Karate, What Are You Telling Us?

Last year, to be exact on August 31st, 2015, if you had told me that in a about a year’s time I would be sitting next to two, one Turkish and one Scottish, World Karate Champions, that I would be doing Karate with orange belt, and maybe more importantly, that what they talk about would sound meaningful to me, of course I would not believe you.

However, in 2016, on August 3^rd in Fethiye, on a night that seems to be cooler than the nights before, I am sort of baffled by and positively surprised at myself as I am sitting on a stool next to these two Karate masters at the end of the training, at my Karate teacher Mr. Ömer Habeş’s Dojo.  I had just completed a training where I was both taking part in the training and translating for our visiting Shihan from Scotland, Mr. Alistair Mitchell. Me, Zeynep.  Although I was feeling that I was not even close to begin to comprehend what Karate is, which was a point that our teacher had pointed out at times and that I could only agree with, I had started to do Karate which I had loved since I was a kid for some reason.  I was doing it.

I was doing punches.  Different kicks.  For example, I was able to lift my legs like I could never before in my mawashi geri kicks.  The list of the names of the techniques that I know was getting longer.  I was beginning to comprehend the existence of Karate’s way ‘Do’.  I was reading the books by Master Funakoshi, who is known as the person who made Karate known in the World as Karate.  I was listening to my own Shihan, my teacher Mr. Ömer Habeş attentively.  I was realizing that Karate was making me stronger as well as calming me down while strengthening me.

Last year on August 31st, a new page called Karate opened up in my life.  And since that day on, almost every day, I am grateful that Karate is in my life.

*

On the night of the August 3^rd, as I was translating for my Master Teachers, Shihan Ömer Habeş and Shihan Alistair Mitchell, I felt myself again in a movie scene.  This was not my first time to translate for them.  When Shihan Alistair Mitchell was in Fethiye last May, I had had the chance to translate a few times in and out of Dojo.  In this new visit in August, the two Shihans were having long conversations and this was giving me a chance to peek in through, the sort of mystical, doors of the world of Karate.

I probably would be needing more time to be able to go through those doors, yet, to be able to listen to two Karate people who have given their lives to Karate, to be part of their deep conversation in a sense, was such a great luck.  I was feeling maybe more lucky than ever as I was translating.  It was as if I was watching a movie and I was so close to that movie, as if I was watching it from inside the scenes.

*

What did the Masters, the Shihans talk about?

First of all, they were two people who understood each other very well. Even though they were speaking two different languages, even though they belong to different religions or nationalities, they were two people who very apparently understood each other very well.  They had represented their own countries at the very top level, earned medals, became World Champions as sportsmen; however, there was something that they almost shared in every conversation that I had translated.  They were not Karate sportsmen. They were Karate men. They were people who did Karate.  This was a very very important distinction that needed to be understood to be able understand them.

Shihan Habeş said that what disappoints him or makes him sad the most is having a student leave the Dojo, leave Karate, or continue to train with another teacher. “It makes us sad,” Shihan Habeş said.   He told that it is as if one leaves his father to go to his step father.  He told that this slows down one’s training, one’s path.  An even if they unite afterwards, there is this heartbrokenness that cannot be totally mended.  Shihan Mitchell was feeling similar things.  That it is not possible to win every student, but that they hope and work for this.

As they were defining what being a good teacher is, Shihan Habeş talked about the importance of being a good person.  Shihan Mitchell emphasized many times that they are working and trying to be a good person. They agreed that a good teacher should surpass his own teacher and also should raise and train students that will surpass him.  It was difficult to be a good teacher.  But maybe it was even more difficult to find a good student.

At the end of the training in our Dojo on August 3rd, Shihan Habeş had mentioned something that he had shared with us a few times before.  “Maybe very few of you will continue to do Karate.  Maybe one in a thousand will continue.  And maybe that person will someday pass on the knowledge that we share to others.”   He was sharing that most of the students that a teacher spends a lot of effort to train would be leaving the path of Karate.

So were all the efforts wasted then?

“Efforts are never wasted,” said Shihan Habeş.  Shihan Mitchell shared a story from his own life.  About 15-20 years ago, two young boys aged 14, 15 who were students of a friend of his, came to his Dojo. Of these two boys, one went on with his Karate training, had a good career in the army and had a good family. Yet, the other kid got into alcohol, drugs and gangs and went into dark time in his life.  Shihan Mitchell told us, “I said to myself, we lost him.  We lost this kid.”

Well, years pass and one day Shihan Mitchell receives a message in Facebook. From that kid that was lost.  He introduces himself and continues to tell that for three, four years he had done really bad things and were in the dark.  However, this kid when he reaches the age of 18, remembers Karate.  He remembers what did with Karate, the principles and teachings of Karate that Shihan shared with him.  And he decided to leaves this bad life; he decides to change his life.  He moves to Japan, does Karate, marries a Japanese lady, has a great family, becomes a Karate teacher, opens up a Karate Dojo and works to train his and other kids as champions.

