Rijjiuddo (Ridgewood) Dojo

Way of the Warrior – Part 1

Today what we are going to offer you is a rare glimps into the mind and the attitude of a true warrior. It’s a rare honor and privilege for us to be able to host sensei Srinivasan Sastri, a MenkyoKaiden in the art of Kaze Arashi Ryu. He is graciously offering us his insights into what it means to lead one’s life as a true warrior.

We frame this series of podcasts as mini-modeling sessions – an NLP term for extracting the essense of someone’s excellence, and creating a model or a guidance towards achieving similar results in yourself, and teaching it to others.
In today’s podcast, sensei Sastri talks about:

• Kaze Arashi Ryuc
• What makes an art
• Reasons to learn an art
• True learning never ends
• Learning the principles
• Visualization
• Fighting multiple opponents
• Applying principles in real life
• Awareness training
• Being in the zone
• Kick Defenses

The Way of the Warrior – Part 2

We are continuing our conversation with our honored guest sensei Srinivasan Sastri, a MenkyoKaiden in the art of Kaze Arashi Ryu. He is graciously offering us his insights into what it means to lead one’s life as a true warrior.

In today’s podcast, sensei Sastri touches upon the following topics:

• Attributes of a student
• How to find a good teacher
• What is a good teacher
• What draws a student to an art
• Teaching kids
• Dealing with negative emotions – fear and confidence
• Minimizing worry, and becoming spiritual

Way of the Warrior – Part 3

We are continuing our conversation with our honored guest Sensei Srinivasan Sastri, a MenkyoKaiden in the art of Kaze Arashi Ryu. He is graciously offering us his insights into what it means to lead one’s life as a true warrior.

In today’s podcast, sensei Sastri touches upon the following topics:

• Body, Mind & Spirit
• The whole unit
• Being in the moment
• Spirituality
• Search for beauty – ideals
• Choosing what’s meaningful
• Ethics – making decisions
• Morality
• Acceptance
• Being true to yourself
• Learning from mistakes

Way of the Warrior – Part 4: Tradition and Teacher

We are honored and humbled to continue our conversation on the Way of the Warrior, this time with Vilaire Sensei and Sastri Sensei. Vilaire Sensei, Menkyo Kaiden is the presenter of the system in this generation, and Sastri Sensei, Menkyo Kaiden is the headmaster of the Indian Branch of KAR, and senior advisor to both the Kita Yama and Mountain View Aiki dojo.

• What is tradition
  • Does not have to be old to be tradition
  • Knowledge passed on from one person to another
  • Tradition is based on principles not time
  • Name does not matter, what you do/execute matters
  • Don’t let famous names guide/misguide you
  • Art is only as good as its presenter, and for this generation I am the presenter (Vilaire Shihan)
  • Whatever I have done I have done from my heart, soul and spirit
  • Fame is almost inverse of the art I do
  • A small tradition, less than 188 students worldwide, and this is by choosing
  • The knowledge we have been passing down is so special, and its not easy to duplicate at all – one can try and are free to do so if people please
  • There is nothing to defend the system, it can stand on its own
  • Is my samurai greater than your samurai ??
  • Whose fame or skill is carrying the system/art
  • The question should be “have I started where my teachers have stopped and are my students ready to surpass me”
• True teacher
  • Must expect your students to be better than you
  • This art does require a certain amount intelligence
  • I hope and pray my students are better than me
  • I am NOT important, the art and expression is the important thing
  • Don’t memorize, but analyze the techniques – its not monkey see, monkey do
  • Don’t be bogged down by tradition or history – what is important is who are you and what can you do
  • Its not how good your teacher is, the question is how good a student are you to learn
  • A relationship based on respect is important to really learn
  • Pay attention to what your heart tells you abut your teacher, not what the world says he is
  • You are free to go and learn anywhere, if you find something better than what I have to offer, you can please leave and leave me alone

Way of the Warrior – Part 5: Evolution and Approaches

We are honored and humbled to continue our conversation on the Way of the Warrior, this time with Vilaire Sensei and Sastri Sensei. Vilaire Sensei, Menkyo Kaiden is the presenter of the system in this generation, and Sastri Sensei, Menkyo Kaiden is the headmaster of the Indian Branch of KAR, and senior advisor to both the Kita Yama and Mountain View Aiki dojo.

• Think evolution, we don’t live like the samurai of the 18th century
  • Fortunate to have an instructor who was a military man first and a martial artist next
  • Like the bootcamp, you are going to hate me
  • Not here to make Kaze Arashi Ryu popular, warfare is complicated, it can make you crazy
  • Warfare is not based on weight categories and/or sport, being a warrior is about taking on whoever shows up in front of you
  • True warrior is all about “surviving when the odds are against you”
  • Reality of warfare, most people who practice sword do not even think about decapitation, they hide the real use so much they forget what and why they practice the sword
  • I don’t want to own a school or operate anything, I just want to teach
  • I wish I did not lose money teaching it, but that’s the way it works
• Military is voluntary, and they make many promises
  • You show up through the door I will teach you, no promises made
  • Any idiot can kill, we teach how not to be killed and learn other things along the way
  • Opening up other avenues – your inner selves
• Distintions between different school
  • Warrior schools, mixed martial arts and mcdonalds studios in malls
  • I don’t want to talk about other schools, I will stick to what I do
  • You cannot compare classical to jazz to rock and roll, each one has its place
  • Different schools/traditions exist because people have different tastes
  • Mixed martial arts is like having warfare without having warfare
  • Kaze fits best where “real violence exists”
  • I don’t take Kaze to avoid a mugging, but there is something greater emerges in the process of learning
  • We go as close to true jutsu as possible
• Experts are not born by watching, you need to be engaged
  • Critics are easy to find, practioneers are hard to find
  • When you fight there is no pity
  • When you are in war, you cant say I will just shoot this guy in the leg, you are fighting for life
  • We teach our students to be kind, compassionate, being true to yourself
  • Our students are always looking to help another person, save animals etc
  • Live in both worlds – where cruelty and softness exist
  • The art made me, the praise should go to the art, when my students praise me I give the credit to the art
  • Don’t be someones vomit, you want to learn come and get on the mat
  • Its about becoming a balanced human being, and the instructors impart knowledge of martial arts and the philosophy of life

