N
ninjaJim
Guest
Hello All,
This should be an interesting post... It's my first! "NinjaJim" was a nickname they gave me in high school. Seemed fitting to use it as a sign in. Hopefully this post will shed light on what Traditional Ninjustsu is... or might be. Apologies in advance for the long post.
Since the early '80's I wanted to learn ninjutsu. I bought all of the Stephen K Hayes books and after digesting them went on to train under one of SKH's students, Mark Russo. During my tutelage I got to meet and train with Steve and Bud M on a few occasions. The training was excellent and helped me become the man I am today. In hindsight there are no regrets and I'm very grateful to have evolved as I did. After three and a half years I was 6th kyu. This was when I left, after having fully realized the politics, business and exoteric/esoteric nature of the art purported to be Ninjutsu.
Here is my explanation of the realization I had and why something this harsh would be said... (Followed by an explanation of esoteric and exoteric differences
Probably the most important thing to understand is that instructors are like the rest of us... they need money to survive. To do this they need to market their product first which means that the product is subject to change. This "product change" is what I have witnessed over the years and although change is good it can also be bad.
What should concern us more is why people pursue the product known as Ninjutsu. There are few who understand what it is really about and fewer who initiate their path for the reason the art was intended for. Perhaps by learning what brought the subversive practices about in days of old one would clearly understand what it meant to be a ninja.
The basic story of the ninja revolves around Buddhist "magic" and the need for leaders to control who possessed this magic. You see, there were/are different teachings for different people who seek enlightenment. There are general teachings for the masses and specialized teachings for a selected few. The problem is that the commoners gained access to the "good stuff". A modern equivalent would be a group in America owning a munitions depot with the latest fighter jets, tanks, etc... That would make any government nervous right?? Well the feudal lords couldn't stand the potential threat and were driven to erase the teachings and those that knew them... Enter the Ninja!!!! (God I love using a cheesy Hollywood title like this) In a very short time the monks and disciples had to get some control of their situation. Desperate times call for desperate measures and innovative approaches to overwhelming problems... Problems like, "Hey Joe we have 10,000 Heike troops coming to level the village. What do we do?"
The rest is history.
What we have today is a society where enlightenment is pursuable without fear of death. There is no need to don night vision and IR invisible khakis or to even think about physically defending our pursuits. In short, there is not a need to train as ninja did in the past. Perhaps the only good reason to train is if the movements should assist in the elevation of one's consciousness.
The final and most important point is about esoteric and exoteric teachings. Put simply only a handful of a group of students are taught the special teachings. This is to say that one must make one hell of an impression on one's instructor before that person chooses to share the special knowledge. (All this is assuming that the instructor has anything special to disseminate) Look around your training group and you can probably see the "favorites". Look further into that small group and you'll see the chosen few. Look at what the few are attaining and decide if this is the path you want to walk.
Knowing this may save you a lot of effort in your pursuit.
Could write lots more but will see where this goes.
Jim
PS: Could you imagine what the training curriculum and tests would be like if pursuit of certain teachings was punishable by death in this day and age??!!
This should be an interesting post... It's my first! "NinjaJim" was a nickname they gave me in high school. Seemed fitting to use it as a sign in. Hopefully this post will shed light on what Traditional Ninjustsu is... or might be. Apologies in advance for the long post.
Since the early '80's I wanted to learn ninjutsu. I bought all of the Stephen K Hayes books and after digesting them went on to train under one of SKH's students, Mark Russo. During my tutelage I got to meet and train with Steve and Bud M on a few occasions. The training was excellent and helped me become the man I am today. In hindsight there are no regrets and I'm very grateful to have evolved as I did. After three and a half years I was 6th kyu. This was when I left, after having fully realized the politics, business and exoteric/esoteric nature of the art purported to be Ninjutsu.
Here is my explanation of the realization I had and why something this harsh would be said... (Followed by an explanation of esoteric and exoteric differences
Probably the most important thing to understand is that instructors are like the rest of us... they need money to survive. To do this they need to market their product first which means that the product is subject to change. This "product change" is what I have witnessed over the years and although change is good it can also be bad.
What should concern us more is why people pursue the product known as Ninjutsu. There are few who understand what it is really about and fewer who initiate their path for the reason the art was intended for. Perhaps by learning what brought the subversive practices about in days of old one would clearly understand what it meant to be a ninja.
The basic story of the ninja revolves around Buddhist "magic" and the need for leaders to control who possessed this magic. You see, there were/are different teachings for different people who seek enlightenment. There are general teachings for the masses and specialized teachings for a selected few. The problem is that the commoners gained access to the "good stuff". A modern equivalent would be a group in America owning a munitions depot with the latest fighter jets, tanks, etc... That would make any government nervous right?? Well the feudal lords couldn't stand the potential threat and were driven to erase the teachings and those that knew them... Enter the Ninja!!!! (God I love using a cheesy Hollywood title like this) In a very short time the monks and disciples had to get some control of their situation. Desperate times call for desperate measures and innovative approaches to overwhelming problems... Problems like, "Hey Joe we have 10,000 Heike troops coming to level the village. What do we do?"
The rest is history.
What we have today is a society where enlightenment is pursuable without fear of death. There is no need to don night vision and IR invisible khakis or to even think about physically defending our pursuits. In short, there is not a need to train as ninja did in the past. Perhaps the only good reason to train is if the movements should assist in the elevation of one's consciousness.
The final and most important point is about esoteric and exoteric teachings. Put simply only a handful of a group of students are taught the special teachings. This is to say that one must make one hell of an impression on one's instructor before that person chooses to share the special knowledge. (All this is assuming that the instructor has anything special to disseminate) Look around your training group and you can probably see the "favorites". Look further into that small group and you'll see the chosen few. Look at what the few are attaining and decide if this is the path you want to walk.
Knowing this may save you a lot of effort in your pursuit.
Could write lots more but will see where this goes.
Jim
PS: Could you imagine what the training curriculum and tests would be like if pursuit of certain teachings was punishable by death in this day and age??!!
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