Nick Lowry was the head instructor at Windsong Dojo untl 2016, where he still remains as advisor. He is also the founder of Kazeutabudokai.
by Nick Lowry A wise old sensei once pointed out that if you take a whole variety of different hard stylists and watch their kata, an educated eye can tell them apart , but when you take that same lot of hard stylists and put them in a contest, it all winds up looking like…
by Nick Lowry A student once asked a zen teacher about “Transmission” and wondered how a clear message, a clear and undiluted dharma reality, could be transmitted from person to person across time and culture, from the historical Buddha’s time to our own… “But, isn’t it like the old party game where one person whispers…
by Nick Lowry Innumerable times over the years students have come to ask the difference in JUTSU and DO, and for the most part my answers have always been to describe the basic surface distinctions; the historical, the philosophical, technical — the simple pragmatic basis of JUTSU as the basic military or soldierly training model,…
by Nick Lowry Karma is about what we do to and with ourselves—about action and consequence and about the shape of our lives. There is something quite mechanical about karma—it is sometime taken as a punitive or rewarding idea or force but really it seems more like a impersonal activity that just happens to effect…
by Nick Lowry Do not seek conflict and do not maintain guile. Do not hide or run away from conflict and do not blind yourself. Each transition requires awarness and precision — we tend to want to avoid problems and that tendency tends to further our entanglements. The way out of entanglement is to go…
by Nick Lowry Simple ink on paper, three figures in a line. Circle. Square. Triangle. Terry Dobson once asked O Sensei to tell him what the circle, square, and triangle meant in aikido.The master told him to figure it out for himself.I love that. It’s Beautiful. This is how zen koans work. The answers you…
by Nick Lowry I have known teachers who over teach – they are helpful and giving — serve everything up on silver platters but who consequently have built very dependent students. Such are popular teachers; their students will love them and feel confident that they have “learned” and that they “know the subject”. But there…
by Nick Lowry Head to head in a competition-a real “technician” will probably get beat by a real “champion”- and a real champion will probably be able to repeat that amazing feat a few times in a given day–where the real technician excels is in wiping the floor with everyone else continuously and repeatedly all…
by Nick Lowry Sugino sensei once said that if you are seeing aiki for the first time and you can understand what you are seeing, then you are not seeing aiki. It’s interesting seeing the beautiful variety of “no touch work” throwing/control applications demonstrated by several sensei on YouTube and Google videos lately — and…
by Nick Lowry There is no such thing as a superior martial art—only superior artists. It is meaningless to say aikido is better than judo or krav maga is better that aikido or MMA is better than Gracie Jujitsu – such statements are ridiculous on the face of them. Each art has its relative strengths…