ideal for a workout. That day, I had a number of activities and errands planned. I was just happy to be able to squeeze a few minutes out of my day for karate.

Balancing Health Against Other Obligations

Readers may have noticed I missed a weekend updating this blog. If you are a weekly visitor, I apologize. Last week, I experienced the return of an old nemesis: tendonitis. As a digital artist, I spend considerable time on the computer, even when I am not housebound and forced to do everything over Zoom. My work-life is spent in front of a monitor, using a mouse to perform fine-motor motions. When we’re refining moving geometry for a shot in a television show or film, we will often need to select and change the positions of small components, or vertices. Using these, artists refine the shapes seen on screen over time. Unfortunately, doing this work without taking appropriate breaks, for too long, can lead to tendonitis.

Three weeks ago, I started a new job. The company, itself, requires employees to take appropriate breaks and even puts those breaks into the company calendar. During the lunch hour, for example, you are not to contact a fellow employee through chat, email or phone calls. (Since we all work from home right now, walking over to someone else in the kitchen, at a desk or in a common area is not an option.) The company wants to avoid burn-out and injury, and has implemented appropriate measures for this.

Consequences for Lacking Balance

At my last job, I’d slowly transitioned from doing less artist work to more coding. At this new job, I was getting to do shots–so back to primarily artist work. However, I feared I was rusty at the work and too slow. So, I ignored required breaks. Anxious to get the work done both well and quickly, I worked through lunch. I took fewer breaks. Since I’m working from home, on the honor system, there was no one to chastise me or remind me to take those needed breaks. No one, but me, knew I was not taking those breaks. The result? Within a week, my tendonitis was back.

I paid a price for letting fear and insecurity get the best of me: pain. The tendons at the base of my right hand, close to my wrist, swelled visibly. They are larger than those of my left. I sometimes experienced twinges while getting dressed, or doing the dishes. During the week of Thanksgiving, I switched to doing anything I could with my left hand. I even did my ten minute writes using my left hand. For mousing on the computer, I used my left hand.

Years ago, when I had a lot of issues with tendonitis, I habitually switched between my left and right hands, so this is not the feat that it sounds. I even spent time trying to figure out the optimal time to spend using a particular hand, and landed on a week. Once the swelling in my right hand disappears, I will return to this.

Karate Emphasizes Balance

In karate, we normally do exercises on both sides. We want to improve strength on our weak side, and flexibility on both sides. Alternating the left and right sides is simply part of kihon. Many katas also require the karateka to perform a series of motions on both sides. During ren raku or syllabus, we also coordinate punches on the same side as a kick or the “leading” leg (the leg forward), but will also practice coordinating punches on the opposite side of a kick or leading leg. Balance in strength and dexterity is built into the study of karate.

House of the Search For Ultimate Reality:
A Kyokushin Dojo

I feel a bit ashamed that I needed to re-learn the lesson of balance through the pain of an avoidable injury. As an imperfect human, however, with plenty of room for enlightenment, I also need patience with myself. When fear comes, I need to ground those fears in reality.

One defines Kyokushin as “ultimate truth.” In our dojo under Sensei R., we prefer the more Buddhist-based translation of “ultimate reality.” The idea is simply that we want to understand reality, or truth as reality. We assume that reality, because of the tricks of an individual’s mind, or habits or culture (including unconscious bias), is not obvious. Seeing what is real takes time, thought and effort.

Putting Karate’s Teachings to Work

How does this apply to me and my work situation? Well, obviously by having prescribed breaks, along with frank discussions about burn-out at work, the particular group of people I work with now are concerned about balance. On the day before Thanksgiving, our supervisor asked at a meeting, “How are you feeling? Who is burned out? Please be honest with me. I care about each of you.” Each of us answered that question. I punted, pointing out I was still in the “honeymoon phase” and hadn’t been with the company long enough to feel burned out. This was true, but of course I didn’t mention the tendonitis. Of course, this company wants employees to work hard and be focused. However, they do not want to over-work anyone and certainly do not want anyone injured or burned out. That is clear to me now.

I was not seeing that reality. Instead, I saw my past: I remembered people who, over the years, had said I needed to “pay my dues,” or who’d told me I had no business trying to work in visual effects while raising children. The schedules simply didn’t permit you to be a good parent, according to one friend. So, instead of hearing what was actually said, I heard ghosts, along with my own fears.

Kata, Sticks and Canes

Kanku Review

Sensei R taught last Tuesday and picked up where he had left on on Kanku instruction. He’s inspirational, and often has interesting and creative approaches to Zoom class. This time, he had us do pieces of Kanku as part of our warm-up and kihon.

We had also had a socially distanced park workout a couple Saturdays back, and Sensei T also went over it. Learning a kata in person, particularly one as complex and detailed as Kanku, is much easier than learning it over Zoom. Sensei T also watched each of us perform the kata and offered individual corrections. He’s patient and conscientious; I learn so much from him!

Hapkido with Sticks

Finally, this past Saturday, we had another Sensei from a different style teach a class on stick fighting. Sensei AJ has trained in Hapkido, as well as Kyokushin with us and a third style. Saturday’s class was a lot of fun. One of our adult students worked with a PVC pipe, while another armed himself with a spatula. My kids and I were well prepared; we had decent sticks that Sensei R had given my son. Sensei AJ showed us first how to stretch using the stick. That was new. You can use it as leverage to help lengthen different muscles.

We learned basic figure eights, reverse flowers, down and up strokes, side to side, as well as using the stick to strengthen an elbow-strike. In many ways, it was similar to both bo staff and nunchucks. In fact, our young weapons expert, Senpai SL, was a natural. It was a great way to work out your arms and shoulders, in particular. Afterwards, we used the stick to open our chests in stretching, by holding the stick behind you, stiffening your arms and bending forward.

