An-shu’s Blog
The 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.
read moreWish I had these DVDs when studying in 1975
Shortest blog I’ll ever write. Check out our DVD of the month program at Monthly Video Lessons. Incredibly important material, excellently presented, sure to advance the martial arts and personal perfection training of anyone with intelligence and ambition. How about you? Got brains and guts? Enroll now. We’ll discount them so it’s like getting 2 free DVDs each year. Call the office at 937 436-9990 with a credit card number right now and enroll, or leave your name and phone number and a staff member will phone you back. This...
read moreOne Woman’s Progress on the Path
Here is some important insight from the heart as to what it feels like to challenge yourself mentally and physically in the martial arts training hall. Man or woman, we can all have these periods of doubt and then make breakthroughs if we are brave enough to ask the disturbing questions. At one point in the seminar I was working with my sister, Melissa, who I kept over powering when I was her uke. So she hunted down Mrs. Hayes to ask her why this was occurring… what was she doing wrong. We were doing some technique that required the uke to...
read more31 Years of Making a Big Difference
Nine Cuts – Nine Powers! Festival 31 is a celebration of over three decades of making an impact for good in our world, and a warm gathering of the warriors who have carried the vows for all these years. We train in effective intelligent martial arts to create more peace, security, and joy for everyone. Our power is backed by our noble ethics. Our SKH Quest seminar and 31st Festival theme for 2011 is “Nine Cuts – Nine Powers”. This title is a reference to the ninja’s legendary kuji-kiri “nine-letter cut” – a grid...
read moreFind Your Gift, Live Your Purpose
It is always depressing to see leftover evergreen trees leaning unpicked and neglected in sales lots after Christmas. Each in its own way is a beautiful manifestation of nature that with the right attention and decoration could brighten some family celebration in the cold grayness of year end. But those leftover trees never get to find their glory. They grew for years in sunshine and snow, waiting for this one final moment of purpose, and now it is too late. All was for naught. Yes, I realize those trees are just crops and they do not have...
read moreSunday Indian Magazine Interview
The Dalai Lama – WAR AND PEACE by Spriha Srivastava | December 5, 2010 17:38 What has a Ninjutsu Master got to say about His Holiness The Dalai Lama? A lot more than you know, for Stephen K Hayes was security advisor to His Holiness for the better part of the 1990s, and continues to be a spiritual friend. What was your first impression of the Dalai Lama and how real was he compared to your perception of a Godman? I first met the Dalai Lama in India in 1986. I was very much moved by the energy of his very presence and by his bearing. I...
read moreReally Far-Out View of 21st Century Chaos
A friend wrote me and asked my advice. He agreed to let me share our correspondence. “I am having a lot of difficulty finding my way through some tough times in my life. I am looking for a full time job, pressing on with my martial arts, managing a family crisis, and generally figuring out what I should do with my life as I raise a family. Sometimes I cannot believe all the negative that is coming against me and people I care for. I am tired of stumbling through life, and want to find my truest destiny. I want to be what I should be. I...
read more"Ninja Sword" Non-Controversy
My friend Scott W. found a 20-year old issue of a ninja magazine with a quote from Masaaki Hatsumi that supports what I have said about ninja swords for decades. I do not own a copy of the magazine, and I had long ago forgotten about the article. A few silly people envious of the attention my work has gotten over the past 30 years have tried to use a debate over ninja swords to discredit my authority. “If you can’t beat him, at least cheat him,” might be their battle cry. One of the “reputation-killer arguments”...
read moreArjia 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...
read morePiercing Through Obstacles to Fulfillment
Friends have asked me about some of the techniques that keep me intrigued with my Tibetan teachers who share with me their ageless lore of the Dorje Phurba “demon-defeating dagger”. Are you up for trying out an exercise? The phurba dagger is a very real tool – a 3-edged blade like the famous commando daggers once used in western warfare but now banned in warfare for being just too fiercely deadly. Hand-held phurba spike daggers can be made of silver, gold, copper, or iron, or carved from wood of white, yellow, red, or black colors....
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