KOKORO-DO

  Kokoro means the heart, spirit, soul of a person or thing. Kokoro thus represents the essence of a man or woman. In any art, martial or otherwise, a disciple will succeed only if he or she is filled with Kokoro (the Holy Spirit), if he or she has that sacred fire and they are willing to put that fire into action. Kokoro is thus a dispassionate passion, or action without looking for beneficial results. Once we have Kokoro we will then have pure love.

 Filled with the Holy Spirit is simply the indwelling and protection that we receive with our salvation when we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

 Baptized in the Holy Spirit is to move on in receiving spiritual gifts and beginning to use those gifts to edify and to strengthen the Kingdom of God. We are moving on to a more advanced level of Christianity and into a level Beyond Belief.

 San Shou is a blend of the soft and circular movements of Kung-Fu and the Russian groundfighting techniques of Sambo. Most self defense situations end up on the ground. We have to balanced enough to get the job done on the ground, or be able to get back to our feet if that is where we are most effective.

 Colossians 3:17  "Whatever you do, whether in word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

 We allow ourselves to be used by the Holy Spirit in whatever way that God chooses for us to be used. God will give us a heart for that ministry and He will equip us in order for us to be successful in our various ministries. I am a martial artist. What do you do?

 We begin weapons training understanding that our most powerful weapon is prayer. We can be in fellowship with God 24/7. Our 2nd most powerful weapon is the Holy Bible. Hosea 4:6 tells us that people perish because of a lack of knowledge. Matthew Ch. 4 shows us that we defeat Satan with the word of God. Our hands and feet follow because we have those with us wherever we go, and weapons are an extension of our hands. We begin with the bo because of its practical application. We follow with a choice of nunchukas, escrimas, sai, kama, or cane as a second weapon. When we reach the black belt level we can then move on to all of the remaining weapons that we may want to choose, in addition to the sword.

 We begin our physical application of Kokoro-Do with Taekwondo (The way of the hand and foot). We use the Chong-ji seris of patterns (hyungs or katas). We begin with the hard style applications of Taekwondo in order to develop the strength, speed, and flexibility that we will need in order to be the best that we can be. We need to get our priorities in order understanding that our 1st priority is Spiritual (Heaven and Hell). 2nd is Mental (increasing our knowledge in order to take care of our loved ones better). 3rd is Physical (being in better condition physically in order to also take care of the physical needs of our loved ones. We have to realize that in the physical we may be faced with a self-defense, or turn the other cheek situation. We have to be led by the Holy Spirit in order to react in the way that God will want us to. Satan will send predators that will either be oppressed, or even possessed, and we will have to react in the way that we have trained ourselves. Tomorrows battles are won on our knees today. 

 It is a disturbing reality that in todays society we may have to defend ourselves. In times past self-defense usually meant a one on one confrontation with no weapon. Today weapons are more often involved than in times past and we are more often than not facing more than one attacker. After we have a firm foundation for one on one attacks we will move on to situations involving numerous attackers. We are incorporating a more advanced knowledge of the anatomy with an empasis on one strike and move on to the next attacker techniques. We need a good foundation learned at the lower levels for bridging, stacking, and baiting. We will be placing a lot of emphasis on Dim-Mak because of the understanding of  meridians and blood-flow that is required for instant resolution techniques.