Self-defense with Canes

The closest thing I can find to what we practiced is a video that demonstrates the use of a cane for Hapkido self-defense techniques, featuring Master David Herbert of World Martial Arts. This video contains some of what we learned regarding strikes. However, from web searches, it seems there are short stick, cane and long stick techniques. We focused more on exercise and play, and less on self-defense.

What’s interesting to me, after these web searches, is how common cane techniques show up for martial arts for varying styles. In Masutatsu Oyama’s book, This is Karate, he also devotes a section to the use of canes for self-defense. Oyama aimed his cane techniques specifically at the elderly for self-defense. On the one hand, I am happy to see one of our great masters putting time and thought into self-defense for our elders, a group certainly overlooked in many areas. It’s prevalence, however, makes me wonder how often elderly persons are targets for criminals and bullies.

Self as Myriad in Zen, Democracy as Self

Transitions in the Nation and in My Life

Well, this past week was full of changes. Our nation of the United States held an election. It held more drama than either side expected. AP called the results just yesterday. In some states, election officials are still counting votes.

I changed jobs. Thursday was my last day at my old employer. Friday was my one day between jobs, and tomorrow I will start at a new place. The new company also allows for remote work, so that was a relief.

This past week was also my “meditation” week. That means that, in lieu of push-ups, sit-ups and squats, I meditate for ten minutes. I continue to do my ten minute writes on a daily basis, though those are not always making it to this blog.

Ten Bulls, or 10 Ox Herding Pictures

Also, sometime last week, I finished reading the Mumonkan. I’ve started a small section called 10 Bulls. According to Wikipedia, the 10 Bulls, or 10 Ox Herding Poems, are drawings accompanying poems which describe the stages of attaining enlightenment in Zen. These stages include bringing the wisdom of enlightenment back into society.

Senzaki and Reps transcribed my copy (Zen Flesh, Zen Bones). Tokuriki, a contemporary of the more modern transcribers, illustrated it. “Contemporary,” I should note, is about 1935. This is more recent, certainly, than the twelfth century original of poems and drawings (now lost). The original first appeared in China. The illustrator for mine, Tomikichiro Tokuriki, according to a site called “Japanese Woodblock Prints,” lived in Kyoto. His family produced twelve generations of woodblock artists!

I’ve read five so far. They are an easier than the Mumonkan. The Bull seems to be a stand-in for the mind, and many of the poems, so far, deal with “taming” the mind with meditation and breathing.

Discovering the Footprints
(10 Bulls, second poem)

Green Ox statue at a Sinclair Gas, July 2019; photo taken on RV trip on the way from California to Colorado; yes, that’s the RV we drove in the background!

Along the riverbank under the trees, I discover footprints!
Even under the fragrant grass I see his prints.
Deep in the remote mountains they are found.
These traces no more can be hidden than one’s nose, looking heavenward. (Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, Ten Bulls, pg. 244)

Already in the second poem’s commentary, we see the Buddhist idea about the illusory self actually introduced as multiple selves:

Then I learn that, just as many many utensils are made from one metal, so too are myriad entities made of the fabric of the self. (244)
Kakuan, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, compiled by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki

This idea of the myriad within the self I find to be one of Zen’s, and Buddhism’s deepest and most interesting insights.

Democracy and the Myriad Self

Sometimes I think of the myriad entities like the many people making up a democratic nation. Because we are a democracy, we have as many “influencers” as we have people, and as many “deciders” as we have voters. If the self were the United States, then each of us is part of that myriad making up its self. We are not always of one mind. Often we are conflicted, even divided against ourselves, chaotic and messy in our tactics and decisions. Yet we are one. Yes, we change directions often. When we are honest, those switches can lead us to equilibrium.

Most of the time, in our politics, there are two roughly balanced sides. Sometimes there are more than two sides. Each side is actually a collection of interest groups, and they agree to support each other. Finally those groups are made up of individuals. Individuals, like this nation, are each a self which is really a myriad, too, and internally conflicted.

In karate, we seek to strengthen both sides of our bodies, the left and the right. During kihon, each exercise alternates those sides. We practice blocking as well as various strikes. Karate seeks balance, between parts of the body, but also between the aggressive and defensive skills. Kanku, the advanced kata we are learning, is full of mirroring: what you do on the right, you repeat on the left. You travel forward, backwards and side to side during Kanku.

Balance and Meditation

Karate also teaches us to focus our fragmenting mind through meditation. Meditation, then, becomes a unifying force. I hope karate will also serve to strengthen and unify its practitioners, despite the differing politics we may each hold.

Likewise as a country, we need to acknowledge the two horns, two eyes, two nostrils, four legs but one nose and one tail of the bull. The bull can move forward, but it must coordinate its many limbs to do so. We must not forget how to walk together.

Kanku on Halloween, and Vote!

Tuesday Night with Sensei R: introducing Kanku

Last Tuesday, Sensei R discussed and demonstrated kanku kata over Zoom. He also shared the following video:

Kanku is one of the longest kata, but also beautiful and a go-to kata for shodans and high rank karateka seeking a good competition kata

As you will see if you watch the kata, and as Sensei R pointed out, this kata contains over 70 different moves. According to Sensei R, some karate practitioners believe that the Pinan katas were basically pieces of this kata. Early karate instructors, then, had separated it into pieces. While there is no proof that this origin story for the Pinans is true, said Sensei R, Kanku certainly contains many moves from the Pinans.

