Today, we are celebrating my father-in-law’s 82nd birthday. While my son was on his religious school zoom and daughter prepared to host a Dungeons & Dragons session for younger children, I straightened the kitchen. The bell rang. Still in plaid pajamas, I rushed around to find a mask. I considered running upstairs to grab a housecoat, though it was warm and my pajamas are quite modest. The ringing was insistent. I went to the door. An older man, most likely Armenian from his accent, stood with a large “tree” of fruit dipped in chocolate. The fruit tree had a balloon attached. He asked for my father-in-law. “Richard is asleep,” I told the man. I accepted the gift, and called to the man as he left, “Richard just turned 82 today!”
Who sent this fancy, thoughtful gift? This I wondered while I sprayed it with a diluted bleach solution.
Kindness Remembered
Richard has a cousin in Orange County. She immigrated to the US from Hungary, Richard’s mother’s the country of origin. Actually, she and her husband escaped from Hungary. When they left, the Soviet Union controlled it. Richard’s family helped the young couple get on their feet in the US. Richard has been close to his cousins through his adult life. She sent the gift. During Richard’s birthday Zoom, she told him, “More than anyone else, you helped me adjust to life in this country, and I will always appreciate you for it!”
Richard grew up in Detroit, attended the University of Michigan, and studied engineering. After working in the pharmaceutical industry, he chose to go into academia. During the Zoom, we looked at old family photos that relatives emailed or mailed. We reached one in which he, his wife and cousin were sitting together on a stoup. Miriam was pregnant. He quipped, “I was in a race between the birth of my first child and finishing my doctorate!” Everyone laughed, and one relative remarked, “You can’t lose in a race like that!”
He taught chemical engineering at Vanderbilt University. After retirement, he and Miriam moved to Burbank, to be with us. He currently volunteers at Cal Tech and received a visiting professorship there. He loves listening in on presentations, reviews academic papers for colleagues, and mentoring young undergraduates and the occasional graduate student adjusting to life on campus.
Wisdom in Everyday Choices
In our home, he’s constantly looking for novel uses for objects we might otherwise discard: every room in our contains an old milk jug, filled with water and sanitized with two drops of iodine, in case of an earthquake. Above the sink sits a plastic glass, from a milkshake he purchased over a month ago, that he uses every night as his water glass at dinner.
Miriam and Richard have been married for over fifty years. During his anniversary celebration, we asked them, “How do you manage to stay married for fifty years?” He answered simply, “Every day is a choice. I choose her, and she chooses me, every day.”
Perseverance and Humility
My son’s science homework, the kind of thing his grandfather helps him with!
He has taught me a lot about perseverance. When they first moved to Burbank, he contacted several schools and local community colleges in the area, volunteering his services. He just wanted to keep his mind engaged, and be useful to someone, somewhere. He spoke with our kids’ teachers, and friends of ours who were teachers. Our daughter’s preschool was happy to have him come and demonstrate simple experiment with eggs or potatoes. He counseled the teen son of a friend on studying engineering. As our kids grew older, he helped them with science projects and homework.
However, the colleges he contacted showed no interest. Though he felt discouraged, he persisted, and found individuals to help. My husband had a friend through his job, who had a relative at Cal Tech. They arranged a meeting between Richard and his contact there. The scholar he met at Cal Tech invited him to other meetings, and he found his way to his current position.
Interestingly enough, it was not his ambition to land at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Rather, it was simply his ambition to be useful to someone, and stay engaged in retirement. Sometimes, it takes a significant amount of intelligence to see the value of those right in front of you.
Focus on Your Practice
Persistence and practice go hand and hand. Sometimes I’d wander into his office and notice scrap papers–he only uses scraps, torn envelopes, the backs of junk mail pages–scrawled with equations containing Greek letters. I’d ask, “What’s that?” He would then explain about a colleague who sent him a paper to review, and he was checking the math. If I stuck around, he’d explain about peptides or acids and bases. Like Mas Oyama, he focused on the work.
“I realized that perseverance and step-by-step progress are the only ways to reach a goal along a chosen path.”
