Northern River Karate School Adult Student Handbook Contents

Transcription

1 Northern River Karate School Adult Student Handbook Contents Regular Class Attendance and At-Home Practice by Ken Read (p. 2) Curriculum Requirements, White belt to Black belt (Sandan) (p. 3-12) Time in Rank Requirements (p. 13) Basic Terminology (p ) Junbi Undo (p. 17) Hojo Undo (p. 18) Dojo Conduct & Principles of Practice by Kanei Uechi (p. 19) Quality and Depth in Uechi Ryu Karate Do by David Mott (p ) How to Practice Standing Meditation by Ken Cohen (p ) The Path of the Uechi Ryu Artist by David Mott (p, 26-32) Principles of Teaching Uechi Ryu Karate Do by Ken Read (p ) Quotations (p ) Belts and Gis The Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Primary Series

2 Regular Class Attendance and At-Home Practice As a new Karate student your most important task is to establish a consistent training schedule that works for you. First you need to find out how many classes a week you can attend. Three classes a week is the basis for a strong practice; two classes a week is workable. If you can t make at least two classes a week, please talk to me about it so we can see if there is a way to make that work for you. Also, you need to establish a good at-home practice routine. The physical fitness part of the program is the Astanga Vinyasa Yoga work. This part of the curriculum will be taught periodically in class but is primarily for you to do at home. Do the Yoga work for your rank six days a week, preferably first thing in the morning. (Astanga practitioners also refrain from practice at the full moon and the new moon.) The heart of the Karate curriculum is the Kata, especially Sanchin Kata. The Standing Practice is also very good. A very strong at-home practice might include Standing, Sanchin, and the other Kata you know. Other aspects of the curriculum can also be practiced at home as you like. Naturally, there will be times when you will be inspired to practice more than usual, maybe in preparation for a test, or just because it feels good. This is fine of course, but in your everyday routine it can be just as bad to practice too much as too little. Establish a practice schedule that you can sustain - make promises to yourself that you can keep. See you in class! Ken

3 Northern River Karate School Curriculum for Adult Beginners Standing Meditation, Sanchin Kata, Kotekitae, Questions The test board may choose questions from the following: The name of this practice is Uechi Ryu Karate Do (way-chee roo kahrah-tay doh), which means the Uechi family s style of the way of the empty hand. The three animal archetypes underlining this practice are the Crane, the Dragon and the Tiger The numbers one to ten in Japanese are: Ichi, Ni, San, Shi, Go, Roku, Shichi, Hatchi, Ku, Ju. The old Chinese name for Uechi Ryu Karate is Pangainoon (pwan-gaynoon), which means half hard, half soft. These are some commonly used terms during class Sanchin Kata practice: Kiotsuke means attention Rei means bow Yoi means ready Hajime means begin Migi means right Hidari means left Mawate means turn Riote means double thrusts Nukite means spear hand Boshiken means thumb knuckle strike Wa uke means circle block Yame means stop Sanchin means three battles The six concepts discussed in David Mott s article, Quality and Depth in Uechi Ryu Karate Do under the heading Body are: Grounding Centering Flow Precision Power Speed At-home Astanga Vinyasa Yoga workout: Surya Namaskara A

4 Northern River Karate School Curriculum for Adult Kukyu (first stripe) Standing Meditation Sanchin Kata Kotekitae Sokuto Geri, Shomen Geri and Mawashi Geri (from Hojo Undo) Kanshiwa Kata Kanshiwa Two Person Bunkai* Kyu Kumite #1, 2 & 3 Questions *Although we begin studying the Kanshiwa Two Person Bunkai at this rank, it is not required for the next test for Hatchikyu (second stripe). Questions may be chosen from the following: The teaching lineage of our school is: Shushiwa taught Kanbun Uechi who taught Kanei Uechi who taught George Mattson who taught David Mott who is teaching Ken Read who is teaching you. These are some commonly used terms in the study of Kanshiwa Kata: Seiken means fist Kibi Dachi means Uechi Shoken means first knuckle horse stance fist Sokuto Geri means Uechi Shuto means knife edge of side kick hand Shomen Geri means front Uraken means backfist kick Hiji means elbow Grounding: feeling the support of the ground through the feet. a) The feet are firmly and directly repositioned in each stance after each step. b) The feet plant and then root themselves into the ground (lifted toes or loose heels weaken this grounding). c) The feet are in a dynamic relationship with ground and body. This means that the energy of intent -incorporating both mindfulness and intrinsic energy (qi) - reaches from the feet into the ground and flows upwards into the whole body. At-home Astanga Vinyasa Yoga workout: Surya Namaskara A & B, Padangusthasana & Pada Hastasana

5 Northern River Karate School Curriculum for Adult Hatchikyu (second stripe) Standing Meditation Sanchin Kata Kotekitae Mawashi Tsuki and Shomen Tsuki (from Hojo Undo) Kanshiwa Kata Kanshiwa Two Person Bunkai Kyu Kumite 1, 2 & 3 Questions Questions may be chosen from the following: The original Chinese curriculum of Uechi Ryu Karate is: Sanchin Kata, Kotekitae, Seisan Kata, Senseiryu Kata. Five Principles of Body Mechanics included in Uechi Ryu are: 1. Coiling and Uncoiling 2. Compression and Expansion 3. Rising and Sinking 4. Opening and Closing 5. Swallowing and Spitting Centering: the understanding of the dan tien or belly in karate. a) The weight of the body positions itself appropriately in each stance. b) All movements connect to and radiate outward from the dan tien. (Reliance upon upper body strength as the primary strength negates the connection to the dan tien.) c) General emptiness in the dan tien is usually caused by a lack of intent being placed there or through the presence of tension or fear, both of which will cause the center to rise into the chest area or higher. d) All movements are supported by the slight firming or compacting of the dan tien in coordination with the movement to activate the flow of qi. At-home Astanga Vinyasa Yoga workout: Surya Namaskara A & B, Padangusthasana, Pada Hastasana, Utthitha Trikonasana A & B, Utthitha Parsvakonasana A & B.

6 Northern River Karate School Curriculum for Adult Shichikyu (third stripe) Standing Meditation Sanchin Kata Kotekitae Shuto Uchi, Uraken Uchi, Shoken Tsuki; Hiji Tsuki; and Hajiki Uke, Hiraken Tsuki (from Hojo Undo) Kanshu Kata Kanshiwa Four Person Bunkai Kyu Kumite 1-5 Questions Questions may be chosen from the following: The eight Uechi Ryu Kata are: Sanchin, Kanshiwa, Kanshu, Seichin, Seisan, Seiryu, Kanchin, Senseiryu. Flow: the ease of movement in all of its various flavours (the activation of appropriate body mechanics in support of each individual movement). a) Tension creates rigid or uneven movement. b) The transition from movement to movement or stance to stance needs to occur with fluidity. c) The use of individual (not meaning personal) flavours creates a rich vocabulary of movement as opposed to a sameness of movement. Sameness arises from the tendency to want to make all movements feel strong in the same way. If the function of each movement is understood and felt, its unique flavour will show. At-home Astanga Vinyasa Yoga workout: Surya Namaskara A & B, Padangusthasana, Pada Hastasana, Utthitha Trikonasana A & B, Utthitha Parsvakonasana A & B, Prasarita Padottanasana A, B, C, & D & Parshvotannasana.

7 Northern River Karate School Curriculum for Adult Rokkyu Standing Mediation Sanchin Kata Kotekitae Tenshin Zensoku Geri, Tenshin Kosoku Geri, Tenshin Shoken Tsuki (from Hojo Undo) Shomen Hajiki (from Hojo Undo) Koi No Shippo Uchi Tate Uchi and Koi No Shippo Uchi yoko Uchi (from Hojo Undo) Kanshu Kata Kanshiwa Four Person Bunkai Kyu Kumite 1-5 Questions Questions may be chosen from the following: The Japanese names for the Dan (black belt) ranks in Uechi Ryu are: Shodan, Nidan, Sandan, Yondan, Godan, Rokkyudan, Shichidan, Hachidan, Kudan, (Judan). Power: the natural heaviness in all movement as well the impact of each strike as the body supports the completion of each extension. a) The whole body responds and supports the movement as it begins, transits and finishes. b) There is an integration of body mechanics and intent. c) Movements of the limbs do not occur in isolation from the rest of the body. d) Body habits (poor posture etc.) are corrected. e) The body supports but does not compensate (i.e. by leaning in an opposite direction) for each movement. f) There is an alignment of structure (bone, ligament, tendon and muscle) to support each movement and impact. At-home Astanga Vinyasa Yoga workout: Surya Namaskara A & B, Padangusthasana, Pada Hastasana, Utthitha Trikonasana A & B, Utthitha Parsvakonasana A & B, Prasarita Padottanasana A, B, C, & D, Parshvotannasana, Utthiha Hasta Padangustasana & Ardha Badha Padmattanasana.

8 Northern River Karate School Curriculum for Gokyu and Yonkyu (green belt) Standing Meditation Sanchin Kotekitae Hojo Undo Seichin Kata Kanshiwa Four Person Bunkai Kyu Kumite Questions Questions may be chosen from the following: Precision: all movements have a clear beginning, middle and end point. a) All movements demonstrate their potential with detail and refinement. b) There is a sharp, vivid quality to each movement. c) Gaps in the mindfulness of a movement (i.e. lifting the shoulder with a punch) are seen and eliminated. Speed: the velocity of a movement to support power and flow and to create impact. d) Speed issues forth in a manner that is appropriate to the effectiveness of a movement. e) Unequal speed in the extension and retraction of a movement is avoided. f) Too much speed in which a movement s fullness is sacrificed is avoided. g) Too little speed in which an opponent s body is not shocked (an important aspect of contact which allows for deep penetration) is avoided. h) The creation of an appropriate pause in the cycle of extension/retraction allows the transference of power and intent. At-home Astanga Vinyasa Yoga workout: Surya Namaskara A & B, Padangusthasana, Pada Hastasana, Utthitha Trikonasana A & B, Utthitha Parsvakonasana A & B, Prasarita Padottanasana A, B, C, & D, Parshvotannasana, Utthiha Hasta Padangustasana & Ardha Badha Padmattanasana, & Utkatasana and Virabhadrasana A & B

