Karate Studio Lends a Hand : Carving Out a Quiet Spot for Zen Meditation

On most days, the Ryuei Ryu Karate-Do school on El Cajon Boulevard resounds with the thwacks of falling bodies and the screams of martial-arts devotees.

But on Saturdays, the school’s interior takes on a decidedly different quality. The people who use the well-beaten floor are sitting--not falling--and their chants are the only sounds that disturb the silence of deep spiritual meditation.

Welcome to the Zen Institute and the Okinawa School.

Local Demand

Founded by Shogauku Zenshin (Stephen) Echard-Musgrave, a regional supervisor for the City College bookstore, the institute occupies the karate school one day a week to satisfy requests from local Zen students for a place to practice and learn about meditation.

In the past, Zen meditation ceremonies and exercises were conducted in the private homes of local Zen teachers, also called sensei , said Echard-Musgrave.

A Zen leader in Los Angeles prevailed on Echard-Musgrave, 42, to provide a more formal meeting place and he was made a master, or roshi , in a ceremony last month.

Echard-Musgrave now leads the fledgling institute, which turns the karate school, 5700 El Cajon Blvd., into a part-time sanctuary on Saturdays, complete with floor cushions and a portable Buddhist shrine.

Echard-Musgrave said that Zen meditation is a blending of Indian Buddhism and Taoism. The word Zen, he added, is derived from a Sanskrit term meaning meditation.

Not a Communal Arrangement

Unlike other institutes in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where Zen followers live communally, the San Diego institute wants adult Zen practitioners to lead a normal life in the community.

Living in a Zen center is an “artificial reality,” Echard-Musgrave said, because it is neither true monkhood nor real life.

“It is better for an individual to have his or her own place or space in life,” he said.

Echard-Musgrave said he would rather teach people to integrate their devotion to Zen into their daily life. “I teach that one can be a plumber or a scientist, practice Zen, and still carry on daily life as a normal person,” he said.

Echard-Musgrave said the institute will eventually run mini-seminars on disciplines such as the Japanese tea ceremony, tai chi chuan (a Chinese martial art) and Japanese and Chinese painting.

The goal of these seminars will be to expose San Diegans of differing religious backgrounds to these arts and to nondenominational meditation.

When the institute finds a permanent home, Echard-Musgrave said, he hopes to have it open as often as four times a week for the traditional morning Buddhist services and meditation, in addition to hosting lectures on a variety of Buddhist traditions.

Although fewer than 20 people now participate in the program, Echard-Musgrave said he is optimistic that the numbers will increase as people from all denominations are attracted to meditation.

Echard-Musgrave said he follows the Soto tradition of Zen, which is practiced by about 25 million Japanese and teaches that people are already enlightened, but just need to actualize their enlightenment.