sensei Archives - Ichi Kyu Diary

Joy is Contagious; grief endemic to the human condition

Each day of good health, therefore, is a gift. Every day spent in the company of a dear friend and loved one is also a gift. Karate teaches us to strengthen our bodies so we might have more days of good health. It also teaches us strength of mind to bear pain and recognize truth.

Yesterday, I participated as a judge in a promotion for the first time. It was a truly rewarding experience.

We continue to hold the bulk of our classes over Zoom. However, about once a month, health restrictions permitting, we meet in a local park for a socially-distanced workout.

During yesterday’s promotion, Sensei T felt it was important to meet in person. He offered me a chance to attend, since, as a newly minted shodan, I should learn to judge and assist in promotions. Sensei R was our senior officiating referee. The three of us met our student and his parents at 9:00am.

Go-Kyu Test

Our fifteen year old promotion candidate, TC, had clearly worked hard. His kicks were high and targeted. He knew his required kata well: Tsuki No, Yantsu and Pinan Sono San and of course, Sanchin. He had had personal tutoring from both Senseis R and T. I’d tailored a class and taught Tsuki No kata over Zoom for him. Last Tuesday, Sensei R. went over several of TC’s requirements. He was a yellow stripe, or go-kyu and tested yesterday for his yon-kyu, or green belt. The green belt is the first rank for an advanced student.

Sensei T led the warm-up, then we alternated running kihon with TC. While one of us led, the other watched TC’s techniques. Sensei R.’s eagle eyes were on TC the whole time. TC was sharp, following each technique, and did not show signs of fatigue. Afterwards, Sensei T had him do a couple of the beginning kata to warm-up, then had him do his promotion requirements. I led him through syllabus to his rank, the fourth kyu, also discovering in the process that I need to drill these for myself. That knowledge I will take with me into our upcoming Zoom classes!

Corrections for Cleaning: Evidence of an Advanced Student

Appropriately, most of our corrective notes for him centered on details: paying attention to his hikite hand, curving his foot out appropriately for sokuto or the knife-edge of the foot. Sensei R also demonstrated techniques for making sure your sanchin dachi pose is properly distanced: if you pivot forward into the fighting stance from sanchin dachi, then go down to one knee, your foot and knee should be about a fist apart.

After these, TC was required to do sixty push-ups, sit-ups and squats. Sensei T made the last 15 squats more challenging by having him do punches after each squat, and finally ending with five jump-squats.

The Fight Against Oneself: Developing Perseverance

Karate helps us develop a steadfast, unshaken spirit

A rigorous, eight minute tabata test substituted for his kumite matches. Sensei T had him rotate through a minute of each exercise with a twenty second break in between each. It was similar to the tabata Sensei R had prepared for my Shodan and Sensei T’s nidan tests. In TC’s case, he did bear-crawls, a round of punch-kicks, mountain-climbers and birpees. Of course, this test came last, after his exercises, kihon and kata had tired him out. He did not breeze through this test, but rather came to the brink of his abilities. We saw the moment, during his second-to-last and last set, when he slowed and truly wanted to quit. He was tired, out of breath and worn down.

Sensei R basically told him, “We’re not going to give this belt to you. You have to earn it!” Of course, when you work hard to earn it, you value it so much more.

Sensei T and I both called out encouragement. We watched him hit that moment when he wanted to quit, and we watched him push through it. He did this at least twice. I told him, “You’re climbing the mountain and you’re at the summit! Keep going! Climb on up there!” TC completed the requirements, tired out, but he stood tall to receive his green belt at the end.

Remembering what Sensei R had said to so many of us, I said to TC, “Look at you! Look what you can do!” I also said, “Normally, during a green belt test, you fight others during kumite. During your test, you had to fight yourself. You did, and you persevered!”

