Archive for October, 2010

Daily Advance

Sunday, October 31st, 2010

Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. This is never-ending.” – taken from the Hagakure

Way back in 1996!!

I recently had another birthday!! Each year I look forward to each birthday as a time to reflect upon what have I learned during the intervening time between birthdays. I will say this past year has been a packed learning experience. I started off with deep winter snow camping and survival shelter building, progressed to learning from many notable martial artists from around the globe, voraciously read and practice self improvement, technical development, as well as many hours in the back yard shooting range. This

doesn’t even scratch the surface but the list isn’t what matters, it is the daily advance that matters.

Each day we awake as equals, with the same amount of time given to each of us. It is how we use this time to advance ourselves, or not, that truly makes the difference in surviving or thriving, poor or rich, good or great at the things we choose to take on.

So tomorrow my Ninjutsu friends, get up and go gather intelligence on a new subject and  put yourself in the daily advance!

Bufu Ikkan

From the Basenshukai

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

From the Basenshukai

“When entering an enemy camp on a dangerous mission, your heart must be as hard, cold and sharp as the blade of a sword. If the heart is soft and weak, whenever the enemy confronts you, panic result and the mission fails.”

Each day when you or I wake up we have a choice to build the “enduring heart” that ninjutsu stands for. Each day we will face obstacles, issues, petty arguments, put downs, political ploys, work or family power plays etc. it doesn’t matter, each must be dealt with utilizing an enduring heart. Practice patience, knowing that from each moment your decisions will come from a view that very few are able to or trained to comprehend. Within Seishin (pur e heart) you are able to make none judgmental decisions not based on emotions but from a view that encompasses many view points and information sources.

A lesson for you to practice, tomorrow when you are faced with an obstacle, problem or difficult situation, take a moment, sit down and write out 3 possible options that could give you different outcomes or paths to take. By starting this lesson off early in your training you are beginning a path that will help advance your training not only in the martial arts but in your life as a whole.

Bufu Ikkan

Another Old Clip of Soke Hatsumi

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Check out this one, Kuji kiri and love the tools and weapons on the wall!

Old Soke Hatsumi Footage

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Hi Everyone,

Here is an old video clip of Soke Hatsumi and the Shiahan training!

Choho

Friday, October 1st, 2010

Within the skills of Ninjutsu, there is one area that often becomes overlooked in one’s training, and that is Choho (intelligence gathering).  Why is this still relevant today even if you are not an aspiring CIA agent? Well, intelligence gathering allows one to make a reasonable decision based upon sources of information.  So what is relevant in your life that you need to make decisions on every day? Car or home purchase? Financial planning? Martial arts training? Career movement?

Whatever it is there are several manners in which to go about your information gathering, in member lesson #4 we will be exploring  historical foundations from the Togakure ryu, how to establish various sources of information, and methods to collect data from surprising sources etc.

More to come!

Bufu Ikkan