What affected Shihan Mitchell the most was what this man now in his thirties said.  He said, “Karate saved my life. I remembered the things that you said, the things that you taught.  I tidied up my life. Thank you.”  His sharing this so many years later was obviously very meaningful to Shihan Mitchell.   “I had thought that we had lost him,” Shihan Alistair Mitchell said. “But we hadn’t.  We were successful.”  Shihan Ömer Habeş added that he had similar stories, similar examples in his life as well.

To help children and young people become good people, help them improve themselves, being good role models for these kids were their common goal.  These two kind and calm, peaceful warriors had so much life experience. Shihan Alistair Mitchell said with his calm gentle smile, “We had to give so much effort to learn. Wish we can find a way to pass on our knowledge, what we have learned over  thirty years to the younger generation, so that they do not lose the time we lost.”  Shihan Habeş was saying “We learned by trial and error. There were only a few good teachers around the world and how would we get the chance to meet them.”

They were sharing that it is now possible to reach all top level Karate information through a smart phone.  “There is no excuse for bad Karate” Shihan Mitchell said.  Indeed, in their times, under their circumstances, to be that successful, to live and to do Karate as successfully as they were able to do, they must have really given it a lot of effort.

*

That night I had the chance to listen an important story about the life of my teacther Shihan Ömer Habeş for the first time.  As he was telling it to Shihan Alistair Mitchell. Actually they were talking about being a good person, doing goodness, trying to keep others especially students from bad examples, pushing them, leading them towards the good.  They were talking showing the direction and also that each students has to walk the path himself.  Then, one topic led to another and we learned that Shihan Ömer Habeş, while he was living and training teams in Germany, for over ten years, he gave seminars on weekends and with the fees of these seminars we helped support many different organizations.  Some were for the rehabilition of alcoholics and drug addicts in Germany.  He sent donations to different causes in Africa.  He tried to support many people from many different backgrounds.

He continued to explain, “I did not know about racism, but saw it in Germany. That’s why in all my seminars, I started by saying that ‘No Karate person around the world is racist.’ That was my headline.”

                

Shihan Ömer Habeş gets to see and experience racism in many different forms as a Turk living in Germany.  With that personal life experience, he spends a special effort to if U may say obliterate racism.  He helps people from different walks of life and backgrounds.

So much that, one day the chief of police of the state that he is training the Karate Team of gives him a call and tell Shihan Habeş that he has a letter from the President of Germany.  The chief of the police department, who is also a friend and a student, makes an official visit to Shihan an gives him the letter that is inviting Shihan Habeş to the capital Bonn to visit the German Parliament and the President.  In about three months, on the day invited Shihan Habeş goes to Bonn with the members of the parliament from that state.  The head of the German Parliament welcomes him to the Parliament and he gives a speech at the Parliament.  At the end he is exposed to a what he calls a sad question by a journalist who seems to be racist.  A question that is unfortunately applauded by some in the crowd. Yet,  Shihan continued to tell us “We Karate people need to think fast” and told that he gave a reply that made the members of the Parliament give a standing ovation.

The question is really a sad question. The journalist asks, “As a Muslim aren’t you sad for the massacres of Usame Bin Ladin?”  It is hard to grasp what kind of thought leads one to ask such a negative question because of his religion, to a person who has been invited to the German Parliament for his humanitarian work for people of different nationalities and religions.  However, the question is indeed stated. And Shihan Habeş, with that quick thinking that he was mentioning gives this reply, “As you feel very sorry as a Christian for the massacres done by Hitler, I also am very sorry. Yes, I am very sorry.”  Shihan said that for about five seconds there was no sound in the Parliament and afterwards came the applauding and the standing ovation.

*

In Fethiye,  on August 3^rd, on a night that seemed to be slightly cooler that the nights before, coming out of our training in my teacher Shihan Ömer Habeş’s Dojo, I did a translation for two World Champions.

They understand each other very well, they really respect each other, and make it known through their words as well as through the unspoken that is reflected in their eyes, they have very similar life adventures with their unique stories.  I am feeling very very lucky to have had the chance to get to know and to have as role models these two good and valuable people,

Karate, What Are You Telling Us? - A Translation

On August 3rd, I wrote an article about the Karate conversations of two Karate Masters, Shihan Ömer Habeş from Turkey and Shihan Alistair Mitchell from Scotland.  The article appeared on my Blog page in MilliyetBlog and on my personal Blog page.  Of course it was in Turkish.

I write in Turkish and in English. However, up until today, I had never really translated any of my writing from Turkish to English or English to Turkish.  This is a first.  And I realize that this is difficult.  And this translation is for Shihan Alistair Mitchell. To be able to share as correctly as possible what I wrote in the article in Turkish.  Maybe some of it could have been said better in English in another way. I tried to do my best as fast as I could.