A Karateka’s Skill Reflects His Teachers’ Skills

Later, Sensei R told us how proud he was that Sensei T and the martial arts club had trained TC so well. TC’s success was a testament to Sensei T’s leadership of our group. In fact, Sensei R could see the personal style of his own student, Sensei T, reflected in TC’s execution of his kata and techniques. Sensei R seemed touched that I remembered and echoed to TC what he’d said to me and my fellow students.

TC was elated, and his parents were very proud. We took pictures together. We congratulated TC. TC’s parents spoke about how TC works hard and excels in so many areas: school as well as karate! I admit I was not surprised in the least to learn he is an excellent student at school. Given the tenacity and intelligence he demonstrates in our classes, I would expect no less of him.

I was elated for the rest of the day. Even while returning home, and needing to work the sixth day for my job (we’re in the end-of-the-year “crunch” cycle), I could not remove the smile from my face. TC’s accomplishments, and his and his family’s joy was simply contagious.

A Memorial for a Memorable Friend

Today I had another highly emotional experience: we remembered a dear friend, MM, who recently passed away. She was in her seventies and in the late stages of dementia. She and her husband, MW, who also suffered from dementia along with other illnesses, lived in a nursing care facility near her adult daughter’s home. Both our friend and her husband contracted Covid-19 in their care facility. Her husband survived, but she died within a week of contracting the disease. He is currently quite ill.

Her two daughters organized a memorial over Zoom. My mother-in-law, Miriam, and MM were childhood acquaintances and close adult friends. She gave MM’s first remembrance. She described their brief childhood acquaintance followed by a close friendship in college. Years later, Miriam and Richard, her husband, visited MM and MW at their residence in Hawaii. They had a great time touring the islands together.

Ohana Hanai: Family by Choice

However, shortly before their departure, Richard experienced shortness of breath and pain. Unbeknownst to them at that time, he was having a heart attack. MW rushed him to a hospital–and then to a second one when the first was closing. Soon after, they had a difficult decision to make: Richard needed heart surgery. MM and MW took Miriam into their home. Richard had the surgery, then needed time to recover. During that time, MM and MW offered whatever assistance they could. These friends cared for them during a time of great need in their lives. Miriam called them her ohana hanai, her adopted family. While this is normally reserved for infants, that experience cemented the relationship between MM, MW, Miriam and Richard.

Interestingly enough, Miriam’s story echoed through the words of others. MM and MW were rainy-day friends to many. Through their lasting kindness, love, and support to many, they had lots of close friends. MM’s daughter said she was a meticulous collector of friends and she treasured them like jewels throughout her life.

In fact, when my husband and I moved to Hawaii, MM and MW acted as our island family, too. As Miriam and Richard’s son and daughter-in-law, we were welcome at family gatherings, plied with advice, food and love. We are also grateful to MM and MW for their kindness. The memorial put together by her daughters was truly beautiful and we were honored to participate.

Karate, Love, Pain and What Matters

Having these two events close together: a celebration of youthful accomplishment and perseverance, followed by a memorial for one who, through friendship, made so many people feel like family, brings me back to one of the more simple truths taught by the practice of karate.

At the heart of karate, we find that search for truth. That deepest truth in each of us is simply the truth of the human condition. We are each mortal. If we are truly fortunate to live long enough, we will experience the devastating loss of beloved friends and family members. A short life of our own would mean great pain for those closest to us. Pain and loss, then, is part of the human condition.

This and other photos in today’s entry were taken on a family trip through Oregon and Washington State

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.

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

Belts, Imagination and Kumite

Wednesday September 2nd, 2020

Last week we celebrated four birthdays (my nephew, my sister-in-law, my husband D and me), and we saw Sensei in the park last Saturday morning. He spoke words of encouragement to all of us, and handed out belts and certificates.

We arrived home to a pancake breakfast prepared by my nephew from Northern California. It was also D’s birthday, so we got take out from our favorite restaurant, shared it with D’s brother’s family and the grandparents. Afterwards, we watched Zodiac. D had worked with Aaron, the son of Robert Graysmith, who authored the original book. It was disturbing, mainly because it is a true story, but a good movie.

