Lessons from HANSHI CHUCK MERRIMAN
EMAC SEMINAR - OCT. 24, 2009
Notes from the Merriman Sensei's Black/Brown Belt Seminar and all-Belt Seminar taken by Richard E. Welsman, Sandan, Napanee Karate Club
ON TRAINING METHODS
· Eiichi Miyazato Sensei did not train everyone the same way. He looked at the individual's own size and abilities and trained them accordingly.
o The application of technique will vary from one person to the next. As instructors we should not insist that only what works well for us should be the only way for the student to apply the technique.
o “Goju grows. Don't change the kata but develop new ways to use the kata”
o Bunkai is the product of personal research. It is not static. It varies according to the person. “Kata should be analysed and then utilized.”
o Kata is not about learning a routine. “Professional dancers can learn it in a few minutes. For them it is just a dance.” Learning kata is about internalizing what is learned and doing that takes a long time.
o The cycle for the student is DEPENDENCE to SEMI-INDEPENDENT to INDEPENDENCE. (Shu Ha Ri)
· “It is a mistake to rely on physical strength because it will some day be lost. Life is a circle. When we come into the world we have no teeth and are bald and we finish the same way.”
o “Train in the technique because it will work for all ages”
o “There is a limit to how long physical strength alone will work”
o There are two kinds of strength; a muscular strength, and Ki, an inner strength. It is the latter strength that will endure.
· When training with a partner under the supervision of an instructor do not talk even to discuss what one or the other is doing.
o “There is only one instructor and he will speak. If you are talking you are not listening. If you are talking when you practice you are not focusing on what you are doing.”
If one is having problems with the drill seek the instructor's assistance. The student is learning and cannot correct another.
THE PURPOSE OF GOJU RYU
· “Be as hard as the world makes you, be as soft as the world will allow”
o “Okinawans are the kindest and most gentle people in the world. They can be that way because they are strong people”
o Okinawan Goju Ryu is not about blocking and punching, but about developing character.
o Japanese Goju is designed for competition. Okinawan Goju is designed for self-defence.
o “Free sparring is not used at the Jundokan but I don't think karate would survive in the United States without sparring.”
ABOUT PERSONAL COMMITMENT
· “If a student quits I will not have him back. If he comes to me and asks for a break from training I will give it to him.”
· “Everyone has a choice to commit themselves to training on a regular basis in whatever way they can arrange it.”
· “Plan your training. Continuity is the key.”
· “Personal research should be a priority because everyone can use their training differently.”
HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN INFORMATION AND MISSINFORMATION
· “Look for what is commonly held opinion among good instructors and authors.”
· “To be polite Okinawans will respond to misinformation by saying ‘That is a nice story'.”
Added notes from Brian Lowry:
Thank you Richard Welsman for taking the time and effort to put this together. It was gratifying to hear Merriman Sensei speaking about so many of the things I have believed in and taught.
* Patience
* Continuity of Training
* Inner Strength (Ki) grows as physical strength dims
* Kata remains the same, while understanding grows
* Make good decisions, and stick with them
* Kindness should be part of your being.
Think with the whole body.
Taisen Deshimaru
No snow flake ever falls in the wrong place.
Zen Saying
Memory i s incomplete experience.
J . Krishnamurti
Only a vessel that is half full can be shaken
Chinese proverb
Get rid of the self, and act from the self!
Zen Saying
There is a taint worse than all taints, and its name is IGNORANCE.
Dhammapada
A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.
R. Tagore
A little wisdom is a stumbling block on the path of the Doh.
Japanese Proverb
Man's heart is like a printing block. If the block does not err, then even if one copies ten million papers, there will not be errors. If the block errs, then if one repeatedly copies them on paper there will be none without errors.
Wang Hsun
Non violence requires much more courage than violence.
M. Gandhi
Sometimes you have to say "No" to the good to say "Yes" to the best.
Zig Ziglar
As a professional teacher for more than forty years, I have always known that to teach something is to understand it, and that understanding can lead to improved performance. I have seen this many times in my own dojo, when students first take on the responsibility of showing another how to perform a block, punch or kick, a combination, or a certain part of a kata. It has been very gratifying to find that there is a Japanese expression, "shido-geiko", that encompasses this point. Please feel free to pass on this information to all martial artists.
