Really Seeing the Opponent and the Opportunities to Strike – Part 3: In Slow Motion

In “Part 2: Reflections,” I described the recollection of perceiving a strike come towards me as if in slow motion during keiko in at least one rare instance.  This reminded me of

Really Seeing the Opponent and the Opportunities to Strike – Part 2: Reflections

Along a road in St. Remy de Provence

This is a follow-up of “Part 1: ‘O’ Sensei“.  Since writing that article, I have experimented with some of the tips spelled out in it and pen some reflections of the experience below.

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The Mirror in the Heart of Master Swordsmen (and Jedi Masters) – Quotes

Many master swordsmen and revered kendo teachers mention the importance of having a heart with a clear mirror.  That with such a mirror, one can intuit the heart and

Awareness and Who is this ‘I’? – Quotes and Resources

What you’re looking for is that which is looking. – St. Francis d’Assisi

Watercolor by Taylor, Jan. 2020.

Thanks to meditation and many teachers, this mind has come to a growing realization.  That meditation, zazen and aspects such as peace (平常心, heijoushin), freedom from

Really Seeing the Opponent and Opportunities to Strike – Part 1: “O” Sensei

A young Kyoshi 7 dan  from Japan visited the dojo that I practice at this week.  I’ll refer to him as “O” sensei as he preferred not having his name mentioned.  He had once placed

“Soft Eyes,” A Way of Seeing and Being – Quotes and Resources

I believe that “Soft Eyes” is an extremely important part of kendo and many areas of life.  It is a natural, tension-free way of seeing and being – which goes by many other names: Whole or Effortless Seeing, Soft or Open Focus, Wide-Angled, Peripheral or Panoramic Vision and “Enzan no Metsuke (a distant mountain gaze).”

How to See the Chance for an Ippon (Translation of 一本を取るチャンスの見つけ方 by こごろ一様)

I translated a second article in Japanese by Kogoro-Sama  from Web-Kendo with his kind permission to post it.  Thank you Kogoro-Sama.  As the link and website no longer seems to exist (as of Aug 2019) (http://www.web-kendo.com/002001/column05.php), I have appended the original article in Japanese below after the translation.

Open-Focus, Mushin and Kendo

Enzan-no-metsuke:  A view of Mt. Sainte Victoire from a park near l’atelier Cezanne in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Several years ago, I came across an insightful book: The Open-Focus Brain by Dr. Les Fehmi and Jim Robbins [Fehmi].  The possibility that the “Open-Focus” state could