On Sunday, we peformed those chores neglected while entertaining out-of-town guests and celebrating birthdays. On Monday, we were off running.

I want to share my entry from Saturday.

Ceremony of Belt Awards

Today is D’s birthday. He slept in. The kids and I rose at 7 am. We were at the Figure 8 park by 8:30 am. T, TF, B, Sensei AJ and our Sensei were all there, as well as many of the kids. Sensei brought a large box, filled with certificates and belts. With help from T and B, he arranged them in a row on the green. His certificates this time were issued by the California Budoshinkai Association, the new style he is in the process of creating. We are still an IFK affiliate.

It was an emotional experience, seeing so many friends and my own children receiving their belts. Certainly I felt emotional upon receiving my own belt. Obviously this ceremony was not the one I imagined a year ago. Kyokushin, however, is about seeking absolute truth, or absolute reality–this is our preferred translation in our dojo community. Buddhism teaches us to let go of illusion, including and especially self-delusion. Wisdom will bring us to recognize beauty in that reality, when we can strip away enough self-delusion to see it.

Imagination versus Reality

Before the pandemic, I imagined a ten-person kumite match: most of the folks whipping my tail would be good friends from the dojo. I imagined it within the dojo building that Sensei no longer rents, along with board or brick breaking to demonstrate our skills, along with a party afterwards. But the reality is we gathered in the morning, outdoors, in a neighborhood park, under blooming crepe myrtle trees, standing on grass, surrounded by our greater Burbank community. Sensei announced that two persons from our dojo have been diagnosed with Covid-19. I hope they are coping okay and not seriously ill.

Many of us gathered there in the park, distanced but well, dressed in street clothes instead of gis. Despite the pandemic and the many woes inflicted upon our group that might have pulled us apart, we were there together, at least, those of us who could be there. Some others do join us over Zoom that were not at liberty to come to a park. One pair of children were allowed to come only briefly to receive their belts, and had to leave right away. Three members of their family are immunocompromised, so these children, understandably, kept their contact brief.

We are fortunate to be together, mostly over Zoom but sometimes in the park, like this gathering. We are fortunate to not have lost anyone in our little dojo community to this disease at this time. Granted, preserving our community through this crisis took a lot of work.

Kumite

This was our real fight: our kumite match was against a plague that would pull us apart with fear, illness and financial troubles, all against a backdrop of political unrest and dissension. Though we’ve received our belts and certificates, this particular kumite match is far from over. We have to support each other in the face of this plague, build harmony from discord, and hold our little community, along with Burbank, California, the United States and the free world and finally, the whole world, together. We are a world community of humans, with more binding us together than separating us. Also, all living things in this world are interdependent upon keeping our environment, and each other, in good health. We’ve made it this far.

Sensei saw fit to honor many of us with belts and certificates for our hard work. He also gave high honors to T and AJ by asking our dojo community to address them now as “Sensei,” or Teacher. They well deserve this honor.

Performing Breaks

Yesterday, in our own back yard, F, S and I broke up chunks of concrete and rocks with shuto hands. So we did our breaks before receiving our belts. That evening, S and I showed his young cousin the rocks and chunks of concrete that we’d broken. He was actually more impressed by the concrete breaks, since the rocks looked more “breakable” to him. S and I found a thinner piece of concrete and demonstrated how to break it on the patio. S’s young cousin listened carefully, and, using the technique we demonstrated for him, he broke it!

Sensei had told us that receiving a black belt is about teaching, sharing what you know. I was so excited to see my ten year old nephew present the fragments of his shattered hunk of concrete to his own father with pride. His was a clean, straight break.

The Loss of Chadwick Boseman

Our family was saddened to read about the death of Chadwick Boseman. Sometimes we fight hard and do not win. Not winning the battle, or even the war, does not make you less of a warrior. On screen, Chadwick fought super-villains. In real life, he had more formidable foes: racism, on top of the usual demons faced by artists and other creatives, and finally, cancer. He deserves his own black belt for tenacity and his drive to share his gifts with the world.