Our humble karate club is also doing its best to stick to those twin principles: perseverance and practice. During a pandemic, after our dojo closed and we cannot meet in person, continuing to meet using only Zoom has taken some perseverance. Yet we continue our practice.
Break it down and mix it up!
Last Tuesday, Sensei R took three sequences from Kanku and used them as our kihon. He first had us practice uchi uke followed by a punch. Later, we practiced the quick junzuki turns with stabs, followed by blocks and breathing. Finally, he went over one of the more complex sequences, holding one fist above the other to one side, then doing a mae geri (front kick), followed by the simultaneous side strike with both a fist and kick, ending in a twisting elbow-strike to the hand. (This sequence, by the way, is also in Pinan Sono Yon.) He wanted us to break the longer kata down into pieces, and perfect each piece separately.
On Friday, our weapons Senpai, Senpai SL, reviewed some basic nunchuck moves, then we practiced his personal nunchuck kata. He also reviewed one we’d learned with Sensei R. Finally, he asked for suggestions, and worked out nunchuck versions of Tsuki No and Gekisai dai. In each case, he had us first review and practice the kata before attempting the weapons version. The class was fun and challenging, though much of it was review.
Finally, on Saturday, we had a guest instructor, Sensei AJ. She reviewed the hapkido stick moves that she’d previously taught. Like Senpai SL, she taught us to follow a series of steps and punches without the sticks, then we added sticks!
Choose to Practice Every Day
Whether we are pursuing karate for its health and spiritual benefits, or pursuing a career, playing a musical instrument or hoping to finish high school or college, persistence and practice are necessary to achieving most worth while goals.
I wish you persistence in your endeavors, and inspiration to practice! Like my father-in-law, focus on the work, on being a useful member of society. Keep your marriage to karate strong by choosing it daily.
“One becomes a beginner after 1000 days of training. One becomes a master after 10,000 days of practice.”
Masutatsu Oyama
Flowers in Griffith Park, taken on January 3rd, 2021, on hike with karateka kids
After events in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, January 6th, 2021, I needed to grapple with current events.
Our institutions and our world, are like a dojo. Treat them with respect.
After events in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, January 6th, 2021, I felt I needed to write something grappling with current events, even though this is mostly a karate blog with oblique references to my profession.
Personal Interest in Spirituality and Truth
I am an American. I grew up in the South. One of the most influential persons in my life was an evangelical Christian and Southern Baptist. However, I fell in love with a man of Jewish heritage who considered himself an atheist until he found Buddhism. I converted to Judaism and chose to raise my children as Jews.
But right now, I’m reading the Koran. As a student in Germany, a graduate student in physics named Nadia befriended me. Her family raised her as a Christian, but she chose to convert to Islam. Her intelligence, kindness and thoughtfulness left a deep impression on me. I have a sister who converted to Islam as well. Hence, my interest in the Koran. As student in Germany, I read the Bhagavad Gita, as well as some autobiographical writings of Mahatma Ghandi. On this blog, I’ve talked about Buddhist texts, particularly ones on Zen, which influence karate. Sometimes I make references to Lao Tsu, whose writings I discovered later in life.
My aunt instilled a deep interest in spirituality and truth in me. Reading Bible stories with her sparked my childish imagination. She instilled in me a desire to live up to her lofty values. And what were those values? Be a good person. Tell the truth. Have compassion. In short, she’d say, to the best of your ability, be like Jesus.
Oyama, too, instructed his karateka: be a good person, a strong family member and serve your community. My aunt would approve.
“One living daily in the Way carries their head low and their eyes high; reserved in speech and possessing a kind heart, they steadfastly continue in their training efforts.”
I tell you these things so you can evaluate where I come from. Each of us has implicit biases, based in our familial, cultural, religious and national heritages. This is, to a degree, part of our nature as humans. Each of us chooses to embrace and reject parts of our upbringing and heritage. As teenagers and young adults, we seek to answer the question, “Who am I? What do I believe? What do I stand for?”