In fact, many of the more difficult from the Pinans, such as the kick-punch combination as well as the forehead block with strike in Pinan Sono Yon, or the Osai-uke followed by a stab in Pinan Ni, are found in Kanku. Luckily, many of the moves are repeated and mirrored on the other side of the body. However, the kata is still a bear to learn.

I was “monitoring,” or basically doing “tech” for the Zoom session, during that class, so I didn’t really follow along. When others weren’t following, I let Sensei R know or controlled the spotlighting.

The Night Before All Hallows Eve: partying and practicing

Luckily for me, Sensei T covered that kata again on Friday night. We had a very small adult class. It was Sensei T, Senpai DJ and me.

The Youth Counsel planned a Halloween bash/movie night over Zoom. Most of the kids, including a couple who showed up on the regular karate class Zoom, went to the party once they found out about it. This was expected and encouraged. Given trick-or-treating has been discouraged in our area due to the pandemic, these parties have taken on much greater importance. They are a poor substitute for kids getting together in costume and haunting their neighbors, granted. Nevertheless, these events serve as an important way for kids to celebrate and spend time together.

The kids had maybe fourteen separate households attend their Zoom. They played games, gossiped, showed off their costumes and their pets, and watched movies.

Sensei T asked DJ about her last promotion kata, so we reviewed those, then he basically taught me a good portion of Kanku. Given the complexity of that kata, it was great to have that training. Learning it, and I’m sure teaching it, over Zoom was a challenge. Sensei T was careful to demonstrate the turns from different views, so DJ and I were able to understand them. I have enough trouble keeping track of left versus right without having to interpret these through video. However, Sensei T watched carefully and really helped us. I learned so much from that class!

It’s funny: I had considered suggesting we cancel the class, since we knew that the youth party would greatly reduce our attendance. I’m so glad we didn’t. Personally, I really benefitted from that class.

Saturday in the Park: learning Kanku

We met in a local park in Burbank for our Saturday morning class. We’ve been meeting outdoors roughly once a month, and it’s great to practice in person. I admit, though, it’s easy for each of us to forget to social distance, particularly given how excited we feel to be together again. We do our best. When we forget ourselves, usually someone will remember, caution the group, and then we’ll spread out again. During the actual exercise portion, we make an effort to keep our groups more spread out than usual.

Sensei T had me lead warm-ups, and I got us to run in a wide circle as Sensei R had often done with us, do side-shuffles, high-knees, butt-kickers and just generally jog to get the blood flowing. Then, of course, we moved on to my nemesis, stretches, and ended with the shuto ukes, which I love.

I just looked up shuto mawachi uke, and this brought up a video of the Kyokushin warm-up for a Japanese dojo, and the teacher leading it is our style’s founder, Mas Oyama!

Sensei T then assigned students to lead sections of kihon, and we did a vigorous “speed kihon,” in which we just run through the techniques without needing to name them. We did twenties, so we were out of breath at the end.

He then covered Kanku, affording us the opportunity in person to practice what we’d been learning over Zoom. That was a different experience for sure. Sensei T demonstrated the kata for us, too, and his moves are elegant and powerful at once. He is such an insightful and sensitive teacher, too: he gives both praise and correction in a kind, straightforward manner.

A moment in Time: remembering Kanku at the dojo

While driving to attend the class in the park, my mind went to the first time I’d seen this kata performed. One of our instructors in the dojo had been a kata champion, and she’d both demonstrated and taught that kata. As a low-ranking student, I was in awe of her and her beautiful execution of it. Kanku also appeared to me, at that time, as one of those near-unattainable goals. It was so complex, powerful and elegant. How could someone like me learn to do that? I could but watch and dream.

However, this week, I was actually learning it!. Given my mastery of previous kata and approximately seven or eight years of practice, I feel I understand much of it. Now don’t get me wrong: learning it will still be challenging, and I’m sure I won’t be doing flying jumps. While watching Sensei T perform it in the park and on Zoom, I recognized so much of it from our previous studies.

I have a karate New Year’s resolution ready to go: learn Kanku. What do I plan to give myself for the holidays? Knowledge of Kanku!

Halloween Gifts

While the gift of Kanku knowledge, courtesy of Senseis T and R, was perhaps my favorite Halloween gift, our family also received a wonderful “boo bag,” for perhaps the second or third year in a row. We do not know who gave us this thoughtful gift: a friend, a neighbor? We’re not even sure if these gifts came from the same person or persons who “booed” us last year or the year before. This year, two pairs of Halloween-themed socks, along with baked goodies and candy corns, were included. We are guessing our friendly ghost knows two children reside in our household. The bag contained two or more of everything.

The first time we received a “boo” gift, it came with instructions, including a sign to hang on your door, indicating you’d been “booed.” This year, there was simply a card announcing “You’ve been booed!” We made our own “we’ve been booed” sign to put on our door.

S and I also purchased and delivered a “boo” gift to neighbors up the street with three children. I confess we reused the cute “boo” card from our gift, but the fresh baked goods from our local cupcake shop were no re-gift, unless our neighbors dislike cookies! S took them to the door, rang the bell and ran to my car. I hesitated just long enough to see the door start to open, then drove away. S giggled the whole time, sputtering “Hurry Mom! Drive away!” between giggles. I hope they enjoyed their boo gift as much as we enjoyed ours!

Vote! Then find peace with your decision and those of others

And it is November 1st, so go vote! For practitioners of karate of our style, remember Oyama’s three points on why we practice karate:

to be a better person (more fit, healthy but also more at peace)
to be a better family member
to be a better member of society

Karateka strive to be better members of our societies. In a democracy, this includes our civic responsibility to vote. Please vote!