Dear Shihan Alistair Mitchell, 

I wish and hope that I was able to reflect your thoughts and feelings correctly.  I am feeling grateful to you and my Shihan Mr. Ömer Habeş for giving me the chance to listen, to learn, to share this experience. Thank you so much.

*

Karate, What Are You Telling Us?

Last year, to be exact on August 31st, 2015, if you had told me that in a about a year’s time I would be sitting next to two, one Turkish and one Scottish, World Karate Champions, that I would be doing Karate with orange belt, and maybe more importantly, that what they talk about would sound meaningful to me, of course I would not believe you.

However, in 2016, on August 3^rd in Fethiye, on a night that seems to be cooler than the nights before, I am sort of baffled by and positively surprised at myself as I am sitting on a stool next to these two Karate masters at the end of the training, at my Karate teacher Mr. Ömer Habeş’s Dojo.  I had just completed a training where I was both taking part in the training and translating for our visiting Shihan from Scotland, Mr. Alistair Mitchell. Me, Zeynep.  Although I was feeling that I was not even close to begin to comprehend what Karate is, which was a point that our teacher had pointed out at times and that I could only agree with, I had started to do Karate which I had loved since I was a kid for some reason.  I was doing it.

I was doing punches.  Different kicks.  For example, I was able to lift my legs like I could never before in my mawashi geri kicks.  The list of the names of the techniques that I know was getting longer.  I was beginning to comprehend the existence of Karate’s way ‘Do’.  I was reading the books by Master Funakoshi, who is known as the person who made Karate known in the World as Karate.  I was listening to my own Shihan, my teacher Mr. Ömer Habeş attentively.  I was realizing that Karate was making me stronger as well as calming me down while strengthening me.

Last year on August 31st, a new page called Karate opened up in my life.  And since that day on, almost every day, I am grateful that Karate is in my life.

*

On the night of the August 3^rd, as I was translating for my Master Teachers, Shihan Ömer Habeş and Shihan Alistair Mitchell, I felt myself again in a movie scene.  This was not my first time to translate for them.  When Shihan Alistair Mitchell was in Fethiye last May, I had had the chance to translate a few times in and out of Dojo.  In this new visit in August, the two Shihans were having long conversations and this was giving me a chance to peek in through, the sort of mystical, doors of the world of Karate.

I probably would be needing more time to be able to go through those doors, yet, to be able to listen to two Karate people who have given their lives to Karate, to be part of their deep conversation in a sense, was such a great luck.  I was feeling maybe more lucky than ever as I was translating.  It was as if I was watching a movie and I was so close to that movie, as if I was watching it from inside the scenes.

*

What did the Masters, the Shihans talk about?

First of all, they were two people who understood each other very well. Even though they were speaking two different languages, even though they belong to different religions or nationalities, they were two people who very apparently understood each other very well.  They had represented their own countries at the very top level, earned medals, became World Champions as sportsmen; however, there was something that they almost shared in every conversation that I had translated.  They were not Karate sportsmen. They were Karate men. They were people who did Karate.  This was a very very important distinction that needed to be understood to be able understand them.

Shihan Habeş said that what disappoints him or makes him sad the most is having a student leave the Dojo, leave Karate, or continue to train with another teacher. “It makes us sad,” Shihan Habeş said.   He told that it is as if one leaves his father to go to his step father.  He told that this slows down one’s training, one’s path.  An even if they unite afterwards, there is this heartbrokenness that cannot be totally mended.  Shihan Mitchell was feeling similar things.  That it is not possible to win every student, but that they hope and work for this.

As they were defining what being a good teacher is, Shihan Habeş talked about the importance of being a good person.  Shihan Mitchell emphasized many times that they are working and trying to be a good person. They agreed that a good teacher should surpass his own teacher and also should raise and train students that will surpass him.  It was difficult to be a good teacher.  But maybe it was even more difficult to find a good student.

At the end of the training in our Dojo on August 3rd, Shihan Habeş had mentioned something that he had shared with us a few times before.  “Maybe very few of you will continue to do Karate.  Maybe one in a thousand will continue.  And maybe that person will someday pass on the knowledge that we share to others.”   He was sharing that most of the students that a teacher spends a lot of effort to train would be leaving the path of Karate.

So were all the efforts wasted then?

“Efforts are never wasted,” said Shihan Habeş.  Shihan Mitchell shared a story from his own life.  About 15-20 years ago, two young boys aged 14, 15 who were students of a friend of his, came to his Dojo. Of these two boys, one went on with his Karate training, had a good career in the army and had a good family. Yet, the other kid got into alcohol, drugs and gangs and went into dark time in his life.  Shihan Mitchell told us, “I said to myself, we lost him.  We lost this kid.”

