An-shu’s Blog
Always a Question Ready to Go
My habit is never to meet a knowledgeable teacher without having a good question in mind, just in case I am given the opportunity to ask. Rumiko and I traveled to the city of Tajimi municipal dojo for a demonstration of Yagyu Shinkage Ryu sword by Mouri Keisuke and his small group of students on the morning of September 11, 2011. As I walked in the dojo, my question that morning was, “Does anybody still teach old style tachi battlefield sword technique, or only stylized formal modern methods that make up sword training in Japan...
read moreMartial Arts Teaching for the Future
One reality I see over and over at martial arts business conventions is crowds of young proficient martial artists in on the latest martial fad and hoping to earn a living providing good training for their communities, but lacking in a crucial double-edged necessity. They lack a seasoned mature presence, and they lack an inspiring realistic system for teaching how to deal with dangerous people. Are you mature enough in your presence (we’re not necessarily talking years-of-age here) to inspire successful people to want to engage you to help...
read moreRemember the Brightness
Why do we so often overlook what is good and life-enhancing, and continue to get captured by the negative? That habit comes from ancient biological survival mechanisms. Scouting for the bad takes top brain priority because survival is a primary need. We have to scan constantly for what could snuff out life in a heartbeat. Goodness is nice, but badness is important. And if we find no threat, then we become suspicious. What is hiding out there to overtake us by surprise? So, how do we keep the alertness without it overwhelming us? How can we...
read moreBlack Belt Home Study
All of the lessons necessary to earn a Black Belt in Stephen K. Hayes’ visionary ninja martial art of To-Shin Do®
read moreNinja Gear
The SKH Pro Shop is always stocked with safety equipment, training tools, books, DVDs, and downloads to help you in your training in the ninja martial arts of Japan’s legendary phantom warriors. Not in Dayton, Ohio? You can go to our on-line store to get access to all the training aids you need, from books and DVDs to instant downloads of technique lessons to official To-Shin Do uniforms and training shirts.
read moreSupposed to Make It Count
I had sort of figured this out by age 9. I felt caught in the trap of the game with no idea what I should do. I just trailed along uncomfortably through my teens and early 20s. Then I left for Japan at 25 and my life blossomed. “Oh-ho! So that was what I was supposed to be doing!?” Here is a message from Alan Watts – early interpreter of Buddhism in the West – as suggested to me by my friend Tom Callos: In our SKH Quest Center for Martial Arts, we have students practice a talking meditation in the 3rd week of every...
read moreHappy in Your Home and Dojo
On Rumiko’s and my 31st wedding anniversary, a young friend asked for advice on how to create the happiest home possible with a life partner. This sort of thing is not my special knowledge power area; after 31 years I still tell people I was just very fortunate in getting the wife I did – that was the grandest sales job of my life. But I did promise to give the request my most sincere consideration. Napoleon Hill (a classic read, still valuable today) wrote that choice of spouse is one of the most important determinants of your...
read moreAn-shu Defined
People have asked about the meaning of the An-shu title that Rumiko and I use. Though the world knows our school as SKH Quest Center for Martial Arts in Dayton, the original Japanese name for our dojo is Kasumi-An. I have used that name since the 1980s to describe my dojo and the training method of that dojo, way before we founded the current SKH Quest network in the mid-1990s. The Kasumi-An is specifically the house I live in and the dojo and meditation halls in my house. People come to that Kasumi-An for private lessons with me. By...
read more大 金 剛 輪DAI KONGO RIN “Great Vajra Wheel”
This is a very temporary post for those attending my NINE CUTS – NINE POWERS Winter Quest seminar in North Carolina. This also appears with an explanation in the SKH Quest Hombu Dojo On-Line Community. NA-MA-KU Namah Homage SHI-CHI-RI YA-JI-BI-KYA NAN try-adhvikanam to the three worlds of SA-RU-BA TA-TA-GYA-TA NAN sarva tathagatanam all Enlightened Ones! AN BI-RAJI BI-RAJI Om! Viraji viraji Om! Undefiled and pure MAKA SHYA-KYA-RA BA-SHI-RI maha chakra vajri great diamond-truth wheel SA-TA SA-TA sata sata attain ultimate...
read moreThe Seeker’s Path with No End
“The more I know, the higher I climb, but the mountain just grows taller. The more I learn, the further I search, but the valley just grows deeper. I see no finish ahead. Such is the path of my life.” …a motto for me, an honored present from a much-older martial master friend, adapted by him from his own motto to fit what he believes he sees in my life. Whether I like it or not, I admit to seeing the story of my life in there.
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