Brian Lowry
May 2007
SHIDO-GEIKO
"You might hear people talk about shido-geiko, which means, "to train through teaching." When you have been at the dojo for a while, the teacher will eventually give you some responsibility for introducing new material or for overseeing the practice of your juniors. You will be astonished when this happens. What you thought you knew and understood very well, will, when you try to translate it to students, suddenly becomes foreign and complex in ways you never imagined. The will have questions about it you never thought to ask. They will present problems you never encountered and so have difficulty in addressing. It is gratifying to be thought competent enough by your teacher to be given the responsibility for instruction, even in a limited way. It will soon, however, be very, very humbling. Look forward to shido-geiko, not for the chance it affords you to show others what you know but rather for the opportunity it presents you in seeing how much you have left to learn."
Dave Lowry, ‘In the Dojo’
Pages 181-182
All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.
Calvin Coolidge (1872 - 1933)
No matter what happens to you in your life. When you form the habit of searching for the positive in every circumstance, your life will move into its highest dimensions. This is one of the greatest of all natural laws.
From the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
Sucess requires three bones......wishbone....backbone.....and funny bone.
The great leader is not the one in the spotlight, he or she is the one leading the applause.
You have brains in your head, and feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
Dr Seuss
A habit is defined as the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge is understanding what to do and why to do it. Skill is knowing how to do it. Desire is having motivation or wanting to do it. To establish habits, we need to develop all three components.
"A year from now you will wish you had started today."
Karen Lamb
"If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you're right."
"It's only in the dictionary that Success comes before Work"
A copy of the original minutes of the 1955 meeting that made Miyazato Sensei the successor to Miyagi Chojun Sensei. Complements s of Hanshi Merriman's website
He who carves the Buddha never worships him.
Chinese proverb
A person who says, I'm enlightened" probably isn't.
Baba Ram Dass
Those who come talking of right and wrong
Are therfore right and wrong people.
Wumen
Keep your hearts together, but your tents separate.
Bedouin proverb
Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." I say, "I do not think, that is why I exist."
Taisen Deshimaru
The mind is everything, what you think you become.
Buddha
Even our enemy is useful to us because, in order to practice compassion we need to practice tolerance, forgiveness, and patience, the antidotes to anger.
Dalai Lama
What time would it be if all the clocks were stopped?
Zen question
One word of explanation already misses the mark.
Ejo
The peaches and plums of the poor houses also create the shade.
Huguo
If you befriend another person but lack the mercy to correct him, you are in fact his enemy.
Chang-an
There are two ways of avoiding war: One is to satisfy everyone's desire; the other to content oneself with the good.
Unto Tahtinen
Few among men are they who cross over to the further shore. The others merely run up and down the bank on this side.
Dhammapada
A truly wise person will not be carried away by any of the eight winds; prosperity, decline, disgrace, honor, praise, censure, suffering, pleasure.
Nichiren
When you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind; you should be concentrated on what you do.
Suzuki
We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
Tao te Ching
Hire an young carpender but consult an old physican.
Chinese proverb
We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to be something we are no longer free.
J. Krishnamurti
Atop a hundred-foot pole, how do you step forward?
Shishuang
The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well in life.
Samurai maxim
We must openly accept all ideologies and systems as means of solving humanity's problems. One country, one nation, one ideology, one system is not sufficient.
Dalai Lama
When you paint a dragon, you paint his scales, not his bones; when you see a man you see his face, not his heart.
Chinese Proverb
The Carpenter
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor
of his plans to leave the house-building business and
live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.
He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.
The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could
build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but
in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted
to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way
to end a dedicated career.
When the carpenter finished his work the employer came to inspect the
house. He handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house,"
he said, my gift to you." The carpenter was shocked! What a shame! If he had
only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so
differently.
So it is with us. We build our lives, a day at a time, often putting less
than our best into the building. Then with a shock we realize we have to
live in the house we have built. If we could do it over, we'd do it much
differently. But we cannot go back.
You are the carpenter. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect
a wall. Life is a do-it-yourself project. Your attitudes and the choices you
make today, build the "house" you live in tomorrow.
Build wisely!
