Today I was able to meet up with my sensei to talk about the prospect of creating a Ryerson Kendo Club. At first the meeting was very business orientated, where we talked about the issues surrounding the proposal, gym space etc.

I wanted to ask Kimura Sensei about starting nito-ryu. Nito ryu is a form of Kendo where it is two handed. It is very hard to achieve strong nito but it is available to try. When I asked him he first asked, “Why do u want to take Nito?”

I gave him my answer that Miyamoto Mushashi’s ( the founder of nito ryu) writing have really touched me and his philosophy of two swords is one, and one sword is two.

He told me to first wait and get my basics, if I don’t have any basics, doing nito will be really hard. Sensei then began to talk about his life. His experience in trying nito and his struggle coming to Canada.

Many martial arts like Karate, are great money making houses. By focusing on money instead of art, Karate has lost the spirit of Karate. My sensei also had the opportunity of dong that. He runs a business and if he wanted to he can open up a dojo. But in order to preserve the current spirit of Kendo he decided to separate his business and Kendo.

If he wanted to my sensei could have stayed in Japan. The community in Japan would have supported him and he would have been financially well off. Since everyone he knows would have supported him and he would be financially fine. But he wanted to challenge himself, and came to Canada and opened a dojo.

Hearing this was amazing, I never was able to talk one on one with Kimura Sensei but today, I learned a great deal. If you have the spirit and commitment you can challenge yourself and achieve anything.

I know this sounds so basic, but typically human beings forget their place.

Brotherhood

Yesterday my family was celebrating our family Eid celebration. Eid is a Muslim celebration of sacrifice. Eid had already passed on the weekday but my family was meh lets par-ty on the weekend.

On the day at one point it was time to offer our midday prayers. In Islam we have a person who is well knowledgeable to lead the prayers and everyone follows. We line up in a straight line, toe to toe, heel to heel. Sadly, the line we made wasn’t straight nor was it tight.

It really disappointed me to see this happen. There is so much stupid Islamophobia out there that already points a finger on Islam. These misconceptions tick me off especially when I hear stupid racial comments which have no base and are false.

When I go to the Masjid (Mosque) many Shiekhs and Imams (kinda like Priests for Christianity) preech the idea of brotherhood. The idea as a community we need to stand up and have a common identity. To have one common goal and to work together not hate each other which is typically seen. Like in Iraq Sunni’s and Shia’s

If my family cannot make a damn decent line how the hell are we supposed to stand up together. This really saddened me. At school when I go pray, brotherhood is strong. Many of the Muslims make sure they stand in a straight line and work together amongst one another regardless of who they are. This is Islam, not judging whoever they are based on nationality or color.

The future is still has hope. The ray of light is slowly being lit.

Mirror Trick

So I was at work today doing nothing.... It was really dead and there was no business so I had time to do some other things.

I looked around and noticed a bunch of twigs in the corner. I decided hey might as well try some Kendo or some newb Naginata. I grabbed hold and began to stare at a mirror in the stance.

I didnt expect much out of doing something simple but it was interesting. Stating the obvious a mirror reflects lol.

In terms of Kendo it felt as if I was fighting myself. In Kendo you look for opprtunites but if the mirror reflects how do you go on about doing that.

Committment! As my sensei says "Commit to the attack build your Ki (inner energy)" I did just that and I felt relieved as I began to mimic Kendo attacks.

Unfortunately where I work at is a cafe so I couldnt do that all day lol.

I guess if you try hard enough anything is possible, but you need the mindset. So braggers you talk crap are nothing unless their mind is in the right position. People who think they are sick are going to feel sick.

I guess I can use this as a lesson or two in disciplining my mind. My mind is weak but hopefully with practice I can get stronger lol.

I sound so cliche :).

It begins...

I have decided to create a blog not to get caught up with the whole trend of … oh wow I have a blog and mine is cooler then yours.

The main reason is recently I got frustrated since I wasn’t able to do Kendo, due to injury, and began to do some Kendo (martial arts) “cuts” (slashes) at home. Instead of doing 100 cuts I decided to do 1000. By doing so I shot my nerve and messed up my arm (its much better now : ) ).

Because of this incident I plan on posting about Kendo, life, religion. Hopefully I will be able to succeed in becoming a better person.

Hopefully things will get better…..