Shinzen

Nice article. I agree many instructors have watered down requirements and actually rob students of valuable life learning lessons only acquired through long and arduous training. I have been in the martial arts for 38 years (I still have my day job too).

wonderful comments on zen, however, if you practice zen for a benefit you miss the whole point of zen. The purpose of zazen is not to 'get' anything, but to just sit. My zen teacher would tell us that zen is worthless. It is good for nothing. I often thought, why even practice then. Now I understand. If you practice zazen with a purpose of benefit in mind your mind is split. It's like a receiver in football who keeps turning his head just before he is to catch the ball. His mind is on the benefit of touchdown...but he forgets to catch the ball! He therefore not only can't score, but doesn't even catch the ball. His mind is split into two directions and this is not zen. zen is to be here now and simply catch the ball. If you want to improve your concentration, or relax better or calm the mind or improve your sidekick, there are a lot of ways to do this. But to use zazen in this manner is a misunderstanding of zen practice. Now, don't get me wrong. Benefits do come from zen practice, but these come naturally and don't need to be chased. Just catch the ball. Just be here now and trust the process of watching the breath come and go. Now that I've muddied the waters it is best I shut up.

Thanks for the welcome. I am more than happy to answer any questions about zen or the healing arts. If I don't know the answer I have other artists, both healing and martial, that could help. Again, thanks and looking forward to learning from the forum members as well.

Hello from the Broken Bokken Dojo in Shawano, Wi. I am David Nelson and have been a studying the martial, meditative and healing arts since 1969. Yeah, I have gray hair now. I am also new to posting on forums and this is great! Martial Artists from all over the world communicating to each other is fantastic. The style of Karate I teach is Zen Goshindo Karate and I am also a student of Zen, having studied and received the precepts from Zen Master Nonin Chowaney of the Nebraska Zen Center. My Dharma name is Shinzen. My greatest areas of interest are the healing arts as I make my income mostly as a Naturopath and Hypnotherapist. The Broken Bokken Dojo is a small dojo comprised of a bunch of sword fanatics and zen heads. We do not take ourselves too seriously but we do practice the arts with full focus and fun. I hope that is enough of an intro... Looking forward to hearing from you. -Shinzen

When I was a Brown Belt I was helping my Sensei demonstrate some kickboxing skills. Now this was many years ago (mid-70' s) when if you wanted to wear a protective groin cup it was just slipped behind a regular athletic supporter. During the middle of the demo I felt a slight shift in my equipment and the cup came sliding down my right pant leg, hitting the floor for all to see. Great laugh! I simply turned around and shoved it back in. I later looked for better equipment.