‘Stay Out of Your Future’: An Pan Samurai Man

12 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by in Deliberate Practice, Japanese Culture, Mind, Samurai Time Management

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The other day I was having dinner and watching An Pan Man with my two daughters, who we are raising bilingually.   (An Pan Man is an anthropomorphized pastry hero who helps out his other pastry related characters in their struggles against their “nemesis” Vaikin-man. —  Yeah, that’s all part of the charm of Japanese characters.)   As I was watching my daughters watching the television, I was starting to get stressed out by the fact that I wasn’t understanding a lot of the Japanese.  After all of these years, shouldn’t I understand what my daughters already understand?  (Though I was making a big assumption that they understood everything.)   “Shouldn’t I already be there?”  I thought.

For a minute I channeled Steve Chandler, who has written, “Stay out of your future.”  The past is done.  The future hasn’t happened yet.  The only moment that you can be in is the moment you are in now.   The trick is to stay awake in that moment.   It’s the only moment we have.   When I remembered that, I decided to just listen to the cartoon calmly rather than listen to my self-talk about not being worthy or accomplished.  If I could string more moments like that together, I would be a lot more fluent.   (Check out what AJATT has to say on surfing the line between patience and impatience.)  Each present moment helps create a little archipelago where life, idea, and skills can flourish.

Photo source: unprofound.com. Every step forward creates a little island of progress, skill, memory. Progress may seem geologic but every step you take changes the landscape.

In real-life I can be a hot mess, but on this blog I get to be the wise samurai man.   Put this in your pipeline and surf it:

  • Stay present.   Breathe.
  • When you aren’t “present” don’t beat yourself up.  Are you going to waste a present moment by beating yourself up for not staying in the present?
  • Don’t flagellate yourself for not practicing, just practice.   Be aware.  Practice badly, but just practice.  You will refine your practice when you stop beating yourself up.
  • Don’t try to create a whole continent of being present.   Be pleased with your little islands of present moments until you’ve made your ever expanding Hawaii of skill, fun, and contribution.

Surf the present moments.  Fall.  Get up again.  Look at the waves.  Look at the sun.  Every day is a new day.  Hang ten.  (Whatever that means.) 🙂

Little Moves, Great Power: Lessons from the Cowardly Samurai

26 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by in Body, Deliberate Practice, Mind

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If I were to really be a samurai, I would probably be a samurai during the Tokugawa era, when the country was pretty much unified and most samurai were bureaucrats sitting around in the entertainment district trying to write haiku or decide which spot would be best for lunch.   Everything I learned about the fighting arts I learned from two weeks of Aikido. (and when I got tricked into learning to fight by a slow moving Chinese guy–see below)   I left my gi at the dojo almost 18 years ago.  If you see it,  it’s mine.

This is the only evidence of my martial arts “prowess.” I stopped going to the Tai Chi studio over five years ago, however I still do a set of exercises called Nei Kung. I also dispense advice based on my superficial knowledge of these arts. 🙂

I may not have a fighting license, but I do have a poetic license which allows me to dispense Aikido life lessons.  If you’d like to skip my stories and metaphors here is the “Little Moves, Great Power” cheat sheet:

  • “stretching” is activity
  • you have to learn how to fall
  • a little each day is better than nothing
  • slow helps you go fast
  • one small mastered move can transform the potential of your power
  • you don’t always have to fight head-on– roll with the force of the obstacles
  • stay grounded but loose

“Stretching” is activity/learning

When I started Aikido, I thought it was pretty funny that we started the class with little hand stretches.  One of them involved putting the thumb of one hand on the back of the palm and torking the wrist a little bit.   Then I saw one of the master teachers use that very hand stretch to flip a dude on to his back.   Don’t underestimate the power of whatever stretch activity is part of what you are trying to expand in your life.   Guitar scales and warm ups have the power to transform your playing.  Brainstorming and free-writing could change the way you write.  Shadowing, babbling, and playing around can put the sizzle in learning a foreign language.

 

You have to learn how to fall

In addition to those puny little hand stretches, the Aikido folks also practice how to fall.  They practice rolling into the falls to avoid injury and also as a defensive/offensive strategy.  What a perfect metaphor for learning.   When it “doesn’t work out” how are you going to fall?  Ready to spring up again and try a different approach or are you going to leave your uniform at the dojo and never return again? (Like a certain person I know?)

