Favorite Quotes

Some of my favorite quotes includes:

If you can't find the truth right in front of you, where do you expect to find it?
 - Zen Master Dogen

Philosophy practiced is the goal of learning.
 - Thoreau

Empty your cup.
 - From a Zen story

All's well that ends well.
 - title of a play by William Shakespeare

What are some of yours?

Tomiki Aikido

I found this article from which I've posted an excerpt below. If you follow the link, you'll be able to find a couple of essays by the founder of Tomiki Aikido. Enjoy.

Tomiki Sensei’s Writings

Tomiki Sensei, in addition to being a superb martial artist, was also a man of letters and arts. Tomiki Sensei was a graphic artist of a high caliber and his calligraphy and brush paintings are highly sought after by collectors to this day. (A picture of one of his calligraphic works is below.)
As a man of letters, Tomiki published numerous articles on Judo, Aikido, the relationship between the martial arts and Eastern religious and philosophical traditions, articles on the proper place of the martial arts in the modern world, and of course articles on the technical aspects of various martial arts techniques.
His masterwork is entitled Budo-ron, or The Theory of Budo. This book is widely acknowledged in Japan to be one of the the most significant 20th Century contributions to martial arts theory and thought. Unfortunately, it remains to be translated into any Western language. Below, however, please find links to two of Tomiki Sensei’s more influential essays. These, fortunately, have been translated.

Correct Posture in Classical Tai Chi

Continuing with good posture, today I am pleased to publish a guest post by Mr. Jim Roach. Mr. Roach is the senior student of Dr. Stephen Hwa, who in turn was the senior student of Yang WaBu. Yang WaBu was a direct student of the founder of the Wu style of Taijiquan, Wu Chien Chuan.

Mr Roach publishes many thoughtful articles on Classical Tai Chi at his blog. Please pay a visit.

Regarding posture and speaking only for  the postures of Classical Tai Chi, it uses a very, very small frame or what one calls step size. So, stating that tucking  is incorrect is not applicable in speaking of such small or even compact frame of Classical Tai Chi . In addition, tucking the rear end will not round the shoulders if one stretches the top of the head up.  As though suspended from above, the cervical vertebrae are stretched up.  It also goes without saying that  one will see the buttocks not tucked under in statues which are portraying a static posture.  In Classical Tai Chi, the tuck is not static or a frozen portrayal of posture, it is fluid… The tuck and stretch can be done in both aspects of a Tai Chi posture, when one "sits back" and when one "leans forward" (figure 4 & 5).  The sit back tuck however is deeper.  The skill one learns  is to remain fluid between the 2 postures, not trying to maintain a frozen rope, tuck then relax/release, tuck, then release/relax in the midst of shifts in the weight.

Regarding posture, it is interesting that the  showing of martial applications” in Tai Chi, many of them are on Youtube,  still  end up tilting the body forward (ox-plowing posture) after each of their applications.  It raises some interesting  questions for students to ponder: I'm wondering what does that say for the well held axiom in styles  of Tai Chi that the body needs to constantly be held perpendicular to the floor at all times?  What is this difference so pronounced between form and application?  Someone who owns a large Judo establishment once stated to me that "the human body can only form a straight line if it is held perpendicular to the ground".  I said, "ok, I'll bite...why?"  She said it was because "we have hips".  Included with that was the statement, "I know because I studied Tai Chi for several months with someone".  Think of the implications of this...

One also does not “push off” when walking in Classical Tai Chi, that generates much momentum thus raising the question:  If Tai Chi is constantly extolled as being a defensive and not offensive martial art, what is the need for a lot of momentum?  The energy for movement is coming entirely from the legs with such momentum.   We pull with the front or rear foot depending on which direction we are headed.  In what is considered “normal walking” even as we see them in various cultures, the push off is used no matter what one can say about the tuck or lack of tuck.  Also, one simply finds it very difficult to tuck the behind when generating more and more momentum, consider the lengthy steps of normal walking or what one Neurosurgeon called “controlled falling”.   In a smaller frame or smaller step where one pulls the body forward, it is much easier to tuck the behind.  In fact such tucking is an integral component of generating internal energy in  all movements…how else is it to reach the legs from the torso?