If you have not watched his speech to the Screen Actors’ Guild, it is well worth your time.

This is another kumite match we, as a society, need to take on and defeat: racism, including systemic racism and unconscious bias. Exacerbating these situations is the problem of poverty, another formidable foe, but one we can defeat, if we have the will.

Tuesday August 4th, 2020

I set the clock for 7:30am last night and rose closer to 7:45am, which was earlier than yesterday. Doing exercises first thing in the morning is challenging. I confess I did a bit of sweeping to warm up. It is nice to have them out of the way early.

It’s street cleaning day. The old purple car is in the driveway rather than on the street, giving me a chance to take a few pictures of our house. Actually, if you stand across the street from our house, you don’t see much of the house. The camphor tree has filled out once more and looks like a lollipop tree. It is flanked on either end by large spider lilies, also dong well. During the drought, we almost lost that tree, and very little grew next to it. Now it’s lush.

Sensei taught class, and we had a “ripening” promotion for L. L and I traded off calling kihon. Her feet are still healing, so Sensei had given her some modified exercises to do. Her modified version of 4th kyu syllabus was really cool. We should ask her to teach the rest of us! She did pass her promotion with flying colors (green being the primary one in this case.)

F and I got in exercises with L, while she did her requirements. After class, I made up the rest I “owed” for my rank. I also got in some kata practice during my lunch hour.

I did some thinking about that “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” story that I wrote about yesterday. The religious traditions I have studied more extensively, I admit, are heavily text-centered. Judaism, along with Christianity and, I believe, Islam, each put emphasis on their scriptures and written commentary. Writings may not influence so heavily other religious traditions. Some traditions emphasize the transmission of teachings or spirituality through experience and interaction. Zen Buddhism certainly seems to do this. So my bookish shock over the loss of old writings is probably a bias on my part. Shoju was intent on preserving another kind of tradition, and would not allow the honoring of things (old writings) to usurp the seeking and/or experience of enlightenment.

But I don’t disavow my love and appreciation for old texts. Writings are, after all, communications from people, however imperfect. Someone somewhere decided to write something down, and because of this, we can hear voices that are two thousand years old. How cool is that?

Saturday August 1st, 2020

F and I got up around 6:45 am to check on S. For him, it was the big day: promotion and/or confirmation for junior shodans. I cooked him an egg, packed a snack bag and filled a cooler with ice and bottled waters. F looked up 4th kyu syllabus for him and went over it with him, since he worried about not remembering it properly. I dropped him off at the figure eight park. Some kids were already running down the dirt path. While S joined them, I deposited his cooler and snack bag under a tree along the strip. I went home. In the car, I realized I’d forgotten to put sunscreen in his bag. Given how early it was, I hoped he would not need it.

F and I went back to bed for an hour. Promotion began at 7:00 am. I texted him at 8:30, to see if he needed anything (like sunscreen.) Closer to 9:00am, he answered to ask for a ride home. When I arrived, he was drinking a Gatorade from a friend, relaxing on the grass with his good buddies, N and G. L’s mom was there; NG, who is part of the Club’s planning group, arrived to pick up her son and his friend. I snapped a few photos of the kids.

S did well but, as soon as the test ended, he felt nauseous. Gatorade helped with that. He was perky by the time I arrived.

When we arrived home, I set up both computers: one in the yard and another in the dining room. F monitored while Sensei taught. Sensei asked me to lead kihon. I did. I planned to have us do twenties, until I heard that T and TF’s son, a very accomplished young karateka who had attended this morning’s promotion, was there in class! He impressed all of us with his tenacity and dedication. In his honor, I alternated twenties and tens during kihon, instead of doing straight twenties for everything. So as not to exhaust him further, we only did 10 of the kicking exercises and those done in kiba dachi. I did a little instructing, too. F, however, did a good job of catching problems. Sensei instructed, watched and gave everyone feedback. It was so nice to have in him class!