That said, each of us has blind spots. We can only overcome those blind spots if we acknowledge they exist. One way to overcome them is to befriend honest, trusted people who are not like us, then listen closely to them. Those differences can be based in heritage, religion, political beliefs, age, profession, physical appearance, build and perceived abnormalities, material affluence, nation or region of origin, physical or mental diversity and abilities or lack thereof, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and socially-constructed race. In short, we need friends different from us. They can help us become better people, if we are willing to hear what they say.
Just as we have senpais (older siblings) when we practice in the dojo, a person with different life experiences from you can be like a senpai. How do we treat senpais in a dojo? We observe them, listen, and try to imitate what they do well. The world can be like a dojo if we enter it respectfully, willing to observe carefully, listen, and learn from those around us.
House of the Search for Absolute Reality
Hike in the Olympic National Forest
So again, what does karate have to do with recent political events? The style of karate that I and my martial arts compatriots practice is called Kyokushin, and it was established by a Japanese man of Korean heritage, Masutatsu Oyama. Kyokushin literally means “absolute truth” in Japanese, and the Kyokushin kai, the symbol many of us wear on our gis, means “House of Absolute Truth.” However, “truth” can also be interpreted as “reality.” From the Wikipedia entry on Kyokushin, here’s a good explanation, breaking down the parts of Kyokushin Kai:
Oyama chose the kanji of Kyokushinkai (極真会) to resemble the samurai sword safely placed in its sheath. Translated, kyoku means “ultimate”, shin means “truth” or “reality” and kai means “to join” or “to associate.” Kyokushinkai, roughly translated, means “Association for Ultimate Truth”.[“What is Kyokushin? Mas-Oyama.com. Retrieved April 23, 2013] This concept has less to do with the Western meaning of truth; rather it is more in keeping with the bushido concept of discovering the nature of one’s true character when tried.[ Groenwold, A. M. (2002) Karate the Japanese Way Canada: Trafford Publishing.] One of the goals of kyokushin is to strengthen and improve character by challenging one’s self through rigorous training.{“What is Kyokushin?” Mas-oyama.com. Retrieved October 26, 2013]
My Sensei would often refer to that nuance: truth versus reality. He also added his own wisdom: none of us should presume to own the truth, or reality, in its entirety. Our narrow experiences and knowledge limits us. We seek to improve ourselves precisely because we know we need it. Therefore, Sensei R liked to say, we are the “house of the search for absolute reality.”
Searching for Reality: Our Senses
So, how do we know what is true and real? Where do we start? Certainly our own experiences are a great start. If a brick feels hard when you strike it, you can say it’s hard.
Our physical experience in the world: what we see, hear, smell, taste and feel, is our primary evidence for what reality is.
Sometimes personal experience isn’t enough. I wasn’t in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, January 6th, 2021. How do I know what actually transpired there?
Reality Testing: When Not To Trust your Senses
But let’s take a step back for a moment. I just asserted that we should be able to trust our own experiences as mediated by our own senses. Is that always true?
My mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was fourteen. She often told me about her visions. She heard voices, too. Sometimes she was aware that she could see and hear things no one else could see or hear. At other times, she was surprised to find that others had not experienced what she’d experienced.
Once she told me about a vision she’d had. She’d dated a particular man then broken off the relationship. Shortly afterwards, someone slashed her car tires. She believed he did it, because before the tire incident, she’d had a “vision.” She characterized it as such since it was in black and white, not color. However, the man in in her vision had yellow teeth. This detail stood out to her because it was the only element of color in an otherwise black and white experience. That detail revealed the man’s identity to her. She’d made note of his yellow teeth when they had been together in the past.
In this case, she knew her vision was outside of normal reality because it was in black and white, rather than color. She understood no one else but she had had this experience. She knew it was not “real” in the sense that you reading this blog right now is real. Nevertheless, it held meaning for her.
She told me about another experience quite unlike that one. As a temp office worker for Kelly Services, she’d struck up a friendship with one of the men at the office. One day, she realized he was not there.
Seeking out the judgement of others
According to my mother, her friend was there, until she realized he was not. So what does that mean? I puzzled over this for a long time. One of these two situations had occurred in reality: either my mother imagined this man, and interacted with an invisible person at the office (Scenario A), or my mother concluded that a real man, whom she’d previously interacted with, did not really exist (Scenario B). She knew enough to know that her hold on reality, at times, was tenuous.