Well, years pass and one day Shihan Mitchell receives a message in Facebook. From that kid that was lost.  He introduces himself and continues to tell that for three, four years he had done really bad things and were in the dark.  However, this kid when he reaches the age of 18, remembers Karate.  He remembers what did with Karate, the principles and teachings of Karate that Shihan shared with him.  And he decided to leaves this bad life; he decides to change his life.  He moves to Japan, does Karate, marries a Japanese lady, has a great family, becomes a Karate teacher, opens up a Karate Dojo and works to train his and other kids as champions.

What affected Shihan Mitchell the most was what this man now in his thirties said.  He said, “Karate saved my life. I remembered the things that you said, the things that you taught.  I tidied up my life. Thank you.”  His sharing this so many years later was obviously very meaningful to Shihan Mitchell.   “I had thought that we had lost him,” Shihan Alistair Mitchell said. “But we hadn’t.  We were successful.”  Shihan Ömer Habeş added that he had similar stories, similar examples in his life as well.

To help children and young people become good people, help them improve themselves, being good role models for these kids were their common goal.  These two kind and calm, peaceful warriors had so much life experience. Shihan Alistair Mitchell said with his calm gentle smile, “We had to give so much effort to learn. Wish we can find a way to pass on our knowledge, what we have learned over  thirty years to the younger generation, so that they do not lose the time we lost.”  Shihan Habeş was saying “We learned by trial and error. There were only a few good teachers around the world and how would we get the chance to meet them.”

They were sharing that it is now possible to reach all top level Karate information through a smart phone.  “There is no excuse for bad Karate” Shihan Mitchell said.  Indeed, in their times, under their circumstances, to be that successful, to live and to do Karate as successfully as they were able to do, they must have really given it a lot of effort.

*

That night I had the chance to listen an important story about the life of my teacther Shihan Ömer Habeş for the first time.  As he was telling it to Shihan Alistair Mitchell. Actually they were talking about being a good person, doing goodness, trying to keep others especially students from bad examples, pushing them, leading them towards the good.  They were talking showing the direction and also that each students has to walk the path himself.  Then, one topic led to another and we learned that Shihan Ömer Habeş, while he was living and training teams in Germany, for over ten years, he gave seminars on weekends and with the fees of these seminars we helped support many different organizations.  Some were for the rehabilition of alcoholics and drug addicts in Germany.  He sent donations to different causes in Africa.  He tried to support many people from many different backgrounds.

He continued to explain, “I did not know about racism, but saw it in Germany. That’s why in all my seminars, I started by saying that ‘No Karate person around the world is racist.’ That was my headline.”

                

Shihan Ömer Habeş gets to see and experience racism in many different forms as a Turk living in Germany.  With that personal life experience, he spends a special effort to if U may say obliterate racism.  He helps people from different walks of life and backgrounds.

So much that, one day the chief of police of the state that he is training the Karate Team of gives him a call and tell Shihan Habeş that he has a letter from the President of Germany.  The chief of the police department, who is also a friend and a student, makes an official visit to Shihan an gives him the letter that is inviting Shihan Habeş to the capital Bonn to visit the German Parliament and the President.  In about three months, on the day invited Shihan Habeş goes to Bonn with the members of the parliament from that state.  The head of the German Parliament welcomes him to the Parliament and he gives a speech at the Parliament.  At the end he is exposed to a what he calls a sad question by a journalist who seems to be racist.  A question that is unfortunately applauded by some in the crowd. Yet,  Shihan continued to tell us “We Karate people need to think fast” and told that he gave a reply that made the members of the Parliament give a standing ovation.

The question is really a sad question. The journalist asks, “As a Muslim aren’t you sad for the massacres of Usame Bin Ladin?”  It is hard to grasp what kind of thought leads one to ask such a negative question because of his religion, to a person who has been invited to the German Parliament for his humanitarian work for people of different nationalities and religions.  However, the question is indeed stated. And Shihan Habeş, with that quick thinking that he was mentioning gives this reply, “As you feel very sorry as a Christian for the massacres done by Hitler, I also am very sorry. Yes, I am very sorry.”  Shihan said that for about five seconds there was no sound in the Parliament and afterwards came the applauding and the standing ovation.

 

*

In Fethiye,  on August 3^rd, on a night that seemed to be slightly cooler that the nights before, coming out of our training in my teacher Shihan Ömer Habeş’s Dojo, I did a translation for two World Champions.

They understand each other very well, they really respect each other, and make it known through their words as well as through the unspoken that is reflected in their eyes, they have very similar life adventures with their unique stories.  I am feeling very very lucky to have had the chance to get to know and to have as role models these two good and valuable people,

*

Links to the articles in Turkish:

Link-1:  http://blog.milliyet.com.tr/karate-sen-bize-neler-soyluyorsun-/Blog/?BlogNo=537979

Link.-2:  http://zeynepkocasinan.blogspot.com.tr/2016/08/karate-sen-bize-neler-soyluyorsun_4.html

Energy of the New Year, December 17th, Thoughts of the Day

Those of you interested in Astrology or Numerology may be familiar with the concept that every day has a unique energy.  A unique set of possibilities, surprises, gifts and difficulties or issues rather.

