There is a story in Hindu mythology: a white ocean that is churned and churned until the beautiful gems it hides are brought to the surface. One of these gems is Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and wealth...the kind that comes from churning ourselves until the gems hidden inside of us are brought to the surface.
Martial arts, as I teach it, is an excavation of one's Self, one's soul.
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Too often in our society, we focus on the "martial" aspect of the art: the physical violence meant to destroy or control another. What if the only real opponent in your life is you? Your stories, ego reactions, patterns- all of which make us feel Unsafe and Defensive. What then is Self defense?
I offer you this: For every means of destruction and violence, there is also healing and acceptance. That our deepest learning of destruction is when we also learn and experience healing. By immersing ourselves in the paradox, we uncover wisdom, compassion, balance, free will, and choice.
The Story of White Ocean Arts
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Our assumptions of martial arts echo words like punch, kick, belt ranks, competition, power, force, fighting.The position I teach my students from flips that over and turns it in on itself. By understanding and facing our capacity for harm, we provide a platform to deeply learn respect, compassion, and self-worth. We change our ego from Reactive to Presently Engaged.
What I present to my students is simple: By the time we master the skills of martial arts, we find ourselves in a place where we do not feel the desire to use it on another being.
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I began my own training as a child when I began dance lessons in Bharatnatyam -- it was my introduction to stances and mudras. I could feel the flow of energy in my body and the power I wielded through disciplining my body. At the age of 14 years, I attended my first 10 day Vipassana meditation course.
This experience completely changed how I viewed the world and my role in it. Through ongoing practice and courses, I began to understand that my biggest adversary, the cause of so much suffering, was my own ego.
The catalyst for my 21 year study in Kenpo was a search for connection between body-mind-spirit through movement. Kenpo is a fierce and fiery, hard style martial art, in which I trained in a curriculum that presented me with a 5th degree black belt. In this study, my heart lay within the Katas- Forms defined by a sequence of intentional motions. In katas, I could feel the physical power I experienced through Indian dance, with the mental focus and internal sensing I developed through my years of sitting meditation. The more I sank into Katas, as a student and teacher, the more I began to excavate myself, to find connections between ancient practices and my body-mind-spirit in present day.
Are You Ready?
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Yet, I still felt something was missing in the practice: a gap between texts of Taoism and Buddhism presented in martial arts philosophy, and the physical practice. The knowledge of the body and the knowledge of the mind were both present, but remained disconnected in how it was taught and applied in daily life. Intentional integration is how deeper meaning of this practice could be brought to the surface, but what was the connecting thread?
About 10 years into my Kenpo training, I had the opportunity to begin practicing Tai Chi, picking it up quickly, I was soon given the opportunity to teach. I began to deepen my study into Qigong- the disciplined study of Qi (Chi) or life force. It is in this study I found the missing piece needed to bring forward the connection: a surrender and connection into Oneself, the practice, and nature.
The texts we look to are not philosophical contemplations of the mind, but spiritual practices that bring the mind into the body. By asking the student to discover their wisdom through the body, it naturally settles into the mind. There is surrender in this process- a willingness to be present, uncomfortable, vulnerable, reflect, and shed who we think we are in order to reveal our true brilliance.
To be a student in White Ocean Healing and Martial Arts, is churning the ocean within one's self. It places before you the embodiment of energy, and transformation. It is Alchemy, using the body as the medium and the tool.
Are you ready?