A little each day is powerful

Many years later I stumbled across a Tai Chi center near my old neighborhood in Hell’s Kitchen.  Hey, this is Tai Chi, I thought, it’s gotta be easy.  C.K. Chu, the sifu, would come around and teach me a new move each day I came and I kept adding to the form.  Uhm, ouch.

I stumbled on to the Tai Chi Chuan Center in the late 90’s. A wonderful, quiet place in the heart of Times Square, with dedicated but not pushy teachers and students. Photo from http://www.ckchutaichi.com/chu.shtml.

Slow helps you go fast

Eventually I learned that if you sped up the Tai Chi form it is actually a fighting art.  I thought Tai Chi was something I could do while my crystals were getting patchoulied.  But then one day sifu showed us how those curvy little moves are actually powerful thrusts and parries.   Big surprise.  Going slow can be challenging and helpful in many fields.  In guitar, using a metronome and practicing difficult moves at a very slow tempo and then graduating to a faster tempo can build accuracy and fluency.

Khatzumoto at AJATT is quick to mention the power of small but also mentions that you shouldn’t wait for magic bullets and magic methods.  He suggests in “Three Minutes Of . . .” that you work small and:

  • Don’t hold your breath until you figure out some mythical, I dunno, “Aryuvedic”, “correct” way of breathing
  • Don’t stop drinking water until you analyze every brand that exists
  • Don’t get it right. Get it started. Don’t get it good. Get it going. Don’t get it finished. Touch it. Don’t do it. Do three minutes of it.

Don’t wait for your mojo to get to the dojo.

You don’t always have to fight head-on–roll with the force of obstacles

Part of Aikido and Tai Chi/Push hands is learning how to roll with the force of your opponent and use it as part of your defense.  The force of your opponent’s punch with the rightly guided defense move can be used against your opponent.  (At least that’s what they told me 🙂 )   It makes me think that as far as learning tools you need to find ways to roll with the resistances to learning and use them.  Are you too busy reading trashy Hollywood celebrity news to learn French?  Find French celebrity news websites and look at all the trashy pictures.  Two birds. No stone. No killing.

Tai Chi works on more levels than I can write or even know about. It is supposed to activate “chi” and help your health. However, I was surprised by how most of the moves were powerful fighting moves. Key to all of this is staying grounded and fluid at the same time. Image from CK Chu Tai Chi.

Stay grounded but loose

The other day I was talking to a fellow dad at the playground.  He used to be a boxer and he still trains.  We were relaxing and talking while our little ones were playing in the sandbox and he made a point and brushed me on the shoulder.  He nearly knocked me off my feet.   The great ones in any field are grounded in their field but loose.  They “fly like a butterfly but sting like a bee.”  Whatever you are learning, analyze and master the basics but stay loose, stay grounded, find the different angles, and enjoy!

Samurai Swimming: The Importance of “Treading Water”

18 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by in Deliberate Practice, Guitar, Mind, Samurai Time Management

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Sometimes you have to bookmark or tread water with your skill. If you can’t do all guitar all the time, do five minutes. Photo by sudyasheel. http://bit.ly/UChtLh

The other day I was minding my own business and paying attention to @ajatt’s twitter conversation when a rockin’ young ma twitterin’ man named @Mikeylovesrock asked, “Could someone create an @ajatt method for guitar fluency? :p I’d be much obliged.”  I told him that maybe he is the man that everyone is waiting for. Khatzumoto didn’t know Japanese when he began his immersion experience.   Now Khatzumoto has a cool blog helping people all over the world learn Japanese through fun and immersion.

Later on, I suggested some of my posts where I mention guitar.  I also sent Mikeylovesrock a link to Rittor, a Japanese music publication company.   I have a great book from them called (roughly), 100 Hints for Becoming Better in Guitar.

@mikeylovesrock graciously conceded that he would give it a shot when he finished learning Japanese.  I let a few hours pass, thinking about the fact that even Khatzumoto began from nothing and I replied, “fair enough … but what is one thing you could do in guitar? keep strings tuned hold guitar five minutes/day.”  Why wait?

The Importance of “Treading Water”

“Relax your mind and float down stream.” When you are treading water, a relaxed attitude will help you “float” better.  Photo by Jim:  http://bit.ly/S1Kvpd

Even if you have a big learning project underway, I think it is important to “tread water” in the other skills you want to develop.  Why?

