Mushin Goju Ryu: The Unfettered Mind Hard and Soft System
Mushin Goju Ryu consists of a small group of martial artists who train in South Florida. In 2006, Mushin Goju Ryu was founded by Hanchi Bill Wendell, which is recognized by the World Head of Family Sokeship Council. Hanchi Wendell attained his 10th Degree Black Belt and Grandmaster status in July of 2011, and has accrued over fifty years of martial arts training. He has made it his life’s work to learn intimately the way of the empty hand, innovate the arts, and attain mushin.
While there are several ways of interpreting Mushin, including:
- “no mind,”
- “mindlessness,” and
- “without thought,”
Hanchi likes to think of it as “the unfettered ego;” one must free himself of any preconceived notions and pretension to learn the true meaning of Karatedo: to see one’s self clearly. This is no easy undertaking as the ego fogs the mind, and is a greater, infinitely more capable enemy than any tangible adversary. In practice, Mushin means instant action, by which a practitioner acts purely out of necessity, rather than from a strategy, or otherwise an ego full of intentions and agendas.
Hanchi Wendell invites anyone willing to learn with open arms. He employs philosophy, Newtonian physics, and over five decades of personal experience when explaining different karate techniques. It is his goal to share Mushin Goju Ryu with anyone willing to listen, train, and achieve a sound, calm mind.
Thomas
/ August 31, 2011There are so many different methods,styles, or systems to karate. Do they all link in some weird way or did the all come from one main source and people eventually branched out to do their own thing. I look forward to learning more glad to have found your site. All this long time i thought the spelling Mushin go ju ru!
Sensei Joe
/ August 31, 2011Hi Thomas! Great question. The answer is yes…and no. The history and development of many different arts all tracks back to India. If you’d like, you can read more about the history of Goju to get an idea of how martial arts developed over time and throughout different regions. Generally, the arts went from India, to China, which spread to Japan, and so on. Mushin Goju Ryu has Chinese Wing Chung influences, as well Japanese and Okinawan Karate. Often times many styles possess an eerie amount of similarities due to their roots. Other times the similarities may be considered coincidental. A good example would be between Nisei Goju, USA Goju, and Mushin Goju. All of these styles are are under the Goju umbrella, and thus have many of the same katas and other curriculum. The way that these katas are performed however, do not always appear the same, as there may have been changes implemented in each respective system. These changes can be system wide, or even dependent upon the head instructor of a school. Hope this helped!
josh toyota
/ September 13, 2011hey,
you were saying something about studying some kung fu in sofla. but you didn’t know a school that was reputable or decent or something. like i said i’m biased towards my sifu’s school. right now he’s located on commercial, east of us1, on the north side of the road. his site is:
http://chungswingchun.com
http://chungswingchun.com/index.html
…and there is some crappy one here…
http://chungskungfu.com/
Sensei Joe
/ September 15, 2011Thanks for the comment, Josh. Much appreciated. I don’t know too many Kung Fu stylists down here. Thanks for the links. I love the picture on the home page. You and I should have a spar session soon.