War and Peace
“The civil is the inner principal and the martial arts is the outer principle. Outer technique without inner principle is simply the brute courage of physical strength. However, when one is no longer in his prime, bullying an opponent will not work. Those who possess inner principle without outer technique, who think only of the […]
Zen Confusion and Martial Arts
D.T. Suzuki, who introduced Zen to the west, blamed the devotion of Zen priests to militant Japanese imperialism in the years leading up to World War II, on the fact that the priests were uneducated. Zen priests, he said “…have no knowledge or learning and therefore are unable to think… independently…” (Cited by Brian Victoria, […]
The Place of Honor
For about a million years people used only one tool. A rock, chipped into a long oval, with sharp edges and a point. A hand ax. It was handy. If you lost it, broke it or gave it as a gift you could make a new one. You could find plenty of blanks in the […]