Zoya at almost 5 months old. Sits up and stands assisted. I remember when she was born and now she is amazingly aware and becoming more present each day.
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All posts by sensei.orlando@yahoo.com
Our Dojo Kun
After a brief hiatus (the month of August and September, we had a spectacular summer program!), I was eager to get back to this blog, especially at the prodding of the many people who faithfully read these pages. I wanted to spend some time on our dojo kun.
So the most obvious question is what is a Kun (pronounced coon)? According to Wikipedia Dojo kun is a Japanese martial artsterm literally meaning dojo rules. They are generally posted at the entrance to training halls or at the “front” of the dojo; and outline behavior expected and disallowed. In some styles of martial arts they are recited at the end of a class.
A better definition for me would be the code of conduct that governs a school or training hall. It means that it governs behavior inside and outside of the school. For each student it is the guiding principle of their practice. Do I think it’s important? Absolutely. When a school lacks a kun, written or otherwise its very much like a large ship without a rudder, large, powerful and directionless. New students can look to the kun and see if the seniors embody it. Seniors can look to it and see if they are upholding its ideals, using it as a mirror. When schools lack a code of conduct, it means that any behavior is hypothetically acceptable. It gives room to ego and behavior inappropriate to a dojo.
As schools are made up of people, and people are flawed, it underscores the importance of the code of conduct. We all make mistakes, but when we do rather than try and save face or overcompensate for being embarrassed, we can allow our code of conduct to dictate our response. It allows us to maintain grace under pressure, to push ourselves when we would rather give up. It calls us to be supportive and selfless rather egocentric. Can this occur without a kun in place? I would like to think that it can, but I also know that our default way of being can be rather unpleasant.
A dojo is not a gym or a social club it is a special place where we go to train, grow and confront our flaws and shortcomings. As such it requires that we behave in a manner reflective of the vulnerability this entails. This is what a dojo kun enables. It sets the parameters for the behavior that is appropriate to the dojo. The next time your school recites the kun, really listen to the words and reflect if you are living the ideals it is stating.
strong spirit-strong mind-strong body
Sensei Orlando
Sensei Orlando
School
My youngest boy started school this week. Its amazing how quickly time can pass if we are not present to it. He looks dapper and is always excited to go to school.
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Training
So I have been running 2 miles everyday. In addition to the series of 100: pushups, bicycles, squats and shin kicks. My knuckles( I do 300 punches on a makiwara daily) are currently mangled from tree work, who knew trees were so hard lol? The twist to all of this is that I recently purchased a weightvest from weightvest.com( high quality vest worth every dollar). The vest I purchased allows me to go up to 50lbs, but I started at 30lbs and I'm working my way up. So to ramp up the training I'm doing everything with the vest on, I thought I was in shape until I started this a month ago. Will post the results over time. Stay tuned.
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Zoya’s lesson for today
Today I had Zoya with me for the afternoon. I had miscalculated how much milk my voracious 4 month old would require and so about 3 hours in I found myself with a very hungry and very loud little girl. The lesson: it doesn't matter if I didn't get the amount of food right, what mattered was meeting her need, in the moment. After she was reunited with her mom ( the source of food, since she is breast feeding) everything was right with the world. She became tranquil, fed a bit and just mellowed out. My being upset wouldn't have changed anything, except perhaps causing me to lose the moment and the lesson. There are times when its the right thing to get upset, this wasn't one of them.
Lesson learned.
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Meditation buddy
I sit every day for 15 minutes. Sometimes more but never less. Today as I sat, my daughter entered the room and inquired what I was up to. I told her. She paused a moment thought about it and then got a pillow and her seal (apparently he needed to sit as well) and sat beside me for 10 minutes. This of course is very unlike her but she stayed still the whole time eyes opening every so often,but maintaining her position. I have to say I was quite impressed.
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Wet pain?
Some signs are just too good to pass. This one caught my eye as it cautioned against wet pain. My first question was: I wonder how dry pain is expressed?
It made me laugh, and I needed that. : )
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Meditation
I have found that taking the time to sit and breathe is essential. I have also"found" some excellent music for this. I say found, because the music was always present, but like many of these things in my life, they reveal themselves to me when I am ready.
The music is Call of the Mystic by Karunesh.
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Honoring Parents
My son Rey has opted to stay home for the last two days instead of going to camp. We had a serious ( at least he looked serious) discussion about why he wanted to stay. Yesterday it was because he wanted to spend time with Papa(his grandfather). He felt he didn't spend enough time with him(his words not mine)since they are only visiting for a short time. Today there was an urgent need to break in the new chess set, with Papa also said in a very thoughtful tone.
There is a special bond that is created with grandparents. I myself don't recall my grandparents sadly. He is fortunate in that he has his mama and papa.
I think when we have our own children, on a deep level we honor our parents when we foment this bond. There is a special joy in seeing them interact.
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Attached at the hip.
The school(MKD Karate) is in the midst of summer camp. We have an awesome camp with karate, movie making, dance, origami, yoga, acting,and cool crafts. Throughout this all I have my little assistant who is attached at the hip. Here she is posing for a photo op.
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