But what was real? What actually happened with my mother in that office? How can you know, if you knew that you could not always trust your own senses? From my mother’s point of view, here’s how you might discover the truth: talk to the other people in the office. If they notice you were talking to thin air or frequently talking to yourself, then assume Scenario A, he does not exist, is likely true. However, if they note that you had made a friend, then strangely started ignoring him, Scenario B is more likely true, that he does exist.
Overcoming limitations
I learned from my mother, and her disease, that personal experiences are limited and possibly flawed. This is in line with studies conducted on implicit bias. We have each internalized the biases of our own families, communities and cultures. This is true regardless of mental abilities. However, just like a mental disability, biases limit our understanding of reality. They color what we see, or rather, remove color from what we see. Sometimes we have awareness of our biases, like my mother’s black and white vision. Other times, these biases are truly unconscious and we need honest feedback from others to bring us into reality.
In addition, there are our obvious limitations: determining what really happened at a time and place when you weren’t there. What do you do? You turn to the experiences of others to overcome your limitations.
Wednesday’s Events
On Wednesday, as events unfolded, my husband was glued to Twitter. He also followed the live reports of various reporters in the Capitol. That evening at 6pm, I tuned into the Senate debate, broadcast live by the New York Times. They debated an objection raised to certify Arizona’s electoral votes. Correspondents wrote comments in the margins of the page as different senators spoke from the floor.
Also, I paid special attention to Republican senators. Many condemned the violence exhibited that day. One in particular said she would change her vote based on the prior events, though she continued to question the validity of the election’s results. In the end, six senators voted in favor of the objection while ninety three voted against it. I didn’t stick around for the House debate.
If you lived in a small town in a rural area, and everyone you knew had voted like you, I can understand how you might assume your vote represents a majority; it may be in line with the majority in your community. However, if you have friends or relatives in metropolitan areas, you can find out how their opinions might differ from yours with a phone call. You can read the local papers from other communities in faraway places. Unless you live in a place with limited service or without freedom of media, you also can read online press releases from other countries as well as those from within your own country. This is reality-checking.
What’s True and Real
In the United States, we have a series of checks and balances set up to help prevent corruption. The balance of powers between the three branches of government is one. No one branch is permitted to hold absolute power.
The president asserts the election was stolen from him. Who stole it and how? His followers, who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, intended to defend him. Did they defend him? What is reality?
The Courts
The American court system offers redress to people who believe they have been wronged and those accused of wrong-doing. President Trump’s legal team filed multiple lawsuits on his behalf regarding election fraud. Most of them were rejected. The few that prevailed were not significant enough to move the needle of election results in any state.
In addition, the Supreme Court declined to hear those cases on appeal and rejected one case outright. There are at least six conservative judges, three of whom were appointed under Trump’s administration in the Supreme Court. It is not likely that the Supreme Court is biased against the current president.
In our court system, the burden of proof rests with the accuser and not the accused. It was not sufficient for the Trump Administration to claim voter fraud in various counties and states. To prevail, they had to offer enough proof to convince a judge and possibly a jury.
The Congress
Congress met to ratify the votes of the electors from the states. A handful of representatives raised objections to the votes of some states; Congress debated those. As mentioned earlier, the Senate voted 6 to 93 against the objection to Arizona’s votes. The House rejected the same objection 303 to 121. Objections were similarly raised to Pennsylvania’s vote, and were rejected, in both houses, by similar margins. Vice President Pence, a loyal supporter of the current president, presided over these proceedings. Recall, too, that the current president’s party held a slim majority in the Senate. Many Senators are loyal to the Republican Party and to the current president. It is not likely that the Senate was biased against President Trump. Senator after senator, Republican and Democrat, speaking from the floor, spoke passionately about doing their jobs.
More Republican Representatives in the Democrat-controlled House voted as the President hoped, but the majority still voted in favor of certifying the states’ votes.
