Inner Dharma

Inner Dharma is a martial arts blog focused on traditional, especially internal, martial arts.

Subscribe via RSS.

• essay : Kiai is not a sound

  Coming to terms with the limits of a practice, and yet there is no end to the way.

• essay : 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.

• essay : Not Naming A Practice

  A short essay on how and when I do not describe my classical swordsmanship practice.

• essay : 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.

• update : 2019 Pittsburgh Taiji Seminar with Zhao Zeren and Zhang Yun

  Pittsburgh seminar in Northern Wu Style Taijiquan with Zhao Zeren and Zhang Yun.

• essay : Perspective and Priorities

  More sometime can be gained by walking further along fewer paths. I keep returning to that theme. An examination of some of the important questions raised by a practice of traditional historical martial arts.

• update : Open Steel

  Reflections on competing in a HEMA open steel longsword tournament.

• essay : Summer Peak

  Natsu no mine is the summer peak observance practiced in certain forms of Shugendo. With summer waning, I reflect on the role of demonstration in traditional martial arts and ask questions about proper training intensity.

• update : Solo Practice, Partner Practice, and Pressure Testing

  I have been spending time at solo practice, consulting with colleagues, and free sparring. I remain inspired by what I see some of the local HEMA community doing.

• update : Taiji Classics Seminar

  Attending a seminar detailing excerpts from the Taiji classics.

• essay : Semiotics of the Internal

  One of the challenges I face when I hear the word internal used in reference to Japanese jujutsu or taijutsu is that the spread of internal schools of Chinese martial arts seem to post-date the major influx of martial theory from China to Japan. The question of what internal power is and how it relates to other arts and their practitioners that want to add it to their practice, especially if it may have been common in the practice amongst their founders, but not successfully transmitted to later generations at scale, is a complicated one that touches on several different models of identity. Semiotics meets the sword.

• update : Wu Taiji Quan Seminar with Zhao Zeren and Zhang Yun

  Zhao Zeren and Zhang Yun taught a series of three seminars on the Wu Style Taiji Quan of Wang Peisheng during May 2016 in Princeton, Pittsburgh, and Silver Spring.

• update : Baishi Ceremony and Classical Jujutsu

  At the end of summer, I traveled to Princeton for a seminar in Bagua and Taiji and was accepted as a formal lineal student by my teacher, Zhang Yun. I also traveled to the Pacific Northwest, where I was able to visit with budo colleagues in Oregon.

• update : Letting Go

  It is good to take periodic inventory of what one has learned, what benefits one has acquired from his or her practice, and how best to balance the time and effort required to maintain commitments to the different lines of study one is engaged in.

• update : Bagua & Taijutsu

  I practiced a form of modern goshin-jutsu (self-defense) derived from Aikidō and Nippon Shorinji Kempō in NYC from 1989 to 2005. While living in NYC, I also attended seminars in Daito-ryu Takumakai. After moving to Baltimore, I studied Gao Lineage Bagua under Bob Galeone between 2004 and 2010. Bob's experience as senior yudansha of Kanai and Saotome who had integrated internal martial arts into his Aikidō was invaluable to me as I made the shift from modern Aikidō derived goshin-jutsu to traditional martial arts. Clyde Takeguchi was also an excellent resource, who was able to explain to me that many of the techniques I had learned in NYC had originated in early post-war Aikidō.

• ycgf : Tian Gang Dao Seminar

  This weekend I traveled to Pittsburgh for additional training in neijiaquan. I attended Zhang Yun's taijiquan class and met up with several of his senior students I had not seen in a while. It was great to train with everyone and get pointers on my body organization. I also had a chance to get further correction of my Yin Bagua Zhang and also learn the remaining sections of the Hebei Xingyi Quan Za Shi Chui (mixed skills) form.

• event : Demo of Araki-ryū and Tenshin Buko-ryū

  A brief reflection on a demonstration of Araki-ryū and Tenshin Buko-ryū at the NAMT 2013 Night of Budo.

• essay : Aiki and Internal Training

  In my own travels, I have transited from practicing a modern form of jujutsu to learning Bāguàzhǎng, Xíngyìquán, and Tàijíquán. I have maintained an interest in authentic Japanese swordsmanship as well, largely in an effort to correct improper instruction I received while a student of modern jujutsu. As a result, fellow sword enthusiasts sometimes ask me about where best to go for “internal” training while continuing to pursue their current practice in an unmodified form. In these discussions, the word internal is usually left undefined except as a proper noun to refer to something being good or other, almost in a semiotic sense...

• update : Kalachakra DC

  I attended the Kalachakra ceremony for world peace held by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Washington, DC in 2011. There I took refuge and made bodhisattva vows.

• update : Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga

  I have recently completed a 200 hour teacher training in Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga at Midtown Yoga in Baltimore, MD, under Kim Manfreidi.