Tag: shi kon

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The Right Perspective

Steve Rowe

When you have the ability to separate yourself from human dogma and view life from heaven’s perspective you see that every person has their own challenges and they measure up very differently to the human cultural approach. If you look at it from a martial arts perspective, who achieves most, the natural athlete who easily gets to black belt or the disabled student who struggles their way to green belt? You can look at life in the same way, it’s not about looking at others and what they have, can do or have achieved, reality is focusing on where you … Continue reading The Right Perspective

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Sink Into The Darkness

Steve Rowe

When I meditate I sink into the darkness that is always there.Like a warm blanket enveloping me;A place of refuge;Healing, nourishing and forgiving. Looking back down my own eyes I find the unconditioned;Unborn, immortal, unformed;It’s always there, a refuge. My body, emotions and thoughts are formed from it;Like a wave rising from the sea and returning to it;And whilst a wave it is still the sea. You have to bring light from darkness and when it is extinguished, you realise the darkness was always there. Never be afraid of the dark. Continue reading Sink Into The Darkness

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I Am Not My Name

Steve Rowe

I’m not my name;My parents gave that to me. I’m not my body;It beats its own heart,Breathes itself,Grows it’s own hair and nails. I’m not my thoughts or emotions,They are the software of the body,Arising from it’s need to survive and move. Who am I?I am my consciousness,If I can be thought, that’s not it,If I can be described, that’s not it. It has to be wordless,Unconditioned,Unborn,Unformed,Immortal. And awake. Continue reading I Am Not My Name

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Engage The Core & Spine

Steve Rowe

Anyone that studies with me knows that I use the word ‘engage’ a lot to do with the spine and core. This is because it takes a lot of study to learn how to use them for internal power, we have to forge really strong intimate connections to the ‘feel’ of every part of the core and spine and how to utilise them in technique. From the way we press and pulse the feet to the floor up through the legs to open and close the hips to manipulate the pelvic floor and bow and pulse the lower back, kidneys … Continue reading Engage The Core & Spine

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How To Learn

Steve Rowe

When I learned my martial arts in the 70’s and 80’s I went to lessons, took a notebook and took notes in my own way. When I went home the notebook went up on the mantelpiece and I worked from there, it was very personal and taught me how to learn. When I went back for my next lesson my instructor expected me to have practised and learned what we did last time. IMO it’s still the best way to progress. Nowadays we produce the notes for the students and videos that can be used on any device, the problem … Continue reading How To Learn

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Steve Rowe

I’m not normal, I acknowledge that. I’m out of synch with what is accepted as ’normality’. I don’t have to try to think outside of the box, I have a problem understanding the logic of inside of it. I have never related to our culture, was a very troubled person until I discovered the intelligent analysis of Buddhism and Asian philosophy. It didn’t bring me to normality but helped me to understand that my cursed mind in our culture was also a gift that has helped me to share my ‘outside the box’ thinking with others who feel out of … Continue reading

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Don’t Waste Your Time Training

Steve Rowe

Sometimes I wonder how much energy and time have I wasted on pointless exercise. All that mindless running, weight training, push-ups, sit ups, ‘warmup’ exercises and sparring that burned valuable energy, wasted time and did nothing to direct me where I needed to go. You can’t put an old head on young shoulders but with hindsight I could have done things in a far more intelligent fashion. A lot of ‘traditional training’ had so many repetions of useless movement and the blind ignorance of teaching ‘in the way my instructors taught’. Training should have a far more intelligent, structured approach … Continue reading Don’t Waste Your Time Training

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The Power Of A Logo

Steve Rowe

This is an original handmade piece of glass made by Ruth Dathorne for our Dojo and is important to me as it is the only 2 logos I’ve ever used in my 50 years in the Martial Arts. ‘Logo’ means ‘word of god’ and represents the soul and ethos of my path in the Martial Arts. The person in the foreground was hand drawn by me in the 1970’s and is a yin/yang representation of a technique used in both Tai Chi and Karate and was our logo, badge and used on the front of the book we did in … Continue reading The Power Of A Logo

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The Name Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

There is often a misunderstanding about the name ‘Tai Chi’. It translates as ‘grand ultimate’ and as ‘chuan’ means ‘fist’ which is the generic term for martial arts most people read it as ‘Grand Ultimate Martial Art’ and see it as arrogantly stating that it’s the best martial art which is wrong. Tai Chi is a kung fu system and had many names like ‘deceptive boxing’ and ‘soft cotton boxing’, what most people call the yin/yang symbol is properly named the ‘tai chi’ symbol and existed for a long time before the art representing the harmony of Taoism, so legend … Continue reading The Name Tai Chi

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The Skeleton & Martial Arts

Steve Rowe

The skeleton plays an important part in martial arts. It gives structure to the soft tissue.If you cut it down or across the middle you can see it’s symmetry, therefore you can see the importance of left and right and upper and lower body harmony for balance, mobility and power. When balanced and the soft tissue around the joints has no excessive tension the joints are unlocked, loose and aid mobility. To destructure an opponent and make him lock his own skeleton up you only have to make any part collapse, protrude or lean out of alignment. Continue reading The Skeleton & Martial Arts