Tag: martial arts dojo

Martial Arts Dojo – Dreaming Courses – Dream – 31-01-2026

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Here is last night’s dream had around 5 AM on a night with unbroken sleep until 6.44 AM.

The dream opens in a large martial arts dojo. It is in a hangar like building which has practice mats of good quality in a light lovat hue. There are many people there, maybe a hundred. We are waiting for the instructor. He comes in with a small entourage. He proceeds to engage the crowd in a manner to whip them up and get them excited. It is almost evangelical. I think to myself that this does not bode well. I am there with the wife and we are both in white aikido-gi. The instructor asks who is ready to rumble and take part. They are to stay on the mat the others are to go to the side. I nod to the wife and she stays. I make my way to the front of the hall where there is an un-matted area.

The instructor notices me and asks why I am not going to stay on the mat. I say that although I have had previous experience with a Japanese trained instructor I cannot not take part until I have had a medical clearance, a medical note because I have just had a replacement hip. He wants to ask who I have trained with but does not do so in case that makes things uncomfortable for him. He turns back to the crowd.

Sat leaning against a table at the front are two women whom I know to be acolytes of his. It is not uncommon in some “martial arts” circles for there to be groupie-like fans. The women are club secretary like “officials”. One is early thirties of Asian Indian background with long jet black hair. The other is blonde and more matronly with a certain girth. She is the boss. I see on the table an excel spreadsheet of upcoming courses for the “Shenji” martial arts academy. I see a number of days blacked out. I ask what they are. The younger woman says that they are for dreaming courses that the teacher wants to give as a part of the martial arts training. I say that I have been doing a dreaming practice for 25 years or so and that I have an interest in dreaming. She suggests that I might learn from their courses. I say thank you for the offer but I think that it is very unlikely that they could teach me anything about dreaming. Rather it is they who could learn from me. The Indian woman is slightly interested. The matronly one is not overly pleased. I say that I could probably run dreaming courses but that it is not something which can be taught, it has to be started and then left free rein. In the dream I note that the notion of dreaming courses has once again risen up in the dream.

The scene changes and the teacher asks me to go up on the roof as there are some kids from the school there who need to be gotten down and admonished. I go up to the roof and call them off. They want to play fight with me. I do this putting a wrist lock on one while picking the other up with one hand. They know they have been “naughty” and we go back towards the dojo. In the entrance hall the instructor is there. He mentions that I could be affiliated. There is simply a question of the joining fee, the licence fee and mat fees. I know that he is solely interested in money and that this is not attractive to me. It is more business than school. It is money which is the priority.

The dream ends and I note that again the theme of dreaming courses has cropped up.  

The Future of the Dragon Dream 26-08-2025

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Here is this morning’s dream had between 5 and 7 AM. It was sufficiently realistic that I just opened my email expectantly.

The dream opens with me sat on a sofa with a coffee on a glass coffee table in front. The furniture is ratan in build and the room tropical themed. There are batik hangings and a golden Thai style top-knot haired Buddha figurine. The walls are white washed and stone and there is a feel of castle and perhaps Scotland. I am somehow at home in these settings. I go over to a large dark wooden desk with a green “club” leather chair. I boot up the computer. In an email account I rarely use I scan the list of emails. One email stands out from the bunch. It has the subject line, “The Future of the Dragon”. I do not know the sender’s address.

I pause for a moment and then open the email sceptical of spam / phishing. The email opens without problem and it is addressed to me. The person would like to meet up to discuss the future of the dragon. I look to the bottom of the mail for a signature. The address is arranged in the form of a Thai Wat temple and originated from a dojo in the Malay-Singapore-Thai region with a Singapore head office. It has ‘phone numbers, email address and an Instagram account. The protagonist is called Cheng. I am unsure how to respond or when to respond. I look at the Instagram account and see a picture of a young Asian male in his mid-twenties. He is pictured in karate-gi with his pals. There are other pictures of him in the dojo, in nature and it all looks fine and above board. I note his appearance. He has at least a part Chinese to him. I resolve to wait a little before replying.