9 Northern River Karate School Curriculum for Sankyu, Nikyu and Ichikyu (brown belt) Standing Meditation Kotekitae Seisan Kata Dan Kumite Sanchin Hojo Undo Seisan Bunkai Jiyu Kumite Questions may be chosen from the following: Mind: Intent: the clear commitment to a movement involving both the body and the qi. It is a summoning of all of the resources in an appropriate way. Each movement and stance projects and radiates the resources of commitment. The eyes (the Uechi glare ) project an intense clarity of commitment. There is no self resistance (i.e. dynamic tension) or ambivalence present in movement. Mindfulness: spaciousness and clarity of being. All aspects of the body are clearly felt. The body and intent is felt in an integrated way at the same time as an individual movement is also felt. The function of each movement is understood and informs each movement. The potential for change is always present in the moment. One is not distracted by thought or emotion. The mind is not set but flows freely from thing to thing, moment to moment. Self One is not conflicted by self-judgment. : the body/mind experience of me-ness Feelings of self are relaxed into mindfulness. One does not indulge in the pride of self inflation and glorification. The bow is practiced with gratitude for the Way of Karate rather than as a formality. Fear and anger are no longer binding as both solo and partner work take place. They no longer manifest in the clear spaciousness of being. -9-

10 Northern River Karate School Curriculum for Shodan Standing Meditation Kotekitae Seiryiu Dan Kumite Questions Sanchin Hojo Undo Seisan Bunkai Jiyu Kumite Spirit: a) Martial spirit is the evidence of martial force manifesting upon the integration of mind and body. There is not simply the demonstration of personal physical prowess but the clear flow of one or all of the collective forces of the martial art. In Uechi - ryu, this includes embodying the martial forces of dragon, crane and tiger. b) The Way of Karate comes alive and manifests throughout one s entire life. c) The relationship of student to teacher is one of humility and is heartfelt as is the relationship of teacher to student. The teacher/student relationship further includes clarity, vision and compassion. The various forms of karate, such as katas, drills, etc., are the means by which all that I have just described occurs. There are no fixed goals in karate that are ever achievable, because the practice of karate would then be limited and perhaps finite. So the last thing I look for is the practitioner s relationship to karate as a student. I have met many a practitioner who would change or re-arrange the forms to suit their own personal needs, desires or dislikes, not recognizing that to do so effectively deprives them of the inherent understanding that can spontaneously come alive in the practice of these physical movements. Katas have been practiced by many for centuries, and as the student aligns and attunes to them in right relationship, then the understanding of karate can fill each one as the movement is occurring. From this depth of foundation, each person can evolve via karate, which is the very means by which karate evolves. -David Mott -10-

11 Northern River Karate School Curriculum for Nidan Standing Meditation Sanchin Kotekitae Hojo Undo Konchin Seisan Bunkai Dan Kumite Jiyu Kumite Questions -11-

12 Northern River Karate School Curriculum for Sandan Standing Meditation Sanchin Kotekitae Hojo Undo Senseiryu Seisan Bunkai Dan Kumite Jiyu Kumite Questions -12-

13 Time in Rank Requirements Shodan - least 3 years studying, minimum age: 16 Nidan - two years after Shodan, minimum age: 18 Sandan - three years after Nidan, minimum age: 21 Yondan - four years after Sandan, minimum age: 25 Godan - five years after Yondan, minimum age: 30 Rokkyudan - six years after Godan, minimum age: 36 Sichidan - seven years after Rokkyudan, minimum age: 43 Hachidan - eight years after Sichidan, minimum age: 51 Nanadan - nine years after hachidan, minimum age:

14 BASIC TERMINOLOGY GENERAL TERMS KARATE DO: KARA means "empty", TE means "hand" or "fist", Do means "way", so "WAY OF THE EMPTY HAND" PWANGAINOON: "HALF HARD', HALF SOFT" name of Chinese system mastered by Uechi.Kanbun UECHI RYU: Modern name of system, literally "UECHI'S STYLE" SHUSHABU: Uechi Kanbun's Pwangainoon teacher SHUSHIWA - Early misunderstanding of Shushabu's name UECHI KANBUN: Okinawan man who brought Pwangainoon out of China UECHI KANEI: Eldest son of Karibun, responsible for modernization of Pwangainoon UECHI KANMEI: Eldest son of Kanei, current head of the SOKE (family) branch of modern Uechi Ryu KATA: Solo training form UECHI RYU KATA SANCHIN - First Pwangainoon form, literally "Three Battles" KANSHIWA - KAN from Kanbun, SHIWA from Shushiwa KANSHU - KAN from Kanbun,.SHU from Shushiwa SEICHIN - Green-belt form SEISAN - Brown belt form, second Pwangainoon form SEIRYU - Shodan form KONCHIN - Nidan form SANSEIRYU - Sandan form, third Pwangainoon form KIOTSUKE - "ATTENTION" SANCHIN COMMANDS MIGIASHIMAE - Right foot forward HIDARIASHIMAE - Left foot forward REI - "BOW" YOI - "READY" - Begin Sanchin opening sequence to "OPEN GATE" HAJIME - "BEGIN" MAWATE - "TURN". NITE or RIOTE - "DOUBLE THRUSTS" YOSH - Move to "CLOSED GATE" -14-

15 YAME - "STOP" UECHI RYU TRAINING EXERCISES JUNBI UNDO - Warm-up exercises HOJO UNDO - Coordination exercises KOTEKITE - Forearm conditioning YAKUSOKU KUMITE - Prearranged sparring KYU KUMITE - Junior prearranged sparring DAN KUMITE - Senior prearranged sparring J IYU KUMITE - Free sparring KANSHIWA BUNKAI - Analysis of Kanshiwa Kata SEISAN BUNKAI - Analysis of Seisan Kata COUNTING ICHI, NI, SAN, SHI, G0, ROKU, SHICHI, HACHI, KU, JU SPECIFIC TECHNIQUES MAWASHI UKE or WA UKE - Circle block HAJIKI UKE - Rising block from Seichin Kata SHOKEN SUKUI AGE UKE - Scooping block from Konchin Kata SEIKEN - Fist SHOKEN - Single knuckle fist HIRAKEN - Tiger paw URAKEN - Back fist HIJI - Elbow BOSHIKEN - Thumb knuckle NUKITE - Spear hand SHUTO - Knife edge of hand TETTSUI - Hammer fist KOKEN - Cupped hand strike from Seichin Kata KAKUSHIKEN - Crane beak from Sanseiryu Kata SHOMEN GERI - Front kick SOKUTO GERI - Side kick MAWASHI GERI - Roundhouse kick HIZA GERI - Knee strike USHIRO GERI - Back kick TOBI GERI - Jump kick DAN RANKS SHODAN, NIDAN, SANDAN, YONDAN, GODAN, ROKUDAN, SHICHIDAN, HACHIDAN, KUDAN, JUDAN KYU RANKS JUKYC, KUKYU, HACHIKYU, ROKKYU, GOKYU, YONKYU, SANKYU, VIKYU -15-

16 CH'I GUNG TERMS (Chinese) YI - Mind LI - Body JING - Physical strength CHI - Internal energy SHEN - Spirit DAN TIEN - Locations of Chi storage and generation FINAL BOW GO KURO SAMA DESHITA - Thank you for your effort DOMO ARIGATO GOZAIMASU, SENSEI - Thank you very much, teacher OTHER TERMS DOJO - School MAKIWARA - Conditioning pad DAN - Senior, black belt KYU - Junior Vowels PRONUNCIATION (Japanese) a - always 'law" as in "dawn" e - always "ay" as in "bay" i - always "eel' as in "eel" o - always "o" as in "so" u - always "oo" as in "food" Consonants Mostly as in English with some important exceptions. The Japanese "r" is pronounced somewhere between the English "r" and "1". When "n" appears before "b" it is pronounced "m". So, Kanbun is pronounced "kahm boon" and Junbi sounds "joom bee". Generally, Japanese pronunciation is more clipped than English especially in the martial context. There is no syllabic emphasis although some final syllables are de-emphasized. -16-

17 UECHI-RYU KARATE-DO JUNBI UNDO Ashi saki o ageru undo Heel pivot Kakato o ageru undo Hiza o mawasu undo Ashikubi o mawasu undo Ashi o mae yoko ni nobasu undo Ashi o mae uchi naname ni ageru undo Tai o mae ni taosu undo Koshi no nenten Ude o mae yoko shita ni nobasu undo Kubi o mawasu undo Heel lift Knee circle Foot and ankle circle Leg lift and turn Straight leg kick Waist scoop Trunk twisting Double arm thrusting Neck circles Sun Salutations Toe Exercises: Toe Walking, Alternating Toes, Toe Fists Breathing Exercise: Dantien, Solar Plexus, Sides, Back -17-

18 Northern River Karate School Hojo Undo 1. Sokuto Geri (Side Snap Kick) - alternate sides beginning over the forward foot 2. Shomen Geri (Front Kick) - alternate sides beginning over the forward foot 3. Mawashi Geri (Roundhouse Kick) alternate sides beginning over the forward foot 4. Mawashi Tsuki (Hook Punch) - block over the rear foot only 5. Shomen Tsuki (Guide Block/Reverse Punch) - block over the forward foot only 6. Shuto Uchi, Ura Uchi, Shoken Tsuki (Chop/Back fist/single Knuckle Punch) - block over the rear foot only 7. Hiji Tsuki (Elbow Strikes) - block over the rear foot only 8. Hajilki Uke, Hiraken Tsuki (Tiger Paw Strikes) - block/strike over the forward foot only 9. Tenshin Zensoku Geri (Pivot/Front Kick with Forward Leg) -beginning Right Sanchin stance 10. Tenshin Kosoku Geri (Pivot/Front Kick with Rear Leg) - beginning Left Sanchin stance 11. Tenshin Shoken Tsuki (Pivot/Single Knuckle Punch Right and Left) - beginning Right Sanchin stance 12. Shomen Hajiki (Finger Tip Strikes) 13. Koi No Shippo Uchi (Wrist Strikes) - Tate Uchi (Up, Down, Inside, Outside) - Right Sanchin stance - Yoko Uchi (Fishtail) - Left Sanchin stance 14. Shinko Kyu (Deep Breathing)

19 Dojo Conduct Everything in the martial arts begins and ends with courtesy. Be sure to bow when entering and leaving the Dojo. During practice always follow the directions of your instructor and seniors. Whistling, singing and the like are improper behavior in the Dojo. Make the best use of your time by refraining from casual conversation during practice. Keep busy while in the Dojo. When tired, rest in a place away from the activity of others. Show respect for seniors and elders. Treat lower ranks and juniors with courtesy and compassion. Always have a clean uniform Always act with propriety whether in or outside the Dojo. Kanei Uechi Principles of Practice The purpose of karate training is to discipline the mind and body and to master the art of self-defense. A karate practitioner should be well-mannered and modest, value courtesy, always wear decent clothing, pay attention to his speech and actions and work hard at training day and night. A karate practitioner must never call upon his strength in a quarrel, speak harshly, act roughly, or become troublesome to others. A karate practitioner must never bring shame upon himself or his school in either speech or action. A karate practitioner must never speak arrogantly, fall into laziness, or act conceitedly. He should endeavor to work diligently at training and improving himself. A karate practitioner should respect decorum and the martial arts, maintain the fine traditions of karate and contribute to society. Uechi Kanei, President Uechi-ryu Karate-do Association -19-