Remember... Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been
hurt. Dance like nobody is watching.
To teach another something is like oiling the wheels of a heavy cart so that they will turn.
Nichiren
The person who confesses ignorance shows it once; the person who conceals it shows it many times.
Japanese Proverb
To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill.
Sun Tzu
To know what we do not know is the beginning of wisdom.
Maha Sthavira Sangharakshita
If you are too excited by joy, later you will have to cry.
Tibetan saying
The reverse side has also its reverse side.
Japanese proverb
If you want one year of prosperity, plant corn. If you want ten years of prosperity, plant trees. If you want one hundred years of prosperity educate people.
Chinese Proverb
If ordinary people know, they are sages; if sages understand, they are ordinary people.
Wumen
To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
Lao-tsu
The evil life is really the thoughtless life.
Dhammapada
An ancient pond;
A frog leaps in;
The sound of water.
Matsuo Basho
Patience in one minute of anger can prevent one hundred days of sorrow.
Chinese Proverb
Unless we agree to suffer we cannot be free from suffering.
D.T. Suzuki
Not nakedness, not matted locks, not dirt or fasting or sleeping on the bare earth, or sitting motionless can purify a man who does not overcome his doubts.
Dhammapada
Never let go the reins of the wild colt of the heart.
Japanese Buddhist proverb
To be fond of learning is to be near knowledge.
Confucius
Flowing water never goes bad.
Chinese proverb
Those who know do not talk. Those who talk do not know.
Tao te Ching
A great tailor cuts little
Tao te Ching
That man alone is wise who remains master of himself.
Confucius
Better to see the face than to hear the name.
Zen saying
Tolerance and patience should not be read as signs of weakness. They are signs of strength.
Dalai Lama
There is always a piece of fortune in misfortune.
Japanese Proverb
Gods do not deduct from one's life the hours spent loving.
Ancient Chinese Proverb
A traveller without observation is a bird without wings
Saad
The superior man seek what is right; the inferior one, what is profitable.
Confucius
Your teacher can open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
Chinese Proverb
The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.
Japanese Proverb
Never let life's hardships disturb you. After all, no one can avoid problems, not even saints or sages.
Nichiren
The greatest form has no shape.
Lao-Tzu
We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.
Tao te Ching
KARATE CREED
I come with only Karate.
I have no weapons.
But should I be forced to defend my self,
my principles, or my honor,
Should it be a matter of life or death,
right or wrong
Then here are my weapons,
KARATE.
The fool who knows his foolishness is wise to that extent.
Dhammapada
Concealing shortcomings while boasting virtues defines arrogance.
Miao-lo
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
Keep your hands open, and all the sands of the desert can pass throught them. Close them, and all you can fell is a bit of grit.
Taisen Deshimaru
To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.
Confucius
He who teaches me for a day is my father for life.
Chinese proverb
Even as a solid rock is unshaken by the wind, so are the wise unshaken by praise or blame.
Dhammapada
Those who remember that we must come to an end in this world, their quarrels cease at once.
Dhammapada
You cannot do right in one department of life while occupied doing wrong in any other department.
Life is one indivisible whole.
Mahatma Gandhi
Come, behold this world, how it resembles an ornamented chariot, in which fools flounder, but for the wise there is not attachment to it.
Dhammapada
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes and the grass grows by itself.
Zenrin
When the clouds fly the moon travels; when a boat goes the shore moves.
Buddha
If you don't know how to serve men, why worry about serving the gods?
Confucius
How you do anything is how you do everything
Zen Saying
THE KEMPO HAKKU
The Eight Poems of The Fist
JINSHIN WA TENCHI NI ONAJI. - The mind is one with heaven and earth.
KETSUMYAKU WA NICHIGETSU NI NITARI. - The circulatory rhythm of the body is similar to the cycle of the sun and the moon.
HO WA GOJU WO TONDO SU. - The way of inhaling and exhaling is both hardness and softness.
MI WA TOKI NI SHITAGAI HEN NI OZU. - Act in accordance with time and change.
TE WA KU NI AI SUNAWACHI HAIRU. - Techniques will occur in the absence of conscious thought.
SHINTAI WA HAKARITE RIHO SU. - The feet must advance and retreat, separate and meet.
