Kamaemail archive, issue two
Kamaemail
February 2000 volume 1
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~~~~~IN THIS ISSUE~~~~
* KAMAEMAIL
* WHAT'S NEW?
* NEXT SEMINARS
* THE LIFE OF BUDO
* BUFU IKKAN
* TAIHEN KUDEN SHINDEN
* THE TRAINING TO LIVE
* Y2K AND BUDO
* HOLLAND MILLENNIUM TAIKAI REMINDER
* Q&A
* TECHNICAL TIPS
* VIDEOS
* BOOKS
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~~~~KAMAEMAIL~~~~
Your personal contribution is most welcome so, feel free to send to kamaemail@wanadoo.fr
any article, information or insight you have about the Bujinkan. Please
do not send any picture or photo. Articles can speak of anything linked
to our art, to martial arts in general and to Japan or Asia: technical
tips, history of Japan. If you organize a seminar please inform us. At
the end of each article please put your name, dan grade, country, email
and website.
When you send us an article please try to follow these rules: Japanese
names are singular, do not put any "s" at the end. These names are sounds
not words: for example "one kamae, two kamae). Write Japanese words in
italic, it will ease our reading. Do not put any accent even if you should
because some countries do not read them and it makes the text hard to
understand.
We will not accept any article or information criticizing or attacking
any individuals, whether they are members of the Bujinkan or not. The
existing "chatlists" on internet do that perfectly already.
For non speaking english people: please make sure your text is understandable.
We don't want to rewrite your articles because we may transform your initial
meaning. Have someone speaking english correctly read it before you send
it. Thank you.
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~~~~WHAT'S NEW?~~~~
Here you will find news concerning the Bujinkan.
§ The Bujinkan has now about 1000 Shidoshi including about 90 10th dan.
§ Hatsumi Sensei said he will stop going abroad for Taikai after 2002.
§ The theme for the year 2000 is Koppo Jutsu and not Togakure Ryu Ninjutsu
as stated before. For details contact Mariette van der Vliet the Holland
Taikai Organiser at m.vliet@HOME.NL
§ 50% of the people who took the Sakki Test (Shidoshi) never paid their
diplomas but are still teaching in the Bujinkan. How come?
§ Some of you asked for a forum inside Kamaemail where you could ask questions.
This is the Q&A section (see below). You can either send your question
to kamaemail@wanadoo.fr or send it directly to the author of the article
who wrote it and ask him (or her) to publish his answer it in Kamaemail.
When you ask a question, precise who you are (grade, dojo, country and
email).
§ American Taikai in Atlanta in august this year organised by Bud Malmstrom.
More infos at http://www.winjutsu.com/seminars/taikaiatlanta/
§ The Holland Taikai will be the only Taikai this year in europe. The
Sport center is limited in rooms so you better hurry to register for it.
do not wait until the last moment to do it as usual.
§ There will be a Taikai in Paris in march 2001 hosted by Arnaud Cousergue
solkan@wanadoo.fr. Dates are not known yet. We will keep you informed
as soon as we know.
§ If you want more Infos about Bujinkan Germany go to www.bujinkan-deutschland.de
§ Send your articles for Kamaemail 3 due to be published in march 2000.
Do not send texts on Word but send them directly by email at kamaemail@wanadoo.fr
. On top of it write: "kamaemail 3 article" or "kamaemail 3 seminar info"
or "kamaemail 3 information" or "kamaemail 3 Q&A" to ease our work. and
please, have someone read it before you send it! :-)
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~~~~NEXT SEMINARS~~~~
Send us informations about the seminars you organise, they will be put
in this section.
§ BLACKPOOL, ENGLAND - 19th 20th february 2000 - The Bujinkan Blackpool
Dojo is organizing a seminar with Sveneric Bogsater 11th dan. More detail:
Mark Taylor AngloEuro@aol.com
§ FRANKFURT - 18th 19th march 2000 - Seminar with Bud Malmstrom from Atlanta
USA - Taikai-Organizer this year - in Dojo Dietzenbach/Frankfurt Germany
sf-panda@t-online.de
§ MONTPELLIER, FRANCE - 22nd 23rd (24th?) april 2000 - SHI TENNO SEMINAR
with Pedro, Peter, Sven and Arnaud 11th dan. More details Philippe Alenda
philbujin@wanadoo.fr
§ FRANKFURT - 29th 30th april 2000 - Seminar with Sveneric Bogsäter -
Taikai co-organizer Holland - in Dojo Dietzenbach/ Frankfurt Germany sf-panda@t-online.de
§ TAIKAI HOLLAND 1st, 2nd & 3rd JUNE 2000: There will be only one Taikai
this year so do not miss this opportunity to train with Soke Hatsumi.
