I told my friend Jack Hoban that I am getting a lot of questions from my friends about our up-coming ethical leadership seminar. Martial arts practitioners and spiritual seekers alike want to know why I have chosen to make such a boldly different move in my presentation for this event. I tell my friends I […]

My perception is that we are in the midst of one of the lowest points we have ever experienced in the world when it comes to demonstrated noble big-vision leadership. When I say “we” I mean all of us alive now, from the newest baby to the seniormost life veteran. Whatever happened to ethics? Whatever […]

Here’s a trivial note for friends with martial arts schools that feature a Japanese-style kamiza “spirit focal point” shelf on the main wall of their training space. As described in the book Enlightened Self Protection, a kamiza can be compared to the family mantelpiece tradition familiar to American and European homes. As the mantel holds […]

I have known fighting and fitness trainer Scott Sonnon for some years, and I am impressed with his work. He has developed a physical fitness program called TACFIT, based on natural body weight movement, as opposed to iron weights or lever/pulley equipment. Over the years, several of my friends have asked me for this kind […]

I had a conversation with a person who commented that our taijutsu looked “too slow” to him. He felt that for a real fight, we should be practicing with what he called “realistic speed”. I understand how he could feel that way. Once upon a time a long time ago, I too studied a less […]

Living in a way that keeps you ever aware of the preciousness of each moment and fullness of potential held in each encounter is called being mindful. Developing such a habit is a part of the To-Shin Do 8-Step Personal Perfection Plan for personal transformation from the inside out 7. IDEAL MINDFULNESS – “Perfect way […]

I asked some of my training friends what keeps them going in their To-Shin Do martial arts study. Why are you doing this? If you are not anticipating a lot of life-or-death fights in the next few weeks, what is the pull to keep on training? Give it to me straight. What is the pay-off […]

I received a note in which a sentence contained the word string, “…are supposably caring sensi their in the dojo…” What the writer actually meant to write was, “…our supposedly caring sensei there in the dojo…” He was writing to ask about how to become an affiliate instructor in our SKH Quest network of schools […]

One associate of mine (cannot honestly call him a “friend”) thought our dojo holiday classes were “unnecessarily frivolous”. The ninja martial art is a serious thing, he scolded. I chided back that we were indeed so very serious and our techniques so scaldingly deadly that we did not have to go around acting serious and […]

When I was a child in the late 1950s, my TV cowboy hero was Bat Masterson. I watched the show every week and never failed to be enthralled. The Bat Masterson show was based on a real character who lived in the old West. Born in 1853 in Quebec, Masterson worked as a US Army […]