As each day and each year have their unique energies, so does our own years as well.  What do we mean? Well, according to numerology, starting on the day of our birthday every year of our lives offer a different energy to live and deal with. Some say that this is how our destiny is set and revealed. Some believe that a child is born at a time that has been predetermined and that date and time identify that child’s destiny. So, every year, his or her year up until his or her birthday and after the birthday offer different possibilities for the child, for the person. These two time fragments have different energies and will affect the person differently.  In short, the numerological year starts and ends with our birthdays.

Let’s look at what number 2016 is in Numerology. 2016 adds up number 9. 2+1+6=9.  What does the number 9 say to us in general?

Well, 9 is usually told to be about introspection.  It’s considered to be about going inward, maybe learning to connect or connecting with our inner voice, with the inner voice of our spirit, the real voice of the universe as some may call.

9 is usually told to be about searching for internal fulfillment and about finding it.  In 9, there is a connection with the real truth.  How can I describe this state better? You know, there are times when regardless of what is happening outside, at work, with friends, with the World, regardless of how bad everything might seem and be, regardless of the cloudy greyness and darkness in life, internally we may still feel complete, safe, light and delightful.  That feeling of feeling complete without needing anything or anyone or at least needed less from outside is considered to be about the energy of number 9 in a year or day or a person.  9 is taken to be about searching, experimenting and sometimes reaching that state.  This may involve spending more time alone and being aware that we can always choose not to be alone.

*

There is an important date for many Turks , Muslims and Sufis in December.  December 17^th. 

December 17^th is the death anniversary of Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi. That date is considered to be a date of a wedding since according to Rumi and his disciples that is the date he returns to God.

 Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi lived in the 13^th century, spent most of his life in Anatolia and passed away in the city of Konya on December 17^th, 1273. 

Rumi - that is the name most of the World know him and call him by, although we Turks use the word Mevlana - was a scholar, teacher, religious and spiritual master, a master of words and poetry.  For many he is a true example of showing how one learns to surrender to God completely and with utter love.

This year let’s look into what this December 17^th might be telling us through its interpretation in Numerology. To be able to look that up for this year, we need to make a calculation to find its number in Numerology.  We need to reduce it to a number including or less than 22.  17.12.2015 can be reduced to the 22 possible numbers of Numerology by adding up the numbers of the date and month first.  17+12. 29. Then, we add 2015 and 29. That is 2044. And now we need to add up the individual numbers is 2044. 2+ 0+ 4+ 4. The result comes out as the number 10.

Some believe that the Universe is based on a mathematical system and that life and destiny is designed and may be revealed through math. Through numbers. Sufis and Kabalists are known to look into the number values of name, prayers and the holly texts and look for answers in the numbers that come up and appear.  Numerology tries to do it in its own simpler way. Let’s look into what the energy December 17^th offers might be telling us this year.

10 is told to be about expansion. It is believed to contain an energy of break-throughs. Unexpected goodness and positive personal self-realizations may appear.  How that date will actually live out in our lives is of course for us to discover.  If we choose to listen to Rumi, we might need to let go of all our expectations and just surrender to what is or surrender to God.  And maybe that will involve doing what we can with what we see and discover.

And let’s leave the last words to RUMI. 

From the book The Glance (A translation of RUMI by Coleman Barks):

The Self We Share

Thirst is angry at water. Hunger, bitter

with bread. The cave wants nothing to do

with the sun. This is dumb, the self-

defeating way we’ve been. A gold mine is

calling us into its temple. Instead, we

bend and keep picking up rocks from the

ground. Every thing has a shine like gold,

but we should turn to the source! The

origin is what we truly are. I add a little

vinegar to the honey I give. The bite of

scolding makes ecstasy more familiar. But

look, fish, you’re already in the ocean:

just swimming there makes you friends with

glory. What are these grudges about? You

are Benjamin. Joseph has put a gold cup

in your grain sack and accused you of being

a thief.  Now he draws you aside and says,

“You are my brother. I am a prayer. You’re

the amen.”  We move in eternal regions, yet

worry about property here. This is the

prayer of each:  You are the source of my

life. You separate essence from mud. You

honor my soul. You bring rivers from the

mountain springs. You brighten my eyes. The

wine you offer takes me out of myself into

the self we share. Doing that is religion.

*

With love and light.

Zeynep

To Be a 'Karate Kid' at the Age of 45

The movie “The Karate Kid” that came out in 1984 was the reason many kids like me got interested in Karate.  One of my cousins, Erdogan had started to learn, but learning Karate as a 14 year old girl was not so common and easy. And for that reason, my desire to learn Karate was dormant for over 30 years.

In 2010, this time Will Smith and a couple of other producers made the new version of “The Karate Kid.”  This time with Jackie Chan as the unusual karate teacher and with additional touch of Chinese Kung Fu.

