The Zen Punch of Kitabu Roshi (Vernon KitabuTurner)

To achieve No-Mind is to free The Spirit to act without impediment.
Jesus also spoke of this phenomenon. Zen is not a Religion. When you experience
the truth of your nature directly and act upon it without hesitation your action
is focused, spontaneous and effortless. Jesus taught his diciples to "take no
thought" so that The Father, The Supreme, might act through them. I see the
means of Zen as tools for breaking down the greatest wall blocking The Path.
The ego-mind is the most persistent demon of them all.

I am grateful to the spiritual warriors of Asia for pointing to what
lies within us . It is with gratitude that I wholeheartedly embrace the
Tathagatha within my own skin, looking neither to the left nor to the right, I
summon him at will. The punch you see is just so. Where does it come from and
how? The sun hung in the universe before there was anyone on earth to see
it. The vast waters swelled into waves and crashed on the shores without
intention. Like lightening flashing where it wills when it wills so is this
punch. It just comes. I am a student of The Way. I yield to the Author of All
Things to experience my true being. I do not need words for this. I sit
and stand, I walk, I lie down. I find these acts to be fascinating. Many people
try to trace my Martial roots to a land or a style. What is the origin of God or
the source of Tao? Discover that and your Zen punch will come without a
trace.

We are all included in this. Zen is just a word for awakening
something fundamental to our true being. We have lost connection with living
soul. The passive path is comforting but I prefer to mount the sky and
wrestle with dragons. This is not the easy path of your mother and father but it
is the path of those who prefer to be "sons" of God rather than mere peitioners
of God. "He leadeth me besides still waters, he restoreth my soul..." The Lord
meets us half way. Restoring the mind...that is what we refer to as Zen
practice. The Zen warror applies his discipline to his own mind and body. One
day he will hurdle the wall of ego and be free.

Kitabu Roshi

Dancing:The Way of Warriors

I never imagined that I would teach a Martial path or Zen for that matter but I grew up in a Christian church under the guidance of Christian parents, so the possibility of being a preacher was not so difficult a stretch. The spiritual path is foremost a personal path. It is not based on what others think of your approach or what you might say about it that is most important. A spiritual path is the distance between the delusion of carnal (flesh-centered) mind and the transformation to a mind that is inseparable from our spiritual nature. Words divide us from the experience and so people sacrifice their own enlightenment to control or define the activity of others.

There is no different between what some call the Martial arts and dance or worship for me. I celebrate the Creator of my life in many ways. The Warrior Way or Zen Mushin Ryu, as I call it is a dance of celebration and devotion. After several days of teaching at Aikido Maastricht in Holland, I shared this spirit with those who attended my Sword of The Spirit Seminar. Sensei Rob Vincken sponsored the event.

OCEAN OF THE SPIRIT