At the end of class, Sensei spoke about his interest in the “grandfather” of karate, Kung Fu. His own teacher in that style had an interesting comment, that Sensei shared with us: his teacher regards Japanese karate highly, but only has one issue with it: it emphasizes the “hard” arts and places less emphasis on the “softer” arts; for balance, we need these too.

While Sensei was telling us this, almost as if to emphasize his teacher’s point, he was caring for a bonsai.

Both F and S had studied bonsai with Sensei. This one actually belongs to our Senpai M, who had moved to New York. F has been caring for it.

Back in 2017, Sensei and his bonsai students put together a show. I’ll close with a couple pictures of Sensei’s bonsai, because he is truly a master.

And one more, just because I love the little Buddha statue under one of Sensei’s bonsai trees.

It seems appropriate to give Lao Tzu the last word, since he wrote about softness and hardness in Tao Te Ching . (According to Wikipedia, there’s some debate over authorship, compilation of the work and dates.) (Oh, and if you want a modern yet poetic recent translation of Tao Te Ching, Ursula K. Le Guin’s translation is fantastic, and available over Amazon. I’m using publicly available sources, but I highly recommend her version.)

Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the principle of softness overcoming hardness. — Lao Tsu

Saturday July 18th, 2020

This morning, Sensei led the 10am karate class over Zoom. He asked F to lead kihon. Actually yesterday, towards the end of our training with him, he told F that he’d like to see her tire everyone out through kihon. So she did. She pushed the class quite hard, with exercises in between movement sets, careful to give us little downtime.

Sensei remarked to another student, without specifying who, “So you want to be treated as an adult? You want to go through the adult shodan test? Your karate, right now, looks more like that of a twelve year old, rather than a fourteen year old. Show me what you can do!”

F thought he was talking to her. She was not aware that, earlier over the Zoom, one of the other students, a junior shodan who is about thirteen, asked to be able to try out for the adult shodan test. This, at least, was what Sensei had understood her to ask. A little later, we found out she’d meant something different. Our youngest adult shodan, at our dojo, was fourteen. So the request of a thirteen year old to take test would not have been a crazy request. Under the IFK, the rule is that a person must be sixteen years of age. When Sensei’s dojo joined the IFK, he and she had to make the case that she had the experience and maturity to be in her rank, and they did.

In any case, F thought Sensei had chastised her. Just yesterday, F told Sensei she wanted to be treated like an adult in relation to the martial arts club. She didn’t like the fact that, when the club came up in conversation, he addressed me and not her. F felt he did not include her. She wants him to include her, and phrased it this way: he treats her like a kid.

So he answered that she was seeking attention, and he wasn’t going to do it. He countered, she needs to find her own validation within, and not seek it from others. He gave her a good lecture on that topic.

Funny, as I listened to him, I thought of how I could apply that advice to my own work-life. Granted, it’s not quite the same when you are an adult in a professional context. Validation and attention are also tied up with money, promotions, and your ability to provide for your family. The stakes are much higher. Also, our society adds whole other layers of complexity in unconscious bias and institutional sexism and racism, if a professional is a woman, a mother or a person of color.

However, as an individual faced with these undercurrents, what do you do? You, also, must find validation within. You know what your education level is, what your own prior work experience is, and how hard you have worked to get to where you are. The obstacles you’ve overcome, the challenges you’ve faced down, the self-doubt and doubt of others that you’d had to stave off: you know these things about yourself. Therefore, like F, you must seek your own validation within. In the face of the storm, the pandemic, the discounting and doubting from others, strive to be unshaken. Know at your core what you are capable of, and what you are. Know you define it.

Given the conversation from yesterday, F decided to prove what she could do. So she kicked an already rigorous kihon up another notch. F exhausted us, and herself, in short order, so much so that Sensei stopped kihon to instruct us in breathing. He then gave F pointers as an instructor: the instructor, in order to be a good leader, cannot overextend her- or himself. “You shouldn’t give what you don’t have,” he put it succinctly. In this breathing exercise, you breathe in and hold your breath. While holding, you tense up your body, push your hands before you slowly, then release your breath.

