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Shukan News 11th April
Monday 11th April 2011
If you have any contribution for the Shukan News (story, photograph, video), please send it via email to gary@garyweigh.com
1. Classes over Easter
Classes at Nathan dojo will be held as normal over Easter. There will be classes on Saturday 23rd April and there will also be an evening class on Tuesday 26th which is a public holiday in lieu of Anzac Day on the 25th.
There will be no classes at Everton Hills dojo over Easter as the PCYC will be closed. The classes affected will be the Saturday classes and the Monday evening class. All of our Everton Hills friends are welcome at Nathan dojo.
2. Meditation reduces pain
The text below was reproduced from the Wake Forest Medical Centre’s website. http://www.wakehealth.edu
Meditation produces powerful pain-relieving effects in the brain, according to new research published in the April 6 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience.
“This is the first study to show that only a little over an hour of meditation training can dramatically reduce both the experience of pain and pain-related brain activation,” said Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., lead author of the study and post-doctoral research fellow at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
“We found a big effect – about a 40 percent reduction in pain intensity and a 57 percent reduction in pain unpleasantness. Meditation produced a greater reduction in pain than even morphine or other pain-relieving drugs, which typically reduce pain ratings by about 25 percent.”
To read the full article go to:
To learn more about meditation:
http://health.ninemsn.com.au/pamper/sleepcentre/689866/meditation
http://health.ninemsn.com.au/tags.aspx?domain=site&tags=Meditation%7cThemes
3. From the library
‘It’s a lot like dancing… an aikido journey’ by Terry Dobson (p141)
Terry Dobson (1937 – 1992)
One reveals oneself in the way one bows. In the Aikido dojo, you bow when you enter and when you come onto the mat. The spirit in which you bow is very important; you reveal yourself by the way you bow. An empty bow, while better then not bowing at all, is essentially worthless. As you bend at the waist and at the neck, you want to experience a feeling of vulnerability and humility. Your bow makes you an empty vessel into which knowledge can be poured. I used to be a terror at bowing; I would throw a student off the mat for an empty bow. It happened to me once.
One teacher caught me in a flippant bow and hauled me up for my arrogance. He refused to let me finish the class and sent me off in disgrace. It took me about three weeks to get over the embarrassment and go back to class. You can bet that when I did go back, I tried to bow as deeply and sincerely as I could. One time I drew a bow that had to be a world-class bow. I was right there. My whole spirit was right there. When I came up, I saw him give a smile of satisfaction which he tried hard to conceal.
If you bow well to a partner, to somebody who doesn’t know you, that person will immediately become fully conscious of you. The bow is really the soul of the art. Too often beginners think it is a legalistic interference, some kind of quaint custom that has to be gotten through quickly.
You bow when you get on the mat. You bow to your teacher every time he comes by and says something to you. You thank him. You thank your partner for any instruction given to you. Should you unconsciously be the cause of injury to another person, bow to them. Should another person cause you injury, bow to him as well. Thank him for the experience. When in doubt, bow.
Check out Terry Dobson’s website at http://www.terrydobson.com.
Read Terry Dobson’s Famous Tokyo Train Story at http://www.terrydobson.com/pages/train.html
There is a great B&W 8:35 video on the site which shows Koichi Tohei Sensei as the main teacher and Terry Dobson as a student (the attacker in street clothes).
See it at http://www.terrydobson.com/pages/media.html
4. Thought for the week
One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train. Morihei Ueshiba