I had been so busy with work and also with NGO activities with Lions Clubs International, with Down Syndrome Association and many more that, although I had never totally forgotten, learning Karate was a dream which would always stay a dream I had thought.

Well, maybe life had other plans for me.

It was a few months ago, after over 30 years, when the topic of Karate came up again and I found myself talking with my cousin Erdogan, telling  him that I wanted to learn Karate.  He immediately had an answer for me. He told me to find, to go to and talk to Mr. Omer Habes in Habes Sports Centre, in Calis, Fethiye. 

I had not known that there was indeed a World and European Champion Karate Instructor in Fethiye.  In turns out, Mr. Omer Habes, who is 7^th Dan in black belt, had won countless National Championships in Turkey in both Kata and Kumite braches of Karate.  He had been the captain of our Turkish National Team for many years, who is also known as one of the best technical Turkish sportsman in Karate. And had become World and European Champion.

One Monday evening I found myself sitting at the corner of Mr. Omer Habes’ Karate training place * his Dojo. The word Dojo in Japanese literally means the “place of the way.”  Watching his class for adults that Monday, I decided to put my fears aside and do something that I wanted to do since I was a young girl.

After my first day of training on that Wednesday, I had become sure that I had made a very good decision. Having wanted to learn Karate for many years, of course I was motivated. I was scared and motivated.  And as some you might know, I have a favor for things Japanese. I am a Reiki instructor and have to Japan many times and I have worked with Japanese NGOs and Foundations.  However, what I found in Karate from day one is beyond what I expected.

The way of Karate is a path. It is told to be a life-long process of self-discovery. However, again from day one I found myself in a wave of energy that energies the body and the soul. I was also amazed, and still am, how Shihan (Master Instructor) Omer Habes follows his students in training.  How he knows the limits and the potential of his students.  Kids and adults alike. In a training, at an unexpected moment you may find him call your name from a distant corner of the Dojo telling you to not give up and do your best at a punch or a kick, just to realize that you were indeed about to give up and wonder how he realized it before you yourself did.

Apart from the classes for adults, I had the chance to watch some of the classes for kids as well.  Tiny kids who are four, five, six years old in yellow, orange and green belts practice Karate in such beauty and discipline, you may find yourself just wanting to keep watching them. I also am very proud to see that there are many young girls of all ages learning and practicing Karate in Mr. Habes’ Dojo. 

Shihan Mr. Omer Habes practices and teaches the “Shotokan” style of Karate, developed by Master Gichin Funakoshi from Okinawa, Japan.  Master Funakoshi was born in 1868 and has passed away in 1957.  Although Karate has very ancient roots, Master Funakoshi was the person who brought Karate from Okinawa to main island Japan, to Tokyo.

On the evening that I visited Mr. Omer Habes’ Dojo in Calis, I ordered some of the books of Gichin Funakoshi online.  I usually feel the need to connect through reading and for Karate I felt the same need.  Of course until the books arrived, I continued to attend the three-nights-a-week classes for adults.

When the books arrived, I started to read “The Twenty Guiding Principles of KARATE” first.  My first impression was that, although the words were not uttered, these 20 principles were very alive and present in our Dojo and in our classes.

One of my other interesting discoveries was that Karate is, when taught honest to its roots, is very “nonviolent.” It is not easy to explain how.  We probably expect Karate to be about power, using power and we expect it to be even dangerous.  I probably did.  The power used in Karate might be dangerous when used with a negative intention, however, the real lesson behind it all seems to be about discovering our inner strength and discovering our weaknesses that we hide even from ourselves and making peace with them, as well as turning them into strengths.

I am lucky because I had the chance to unexpectedly find a world class instructor in Fethiye.  I felt even more lucky when a few trainings later I found myself training in Fethiye with World Champion Scottish Sensei Alistair Mitchell from Great Britain.  We may call Fethiye a small town in Turkey, however Fethiye seems to be able to offer the World to many.  Well, as for Karate, it turns out many World Champions, teachers and masters visit Shihan Mr. Omer Habes, and students like me find the amazing chance to meet these other Karate Masters in his Dojo in Fethiye.

My dream of starting to learn Karate came true after 31 years. 

May your dreams and desires come alive as well.

With love and light.

Zeynep

Contact for Master Ömer Habeş:

Mr. Faruk Habeş / Mrs. Elif Habeş

Fethiye Karate Habes Sports Centre

Habeş Spor Merkezi

Yerguzlar Caddesi No.73-1, Fethiye, Turkey

+90 (543)357 48 00

Monet, Japanese Gardens and a City Called Istanbul

I was in Fethiye when the Monet exhibition “Monet’s Garden” opened at the SSM Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul.  I saw the exhibition twelve days later on a sunny and relatively warm Wednesday morning.  And I was not sure if this exhibition was about Monet’s paintings.  It seemed to be more about a man wanting to be known better.

