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STORY OF SAKURA DOJO |
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Sakura
Dojo had its origin in Salamanca (Spain), in 1972, being an enterprise
from businessman Mr. José Hernández, who wanted to open a centre that
had, as main activities, massages, aesthetics, female gymnastics (only for
women), and Martial Arts. The
Dojo was at first sited in José Jáuregui Street, until the end of the
academic year of 1975. Then, it renewed its activities in C/
Gómez Arias 7, 37005 Salamanca (SPAIN) where
it has been sited until today. Since then, in this new placement the dojo
is owned by Master Boulafha Mimoun, who, until then, was only an
instructor. Shortly after, the name of the dojo became Sakura Taka kan,
whose literal translation is:
Philosophical Interpretation of the name
Sakura
It stands for the Beauty and the Death. In
the flower of the cherry tree, Beauty and Death goes one after the other
very quickly. Beauty
stands for Life. Studying and practising of Martial Arts is based on the
instinct of survival. Death,
somehow implicit in the
former concept, but in a opposite sense, is present in all acts of our
lifes. When
we guide them., in the look for Inner Peace, we cause that, in every time,
our behaviors agree with the laws of Nature and the Univer; not as
something that is going to happen but as something that happens. That is
to say, its is a real feeling. We
can remember here a Samurai precept, that is: “I
haven’t got neither Life nor Death. I make Life and Death eternals.” Take It
stands for flexibiliy,
hardness and the void. Why
flexibility? Bamboo adapts itself to all situations, always retrieving its
original position. Why hardness? In its vertical position, bamboo is hard
and sharp. Why void? Void is represented by its inner part. Because
of all this reasons, “Take” reminds us these points, which are the
essentials for the practising of every Martial Art. Flexibility
is synonimous with Humbleness, Courtesy, Understanding, Comprehension,
Love, etc.To sum up, absence of Ego. When
we get this, we can applicate contraction or relaxation of the body, at
the appropiate time, for each
situation, deppending on the
circunstances in wich we are. Between
many connotations, we also can remember the perfect equilibrium that must
exist between the Hard and the Soft, with a predomain of the Soft over the
Hard. A
real story.
When
I was begginning in the School of Master Uehara, There was this
conversation between Master
Shimabukuro (pupil of Master Uehara) and me, after the end of a long
journey of training: He: “The
Master (Uehara) says that: ‘Bamboo that goes where the wind takes it,The
sword it cuts it’ ” (this
means that bamboo moves in the direction where it is pushed, like a fickle
person.This interpretation, about one of bamboo’s qualities, has nothing
to do with our concept about the same. Indeed, I wondered about it,
because I never thought about it thay way).
I
replied him: “Yes,
bamboo yields up, but only with the aim of get back to his natural state.
It adapts itself, but it doesn´t take
away from his primal aim.Bamboo moves in the direction ehre the wind takes
it, but always with the same aim: the armony with its enviroment. It never
uses this quality against its habitat or against the laws of Nature. What
Mr. Shimabukuro misunderstood was, in words from Master Uehara: “Time
will show that bamboo will break the Swors”. That is to say, the goal of
Bamboo is, in the end , the survival, without being in contradiction to
laws of Nature and the Universe. And although it is shaked, it never moves
from its place”. When
the sword goes to Bamboo, it is as when the wind goes to it (if someone
takes the sword with that, it is as if he was looking for a ghost bamboo.
Even when bamboo is cutted, it is alive in an endless variety of objects
and useful tools. All
of this conversation was with a translator. I don’t know if Mr.
Shimabukuro understood it well, but he went satisfied with the answer, and
I believe that he should tell it to the Master. If
we suppose that the Hard is the Death, and the Soft is the Life, we can
say that: A
person is soft when he/she is born, and he is Hard when he/she dies. So
he/she must fight to preserve his
flexibility, not only from the point of view of the physical, but also
from the point of view of the mental and the spiritual. If someone hasn’t
gote flexibility about one of these aspects, he will never get the real
flexibility. In
this case (the soft) we are talking about the japanese concept represented
by the word “JU”. The
Hard. ·
The hard: bearing in mind the concept that we had said. ·The
hard: it is unavoidable, because the one is implicit to the other. The
hard is unavoidable, real and pragmatic. It’s because of this that the
man spends all his live, being conscient or not, about fighting against
this part of his existence. It’s
the instinct for survival, wich we can see in all beings, alive or not, is
the clear proof that every has a tendency to fight against hardness or
death. To
see the true relaxation, let’s just see the animals when they walk, they
rest, they hunt, they fight, etc. Don’t
forget that Martial Arts had always tried to imitate, with its movements,
to certain animals (Five elements, Five animals). In
Yoga, that is the union of the Being with the Universe, they use
a series of methods and disciplines, both mental and physical, to
reach immortality. Life
establishes itself according to the chakras (wheels). These interconnect
between themselves in an ascending or descending way, deppending on the
energy we are working with. Each chakra has its own characteristics. One
of these is that each chakra has its representative element. They go from
the solidest to the Void: the ground (survival), water (duality), fire (transformation),
air (love), ether, etc. In
Yoga there are several ways, and all of them have in common the tendency
to immortality. In Hata yoga, the postures have the aim of to break the
body stiffness, bringing together the Physique and the Mind. This one, in
its effort to improve, wants more and more, but the Body is conditioned by
