Nihon 2012

So yeah.. uh .... wow.
My annual trip to Japan once again... 2012
A lot stuff has happened:

Do not be timid and squeamish about your actions.
All life is an experiment.

Shikin Haramitsu Daikōmyō (詞韻 波羅密 大光明)

I was swimming through the internet, and I found this:

For those who don’t study or know about Bujinkan, “Shikin Haramitsu Daikōmyō” is a phrase we (everyone in bujinjkan) say when we start our training.
After being a part of bujinkan for more than 3 years, I’ve heard some variations of the “meaning” of that phrase, but the one that I’ll be considering today is: “May everything I do today becomes a gainful experience and may it help me become enlightened.”(or “helps me become a better person”; same thing, really.)

Now, I’ve been studying bujinkan longer than I’ve been studying japanese, so I never really cared about the Kanji that phrase was written with, or the meaning of each individual kanji for that matter. Well, today I’ll be explaining the meaning of each of the kanji, and I’ll try to make sense of what the relation between the literal meaning of the kanji and the… philosophical meaning of the titular phrase.

詞: Read as “shi”, it means “phrases” or “a song”.
韻: Read as “in” or, in this case, as “kin” means “a rhyme”.
波: Read as “ha” or “nami”, it means “a wave”, “a billow”, “a ripple” or “surf”.
羅: Read as “ra”, it means “thin silk”, “range”(as in variety) or “net”.
密: Read as “mitsu”, it means, among other things, “dense”, “thick”, “intimate” or “stealthy”.
大: Read as “dai” or “tai” or “oo”, it means “big”, “large” and variations of those words.
光: Read as “hikari” or “kō”(kou), it means “light”, “a ray”, “shine”, “luster” and varations of those words.
明: Read as “mei”, “aka, “myō”, among others; it means “light”, “bright”, “clear”, “be familiar with”, “begin” and some other meanings.

Now, each kanji directly translated would give the nonsensical phrase… “phrase rhyme wave range dense large light bright” (directly from an internet translator).

Sice the kanji are read as groups (“詞韻”　”波羅密”　”大光明”) I’ll try to make sense of the groups now.

詞韻: this one I can’t even write as “shikin” in the computer… I have to write “shi” and then “in”. Anyway, from “phrases”/”a song” and “rhyme”, I could only think of “a proverb” (lets ignore the fact that “proverb” has its own kanji, for now…).

波羅密: From this one, i could make… “a thick wave of variety”. I can’t really think of other meanings for that.

大光明: This one was easy, since “光明” was translated as “a ray of hope” or “bright light” in my examples for the readings of kanji. So “大光明” would be “a big ray of hope” or “a great bright light”(i.e. Illumination)

But then, put that together and you get “A proverb, a thick wave of variety (that brings) Ilumination”… the only part that would make at least some sense would be “a thick wave of variety that brings ilumination”…
So I had to search around the internet to find out if anyone had a better idea of the meaning of those.

… and what a mind-numbing endeavor that was. There are many different translation for the words, most only talking superficially about their meaning. So, after reading most of them, I’ tried to make a more… simple but concrete explanation.

Apparently, the phrase is a really old buddhist “prayer”, wich means that the kanji probably have evolved over the time, and thanks to that, trying to make sense out of the literal meaning of the kanji is pretty dificult, to say the least.

詞韻: is, apparently, a word that buddhists use to “give power” or give more meaning to the phrase. The meaning I found most likely was:
“The sound made when opposite poles come togheter (i.e. light/darknes). It is also the sensation perceived by our hearing when it unites with our heart.”(see? try figuring that out only with the kanji.)
Some translations mentioned that the kanji “詞(shi)” alone could mean “poetry”

波羅密: Would be “Pāramitā” in sanscrit. Meaning “the practices that let us get to Nirvana”. The idea is promote the good values of “Pāramitā” in martial arts and in our daily lives. The practices of Pāramitā are:
1. Fuse Haramitsu: Charity
2. Jikai: Morality
3. Ninniku: Perseverance, Patience
4. Shojin: Energy, Effort
5. Zenjo: Meditation, Concentration
6. Chie: Wisdom, Correct Judgement (Wisdom – Prajnâ)

大光明: This one is still “Illumination” but it would mean somthing like “the illumination from our heart”.

Thus, we could translate “Shikin Haramitsu Daikōmyō” as “A moment of true interaction between body and mind can bring forth enlightenment”… or something along those lines?

Well, at least that’s the meaning I’m taking for now. If any of you got any different meanings, or think I screwed up in any of my translations; please enlighten me with your comments.

quouted from castel

Immovable Heart - 不動心

不動心 - Fudo Shin - Immovable Heart

This is something that we often will hear of, or have mentioned around us during our training. However, I believe that seldom do we truly understand or take time to ruminate on this simple phrase.

As with all Japanese writing and philosophy, (characteristically so) it is open to interpretation.

