C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Fudo Myoo, the "Patron Saint" of Many Japanese swordsmen. Some History and Stories from the “Warrior Saints” of the Martial Ways      Looking back on my life, I often think of my first loves as a child.  Without a doubt, the first thing that I fell in love with was cinema.  In the ‘70s, my dad worked as a film critic for a local newspaper, so he saw everything that came out at the theaters—not as many movies were released back then—and often took me along with him if he thought it was something I would enjoy, sometimes for early screenings before the film was actually released.  I have the fondest memories of the drive-in movie theater only a block away from our house in the Ozark mountains of Farmington, Arkansas.  I can recall seeing Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars in 1977 there as if it was yesterday, along with every single Roger Moore led James Bond film to hit the screen.  It may be hated by critics, but Moonraker...

The Importance of Proper Breathing in Budo      I have been training in the Budo for more than 40 years.  In the last few years, I have been to a few dojos and I’m sad to say (or write in this case) that modern budokas don’t know how to breathe.  Most of them aren’t taught how to breathe in the first place, so they’re not even aware that there is a way that a budoka should breathe.  This is typically because the teachers in these dojos weren’t taught it themselves.  When they are taught breathing techniques, it’s only on a superficial level, such as to breathe in through their nose and out through their mouth when executing a technique in practice, whether it’s a block, punch, or kick.  But there is more to breathing in Budo than this, and that may not even be accurate, either.  There are different ways to breathe, depending on the technique and the art.      The one thing that I’ve noticed modern budoka a...

Traditional and Non-Traditional Zazen as Training for Budo       In the early days of the Meiji era there lived a well-known wrestler called O-nami, Great Waves. O-nami was immensely strong and knew the art of wrestling. In his private bouts he defeated even his teacher, but in public he was so bashful that his own pupils threw him.      O-nami felt he should go to a Zen master for help. Hakuju, a wandering teacher, was stopping in a little temple nearby, so O-nami went to see him and told him of his trouble.       “Great Waves is your name,” the teacher advised, “so stay in this temple tonight. Imagine that you are those billows. You are no longer a wrestler who is afraid. You are those huge waves sweeping everything before them, swallowing all in their path. Do this and you will be the greatest wrestler in the land.”      The teacher retired. O-nami sat in meditation trying to imag...