C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Budo as Embodied Practice Integrating Mind, Body, and Spirit "Mind, Body, and Spirit as One" (design by C.S.) “Mountains and waters are the expressions of old buddhas.” ~Eihei Dogen This quote from Dogen comes from his masterful “Sansuiko,” or the “Mountains and Waters Sutra,” an insightful and rather poetic work (as are all of the great zenji’s pieces) written in the 13th century.  If Dogen would have been a follower or a practitioner of budo—as many of his spiritual descendents would come to be in the following centuries—he may have added, “and fists and feet are nothing other than the Way.” Or not. But there is nothing cute (or trivial) about such statements.  They are expressions of a deep, somatic truth.  The “spiritual” is not something otherworldly, but is expressed—and, therefore, encountered—in the mundane, the material, and the everyday; in mountains and waters, in punches and in kicks. This is the reason that budo is not true budo unless it contains a ...

 Empty Your Cup “We’re so full of ideas about who we are, there’s no space left to realize our true nature.  Zazen is where we begin to empty the cup.” ~Dennis Genpo Merzel Zen master Dogen wrote about shoshin, or "beginner's mind," in his masterwork "Shobogenzo." (painting of Dogen courtesy Wikimedia) This is often the first lesson received when one takes up Zen or Budo.  It should also be the last. But what does it mean to “empty your cup”?  There is an oft-told story that you have probably heard before.  It’s so popular—maybe even “cliche” is the best word—that I remember hearing/seeing this story in the ‘80s when it was adapted as part of the story in the low-budget, straight-to-video martial arts movie No Retreat, No Surrender .  This movie has become something of a “cult” favorite (there is even a “Rifftrax” version of it).   The main character played by Kurt McKinney even learns his “empty your cup” lesson from the ghost of Bruce Lee, who is tra...

  Zen Master Kodo Sawaki (known affectionately as "Homeless Kodo") sitting Zazen* Zen and the martial arts have a complex history.  And it is one that is (a) almost completely misunderstood by all martial artists, especially practitioners of the Japanese martial arts who seem to talk about it the most but also seem to understand it the least, and (b) not even understood at all by the modern "zennist".** In this short little post, I'm not going to get into all of the reasons both A and B above are true, but simply want to express how similar both Zen and the Japanese martial arts are, and maybe this will give a good reason for the budo-ka to take up zazen, and while I expect even less zennists to take up budo, it does help for him/her to understand the martial arts better. Zazen is a physical practice.  It's at least as much a physical practice as it is a mental one.  I think this is vastly - and I do mean vastly - overlooked by most people, even practitioner...