Mats blog

Last week I was in Germany for the annual Buyukai. I had a great time, I met many old friends and also made new friends. I would like to say thanks to everyone showing interest, to the staff who made a good job, and special thanks to Holger (nice to get to know you) and Steffen and Sabine for inviting me and taking care of me! I had a really good time :-)

In the old times the warriors went out from their relatively safe environment in their own dojo to meet other warriors to learn more about themselves, budo, culture etc. I don't believe they went out on the roads and started fights to prove themselves against others, I'm sure the reason was more to learn stuff from others. Because there is a limit how much you can learn in the dojo, if you want to expand beyond that you have to go outside your dojo and meet others.

Going to seminars today is a safer and better way to learn more than you can in your own dojo. Meet other people and train with people you never met before. This is what I would like to call modern day musha-shugyou.

Neglecting to let yourself be influenced by others is a sure way of strengthening your own ego, then how do you think that you ever can let go and become zero in budo. In my opinion this goes hand in hand, so my advice is, go to seminars more!

For more pictures check out the Buyu-kai website... http://www.buyu-kai.de