C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

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...

History and Application of Budo as an Other-Power (Tariki) Practice      In Japanese philosophy, the concepts of “self-power” ( jiriki ) and “other-power” ( tariki ) have always fascinated me.  Primarily a concept found within the Jodo Shinshu sect of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism, it has made its way into Japanese philosophical thought as a whole.  At first glance, it seems rather straightforward, but as one delves deep, you find that there is more to it than first meets the philosophical eye.  And as one practices , you find that the lines begin to blur, until eventually you cross over into a new way of seeing, of looking, and of being your Budo training that you wouldn’t have thought possible when you first took up the martial ways.  You come to realize that Budo training isn’t as much of a self-power practice as you had assumed.      At first, it may even seem absurd to think that Budo is a practice of other-power...