Breathing from their heels
One of my first martial arts instructors was an ex-marine who had studied karate while stationed in Okinawa. He knew enough to teach the basics, but we were a brunch of NYC 12-year old "know-it-alls." We could tell that he was no "Bruce Lee" and we had no problem telling him that whenever we had a mind to.
Maybe to support his rather shaky martial arts bona fides with us, he started dropping vague Eastern philosophical aphorisms during class, saying things like, "the sage Chaung Tzu says that most people breathe from their throats, but superior people breathe from their heels"
"Their heels!? Hey teacher, what were you talking about?" we would ask after class. He wanted us to call him sensei (which is what high ranking Japanese instructors are called), but he didn't look like a sensei to us. This was around the start of the martial arts craze in this country, and at the time we thought you had to be from Japan to be a real sensei; he was from New Jersey.
To us he looked just like one of the teachers at our junior high, so we called him what we called that guy, which was "Hey teacher." He stopped asking us to call him sensei and counted himself lucky that we just called him "teacher" when he heard some of the things we called a couple of the other instructors at the community center where we trained.
"Hey teacher, sounds like you've been reading those little pieces of paper they put in Chinese fortune cookies, again. Nobody breathes from their heels." Now if he were a "Bruce Lee" he might have been able to explain what the sage meant and perhaps showed us how to breathe from our heels as well. But he wasn't and he didn't. So I had to wait several years to learn how to do it. I'll tell you all about it soon.
Stay well and Peace,
Loriman Rhodell
Maybe to support his rather shaky martial arts bona fides with us, he started dropping vague Eastern philosophical aphorisms during class, saying things like, "the sage Chaung Tzu says that most people breathe from their throats, but superior people breathe from their heels"
"Their heels!? Hey teacher, what were you talking about?" we would ask after class. He wanted us to call him sensei (which is what high ranking Japanese instructors are called), but he didn't look like a sensei to us. This was around the start of the martial arts craze in this country, and at the time we thought you had to be from Japan to be a real sensei; he was from New Jersey.
To us he looked just like one of the teachers at our junior high, so we called him what we called that guy, which was "Hey teacher." He stopped asking us to call him sensei and counted himself lucky that we just called him "teacher" when he heard some of the things we called a couple of the other instructors at the community center where we trained.
"Hey teacher, sounds like you've been reading those little pieces of paper they put in Chinese fortune cookies, again. Nobody breathes from their heels." Now if he were a "Bruce Lee" he might have been able to explain what the sage meant and perhaps showed us how to breathe from our heels as well. But he wasn't and he didn't. So I had to wait several years to learn how to do it. I'll tell you all about it soon.
Stay well and Peace,
Loriman Rhodell
2 comments:
Okay, so I'd really like to know what you've learned about breathing from your heels. I found this by googling the phrase, and I have no idea how to find out if you continued this conversation elsewhere. I hope so!
Sorry I haven't gotten back you and my blog sooner. Lots happening in the offline world - but now that "Super Tuesday" is done I will be able to devote time and attention to it. Stay tuned. Moreno
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