20 Quality and Depth in Uechi-ryu Karate Do. By David Mott I ve been asked on numerous occasions what do I look for when I observe someone s karate. This question arises particularly in relationship to testing ranks from white belt to dan. I offer the following in order to help each student and each instructor have a clearer understanding of what I recognize as quality and depth in the demonstration of karate. This quality and depth is dependent on the cohesive understanding and integrated manifestation of the components of karate - body, mind and spirit. Initially, these are experienced as independent and separate from one another. Body does not communicate with mind, mind is unaware of the body, and spirit is absent. Sanchin, in its translation as three conflicts, presents the opportunity to resolve and integrate body, mind and spirit as One. It is my hope that through the offering of these guidelines that integration can occur and ever grow as a practice for each of you. Body 1) Grounding: feeling the support of the ground through the feet. a) The feet are firmly and directly repositioned in each stance after each step. b) The feet plant and then root themselves into the ground (lifted toes or loose heels weaken this grounding). c) The feet are in a dynamic relationship with ground and body. This means that the energy of intent -incorporating both mindfulness and intrinsic energy (qi) - reaches from the feet into the ground and flows upwards into the whole body. 2) Centering: the understanding of the dan tien or belly in karate. a) The weight of the body positions itself appropriately in each stance. -20-

21 b) All movements connect to and radiate outward from the dan tien. (Reliance upon upper body strength as the primary strength negates the connection to the dan tien.) c) General emptiness in the dan tien is usually caused by a lack of intent being placed there or through the presence of tension or fear, both of which will cause the centre to rise into the chest area or higher. d) All movements are supported by the slight firming or compacting of the dan tien in coordination with the movement to activate the flow of qi. 3) Flow: the ease of movement in all of its various flavours (the activation of appropriate body mechanics in support of each individual movement). a) Tension creates rigid or uneven movement. b) The transition from movement to movement or stance to stance needs to occur with fluidity. c) The use of individual (not meaning personal) flavours creates a rich vocabulary of movement as opposed to a sameness of movement. Sameness arises from the tendency to want to make all movements feel strong in the same way. If the function of each movement is understood and felt, its unique flavour will show. 4) Power: the natural heaviness in all movement as well the impact of each strike as the body supports the completion of each extension. a) The whole body responds and supports the movement as it begins, transits and finishes. b) There is an integration of body mechanics and intent. c) Movements of the limbs do not occur in isolation from the rest of the body. d) Body habits (poor posture etc.) are corrected. e) The body supports but does not compensate (i.e. by leaning in an opposite direction) for each movement. f) There is an alignment of structure (bone, ligament, tendon and muscle) to support each movement and impact. 5) Precision: all movements have a clear beginning, middle and end point. a) All movements demonstrate their potential with detail and refinement. b) There is a sharp, vivid quality to each movement. -21-

22 c) Gaps in the mindfulness of a movement (i.e. lifting the shoulder with a punch) are seen and eliminated. 6) Speed: the velocity of a movement to support power and flow and to create impact. a) Speed issues forth in a manner that is appropriate to the effectiveness of a movement. b) Unequal speed in the extension and retraction of a movement is avoided. c) Too much speed in which a movement s fullness is sacrificed is avoided. d) Too little speed in which an opponent s body is not shocked (an important aspect of contact which allows for deep penetration) is avoided. e) The creation of an appropriate pause in the cycle of extension/retraction allows the transference of power and intent. Mind 1) Intent: the clear commitment to a movement involving both the body and the qi. It is a summoning of all of the resources in an appropriate way. a) Each movement and stance projects and radiates the resources of commitment. b) The eyes (the Uechi glare ) project an intense clarity of commitment. c) There is no self resistance (i.e. dynamic tension) or ambivalence present in movement. 2) Mindfulness: spaciousness and clarity of being. a) All aspects of the body are clearly felt. b) The body and intent is felt in an integrated way at the same time as an individual movement is also felt. c) The function of each movement is understood and informs each movement. d) The potential for change is always present in the moment. e) One is not distracted by thought or emotion. f) The mind is not set but flows freely from thing to thing, moment to moment. 3) Self: the body/mind experience of me-ness -22-

23 a) One is not conflicted by self-judgment. b) Feelings of self are relaxed into mindfulness. c) One does not indulge in the pride of self inflation and glorification. d) The bow is practiced with gratitude for the Way of Karate rather than as a formality. e) Fear and anger are no longer binding as both solo and partner work take place. They no longer manifest in the clear spaciousness of being. Spirit a) Martial spirit is the evidence of martial force manifesting upon the integration of mind and body. There is not simply the demonstration of personal physical prowess but the clear flow of one or all of the collective forces of the martial art. In Uechi-ryu, this includes embodying the martial forces of dragon, crane and tiger. b) The Way of Karate comes alive and manifests throughout one s entire life. c) The relationship of student to teacher is one of humility and is heartfelt as is the relationship of teacher to student. The teacher/student relationship further includes clarity, vision and compassion. The various forms of karate, such as katas, drills, etc., are the means by which all that I have just described occurs. There are no fixed goals in karate that are ever achievable, because the practice of karate would then be limited and perhaps finite. So the last thing I look for is the practitioner s relationship to karate as a student. I ve met many a practitioner who would change or re-arrange the forms to suit their own personal needs, desires or dislikes, not recognizing that to do so effectively deprives them of the inherent understanding that can spontaneously come alive in the practice of these physical movements. Katas have been practiced by many for centuries, and as the student aligns and attunes to them in right relationship, then the understanding of karate can fill each one as the movement is occurring. From this depth of foundation, each person can evolve via karate, which is the very means by which karate evolves. -23-

24 THE TEACHINGS OF B. P. CHAN, by Ken Cohen Linguist Extraordinaire Chan loved language. He spoke several fluently: Fujian and Mandarin Chinese, Tagalog, and English. He told me that the Chinese terms used to describe qigong and Taiji Quan posture have hidden meanings. Sometimes the meaning is tied in to the very sound and energy of the Chinese words. For example, while practicing qigong students should han xiong ba bei, release the chest and extend the back. Chan taught that when you say "han xiong," your chest automatically loosens, becoming yin; when you say "ba bei," it is easy to feel energy rising up the spine and lengthening it. Another example: Xu ling ding jing, "Empty spirited energy is maintained at the crown of the head." When you say, " xu" (empty), the body and mind become light and empty. As you say "ling" qi rises to the crown. With "ding jing," the energy is maintained at the crown. Chan always stressed that we should have the feet firmly rooted in the ground, while the head lightly reaches towards the heavens. "The feeling of a suspended head is the secret of speed in combat," he once commented. English words also have power. Chan felt that "relax" was an unfortunate translation for the Chinese word song. "The word 'relax' makes people tense," he said. "Better to say loosen and release." Standing Meditation At my first private class, Chan revealed a "secret technique" called "Standing Meditation" (Zhan Zhuang). He said that it was the most important exercise in qigong. I stood with bent knees, straight back, and arms rounded in front of my chest. After ten minutes, my legs began shaking. Chan told me to take a break. We sat together and chatted about martial arts. Then I tried it again, with the same effect. He told me that, in the beginning stages of qigong, shaking was natural. "It means that there's water in the pressure cooker, but the lid is not properly sealed or tight- it is bobbing up and down. In other words, your body is not yet strong or stable enough to hold the qi." He told me to go home and practice every day. At next week's lesson, I could stand for twenty minutes, but then both my hands and legs shook! This went on every week, stand a little, shake a little. I felt like a fool. But until I could stand for a full hour, without moving, he wouldn't teach me anything else. "If you can't stand, how can you walk or move? If you don't have enough energy to stand for an hour, how can you practice martial arts?" He told me that to master qigong, you must master the "Four Virtues" (Si De): lying, sitting, standing, and walking. Some Principles of Standing Meditation What is the meaning of song kua, yuan dang (release the inguinal area, round the groin)? Be aware of the crease between the thigh and hip--keep this area soft, and imagine that your legs and hips form a rounded arch way. An arch can support more -24-

25 weight than a pillar. Conversely, if you imagine that your legs are pillars, you will tire more easily. "Practice the Four Empties (Si Kong): Use intent (yi) to make the feet, palms, chest, and mind empty. 'Empty' means open and receptive. "Practice the Three Levels (San Ping) Keep three areas level: eyes, hips, shoulders. (Level movement is also important in "walking the circle," the basic practice in Bagua Zhang. Sometimes, while Chan was practicing, his teacher held a wooden block with a nail through it just above his crown. If he rose up, he would be skewered!) "Keep the crown point (bai hui) and perineum point (hui yin) on one line. Gradually qi in the vertical axis will reach the feet, and then the hands. "Never correct yourself by looking at yourself. Use nei shi, 'inner gazing.' Be like a sentinel on a wall. To see the enemy, look out, not down the wall." Bagua Zhang and Standing Chan exemplified the qigong principle of "a steel bar wrapped in cotton." He was soft and flexible, like water, but he could hit like a tidal wave. Sometimes, during Bagua Zhang practice, I felt that his grip was like a steel vise, and was thankful that he never tightened it beyond my tolerance! Because I had probably watched too many martial arts movies, I was beginning to suspect the "real reason" for Chan's martial arts prowess. He undoubtedly did finger pushups and spent hours each day slapping bricks and thrusting his fingers into heated sand, probably followed by the application of herbal liniments. One day, during a private class, I decided to ask Chan about his personal training. "Why are your fingers so strong?" He immediately dropped into a low squat and struck his fingers full force onto the concrete floor. Then he stood up, rolled and tapped his fingers in the air and said, "You see, no pain, and I can still play piano." "Yes, I can see that," I said, "But how?" He replied, "You won't believe me," whereupon he bent his knees and raised his arms into a rounded shape, as though embracing a tree. "Standing," he said, "is the secret. And the only reason the old masters had such great ability is because they had more patience than people today. They stood!" -25-

