Duncan, Sensei

Duncan, Sensei

Good teachers impart good education. Great teachers groom their students to become leaders. Ordinary teachers direct us along the right path, but great teachers inspire us to seek our own path. They encourage us to discover our talents.

Duncan, Sensei has a deep passion for Karate. He is a graduate of the Florida International University Karate program, and a direct student of Manny Saavedra, Kaicho. He has established a very successful Karate program of his own in Western Carolina University. His innovative, non-judgmental, empathic, and compassionate approach to working with students is held in high regard by his colleagues, who also appreciate the professional mentorship that he provides them.
Duncan, Sensei is a great Sensei full of enthusiasm and excitement about Karate.
He is a great teacher that understands where his students want to go, and helps build easy bridges to get there.

"He is a great leader and a great decision maker; He takes a genuine interest in the students he teaches and the community he lives in. That's a rare quality for someone nowadays. And most importantly he is a very good friend that will always tell you what he thinks, always true to himself.” Manny Saavedra

Bill Vergara, Sensei

Bill Vergara, Sensei

There is nothing more necessary than truth, and in comparison with it everything else has only secondary value. This absolute will to truth: what is it? Is it the will to not allow ourselves to be deceived? Is it the will not to deceive? One does not want to be deceived, under the supposition that it is injurious, dangerous, or fatal to be deceived. (Nietzsche, 1890)

Bill Vergara, Sensei is a graduate of the Florida International University Karate Program, and a Direct Student of Manny Saavedra, Kaicho. . He is one of the chief instructors of Family Martial Arts Dojo. He is a great Sensei with simple, pure motivation and a greatly educating, entertaining, inspiring way of teaching. He is an avid researcher of the art, always questioning and reading. Vergara, Sensei is a great Sensei because of his ability to relate to his students; he is accepting of his students. He is also a great Sensei because he helps his students to open up and deal with real life situations he makes things interesting for his students, he truly cares, and because he shares a mutual respect with his students that most teachers could only dream of. He is an influential teacher because he leaves a lasting impression on every life that he has come into contact with, and that is something that most people will never accomplish.

Kevin Cardona, Sensei

Kevin Cardona, Sensei

It was once said that the “mediocre teacher tells, the good teacher explains, the superior teacher demonstrates, and the great teacher inspires.”

Kevin Cardona, Sensei is a graduate of the Florida International University Karate Program. Cardona, Senseis nature as a Sensei is to help his students not only learn facts about Karate, but he also can incite within his students an excitement about Karate. He guides them into seeing the broader meaning of the art. As a result, the student can see the “bigger picture” and consequently the implications of things. Through the enlightenment that they have been led into they begin to become inspired by the understanding they have gained. Cardona, Sensei is one of the chief instructors of Family Martial Arts Dojo in Miami, Florida.

Alex Vergara, Sensei

Alex Vergara, Sensei

Kiki Sanchez, Sensei

Kiki Sanchez, Sensei

Jose Armenteros, Sensei

Jose Armenteros, Sensei

Jose Armenteros, Sensei ia a member of the Family Martial Arts Dojo World Sansei Koryu Gojukia. He is a Sensei who has provided the inspiration and motivation for success in life. he is one of the most encouraging Senseis in the organization. He works tirelessly to develop his students' individual talents and interests. He applies great creativity to his presentation of the world of Karate, and each student is made to feel that his or her own special interests were the highest priority. His encouragement form is a significant force in his Dojo.

Alfonso Martinez, Sensei

Alfonso Martinez, Sensei

Alfonso Martinez, Sensei has very strong body building and Karate background. He is a member of the Family Martial Arts Dojo World Sansei Koryu Gojukia in Miami, Florida.
He is able to make great strides with all of his students, imparting confidence and solid techniques they can take into the Black Belt arena. He cares so deeply for his students and fellow Senseis, and he truly supports them. He’s so great at getting people to rally around what it is they need to do and does everything for the right reasons, and gets people to do the same.”
He is a team player and a great life coach that truly believes in his students potential philosophy.