We think the name for this kind of breathing is “ibari,” but we are not sure of the spelling. I tried to find reference to it in Oyama’s “This is Karate,” and it sounds similar to Nogare breathing, but isn’t quite the same. You use it to gather your strength and focus, if you will. F will check in with Sensei on the spelling. I’ll post a correction when we know for sure.

F modulated her instruction according to Sensei’s advice, and provided time for the grown-ups with our rusty joints to actually perform some of the kicks better, etc. She still pushed us hard. At the end of class, she had us hold stances: both Migi (right) and Hidari (left) Zenkutsu Dachi, and Kiba (horse-riding stance). We held the Zenkutsu Dachis for one minute and the Kiba Dachi for two minutes. This is while our legs are burning from her previously brutal kihon! Also, S, F and I had had that workout with Sensei the day before! So those four minutes felt very long.

At the conclusion of class, Sensei praised F. He praised her for her leadership as well as her physical fitness before the whole class.

After class, Sensei held a brief meeting of the Udancha to go over who would be testing for what. It was my first time to participate in the Udancha. I felt honored. Sensei also gave high praise to my S, and SL, the other highly accomplished junior shodan close to S’s age. That was so nice to hear.

When it was all over, S and I told F, “Hey, Sensei’s remark that someone was working out like a twelve year old? That wasn’t aimed at you.” Hearing this surprised and embarrassed her. Nevertheless, she was our tiger trainer as a result.

Finally, and unfortunately, the kids’ reward for that excellent workout was to help mop the floors. Followed by evening ice cream.

Osu!

Friday July 17th, 2020

Yesterday morning I did do my usual exercises, but I didn’t last night. During my lunch break, I went here:

I donated blood for the first time. This was something I have wanted to do for a long time, but I’ve been below the weight limit for most of my adult life, except when I was pregnant. At my last physical, I realized I was finally slightly over the limit and discussed it with my doctor. She said the need for blood donations now is greater than usual, due to the pandemic. So, after leaving the doctor’s office, I called the Red Cross from my car and finally made an appointment. Yesterday, I kept the appointment.

I had no idea what I was getting into, but many people do it on a regular basis and it saves lives. That’s good enough for me. Though I played the cool cucumber, the intake nurse noted my pulse was slightly elevated. I confessed I’d never donated before. She pricked my finger to check my ability to clot, and assured me, “That’s usually the most painful portion of it! You’ll do fine.”

A gentleman set me up for the actual blood draw. Their needle was no different from the kind used for blood draws for a physical. The time period was longer, and a nurse gave me a “gummy” toy car, enclosed in a glove, to squeeze. R&B played inside the Red Cross van; I watched in amusement as one nurse, the gentleman who set me up, grooved to the music.

I resisted the urge to make vampire jokes.

My husband did receive vampire jokes from me prior, and responded with fainting jokes. He donated blood before, and knows exactly what not to say. And I knew when to stop paying attention to his texts.

I think of the blood donation in the same manner as a kumite match, or karate fight. It will weaken you, but it is also a learning experience that, in the long term, it can make you stronger.

Perhaps, in the case of a blood donation, it is more about mental strength than physical, at least for me. Once the blood draw had actually finished, I was feeling good, and then I saw the bag of blood and thought, “That came from me?” I immediately felt a bit dizzy, then I thought to myself, “Well this is silly–one or two minutes ago, most of that blood had already left my body and I did not feel this way. I feel this way because I looked at that bag. That bag is a good thing–and I am just fine.” The nurse told me when to sit up and I waited to sit up until I was told, and I felt just fine.

I did have the orange juice, and an entire bottle of water. I thought about taking some of the treats, but had brought fruit and nuts in the car, for the specific reason of not needing to take any sweets.

