On first impressions and first experiences (Part 2)

The first week of training was also overwhelming in terms of the physical techniques and forms to be learned. A student first has to learn the eight basic forms before instructions can even begin on the first sword form. It’s a lot of unfamiliar movements in a sequence that has to be remembered quickly and precisely. And my first night, it was a challenge to put together the squats, defenses and thrusts of the first two basic forms correctly, when, as is the custom, Sa Bu Nim came into class to allow the students to demonstrate their most advanced forms.

Normally beginners like myself aren't asked to demonstrate their progress until they advance beyond the basics, but that evening Sa Bu Nim asked me to show him what I'd learned.

The good thing about moving meditation like Shim Gum Do, at least for me, is that I have to focus entirely on what I'm doing in the moment. So the presence of more advanced students watching, including black belts and masters, didn’t enter my mind. All I knew was myself and the instructions of my teacher giving what seemed like slight, but were in fact critical corrections.

(Sa Bu Nim demonstrating the basic techniques as pictured in the manual of course material)

One of the other students later told me, though, that they had all found that instruction informative, a new look at the correct way to perform the most basic, foundational techniques.

At my second class that week (Wednesday - I'd missed Tuesday due to a prior commitment), Sa Bu Nim also offered more personal instruction, after asking if I had learned the first sword form and perhaps not being satisfied with my progress. And It’s hard to explain how exciting the attention was, yet there was also a fear of disappointing him - of wasting his time - based partly in the knowledge that I was deliberately moving slowly because I was not doing any practice outside class time at the temple.

Part of that came from a concern that without an instructor, I wouldn't remember the order of the techniques (since remedied by getting the textbook, "The First Star Black Belt Forms of Shim Gum Do Zen Sword"). But the other concern is that I just don't have another place to practice.

Something tells me that my neighbors might respond poorly to the sight of a guy swinging a Samurai - style sword around in a parking lot on the Dorchester - Roxbury line. (I have visions of flashing blue lights, yelling, lying face down in the asphalt, handcuffs and hopefully not tazers or gunfire.) But ‘mind training’ - meditation on the forms I'm learning - can make up for some of that too.

Two evening classes that first week, followed by a Saturday session of class, floor washing and then another class made a pretty good start. But since then, I've been trying to make three evening classes as well as Saturday each week. Knowing I need to attend as many classes as I can to get the greatest benefit from the training - physically as well as mentally and spiritually - definitely threw a wrench into my plans of establishing more settled routine. But I think this definitely qualifies as a ‘creative disruption’ and an antidote to any tendencies I have to get too sedate or idle - and the training was just the start.