Ko Do Ryu Zen non violent Karate

At interfaith Soc on Tuesday 6 Oct, Oxana gave a talk on Zen non violent Karate, and some demonstrations by Oxana and Elliot, both black belts in the tradition.

She did pushing hands practice with a partner, walking practice while keeping hands in contact, on one foot always the weight is shifted, since hands in contact so if one moves away the other anticipates, and if one pushes the other yields) and the kata or form (including Rakusu and another series of postures or choreography).

Oxana said how this practice helps of conquer fear, walk with centre and balance and increase self confidence, spoke about taoism links, about the silk or point of contact with other person, about how one can make fast progress to Black Belt level in 3 years or less in this style. The practice is free, on every thursday 6 pm in Arts building.

Dec 5: Interfaith workshop

Today, in the interfaith society meeting, we had an interfaith workshop as scheduled.

Nassim and Anisa conducted a nice and soothing Tranquility Zone with music and Bahai quotes about unity in religion, and then spoke a little about what the Bahai faith is all about, including its principles of unity of God, unity of religion etc. Unfortunately Kalpa from Hindu soc couldnt make it, but Joy gave a small talk on Hinduism and its rich variety of beliefs (including about God and the various aspects and forms of God to suit people of various personalities) and meditations (such as meditating on OM and in the full lotus posture), and and a taster of "Who am I" meditation. Kevin, John and Claire gave a short speech on Christianity and its diversity and what it meant to them, and also about the love and sacrifice of Jesus for all mankind and his perfection and that Christianity is also about life before death, as in the Christian Aid slogan. Oxana spoke about how she became a Buddhist and about gender equality in Buddhism, and about a Zen Buddhism inspired martial art called Ko Do Ryu which is completely non violent, the idea being to not attack the other person but use their own force to skillfully defend oneself, and how this philosophy of giving way to others resonates with the Zen Buddhist attitude of letting things be and just sitting. Finally, Oxana gave a nice demonstration of the martial art for those of us who were there, including a few simple forms or Kata (sanchin and seisan) and their application in sparring, and an introduction to the pushing hands technique. It was especially interesting to see how keeping the hand in physical contact with the other person helped to anticipate their movements. You can see more from http://www.kodoryu.com/kobudo.php

Earlier we had a meeting with Natalie and Hana, and decided to meet again (probably last meeting of the year) for next Tuesday at 5 pm and finalise the arrangements for the interfaith society. We also decided that future interfaith society meetings will be from 5 pm - 6 pm. I hope it will make it easier for some of you to attend, who are busy at other times.

We also agreed that its best not to have a formal hierarchy of people to run the interfaith society, but rather to have at least one representative from major world religions in the committee, more than one is also not a problem. The provisional representatives from different religions at present are as follows (maybe later once the society gets established and gets lots of members, we will have a formal election):
Islamic rep: Hana Jewish Rep: Natalie Buddhist rep: Oxana
Christian rep: Kevin Hindu rep: Kalpa Bahai rep: Nicholas, Anisa
Sikh rep: Not decided yet