  • Your mind loves a challenge and progress is made in minutes of doing rather than not doing.
  • The next skill can become a motivator for continuing and progressing with the on-going learning project.
  • A little bit a day lays the groundwork for more each day and gets your mind thinking like a guitarist/pianist/speaker of French/coder etc.
  • Because it’s just plain old fun.

Tips for “Bookmarking” or Treading Water on a Future Skill

  • use your current learning to shore up future learning–i.e. play around with the guitar books written in Japanese
  • keep the instrument(s) of your future skilled out and “tuned”-take the guitar out of the case, keep it tuned, and just touch it for five minutes
  • have a place in your notebook for future goals, dreams, and skills in your notebook and find fun ways to keep reviewing them in your notebook…create ways to keep bumping into your desired skills
  • if you can’t do five minutes, do one minute.  If you can’t do one minute, do one second.  If you don’t physically pick up your skill, hold it in your mind.  A friend of mine says he practices guitar scales and patterns in his mind when he is too busy being a dad.   Guilt and self-hatred don’t count.
  • create an online flashcard deck for your future skill….even if you just put one card it in the deck it counts

The nice thing about giving advice to other people is that sometimes it spurs you to follow your own advice.  🙂  I blew the dust off my flashcard deck for guitar and landed on Jamplay.com lesson based on an AC/DC song called, “You Shook Me All Night Long.”  For five minutes, the bright lights shone on me as I had my Angus moment.  Of course, this was a four day weekend.  Let’s see if we can sustain the five minutes during the stress of the school year.  In the meantime, stay “tuned.” 🙂

‘No Mind’ and All That Jazz

13 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by in Deliberate Practice, Guitar, Mind

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Remember records? Scratches, hisses, and a true sound. Play. Work. Be real. Don’t judge yourself.  Move forward. Play the jazz of your life.

[Miles] Davis dropped out of Juilliard, after asking permission from his father. In his autobiography, Davis criticized the Juilliard classes for centering too much on the classical European and “white” repertoire. However, he also acknowledged that, while greatly improving his trumpet playing technique, Juilliard helped give him a grounding in music theory that would prove valuable in later years. (yes, its from a wiki)

Whatever you are trying to learn don’t panic, swords wo/man.  Break it down into the simplest moves, repeat, refine.  Then play. No mind.  Find the level between learning technique and improvisation.  Learn your scales so you can improvise.   Learn your scales so you Miles Davis-ize your life, your instrument.   Play around so you want to learn the scales. (I’m speaking metaphorically, of course) Go back to the basics at any point in your journey.  Push so you can let go.  Play around and find the areas where you need to push.

Despite all my best intentions, I have returned to thinking about Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai.  Tom, I just can’t quit you.  In this cinematic tour de force, Cruise is captured by samurai.   His character, Algren (?) is a veteran of the Indian wars and a disillusioned warrior.  Eventually, he buddies up to the samurai and they let him learn how to use a sword.  They show Algren learning all the basic thrusts and parries and eventually he learns how to spar.  Eventually, he spars his nemesis and loses several times.

Algren is frustrated.   A samurai buddy comes up to him and says, “Algren buddy, you’re overthinking this.”  He explains that he needs to get to a spot in his swordsmanship where he has, “no mind.”   This is a place beyond thinking, a relaxed fluid place between pushing and completely letting go.  A place of flow.  Repeat in a cinematic voice with a stirring soundtrack in the back, “No mind.”  (If you want to know more about the connection between samurai and Zen pick from the fluff, junk, and gold here.)  Of course Algren masters “no mind” and Cruise gets the opportunity to do cool swordplay, slow motion moves, and bends would ensure that my chiropractor would have a lot of return business.

Of course, without technique and the basics, Cruise’s character would just be “No mind” mince meat.  And so it goes that in any field that you want to master/play there is an interplay between technique/basics and mastery/play/immersion.  You could just remember all the scales and wait until you play a real song.  You could just start playing songs and never think about scales and the logic behind music that could take you farther.  But both are limited in their own ways.   It’s great when basic knowledge opens up the possibility in play.  It’s great when “playing around” opens up a thirst for knowledge of the basics.