Recognize both your power and your limitations

Also, given all the stressors coming with this particular election during this particular pandemic, I’d like to remind folks of two things.

First, recognize that your vote counts and this is a very important election. Do not underestimate the importance of your vote. Our American leaders, for both better and for worse, have significant influence over world politics. As an American, your decision can influence not only American lives for the next four years, but it can influence people across the globe.

Lake in Colorado; do your best, then do your best to let go

Second, recognize that American politics has its limits. Do not overestimate the importance of our decisions. No president or other elected official is going to single-handedly cure COVID-19 in a day, though they may help or hinder our human group efforts towards a cure. Presidents and other elected leaders are not gods or goddesses. Also, despite what we decide, the sun will rise and set. The earth will rotate and follow its course around the sun. The moon waxes and wanes, regardless of our decisions. Find peace in knowing, whether or not your chosen politician wins the day, and whether or not you are in step with the rest of your nation’s other voters, that these changes are temporary.

As an American karateka, if you have carefully considered your decisions and cast your ballot, you have done your part. The rest is up to everyone else. Let it go now.

Creativity in Action through Karate

October 25, 2020

Dragon flanked by the kids’ bonsai in the bay window, with cats

Tuesday Night with Sensei R

Tuesday evening, Sensei R taught class. He asked each of us to think of three words to describe what kind of karateka we are or aspire to be. At the end of class, he had each of us share those words. Everyone came up with such great descriptors: creative, disciplined, resilient, strong, wise, calm, peaceful, boundary-breaking, open, hopeful, learning, growing, accurate, determined. A young ninja among us aspired to be accurate, intelligent and lethal. I thought it interesting that Sensei N. chose verbs, and he was the only one to do so.

I chose resilient, strong and peaceful; these wild flowers, also strong, resilient
and peaceful, photographed in the high mountains of Colorado; I took the photo
a year ago when we rented an RV and drove to Colorado. We tooled around there
in the summer of 2019, visiting state and national parks, for about a month.

Sensei R also had each of us make up a short kata. Higher rank must use five moves while lower rank must use three. The short katas were often also reflective of the karateka demonstrating. Junior shodans, of course, incorporated more difficult jumps. I tend to like to mirror the left and right sides. I am a grown-up interested in balance, and, uh, not slipping in the grass in my back yard.

Over all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable class.

Friday Night with Senpai G

On Friday night, one of our junior shodans, Senpai G, aged fourteen, led a class in a similar vein. She started out by having a set of exercises associated with words inspired by Halloween. For example “skull” or “graveyard” were two. She asked class members to pick from her list. We did not know which exercises were associated with which words, but we performed the exercises. Many of the exercises came from either karate or her school’s physical ed classes. So we’d do jumping jacks, squats and jodan uke blocks, for example.

Afterwards, she went through the class and had each student name their favorite exercise or karate move, followed by their least favorite. Then, she had that student lead us in twenty of our most favorite exercise and roughly thirty of our least favorite. In my case, Senpai G timed the exercise. I discovered that I was not alone in disliking the stretch requiring us to stretch our legs out on either side in a sitting “splits,” then lean or place our heads on the ground. (This, by the way, is still aspirational for me. I am lucky if I have my head closer than two fists to the ground.)

For some students’ choices, she devised a short “renraku,” in which we would alternate the favorite move with the least favorite move. For example, Senpai DJ chose jodan uke as her favorite and uchi mawashi geri as her least favorite. Senpai G had us alternate those two moves as we moved forward or backwards, and alternate those moves on the left and right sides. Sometimes we’d do them as oi-zuki (so left block followed by circling left kick) or gyaku-zuki (right side block followed by left side kick.)

Karate Class Creativity

Both classes challenged us to think on our feet, and examine our own karate. Some students knew exactly what they disliked, but had to think about what they liked. Others knew what they liked right away. One boy, Sensei T’s younger son, picked something he was sure the rest of us would hate: burpees. If I remember correctly, he was also the “ninja,” interested in becoming accurate, stealthy and lethal (or something close to that.)

So, at the behest of our young ninja, we ended class with burpees. Senpai G also asked me how many to require! And promised to let me out of doing burpees. But that’s not realistic. First, I’m a black belt, so I have to do all the exercises. I can’t just wimp out. Secondly, our nidan, Sensei T, is on the Zoom along with his wife, the shodan who tested with me. So of course I have to give us a respectable number, and do them. Twenty fit the bill: that was the average number of repetitions we did that night for favorite exercises, and our young ninja had named this as a favorite exercise, in play spite against the rest of us.

I admit that, at the end of twenty, I was out of breath.

I also admit that these two classes, on top of being challenging, were a lot of fun.

Nunchucks, Teaching and the Wisdom of a 14 year old weapons instructor

Sunday October 18, 2020

On Friday night, we enjoyed a weapons class taught by Senpai SL. He is one formidable karateka. He can spin two sets of nunchucks at once, and has created his own weapons kata, for both nunchucks and bo staff. SL has taught the class each of his original kata as well.

When he teaches weapons, he has us practice the moves involved in the kata, first. He began with having us practice “figure eights” and “flowers,” which is basically a move in which you swing the nunchucks in a horizontal “eight.” Then he moves on to having us practice more difficult moves, such as spinning the nunchucks about your hand before performing a break against your shoulder or spinning them down. Finally, he went over one of the nunchuck katas. After this, he would mix it up with “challenges,” more exercises and finally, we’d go over the kata again.

Introductory Nunchuck Practice

I found a great video that breaks down some of the moves. This is not a karate video, but the forms are the same as the ones we’re learning.