Way of the Warrior – Part 6: Humility and Art

We are honored and humbled to continue our conversation on the Way of the Warrior, this time with Vilaire Sensei and Sastri Sensei. Vilaire Sensei, Menkyo Kaiden is the presenter of the system in this generation, and Sastri Sensei, Menkyo Kaiden is the headmaster of the Indian Branch of KAR, and senior advisor to both the Kita Yama and Mountain View Aiki dojo.

• The kindness and gentleness of this art
  • Sometimes kindness means killing effectively
  • As a sensei you are a commanding officer,
  • A special bond is sometimes created with “some students”
  • I have gained a family by being an instructor of this system
  • Not everyone reaches graduate school nor do they need to, people leave school at different parts/levels
• Enjoying the art you practice is critical
  • Art was not designed to be liked, it was designed to be what it is
  • Commercial schools change based on what people like
  • We don’t depend on teaching the art to survive, we do other things, and come to the art for other reasons
• Difference between warrior schools and other schools
  • Warriors don’t worry about life and death, they do what they have to do
  • Fighting for a cause, not for profit
  • We study it because we see the beauty involved in the knowledge we are learning
  • We look at ourselves and discover “my god, I am different now”
  • Warrior art, philosophical living
  • Learn humility, learn how to be human
  • In some parts of the world they will hunt you down if they find out you are a martial artist
  • Fighting is for babies, if you think sparring makes you tough you are in for a rude awakening
  • Need to learn how to deal with real violence
  • Guns don’t kill, you need to be able to pull the trigger – that requires training
  • You don’t become a true warrior by being a keyboard martial artist
  • Don’t come to learn from us if you just wish to learn how to defend against that onetime you may be mugged
  • You cannot bypass violence, it part of human nature
  • We deal with true violence to reach our highself

Way of the Warrior – Part 7: Change and Learning

We are honored and humbled to continue our conversation on the Way of the Warrior, this time with Vilaire Sensei and Sastri Sensei. Vilaire Sensei, Menkyo Kaiden is the presenter of the system in this generation, and Sastri Sensei, Menkyo Kaiden is the headmaster of the Indian Branch of KAR, and senior advisor to both the Kita Yama and Mountain View Aiki dojo.

• Change that happens over years
  • If a student does not feel a difference over a few years, then I as a sensei have not done my job
  • Spiritual enlightenment depends on the indiviual
  • Outsiders notice your growth before you do
  • I am not here to be a good person, I am here to be a good teacher, to teach what I know
  • People told me not to teach, but I choose to teach
• Learning this art leads to
  • Total confusion for a few months,
  • After 6 months confidence starts to come from within, not from drilling toughness into you
  • After about 30 months, training atleast 4 hours a week – you become atleast a little proficient in the art, atleast 20% of the syllabus of the art
  • After that it grows from there, but you have to work a lot, atleast 4 hours per week of constant study
  • Don’t come to my dojo to make friends and hang out
• I am an instructor, not your trainer and there is a huge difference
• Before Kaze I was not a humble person, always ready to go for a fight
  • The art and Vilaire sensei made me a humble person
  • How Sastri Sensei met Vilaire Sensei
    • The head instructor is mopping the floor
    • No order given, and the instructor leads the way on “how to be”
    • Transformation from an animal to learning to be a humble human
  • Change comes from how the system teaches the instructors to behave and how to transmit
  • The true student wants to learn whats on the other side of the wall, even when my body is not allowing me to go there
  • Knowledge is infinite – there is no end, I wont see the end of it even in 10 lifetimes – this makes me humble
  • I don’t care about wearing the kaiden/red-white belt – I don’t need it
  • One learns one is a nobody
  • A true student of the art evolves every single day
  • One discovers ones own greatness, ones own basic goodness
• Mahipal running into Sastri Sensei
  • How Mahipal met Sastri Sensei
  • Lessons in humility – sastri sensei takes Mahipal down and the journey begins
  • I cannot keep this with me, it has to be given away, and only when I am giving this away is there some kind of peace
• Senseis give so much
  • Sensei sastri promises 3 years of his life
  • Some of you will make it, some of you wont
  • The intensity of the tests
    • My time with the students is limited
    • I even taught them menkyo techniques for their black belt tests
    • Did not want to leave my students as half baked martial artists
    • My students pushed me everyday and I would push them – my students made me a better instructor
    • Training on Christmas day, no breaks, keep coming back to learn more
  • One you get your oku iri from me – you should be able to hold your own in any school
  • The system evolves you
  • If I did not fight, I would have a splitting headache – I had to fight, I had to throw that punch
  • You need to fight so that you don’t lash out at someone else
  • I am not a coward, I just don’t want to fight