About
Bushindo University
The Way of the Enlightened Warrior · Ancient Arts for Modern Times
“Always have the courage to live what you love, and to love what you live.”
Doshi Richard Van Donk
What Bushindo Means
The Way of the Warrior with Heart
“Way of the Enlightened Warrior,” the Enlightened Warrior Path.
Warrior
One who has the courage to transcend fear, to be resolved in times of challenge, and to demonstrate peace while being able to protect peace.
Heart
Depending on the kanji, Shin reads as heart, mind, truth or the highest aspect of God. We combine all four and call it enlightenment. We write it with the kanji for heart, because the heart is the center of all the teachings. We begin here and end here, in the jeweled heart.
Way
The way or path of the Bushin, the warrior with heart. Do also means willful clarity of mindful purpose, and the directing of the divine will.
In Doshi’s Words
Why I Founded Bushindo
I founded the Bushindo System to integrate my martial arts knowledge, my experiences of spiritual awakening and brain-mind research, and to separate these teachings from the Bujinkan Ninjutsu System, in which I have invested decades of study. My heart, and the passion that drives my life, is the integration of the philosophical and spiritual sides of the sacred temple arts. I want to see how far a group of individuals can evolve as human beings.
Bushindo brings back the temple arts: a complete system for developing the whole human being to its fullest. From sacred teachings I have studied since I was a young boy, I have drawn the best of many systems that have transformed millions of lives, and used my research into how the brain and mind learn to help almost anyone duplicate that success faster.
Even my martial arts teaching is broken into five areas of training. To advance as a martial artist, or as a human being, you must strengthen each one:
Training for years with councils of Grandmasters, I worked on what really works and what doesn’t. I took the best and threw out the rest. I simplified it, made it flow, made it precise, and worked every angle, distance and timing until I found a master pattern at the core of all movement systems. I call it the Golden Matrix.
Martial arts, for me, begins and ends in respect.
Bushindo Today
The Empowered Warrior Dojo
Bushindo lives on in the Empowered Warrior Dojo at Bushindo University: a body-mind-spirit system that renews, revitalizes and rejuvenates your life while giving you martial skills second to none.
Train in the Shin Gi Tai Ichi™ System, Mind, Technique and Body as One, from your first step at 9th Kyu to your Shodan black belt.
What About Ninjutsu?
We Love Ninjutsu
Bushindo stands beside, not in place of, our Bujinkan Ninjutsu roots. Doshi trained with Grandmaster Hatsumi for decades and received his Ju-Godan Menkyo license (15th Dan) on December 2, 2004, Hatsumi Sensei’s birthday. Our senior IBDA instructors support Ninjutsu students worldwide through the Black Belt Course, seminars, camps, Japan trips and private lessons.
Our Mission
“To further empower all human beings in their ability to protect and build their freedoms while increasing their humanity.”
Bushindo University and the American Bujinkan Dojo are dedicated to building a better Bujinkan through education and action, giving every student access to what they need to study Ninjutsu and Budo Taijutsu properly: one on one, in groups, at camps, through books, video and home study, and with a direct lineage to Japan.
Free Guide
The 8 Secret Powers of Ancient Warrior Masters
A tradition, not a program. Discover the powers the old masters lived by, passed down through the Bushindo warrior tradition, and start living them today.
Doshi Richard Van Donk