Video from California Academy of Martial Arts

A “flower” basically goes in the opposite direction. He also has us practice with our dominant and non-dominant hands. If a karateka does not have nunchucks at home, Sensei N or Senpai SL will go over how to make a “nunchuck” from a karate belt. You basically fold it over on itself and rubber band both ends.

And here is a cool tutorial on what we were calling a “spin,” because the nunchuck spins about your fingers or hand. The instructor in this video calls this a “wrist roll” or a modified figure eight.

This awesome kid reminds me of Senpai SL

Senpai SL would also make up a little “Renraku” using the various moves we practiced. He really knows how to keep a class interesting and also how to keep us on our toes. So he’d have us do various moves, such as the figure eight or a spin, “down the lane,” then turn and do the same move again multiple times back “up the lane.” Again, he had us practice both sides.

Nunchuck Challenge!

Somewhere around the middle of the class, he decided to do a “challenge.” The first time we did the challenge, he’d have a volunteer start out and do a set of moves on the spot. The next person had to imitate the first person’s move, then “top” that person’s moves with ones of his or her own. Then it would continue. Usually SL would do some amazing moves at the beginning or end.

Since we’d done that exercise before during the last weapons class, he decided to do timed exercises. So, when the Zoom spotlight was on the first “contestant,” that person performed various nunchuck moves until he or she dropped the nunchucks. Senpai SL went first, and actually dropped it pretty early. For the rest of the class, we all teased back and forth about SL’s time. Senpai CF smoked us with the longest time. I probably had the worst time.

Senpai SL’s Golden Teaching

Whenever Senpai SL teaches, he has a fun little phrase he uses. He will say, “Okay, we’re going to practice ” this or that, “then when we’re done, we can do…” then he’ll pause for effect, “whatever we want!” He says it with such enthusiasm, too. Unlike most of teachers, and I include myself here, when we have extra time, it is a source of worry. “Oh, what do we do now? What do I do with an extra 5 minutes?” We strive to have the entire class planned out. Most of us feel it is better to plan more activities and run out of time for them, than to end up with extra time on our hands.

Then, when we’re done, we can do…………..whatever we want!
Senpai SL

Senpai SL recognizes extra time for what it really is: a gift. He’s happy to finish early, and have time for “whatever we want!” And he normally has plenty of fun ideas for that extra time. Usually, he opens it up to the class for suggestions: “So what do you guys want to do now?” If he receives suggestions or questions, he’ll answer or follow the students’ leads. If no one has any, he’ll come up with something cool to demonstrate, then we’ll try to follow.

Extra time is a gift. A moment of free time, together with friends, to just do “whatever we want,” is golden. This is the most valuable teaching I’ve taken away from Senpai SL: welcome those golden moments with enthusiasm.

I wish you the gift of many golden moments in your future.

Bearded Dragons, Zen Versus Learnin’, and Karate

Sunday October 11th, 2020

Personal Practice and Karate Class Summary

This past week I practiced “meditation week.” I meditated most days. Last Monday, however, I made up for missing push-ups, sit-ups and squats the previous Friday. I’m still either running or jumping rope every other day during the week. Honestly I prefer the treadmill to the jump rope. This means I need to do more jump rope sessions.

On Clark St. in Burbank; our neighbors’ sense of Halloween humor!

On non-cardio days, I still get out and walk in the neighborhood. Despite the pandemic, my Burbank neighbors have continued our Halloween tradition with creative and humorous local displays.

Last Tuesday, Sensei R taught a Tai Chi class. It was both challenging and relaxing. Friday night, N taught, and her class was surprisingly challenging: she held “contests,” to see how long we could balance on one leg, or hold a plank, or to see who was most flexible. N herself won for balance; I managed to hold the longest plank, though DJ really made me work for it, and young CF handily won the flexibility title. Rounding out the week, Senpai SL, our “weapons specialist,” taught bo staff. I had thought I was pretty good at bo staff, until I witnessed Senpai SL perform flowers and figure eights with two staves at once! He taught a great workshop: my aching shoulders bore witness to the value of the class for fitness.

Zen’s Denigration of Scholarship for Enlightenment

I’m still reading Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. Currently, I’m in the older portion, the Gateless Gate or the Mumonkan. The treatment of language is an on-going theme. Several stories illustrate the inadequacy of language to bring a monk to enlightenment. I’ve come across at least two examples of monks destroying writings. In an earlier post, I wrote about my feelings on this. One monk destroyed a work written by generations of others [pg. 108] while another, his own writing [206]. Language and reason hamper the monk’s progress in these stories.

How ironic, given the elegance of the stories themselves! In fact, Mumon ends each of his treatises with a poem. What a conundrum! We know about Mumon, his scholarship and poetry through his writing. Moreover, much of Zen’s reach outside of monasteries today results from these beautiful writings and similar works.

Zen’s debt to the written word and poetry is embedded in the earliest introduction of Buddhism to China. According to Wikipedia, An Shigao, an Indian Buddhist monk who settled in Luoyang, first taught Buddhism there.* He translated a set of ancient Buddhist texts on meditation into Chinese. So, at the birth of Ch’an/Zen in China, we already have scholarship in the form of translation. Buddhism entered China with language, writing and its logical traps.

_{* This is an oversimplification: he’s the first known translator of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese; we do not know if there were others.}

Enlightenment, Language and Fire

Yes, and cats, who can teach us much about living in the present

In “Blow out the Candle,” Tokusan, a student, attains enlightenment after Ryutan, his teacher, offers him a candle. It was night, and Tokusan planned to walk home. As soon as Tokusan takes it, Ryutan blows it out. The next day, Ryutan praises Tokusan; Tokusan burns his writings and leaves the monastery, presumably to teach elsewhere.