I came to think about this week as I was studying Japanese.  I’ve been immersing myself in Japanese podcasts, music, movies as much as I can and trying to stay in the play mode with the language.   I also consciously study Japanese by doing online flashcards that I have created and a host of other activities.  The other day I was listening to a beginner lesson on Japanesepod101.com when I heard a great grammar explanation of “te shimau.”   Something finally clicked and I realized that I had heard that over and over through all my fun immersion.  That grammar lesson stuck because I had real-life exposure to it.

Khatzumoto, over at All Japanese all the Time, is fond of saying eat your dessert first.  Do the fun part of Japanese/your desired skill first.  He explains that it 1) makes you happy 2)  helps you do the learning activity for longer and more frequently and 3) helps you get to the boring stuff.

There’s an interplay between the “hard work” and basics and the free jazz of jamming in real life.  Miles Davis came to his classes after long nights of jamming in clubs.  He quit Juilliard but some of the basics and theory stuck with him.  Hours of practice and play.   Mastery.   Fluency.  Mind.  No mind.  Cue corny music and have a great day!

 

Samurai Online Learning: How I Use Japanese Pod 101

08 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by in Deliberate Practice, Mind, Reading, Samurai Time Management

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First of all, a disclaimer.   I have a sponsored link to Japanese Pod 101 on this website.  The occasional link to this service, if you think it fits your needs, might one day help me to pay my web-hosting fees and buy more Japanese books fuel a mighty financial empire. Click JapanesePod101.com – Learn Japanese with Free Daily Podcasts 🙂 The other disclaimer is that I have no authority to judge whether this service will make me fluent or not.  Otherwise, I would be writing to you in Japanese and getting ready to learn Spanish through Japanese materials.   These techniques are just the way, I have played with to learn more Japanese everyday.  It might help you think about any online learning materials or courses that you might be interested in picking up in the future.

Here’s the cheatsheet:

  • treat every lesson like a game and find something to challenge you–use your headphones for good!
  • play the money game
  • find the sweet spot–lessons at the level where you are challenged but still finding some comfort or review of material you already know
  • you can also go back to fundamental or basic lessons for review or go a few levels above you to just overwhelm your mind
  • use self-tracking tools–progress bars and other tools are great ways to keep track and also get the game factor going
  • find something to like about every online host or teacher
  • take it all a little bit at a time . . . . turtle power activate!
  • on the other hand, sometimes its good to add velocity to your game … go through the lesson and move on
  • don’t forget that the real game is the language/skill/game …. listen to real Japanese, listen and play real songs…what is great is when deliberate practice and real life reinforce each other

    There are 1,000’s of lessons on Japanese Pod 101. I prefer music and immersion but sometimes it’s great to get a little grammar. At the free level, you can listen to the lesson or watch the video. The basic level includes the PDF, and the Premium level includes a line by line transcript with audio, sample sentences with audio for new vocabulary, and a host of other features. It’s not the end all and be all and may result in “lessonitis” but it can also be fun.

Treat every lesson like a game and find something to challenge you

As a busy teacher and dad of two, I don’t have a lot of discretionary time.  I get my so-called exercise by walking to the writers room and school.  In those 35-40 minutes of walking I often listen to Japanesepod101.com lessons on my iPhone.  Most lessons are 15-20 minutes and include a short Japanese dialogue, vocabulary explanation, grammar explanation, and then a repeat of the dialogue. There are also line by line audio transcripts.  With a quick click I can listen to small chunks of the dialogue.   There are also sample sentences for the vocabulary and I repeat the sentences I hear out loud.  (If you have headphones and a phone you can get away with looking like a weirdo. Maybe 🙂   When I am at a desk or cafe and not negotiating traffic (do be careful), I read the PDF and count the lesson as finished. If I am not in the mood to do a lesson, I don’t push it.  I listen to fun Japanese podcast or music instead.

Play the money game

There are all kinds of pricing structures on Japanesepod101.com and there are sales and discounts throughout the year.  But I like to think in terms of, “I’m going to get $1,000 worth of value out of this $____ investment.  This is true with any online learning service.  I’m old enough to remember when Space Invaders moved into the pinball arcade.  Part of the fun was seeing how long you could make your quarters last.

Find the sweet spot

Play around with levels and hover between being completely lost and easy mastery.  These days I alternate between upper intermediate, lower intermediate, and beginner lessons (they also have absolute beginner lessons).  They also have some video lessons on animals that I’ve found fun to throw into the mix.  The advantage of Japanesepod101.com is that they love grammar and love explaining it.   With the higher level lessons I just listen through to get exposure to the grammar points but I don’t try to memorize the grammar points.    The lower level lessons help me solidify some grammar points that I have already been exposed through flashcards, immersion, etc.