For general information look at http://bujinkan.com or email at m.vliet@home.NL
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~~~~THE LIFE OF BUDO~~~~
Many years ago, one man called Buda said:
"The principles of life are: do the right, don´t do the wrong and help
all human beings. If you can not help all human beings then try to do
the right, if you cannot do the right then try to do not do the wrong."
In Budo, I think it is the same, our Sôke once said in Sanmyaku: "In a
real fight you must try not to damage your opponent and avoid to be damaged".
When one begins training he goes through different feelings:
- The first 3 years, he tries to be strong, fast and incredible,
- then for 6 more years, he tries to know all the techniques with the
correct names and the right forms,
- then for 3 more years, he tries to understand the secret of the techniques
and to get an alert mind,
After these 12 years one day he figures: "oh, I don't worry the technique,
I can do everything that I can think of! So he tries to get new dan grades.
And, maybe one day, he turns on the light of his heart and understand
that during all these years he has not been using Budo, Budo have been
using him for understanding the real value of life which is to get a good
heart.
He understands that Kamae is not a position for fighting, it is a position
for being able to live. He understands that techniques are born for surviving
not for damaging others. But in the real life many people know these rules
but haven't the value to follow them.
At the end, life is like a piss before to go to sleep, sometimes long,sometimes
short and there is nothing you can do about it.
Carlos Morales - 10th dan - Canary Island (Spain) - tooryu@teleline.es
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~~~~BUFU IKKAN ~~~~
BUFU IKKAN is the wind of Martial Arts. The unit of martial Budo and life
is that the martial winds are part of your life. SHIN KI TO ICHI is the
unity of the heart, the Universe and the weapon. True Budo protects the
human being entirely: body, mind and spirit. Budo is a personal experience.
Each individual receives a type of unique and personal sense, reason why
it is possible to copy a technique. In any case you can emulate a feeling/sense.
When I speak of emulating I mean interpreting.
Then let us observe, the individuality combined with the correct heart
gives us the possibility to drift among the clouds of the justice. In
Budo -as well as in life -a correct heart is of vital importance. From
the heart come the emotions: courage (value to go forward still even when
it seems that the objective is not clear), self-esteem, one's value, tolerance,
respect, etc... If we take two feelings that seem different at first like
love and hate, we will see that when your attitude is loving, it is attractive,
luminous and in consequence the doors open up and the whole panorama that
you have in front of you is infinite. However if in you, lives an uncontrolled
hate, a sense of retraction appears, a sense of enclosure in yourself,
of intolerance and in definitive a lack of consolidation with your environment.
Personally, I prefer to see in each person that I meet in this life, all
the positive and beautiful that this being has to offer. In this way it
opens an infinite immensity of possibilities and unique and indescriptible
senses. This way, I can easily accept -in myself - those aspects of that
person that don't vibrate in syntony with me. They don't hurt me and if
they do, they don't damage me, as much as they would make it in normal
circumstances. It is important to learn how to not judge the other ones.
Simply to flow through each being in an invisible way, likewise we will
discover through the feeling it invisible of the other being that is finally
their essence. And like Saint Exupery wrote in his book The little Prince:
"The essential things are invisible to the eyes". In some place I read
a sentence that has been recorded in me in an important way and it always
appears naturally in the most appropriate moments and it says something
like that as: " When you judge others you don't have time to love them".
In the Martial Arts, Budo, Hatsumi Sensei speaks of KUKI SHINNEN JUTSU,
techniques to control the opponent's heart. I understand that to win in
one confrontation one should be able to destabilize the opponent's heart,
instead of concentrating too much on their physical abilities. One of
these techniques is called KANASHIBARI - i.e. to paralyze the opponent
at distance - and many wondered AND this how is it made? or they will
affirm this is what I want to learn. Hey ...at the moment you ask yourself
this question or this statement you prevent yourself from understanding
Kanashibari. It is exactly to MAKE IT... I cannot memorize from the point
of see it intellectual -is not logical and irrational - KANASHIBARI has
to be born from the heart, it emerges like a fire created by a lightning
coming from the sky. For that reason it is important to make everything
flow from this muscle of feeling. If you request help to the Universe
and you are in harmony with it, have for sure the opportune tools will
appear to develop or to carry out your work.