Mumon’s commentary includes a second story about Tokusan. When he arrives in the area near Ryutan’s monastery, he comes with a thick commentary. The Southerners, he believes, need instruction on the sutras. He happens upon an old woman. She asks him what he carries that is so heavy. He tells her it is his commentary on the Diamond Sutra.

She observes: “I read that Sutra, which says: ‘the past mind cannot be held, the present mind cannot be held, the future mind cannot be held.’ You wish some tea and refreshments. Which mind do you propose to use for them?” [Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, “Gateless Gate,” page 207] This encounter humbles Tokusan. He asks her for a teacher. She directs him to Ryutan. So, Tokusan begins his search when he encounters this woman. She summarizes years’ worth of scholarship the Diamond Sutra in a single sentence and an offer of tea. He ends his search by burning his own commentary, that symbol of mental entanglement.

Mumon’s Flaire and an Old Woman’s Tea

Fire as a transformative force figures prominently in these stories: the burning candle, suddenly out, plunges both teacher and pupil into the stark reality of night. Tokusan’s flaming commentary, even the old woman’s cooking fire, are metaphors for enlightenment. Enlightenment burns suddenly. It is only understood through experience.

But the poet Mumon attributes Tokusan’s entrance to the path of Enlightenment to the simple words and logic of an old village woman. Perhaps the real story here is that language, logic and learning points the way, until it doesn’t. Some concepts can be understood and studied. Others must be experienced. How do we know the difference? By observing what’s useful.

Personally I like the fact that Mumon evokes this old village woman: he shows we do not have to be monks living in monasteries to experience enlightenment. We can also be old village women who read sutras on occasion, but also brew tea and bake treats. Tokusan owes as much to her as to Ryutan.

Zoom Dinnertime Conversation on Belief, Education and Experience

Interestingly enough, we had dinner over Zoom with a good friend, G., who edited a local atheist publication for about two years. He has long held that irrational belief, or, in his view, religion, is the root cause of many of our current societal disasters and woes. A lack of understanding of history dooms us to repeat its mistakes. Adhering to superstition or simple short-term financial benefits over what we know from science has left us with both a damaged environment and damaged health.

Belated birthday gifts from G. to my husband and me; these will be fun reads.

He is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, is in his sixties, and has health issues on top of his cancer. He’s concerned about the state of the world as well as his own health. Although he views the coronavirus pandemic as just barely a pandemic, through the lens of history, he sees it as a personal threat to one like himself. He described compared the coronavirus pandemic to both the Spanish flu and the Medieval European plague, and found it less worrisome from this perspective. However, since chemotherapy has compromised his own immune system, he’s certainly afraid of catching it. He is exactly the demographic most likely to die from it.

G. threw out a statistic about how many persons, in the US and Europe, do not accept that the earth is round, or that the earth rotates around the sun. He also gave examples from his days as a community college teacher of young adult students not knowing when Jesus lived, or when slavery in the US ended. Finally, he gave examples of ignorance among elected officials. He concluded that education, itself, is not valued enough in our country.

Reading versus Doing

G. grew up in Quebec and has a particularly dim view of the Catholic Church. We talked about how some people cannot be reached with reason. G. summed it up as follows: “If persons did not arrive at a particular opinion through reason, they can’t be swayed from it through reason.” We discussed how experience, your own or that of others close to you, influences most of us more than any amount of study or reason.

He used the shifting cultural norms around LBGTQ persons as an example. Forty years ago, most people in the US did not support gay marriage. Many viewed homosexuality as a kind of aberration. Today, a majority of Americans see it more as they view left-handedness: a minority of people are simply born this way. G. attributes this shift to the recent openness of LGBTQ persons themselves. Previously, gay persons hid their identity and now they do not. As a result, most Americans have a family member or friend who identifies that way. This personal experience with gay family and friends, in his opinion, shifted public opinion towards acceptance.

Again, enlightenment comes in the form of direct experience, and not though education, basically a form of inferred experience of others over time. I did not bring up Buddhism or Zen in the discussion with G., but suspect he would feel similar to me on combining the fruits of scholarship with fire.

Bearded Dragons: a Tangent

So S celebrated his thirteenth birthday last Wednesday, and this little critter was his present. He named her Kalessin, for the oldest dragon in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series. We call her Kali for short.

Learning to care for a reptile is a challenge. Luckily, there is a wealth of information on-line about the care of these creatures. We also purchased an excellent book on bearded dragon care with a gift certificate from his aunt.

Last week, she was not active. We worried her terrarium was too cold. The pet shop, Burbank Scales and Tails, kindly replaced the bulb with a warmer, better one free of charge. They were ready with advice when my son called, too. This past weekend, however, our terrarium thermometer indicates the bulb heats her home too much! We have ordered a light stand, so we can adjust its distance. Now, we’re using wood blocks or wash cloths wrapped in duct tape to prop it higher.

I am thankful that we can rely on the experience of others, in the form of books, on-line articles and discussions with the knowledgable staff at Burbank Scales and Tails. Given none of us have prior personal experience in reptile care, we’re glad others are willing to educate us.

What does any of this have to do with Karate?

Everything! This is a karate blog, so of course we’ll examine how it relates to karate. Learning karate, like achieving enlightenment or learning to care for a pet bearded dragon, is half personal experience and half learning from others. Studying from karate is not the same as practicing karate. Practicing karate, however, requires the study of karate to be complete.

