About KOKISHIN-DO

Kokishindo is a method of understanding applied. It is less about gaining a bunch of techniques, and more about whittling away unnecessary elements in your life. In the modern approach of martial arts, there is a very “if this, then do that” mentality. For example: Student says, “What do you do if someone grabs your wrist?”, teacher responds “Twist the grip and walk away”. Very “Teacher say, student do”. Kokishin-do is a principle-based approach to problem solving and emotion management. Joseph Smith is credited for saying something to the effect of: “Teach people proper principles and let them govern themselves”. Likewise, it is with self-management. Tsun Tzu said: “know yourself but not your enemy and you’ll be in peril half of the time. Know neither yourself or your enemy and you’ll be in peril all the time. Know yourself and your enemy and you’ll never be in peril. In other words, know proper principles and their application and you can adapt to any situation in order to get the result that you want. I use a karate-system model to both illustrate and facilitate the practice of these principles.

Many of us, despite our best efforts carry an immense burden of some sort. Maybe it’s a physical ailment or perhaps a mental depravity. You might struggle under the constant load of an emotional depression or have anxiety as a constant house mate; unwanted but there nonetheless. . There are many issues, energies and maladies. Some which are self-inflicted, others which are forced upon us others, and some that seem to be passed down through our DNA, and seem to be generational. In other words our foremothers’ and forefathers’ issues passed onto us to deal with and either resolve or pass onto our children. Whatever it may be, I’d like to caution you here. There is another more dubious, yet profound kind I’d like to discuss. A kind that despite your best efforts seems to always show up. Let me explain. When I was a young married man, my baby sister who was a teenager at the time, had many unexplainable things happening to her and around her. I felt prompted, although compelled would be a better description, to seek out a medicine person on the nearby Shoshone Indian Reservation. I found him, and although that is another story, I found something else in the process. I had been carrying with me a small bear carved from rock, on its side was a jet black stone, bound tightly to it by sinew. I asked the Medicine Man what was its meaning. He explained that the stone was called a fetish. A native fetish represents your totem or spirit animal and can in fact represent you. In the case of the bear I was carrying, he explained to me that the stone on its side was called its “burden”. Note: he said it’s burden not a burden. He further instructed me that the creator places “burdens” upon each of us. That they our for our own good and learning.