I had seen Monet’s paintings in different parts of the world before.  At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In Paris.  Even in Japan, at the Ohare Museum of Art.  I had various books on Monet, including a huge one by Sandro Sproccati as well. Yet, on the day that I visited this exhibition, seven days after this French painter was born in Paris in 1840, I was realizing that when I am faced the energy of his paintings, he was becoming alive.

I have been to different museums around the world.  I had encounters with paintings that did take my breath away.  Pictures that moved me even days after I visited them.  I saw paintings that touched me beyond description when I saw them with my bare eyes even if I knew them so very well through books and the media.  J.M.W. Turner is one painter that I fell in love with after seeing his paintings in an exhibition in Zurich.  When standing in front of one of his paintings, it is impossible to resist the charm of the effect of the light. He is surely “the painter of light.” Seeing a Turner with your own eyes cannot compare in any way with seeing a Turner painting in a book or on paper or on screen.  There is something is his paintings that no camera seems to be able to capture.

With Monet, I had always loved his paintings, since I was a kid.  They were everywhere.  The water lilies especially.  Who would not love Monet? With the pastel colours, with the pinks and the greens, the purples with dashes of white and the shades of the sun?

Well, as I was looking at the paintings at the exhibition, which were brought to Turkey from the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, I was being faced with the fact that the Claude Monet that I thought I knew.  Here was a man infatuated with nature, with his garden.  A man who wanted to capture what he loved to be near and what he loved to see, but seems to be losing himself in what he was looking at when he is painting.

I cannot say the the paintings at the “Monet’s Garden” exhibition are even the best of Monet that I had seen.  For me, it was not one of those exhibitions where a painting really captures my heart and soul.  There were very few paintings that had a special light, a special energy for me.  It was more like feeling Monet’s heart, and may be more if his sad days than the happier ones.  Seeing his paintings as a part of big exhibitions in different museum, Monet had reflected feelings of serene joy and peaceful happiness for me. Until the day I visited the exhibition in Istanbul.

As I was looking at the painting one after the other, I felt the heart of a man who wanted to be remembered.  It was as if we were faced not with the energy of his paintings, but the energy of his own soul.  I looked and looked again to be impressed, and I was faced with the same message.  It was him not his paintings that wanted to be known.

So that evening, I found myself collecting all of the books that I have on Monet as well as the “Monet’s Garden” exhibition book, as well as book on Japanese Gardens, to understand this man as well as trying to understand what he might have wanted to bring into his wife with “The Japanese Bridge” which he depicted in so many of his painting in the ever growing fabulous garden of his.

...

As I was driving back from the exhibition to my apartment in Arnavutkoy, I passed by  Japanese Garden in Baltalimani.  I remembered how frequently I think of Japan, how I love Kyoto and the gardens of the temples in that beautiful city.  I found myself wondering if Monet had ever made it to Japan and what was behind his admiration with the Far Eastern Culture.

...

I love Japan.  There is no doubt about it.  My soul finds a hard to define peacefulness there.  Yet, I love Fethiye as well.  I feel strangely complete in this small city.  I cannot not come back. 

And then there is Istanbul.  A city full of people struggling. People fighting with themselves as well those that they love.   A city that makes us forget what we are made of.  I was born in Istanbul.  I was raised there.  I lived there.  It was all that I had before Fethiye.  I did not have a home town, another home city that I could go to or go back to . Neither did my mother or my late father have.  Istanbul was all that we had. And maybe it is still all that we have in this beautiful and complicated country of ours where our heart, mind and soul face its demons, joys, questions and triumphs.  It will continue to be a city that many of us run away from but also cannot help from coming back to.

The “Monet’s Garden” Exhibition will be on display until January 6^th, 2013 at the Sakip Sabanci Museum in.

Signs, Reiki and Life

I believe that life gives us many different signs as we move along life.  Sometimes it is a feeling in the heart. Sometimes it is the way the light falls on a certain object or a person. Sometimes the number on a licence plate brings the answer.  The first words of a song that you hear as you get in the car in the morning or as you enter a shop with a question that keeps turning in your mind.  The answer is always out there, or is always present in our mind and heart.  It is always there.  Yet, we are not always willing or ready to listen.

The sign of coincidences is another way that the universe converses with us.  Sometimes protect us.

Twenty years ago I would probably say that this is new age mambo jambo or that believing in signs is being too naive.  Today I believe in another truth.  Life showed me, taught me, proved me that life offers more information to us than that can be measured by our five senses.  There is a world of energy that surrounds all, compasses all.  Our world is a world of energy.  Understanding that world of energy, working with the world of energy is how I believe we can gain control of our lives and find permanent solutions to our problems.

Since 2006, I have been sharing parts of my story in the Land of Lights.  Some of you know very well how life led me to this belief.  With some of you this is our first sharing.  Energy healing techniques are an important part of my daily life.  I am using and teaching techniques professionally for over ten years now and I am grateful for both my own healing and the opportunity to share the blessing.  I have written six books in Turkish and also collected the articles I have been writing for Land of Lights in two books in English.  I believe in the power of sharing our personal stories.  Our paths may not be the same, but similar tools might help us all.