Once the draw is done, you wait for fifteen minutes to make sure you are okay. The nurse who released me instructed me not to exercise for 24 hours, or drink alcohol. So that was it for both my evening and morning exercises, along with that evening glass of wine.

Today, however, the kids and I met Sensei in the Figure 8 Park for a work-out. He had us do two minute runs broken up with kata and exercises. We one set of 20 push-ups, sit-ups and squats. For kata, we first practiced three of the pinans. Roughly in the middle of the workout, we did the sokugis, or the first punching katas. We ended the workout with Gekisai Dai and Sho, and Sensei led. After a couple runs, we simply drank water and socialized.

During the kata drills, Sensei also had us pay attention to how much distance we need for social distancing during the pandemic: he recommends thirty feet, outdoors, when folks are exercising. He instructed S to count it out for himself, since S, who is quite tall, also has large feet.

Tonight, I am teaching and hope to run the IFK upper 17 moves after kihon. I will ask my kohai and co-teacher to run kihon. We will use this video after the break:

Thursday July 9th, 2020

I sat outside this morning in the front yard to write. F was in an animated discussion in the back yard, by the time I finished my morning exercises. S was up, too, but dozing on the sofa with KKJZ, the local jazz station, playing in the background.

The front yard is so green! The crepe myrtle trees are blooming. The spider lilies are also still blooming, and the grapefruit tree has fruits slightly larger than golf balls hanging on lower branches. Jessica’s succulents look healthy, too.

Exercises: I did them this morning: sixty “tricep” push-ups (fists on the floor and on my toes), and forty “chest” push-ups on the mat, including about twenty still on my toes for those ones. Squats with alternating punches on the even sets of ten, and sit-ups, all done with clean Japanese counts. Evenings are always harder, but I did get in the sixty “chest” push-ups on my knuckles on the floor, with forty “tricep” ones on the mat, though most of that last forty was on my knees. I also did squats with alternating punches, and 100 lower-ab exercises, so mostly dutchmen and leg-lifts, with some toe-touches and diagonals sprinkled in there. What’s even better: no weird pains in the backs of my thighs or shoulders. Yay me!

I should write up a page on how to start a home exercise regimen like this. I have been doing exercises like this since I started taking karate classes. My plan to test for a shodan, however, inspired the regular daily home regimen.

Starting out, however, someone who isn’t training regularly may have no idea of how many repetitions he or she can do, so that’s where to start: figure that out first. How? Set a timer for two minutes, and do as many of the exercises as one can for that time span. Count the number of push-ups and write it down. Then reset the timer, and see how many squats one can do in two minutes, and how many sit-ups one can do. That’s basically six minutes total of exercises–not an intimidating number at all. Take those numbers, and do that many every day, for 5 days. Do it once in the morning, and once in the evening. Now we’re at a twelve minute commitment total, but broken up over the day.

Of course, taking at least a minute or two to stretch between those two minute sets is smart. Realistically speaking, those six minutes will take closer to ten or fifteen, depending on how much stretching or rest a person needs between sets. Not letting the total time exceed fifteen minutes is important, however. The less time total one spends–say twelve minutes–the more likely a person will be able to stick to the regimen.

For push-ups, I may need to take a photo or sketch a diagram of what a tricep push-up is like as opposed to a chest push-up. Also, Sensei says it is very important not to go too deep and end up with a rotator cuff injury. So I should have pictures showing what’s fine and what’s too deep.

You do the regimen two times a day, five days a week, for three weeks. On day 5 of the third week, in the morning, time yourself for the exercises only. See if you are completing your original number faster. Hopefully what took you two minutes to do starting out will take less time. Even if it is 5 seconds less, that’s still good.

Finally, after you has been able to stick to the work out for 5 days a week, for three weeks, you meditate for that twelve minutes during the fourth week, twice a day. Meditation, besides being good for you, will “hold” that spot in your day.

Depending on your health and ambition, for the next 3 weeks, you add repetitions. If you could only do 5 comfortably, maybe add 2 to 5. If you’re dong 20 comfortably, try adding 10.