內法
Inner Dharma began in 2005 as a blog providing periodic essays on traditional martial arts and culture. I want to thank its readers for their interest and feedback. Some revised essays can be found below.
- 30 March 2025
Kiai is Not a Sound – Reviving Shin-no-Shinkage heihō
Discussing my study of Japanese swordsmanship in the context of internal martial arts principles and esoteric Buddhist practice.
- 15 February 2025
Enren – Circling Endlessly
Analysis of the final section of Jikishinkage-ryū to-no-kata.
- 09 September 2024
Divergence and Unification in Shinkage-ryū
Link to an essay on kata, heiho and shugyo, where I compare and contrast different surviving lines of Shinkage-ryū and reflect on my own practice.
- 16 February 2023
General Qi Jiguans’s Jixiao Xinshu and Reflections on Claims of Martial Virtue
An essay published at Kogen Budo, where I look at some older writings from Japanese koryu that reference classical Chinese military treatises, and then examine how practices described in those works may be represented in arts surviving today.
- 20 September 2019
Perspectives and Priorities in Classical Martial Arts
Opportunity can be fleeting in classical and traditional martial arts training. Each art lives or dies in a single generation. Strong arts can become but weak echoes of their former selves without proper training intensity.
- 23 February 2017
Aiki and Internal Training
Collected thoughts on the historical influence of Chinese martial arts on Japanese jujutsu and how they relate to the topic of aiki in Aikido and Daito-ryu. What interested me about internal martial arts and how I have related that experience to my practice of Japanese budō.
- 17 June 2013
NAMT Night of Budo 2013 – an analysis
A brief reflection on a demonstration of Araki-ryū and Tenshin Buko-ryū at the NAMT 2013 Night of Budo.