Breathing

Well, along with everything else, I turned 47 last week.

Hmm

To the Katana, Sai, iron palm and Jian, I now have added Yogic meditation. I have read a fair amount on Buddhist theory ( both Tibetan and zen) but the practice at this point is not religious per se, so I am taking my cues from the simple yet powerful works of Swami Rama. He has written several books on the science of breath and yogic meditation, and at this juncture I can integrate that practice into what I am doing with out having to yield up my basically Christian (congregationalist variety, no Jesus rapture freaks here) faith tradition.

This makes for fairly busy mornings, which in fact makes for a struggle with consistency of practice. It needs to fit around four kids (one of them a baby) wife, job and new house. It seems to me to border on the clueless to devote time to personal spiritual practice at the expense of my family (kind if missing the point, eh, love the universe, ignore your kids?)

However, a very wise man, my second Akido teacher named Sunny Skys, once told me that what mattered was to get to practice as much as you can, and just keep coming. I think that is good advise, so for now I start with what I have and go as far as I can go.

This is another important lesson. We shy away from disciplines that would help and instruct us because we do not have enough time, or so we think. We have this idea in our culture that if we are not giving 100% then we should give nothing...we need to be the best, to compete. We rarely can just be.

I do not need to be the best at any of these things, nor do I need to win medals or earn accolades to gain immense benefit. I can tell you that already, I am more flexible, my body works better. I can feel it in the day to day and when I run. I am somewhat more centered and have much better physical and mental balance. There are other benefits as well. So no, I am not planning to challenge Jet Li to a fight anytime soon (from what I read, he would certainly smile, and then invite me to tea and a meditation session to help me explore my inner demons).

But I am starting to see the beginnings of the path... and for one on a journey, that is a good first step.

And yes, Sunny Skys was his name. He changed it from something else, as far as I can tell. Great guy, if a bit different. Then again, I have always liked the different. I number among my friends swift boat veterans and born again Christians and radical feminist theologians, venture capitalists, communists ( there are still a few around) and a host of eclectic individuals. Makes things more interesting.

I cannot comment a lot on the meditation and breath exercises yet. Give me a few weeks and I will see if I can give up some thoughts.

The Simple and the Ornate

This morning I was back on the Katana and Sai's, followed by a session of iron palm.

A few observations:

My right hand is doing great, I can strike with great force and feel practically nothing. The left, however, has a very nasty bruise on the back of the hand. That is where I have most of my problems. Palm and side of the hand are pretty tough, I was breaking cinderblocks when I was fifteen using a chop strike, so no suprises there. My injuries are almost all on the back of the hand and the knuckles. What suprises me is the difference. I am right handed, but for the life of me cannot imagine why almost all of my issues have been with my left. Well, lets give it three months and see what happens.

I play with three different sword traditions: Katana (Japanese) Jian ( Chinese) and Rapier/Dagger ( European). I also have added in Sai work on the Japanese side. I love rapier work, it is very clean and quick, and of the three it is the easiest one to spar. My friend ( we will call him Lionheart) and I both have full protective gear and practice swords and can pretty much go full on and not get hurt seriously ( though we do bruise now and then). However, it does not lend itself well to the kind of meditative/ martial practice that you get with Asian arts.

Of the other two, I find that Japanese swordsmanship suits me much better. It is simpler, cleaner and deadlier, at least to my taste. I respect Jian practioners, and it can be a deadly weapon in the hands of an adept, but somehow the ornate poses, cuts and moves are too dance like for me to be properly martial. I do both and get great benefit, but if I had to carry a blade into a real combat, it would be the katana. No question, it feels right.

This probably says more about me than about the relative merits of the arts.

And that is the most important observation, for in the end it is about learning about you, not pretending expertise. Wayfinding requires humility and a healthy respect for your own error factor. To know is to really know nothing, because so often we are wrong, and even when we are right, we are often only right for that moment. Close the mind and as the world moves on you will become wrong.

Not knowing is the space where we learn.

Shadowdog, welcome! Happy to have you along.