Finally, my teacher, Master Stephen Hwa states:  “ In one of the early writings about Tai Chi, there is a sentence “the body has to be straight like a flag pole”. The Chinese word “straight” has two meaning, one is “straight”; the other is “perpendicular”. The latter is the argument used by some to justify that the body has to be perpendicular to the ground. I have not heard any functional justification for this body posture. The posture of body leaning forward and forming a straight line with the back leg (see picture above at left) does require the practitioner to be mindful of his center of gravity to make certain that it stays at or behind the ball of the front foot. If it reaches the front toe, its too far forward and easily tips forward by the opponent’s pulling force. As such, some students are uncomfortable with this posture in the beginning until he or she can master the placement of center of gravity."

"It is also important to “tuck in the behind” by tightening the stomach muscle. If a person has a very large girth or heavy upper body in contrast to lower body, than one can only achieve the right position of center of gravity with smaller step size."

"The sit back move requires you to fully tuck in the behind by energizing the abdomen and at the same time you have to be able to turn at the waist with ease and with power to ward off opponent' s attack", Figure 9

Correct Posture

A friend sent me this. It's an interesting article on your back and posture, which is an essential element to your good health and for martial arts. Below is an excerpt. The full article can be read here.

Esther Gokhale's hunt for perfect posture

Noelle Robbins, Special to The Chronicle

Monday, July 27, 2009

Esther Gokhale is not a stalker, but she has pursued hundreds, even thousands of people around the world, mimicking their body alignment and walking style until her shadow matched theirs. She has studied men and women in isolated African, Brazilian and Indian villages where back pain is virtually unknown, despite long hours spent harvesting, weaving, cooking and toting heavy loads.

What she learned inspired her to open the Esther Gokhale Wellness Center in Palo Alto a decade ago, to help others better understand the difference proper posture can make.

Over the years, she has become a "back whisperer" of sorts, winning over tech execs at Google and Cisco Systems, Stanford academics, working moms and medical doctors - including one who described her as "nothing less than the Michael Pollan of posture."

While many are quick to blame stress, sedentary lifestyles and biology for back pain - she found a simpler answer: We have forgotten how natural posture looks and feels.

Even Gokhale, who was born and raised in India and spent summers in yoga ashrams and began teaching yoga as a teenager, was not immune to back pain.

"Yoga teachers in India did not notice my sway back," she says. "I was extremely flexible, but not quite in the right place."

Spinal surgery

After her first pregnancy, at 26, severe pain finally resulted in spinal disc surgery.

That experience spurred Gokhale, who studied biochemistry at Harvard and Princeton and acupuncture at the San Francisco School of Oriental Medicine, to take an anthropologist's approach to finding a better way to treat - and ideally prevent - back pain.

In her light-filled Wellness Center, photos of men, women and children she has studied on her global treks line the walls, statues from India cluster on bookshelves, and mobiles of tiny figures from Africa hang from the ceiling all illustrating one of Gokhale's primary beliefs about posture: It's all about the pelvis.

"Ducky butt, not tucky butt," she said, "Picture Donald Duck." She knows her admonition to "get our behinds behind us," contradicts the "tuck your tailbone" instructions of many yoga, dance and fitness teachers; but as a 30-year yoga instructor, she is convinced of its effectiveness.

"Tucked tailbones create depressed postures, rounding the shoulders and upper back," she says. "Like a dog when it's anxious, with its tail between its legs. Better structure means less pain, more confidence in your health. You look better and people respond to you differently."

It may sound simple, but for many Western bodies, it is not intuitive, which is why Gokhale holds sessions of six weekly classes or three-day intensive classes (both $450) where she practices her three-pronged approach to perfecting posture - showing, demonstrating and repositioning with gentle hands-on manipulation. Single sessions ($165) and Skype classes are available, and she offers free classes at schools for teachers and students.