Next, I am driving South down Regents Street in London, near Hamleys. I am in my white Jeep style SUV. It is around Christmas time because the lights are on. Coming in the opposite direction, North, there is a stream of traffic which comes to a halt in front of me. A young man gets out and walks past me to see what is going on. It is Cheng. I call out his name. He stops and turns looking surprised. I say that he emailed me and that I recognised him from the photos. I say to remind him, “The future of the dragon.” It suddenly clicks. I gesture for him to get into my car which he does. I do a U-turn and gesture for his friends to follow me in their open top Jeep-Moke.

We drive off into one of the large semi-circles of grand housing next to a park. There is a pub nearby. I say that we should talk. He has suddenly gone all shy. I ask him if a beer would help. Yes, perhaps. We make  our way to the pub and are soon joined by his friends which include his tiny sister. Chris turns up and I suggest that he gets us all a drink which he does.

I ask Cheng as an icebreaker about the style of karate he was training in and offer him my shoulder to punch. I ask was it non-contact and play punch him in the head or was it full contact. He says that is was a little heard of martial art specific to region but that is not what the dragon is about. He knows that I know this. I see through my contact with him a small wizened Asian man who is tiny and dressed in a Chinese “Tai Chi” outfit. He is Malay, Burmese or Singaporean. I understand him to be a master and that Cheng is by way of his contact. I have never met the master before but he is somehow familiar. I can feel him now as I type. I can recognise him.

Cheng’s sister calls her mother back home and explains that he has found me.

The dream ends.

Wolfgang – Switzerland – Being Slagged Off – Martial Arts Grading – UKE Dream 07-04-2025

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Here is last night’s dream. I was on much reduced medication to see how I coped. Sleep was not deep.

The dream starts in a communal office setting. Wolfgang {flat mate – and subsequent employee} is sat opposite me. He has a thin pencil moustache and something of a mullet, neither of which he was accustomed to have. He is upset with me because he thinks that I have been mean to him and reneged on our friendship. I have done no such thing to my eyes. I know in the dream that because I do not do transactional “friendships” I do not have “friends” in the traditional social sense. I am very poor at “normal” friendships. I do not do mutual praise and ego stroking. People cannot relate to me because they do not get the normal feedback they are expecting. I say to Wolfgang that he may have misjudged.

The scene now coalesces to the shared common room area of our floor in the University of Bern. Sat around the table are many of the people from the research group. Wolfgang says in front of them all, that they have all been slagging me off and bad mouthing me, partially because I did not fit in and suck up. He says that I was always the outsider. I say to him that it is in no way new to me to have people gossip and slag me off behind my back whilst pretending to be nice and friendly to my face. I say that people can be very mercenary when they think that I have something(s) they want. I say to him that he needs to get over it, his misplaced upset. I say that his moustache looks ridiculous.

The scene changes to a large martial arts dojo. I am dressed in a judogi wearing a dark green belt around my middle. I am with the sensei, and he is showing me a list of people who are up for their blue belt grading. In this schema, blue is below green. There are a lot of people due for grading and we, the higher grades, are to be uke to their tori. We know that gradings are about form and not real combat. We will be willingly thrown about by numerous people doing their gradings in order for them to learn.

I am up first with four people one from each direction. East, North, West and South.  The people are of ill-defined gender and wearing judogi already with a light blue belt, the colour of which they seek to upgrade. One by one they come to me and holding a fighting stance assume their left hand in an upper block, jodan-uke. I place my arm similarly wrist to wrist. We then start to apply force and ki. They are trying to hold their position. I let them match me for a while and continue to ramp up until I start to sense them falter. Knowing that this is not about me winning rather them having an experience, I ease back just before breaking point. I do this with the first three directions. The woman from the South has defined gender and when she comes up for stance there is no need, because we already understand each other.

I know that there are hundreds more to come in the grading session. On the mat practice continues and we know, the sensei and I, that they have never yet experienced full contact combat which is a game changer.

The dream ends.