Hit the Bars: use self-tracking tools–progress bars and other tools are great ways to keep track and also get the game factor going

I do go for long periods without studying Japanesepod101, because I am busy or doing more interesting stuff in Japanese. When I get back into it,progress bars are a low-tech game to keep you moving forward.

Sometimes it’s fun to just see a little bar moving forward, piling it up like monopoly money.  Yes, it’s a game but so is professional basketball.  Touchdown!  Japanese Pod 101 has progress bars that fill up as you finish lessons within each level and season.

Slow Down and Hurry Up!

There is no need to force feed yourself lessons in order to be virtuous or feel accomplished.   On the other hand, I sometimes like to speed up and get through a lesson, get a little exposure to the grammar and move the heck on.  What’s nice about Japanese Pod 101 is that as you go up in levels, the grammar and cultural points are explained using more and more Japanese.

Don’t forget that the real game is the language/skill/game

As I watched my daughters learn to speak, I noticed that they didn’t take any online or traditional course work.  Shame on them! 🙂  They listened to us singing and speaking to them, watched cartoons, sang songs, repeated what we said or just “babbled” in language practice.  Now my oldest daughter has to explain to me what she is saying in Japanese.   This is ajatt (Language is Like A Video Game) and antimoon stuff.   The pixie dust and nitty gritty of real life. 　Keep it real, よ！

Samurai “Speed Reading” Quickie

04 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by in Deliberate Practice, Mind, Reading, Samurai Time Management

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One of my lockers where I cage my books and laptop. Reading closely and savoring each word still has its place, but adding a little velocity to your learning game through speed reading or pre-reading is a way to shake things up. Do you have any books on your shelf that you think you should read but haven’t. A quick read might give you the lay of the land to read it or get the best part out. Feel free to eat the best part of the tuna!

Summer, for me, is grinding to a halt as I prepare to teach.   I will still be posting but maybe not at my summer rate.  Please check old posts, add comments, and contribute to the conversation.  For today, I thought I would scour through 情報が１０倍になるNLP速読術 BY Naoya Matsushima.  (soy sauce translation: Get Ten Times More Information Through the NLP Speed Reading Method) for ideas that I like and that maybe you would find useful.

This is my filing cabinet of books and reference material at the Writers Room. I have books in all stages of reading completion in various safe houses all over New York.  I would get a lot out of quick skimming the ones I have barely touched. Just getting the lay of the land and reading key sections would be better than letting the books yellow all by their lonesomes.

For those of you studying Japanese, you get the added bonus of some sample sentences to throw into your arsenal.  (Watch out, though, these are my translations so check with a native speakers.  Please feel free to tweak and comment.  Buy or borrow the book and speed read it if you are interested.)  Other readers, have fun, and let us know if you have any feedback on Matsushima’s suggestions.

  • Change your mental programming about your learning abilities. (in the next chapter) 学習効率葉「脳のプログラム」次第で変わる
  • You can always speed read, regardless of where you are and how much time you feel you have.  場所や時間を気にせず、速読ができる！
  • Cancel the ‘Negative Mode’ that gets in the way of you learning rate!  学習効率を悪くする『ネガティブ−モード」を解除する
  • Happy feelings change your studying results.  『楽しいという」が学習結果を変える。
  • Your heart (mind) and body are closely connected.  心と体は密接につながている。(Be nice to both of them.  Just sayin’)
  • Do deep breathing exercises to increase your results.  効果的な呼吸法を身につける。
  • Set a clear goal for why you are reading a book.  本を読む目的を明確にする
  • Feel free to take the best, meaty part of the tuna.  (Feel free to take the best of what you read).  マグロはトロだけ食えばいい
  • Throw out the information you don’t need. 「いらない情報」を徹底して捨てる
  • Just changing your image about your learning environment can increase your results.   学習環境のイメージを変えるだけ成果が上がる　(he also suggests this is a great idea for your workplace…)
  • Feel free to arrange all the reading methods like you want.

If you are in school or not this fall, have a great “semester.”   Enjoy your samurai mind and stay in charge.  Charge!

