direct experience

In my training with Sensei Tatsuo Shimabuku on Okinawa in 1959-60, I learned Isshinryu (the Way of One HeartMind) through direct experience. I wish to emphasize that word "experience." Shimabuku Sensei spoke little. He taught through example and presence. Energy exchanges gave meaning to form. Form and meaning and energetic flow were one.

Each of us American Marines who returned to the states then taught Isshinryu in our own energetic image. The forms (katas) may have stayed the same (though even there were differences) but the style and impact of teaching took on the coloration of the particular student. Some students opened dojos and eventually took on the title of Masters and Grandmasters. Their students and the students of those students shaped the energetic flow of the teachings into their own form, understanding, and capacity. And so it goes.

Isshinryu evolves, changes, transforms itself as it goes. Sometimes it rests in shallow pools; other times in waterfalls and deep oceans; at times it merges with other currents and becomes more than and other than the teachings and energy of Tatsuo Shimabuku.

This is the way life is. Whatever teaching we receive in any realm - martial, healing, spiritual -- has gone through and goes through this process. The more a martial or other teaching is removed from its founder, the greater the dogma and the number of denominations. At least two things are needed to keep the deep core energetic flow alive: the capacity and will of its current practitioners and the practical effect of their teachings. How can you tell a good martial art, healing art, or spiritual art teacher? By their direct presence as they teach with no words.