How can we get to understand the world of energy better?

 There are many different techniques that we can use.  None of them is a necessity.  However, if you are going to learn one technique, I would recommend it to be Reiki, the Japanese energy healing/energy transfer method.

Reiki is taught and learned through an initiation where the teacher opens and prepares the energy channels and the energy field of the student so that he or she can transfer the energy frequency that we call Reiki to a person, to an animal, a plant or a certain place or time.  The main idea behind all energy healing techniques as well as Reiki is that when our energy level is high and of higher frequency, we are healthier, we feel better, we comprehend life and events in our lives better, make better decisions and follow a path in life that allows us to be more happy, successful, content and satisfied.  “Living our highest truth” some like to call it.  Some people believe that our lives are predetermined and that they cannot be changed no matter what we do.  I also do believe that there are certain events in our lives that we will encounter no matter what, but I also believe that there are tools that we can use that will determine the quality of time and the quality of our lives regardless of the events that take place.  I believe that we have a destiny that probably we have chosen before being born, but also that we are given the power and wisdom to choose to make it pleasant, enjoyable and worth living and exploring.

Too vague?  After writing about my trips in the past couple of weeks, I want to write about the actual story behind the stories and I am finding it difficult.  I am sitting in front of my notebook computer in my living room at Sovalye Island, remembering the hundreds of little coincidences and signs that brought me to Fethiye in the first place and continued to make my life more and more interesting in the following seven years.  It is my eighth summer in Fethiye; and I probably have not been happier in my life. Twelve, thirteen years ago I had almost decided that regardless of how good my life looked on paper, I was not going to have a life that had any of my real desires or dreams in it.  I was staring to accept a life that felt mediocre; I was trying to convince myself to accept that life was something mediocre and that dreams were only dreams. It turns out I was wrong.  Dreams and desires were telling the truth; the truth that although there can be good days and bad days, happy and sad days in life, there is a life where all of the good and bad can feel great and amazing.  Mediocre is certainly not what life is meant to be.  This is what I believe, this is what I am experiencing and this is what I would like to share and keep on sharing.  None of this would be possible without using energy, without using Reiki.

What does Reiki do for us? When we are hungry, or thirsty or when we did not have enough sleep it is harder to be happier, harder to make good decisions.  In the month of Ramadan we go without food and water for hours, yet in the evening comes a time when we feed our body.  Imagine you were continuously lacking sleep, food and water.  Your judgment will get clouded.  Imagine that you were outside in a dusty construction site and you are not able to take a shower afterwards.  You get dirty, but you are not able to clean yourself.  What if the dust continued to accumulate over the years? And what if the dust is not visible? You start itching, you get wounds, you smell bad, but you cannot see what is happening, what is bothering you.  Energy transfer-energy healing techniques like Reiki allow us to fill our energy body so that we are not thirsty for energy anymore.  We feel full and complete.  In addition as we are given Reiki, Reiki washes our energy field of the effects of negative events, thoughts and feelings.  Reiki cleans the dust and dirt that we cannot see.  When we see an accident on the street, we get scared and a negative energy mark may stay on our energy field.  Every argument that we hear or get into may leave a negative energy mark.   Every “negative” or “sad” event may leave a mark, a scar or weaken our energy field. Feelings of fear and worry weaken and deplete our energy field.

Love of our friends and family, physical exercise, music, dance, swimming, helping others, thinking positive thoughts are some of the factors that allow us to clean and fill our energy field.  Sometimes they are enough, sometimes they are not.  Then we start to feel tired, unhappy, discontent and finally even physically sick.  When a mother worries about her children and wants them to be happy, she may want to give everything she has regardless of the fact that she might be left with nothing and she cannot live on nothing and continue to support her kids.  Reiki allows us to give, to channel healing energy without depleting ourselves.  And Reiki is one of the few energy healing techniques that we can use for ourselves. This really is a blessing.

What ever your path might be calling you out for, please think positive thoughts.   I am not saying ignore the facts of your life, ignore possible threats. Of course be cautious. Of course be prepared.  However, please also be aware that staying hopeful, looking towards the future instead of the negative events in the past, looking for solutions will support you. 

Also affirmations, keeping positive sentences in our minds, saying positive words to ourselves and others support us greatly.  Louise L. Hay is the pioneer of the positive effects and influences of affirmations on our body and in our lives.  I am grateful for her work.  I would like to recommend you to get one of her books or google her name and you will have access to a powerful world that will always support you.

With best wishes and love to you all,

Zeynep

http://www.zeynepkocasinanenglish.blogspot.com/

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Quote of the Week:

“The world would have you agree with its dismal dream of limitation. But the light would have you soar like the eagle of your sacred visions."

               Alan Cohen

Affirmation of the Week:

From Louise L. Hay:  “I stand on my own two feet.  I accept and use my own power.”