The courts and the Congress, then, have stymied the current president’s ambitions to stay in power. One might argue they’re simply against him. However, our government was designed with the idea that the three branches of government would keep the power of each in check. This is the more likely scenario.
For those of us who were not at the Capitol last Wednesday, we have the accounts of eye-witnesses, including first-hand accounts from senators and representatives belonging to both parties, the police, members of the press, protestors and even the accounts of rioters.
Trust the Process
When I first began my karate journey, I felt intimidated. I watched the black, brown and green belts perform katas, fight, and do kihon. They knew the Japanese terminology. I was impressed with their knowledge, fierceness and grace. At times, I wasn’t sure I’d last long enough in my studies to attain a high rank. As an older, petite woman and a white belt, I wondered if I’d ever be able to hold my own in a kumite match with any of my fellow karateka.
Once in a while, I’d give voice to those apprehensions, and one of my senpais would answer, “Trust the process.” Sensei R. would also tell the class, “Trust your training.”
Now, nearly eight years later, I know the Japanese terminology. I know kihon and many katas. I’ve broken bricks with my hands. Over the holiday break, I was even able to get through Kanku, one of our longest, advanced kata. But it took years of practice–including many days in which I made a lot of mistakes–to get there. But I trusted the process. I trained. I am not perfect, but I am much improved over where I was when I started.
Democracy is messy, but it has a process
Yes, our democracy is far from perfect. Every voter precinct has volunteers, some paid and others not, helping to run the elections. Civil servants at all levels are people. Many have significant experience while others, fresh-faced, volunteered for the first time during this past election. Do they make mistakes? Of course! But luckily, there are multiple persons present while voting, and vote counting, occurs. They have training and a responsibility to report errors if they see them.
Our process, during both the 2016 and the 2020 elections, has received significant scrutiny, and we’ve made corrections. Investigations noted irregularities, foreign influence and misinformation in the 2016 election. These did influence that election. However, despite the fact that the 2016 election had been a close one, with the popular vote going to one candidate and the electoral college going to another, those tasked with investigating these problems still concluded that President Trump had won fairly in 2016. Of course many people did not like to hear that, but this was the consensus.
Checking Reality
Our elected officials did discuss and take measures to help protect against interference in our elections in the future. The 2020 elections, as well as voters, benefitted from some of these. However, by the time the 2020 elections arrived, our country had to work around a world-wide pandemic in addition. The voting public, however, has more awareness of issues like misinformation and foreign interference.
The results of the 2020 election were not close. However, Biden’s edge in the popular vote, according to the Pew Research Center, was about 4.45% of votes cast. The Electoral College cast 306 votes in favor of Biden and 232 in favor of Trump. According to Pew, Biden’s lead over Trump in the popular vote is about seven million. Pew notes Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump in the Electoral College looks like Trump’s victory over Clinton in 2016.
Nevertheless, the current president filed legal challenges, and those challenges went to the courts. This is the appropriate place for such challenges. If the challenges fail, then the losing party needs to regroup and learn from their losses.
In politics, as in karate, we learn more from our failures than from our victories.
Violence is Not the Way Forward
Given the emphasis that karate practitioners place on kumite (sparring) and tameshiwari (breaking stuff), it may sound counter-intuitive for me to write this, but karateka seek to be masters of violence in order to avoid it.
First, we learn self-control. During kumite, advanced students know how to take and give blows without letting their emotions run away from them. We control our breath, our muscles and our minds during sparring. Often, a karate teacher pairs advanced students with less experienced ones precisely because they will both challenge and teach the less experienced students. However, senpais remain in control of themselves, so they will not injure or discourage their kohais.
When we learn self-defense, the lesson is always to keep the fight as short as possible and get to safety. The goal is not to hurt others, but rather to defend ourselves and keep ourselves safe.
Mayhem is not protected political speech
While there were many peaceful protestors on Wednesday, some engaged in vandalism. Some participated in the chaos and expressed their anger, while others acted out in mob violence. Still others had more deadly intensions: they carried weapons into the capitol, or planted pipe bombs in the headquarters of both parties. Rioters beat a police officer with a fire extinguisher. He died. In total, five people died. Rioters threatened the vice president’s life: they erected a gallows, a white supremacist symbol, and chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”
Mayhem, threats and violence are the tools of thugs, extremists and dictators. It takes no skill or courage to pull a gun’s trigger or set off a bomb.
