Freedom Day. Today is the second anniversary of the start of my martial arts journey. To acknowledge it, I freed 牙 / kiba from its decorative knot. (It's a working sword and needs to reflect such.)
I've traveled from the basics of karate in a dojo for about fifteen months to training in qigong and iaido in my backyard dojo for about the same amount of time, with some overlap. I'm now incorporating the practice of zazen (Zen breathing) into my sword work.* This form of "moving Zen" reminds me to stay in the present and particular moment and to be fully present to it. (Much easier said than done.)
Year three begins here and now!
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*I've been slowly working my way through two complementary books: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki, which I've read a couple of times prior, and Taking the Path of Zen by Robert Aitken. I'm incorporating the practice of zazen into my sword work, without the sitting (instead, motion) and without breath work (instead, forms and stances). So not really zazen at all. And yet completely zazen.
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