Archive for July, 2015

Living on the Edge

Tuesday, July 28th, 2015
Living on the edge of the Sword!

Living on the edge of the Sword!

Some of you may have seen this photo on our Facebook page, but I wanted to expand upon the post there with what Living the Ninja Lifestyle is.

Each day we all wake up equal, I know you are shocked to hear that, we all wake up with 1440 minutes in which we can thrive or we can waste the precious gift that is shared equally among every person on the earth, TIME.  Every day I wake up with a purpose, and that purpose is to live that fine line between pushing myself to the razor’s edge, and or falling off and crashing. We all have choices that either help us grow in our learning and expansion of knowledge in the arts and life, or we settle and just get by for the day, watching T.V and eating ice cream. I choose to push my limits, get up early, run, work out, train with my students and family, post on this website, learn new things….I challenge myself to learn one new thing each day, and I can say some day’s that isn’t an easy thing to do!

Live on the edge of experience! Challenge yourself to do the things you are afraid of, hey I haven’t been comfortable with heights, so I started climbing trees, and then got back into rock climbing(Great Ninja skill) did a 500ft face climb, and haven’t looked back yet.

So what are you doing today?

“The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going beyond them to the impossible.” – Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Yesterday, I was traveling back from another state to enjoy some time off with my spouse, and we were speaking on a call, when I noticed that traffic was coming to a slow stop on the highway, up ahead I could see cars off the road, so I knew that there was an accident. As I slowly approached and passed the cars, it appeared that a young man in a light jeep like truck had hit another vehicle rolled over several times and was ejected from the vehicle. He was lying on the side of the road, in a small pool of blood around his head. That moment reminded me of how short our lives are and that we need to live fully each day, as we have no control over when we are going to be leaving this mortal life.

Today, as I finish this short note to all of you, I am about to go work on my cardio vascular level, by trail running (it is time for a personal best time!), then I will come back and train with my family and start our day off around the Ninja homestead. I hope you all take away a bit of motivation from this post and jump up and do 1 thing to challenge yourself as our ancient forbears did and Live on the Edge of the Sword in your training and in life!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle”

More coming so stay tuned!

Ninja Rant

Thursday, July 9th, 2015

Hey there Ninja Fans!

Alright it is time for a Ninja to rant!

The other day I was speaking with another martial artist who was telling me(not suggesting) telling me that his art had it all. It had striking, and jujutsu, and even escrima to round it off. So, I said why does it have all these components? Are they all seamless in the way they flow to one another? His response was classic….”No, they are all taught separate as you gain rank they allow you to learn these pieces”. Wow! Many of you know I practice several arts and have been for 40 years, but each time I learn something I ensure that it flows from one range to another and is combat applicable. I spar alot, and have sparred and fought alot, with weapons and without. So when I start practicing a new art or technique I try and learn it in force on force training scenarios or sparring sessions.

I have never held back anything until someone is a particular rank to teach them, especially in Ninjutsu! It all is linked and flows from one piece to another. Not only that it has deep strategies and skills that can help you survive in a modern combat situation as well as modern day life(work, home etc). So I had to take a moment here and rant about “arts” that hold back teaching something a person may need or want to learn, and if any of you read my post about Independent thinking, you should know that this falls right in line with that mindset.

“Absorb what is useful, disregard what is useless, and add to it specifically what is your own” -Bruce Lee

Everyday, I try and live this philosophy, hopefully you will to, and help those on the path to see the light and join you!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle”

 

Independence

Thursday, July 2nd, 2015

As we celebrate the 4th of July and our birth of Independence, I started to reflect on the ancient Ninja of the Iga and Koga regions and how they may have felt about their independence. As we know the Iga and Koga regions were somewhat isolated from the mainstream conflicts, and the skills that were developed by the ninja clans probably made them feel somewhat independent from these types of political struggles within ancient Japan. Yet, the skills didn’t protect them completely for the regions were eventually conquered and brought into the mainstream. Yet, that independent streak stayed true and even today the ninja are an independent minded group of martial artists.

Here at my home I feel the same way, independent. I train as I want to, develop the skills I need and desire to have (don’t get me wrong, I have coaches and instructors who keep me on the path), I farm, hunt and have a successful career, and multiple sources of income to help me even further. Now, here is my question to each of you, what are you doing to be independent minded and resilient in life and training? Seems like a simple question but there is so much we could do, but it is easier to have a soft life, and wait for things to be given to us. But does that help you and or I, to develop our skills and resources to where they should be? The concept of Shu – Ha – Ri (Preserve, detach/break, leave) outlines a learning process that allows a martial artist to become “independent” once they have a firm foundation and understand the principle of variation. Does this concept not help establish an independent thinker? Even within the establishment of intelligence gathering a Jonin, would have to interpret each bit of information from various sources and form his view of these tidbits, once again establishing an independent thinker.

So as you can see this post, isn’t one of the normal ones I regularly post about technique, philosophy or tactics, No, it is a deeper probe into the independent mindset that our ancient forebears developed as a result of their lifestyle and martial practices. It is my hope that this resonates with you all out there, and you take some steps in your training and life to become more independent minded!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle.”

Ps: If you are interested in additional material on these type of subject send me a quick email or post a comment.