Pedro Fleitas González - 11th dan - Canary Island (Spain) - unryu@lix.intercom.es
- http://usuarios.intercom.es/unryu/index.htm
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~~~~TAIHEN KUDEN SHINDEN~~~~
Recently on the Shidoshi list, Mats Helm from Sweden asked a question
about Shu Ha Ri (learn - break - leave). Mats said: "I need some more
information about that. I think most japanese budo arts have this saying.
Can someone give me a few comments or more information about this."
As many people reacted positively to my answer, I thought it might interest
you too.
I do not have the "official" explanation, but this make me think of what
Sensei used to say a few years ago. I give it the way I remember it (with
my personnal additions).
The process of learning for human beings (maybe animals too) follows three
basic periods:
1) you learn the new stuff,
2) you understand the new stuff,
3) you go beyond the new stuff, making it your own stuff.
If we take the process of learning how to ride a bicycle we have the following
steps:
1) When you are a kid you first learn to stay balanced on your bike, you
learn to stay up (i.e. not ot fall). To help you keep your balance, your
parents (Sensei?) add two small wheels to your bike so that you cannot
fall on your side so easily. With the help of the wheels, you can learn
to move the pedals and you can move forward.
2) Then you develop your experience by playing with your friends (training
with partners) over the months. You fall sometimes but, little by little
things get easier. You begin to feel and understand how the whole thing
works and you free yourself from the "form".
3) After a while, you know how to ride your bicycle, you do not fall that
much, you do not think on "how to ride" but more on "how to get to this
place". You know how to ride a bicycle and you adapt your knowledge to
your environment.
By learning how to ride your bike, you followed the three steps of: learning,
breaking and leaving!
But this is not the end of the story. You have been riding your bike for
a few months and the little wheels are bent upwards because you trained
hard. They do not touch the ground any more, but you don't know it. You
think you are still using them to balance your bicycle and prevent you
from falling. One day, your parents (Sensei?) see that and with a tear
in their eyes admire your mastery :-) Watching you, they even saw that
sometimes these little wheels were preventing you from riding properly.
Because they love you, because they are proud of you they decide to take
out these little wheels that you do not really use anymore, to make you
more free of your movements.
Alas the whole process is to be followed again! You have to learn a different
way of riding your bicycle. Everything you knew from experience is not
good anymore.
1) you have to learn a new form of moving because without these little
wheels you feel unbalanced (even if, without knowing it, you were not
using the little wheels anymore). You fall again very often and you get
more pain and bruises as you progress in learning this new process.
2) After a while you understand the new rules. You learn new angles you
can use to change direction. Your bicycle becomes an extension of yourself.
3) After a small period of time, you do not pay attention anymore to your
bicycle, you are more interested in getting to some place (adapting the
technique to the environment). Your movements are free you are not limited
anymore by the little wheels (basics?).
And if one day you want to learn how to ride a motorbike, you will have
to go through another (yet the same) learning process of "learn-break-leave".
This is the same in Budo. You first learn the body motion trying to reproduce
what your teacher is showing. You cannot do it but you try hard to understand
the "mechanics" of motion.
Then by training hard with your partners you build YOUR understanding
of body motion and little by little you adapt it to your own body and
capabilities. You break the forms and use what is good for you leaving
what is not. You break every step into small parts so that you can integrate
them easily in your body natural movements.
One day, the movement is no more your teacher's movement but it is yours.
You reached the "leave the form" step until you get a deeper understanding
of it that will put you again through the learning process and the three
steps.
Now, if we want japanese names we can give the following names for these
steps:
1) learning the form = TAIHEN: learning through body motion,
2) breaking the form = KUDEN: breaking the form through the experience
you develop by yourself, with your partners and with the help and advises
of your teacher,
3) leaving the form = SHINDEN: you create your own form "naturally", your
own spirit feeds your understanding of body motion. you can adapt your
actions without thinking because you are one with the technique, you are
above the form. The movement exists and you "manifest" it naturally, including
it in different situations and environments.
To me this is what Hatsumi Sensei is teaching us. He is not only teaching
movements or techniques. He is giving us freedom and this freedom can
only be attain through hard practice, sweat and bruises. There is no limited
time to get it, this is a whole life study!
Arnaud Cousergue -11th dan- France - solkan@wanadoo.fr - http://perso.wanadoo.fr/siteajc/
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~~~~THE TRAINING TO LIVE~~~~
All throughout our life's we assume and take in energies, basically through
our breathing but also through the food we eat and through our relations
with other living beings.
Our bodies transform these energies and gives what Japanese call KI, live-energy.
This is nothing abstract; it is something very basic to life.
In Martial Arts as well as in life is it important to have a strong KI.