I recently finished Oyama’s book, “This is Karate.” So much great information is contained in its pages, as well as cool photos of Oyama and his students. So much Japanese terminology, history and philosophy lives within those pages. Reading it gives me impressions of our style’s founder that I would not have had otherwise. I picked up Oyama’s book, however, after learning who Oyama was in Sensei’s dojo.

That said, there is no substitute for attending my Sensei’s physical dojo for roughly eight years, and practicing with my instructors and fellow students. I’ve learned how to block better by fending off strong blows from TF. Watching Sensei M showed me just how hard a scholar can kick! Our dojo has had many strong women and intelligent men among its udancha, and each of them imparted some wisdom to me, through words, demonstrations, blows, blocks, kicks and their grace in the face of conflict or hardship.

I owe a lot to my Sensei. He showed me how wise, disciplined and strong children could be. It was a joy to watch S and F grow under his instruction. He showed me how to break bricks, and how to reach 100 push-ups, sit-ups and squats. He showed me how to earn a black belt. Most importantly, he demonstrated why the study of karate was valuable.

From Sensei’s Bonsai Class Exhibition in December 2017

Coronavirus, Stress, Mortality and Karate

Sunday October 4th, 2020

I spent perhaps far too much time reading the news yesterday and feeling stressed. So I felt this was perhaps a good topic to cover. Hoping others will find this helpful.

Coronavirus in the News

With so many of our elected leaders and their staff, acquaintances, friends and family afflicted with coronavirus, let us keep them in our thoughts and prayers. This disease, striking the powerful and the weak alike, reminds us of our own mortality.

The AIDS epidemic was the last time our nation faced anything similar to COVID-19 in recent memory. That disease, as frightening as it was, is not comparable. According to a CDC publication from November 1995, total deaths that year from AIDS had reached 311,381 persons nationally. The death rate for infected persons was a frightening 62%. Due to better education, activism and treatments that rate finally started to fall in 1996. Antiretroviral therapy in particular, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, was perhaps the key factor in that reduction.

This year, in the US, roughly 208,630 have died to date with this disease (KFF). The gross death rate is roughly 3 to 4%, so considerably lower than that of AIDS at its peak. However, unlike AIDS, it is highly contagious, and currently we have about 7.44 M people infected. So the likelihood that one might contract this disease is high. Also, similar to AIDS, a person can be a carrier for some unknown length of time and transmit the virus to multiple persons without being aware he or she is spreading the disease. Finally, unlike AIDS, we hope this first year will be the peak.

The rough, lower death rate for COVID-19 is misleading. This disease is opportunistic. It effects the more vulnerable. So the elderly, along with immunocompromised individuals, are more effected. Minority communities as well as those impoverished suffer from it disproportionately.

Stress and Karate

It is well known that a regular exercise practice, as well as mindfulness and mediation, can reduce stress. Karate, with its roots in Zen Buddhism, emphasizes breathing and meditation in addition to rigorous training.

Friday’s Class: Stances and Backwards Kata

Friday night’s class, led by my daughter F, was enough to move my mind from the week’s concerns. Rather than kihon, she had us hold stances for a minute and a half. I found this hilarious video of a karate father demonstrating how to get in a work-out doing this with small children:

Afterwards, she had us practice Pinan Sono Ichi backwards. Concentrating on this certainly focused my mind, at least for the duration of that exercise.

Saturday’s Class: Renraku

Yesterday morning, we met in a park in Burbank for a distance-respecting work-out. Sensei T led the class and called on me to teach kihon. I was a bit out of breath by the end of kihon, though we only did tens. Normally, for adult classes, we will do twenty of each exercise. Yesterday, we had a number of younger children in class. When this is the case, we do fewer exercises.

Senpai T covered the first three IFK basic Renraku exercises. Here’s another great video demonstrating some of the material we covered:

This gentleman demonstrates several more renraku. We covered the 9th and 8th. The 8th renraku is very similar to the 9th, but you lead with a kick, rather than a punch. The 7th focuses on blocks. By request from young Senpai TD, however, we jumped to the last renraku, which is all kicks! Then Senpai T called on us to do it on both sides. That was a challenge. I found a fun video that shows most of the renraku. Go to the end: that’s where you’ll see the kicking one!

This IFK group in Israel is awesome. Fun to watch!

Mortality, Nature and Karate

Queen of the Night opening Wednesday night

While karate certainly doesn’t dwell on our mortality, it does emphasize self-defense for the preservation of one’s life, as well as exercise for health.

Oyama also emphasized practicing karate and meditation in nature. Famously, he spent months honing his skills, alone, in the wilderness. The book I recently finished by him, “This is Karate,” is full of beautiful photos of karateka practicing on the beach, in the forest, in snow or before stunning landscapes. Hence, both our dojo, and now the club, tries to get out in nature to practice.

Queen of the Night

Wednesday night, the night of my son’s birthday, we had a rare opportunity to observe the opening of Jessica’s Queen of the Night plant. I had written about hoping to see this event back in July. We looked for it on the 22nd, and I described missing it on the 23rd.

This past Wednesday night, we watched its progress. By 7pm, Jessica came to watch its opening. She sat on a chair with the plant until the mosquitoes convinced to her leave. I offered to keep watch and send photos. By 10pm, the two blooms on the plant were completely open. They already had a smell then, but you needed to bend down to smell them. By midnight, they released the most amazing smell.

Queen of the Night, no flash, both blooms

I took several photos of each bloom from various angles, with and without the flash. Our outdoor light gave the white blooms a pinkish tinge. Some of the photos came out looking quite abstract, particularly the close-up ones.

