Kumite Tips #1/Kumite Tips #2/Kumite Tips #3/Kumite Tips #4/Kumite Tips #5/Kumite Tips #6/Kumite Tips #7/Kumite Tips #8/Kumite Tips #9
It is a blessing of the martial arts and of Zen that they permit us a mitigation if not a transformation of time. "Yesterday" and "tomorrow" become less important. We turn more of our attention to "the present moment" and "a lifetime." Thus we are relieved of undue concern with certain urgencies of this culture: fast food, quick results, fast temporary relief, ten easy lessons.
Master Deshimaru tells us of three stages that are common to Zen and the martial arts. The first, shojin, is the period of training in which the will and conscious effort are involved, and which generally takes some three to five years of diligent practice. In Zen, this first period culminates with the shiho ("transmission"):
The second stage is the period of concentration without consciousness, after the shiho.
The disciple is at peace. He can truly become an assistant to the master, and later he can become a master himself and teach others in his turn.
In the third stage, the spirit achieves true freedom. "To a free spirit, a free world"...
George Leonard
integral naked - presently exposed