The best way to get a strong KI is to breath correctly with concentration
on a deep type of breathing, especially when exhaling. When being young
we are physical and we don't think too much on our breathing, we are more
into the physical aspects of training. When you llok at the old masters
of Martial Arts you can see how they work with movements as small as possible,
they concentrate on their breathing, they exhale from HARA, although their
young students rush around and waste their energy.
How we use our KI is important, when we are young we don't think to much
on this, but as we get older, our body gets more tired, and we understand
more the importance of having a correct and strong KI.
Through daily exercise of correct breathing we renew our KI, we cure small
pain in our body and age stiffness, and we conserve our strength from
day to day. It is also necessary for us to learn not to waste our energy
unnecessarily. This is equally important for young as for old.
Something else, which causes losses of energy, is the diversion of thought.
We seem to use too much of our brain's forward globs, when we should develop
instead our brain's inner layer to gain a higher intuition and instinct.
KI and body must be totally united. It is, especially in Martial Arts,
very important to fully understand the importance of right exhaling; the
exhaling together with a concentrated KI is the key to Budo.
I've talked about the importance of correct breathing, now let's say some
small words about concentration.
Training in the capability to concentrate makes us by time able to do
just one thing at the time, but at the same time be fully aware of our
surroundings and what's going on around us. In Martial Arts it is of outstanding
importance to be able to concentrate our energy on one particular point.
In most fighting systems you have to concentrate on the opponent's eyes
or the area between or just above the eyes. With this concentration we
will be able to notice all the movements from our opponent(s).
When we train we have to concentrate on our training and our breathing,
in a real fight we must concentrate on our opponent(s).
In general we must be able to concentrate totally on each single situation.
"Here and now": I'm writing and I do nothing else but that. Just writing.
I'm concentrated on writing this, so it works with everything. No reason
to think too much!
Think with your body, with your instinct, our body is able to experience
everything with intuition; we have to see with the eyes of our total being.
Concentration is learnt through training; practice to be concentrated
in each gesture you do. It is to go back to our bodies and minds normal
and basic status. In that way, and by time, our will becomes secondary
and has no real function, what happens, happens naturally, automatically
and unconsciously. We do not get tired, if we had to make use of our will
we should be tired, mentally and physically, the whole of us should get
tired rapidly. In a fight the non-experienced get tired fast because he/she
get tensed, mentally and physically. To not get tired we have to live
relaxed and concentrate totally on each small thing we do, we have to
be what we do, to become alive.
The Martial Art is the same; we have to live our Art to be able to become
alive in our art.
Real Martial Art is a training to live!
Sveneric Bogsater - 11th dan - Sweden (Holland) - m.vliet@home.NL
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~~~~Y2K AND BUDO~~~~
This article may be pass its time never the less I believe many practitioners
will benefit from it.
It seems as though this is the question on everyone's mind these days.
What will happen to public transportation, utilities, and communication
if the world's computers revert back to the antediluvian year of 1900?
Even if the U.S is for most part Y2K compliant, what about other countries
that rely heavily upon computers but are not prepared? And how will this
affect the world at large?
It is said in Budo philosophy and secret teachings that " everything one
sees or hears is a lesson in disguise. " Nothing occurs at random. Its
up to us to decode life's messages and put them into use, creating a world
in which the spirit connects to the divine.
If every trifling detail in life is intended as an opportunity for self
mastery and growth, then this is especially true with regard to a major,
perhaps cataclysmic, world events.
What does this millennium hype all boils down to? A simple computer system
error. The computer was programmed to define years in two digits i.e.
97, 98, 99 on January 1st of this coming year 99 become 00 and the computer
is utterly oblivious to the millennia change. Instead of processing the
new year it regards to the beginning of the century.
In a spiritual sense, the Y2K challenge is a familiar one to us Taijutsu
practitioners. We undergo a similar transition during our training. We
start at 00 and end at 00 we must also reflect back on our mistakes and
weaknesses every day and start over with an improvement in our lives.
This improvement will bring us to a new level of training. The 99 are
all erased , replaced by a clean state of 00.
However in Taijutsu we never move backward. The new beginning of everyday
in our training does not mean that we start again and repeat all last
year mistakes in our training. It's a time to move forward into a new
era, to assess last year's
shortcomings and improve.
However this present a temptation to go through the Y2K syndrome, since
if a person does not grow from year to year then he suffers from the Y2K
syndrome. How does one break the pattern? As any computer expert will
tell you, simply start looking at the full four digits. Expend your spiritual
and physical horizons. Two digits may have worked in the past but not
enough now. Consider why are you here and where are you headed not just
on a personal level but on the global as well. It is time to think what
we can do around us to make the world a better place.
