Before Zen crossed the shores into Japan, the students of the Tendai school would study meditation, as part of their daily practice. Four of them, close friends all, promised one another to observe seven days of silence.
On the first day, no words were spoken, and the students took pleasure in their auspicious beginning. When night came however, the oil lamps grew dim, and the room slowly darkened.
One student, named Hoshin, called out to a servant: "Servant! Attend to the lamps, so that I might better observe our accomplishment!"
The second student was surprised to hear Hoshin speak. "We are supposed to keep quiet," he chided.
"But you also spoke!" declared the third. "You are an idiot!"
"I am the only one who has not talked," concluded the fourth, as he settled into seiza.
Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the International Day of Peace. First observed on September 21, 1981, the goal has always been a day free of armed hostilities in the international community.
The state of the world, also yesterday:
Former Afghan president assassinated.
Civil war draws closer in Yemen.
Africa continues its seemingly never ending war with itself.
We have a long way to go.
Editors Note: This is the third in a three part series regarding our Fall 2011 seminar with Peter Bernath Sensei. You can find all three posts under the video tag. Enjoy!
During the third class, Sensei demonstrated tanto waza, including a devastating choke from tsuki. Note the role of uke and nage in the first technique (tsuki shihonage), which I think is more subtle than it appears.
Editors Note: This is the second in a three part series regarding our Fall 2011 seminar with Peter Bernath Sensei. You can find all three posts under the video tag. Enjoy!
Here, Sensei demonstrates more variations of iriminage, shihonage, and kokyunage.
Editors Note: This is the first in a three part series regarding our Fall 2011 seminar with Peter Bernath Sensei. You can find all three posts under the video tag. Enjoy!
This first video features kokyunage, shihonage, and iriminage. I’ll follow up in a later post about that shihonage, from my perspective as uke.
What a wonderful day.
Our deepest thanks to all our friends who supported us. And of course, our thanks and gratitude to Bernath Sensei, who taught an exhilarating seminar.
We appreciate it more than you know.