26 The Path of the Uechi-ryu Artist by David Mott, Renshi The path which we take as Uechi-ryu Artist is one of self discovery. It could be said that there are many "levels" to this self discovery but, just as each piece of a hologram contains the complete information to make the entire hologram, each "level" contains the same potential for complete growth as all or the other "levels". We call it a path, and paths usually guide us from place to place but in reality, this path is a circle. Despite the gradual attainment of rank, which marks the development of one's skill and knowledge, many of us will continue to discover new and ever more subtle lessons as we return again and again to what we may have thought was material already absorbed and which no longer required our attention. Nevertheless, what is discovered along this path often reveals itself in a natural - though unrestricted order. That order is presented with the understanding that just as our effort may turn towards new directions, what has been learned must continue to be relearned and refined. Even though it is possible to learn most of the martial arts movements in a few short years, the depth and flavor of those movements will be ever changing according to one's growth. Like these movements, the depth and flavor of one's life will also be ever changing in the process. Fear and Anger: We have all undoubtedly been victims at some point in our lives whether as a child or as an adult. This victimization takes many forms, from the emotional to the physical, from the subtle to the horrific. The most basic aim in Uechi-ryu practice is for each of us to develop the confidence that we can protect ourselves. In doing so, we take a significant step forward towards removing fear from our lives and preventing the potential for any future victimization. Anger is the complement to fear in that it often unconsciously arises in response to one's sublimated experience(s) of being a victim. Unresolved fear and anger is -26-

27 frequently the unconscious motivation for the adult who makes victims out of others. Uechi-ryu schools unfortunately have their share of teachers who do not recognize this and use fear/anger in their dojo (karate school) to create an unhealthy emotional environment, thereby preventing the resolution of these two negative and debilitating emotions. Developing skill and power as a martial artist without the opportunity for personal growth is both undesirable and dangerous. A developing confidence in one's ability as a martial artist, must be accompanied by developing the personal qualities of integrity, wisdom, humility and compassion. Recognize fear/anger as you would recognize unnecessary tension in your body. As you train and remake your body, learn to see these emotions and release them. If they cannot be easily released, channel and transform the energy into the intensity of your training. The Yi The mind is what moves the body. In the beginning of one's training, the mind is fully occupied with learning how to move the body correctly with individual and sequenced movements. There is no extra mind-space for daydreaming or maintaining our habituated internal dialogue. At the intermediate and advanced levels, the mind should be applied towards attention and intention. Here there is difficulty however. The body can now move itself with only a little intention, leaving the opportunity for the mind to wander without the mind's attention. Intention can never fully develop. This is because at the higher levels of mastery, it is intention which activates the chi (our intrinsic energy) to augment muscle strength and efficiency. The chi can only be activated by using one's attention to discover what is at first only a very subtle feeling. Intention requires that the mind be fully and completely engaged in each individual movement as well as the flow of movements. As one progresses, there is more and more to be discovered in the feeling and flavor of each movement. Always be attentive to the inside of the body as well as the outside of the body. Let the body and the mind become one. -27-

28 The Li If the body is weak or unhealthy, one's external strength will be insufficient as a martial artist. Cultivate a natural desire to develop the strength needed to support your martial arts growth and practice. This must be in harmony with the totality of your development, as over emphasis on one's external strength will also restrict one's progress. There is an old martial arts saying that with the accumulation of excessive external strength, the "core will rot." Eat healthfully and with awareness of how food nourishes the body. Allow yourself the necessary sleep and rest to regenerate the body. Drink pure water and seek out pure air, breathing deeply to rid the body of the accumulated toxins of the modern urban environment. Learned negative physical habits or restrictive patterns of body movement contradict one's development of strength and must be unlearned. Become aware of how the body communicates the messages of the self to others. The Jing Developing the jing, or physical power, is more than simply strengthening the body so that one's techniques are effective. It is learning the correct body mechanics so that the body completely supports the purpose or application of each movement. An arm which moves without the support of the body utilizes only 10% of one's total strength. An arm which moves with the body's support utilizes 90% (excluding the other arm) of one's total strength. Physical power is dependent upon the centering of one's body and the integrity of one's stances and posture. The hands should always strike with the support of the feet; the body should root into the earth to achieve heaviness or should float like a cloud to achieve lightness. Renew your awareness of your breath and how it empowers the movement of the body. Sink the breath for heaviness, float it for lightness. Store the breath to accumulate strength, release it to discharge strength. -28-

29 Naturally coordinate the body with the senses to enable accurately timed movements without accurate timing, physical power will be either wasted or cut short. Like a tiger preparing to leap, learn to gather your energy, learn to wait and know when to move for the greatest advantage. The Chi As one's body ages, it becomes more and more necessary to cultivate the internal energy to offset one's naturally declining youthful strength. Besides aging, this cultivation comes about as the result of your Uechi-ryu Practice "reaching the right temperature". It is not only the practice of mindful intention, it comes from the process of learning of stillness. If you can learn to let go of the internal dialogue when not moving, you can discover the wholehearted power of intention when moving. Through meditation, whether standing or seated, discover the three stillnesses: stillness of body, stillness of breath, stillness of mind. Of course, complete and absolute stillness is impossible but as one experiences more and more of the fine and subtle through approaching a point of stillness, the ordinary limits of the mind/body become open and unbounded. The breath is the key to life. Shift your awareness to this essential element and discover how it flows through the body without limit. Chi requires that you allow yourself the feeling of the subtle. As you work with this awareness of the subtle, it becomes magnified and will greatly aid your martial arts practice. It will also greatly aid your intention. This carries with it a responsibility to control your intentions. How will you use this energy, to take life or to give it? The Shen The shen, or your spirit, must become strong, bright and clear through the regular practice of martial arts and meditation. The shen is best seen in your eyes. A powerful shen cannot be faked by making a dramatic facial expression. It should be an ever present clarity and liveliness but capable of an intense projection which -29-

30 some claim can even make the eyes glow in the dark. A Uechi-ryu artist should carry her/himself with a natural quiet dignity that is neither arrogant nor heavy. The eyes will register bad intentions and will carry the accumulation of such intentions with a duality of darkness regardless of their appearance. This darkness is called "bad shen" and will mark the person as clearly as if he wore a sign warning others of his intentions. The eyes also give strength to the body movements. Without strong eyes, there cannot be strong movement. Encourage the development of your spirit by committing 100% of yourself to every movement. If your spirit is lax, your body will be lax. If your body is lax, then your practice is empty. But if you put energy into your eyes, your spirit will miraculously rise up in even a tired body, providing you with renewed energy. Form, Feeling, and Function These three words alone provide the key to quality Uechi-ryu practice. To have good form, one must understand the function of each movement and must feel that function. To have feeling, one must be keenly aware of the inner quality (as though one's eyes are gazing inward) of each movement, the outer purpose of its function, and the flow of the transition to the next movement. To have correct function, the movements must have the integrity of good form with the feeling of intention. If you practice these three things, your ability will always continue to grow. Without any one of these three things, your development will be limited. Balancing the Training Keeping all parts of our practice in balance is important. It is true that from time to time, each of us may devote our effort primarily to one area or another depending upon our need. Still, while recognizing our strengths and weaknesses as martial artists, it is important not to avoid a part of our training which may cause us more difficulty than the others. Martial arts master Liang Shouyu writes of this balance of training and practice and his words are adapted below: -30-

31 A person who only fights is nothing more than a brawler. A person who only practices his/her forms without being able to apply them, is nothing more than a dancer. A person who theorizes about the martial arts without being able to demonstrate his/her knowledge is only an armchair theorist. A person who practices all of these without applying the martial arts to the art of living misses the inner usefulness of all of this activity. A person who practices all of these, applies it to the art of living and takes great pleasure from this effort, is a true martial artist. Openness and the Miraculous The ultimate goal of learning self defense is to become open. This means that through the process of becoming secure in your ability as a Uechi-ryu artist, the need to be defensive diminishes and eventually evaporates. When that happens it is possible to perceive the unity of this world without the quality of "me and other" or the perceptive boundaries of inside and outside. This is called the spiritual or the mystical. It is also called the miraculous. From this openness springs many of the legends about martial arts masters. In fact this openness, this unity, is our birthright. All young children have it and most lose it in the process of growing into adulthood. But as this is a natural process of loss, the path of the Uechi-ryu artist provides us with the means to return to this openness. The most highly skilled masters were often able to defeat their opponents through what appeared to be only the most minimal, often casual effort. Efficiency of effort is only possible if: there is no mental gap between you and your opponent; you have an attentive and creative openness to your opponent; you have a mirror like clarity with the ability to reflect back precisely what appears in front of you; you can spontaneously command your skill with complete and extraordinary ease. But so far we have only been talking about fighting. Most of us seldom have to fight for reasons other than training. Nevertheless, all of the principles of "walking this path" can and should be useful to everything in one's life. One can perform even the most mundane task with wholehearted attention and intention. In doing so, Uechi-ryu mastery should become the "art of life" mastery. This means that you -31-

32 can live moment to moment applying yourself completely and appropriately. This provides us with freedom in that, while we can never change the things that happen to us, we can change how we respond to them. We cannot change the circumstances of our birth, but we can change the way that we live. Even so this is an active practice which can never be assumed just as even the most advanced masters still drill themselves on the fundamentals. No doubt, every day, each of us encounters and has to respond to diverse problems. Fundamentally, this is no different than our martial arts knowing how to parry and block, side step and avoid, absorb and discharge, cut short and jam, or leap in suddenly, are techniques which are clearly available to us in our lives and interpersonal relationships as well as our Uechi-ryu. Can you act completely and spontaneously? One final importance to being open is the possibility for insight. It is insight into our lives which provides us with the opportunity to develop integrity, wisdom, humility and compassion as people. These are personal qualities which have to be earned every day of our lives. So how do you live your life? What self discovery has your Uechi-ryu art practice led you to? Do you understand yourself and your life? Do you naturally and unselfconsciously demonstrate your openness? If you discover the true path of the Uechi-ryu artist, you will find that you can walk that circle repeatedly without it becoming a rut, without the familiar becoming the mundane, and with endless opportunities for self discovery. David Mott Chief Instructor Cold Mountain Uechi-ryu Dojo -32-

33 Principles of Teaching Uechi Ryu Karate Do Ken Read, Godan in support of Renshi application July 2009 Introduction My intention here is to outline the underlying principles of teaching in a Uechi Ryu Karate Do dojo. The topics I cover are: Communication and Teaching, Fear, Awareness, and Resistance, Add To, Don t Take Away From, Qi, Mushin, and The Care and Feeding of a Dojo. I will describe in what way Karate Do work differs from other martial work, and also how the deeper aspects of the practice flow naturally from a serious experience of the basics. I do not intend to make a case here for traditional practice and against other approaches. I am simply describing Karate Do practice, as I understand it. I make these remarks with humility. Teaching in any field is always a work in progress, and every new student is a new relationship and a moving target as they learn, change and grow. In Karate Do there is even greater cause for humility in the face of a tradition of great teachers and in the presence of great contemporary teachers. As a student of some of these great contemporary teachers, I am also filled with gratitude. I hope my remarks bring honour to my teachers and are helpful to others on this path. Karate Do First, a few definitions of some of the various kinds of martial activities that might be called Karate. Karate Jitsu includes military, police, and security work, as well as self defence. Sport Karate is for competition in martial games. There is also a fun & fitness approach, often in the context of commercial martial organizations that will offer whatever activities might generate financial success. Karate Do is distinct from these other forms of martial work. Karate Do might include some of these other activities but it has a different emphasis and different goals. The Do in Karate Do is usually translated as the Way, as in the Way of Karate. This is a loaded term in Asian practices and indicates a life path towards the fullest realization of human potential. This realization is a transcendence of ego, rather than quest for ego enlargement - in other words, true maturity. Karate literally means -33-