Read This Fast!: Samurai “Speed Reading”

02 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by in Deliberate Practice, Reading, Samurai Time Management

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Well, I finally finished reading, 情報が１０倍になるNLP速読術 BY Naoya Matsushima.  (soy sauce translation: Get Ten Times More Information Through the NLP Speed Reading Method.)  Since the book is about speed reading, I had to read it fast.   I probably only understood about 40% of its real essence, but the book seemed to offer a mix of novel and common sense advice for

These days I’m always ready to read. As a busy dad and teacher, I don’t have a lot of discretionary time, but if I keep my “man bag” ready with good stuff I can read. I’m trying to learn Japanese. Here are the NLP speed reading book and Japion a free weekly newspaper for the Japanese community in New York.

reading more effectively.  Here are some of the key points I remember:

  • when you prepare to read, get yourself into a good state–imagining a pleasant memory totally unrelated to reading
  • check and fix your breathing, posture, and mental state before and while you read–Matsushima offers some NLP exercises but I didn’t understand the finer points of how to do that
  • really pre-read a book and do it with gusto–look at the front and back cover, preface, conclusion, and the table of contents
  • ask you look at the front and back matter, really think to yourself, “What do I want to get out of this?”
  • practice relaxedly scanning each page—begin this with books you really want to read
  • be ready to switch techniques at any point

If you are already a reader, most of these techniques are not big news too you, but it was nice for me to be reminded of how I could be a better reader.  I turned reading this book into a game.   I read the table of contents really thoroughly but briskly and enjoyed the promises of the book.   When I got bored, I practiced just scanning the lines and looking at the sentences as a picture, not really stopping to decipher so much.  I tried to see how many pages I could read while taking the subway from West 4th street to West 23rd street.  (short ride).    When the book got boring or frustrating, I switched to other books or did something completely different.   If I didn’t know the kanji or vocabulary, I just tried to think, “nice to meet you maybe I’ll see you and understand you again.”

Sometimes you just have to add a little velocity to the learning games.   There’s a time and place for more in-depth study but moving quickly seems to do a few powerful things:

  • gives you quick in context exposure to new ideas and vocabulary
  • short-circuits some of the negative self-talk that can frustrate you when you read–you are just reading so fast you don’t have time to call yourself an idiot 🙂 (lies, lies, lies)
  • gives you a quick road-map for knowledge in a field

    I also have been carrying around a copy of the Beck Music Guide, a music guide to the music of a fictional rock band manga. On the back is some sheet music from Jamplay. They had a great lesson on visualizing before you play so I thought it would be great to carry sheet music around with me as well. Trying to stay like a rolling stone.   “Gotta keep on movin’.”

I really liked Khatzumoto’s article, “Reading is Skimming.”  He has a wonderful way of explaining the power of skimming in your life:

There is only one book: the world book.And all books are volumes of this one book. And all pages are pages of this world book.Now, there are billions of pages in this book. And you’re never going to read them all. Not. Ever…..Don’t save the best for last. Take the fun right now. Be a pro-active fun-seeker. If you don’t have fun now, today will be the beginning of the end as far as Japanese is concerned, believe you me.

I think this is true for whatever you really want to learn.   Give it a try, have fun, flip through pages, and open up the book of your life.

Online Guitar Lessons
 

 

 

Flow Like Water: Financial Samurai

31 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by in Career, Deliberate Practice, Mind, Service, Wallet

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…the sage, traveling all day, does not lose sight of his baggage. Though there are beautiful things to be seen, he remains unattached and calm.”— Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching (Feng and English translation)

If we’re on a quest for spiritual self-transformation, we need to give our best attention to how we are with money because it’s one of the keys to a big part of our human nature.  A human being, according to the great spiritual teachings of the world has two natures or aspects: a side that is meant to be engaged in the activity in the world, making and doing…the other side has to do with the spiritual, the transcendent . . . We are called on to find the relationship between these two opposing parts of ourselves and to develop the kind of awareness that relates each to the other in a harmonious way.  –Jacob Needleman in Personal Transformation Winter 2000

 

I used to do a series of “Mind, Body, Wallet Workshops” to encourage people to think about money. Sometimes money is a reflection of thought patterns that obscure reality. Surfing is great but if your mind is ruled by these unobserved and uncontrolled waves it can lead to trouble. (Drawings are by Ken Polotan)

I have this habit of overcoming challenges, doing a lot of research, and then sharing what I’ve found with the world.  I did this 15 or so years ago when I got out of debt and started thinking about the role of personal finance in my life and my so-called consciousness.  I still firmly believe that you need to “do money” or money will do you.  I need to think about money so that money concerns don’t affect my health, my relationships, and my ability to learn more.