About two years ago I went to Japan and studied at the Honbu dojo. During my short time there, I was fortunate enough to fit in a class with Hatsumi into my training schedule. I took a small page's worth of notes during and after that class. It has been very interesting to go back over and read what it is I chose to put down on paper with new perspective (after 2 more years of training).

Specifically: "You must not desire to hurt or kill, or else you will surely fail"

It made sense then, and it makes sense now. However something very important happened to me recently that brought me back to this saying of our Grandmaster.

It was a Saturday morning; the night prior my Sensei called me. He told me that he wasn't feeling very well, all the other higher ranked senpai were unavailable, and that I would be teaching tomorrow. I wasn't at all surprised really, since more and more often recently I had been called on to teach techniques or relay concepts in front of the class (starting to teach is actually part of our dojo curiculum the higher rank you become).

The only difference here is that the class was a popular one since it was on the weekend and supposed to be taught by Sensei. Despite that, he placed the responsibility on my shoulders.

After the phone call I spent a long time thinking about how I will fill up the two hour class time, and different drills/exercises I could use to instruct.. I really didn't want it to be boring or too unorganized.

Anyway, back to Saturday.

I come down the stairs into the dojo, and there are already about eleven people sitting, stretching, tying their belts, etc.

After a few minutes I light incense, take a seat facing the kamiza (shrine, or "throne of spirits"), go through our bow in procedure, and teach class.

I decided to go over all the basics of rolling. How to be quiet. How to be smooth. How to stay low and be small. And most importantly, how to avoid injury and prolong your ability to train on a daily basis.

However refreshing and new it was for me to have the attention of my peers, or have them slow down, listen, and respect my point of view and trust my words, it wasn't really any of this that struck me particularly, or offered me any sudden revelation.

It was near the end of class, around the last twenty minutes, where something happened.

I had spent a lot of time going over extreme basics of ukemi (rolling/falling), so I wanted to move to something a bit more static and easier for people to concentrate on. So I went with evading and flowing backwards as someone punches at you.

Most peoples' reactions are to block or strike the attacking limb, or to evade and grab onto it. I stressed two points very clearly: do not grab, and do not strike. Catch it softly. Barely touch.

And as I watched their legs move, the punches fly, and bodies moving this way and that, I noticed that it wasn't as simple as I thought it might be. That moving the feet, ankles, legs, hips, chest, arms, hands, and head all at once, whilst still concentrating on the specifics of what I was saying, really wasn't that basic of an exercise.

Through my eyes, the movement I saw was rough. It was strong. It was violent..

And that's when it crept into my mind.. the feeling Hatsumi was trying to express back in Japan...

Again: "You must not desire to hurt or kill, or else you will surely fail"

I asked everyone to stop and move to the sides. And as certainly as the idea washed over me, I channeled what I felt was the feeling of our Master.

You must not desire to hurt or kill your enemy, or else you will surely fail. It is not a matter of who, or when, or how. It is our duty as budoka to protect our enemy. Protect them from themselves. You can never know one's true motivations, or why there are in the situation they find themselves, but you can always know yourself.

You must love your enemy and never have the feeling of hate or the urge to kill in your heart.

A moment of silence and quiet contemplation followed my conclusive rant. I motioned for everyone to line up, and that's all there really was to it.

This was not something I had really begun to understand (or had the eyes to see) until that moment, surrounded by my peers, able to observe their tenacity and their hearts.

Stepping back, hearing myself say these things, I realize now that I was speaking of Fudo Shin; our hearts and intentions must strong and just, and cannot falter. It is our duty to protect those who would not protect themselves, may they be friend or enemy.

Thank you to all my fellow budoka, thank you for teaching me.

詞韻　波羅密　大光明

(しきんはらみつだいこみょ)

Madison, WI

I recently flew out to Madison, Wisconsin on a vacation to sound with my Dad, Gram, Brother, Sister-in-law, and new nephew.
So far on the trip I have spent most of my days cleaning out the basement and watching NCIS with my grammy.
As intellectually stimulating that my be for a young man such a myself, I have also looked beyond for other opportunities.
I took a quick Google search for any local Bujinkan dojos in the area, and easily located "Bujinkan Madison". Last night was my first opportunity to train with them.
Admittedly, I was a bit worried about driving through downtown for the first time to try and find the place, but I located the humble community center without too much difficulty.
About 7 people showed up, including Mike sensei. All but two of us were black belt, which I found unusual.
The training was completely unlike what I am used to at my home dojo in Santa Cruz, and in the end, found it to be more of an imitation of the training style in the Japan honbu dojo; Sensei shows a technique once or twice, and you mimic his movements with your uke.
Mike sensei is very skilled, and I enjoyed his concepts and movement very much. He took time to personally break down some of the movements for me and help out, which I dually appreciated.
I told him that I would going to Chicago for the weekend, and was sorry that I could not train with them again on Saturday. However, it looks like he knows some people down there, and is going to contact them to see if I can come train at a dojo in Chicago! Im super excited!
Anyway, we'll see how it goes!