Pied Piper of Martial Arts- Part Two
Continued from Pied Piper of Martial Arts- Richard “Biggie” Kim Part One..
Buddhidharma and Martial Arts
It is well known that most oriental martial arts can be traced back to Buddhidharma who was a Buddhist monk that lived during the 5th or 6th century. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to Chinese legend, he also began the physical training of the monks of Shaolin Monastery that led to the creation of Shaolin Kung Fu. However in Japan, he is known as Daruma.
From here martial arts spread throughout China, Okinawa, and Japan and then to the western world. But this propagation was mostly the physical martial arts that we know today.
There was of course the input of the mental, spiritual, and physical aspects that never quite were spread the same as the physical.
Today still in the Shaolin Temple the monks practice the physical but they also practice Buddhism and the medicine of these old ways. Hence they still develop the body, mind, and spirit.
A great samurai’s contribution
Odagiri Ichiuns contribution was that he was the first to articulate what we now think is obvious but it is still true today, “Strong beats the weak” and this is not just physically but mentally and spiritually as well.
Women samurai
Some have asked if any woman ever became samurai? Yes, Tomoe Gozen was a vicious samurai; this woman killed 67 men in combat. She became a general she was so highly respected.
Three Types of students
There are three types of students you will encounter in your teaching. The first is the one who you teach and he still does not do what you have taught him. The second is the one who you teach and he does it correctly there after. The third is the student who you do not have to teach and he does it.This is obviously the best student as he is watching you teach others and he picks it up and makes the corrections in himself immediately.These are rare.
Three types of opponents
In martial arts there are three types of opponents. The first is inferior to you. The second is your equal. The third is the one who is superior to you. You always train to beat the one who is superior to you.The first one you can already beat and there will always be someone who is your equal. However the game is to move as many of the superior fighters into the equal class and then the equal fighters into the inferior class. This is a very old samurai philosophy. Never forget this one it is very important.
Secret of the samurai
One of the secrets of the samurai is if you have a good laugh in the morning, you will have a good day. You see the body chemistry changes when you do this. Everything turns positive in the body when you laugh. There is a deterioration of the vital organs with anger, because there is no vent.
Sensei Kim was most certainly not above controversy and perhaps Patrick McCarthy says it best in his testimonial of Sensei Kim when he said "a genius is rarely acknowledged during his or her own lifetime, but if there is any truth in the expression “tall trees provoke the pride of strong winds,” then Richard Kim was unquestionably the tallest tree within the forest of karate-do”.
Its sensei’s like Richard “Biggie” Kim that unfortunately no longer exist or should I say even more rarely exist today, that have lead to the creation of this new book that some have said could very well be a turning point where martial arts reverts back to the way it was prior to the start of WW2.
His natural charisma as he acknowledged others, found common denominators in people, he educated them and he surely entertained. Plus his ability to understand the human like no one else lead Black Belt Magazine to nick name him and rightfully so “The Pied Piper of Martial Arts”.