34 empty hand, and this is normally interpreted as combat without weapons. In the context of Karate Do it has the additional meaning of Emptiness, Stillness, or Mushin. Every part of a practitioner s life is included in the practice of Karate Do, and every part of the experience of the practice is significant. Karate Do is sacred and every part of Karate Do practice is sacred, including the dojo, the gi and belts, the ranking system, the curriculum, the physical and emotional experiences, the relationships. Karate Do is mysterious, and cannot be fully known. This perspective brings depth and potential to this work. It demands the full attention of the practitioner, and ever-expanding awareness, honesty, and responsibility. The practice of Karate Do is relentless, difficult, and joyful. Communication and Teaching A Yoga instructor once said to me, If you don t engage your quads, your hamstrings will never release. Those of us who consider how communication works in teaching situations know that the hidden message in that formation is your hamstrings will never release. There is a need to keep communication positive and to recognize the real messages we are communicating to our students. The Yoga teacher would have been more helpful if she had said, once you engage your quads, your hamstrings will start releasing. Similarly, I often hear teaching statements in martial arts classes that hide a negative message inside of a positive one. For example, I heard a martial arts teacher tell a group of students doing some conditioning work during a break in a workshop that, as important as conditioning is, you do not want to rely on it in a self defence situation. This is good advice, but the way it was framed was, Your conditioning will not help you if I hit you. Clearly, in this instance the real message was that the teacher is to be feared. This message underlines a cultish approach to martial arts training. The focus of this kind of teaching is a kind of hero worship of the teacher, fostered by teacher and student alike. I had a call to my school once from a man who clearly had had some previous training. His question was, if I am late for a class, what is the punishment? I laughed and said, the punishment for being late is that you miss out on whatever we did before you got here. He was not satisfied with that answer and looked elsewhere for a school. In the kind of school he was looking for, the bargain is if I endure abuse now I will eventually be able to abuse others. -34-

35 I am a professional musician and I once had a music lesson with an older colleague who had had some limited success as a teacher. I wanted to see what his methods were. I was surprised to discover that his methods and ideas were ordinary and in some cases out-dated and even just plain wrong. I came to realize that his success as a teacher was a direct result of his own almost childlike self-confidence. He took on a student as a personal project and, as he expected boundless success in all his projects, he expected his students to succeed as well. This worked to a degree, at least while the students were with him, but there is something not quite right about this approach. Again, the focus is the teacher, not the student. These experiences helped me take a look at my attitude towards my own students. I realized that I need to recognize the potential of my students at least as much or more than they do, so that I am not standing in the way of their progress. My every communication (not limited to verbal communication, but including touch and other modes of communication) will transmit my expectations whether I intend to or not. Our role as teachers is to be a connection between Heaven and Earth so that awareness and compassion are the focus in the dojo. Physical prowess is not sufficient to lead a Karate Do dojo. Add To, Don t Take Away From An important and beautiful suggestion from my teacher is to throw nothing out of the tradition that we are given, but to carefully add to it. This is in marked contrast to the modern approach of discard what is not useful. The trouble is with discarding is, of course, in discerning what is and is not useful. If we take the discard what is not useful approach to its logical extension eventually, as each new teacher discards what he or she does not like, we have nothing. More importantly, though, staying with the elements of the curriculum that rub us the wrong way is a great way to work with our natural resistance to teaching. My own resistance to teaching has been enormous. I am very grateful to my teachers for not giving up on me! The curriculum of Uechi Ryu is relatively small: a set of warm up exercises, a set of basic drills largely taken from the Kata vocabulary, only eight Kata, two Kumite, two Bunkai, a conditioning exercise, and some sort of sparring. It is not difficult to cultivate this material within the normal cycles of emphasis in a Uechi Ryu dojo. Also, there is a great openness within the system to additional practices. For example, the curriculum in my dojo includes Standing (Zhan Zhuang) -35-

36 and Uechi Ryu Coiling Silk, thanks to innovations at the Cold Mountain School of Martial and Healing Arts in Toronto. Other Uechi dojo add a great variety of supplemental training. Here in Edmonton one dojo does excellent work emphasizing tournament sparring, while another includes a complete Kobudo curriculum while staying committed and true to the Uechi Ryu curriculum. I think the curriculum at the Cold Mountain Dojo in Toronto is a very good model of add to, don t take away from. The two innovations mentioned above are practiced there, and a complete Qi gong curriculum is available for students as well. At the same time, David Mott Sensei has been very faithful to the Uechi Ryu curriculum. For example, the version of Junbi Undo that he learned from George Mattson Sensei includes a set from Hatha Yoga, the Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskar). David Sensei could have easily dropped the Sun Salutations. It is a modern addition and as far as I know David has no particular interest in Yoga. And yet, he has faithfully maintained this addition in class after class for decades. Now, like most martial artists I recognize the need for some sort of supplemental training for strength, range of motion, and alignment. Most martial artists lift weights or do some sort of callisthenics. I have done that, as well as some modern bodywork including Feldenkrais and Alexander Technique. Maybe I am just spoiled by the sophistication of Uechi Ryu, but I have found all of this supplemental bodywork to be primitive and unsatisfying. After decades of searching, the best supplemental bodywork was right under my nose, in the Sun Salutations that David Sensei teaches in Junbi Undo. The Sun Salutations have been a launching pad for me to discover something more interesting, more complete, and more relevant to Uechi Ryu than push-ups and sit-ups and weight training, and perhaps a connection to the Indian Kalari roots of Chinese martial practices. I am very grateful to David Sensei for maintaining this addition. So, given the manageability of the traditional curriculum, the benefits of working within it, and the openness to adding to that curriculum, why do so many of us feel the need to revamp the style from the ground up? I am as guilty as anyone; I wanted to replace the Kumite and Bunkai drills and I found the Junbi Undo exercises tedious. I am fortunate to have had this tendency explained to me in two ways, the immediate practical understanding, and the bigger picture. -36-

37 The immediate practical understanding is simply that there is great potential benefit in working within a finite set of drills that can be thoroughly learned. When many variables have been eliminated, what is left is the infinite possibilities within the finite drills varieties of speed, intent, aggression, yielding, acceleration, and so on. So, instead of attempting to invent a different technique for every possible scenario, we are forced to adapt and interpret the basic movements. This forces us to focus on developing our skills, our sensitivity, and our awareness. By inventing a new technique for every scenario, we stay at the same level. We broaden but we do not deepen. Rather than moving upwards in our education, from high school to college to graduate school, we just keep getting high school diplomas from different high schools, which never add up to a PhD. The bigger picture is even more important, and I think gets to the heart of the real issue. The real issue is resistance. (See Fear, Awareness, and Resistance below.) We perversely resist the teaching. I suspect this is a universal experience. It has been for everyone I have met so far who is engaged in a genuine practice. At some point each of us runs up against our own resistance. We perversely resist what we know is true. This is the ego stubbornly insisting on its own way, even though it is the wrong way. Hence the genuine humility of advanced practitioners. After we abandon our pet theories in favour of the teachings offered to us by much more experienced teachers, themselves passing on truths passed on by an ancient lineage, we cannot take the credit for the result. There is plenty of room for creativity and exploration, but the traditional curriculum forms a solid and reliable foundation for a Karate Do Dojo. The practice is a process of discovery, continually uncovering more of what is there in the curriculum rather than selecting and discarding elements based on our personal preference and bias. Master Tomoyose once contrasted the Uechi Ryu curriculum, specifically the Kata curriculum, to other systems that include dozens of forms. He said that studying many forms is like a lake three miles across and three inches deep, whereas Uechi Ryu practice is like a well three feet across and three miles deep. To Qi or not to Qi? Working with Qi (Chi) is one of the gifts of traditional martial arts training. (This topic could go under Add To, Don t Take Away From, but I think it deserves a section of its own.) The debate on the existence of Qi is meaningless. Traditional teaching does not ask that we accept the Qi as part of a belief system. Working with the intrinsic energy of the body is simply a very effective way to cultivate powerful, integrated movement, -37-

38 and to connect with deeper aspects of the practice. Naturally, those of us who work with Qi become better at feeling it. Those who take a position against its existence miss out on the benefit. Let us imagine a beginner Karate student in her first few months of classes. This student is an adult who has no background in sport, dance, or any other bodywork. After a few weeks of classes the teacher suggests that the student adjust her foot positions without looking down. What would you think if the student objected, saying, It is not possible to tell where your feet are without looking at them!? The teacher might assure the student that it is possible to develop one s body awareness to that point and beyond. The teacher might even suggest methods for cultivating this awareness. But what if the student insists that it is simply not possible for anyone to know how their body is situated without checking visually? The student considers the teacher s claims to the contrary to be suspect and her suggestions to help so much hocus-pocus. I think most observers would agree that this student is arguing for a position of ignorance, fighting a battle she would be worse off if she won, and that she might at least give the teacher s suggestions a try and reserve judgement. For me this scenario closely parallels the debate around Qi. Qi is what generations of martial masters have reported as their experience. It is not a belief system, and it might be worth the trouble to suspend judgement long enough to practice it. Working with Qi has been the solution for me to the limitations of teaching and training in a mechanical way. The more I treated the body as a machine the more unmanageable the details became and the more isolated from each other and the total experience. The body-as-machine analogy is flawed and not very helpful for martial training. If our bodies really were machines, if we walked around barefoot, our feet would wear out. What actually happens is that our feet toughen; our bodies adapt to circumstances, provided they are reasonable circumstances. That is how Uechi Ryu toughening exercises work, for one example. Conceptualizing our bodies as machines also disassociates us from our physical selves. Good training helps us to more fully inhabit our bodies. We cannot think our way to good Karate. It is a common hurdle for good thinkers to get past their excellent conceptual grasp of the practice to actually embody it. Along with a science-based approach often comes a rejection of the inherent -38-