“Personal greed and egoism are things that cause human beings to forget respect for others and to violate rules that have been established for the sake of peace and friendship.”
Do the right thing. Advocate change, but do not violate others in the process.
This nation, our institutions, and our world, are like a dojo. Treat them as such: with reverence and respect. Enter and leave them with humility, head bowed but eyes raised.
A small number of us chose to start out the New Year right: with karate! We reviewed the onerous lower twenty-one techniques, with special attention to foot positions.
A small number of us chose to start out the New Year right: with karate! I admit that accepting the teaching assignment for today was certainly an aid for me. Nothing inspires you to dust off and brush up on a particular skill set like having to teach it!
Jumping right into the Deep End: Lower Twenty-one
We decided to jump right into the deep end by taking on the Lower 21 moves today. It was a good choice, since none of the students in attendance felt secure with it. Admittedly, I was not comfortable with it until I spent time drilling it, I also practicing how I might teach it. Before falling asleep, I went over the moves in my mind. Upon waking, I found myself going over them once again.
17 Hand Techniques and 21 Lower Techniques: Background
Here is an excellent reference posted by the Kyokushin Academy in the UK:
According to the Kyokushin Academy, the seventeen hand techniques and twenty-one leg techniques were developed by Hanshi Steve Arneil, who trained under our style’s founder, Masutatsu Oyama. Hanshi Arneil founded the International Federation of Karate (IFK). When we were a physical dojo, our Sensei R. affiliated with the IFK for long stretch of time after leaving the IKO, and has deep respect for many of its leaders and instructors.
The Nitty Gritty Details: Lower 21
I found that the best way to attack teaching the Lower 21 was to divide it into sections based on both the kicking technique and the foot position. Of course, like the upper 17, we know that we start on the right side, then each technique alternates from left to right. Often, we change levels: so if you do a gedan (low) technique on the right, you can expect a chudan (belt-level) on the left, followed by a jodan (high) technique on the right. We accept and expect this pattern, so we can focus on the techniques and foot positions.
Leg techniques
Here’s the breakdown for leg techniques:
2 knee techniques (hiza, knee to the face, followed by a “roundhouse” knee)
2 “knee” kick-attacks, to the side and then we pivot to the front for the second (kansetsu geri)
4 side kicks, (yoko geri), alternating between the side and front, chudan then jodan on both sides
3 back kicks (ushiro geri, chudan on each side, followed by a complete spinning jodan back kick)
Foot positions
The foot positions can “transition” between these moves, and we are also moving through haisoku (pointed toe), chusoku (striking with the ball of the foot), sokuto (the “knife-edge,” outer side of the foot), kakato (the heel) and occasionally, teisoku, or the “inside”side of the foot. Here is a breakdown by foot positions:
3 haisoku(s) (making contact with the target using the top flat of foot, toes pointed down, techniques are 2 knees and the groin kick)
3 chusoku(s) (ball of the foot, two front kicks and the front stretch kick)
teisoku (inside of foot, technique is outside-in stretch kick)
haisoku for the inside-out circling stretch kick
sokuto (knife-edge of foot) for the side stretch kick
back to 2 chusokus ( round-house kicks)
1 haisoku (jodan round-house kick)
6 sokuto (all of the kansetsu and yoko geri kicks)
3 kakato(s) (heels, all back kicks)
Reference Videos
While trying to figure out how to teach these techniques last night, I found a few useful videos. One in particular gave important insights into both the knee techniques and foot positions.
The very first technique, hiza gammen geri, is a knee to the face. Now, if you’re reading this and you don’t know me, know that I am short: just over five feet tall. So I’m thinking, how the heck would I get my knee up that high? Well, I did see some images of karateka using beautiful jumps to raise their knees to the level of an opponent’s face. That is one way. The following video, however, demonstrates a good practice technique, holding your hands at chest-level, then kneeing your own hands. Today we did this as a warm-up between stretches and kihon.
