Arjia Rinpoche "Surviving the Dragon" in Dayton
After I see the Dalai Lama at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, my friend Arjia Rinpoche, Director of the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center (TMBCC) of Bloomington, Indiana, will visit Dayton, Ohio, to promote his new book, Surviving the Dragon, published by Rodale Book Company with a forward written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Surviving the Dragon is the story of Arjia Rinpoche’s growing up as the reincarnated Abbot in Kumbum, one of Tibet’s major monasteries. After the death of Mao Tse Tung, Arjia Rinpoche rose to prominence within the Chinese Buddhist bureaucracy. He was...
read moreSoul-Stirring Artistry
In Bloomington the night before the Dalai Lama teachings on the Heart Sutra? Do not miss this opportunity to experience the soul-stirring artistry of Michael Fitzpatrick. Check the poster. I certainly will be there.
read moreWarrior Winners Make for Great Parties
Daughter Reina is the safest happy girl in Atlantic City between friends Chuck Zito (see him on “Entourage” with Dennis Hopper?) and Dan Severn (see him win the UFC TV cagefight championship?), our neighbors on the Action Martial Arts Hall of Fame celebrity table aisle A business friend recently asked how my family was doing, and I told him we had a reunion with both our east coast daughters at the Action Martial Arts convention in Atlantic City. He was surprised. “Martial arts convention?! Over 1,000 cage fighters, fung-fu wizards, kendo swordsmen, MMA pounders, jujutsu...
read moreBeyond Mortal Combat
I asked some of my training friends what keeps them going in their To-Shin Do martial arts study. Why are you doing this? If you are not anticipating a lot of life-or-death fights in the next few weeks, what is the pull to keep on training? Give it to me straight. What is the pay-off beyond the exceptional physical combat efficiency we offer? My friend Russ Nemhauser sent me some heart-warming thoughts of how To-Shin training reaches beyond combat and addresses other realms of chance-taking and risky exploration. Here’s what Russ had to say: Since beginning To-Shin Do I have noticed that my...
read moreEnjoy End-of-2009 Festivities
One associate of mine (cannot honestly call him a “friend”) thought our dojo holiday classes were “unnecessarily frivolous”. The ninja martial art is a serious thing, he scolded. I chided back that we were indeed so very serious and our techniques so scaldingly deadly that we did not have to go around acting serious and deadly; only those who doubted their authenticity needed to maintain a grim and righteous look. A friend once asked me in light of all my work with Tibetan Buddhist monks and Japanese yamabushi priests if I was offended by receiving Christmas...
read moreGene Barry’s Hanbo Cane
When I was a child in the late 1950s, my TV cowboy hero was Bat Masterson. I watched the show every week and never failed to be enthralled. The Bat Masterson show was based on a real character who lived in the old West. Born in 1853 in Quebec, Masterson worked as a US Army Indian fighter, a sports writer, newspaper columnist, and US Marshal. He died in New York City in 1921 at the age of 67. The TV show featured a somewhat fictionalized Bat Masterson as a gunfighter gambler during his days in Dodge City. Actor Gene Barry played Bat with a look distinctive among TV Westerns in the 1950s....
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