Brush and Sword The newsletter by Sameer Sharma Issue #6 To Be Defeated By Ever Greater Things There is beauty in the breakdown. "Kintsugi Skull" Still Life, Oil on Canvas (Click to Learn More) The Man Watching This post was inspired by the poem, “The Man Watching”, by the Austrian poet and novelist, Rainer Maria Rilke. In his poem, Rilke promotes one's willingness to be defeated, dominated and shaped by forces larger than oneself. It is only through this constant, willful exposure to the...
4 months ago • 7 min read
Brush and Sword The newsletter by Sameer Sharma Issue #5 Fundamentals=Mastery Slow, simple and obvious is actually fast, fun and elusive Still Life of Bottles (Click to Find out More) A 30 Year Lesson “Aikido is just entering, turning, hands come up, hands come down and drop your weight,” said my sensei during one of the first Aikido classes I took almost 30 years ago. Being a complete newbie with less than a few months of training, I had no idea what he was talking about. Little did I know...
5 months ago • 7 min read
Brush and Sword The newsletter by Sameer Sharma Issue #4 Connection Versus Attachment-The difference is significant, not semantic. Study of Shoulder and Hand, Click to Learn More A Lesson From Tai Chi “Stay connected to your partner; not attached,” I said to my students during a recent Tai Chi class where I was teaching them push hands. They quickly discovered that being connected is not the same as being attached. The more they grabbed onto each other, the less control they had. In fact, the...
6 months ago • 3 min read
Brush and Sword The newsletter by Sameer Sharma Issue # 3 Befriend the Unknown and Discover the Wisdom in Not Knowing "A Gift Of Darkness" (Self-Portrait), Click to Learn More Stepping Into The Unknown "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the experts mind there are few."- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind Beginner's Mind. This is a continuation of my previous article, Invest In Loss. In that article, I explored the value of letting go. Surrendering allows something greater to arise...
7 months ago • 8 min read
Brush and Sword The newsletter by Sameer Sharma Issue #2 Invest In Loss-What Might You Gain By Letting Go? Figure Study, red chalk on paper. A Lesson From Push Hands “Invest in loss,” my Sifu told me (Chinese for, “teacher”) after a Tai Chi class. We had been practicing “tui sho” or “push hands” as it is known in English. Push Hands is a practice in the martial art of Tai Chi were two practitioners cross arms and try to take each other’s balance through the sensitivity of touch. Actually, the...
9 months ago • 6 min read
Brush and Sword The newsletter by Sameer Sharma Issue #1 From Head to Heart, From Craft to Art-Master technique to transcend it. "Still Movement" oil on canvas board. Click for more info. As both a visual artist of painting and a martial arts of Aikido and Tai Chi, I've found that technical skill in any art form can become a purgatory where one can get stuck indefinitely. We can easily mistake technical mastery with artistry. Yet, here lies the paradox-you cannot make art without mastering...
over 1 year ago • 6 min read