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Year End “Big Clean”

Ō-sōji (literally, “big cleaning” at year end) is a significant tradition in Japan. This ritual symbolizes purification and renewal of one’s home, workspace, dojo, and environment. Transcending mere physical cleaning, it assumes a spiritual dimension. Take time to clean areas that may usually be passed over. Get rid of things you don’t use. Use a super sensitive eye to re-see cluttered areas you have become blind to. In particular, make sure your dojo shrine shelf sacred area is cleaned and renewed. Clean and declutter the entrance to your dojo. A fresh entry will welcome positive energy. Cleaning is a symbolic act of bidding farewell to the old year (and problems or impurities it brought). By thoroughly cleansing your home and

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Dealing With Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Violence

The purpose and methodology preserved in our To-Shin Do kata were not created to address mutually consented fighting, where we agree to fight another martial artist until one of us quits. Our practice methods address handling non-consensual violence. That means self-protection, or stoping harm when attacked with criminal violence. The purpose determines the strategies used to achieve the goal. The strategies dictate the tactics. The tactics determine the choice of techniques. “Winning a fight I agreed to take part in” is not the same as “eliminating harm from invasive criminal violence”. You can’t take the strategies, tactics, and techniques used to achieve one goal and put them into action to achieve a different goal. This is not a value judgement

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ALL POSTS

Brain Involved in Fear

A common mistake regarding the purpose of studying the five elements is to believe that we somehow “choose” a particular element in the middle of

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A or F?

What does it take to honorably pass a test and earn a new belt in the martial arts? My view is that there are: Things

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Kofuku no Shiori

“The way to experience happiness is to let go of all worries and regrets. Being happy is the most satisfying of life’s feelings. Reflect back

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Do You Guys Spar?

A difficult question to answer. Difficult because I know the answer will be misused by people not sympathetic to our training methods. Fast answer is

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The Art of Winning

I remember a conversation I had with my ninja martial arts teacher way back in the 1970s. I was in my twenties and had just

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Fortunate Fellow

Some friends at my dojo began a “challenge” of writing notes about what they are grateful for. I like that kind of thinking in this

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