RAGNARÖK

Ragnarök. An unmoored frozen honeybee as Loki, piloting the curled and dropped leaf of Naglfar, the ship of the dead, sailing toward the end of the gods.

North Hill, Puyallup, Washington. October 31, 2019.

OPEN HEART GATE

"Open Heart Gate," watercolor and art marker on 5" x 5" watercolor paper, 2022, by TWT.

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Who shall ascend your mountain?
Who shall stand in the place where you stand?

The one with open hands
The one with a quiet heart

—from "Psalm 24" as found in Opening to You: Zen-inspired Translations of the Psalms by Norman Fischer

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Jikishin kore dōjō nari.

A true and pure heart is a training place.

—ancient Zen saying

TEST RUN

Taking my body on a test run with the first sangaku technique, Ittō Ryōdan, and "the wheel" posture. 

舌 feels good in my hands, but I turned on symptoms—facial numbness, crown tingling, pain in my hands and forearms—after more than a week of rest, with only a minor workout.

It appears I'm not quite ready for "prime time" again.

  

ROYAL FRESH

Royal Fresh, an Imperial IPA by Deschutes Brewery.

19.2 ounce can served in a pint glass.

9.0% abv.

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This is a citrus punch to the mouth, a most excellent citrus and leaf hop bomb. Tangerine, orange, papaya, butterscotch, leafy bitterness, a warm booziness in the background. Medium to thick mouthfeel. More please!

Five stars.

NEW PATH

Today I had to make the difficult decision to leave the dojo I’m part of for personal and health reasons. Over the past two weeks, I had some past back and joint issues return in full force after years of absence, as well as some new arthritic-like symptoms appear in my hands.

It was as though a large boulder fell from the heavens and blocked my martial arts path. Instead of seeing the boulder as an impossible challenge and turning back, though, I decided to find a way around or over it. But that way entails a much slower and more tailored journey than I was going to experience as part of any particular program.

So, rest for now. Then “baby steps” and physical therapy exercises for a bit. Then Yi Jin Jing version of Qigong since it is slow but also continues to build flexibility and muscle tone. Then kihon (basics) and kata (forms) of karate and waza (techniques) of iaido.

I have enough equipment in the backyard dojo for training. I have almost a year and a half of Shotokan and eight months of Yi Jin Jing as a good solid base. I have plenty of things to work upon. Plus, being in the backyard dojo allows me to return to my white belt and a “beginner’s mind.” To see things anew.

A couple of “dark nights of the soul” and plenty of time to reflect made me realize some of the things I don’t need as I walk The Way. I don’t need to compete to prove my worth. I don’t need stripes or belts or rank. And it is not that there's anything wrong with those things, but I don’t need them. I needed to develop a routine of training, which I have. I needed to figure out some of the basics, which I’m doing. I needed to build up my core strength, which I have done beyond what I thought I was capable of. I needed to discover how much I enjoy drawing a sword from a sheath—for many reasons—and so much so that I actually dream about working with 舌.

I give thanks for everyone who has been part of my martial arts journey to this point. You have provided me with a wonderful foundation for what takes place next.

BUDO BOOKS

Two new martial arts books. Karate-dō Kyōhan by Gichin Funakoshi, founder of Shotokan Karate, my school/style; and The Sword and the Mind translated by Hiroaki Sato, which contains three 17th-century Japanese texts on swordsmanship: Heihō Kaden Sho (Family-Transmitted Book on Swordsmanship); Fudōchi Shinmyō Roku (Divine Record of Immovable Wisdom); and Taia Ki (On the T'ai-a). 

 I'm ready to settle in for some learning and knowledge.

 

BODY and SOUL

Zheng He Gong Fu black tea and Biscuits and Gravy at Alma Cafe this morning. But the best part of breakfast was the conversation with my friend David—about life and literature, art and auteurs, religion, muses, writing, and so much more. Nourishment for body and soul!

BLINK of an EYE

Just like that—in the blink of an eye, or, actually, in the slipping of a disc—I trade my sword for my cane.

This level of movement of my problematic disc hasn't occurred for a few years. I felt the shift in my spine while working on my roof, right before my leg attempted to buckle beneath me. Needless to say, I got down off the roof as soon as I could.

Now I wait for things to quiet down and the right side of my body to loosen up, so I can assess what needs to happen next.

RIDE the HANDLE

Ride the Spiral, a Double IPA by Silver City Brewery.

19.2 ounce can served in a pint glass.

8.0% abv.

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Brewed with natural pineapple and orange essences. 

The pour is a hazy orange-yellow, topped with a white head. The nose is fruitcake, orange, citrus, pineapple. The tongue is fruitcake and biscuit, pineapple and orange. The mouthfeel is thick.

Strong bitterness and biscuity malts lead, with pineapple making an appearance and fading into the background, finally leaving behind a long orange finish. Very good.

BLACK GI

On the same day (yesterday) that my hakama arrived (in the morning), my new black gi also arrived (in the evening). My gi had been on backorder since April. Supply chain issues seem to have hit the martial arts uniform companies as hard as any other business.

I've been working diligently on mapping out the Heian Yondan kata, and, with the help of The Child, finally have the pattern in my body. Now I've got a mountain of fine tuning to climb.

HAKAMA

I ordered hakama (pleated pants) that are traditionally worn over a full gi (uniform) during iaido. I needed to take them on their initial wearing in the backyard dojo.



Nukitsuke, the drawing cut.



Kirioroshi, the downward cut.



The beginning of noto, resheathing the sword.



Thrusting of the sword during kissakigaeshi, a waza (techinque) of a different school of iaido. But I enjoy practicing it.



Practicing drawing the sword. Living out Miyamoto Musashi's notion of sen (initiative).

HOLY PAIN

I split the bottom of my big toe this evening during karate, tearing through a callus and peeling back a nice chunk of meat. I borrowed some sports tape from a fellow student, put stuff back together, and got back out on the dojo floor. I earned my white stripe (kumite)! Now that I'm home, my calves are cramping so I'm rolling out the lactic acid. It's a night of "holy pain," but I wouldn't trade it for anything else. (Except for the pumpkin pie and pumpkin beer I'm indulging in.)

CHRISTIAN ZEN

I'm trying to find some connective tissue that binds my faith to the martial arts path I'm walking upon, without watering either down or making of one or the other (or both) a syncretic mess. It's not quite a manifesto, but rather apologetics meets poetics of "holy violence." Christian Zen by William Johnston has helped provide me some of the foundation on which I'm hoping to build.

Johnston is a Catholic priest who, at the time of the book's publication, had lived in Japan for twenty years. He incorporated elements of Zen, which he defines as "imageless mental prayer," into his daily Christian prayer life. He does so by asking a lot of questions, challenging his own assumptions, and engaging in conversation with Christians and Buddhists, Western and Eastern. Two ideas that were novel to me were (1) separating the notion of Zen from Zen Buddhism, which itself seems a very Zen thing to do; and (2) aligning his concept of Zen with the apophatic tradition of Christian mysticism.

Once the notion of Zen becomes "agnostic" and a technique of meditation, divorced (in some sense) from its Buddhist roots, it becomes another tool in my toolbox of prayer techniques. Iaido (Japanese sword drawing) is often referred to as "Zen in motion," so I'm quite happy to land where I have at the conclusion of this book.

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I read the majority of it during the free time I had at a mandatory overnight work retreat. I read some in my room, some in a small chapel on the retreat center campus, and some next to the tennis courts I practiced Yi Jin Jing upon in the early morning. Even though it was itself "work" of a sort, it was welcome work and a relief from the "other" work I was engaged in. It was mine!