The grandparents, kids and D came out with me at various points to examine and smell the flowers. Richard noted that it was a full moon, and asked if these plants primarily bloom during full moons.

Each bloom begins in a teardrop shape and puffs out over one or two days. In the evening, it begins to open slowly, but by midnight, it is in its full glory.

Flowers, Pandemics and Brevity

Like the pandemic, the night flower is also a reminder of mortality, albeit a more glorious one. The bloom is spectacular in size and smell, once fully open, but the fact that it opens just once, and only at night, makes it unusual. So to see it, you must stay up late. It’s quick, too: in just two to three hours, it will open completely. By morning, it has returned to its teardrop, but droops down.

However long we as humans may live, even our lives, when long, pass quickly, when compared with stately, centuries old redwoods or the ancient stars above. All living things die. We are no different. We come into the world totally helpless, and if fortunate, learn to crawl, totter, walk, run, dance, perform karate, walk, perhaps the totter returns, then nothing. All human life is brief. What more impetus do we need to treat each other, and ourselves, with compassion?

Another Approach to Tensho

Friday September 25th, 2020

The passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, one week ago today, saddened my family. She served her country well, was a leader of the highest moral caliber. She set a high bar for the rest of us to follow, as a person of education, determination and ethics.

I want to recount Wednesday morning’s entry. Sensei taught for us Tuesday evening, and I found his treatment of tensho enlightening.

Wednesday September 23rd, 2020

It was inspirational to do another class with Sensei. He taught tensho the Goju-ryu way. We keep the lower body: legs and abdomen, rigid, while the rest of the body remains flexible and relaxed. Here is the way he explained it: everything below your belt-knot is “the mountain,” your solid foundation. Everything above your belt-knot is “the clouds:” fluid, relaxed, but also fast, capable of “lightning” speed for effective strikes. Sensei said this metaphor of the body, a mountain with clouds above, comes from Tai Chi, which, like the Goju-ryu version of tensho, play with slow movements and fast ones, strength and fluidity. And, similar to Oyama’s overall descriptions of circles, points and straight lines in karate, Sensei pointed out that this kata, too, plays with circles and straight lines. It is a kata of contrasts, seeking balance.

He showed a video that went over the bunkai for tensho. The elderly gentleman who demonstrated the bunkai for the kata often followed up a block or grab with two fast strikes. While listening to Sensei’s explanations and watching the video, I realized that the circular move in the kata, following the up-ward, shotei block, was really a shuto hizo uchi strike. Now when I practice tensho, I try to make that move an actual strike, rather than merely quickly moving down for the lower shotei block. The upper shotei, then, is the block. Once that is executed, both the shuto hizo uchi and the gedan shotei are strikes.

Contrasts in kata: rhythm, balance, circular motion versus straight lines

I can’t find the specific video Sensei showed us. When he sends it to us, I’ll post it here. However, while looking for a good example of tensho different from my favorite one posted previously, I came across this excellent karate demonstration from the WFK World Karate Championship of 2012. These women are excellent karateka. While you watch the video, think about speed versus slowness. They are masters of rhythm. Notice when they are fluid and when they are rigid. I love the fact that they mix in bunkai with karate moves. Yes, as you would expect in such a competition, they are excellent showmen. Look for circular motion punctuated with straight lines.

I’d like to think that Ruth Bader Ginsberg would have enjoyed watching this performance of skilled, strong young women.

Two Kyokushin Tensho demonstrations

Since this entry is about tensho, I’ll end with an excellent IFK rendition of tensho that I used while practicing for my black belt test.

I am grateful to Oishi of Cape Town and his dojo for posting this kata:

Oishi of Cape Town

If you are learning this kata, he makes it easy to follow along. Also, his karate is simply beautiful.

Finally, Masutatsu Oyama loved tensho, so I have to include this:

He certainly demonstrates the mountain and clouds, circles, points, straight lines, slowness and speed.

Dao, Zen and a Karate Gift

Monday September 21st, 2020

A dear friend of mine gave me a cute t-shirt in honor of both my birthday and my black belt test. I wanted to know what the Japanese said on the t-shirt. I texted a picture of the shirt to another close friend who is Japanese. She wrote back:

“The direct translation is tao of karate. I’m still thinking what is the best way to translate the word…”

A little while later, she came back with this:

“The best way I can describe is something like, pursuing the way of master in karate.”

That got me to thinking, what is the relationship between Zen and Daoism? (D says “Dao” sounds closer to the Chinese pronunciation than “Tao,” so I’ll go with that.) Certainly Daoism is older in China. Lao Tsu lived between the 4th and 6th centuries, B.C. Zen Buddhism originated with Bodhidharma. He journeyed from India to China in the 6th century C.E/A.D. Daosim, already prevalent in China by the time Bodhidharma arrived, would have influenced Zen, or, Ch’an, as it was referred to in China. I’ve included a link to a BBC article about Zen Buddhism.

So just as kempo is the “grandparent” of karate, so Dao is a grandparent of Zen Buddhism. I am sure religious scholars and monks have studied the relationship between the two. In fact, here’s an article from Buddha Weekly:

https://buddhaweekly.com/dharma-and-the-tao-how-buddhism-and-daoism-have-influenced-each-other-why-zen-and-taoism-can-be-compliementary/

Some of the interesting points of the article regarding similarities between Dao and Zen:
* Concept of Emptiness or No-thing
* Interconnectedness of all living things

I’ll add a couple of my own observations:
* Emphasis on simplicity and direct experience
* Contradictions, or apparent contradictions, teach wisdom in each tradition

I’m sure there are more similarities between the two, as well as deeper examinations out there. Still, food for thought!