This video also covers another point of reference: why the emphasis on the foot positions? After having his student practice hitting his hands with his knees, he goes on to explain how the foot position, chusoku verses haisoku, can direct the force of the strike. This video was shared on YouTube by Karate-Kata. Please refer to the first segment labelled “Hiza Geri.”
Section called “Hiza Geri” contains relevant information regarding exercises for knee strikes and how foot position can direct the force of a strike.
Unfortunately, the video itself appears to be a collection which does not mention who the instructors are or which dojos they belong to. I also tried to find information about the poster through their YouTube “home” page. While the poster includes links to other interesting karate pages and a memorial to Jon Bluming, I wasn’t able to find more information to share about these folks.
Zoom Instruction
Our class today was small: just my son and me, two young junior shodans, and one very dedicated adult green belt. I lead the warm-up, then had students perform the knee kicks to the hands. We started at chest level and tried eye-level, but that was definitely challenging.
For kihon, we did a round-robin: each student lead the exercises associated with a stance. Most students did twenties! So it was a hard kihon. After a water break, I had us once again do those knee exercises, then proceeded to break down the lower 21 by leg technique. With each one, though, I was careful to point out the required foot position.
Finally, after going over the 21 techniques with me, we did another round-robin. I asked everyone to go into Gallery View in Zoom. We all unmuted our mics. Then, I called out the order in which students would do the techniques, and each student led one technique until we got through all 21. If a student didn’t remember which technique came next, I helped him or her out. But most folks knew or guessed which technique came next, and many remembered those foot positions! I’m very proud of the class.
Point Needing Clarification: Ushiro Geris, two attacks or three?
We also had a big discussion about the last three ushiro geris. So, if you go strictly by what the cheat sheet shows, we might assume that the first two kicks are part of a single attack: you spin 180, then deliver a back kick with the right, then left leg, then spin 180 to complete the attack. In all honestly, for that to work, you’d have to be pretty fast in delivering those kicks to an opponent. Either that, or confident your first kick lands. Normally, we would not want to keep our backs to an opponent for two techniques. But given that the cheat sheet shows no transition between the first right and left chudan-level back kicks, this is one way to make sense of that.
Alternatively, and an equally valid assumption, would be for the karateka to know that each ushiro geri is proceeded by a turn, then the kick is delivered, and the technique is completed by a turn back to face the opponent. In this case, both the right and left ushiro geris would be separate attacks.
I emailed Sensei T. for clarification and will share his more educated opinion when I hear back from him.
As of late, my karate-related reading has raised questions in my mind about both karate and Zen. I’m now in the section of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones that translates Chinese classic from the thirteenth century, the Gateless Gate. Perhaps its older, Chinese origins and ideas present more of a barrier for me.
Maha-Kashapa is enlightened when Buddha twirls a flower in another koan; also note the flower is a circle around a point.
The first tale is short: a monk asks Joshu the master if a dog has Buddha-nature. From there, the stories grow increasingly strange: a former Zen master, unable to correctly answer a student’s question, is transformed into a fox for five hundred rebirths; Master Gutei chops off the finger of a boy imitating him; Kyogen’s fatalistic image of a man hanging by his teeth from a tree over a precipice. Yes, the fingerless boy finds enlightenment. The fox-master gains enlightenment and release through listening to another teacher. Kyogen’s caution against words, while acknowledging our human predicament of needing words to transmit Zen teachings, encourages us to engage koans at the level of experience rather than thought or language.
However, to me these stories feel less accessible than those within 101 Zen Stories. 101 Zen Stories includes anecdotes by Nyogen Senzaki, who lived much later, and helped bring Zen Buddhism to the U.S. So maybe the issue is really my lack of understanding and familiarity with Zen’s Chinese roots.