39 mystery of Karate Do practice. The truth of Karate is that it can never be fully known. Likewise for Qi and Mushin. So, to reduce Karate to a science-based method of moving the body reduces the work to something less than Karate Do. Of course the scientific understanding of the body is true as far as it goes: movement occurs in the body with the contraction of muscle tissue. The trouble is, for the practical purposes of a martial artist, attention to contracting muscle can only result in superfluous and detrimental tension. Muscles may be contracting, but that is not what good movement feels like. On the contrary, when the muscles are working in concert, the body feels free and easy, as if carried by an inner flow. There are two paradigms here, muscle contraction and the movement of intrinsic energy, and we do not need to take a position for one and against the other (is light a wave or a particle?). We can use the paradigm that best suits our purposes. Qi is all-inclusive and mysterious, and its conscious cultivation brings the most integrated and effective movement possible. The universality of Qi shows itself in ways that are sometimes comical. Often the most vehement Qi-deniers are forced to describe martial movement in terms of energy. My favorite instance of this was a popular seminar host and tournament star at a summer camp who was asked directly about his understanding of Qi. He said, I ve never felt it and I ve never come up against it in the ring. Then, in the same breath, he went on to describe how, when he strikes, he feels energy coming out of the ground and into and through his opponent. Without any further prompting, he added that he didn t believe in meditation either, but instead he liked to quiet (his) mind and focus on the breath. Attention to the experience of ease and flow in movement, to the experience of Qi, can eventually result in the realization that the energy that flows in good movement seems to come from the ground through the feet and legs. We might also realize that the movements of the body seem to be directed by small movements in the belly. We might even notice that at the center of the belly there is a point of energized stillness that seems to generate movement, traditionally called the Dan Tien. Further, we might begin to discern flavours, or characters to the experience that we might associate with the animal archetypes of the system. Deeper attention might even reveal that the energy we feel moving and the integration it supports is not personal; we do not feel that we are doing the movement, rather it seems to have a life of its own. All of this might lead to a deeper appreciation of the moment, and the relative irrelevance of the part of us we might call our ego or personality. We might experience all of this, or more likely, we might need a great deal of help -39-

40 with this process. This describes my own path so far, and I never would have experienced any of it without instruction and (despite my resistance) giving the instruction a try before taking a position for or against something I did not know anything about because I had not practiced it. Like the beginner student in my story who was certain that her level of understanding and awareness was the end of human potential, taking a position on Qi without doing the work with a qualified teacher cheats ourselves and anyone in our influence. Working with Qi is a beautiful way to help students come into relationship with the movements of Uechi Ryu. Working this way allows the student to move well and effectively, embodying the principles of the system without falling into the trap of correct and incorrect. Working with their own experience, students can become grounded and centered and can experience more and more of what the curriculum has to offer. In this way their work can become internal. The external approach is to follow instructions and to try to move like the instructor important at the beginning, but ultimately limited. A few ways to practice and teach Qi One way to help students work with their own experience of Qi is to practice small changes in the external body that can produce big changes in the internal experience. There are many such transitions in the Kata curriculum; in fact, any Kata transition can be practiced this way. For an example, in the Sanchin opening we transit between straight fingers and fists. This is a small movement in the external body but quite dramatic internally. A student (or a class) could be asked to alternate between fists and open hands, taking enough time to feel the internal changes, and then perhaps report verbally what they experience. There are no right or wrong answers in this kind of work, and there will be a range of experience in most groups. Commonly, students notice that the body feels denser, more integrated, grounded and rooted with the hands in fists than when they are open. They often notice that they feel strong with the fists closed but a bit immobile. When the hands are open they feel ready to move. Another transition I like to work with is between the Standing posture and the Closed Gate position. (The Standing posture, for those who do not practice it, is -40-

41 very like Closed Gate but the hands are open and separate.) It is a small movement for the external body from the Standing posture to Closed Gate but, again, a big internal change. This one might be even more dramatic for some students because we are moving from a non-martial position to a martial one. When I teach a group working with this transition I often see a visible shift in demeanour. Students are moving from a very open position to a posture of concentrated martial power. Another way to help students feel their Karate is to work with adjustments in form. For example, students can stand in Sanchin stance and move their back heels between a correct straight position and a too-turned in position, taking plenty of time in each position to feel the effect of the change throughout the body. Many students will report that their arms and hands feel weaker when the back heel is misplaced. Some simple partners work can help students feel this difference, applying force to the hands and arms with both foot positions to feel the mechanical difference. As students begin to sense the mechanics of the Kata positions they often report that not only do the arms feel more mechanically stable when the feet are well placed, but that the arms feel full with good foot positions, and empty with less accurate positioning. This kind of work can be done with any mechanical adjustment, including hips rolled under or not, knees bent too much or too little, body leaning versus straight, elbow positions, and so on. This way of working with these principles of form is a very effective way to teach basics because the understanding is internal. The student feels the principle in his or her own body and can therefore practice with confidence. The alternative is what I call the click, click, is that it? approach ( click, click, is that it? is what Stevie Wonder says with a Rubik s cube). In other words, working externally the student always needs the instructor to tell them if they are doing it right or not. The qualities we can experience in Kata postures and movements are there without us needing to create them, but they are fed and strengthened by deepening our awareness. Working with Kata postures and movements can include the bow. What is felt in the bow? Explorations like this can uncover some real treasures. Here is yet another way to help students get their foot in the door to this kind of work, especially if they are feeling at a loss. Students can be asked to move from a fetal-like standing position, bending the knees and pressing the chest against the thighs, to a very open position with the legs and arms spread out, the chest open and head back. Again, students can be asked to report their experience of these transitions. This kind -41-

42 of movement can induce an emotional response, which is not specifically what we are after in martial work, but it is a good start. A different approach to introduce and develop Qi work with students is to work with imagery. In this approach we work with the imagination. Qi is not a product of the imagination, but imagery can help us feel the intrinsic energy in our bodies, and can help more advanced students direct their Qi in beneficial ways. Here is a quote from Peter Ralston s book, Cheng Hsin: The Principles of Effortless Power, to illustrate one example of this kind of work: feel beneath the ground the equivalent distance of the distance from the ground to the center. In order to do this, first notice that space extends beneath your feet. It may be filled with earth, yet distance does exist in that direction. Now you can begin to feel it, having acknowledged its existence. Feel the space in between and around the legs, like a half-sphere that is resting on the ground, the top of which passes through your center. This space should come to feel as if the air within it is fullerand thicker than normal, and should be equally strong and balanced in all directions. The other half of this sphere is under the ground. Fill that space with your "life force" Remember that the water-drop is equally full on all sides, so that no matter which way you move or turn, it remains central and balanced David Mott Sensei s article, Quality and Depth in Uechi-Ryu Karate Do is a great source for concepts that can be introduced as imagery as a stepping-stone to a more direct experience. (This article is still the best handbook for Uechi Ryu practitioners, and the guidelines explained there are a solid support for students at all levels.) Rooting, grounding, centering, and flow, (all clarified in David Mott Sensei s article) are some of the experiences that are cultivated in martial work. While these principles are constant in good Karate, more advanced students work with the specific and varied qualities of each movement, posture, and transition. It is from this kind of work that a direct experience of the archetypal animal energies of Uechi Ryu can be experienced and cultivated. Again, we can train in this way with any part of the Kata curriculum. One of my favourite sequences for this kind of work is the Kanshiwa opening: after the bow and the sink into neutral stance, we squeeze the hands into fists, open them, and raise the arms into a ready position. I compare this work to tuning into different radio stations. You simply hit the preset and you get the new station. You might have some general preconception of the style of music you will hear, but you have no idea what music will actually be there, and -42-

43 you cannot do anything to influence it. In the same way that we cannot know Karate, we cannot intellectually encompass the enormity of the animal archetypes. Similarly, we can simply instruct students to raise their arms in this sequence with Crane in mind. There really is no need for any more than this simple cue. A few repetitions will usually yield some specific insights, especially for advanced students. Genuine insights are always somewhat unexpected; the results are always fresh and new. Some may report a feeling of ease and grace, or a particular pacing that seems to express Crane. Others may be surprised to realize the strength of Crane with its powerful flight muscles in the chest and back. Then the same movement can be done cuing Dragon, or Tiger, usually with dramatically different results. The parameters to keep in place in this work are that we are not pretending to be Cranes or Dragons or Tigers, and that our preconceptions about the animal are of no interest or relevance. Care must also be taken not to allow this work to degenerate into distortions of form in an effort to demonstrate externally the internal experience. Fear, Awareness, and Resistance People come to martial arts practices for a variety of reasons but eventually, if the student is engaged in Karate Do practice, the work must go deeper. There are some commonalities to this path: fear, awareness, and resistance. Martial arts activities are ideal for examining the place of fear in our lives. Even the simplest partners exercises can cue deep fear. Everyone has their own unique backstory for their fear, and just as varied as these individual stories are the strategies to manage fear, from the extremes of tightly contracted cautious personalities to aggression and bluster; from desperate (and hopeless) strategies to make friends with everyone, to equally desperate (and hopeless) efforts to intimidate everyone. Underlying this kaleidoscope of experience is simple fear. For many students, stepping into a martial arts school is the result of a private acknowledgement of fear, and a determination to do something positive about it. This is only the beginning, of course. Very few people are willing or able to take this process into a mature practice. An analogy I was given early in my work compared this process to cleaning a backyard pond. Maybe this pond has a coke bottle sitting at the bottom, and we may have been aware of it for some time. Now, for one reason or another, we are ready to do something about it. We don our rubber boots and wade in. After stirring up some mud and thrashing around a bit, we finally get our hands on the bottle and toss it out of the pond. -43-

44 We feel a rush of satisfaction and self-confidence. If we can do this, we can do anything! Then we notice something below our feet; there are some old newspapers under there. Well, this is turning into a bigger job than we had planned for, but as long as we are in here, we may as well do it right. The newspapers are a slimy, awkward challenge but the worst of it is that now we can see that there is 10 feet of garbage under our feet. Maybe we should have just left that coke bottle where it was! This story illustrates levels of awareness. Awareness is perhaps the primary cultivation in Karate Do. At the beginning most of us have simple body awareness gaps. We can t tell if our back foot is straight or turned. Later, as the basic steps are learned, our awareness goes a bit further. Maybe we notice that our shoulders rise in the effort to make power, or we discover unconscious tension somewhere in the body. This is a healthy process, especially if we take it into our daily lives. Depending on our abilities and our awareness, we may even be able to link some of our technical difficulties to other causes. For example, why would we abandon our hard-won skills the instant we have a partner in front of us? After extended practice, we may become aware of chronic issues. Our teacher seems to be repeating him/herself. Is this all s/he knows? At some point the absurdity may begin to dawn on us. It is not that difficult to make the adjustments our teachers are asking for. It is often just as easy to move one way as another; we have done this work for years, often with many of the same partners. What is happening? We are coming up against our resistance. We volunteer to be students, and most of us profess nothing more than humility in the face of the enormity of mastery. Humility and gratitude are surely the only reasonable or appropriate responses from even the most talented and accomplished among us. After all, none of us is capable of inventing on our own the tradition that supports our development. We must be taught. And yet we persist in refusing to accept the teaching offered to us. We stubbornly set boundaries around the practice of our own invention; we nurture our own theories and nurse our own grievances. None of it serves us, we suffer, but we persist. Only until we recognize our resistance for what it is can we move forward. Resistance is fear. Each student in a Karate Do dojo is working somewhere within this context and at some place in a continuum of awareness. When teaching occurs in a Karate Do class it often enters each student in a different way depending on where they are. When the teaching comes from the Heart, it is possible to speak to many different perspectives -44-