its limts: pain, tiredness, etc. at the same time, the Breath acts like a
mediatior between them. It makes that pain and all the negative effects of
effort have their reward in the calm and the peace, to wich carries a
perfect respiration. After the strain, every training session end with the
relaxation and the meditatio, wich are opposite to the Hard. The
Asanas ( Yoga postures) have, in most of them, the names of the animals
that they try to imitate. The
Being has a tendency, in his fight fior survival and immortality, of
trying to defeat the Hard. This tendency is innate in all the beings in
this planet,in a more primary or more advanced state of the Being. This
goes, by a great variety of ways, to immortality. So, THE BEING must
condition and domain the Hard, from an entire point of view of it. How
is it possible, that no being wants to die? The
Hard can be represented by the Strained, the Violent, the Crying, the
Ignorance, the Death, and a lot more besides. All of them exist in real
life, and to try to hide it would
be deceitful. All these concepts, like the Strain, the Violence, etc, have
their opposite. So, we have the following:
And
much more, but these are sufficientfor what we want to express. Note: Some
thinkers say that the Hardness is, itself, the Ethernal. The
Void Against
what many people think, the Void that we are talking about has much
content. The great achievements are carried out after an exhaustivve study
and practice, and usually after a long period of time, results that change
hummanity are reached (although, some times, some results are reached only
by chance). We
understand this because most of people use the reason to solve, create,
and for all the acts in their daily life, reaching the point of losing
part of their animal instincts in favor of their reason. Unfortunately,
this is a very widespread mistake. Because, how can people use their
reason if they don’t know (or they misunderstand it) the sense of words
thay they use to
solve their own doubts? It
may look strange, but, if we ask someone wich is the difference between to
see and to watch, we would wonder about the results. There
are certain studies, like one from the
Koans, that consist in a set of short questions, whose answers
haven’t got an easy rational solution. The disciples spend hours, and
even months or years, to find out the accurate answer, that, in most
cases, they are not reasonable but absurd answers. The
goal of this method is to teach to reason for stopping to do it. As
for martial Arts, there is something similar. The pupil repeats again and
again, and so on. They reason and memorize it for, in the final hour,
every dissappear and arise from the non-Reason. The
act of repeating is know in Japanese as Mo-Ichi- Do, that means “again”.
So, When a Master is requested about something, this always answers: “Mo-Ichi-Do”.
When
I ask my pupils which is the secret technique, They answer me: “TO
REPEAT AND REPEAT”. To
end this introduction, we think that it is essential the retrieval of all
the animal instincts of the Being, to let them, without exception,
germinate and grow, and for being able to feel and enjoy the Nature in its,
forgive the repetition, natural state. The instincts must give us the
first information, wich must be recuperated for sharping all their
functions. With this, we will retrieve our animal part. From
my several talks to my pupils and other people, I came to the conclusion
that most of them place the rational rather than
the animal. To what extent the ignorant man is conceited. In
the animal and in the physical, one must go to up to the end , in order
that, when he/she uses the reason, the instinct avoids many mistakes. “THE
MAN IS ANIMAL, AND THEREFORE INSTINCT” The man goes to rational, with all their
connotations, when he uses the reason, resulting in what is known as
“rational animal”. And, so… “THE NORMAL MAN IS
RATIONAL” Here , we
find out many new things, and amongst them there are not few doubts… One of them is that the man is
conscious about his limitations, wich tries to sustitute with his own
creations. In most cases, that implies to go to the detriment of his own
existence. The senses, in this stage of the being,
discover a new member: the spirit. This one tries to mitigate the handicap
of the other senses, acting as a mediator between them. And the most
important thing is that this sense, the spirit, is the one thas has a true
and close relation with the infinite energies , as the telluric and
celestial, wich constitute what is known as infinite energy. For those of us who like to reason, we must
remember that “to know” is not the same as “to be acquaninted “.
“To be acquainted” is related with the finite, whereas “to know”
is represented with the infinite. The essence of the Void is well represented
by this Saint Augustine’s sentence. “Love
God and do whatever you want” Or that from Budda: “Kill
yourself and do whatever you want” Or, let’s remember this definition of God
from muslims: In
the name of God the merciful, he that moves to pity He
is God, The Only, God the Ethernal
He
neither breed nor was breeded And
to Him no one is equal. “THE
WISE MAN IS INTUITIVE”
- The absence of Ego. - The non-intention. The Void , complete and infinite, wich I am
talking about, is that wich comes from the conjunction of the telluric and
celestial energies in the Being and in the All (infinite Energy). Some of the Samurai’s sentences are:
In a first stage, there is the Being with itself. After,
the Being with the Planet; the Being, the Planet and the Galaxy; the Being,
Planet, Galaxy and other galaxies. By a deductive or inductive method, there is
a way from infinitesimal to infinite, and from infinite to infinitesimal. DOJO
– NO – KUM We
believe in the force of nature, both in the real and in the Complete. In
night and day In
the White and the Black The
Ying and the Yang. We
are By
the Way of the JUTSU (Warrior) and the DO (Way or Spirituality). We
respect the young masters, and we venerate the aged masters. We
are the force of Nature. We
are the energy of the Universe. Courage Courtesy Integrity Humbleness Control
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