Inner Dharma
Inner Dharma began as a blog concerned with classical and traditional martial arts and culture — I want to thank its readers for their encouragement and feedback. I have updated and revised its content into a smaller number of longer essays — links to new essays will be posted here when available.
Please also visit the photo gallery where many of the updates on events I have attended over the years have migrated.
Essays
Shin-no-Shinkage heihō
March 2025
Discussing my study of Japanese swordsmanship in the context of internal martial arts principles and esoteric Buddhist practice.
Enren – Continued Circles, An Analysis
February 2025
Breaking down (kuzushi) the final section of Jikishinkage-ryū to-no-kata.
Divergence and Unification in Shinkage-ryū
September 2024
Link to an essay on kata, heiho and shugyo, where I compare and contrast different surviving lines of Shinkage-ryū and reflect on my own practice.
General Qi Jiguans's Jixiao Xinshu and Reflections on Claims of Martial Virtue
February 2023
An essay published at Kogen Budo, where I look at some older writings from Japanese koryu that reference classical Chinese military treatises, and then examine how practices described in those works may be represented in arts surviving today.
Gogyō Exegesis
May 2020
An essay describing my experience, thinking, and choices regarding attempting to practice multiple koryū and then deciding not to.
Perspectives and Priorities – proper training perspective and intensity in classical martial arts
March 2019
A discussion of what consititutes proper training intensity in traditional martial arts. An examination of some of the important questions raised by a practice of traditional historical martial arts.
Aiki and Internal Training
February 2017
Collected thoughts on the historical influence of Chinese martial arts on Japanese jujutsu and how they relate to the topic of aiki in Aikido and Daito-ryu. What interested me about internal martial arts and how I have related that experience to my practice of Japanese budō.
Focus is Forever – Distilling a core practice from many options
December 2016
I am, over time, attempting to focus my kenjutsu practice. I have studied under two schools of Japanese swordsmanship that may once have been related in the distant echoes of time, but now are quite divergent. It is interesting to explore the benefits each provide to a practitioner, and how they relate to my continued focus on internal martial arts.
NAMT Night of Budo 2013 – an analysis
June 2013
A brief reflection on a demonstration of Araki-ryū and Tenshin Buko-ryū at the NAMT 2013 Night of Budo.
Three Treasures and Six Harmonies
June 2008
An examination of baguazhang body mechanics compared to modern kempo. A discussion of power generation in internal martial arts. How training in internal martial arts changed my Aikido.
Mark Raugas