45 at once. In the Karate Do Dojo it is possible for students to feel sufficiently safe and cared for to see their fear, and to risk letting go of their resistance. Teachers helping students working with issues around fear, awareness and resistance need to start with Respect and Quiet. To truly respect another requires a significant degree of development. Master Funakoshi famously said Karate begins and ends with Respect, and consequently the term is used frequently in martial arts circles, but genuine respect is rare. It is rare for teachers to be sufficiently free of our own issues to genuinely respect our students and to see their true potential, without jealousy (fear), pride (fear), or resentment (fear). With respect, we can acknowledge a student s current abilities, often discounted by students themselves. This in itself can be very supportive, and is sometimes all that is needed to help the student to the next level of awareness and depth in their Karate. We can also communicate trust in the student s innate capacity to grow, again often not acknowledged by students themselves. When a student s awareness opens to the point that they begin to see how fear is operating for them, they may come to the teacher with a question. This can only happen in a context of proven respect. Quiet (Stillness, or Mushin) includes the capacity of the teacher to hear the student s question clearly. Again, sometimes this is enough. Being respected and heard is the primary support students need to move forward in their development. When the teacher communicates his/her constant respect even when given a glimpse behind the curtain, the student may take heart and hope. There is no need for teachers to be psychologists however; all this work can take place within the context of the Karate curriculum. The curriculum effectively exposes the truth of an individual, to those who can see it and to students themselves. In the context of respect, all that is required is the courage to look at this truth. In being seen, fear loses its power, it dwindles in the light of awareness. Resistance is a strategy for avoiding this difficult and essential work. Students can resist in a variety of ways. Again, I am not talking about psychoanalysis here; students will resist simple, basic instructions in the curriculum. Some students will maintain easily corrected structural deficiencies, or cling to idiosyncratic interpretations of movements. Of course students vary greatly in their capacity to learn complex movements, and in the speed that they can learn, but students will resist instructions well within their abilities. A common resistance strategy is what I -45-

46 call the ten year plan. The student responds to instruction by saying, that will take me a long time! Sometimes the teacher s role is to identify resistance as resistance, with respect, patience and compassion. In other cases, all that is required is to keep suggesting the needed improvement in the Kata, with confidence that the student can make the improvement right now, or whenever they are ready. Some students simply need to steep, and (to extend the tea analogy) you cannot make the leaves in a pot of tea sink to the bottom faster by shaking the pot, you just have to give it the time it needs. In either case, we speak to what is healthy in the student. Sheer repetition can begin to work on the student, and if there is a struggle it is within the student, not with the teacher. Mushin Without any confusion in mind, without slacking off at any time, polishing the mind and attention, sharpening the eye that observes and the eye that sees, one should know real Emptiness as the state where there is no obscurity and the clouds of confusion have cleared away. -Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings Musashi here points out that Emptiness, or Mushin, is inherent in the path of a martial artist. There are many ways to be involved in martial activities and avoid this work, but Musashi emphasizes martial practice as a process of deepening attention and awareness. That emphasis is the emphasis of Karate Do, and Mushin is at the heart of that emphasis. I see my current place in the ranking system, and my preparation for my test, as a crossroads. I suspect this is usual for many students at some point in their training. Anyone with the amount and quality of training and experience that we have after 20 or more years in Uechi Ryu has the potential to achieve some kind of power. This presents an important choice, between self-realization and self-aggrandizement. At junior levels it is possible to work outside of this context, to regard Karate as an ego project, a method to pump ourselves up, to revel in strength and authority. At senior levels this does not work - it hurts the individual, it hurts others who come in contact with him or her (especially students), and it is based on a falsehood. Mushin is the critical insight of a mature practice. Mushin practice is the essential element of Karate Do; all the other principles flow from Mushin. With a little thought we can acknowledge that we can t take credit for the lineage that has -46-

47 supported our work, but with long-term Mushin practice we can begin to sense the real source of power in the present moment. The source is not intellectual, and it is not personal. Qi and Mushin are not personal accomplishments, they are gifts. They cannot be owned or given or sold. In Mushin practice Uechi Ryu Karateka can work with the animal archetypes of the style. Without Mushin the animals are merely decorative, or, perhaps worse, theatrical displays. Qi practice can help us come into relationship with Emptiness or Stillness as the source of intrinsic power. Mushin is the eventual outcome of Qi work because it is the source of Qi. Of course, like Qi, Mushin does not exist for those who do not practice it. If we pay attention we can notice that in even the simplest act of observation there is a moment of stillness. Very quickly our discursive mind may rush in to fill the gap with verbalizations, but the moment of seeing is open and clear. That state of attention can and should be cultivated in martial practice. Without it, we are poor, easily distracted fighters, too busy imagining, remembering, and strategizing to see what is in front of us. Attention will reveal that even the most repetitious exercise is truly an experience of endless variety. Every punch or kick is different. To the degree that we treat them the same, we respond inappropriately. In a special class for dojo heads in Edmonton, David Mott Sensei led us through Kata at an excruciatingly slow pace. One of my fellow students in this class observed that when his attention was elevated to that degree it distressed him to recognize that every one of his Sanchin stances was different. I really appreciated his insight, and his candour. This is true reality training. Repetition only occurs at the most superficial level of awareness. Each moment is unique. This realization might be a frightening prospect for some of us. One reaction to that fear might be to create some sort of one-size-fitsall approach, or mindset. As with all fear-based reactions, this cannot work. No preconceived scenario will match the next moment. Perhaps this is where sport martial arts excel, creating tightly controlled events. At any rate, a profound experience of the openness and infinite variety of unfolding reality brings us to Mushin practice. Consequently, Mushin practice is the best training for self-defence. It is also the gateway to profound inner health. The common element is truth, reality, what is really present in the moment, rather than some pre imagined construct. -47-

48 If we need to defend ourselves or others in our care in life-threatening circumstances, we need to have the capacity to take life. This is not a capacity to be taken lightly. We also need to be capable of responding appropriately when someone gets overly rambunctious at a family party. Death and destruction is not appropriate in many selfdefence situations, which are often perpetrated by people we know. If our training is to be meaningful it must apply to all our relationships. They all require courage and heart, and a capacity to respond. The format of martial arts practice is worst-case scenarios, but what we need to take from that training is the capacity to be open in the moment. If a response is required, the appropriate response is inherent in the moment. Some of the principles that I have outlined in this paper may seem to some to be arbitrary or esoteric. To me though, they flow naturally from working with the basics. As we work with the basics over time, a deepening can occur. (Peter Ralston rather uncharitably suggests that the only other option to going deeper in long-term martial training is an extended juvenile period!) As Musashi observes, Emptiness is naturally associated with training the eye that observes and the eye that sees. This is basic training in martial arts. Training the eye is central to sparring, for example. The moment of observation, of seeing our training partners, is still. Most Uechi Ryu schools teach the Uechi glare. This can degenerate into a theatrical display of course, but genuine glare can be seen commonly among Uechi practitioners. Like so much of the Uechi practice, the glare is not done, it comes naturally from the Kata and is cultivated through awareness. The glare is a non-verbal state, a state of dynamic Stillness. I think even the most vehement Mushin-denier would be appalled if a test candidate spoke during their Sanchin demonstration. Teaching and practicing Mushin Like Qi, Mushin can occur spontaneously through training in the curriculum. Also like Qi though, some instruction can help a lot. One way that students avoid Mushin is by maintaining a ceaseless, mindless activity in movement. The solution is to work with points of absolute stillness between movements. These points of stillness are numerous in the Kata curriculum and can be cultivated in Hojo Undo, partners work, and elsewhere. Students will move in an automatic way with drills they know well because they -48-

49 think that they know what is going to happen next. It is easy to show, especially in partners work, that this is not true. We never know what is going to happen next. The result of this kind of training is often seen on rank tests when one student gets nervous and throws the wrong attack and their partner deals with it without surprise. Another way to help students work with Mushin is to help them notice the points at which they are already comparatively quiet in their work, as brief as these moments may be. The experience of the glare, for example, or the moment in Jiyu Kumite work when they simultaneously see and take advantage of an opening. The corollary to this awareness is the awareness of discursive mental chatter. It can be distressing for students to begin to realize how much they fill their training with internal chitchat. This is in itself an important insight. Many people are unaware of their internal discursiveness (even to the point where the discursiveness can become external as they walk down the street having loud debates with themselves). The awareness of internal chatter is an essential realization in this work. At this point students can begin to struggle with a catch-22; they are trying to use the discursive mind to quiet the discursive mind, which is impossible. Mushin exists without any need to create it. It cannot be forced. The solution to the catch-22 is to relax and enjoy what is there, and allow thoughts to come up without feeding them. We can hold to our Karate in the face of any thought. The Care and Feeding of the Dojo Most of us train in a dojo of some description. It may be a freestanding building or a shared space, but we recognize it as a dojo. On some level most of us feel that a dojo is more than merely a convenient place to work out. We bow into and out of the dojo, and many of us have certain spoken or unspoken rules of behaviour in the dojo. For example, most Karateka are careful not to speak harshly in the dojo, and apologise if an expletive slips out in class. I believe a dojo is a special place. I would go so far as to say that a dojo is a sacred space and the work that is done there is sacred. I think most Karateka sense this on some level. We are on our best behaviour in the dojo, we can be our best selves there. The formality of a dojo makes it easier to do this than it might be in everyday life (although the hope is that there is less and less distinction). When we sweep the dojo floor we do it carefully, getting right into the corners and getting down on our knees to wipe up a sticky spot if need be. Working this way feels right and healthy. Anything less feels wrong; profoundly, nauseatingly wrong. -49-