Eddie Divantman, Shidoshi, Canada, bufuikan@interlog.com http://www.interlog.com/~bufuikan
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~~~~HOLLAND MILLENNIUM TAIKAI REMINDER~~~~
Here is reminder of the program of The First MillenniuM Taikai. Dates
are Thursday 1st, Friday 2d and Saturday 3d of June. The site of Taikai
is the Congress centre Leeuwenhorst in Nordwijkerhout, only 20 minutes
from Schipol International Airport, 25 minutes from Amsterdam centre and
only 10 minutes from the sea! The theme is: Koppojutsu, Teppan and Ninja-to.
You can choose between two packages: Package A: 900 guilders. All is included:
training, food, tea or coffee, room, and the final party. Package B: 650
guilders. Package B includes training, lunch on Friday and Saturday, coffee
or tea in the breaks and the final party. The Congress centre is big,
there is still plenty of rooms left so do not hesitate to sign up for
the First Millennium Taikai.
Mariette van der Vliet, 10th dan, Holland. NOTE: The old mail address
bujin.nl is closed down. Use http://bujinkan.com or email at m.vliet@HOME.NL
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~~~~Q&A~~~~
Send us your questions, we will try to give you our answer and we hope
it will help you.
Q: What is the use hand extended in front in Ichimonji no Kamae in Koto
Ryu?
A: The extended arm is like the sights at the end of a gun. The tips of
your fingers are pointing to your final target. This is why you should
hold your fingers sticked together and not bend the fingers.
Q: Why is that we must have the fist clenched before hitting with a Shuto
Ken?
A: If you open your hand in Shuto ken at the moment you hit the target,
you increase dramatically the power of your hit. If you hit Shuto ken
with an already opened hand you may lock your shoulder muscles thus keeping
the momentum of the blow inside your own body instead of delivering it.
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~~~~TECHNICAL TIPS~~~~
§ Sven told us about Teppan, a square of metal like a Senban but straight.
To avoid any injuries during training, go to the nearest bar and have
a beer! Once your drink is in front of you, lift the glass and look to
what is under. It is a piece of cardboard with some commercials on it.
Take it and show it to the bartender and ask him to give you a pack of
these (they are free and given to bars when the brewers deliver their
kegs). Then cover it with tape and you have a new weapon for free (+ a
drink).
Note: if it is round ask for a square one!
Arnaud Cousergue solkan@wanadoo.fr
§ To develop the power of your hands it is not necessary to hit hard on
a hard surface. Take a sheet of paper and make a ball of it. Then open
it in front of you, it is covered with wrinkles. Now with your flat hand
(happa kan), hit gently the paper to make the wrinkles disappear making
an "8" movement in the air and using both sides of your hand. Do not hit
hard the paper. Wrinkles will not disappear completely but you will strengthen
the skin of your hand and you will get more flesh onto it.
Arnaud Cousergue solkan@wanadoo.fr
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~~~~VIDEOS~~~~
§ Bujinkan videos with Sveneric Bogsater available: Year of Kukishinden
ryu E 36.30, Kukishin ryu hanbojutsu and jojutsu E 29.50, knife and pistol
fighting E 29.50, Traditional weekend seminar Bochum 1998 E 19.97
more information at www.tatsujin.demon.nl or e-mail to sanne@tatsujin.demon.nl
§ Seminar with Jack Hoban and Mariette v/d Vliet E 29.50
more information at www.tatsujin.demon.nl or e-mail to sanne@tatsujin.demon.nl
§ The Kobudo no Kihon video is now available for sale at Solkan Europe.
This is the best video ever realised by Hatsumi Sensei. It shows the Kihon
Happo with a real fighting attitude. Available in Pal, Secam and Ntsc.
Price: 289 FF. to order: solkan@wanadoo.fr
§ Now available Daikomyosai 1998 Shinden Fudo Ryu by Hatsumi Sensei. Three
tapes: 239 FF/each. solkan@wanadoo.fr
§ Save money, get your Quest videos from Solkan Europe, the official distributor
in Europe for Quest videos. Ask for your free Video catalog 2000 at solkan@wanadoo.fr
which contains more than 50 titles in Pal, Secam and Ntsc on Budo Taijutsu
and other martial arts.
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~~~~BOOKS~~~~
§ If you read french (?) you can get the Bujinkan France Technical Program:
PROTEK for 350 FF at solkan@wanadoo.fr
The PROTEK includes all the techniques of the Ten Chi Jin Ryaku no Maki
plus hundreds of pictures in B/W.
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