Versions of this article appeared in magazines over a decade ago.  (BTW magazines are these paper objects with articles and photographs that people read.)  The articles appeared in New Age magazines.  Yes,  they were written when my crystals still smelled of patchouli.   But I still stand by a lot of what I wrote, specifically these three steps:

  • Watch –your financial patterns without judgement
  • Build–a base by eliminating debt and thinking about your life purpose
  • Move–invest and find work that you love

I am not a financial expert.  Consider me more your financial cheerleader (or coach if you don’t like facial hair on cheerleaders.)  Check out the storef or helpful books and specific resources.  Continue reading »

How to get better in one easy step. Show the Samurai Up!

27 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by in Deliberate Practice, Mind, Samurai Time Management, Service

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All I need to know is how much is enough.   —James Heisig’s translation of  saying on a small stone basin at Ryonji,  a Zen temple

Buddhist poet Saigyo tried to live “one inch above the ground.”  . . .not with one’s feet planted firmly in the everyday, not walking on the clouds, but floating a thumb’s length above the ground.   –Heisig,  Dialogues at One Inch Above the Ground

Stop being a jerk to yourself.  You did your best given what you knew at the time.  Now do your best now. —from a Silverspoon email.

Remember, in order to actually get better at guitar you need to actually take the guitar out of its bag. —Dan Emery, head of NYC School of Guitar in a postcard to all the students

I decided to shut up and show the samurai up with guitar. I picked this book to begin with because it will reinforce my Japanese. Of course, it has a mangalike character on front. If you are interested, here is the closest version I could find on Amazon Japan. Two birds. No killing. Just a rolling stone gathering no moss.

In my last post, I focused on Heisig and how he examined his systems and perfected them.  Heisig  optimized his learning and the learning of many more through his system for learning kanji.   I also suggested that it’s great to examine your methods, find your weaknesses and reassess.   I still believe that is true, but I also believe you also just have to show the Samurai up!  If you can’t think of the “right”  thing to do, do something! In short:

  • if you can’t think of the most fun or targeted learning activity, do the “boring” one until you are inspired
  • inspiration sometimes comes through “work”–sometimes it doesn’t
  • keep your brain myelinated …keep the mental and physical conversation of the skill going
  • still, don’t forget the fun–what’s really great is when some fun activity or experience reinforces the work and seals the deal on what you have learned
  • stay “one inch above the ground”…grounded in the practice of what you are trying to learn and also dreaming and enjoying it . . . watch experts and children who still enjoy learning and model them
  • use a timer to get through the blocks

I need to practice what I preach. 🙂 Lately, I decided to start playing guitar again.   I have no dearth of materials, in Japanese and English.  I was getting my underwear all in knots thinking of which set of materials to use:  a Japanese guide, Jamplay.com, or the many English DVD’s and books that are hidden in different corners of my apartment.

Did anyone notice how good Japanese graphic arts can be?  In addition to these homey little characters (this one is showing you how to hold a guitar correctly) there are also very precise and sharp schematic drawings about how to hold the pick and hit the strings.

I finally to stop fretting (guitar joke!) about all the materials and just get started.   I had an old flashcard deck devoted to guitar playing and started with some scales.   Then I decided to open up one of the many guitar books I have and just go through it.  It includes a DVD and I fired up an old Dell that I now use as a spare DVD player.  The first few lessons are really simple, and explain how to hit the strings with your pick. The first few video lessons show how to hit one string with different rhythms.  It’s kind of boring but hitting the strings and doing it rhythmically correct is fundamental to a lot of guitar playing.   Hey, someone should write a book called Zen Guitar!  (It’s an actual book!)

This is a reference manga for the manga series, “Beck.” The manga is about a 90 lb. weakling who joins a rock band. (I didn’t end up following the manga or the anime.) The music guide gives background to all the characters and all the real-life music influences that run throughout the manga. If I read this, not only will I know more Japanese, I will also know more about rock and roll music history. Amazon Japan Link.