Karate’s Kempo Roots
Nature is full of circles around points; it appears in animals as well as plants
Oyama, at the end of This is Karate, considers karate’s debts to Zen and Chinese kempo. In fact, Oyama states of his day’s karate trends: “the tendency is to use the straight line and the sharp angle rather than the point and the circle” (pg. 329). Kempo’s use of point and circle, to his mind, is more effective. He writes, “Though it may appear weaker, the point and circle method is actually the more powerful of the two, and it has more advantages when you shift from one technique to another” (327). Accordingly, he introduced several kempo hand and fist positions, as well as tensho, into his students’ karate practice.
Oyama goes on to support his assertion of the strength of the point and circle methods. While in Japanese karate, the karateka blocks and stops an enemy’s blow, says Oyama, the Chinese kempo artist blocks and repels the enemy’s blow (327). According to Oyama, the point and circle survive through many effective karate techniques. He wrote, “…in all karate moves for the hands, feet, or for the entire body, the motion is centered on a point around which we make a gentle arcing move.”
Certainly all of my Kyokushin karate instructors emphasized using your whole body for strikes and blocks. From Sensei to the black belts who led class, they all agreed on this point. When you use your hips, you use your whole body to support a move. For advanced students, we emphasize the “hikite,” or opposite hand, as much as we do the the striking hand. Every strike is stronger with an opposite “draw back.” The draw back winds up for a strike or block. With every move, we engage the whole body. The whole body is a circle revolving around a point, focusing our energy to support punches, kicks, blocks or strikes.
Chinese Koans and Karate
Even the rainbow is a circle in progress. What is its point?
This brings me back to the Chinese koans, which are just as much the basis of Japanese Zen Buddhism as kempo is to Kyokushin karate. They are intended to be hard and strange, in order to break the mind open for enlightenment. The author, reputedly Mumon, will often, in his commentaries, apparently contradict the point of the original koan. His ending poems, however, offer humor and a fig leaf back to the koan, and the reader. They circle about a point, like kempo, but the reader might need to use his or her hips, rather than head, for understanding.
Karate, like nature, may combine angles and straight lines to form circles about points.
This is my second week of one hundred repetitions for my daily exercises.
At work, a friend had told me about a comic character called “One Punch Man,” who really does seem inspired by Masutatsu Oyama’s karate teachings. In theory, One Punch Man claims to have gotten his super powers by doing one hundred push-ups, sit-ups and squats, plus running for 10 km a day, for roughly a year and a half. That comes up if you just Google “One Punch Man,” under “how did One Punch Man get his powers?”
Though my requirement for push-ups is technically sixty, given that everything else is one hundred, I’m trying to get in a hundred, even if I have to do forty on my knees. If I were not doing push-ups on my fists, the requirement would be one hundred. H, who promoted to shodan last year, did do one hundred and advised me to go with doing push-ups on my fists.
I did do exercises before work and after work. That went well in the morning, though I did not leave myself enough time to do my usual ten minute write. Evening exercises were a different matter. My back-right thigh is still stinging some, so I did squats without alternating punches. I did try to work in some punches around fifty repetitions, and it just hurt. Most likely, the hip-twist I do while punching at the top of the squat is somehow messing with that sore muscle.
During my lunch break, I jogged for twenty minutes on the treadmill, with a warm-up and cool down. I am hoping that, on Wednesday, I’ll be up for jump rope intervals again, but not today.
Work is also worrying, given the lack of work at work. As I mentioned earlier, my company does visual effects for live action, which is not happening at the moment.
I was also saddened to learn on Sunday that one of my cousins unexpectedly lost her younger sister. She had the burden of informing her father and the rest of the family of their loss. These kinds of events remind us to be grateful for the family and friends we have and for our own health.
On a lighter note, one of the stories in “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” reads like a joke. Soyen Shaku, the first Zen Master to teach in the United States, would take a nap every afternoon. This is according to his students in Japan.
One day, they asked him about it. He said, “I go to Dreamland to meet the old sages, just as Confucius did.”
One hot afternoon, the students, children at that time, also took a nap. Shaku scolded them upon finding them sleeping. The children answered, “We went to Dreamland to meet the old sages, just as Confucius did.”
“What was the message from those sages?” asked Shaku.
“We asked them if our schoolmaster came every afternoon to meet them, and they said they’d never seen any such fellow!” answered one wise child.
