by Nick Lowry DOJO is the way place. All the stuff we practice in a DO-jo — the aiki do and ju do and jo do and karate do and ken do and iai do and all the rest, are all just pointers to the DO– different lamps lighting the way. As we train in…
Kyle Sloan Let me start with this: If you play with knives, you’re going to get cut. Period. I seriously doubt there is anyone reading this who hasn’t been cut with a kitchen knife while performing some task of slicing, dicing, chopping, deboning, filleting, etc. in the kitchen. Paper cuts don’t count :). If you have…
by Nick Lowry Been thinking lately about a three tier curriculum for our dojo– at first was considering the the standard beginner, intermediate, and advanced idea but that seemed a little clumsy, linear and hierarchical — and would probably lead to folks being unnecessarily typed and excluded from work they might enjoy or benefit from….
by Nick Lowry Rank is in the eye of the beholder Where do high ranks come from?what makes a high dan rank in budo, a high dan rank? Is it technical ability? teaching ability? contribution to the art? What does being ranked as a godan, rokudan, nanadan, hachidan, kudan, judan mean? Who decides its meaning?…
From 2011 Shochigeiko by Nick Lowry The original walking developed in the late 40’s — filmed in the early to mid 50’s–17 walking waza — taught at Waseda to develop skill sets of aiki for judo players Unsoku — foot work 1- forward shuffle — square not angular step — quick cycle– back foot floats…
by Nick Lowry So a friend today told me that my old sensei is a much better choice for aikido training for him than I am because “He will give me answers.” He went on, “….when i ask you and your guys questions, its always something like — well, there are a variety of ways…
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…