ME WA SHIHO WO MIRU WO YOSU. - The eyes do not miss even the slightest change.
MIMI WA YOKU HAPPO WO KIKU. - The ears listen well in all directions.
Zen teaches nothing; it merely enables us to wake up and become aware. It does not teach, it points.
D.T. Suzuki
To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.
Chinese proverb
No suffering befalls the man who calls nothing his own.
Dhammapada
The wise man sets no high value on a thing simply because it is hard to get.
Tao te Ching
On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches.
To see him walk across the stage one step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an unforgettable sight. He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.
By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while he makes his way across the stage to his chair. They remain reverently silent while he undoes the clasps on his legs. They wait until he is ready to play.
But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap -it went off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant. There was no mistaking what he had to do.
People who were there that night thought to themselves: "We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage - to either find another violin or else find another string for this one."
But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before. Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that.
You could see him modulating, changing, recomposing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before.
When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. We were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything we could to show how much we appreciated what he had done.
He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quiet us, and then he said, not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone, "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left."
What a powerful line that is. It has stayed in my mind ever since I heard it. And who knows? Perhaps that is the [way] of life - not just for artists but for all of us.
So, perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left.
--Jack Riemer, Houston Chronicle
Notes from Sensei Mike and Sensei Laura:
This article should serve to remind us of to always continue to grow and to “make music” with what we have left.
Sensei Lowry is an example, this is someone who started Martial Arts at the age of 41 and now 60 years young and continues to teach, train, run his own Dojo and runs YKKF Canada.
Angela and Geoff from YKKF England who are in wheelchairs and are also black belts in karate and who both learned and performed Kururunfa at this years YKKF Eurpean Gasshuku in Belgium are “making music” with what they have. So are soooo many other people continue to remember to do this. This term in Japanese is Kaizen.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: It is founded on our thoughts and is made up of our thoughts.
Dhammapada
The world is so constructed, that if you wish to enjoy its pleasures, you also must endure its pains.
Swami Brahmananda
Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I may remember. But involve me and I'll understand.
Chinese proverb
People become what they expect themselves to become.
Mahatma Gandhi
Michief all comes from much opening of the mouth.
Chinese proverb
A tree that is unbending is easily broken.
Lao-Tzu
The quieter you become, the more you can hear.
Baba Ram Dass
The greatest prayer is patience.
Buddha
In spring, hundreds of flowers; in autumn, the harvest moon;
in summer, a refreshing breeze; in winter, snow will be there with you.
If useless thoughts do not lurk in your mind. Any season is a good season for you.
Thirteenth century Chinese koan
The closer you stand to the lighthouse, the darker it gets.
Japanese proverb
Only by learning do we discover how ignorant we are.
Chinese proverb
Power of mind is infinite while brawn is limited.
Koichi Tohei
The no-mind not-thinks no-thoughts about no-things.
Buddha
Those in a hurry do not arrive.
Zen saying
A person writing at night may put out the lamp, but the words he has written will remain. It is the same with the destiny we create for ourselves in this world.
Shakyamuni
Only distance test the strength of horses; only time reveals the hearts of men.
Chinese proverb
Watchfulness is the path to immortality and thoughtlessness the path to death. The watchful do not die; but the thoughtless are already like the dead.
Dhammapada
The way of the sage is to act but not to compete.
Lao tsu
To know and to act are one and the same.
Samurai maxium
A good traveler leaves no track.
Tao te Ching
Don't give others what they don't want.
Japanese proverb
Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.
Seneca
When drinking water, remember its source.
Chinese proverb
Since body and mind are indivisible so are past and present.
Keizan
To search for the old
is to understand the new.
The old, the new. This is a matter of time.
In all things man must have a clear mind.
The Way: Who will pass on straight and well?
By Master G. Funakoshi
This is no such thing as new knowledge, only rediscovered old knowledge.