After doing scales for a few days, I thought about perusing the lessons at jamplay.com and found a new series on the guitar playing of Eric Clapton.   I went through a beginning lesson that covered the style of the Yardbirds doing a song called “Boom Boom.”  I listened to this song and the many versions of the original by the blues-man John Lee Hooker.  It’s so much fun to watch what the masters can do with their guitar.   (of course you never hear what they sounded like when they were sucky beginners)

The Beck Music Guide is fun and encyclopedic. For example, one character is really influenced by the blues, so here you see the character and then all the real-life albums that “influenced” his playing. It’s great to see the cover art of all these great blues albums from Bo Diddly, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, etc all in one place.

But all of this happened because I decided to show the samurai up!  Use a timer if you need to do but do something daily instead of fretting about the methods.    Stay grounded but not at the point where you are digging your own rut.  Get inspired by the masters but not to the point where it looks impossible and you stop practicing. Work.  Have fun.  Stay “one inch above the ground.”

Online Guitar Lessons

Give Yourself the Edge: Interview with James W. Heisig

24 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by in Japanese Culture, Mind, Reading, Samurai Time Management

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I use kanji.koohii.com to share and use mnemonic stories to remember how to read, write, and understand the kanji. It’s great to work with others across the world but in the end you also have to make your learning your own. I am wandering beyond the standard kanji. Learning a lot of botanical kanji lately, like this kanji for “stamen.”

Samurai Mind Online is dedicated to helping people take on whatever they want to learn whether they think it’s impossible or not.   Last night I almost gave myself a concussion when I realized that I hadn’t taken the opportunity to share an interview that I did with James W. Heisig in 2006.    As you’ll see in the interview (it’s way longer than my typical post), Heisig came up with a system for how to remember kanji, the Chinese based system that is a key system of writing in Japan.  But regardless of whether you are reading this blog because you are interested in learning Japanese, I think there are a few take aways from this interview that any one wanting to learn anything in their life could take away from this story:

  • be bold and don’t be afraid to follow your own path
  • always be on the look out for smart short cuts or opportunities for deliberate practice.  Khatzumoto has some key questions in his article, “Practice Time, Game Time” that I think can apply to any field:  What don’t I know well? What doesn’t work?  What needs fixing?  What can be improved?  (Talent is Overrated is a great book to think about this whole idea of deliberate practice.)  Heisig realized that understanding kanji would really propel his Japanese fluency and invented a whole system around it.
  • don’t depend on others to tell you what is impossible or not
  • have fun.   Happy feelings bring happy learnings.  Heisig hightailed it from the language school as soon as he could and went to the mountains of Nagano and said he learned a lot of Japanese by playing with children and reading comic books.

Give yourself the edge.  Be bold and independent but also look at all the resources that are available and be persistent about evaluating them.  And above all have fun and enjoy the journey.

Another great tool is anki.ichi.net, which allows you to create flashcards for anything that you are learning. As you pass and fail cards, they come up in a spaced repetition system, so you are mostly reviewing things at the edge of forgetting and remembering. SRS systems are a great way to give yourself an edge.

This interview originally appeared in kanjiclinic.com, a great resource for learning more about kanji.

“Adventures in Kanji-Land: James W. Heisig and the Birth of Remembering the Kanji”
Based on an Interview with James W. Heisig
By Juan W. Rivera

Free download of the first 125 pages of Remembering the Kanji I.

Every now and then, someone confronts their own personal challenge, systematically overcomes it, and then shares that system with the world. This not only opens up their world, but also opens up the world for generations of people to come. James W. Heisig, author of the sometimes controversial book Remembering the Kanji I: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters, is definitely one of those people. Many people refer to his approach to learning to write the complex Japanese characters as “revolutionary,” making Japanese and kanji study accessible to their lives and opening up a whole world of learning and possibilities for them. I conducted a telephone interview with Prof. Heisig from his office at the Nanzan University Institute for Religion and Culture in Nagoya, Japan.

Heisig’s kanji journey began while he was living in a commune of poets and artists identified as the “spiritual” side of the Sandanista revolution that would soon overthrow the Somoza government. Because of his familiarity with research centers, he was invited by Nanzan University to consult on the establishment of an academic institute devoted to dialogue among religions and philosophies East and West. Shortly after the consultation he was invited back to assist in the project, on condition that he would remain for five years and first attain fluency in spoken and written Japanese at an academic level. Continue reading »

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