Lonesome Warrior Dojo( Kokorosabishii Buke Dojo) West Palm Beach, Florida

Brandy Caban, Sensei

Javier Caban, Sensei

Lonesome Warrior Dojo( Kokorosabishii Buke Dojo) West Palm Beach, Florida

The Cabans are members of the World Sansei Koryu Gojukai Karatedo. They are both excellent role models in our Karate community. Being a Sensei is not a job; it is an attitude. The Sensei is a source of information, a guide, a mentor, a surrogate parent, a motivator, all at the same time. A Sensei deals with the now and the future. To be an ideal Sensei, who can be a role model, one should ask himself three questions before taking up this noble profession. Do you love your subject? Anyone who does not love his subject can never be a good Sensei and cannot inspire his/her students. Do you love your profession? If one does not have the respect for his vocation, he can never have self-esteem of himself. Such Sensei’s do not exude confidence and assurance. Can you love your students as intensely as your own children? For the Cabans all these questions are easily answered with yes. The Cabans are Sensei’s that set high expectations for all their students, they expect that all students can and will achieve in their Dojo, and they don’t give up on underachievers. They are Sensei’s that have clear, written-out objectives, Sensei’s that are prepared and organized. Great Senseis engage students and get them to look at situations in a variety of ways. Great Senseis form strong relationships with their students and show that they care about them as people. Great Senseis are masters of their subject matter.
The students are guided by a Sensei who acts as a friend, philosopher, guide and a role model. A Senseis task is to inculcate effective skills in a students beginning years and help him emerge as an individual entity.” The Lonesome Warrior Dojo does all this and more.

The Road and The Way

The Road and The Way

The Karatekas journey towards becoming “that self which we truly are” is a journey into the psyche, which involves listening to feelings and emotions as well as thoughts. All psychic events are guides to discovering our inner selves, but making sense of feelings and emotions may not be the easiest of projects. Some feelings and emotions are direct responses of the inner self to the outer life. Others result from the repression or denial of some more basic emotional response. Still others may come up just because some part of ourselves has been asleep too long. Some emotions are celebrations; others point out homework. Some seem negative; others appear to be positive. Feelings and emotions – all of them – are guiding and driving forces. They can also be like nudges, or even kicks, from some aspect of the inner self which is saying, “Wake up! Pay attention to me! Let me out, let me be!”
Self-actualization is a search for the center of our being, which ironically is meanwhile directing the search. In a way, self-actualization takes place by itself, for there is an innate urge towards living out our inherent nature. Through Traditional Karate do training, living out our human potential means consciously connects with the core self. Doing so depends on being willing to listen to the messages of the Self, which take the form of psychic events: feelings, emotions, intuitions, thoughts, and images. To listen to these messages is to explore the psyche and seek out something not yet known – the inner Self. It is also to discover ways that the psyche and psychic events can impact on the body, and ways that the body can influence the psyche.

We are Unique

WE ARE UNIQUE

When nature creates, she plants the seed of uniqueness in the heart of her creations – whether that is a flower, a tree, an animal or a human being. That seed becomes the centre of life in a living being. In all living beings except in humans the seed at the centre breaks its shell, grows, flowers and reaches its pinnacle. All other living beings live according to their nature with clarity and transparency. Whatever is there as potential within expresses itself in the outer world. But the same is not true with humans. A child is born with a centre or seed of uniqueness which has potential to become a tender plant, strong tree, flowers and bears fruits of fulfillment. The seed and centre within also contains the creative potential of a person. But in the majority of people that evolution and progression doesn’t occur. The seed at the centre gets buried under the social, cultural, political and religious conditioning and remains so to the end of life. Conditioning is essential in the growth and development of a child, rooting the child in a particular environment, culture and religion. Without such conditioning a child would feel insecure and anxious. But after fifteen to twenty years of age, conditioning should be renounced so that the person can grow into a psychologically independent individual. Such renunciation would bring the person’s centre or the seed of uniqueness onto the surface, allowing the individual to reach a state of wholeness. Conditioning gives roots to the child but it also confines him/her to a particular religion, culture, nation and color. Unfortunately in most people conditioning not only continues but crystallizes more and more as age advances. Such crystallization takes away the possibility of realizing one’s own unique potential and creativity. Life remains a stagnant pool of fear, sorrow and conflict rather than a flowing river of joy, fulfillment and wholeness. Through karate Training and living its core values you can ‘establish in yourself’, which simply means, to realize what we are. This realization would bring total health to us. What we really are is our uniqueness, not the conditioning which is imparted to us by society. The process of realizing this uniqueness is not by rejection of the society, culture or religion. Rather, religion or culture forms the fertile ground on which the flower of uniqueness blooms. One feature in human beings which sets them apart from any other living being is ‘self- awareness’. Because of self-awareness, humans can’t be completely conditioned. Other living beings can live in a total conditioned state, but not humans. The doors of freedom always remain open to become free from the conditioning of the culture and society. The seed or centre of uniqueness in them may be deeply buried, but it constantly sends energy into awareness and makes the person restless. A person may have enough wealth, power, knowledge and means of comfort, but that restlessness continues because the unique potential within remains unrealized. Becoming aware of this centre or seed is the beginning of the process of self-realization or actualization. It is a movement towards one’s authentic self or true nature where joy, fulfillment and creativity lie hidden. When a person becomes aware of the centre or seed within; life’s journey turns into a pilgrimage. On this pilgrimage we don’t meet a prophet, god or God but our own self. We come face to face with ourselves for the first time. These moments of meeting with our true self are also the moments of harmony and fulfillment. During these moments, our masks which covered our unique nature are shattered and our original face shines forth.

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