"I really want to reach this audience, " she said. "Good posture can alter the trajectory of a young person's life."

300 Tang Dynasty Poems: #32 East of the Town

The Tang Dynasty was considered a cultural golden age of China. Especially esteemed was poetry. The finest poems of that era are collected in an anthology entitled The 300 Tang Dynasty Poems. If you follow the link, you'll be directed to an online version.

In the meantime, below is #32, East of the Town

From office confinement all year long,
I have come out of town to be free this morning
Where willows harmonize the wind
And green hills lighten the cares of the world.
I lean by a tree and rest myself
Or wander up and down a stream.
...Mists have wet the fragrant meadows;
A spring dove calls from some hidden place.
...With quiet surroundings, the mind is at peace,
But beset with affairs, it grows restless again....
Here I shall finally build me a cabin,
As Tao Qian built one long ago.

Learn, Diverge, Forget

There is a saying in Japanese martial arts, Shu Ha Ri. It has to do with the learning process. Below in an excerpt from an excellent article. Click here to read the whole article.


“Shu-ha-ri” literally means embracing the kata, diverging from the kata and discarding the kata. The pursuit of training in a classical Japanese endeavor almost always follows this educational process. This unique approach to learning has existed for centuries in Japan and has been instrumental in the survival of many older Japanese knowledge traditions. These include such diverse pursuits as martial arts, flower arranging, puppetry, theater, poetry, painting, sculpture and weaving. As successful as shu-ha-ri has been into the modern era, new approaches to teaching and learning are altering this traditional Japanese method of knowledge transmission. Whether traditional Japanese arts and endeavors are successfully passed to the next generation of practitioners is up to the sensei (teachers) of today and their wisdom in confronting the inherent strengths and pitfalls of shu-ha-ri. In this essay I will focus on shu-ha-ri and its unique application in the honorable martial discipline of Takamura-ha Shindo Yoshin-ryu jujutsu.

Thunderstorm in Africa

If you've got six minute, listen and watch this outstanding performance. Turn up the volume at the beginning to hear the rainstorm.

Yoshinkan Aikido Videos

Sensei Strange over at KyuRyu AikiBudo has been coming up with good video after good video. I thought I should do my part as well.

Yoshinkan Aikido has been criticized as being stiff and rigid. I disagree. This is an artifact of the teaching method, not of the art itself. The same criticism has been leveled at those who practice the Wu Taijiquan square form. It's a teaching method, not the art.

At one time I studied Yoshinkan Aikido under Takashi Kushida Sensei. I can't find any videos of Kushida Sensei, other than a couple of very short ones of him demonstrating very basic techniques on his organization's website.

Here are a couple of videoes of Joe Thambu Sensei, a very capable Yoshinkan Aikido teacher:





Stiff and robotic? I think not. How about razor sharp?

Another notable name associated with Yoshinkan Aikido is Toshishiro Obata. Like Kushida Sensei, he was an uchideschi to Yoshinkan founder Gozo Shioda. He also was a Kenshuu student (Kenshuu is an advanced training course) under Kushida Sensei. Obata's current martial arts practice has moved his aikido closer to Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu, and places a lot of emphasis on sword practice.



I hoped you enjoyed the videos as much as I enjoyed finding them.

I've been tagged

Ok. This is all of the fault of Striking Thoughts. I was sitting around, minding my own business when he tags me with this meme. Ok, here are the rules:

The meme works as follows. You post five things about yourself. Four are untrue. One is true. All are so outlandish, implausible or ridiculous that no one would be inclined to believe that any of them are true. And despite the pleas from your readers, you never divulge which is true and which are fabrications. You then tag five other people (four seriously and one person you are pretty sure would never participate).

Here are my five:

1. I dropped out of a Jesuit seminary.
2. My brothers used to put LSD in my formula when I was a baby.
3. I attended Miskatonic University.
4. I was the model in an award winning ad.
5. I am the High Druid of the local chapter of the 1759 Society.

The five lucky victims who are hereby tagged are: Zen, Rick, Wujimon, Shang Lee, and Brad.