Tag: Soyen Shaku

Monday July 6th, 2020

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?”

Here’s a link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-Punch_Man

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.

Thursday, June 18th, 2020

I did exercises. Managed to stay up on my toes through seventy reps now for “tricep” push-ups. Tomorrow I will time myself. Hopefully, with a little extra sleep, my times will be good. I thought about timing myself in the evening after work, but getting through exercises after work consistently is my evening goal. No use in muddying the mental waters with an extra expectation. Hopefully, after a week of rest, I’ll be able to increase the number of reps I can stay on my toes. Next month, I should start with sixty knuckle push-ups on the floor, then do forty on the mat.

I should also look up the spelling of mat. Mat or matte? Okay mat is the padding on the floor we use for exercising. It is also a tangle of hair. Matte refers to a decorative piece of material (though “mat” also works for this, too.) If in doubt, “mat” is most commonly used. “Matte” can refer to a metal mixture–that’s one I had not heard of. Here’s a link:

https://www.homophone.com/h/mat-matt-matte

This morning, the air outside was damp and gave me hope for rain. I’ve watered the trees in the front, but the ones in the back also need watering.

Last night’s “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” story was a bit odd. The first Zen Master to go to the United States Soyen Shaku, gave the following recommendations: go to bed and get up at the same time every day; have meals at the same time every day. Shaku also said, “Behave with guests the same way you would behave alone; behave alone the same way you would with guests.” He was all about consistency and developing healthy habits. Were we Americans, as a culture, already out-of-balance by the time Master Shaku visited in 1893? The seeds of our current disease, and also its cure, were evident to him so early?

I admit that, when I lived in Germany, life felt more balanced. The pace was humane rather than frenetic. France was also better than the US, but still a little crazy. Sometimes that French craziness was creative; other times dysfunctional. I am speaking, of course, of life as I experienced it in those places, as compared to my experiences in the United States. Admittedly, while culture holds sway over us, individual experiences can still differ greatly. My experience of Germany was right around the time of the Reunification; it was a joyful time, over all. Paris in the mid-1990’s felt like a big adventure to my husband and me, both in our mid-twenties. One’s age plays a role, too.