GASHAKU

From time to time throughout the year, Kempo practitioners gather to practice and learn together at residency seminars. These seminars are called Gashaku (or Gashuku). During Gashaku, all Kempists live together as a community, sharing food and living space (quite often the space of the Dojo itself). At Gashaku, students can develop a spirit of friendship with other students from their own Dojo and from other Dojos, as well as exchange ideas and techniques for mutual benefit. Practicing at Gashaku is usually strenuous and time-consuming, interwoven with discussions and lectures on Kempo topics.

It is not easy to describe the value of coming to a Seminar where you are fully committed to yourself and practice. Kempo, Kempo Yoga, Meditation, and the possibility of personal consultation with Teachers can significantly change your life's direction and help evolve new qualities within yourself or in relationships with your loved ones and all other people.

The seminar aims to awaken and activate those parts of every Kempo student that have mainly remained hidden or underdeveloped throughout their lives. The strength of the seminar will be evident if you get support in your own experience and that the Kempo tools offered are beneficial, valuable in everyday life, bring joy, peace and a sense of fullness of life.

What makes it even more worthy is the effect that is not simply the summation of time spent in training, but the progression in an environment that creates the preconditions for understanding oneself and fulfilling achievements in the most fruitful way. All of this is much harder to achieve just by coming to regular workouts because the daily rhythm filled with obligations, tensions, work and other frustrations takes a lot of time and energy, so training is almost just a filter used for the purification of life.

This activity leads to the renewal and unification of energy and the relaxation from even the most profound tensions we are usually unaware of. The seminar allows us to rediscover our body, from which we have become alienated mainly due to today's way of life, establish a better relationship with it and acquire new healthy habits. We will also become aware of the importance of mental training and calmness achieved through Meditation.

Gashaku is a reminder of the original way of practice. It is important primarily because of the favorable conditions that allow a far more complete experience of yourself and Kempo. Gashaku creates assumptions and is a unique opportunity to combine different forms of training. There is also enough time for additional, sometimes very complex, explanations. Specific techniques are practiced almost to their perfection, thus enabling a far wider panorama of their understanding and application. Gashaku offers an opportunity to give lectures that provoke, inspire, or explain what was practiced during regular training, what should be practiced, or which direction to support. It is possible to talk to teachers far more, ask for explanations or resolve uncertainties and even doubts. Also, the intensity of practice creates strong energy charges or discharges, allowing the practice of the next essential component of a correct Kempo Path. It will enable you to exchange experiences, feelings, opinions with your friend on the Path in an environment where you can easily open your heart and be honest. Sometimes this is even possible in smaller groups. There is still time for personal, individual checking or improvement during breaks and meditation.