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Why call it a house? A dojo is home to a system. One art form. Back in 60’s I envisioned a way-place for the exploration of the universe. A house contains many rooms. Consequently, my house is large enough to contain many systems of development. It was my dream that my students explore the martial arts world, come back home and discover by their own evolution a new and unique system. Just as I stood on the shoulders of giants, I am big enough to support my students standing on my shoulders. Not by propping them up, but by freeing them, with my blessing, to make their own discoveries. Otherwise, how could there be growth? If I restricted my students’ growth, stagnation would result. Change is what it’s about! The only constant in the universe is change. That’s all there is. Wherever you see life, you see movement, for it is one and the same. And this movement or vibration if you will, must, by necessity, be movement from the lower to the higher. Otherwise it is regression, not progression. Why the name Quiet Storm? I realized one day that the mind or spirit is where everything starts. The human mind can comprehend a huge hurricane or tornado as a storm but usually does not consider the gentle drizzle to be a storm. Most people consider storms to be disasters against man. They are not. It is merely nature balancing pressures in the atmosphere. Man’s many creations, on occasion will interfere with that process, however all structures fall eventually for that is the natural order. Everything is in the process of becoming something else. In other words, life is change. Nature makes no mistakes; everything works, as it should in nature. To survive, we must learn to think and act properly. To advance we should consider the complete operation of the atmosphere as natural, be it typhoon or drizzle. I’ve learned to apply some of these principles and quite a few others as a way of life. When I am approached with benevolence I can be as soothing as the “peaceful” and gentle drizzle which nourishes the flowers in the fields. Or when confronted by aggression I may, if it is deemed appropriate, respond with all the fury and forcefulness of a typhoon or tornado. Hence, in 1969, I coined the phrase, Quiet Storm! It describes all ideas I wish to convey. Professor Rick Berry |
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