RM Yamanaka
Poem of the Fist
by Sensei Mike Sywyk
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The First Poem of the Fist:
The Mind is One With Heaven and Earth |
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The first poem of the fist, "The Mind is One With Heaven and Earth" maybe the most important poem as it is the first on in the series of eight. Just my opinion. Or maybe it is not and they have hidden the most important one in the middle somewhere. |
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One of my interpretations of the poem is that the mind is one with Energy and Matter. Reading Funakoshi Gichin Sensei's definitions of the Tai-Kyo-kyu series of Kata sparked the possible connection/interpretation of the first poem of the fist. |
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So what does this all mean? It might not be as complicated as some people make it out to be or as complicated as some people think. Simply one must use the mind to connect and make their energy and their matter one. One must train to connect their body (matter) and their life force (energy). |
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Nowadays, people relate tai chi, Hsing-I and other "internal martial arts" to developing one energy or Ki/Chi, but I believe any "way of the fist system" of fighting have the same goal. "There are many paths that lead up the mountain but the moon looks the same from the top". With the image of Karate today, due to the freestyle and tournament systems that are so popular these days, the traditional systems have been submersed in to the shadows. The goals of the traditional systems are still the same as they were hundreds of years ago, if you are training in the right school with a traditional teacher. One of your teachers goals as well as yours, if you are training in a traditional system of Karate-Do, is to make the mind one with heaven and earth. Through proper training in a traditional ways your mind will become one with heaven and earth and then there will be a connection, like a serge of energy a pulsing feeling, then it will be gone again for a long, long time, Keep training. |
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There is no doubt that the mind must direct and command the Ki/Chi (energy/life force) through out the body. I read an analogy comparing the mind and the energy to a General and his soldiers. The General commands his soldiers as the mind commands the Ki/Chi. |
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The mind commands or directs the Ki/Chi through out the body in everything you do. When practicing Karate-Do or any form of Budo you must direct/command your Ki/Chi throughout the body. This should be done when doing kihon, hojo undo, jumbi undo, kata and kumite. Everyone can do this, just put your mind to it. It is not as easy as it sounds, you must be taught or educated by a knowledgeable teacher. Everyone has Ki/Chi and most people have minds or should I say everyone has a mind and most people use them. |
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You must be taught how to use the mind to direct the Ki/Chi and for this you must be disciplined, focused and very loyal to your teacher, as this knowledge has been treasured for thousands of years first by the Chinese and then by the Okinawans in terms of the history of Karate-Do. |
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I could go on for pages and some day I would like to continue but for now I would like to leave the first Poem of the Fist and go one to the next one. Stay tuned. |
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Mike Sywyk |
Poem of the Fist 2
by Sensei Mike Sywyk
The Second Poem of the Fist:
The Circulary Rhythm of the Body is Similar to that of the Sun and the Moon |
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The Chinese knew thousands of years ago that the blood in the human body cycles through the body in a pattern or rhythm just as the sun sets in the evening and the moon rises, and the moon sets and the sun rises. They also knew that the blood in the human body is stronger in certain places during different times in a 24-hour period. Therefore, if the body is stronger during certain times it would seem logical, and common sense would tell us that there would also be weak points in conjunction with the strong points. The Chinese knew this and related this to the cycle of the sun and the moon. We are currently discussing Ways of the Fist, which in most people (non martial artists) eyes is deemed violent, but the Chinese discovered all of this when exploring and researching ways of helping people recover from illness, not from fighting. In other words, these patterns were discovered out of health not from killing. Later, for means of self-defence, this knowledge was added to the Chinese fighting systems and learned by a few Okinawans by way of Hsing or Forms and passed on to us by way of Kata. |
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The Chinese went on to breakdown the 24-hour cycle in to 2-hour pieces and associate and internal organ and/or meridian and pressure points to each 2-hour time zone. With these 2-hour time zones there is points, meridians and/or organs that were strong and weak. This was where to strike in terms of self-defence, when attacked at certain times during the day or night. When struck at the appropriate place the energy would be shut- down or disrupted and that organ would eventually be damaged and possibly shut down due to lack of Ki/Chi and the person would eventually die (dim mak) if not brought to a certified doctor as soon as possible usually within a few hours. |
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Just as everything in the universe has a cycle or a rhythm, some not as obvious as others, so does the human circulatory system. This is one of the aspects we as martial artists must be familiar with. |
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Mike Sywyk
Poem of the Fist 3
by Sensei Mike Sywyk
The Third Poem of the Fist:
Inhaling represents softness (Ju) while exhaling represents hardness (Go).
Coming Soon
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