50 Being a sacred space, a dojo is a powerful arena for transformation. The dojo is a peaceful refuge, and a place where it is possible to get our most important work done, cutting through confusion and difficulty and working joyfully. A lot of good can take place in a dojo. The care we take with our dojos is also a recognition that without that care tremendous harm can also occur. The dojo is a place where respect is cultivated. We respect the teachings, the teacher, and each other in the dojo. This is a long-term cultivation, and what may start as formality becomes heart-felt. I advise my students to be squeaky clean in their relationship with the dojo. Maybe we tend to show up late to work, or we are often late paying our bills, or perhaps we are shy or overbearing at social events. Not in the dojo we aren t! This in itself can be a powerful practice for many students. The formality of a dojo makes it possible for students to work with relationships. Every partner is a good partner. It makes no sense for martial arts students to think that they have had a bad class because they had a bad partner. We are not training to be victims. Every class is a good class and every partner is a good partner. We treat our partners with great respect and we fully inhabit our personal space allowing no harm to come to us or our partner. If, for example, a partner is hitting us too hard (or not hard enough) we ask them to adjust. If they do not respond appropriately, we excuse ourselves and bow to end the drill. No harming, no blaming. So, how do we make a space into a dojo? I think most of us instinctively know what is required. For starters, the space needs to be clear and clean. If only for safety, we need to clear and clean the space. There is a good feeling in clearing and cleaning a space for use as a dojo. It feels like we are clearing the air of everything else that has gone on in this space, especially if it is a shared space. Once the space is clean and clear it can be filled with a sense of lineage and purpose. It makes sense to have images on the walls to alert us to the lineage we inherit, and to orient the front and back of the space. A set of lineage photos is a must. Ideally the space is separated from outside activities, at least symbolically. There needs to be a clear line between the formal dojo training space and more informal space on the periphery, obvious to everyone, and when that line is crossed it needs to be acknowledged, usually with a bow. Casual sloppiness has no place in the dojo, regardless of our home decorating -50-

51 philosophies. So, storage doors and change room doors are closed, and there are no personal effects lying around, no loose ends. Karate Do practice is a process of deepening awareness, of uncovering spirit. The care and maintenance of our dojos is an important aspect of this work for every student, and especially for teachers. Conclusion In this paper I have distinguished Uechi Ryu Karate Do practice from other forms of martial activity by presenting some of the underlying principles of Uechi Ryu Karate Do as it is taught and practiced. In Communication and Teaching I point out the need for teachers to be aware of the meanings in the structures of communications with students. Add to, Don t Take Away From describes the importance of the traditional curriculum, and in Fear, Awareness, and Resistance I show how these three aspects underlie much of our work as we enter mature practice. Closely connected to these last two sections, To Qi or not to Qi shows that Qi work is integral to traditional martial practice and that the debate around it falls under Fear, Awareness, and Resistance. In Mushin I point to the central place of Mushin in all aspects of traditional Karate Do, and how the practice can force us into a decision between self-realization and self-aggrandizement. Finally in The Care and Feeding of the Dojo I talk about the dojo as a sacred space and some ideas on how to create and care for that space. Each of these areas deserves a more complete treatment, and there are many more aspects to teaching Karate Do than I cover here. Lao Tzu famously wrote, The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao. So, writing on this subject is hazardous. I hope what I present here is valid, but it must fall short. Any conceptualization around the Way is just that, a thought construction and not ultimate truth. As a beginner student I often heard more senior students profess their humility and I sometimes wondered how sincere they were. Now I see that there is no false modesty needed to bow in humility before the immensity of Uechi Ryu Karate Do. Like so many before me, I can see enough to glimpse how little I understand. This is not a cause for despair, however. On the contrary, it fills me with hope and gratitude. I hope this paper is helpful to my fellow Uechi Ryu Karateka and is understood as a grateful bow to my teachers. -51-

52 Quotes "Our work is always with uncovering the spirit in Karate, developing bodies that can receive and express that spirit and working to unify and integrate that with every moment of our daily lives. I wish each and every one of you all of my best wishes in this endeavor!" -David Mott, December 1995 "And always remember that we do martial arts to make friends, not enemies." -B.P.Chan "Question: What about when someone else is doing wrong to us? Answer: You must not allow people to do wrong to you. Whenever someone does something wrong, he harms others and at the same time he harms himself. If you allow him to do wrong, you are encouraging him to do wrong. You must use all your strength to stop him, but only with good will, compassion, and sympathy for that person. If you act with anger or hatred then you aggravate the situation. But you cannot have good will for such a person unless your mind is calm and peaceful. So practice to develop peace within yourself, and then you can solve the problem." -S. N. Goenka "As you work with this awareness of the subtle, it becomes magnified and will greatly aid your martial arts practice. It will also greatly aid your intention. This carries with it a responsibility to control your intentions. How will you use this energy, to take life or to give it? " -David Mott "The various forms of karate, such as katas, drills, etc., are the means by which all that I have just described occurs. There are no fixed goals in karate that are ever achievable, because the practise of karate would then be limited and perhaps finite. So the last thing I look for is the practitioner s relationship to karate as a student. I ve met many a practitioner who would change or re-arrange the forms to suit their own personal needs, desires or dislikes, not recognizing that to do so effectively deprives them of the inherent understanding that can spontaneously come alive in the practise of these physical movements. Katas have been practised by many for centuries, and as the student aligns and attunes to them in right relationship, then the understanding of karate can fill each one as the movement is occurring. From this depth of foundation, each person can evolve via karate, which is the very means by which karate evolves." -David Mott "One of the classic Buddhist teachings on Hope and Fear concerns the Eight Worldly Dharmas. These are four pairs of opposites - four things that we like, and four things that we don't like. When we are caught up in the Eight Worldly Dharmas, we suffer. First, we like Pleasure, we -52-

53 don't like Pain. Second, we like and are attached to Praise. We try to avoid criticism and Blame. Third, we like Fame. We dislike Disgrace. Finally, we are attached to Gain. We don't like Losing what we have. Pleasure and Pain, Praise and Blame, Fame and Disgrace, and Gain and Loss - is what keeps us stuck in the pain of Samsara. We might feel that we should try to eradicate these feelings. A more practical approach is to get to know them intimately, see how they hook us, see how they color our perception of reality, see how they aren't all that solid. Then the Eight Worldly Dharmas become the means for growing wise as well as kinder and more content." -Pema Chodran "Between birth and death, Three in ten are followers of life, Three in ten are followers of death, And people just passing from birth to death also number three in ten. Why is this so? Because they live their lives on the gross level He who knows how to live can walk abroad Without fear of rhinoceros or tiger. He will not be wounded in battle. For in him rhinoceroses can find no place to thrust their horn, Tigers no place to use their claws, And weapons no place to pierce. Why is this so? Because he has no place for death to enter." -Lao Tsu "When changing position, you should move like a cat. In performing the forms, you should be like the eagle which glides serenely on the wind, but which can swoop instantly to pluck a rabbit from the ground." -Wu Yu-Hsiang "Make your opponent feel that when he looks upward, you are much taller, and when he looks downward, you are much lower. When he moves forward, he should feel that he cannot reach you, and when he retreats, he should feel that he has nowhere to escape to." -Wong Chung-Tua "In all Martial Arts, it is essential to make the everyday stance the combat stance and the combat stance the everyday stance. You must examine this carefully. No matter which position you take, do not think of it as a position; think only of it as a process of cutting." -53-

54 -Miyamoto Musashi "We need to find the link between our traditions and our present experience of life. Nowness, or the magic of the present moment, is what joins the wisdom of the past with the present." -Chogyam Trungpa "Acknowledging fear is not a cause for depression or discouragement. Because we possess such fear, we also are potentially entitled to experience fearlessness. True fearlessness is not the reduction of fear; but going beyond fear." -Chogyam Trungpa "Synchronizing mind and body is not a concept or a random technique someone thought up for self-improvement. Rather, it is a basic principle of how to be a human being and how to use your sense perceptions, your mind and your body together." -Chogyam Trungpa "To stand straight is to give up the burden of insecurity. To breathe slowly is to take life as it comes, without allowing memory or expectation to interfere. As the body becomes quiet, the mind becomes quiet. The qi flows not only within the body, but between oneself and Nature. In breathing, the external world becomes you. Yet you do not own it, you let it go and return breath to its source -- what Chinese people call the Tao." -Kenneth Cohen "He is the best official who is not officious; He makes the best warrior who does not become enraged; He truly conquers his enemies who avoids conflict with them He is the true master of men who behaves as if he is their servant." -Lao Tsu "When you express gentleness and precision in your environment, then real brilliance and power can descend onto that situation. If you try to manufacture that presence out of your own ego, it will never happen. You cannot own the power and the magic of this world. It is always available, but it does not belong to anyone." -Chogyam Trungpa "Your brain doesn't control your body. Your heart controls your body. We should use our hearts more." -B.P. Chan -54-

55 "Look into the technique of using four ounces of energy to control the force of a thousand pounds. Such techniques as these do not depend on brute force to overcome." -Wong Chung-Tua "When in a fight to the death, one wants to employ all one s weapons to the utmost." -Miyamoto Musashi "Also it is said: first you should exercise your mind, then discipline your body. Relax your abdomen and let internal energy condense into your bone marrow. Make your spirit peaceful and your body calm. Pay attention to your mind at all times." -Wu Yu-Hsiang "The tiger is very powerful in the forms, tensed strongly. You should feel like a tiger that comes down from the mountains looking for food. The snake is an animal which moves slowly without fear. When you perform in kata, move like a snake. The crane is very soft in its movements and has perfect balance." -Kanei Uechi "You step forward and strike; your arm is completely relaxed; it feels like nothing at all. Don't try to hit him with power - you'll interfere. Just relax and act. Let me assure you, no exertion of strength is used." -Peter Ralston "In order to pass through life, there is a need to have a spirit, to be decisive about exerting all of one s energies to overcome difficulties." -Miyamoto Musashi "The time for striking an opponent is referred to as the strike of a single moment. Take a position within sword s length of the opponent and before he can decide on a move, without moving your body, calmly and spontaneously strike in the timing of a moment. Timing of a blow before an opponent can decide to retreat, parry, or strike; this is the one timing." -Miyamoto Musashi -55-

56 BELTS AND GI'S Everyone participating in Uechi Ryu classes should be wearing a plain white Gi (uniform) and the ceremonial belt. Belts and Gi's are a Japanese contribution to our practice. The Gi is ideal for this kind of activity and demonstrates our humility and respect for others. Plain white represents "beginner's mind". The belt stripes and colours show our place in the curriculum. The knot is shown below. We should be proud of our rank and respectful of the effort and accomplishments of others. Earrings, rings, watches, etc. that could harm yourself or others should be removed before class. Fingernails and toenails need to be clean and safely trimmed. Belts and Gi's must be kept clean and neat and the time spent wearing them should be focused and concentrated

57

58

59

60