New Year's Resolutions

Today is the last day of 2010 and so the madness and the mayhem, the jubilation and the joy, the anger and the anguish, the sense and the senselessness, the fears and the foolishness, the highs and the high-fives of the year are officially behind us. And we can breathe a sigh of relief and wonder and turn the corner to face the unknown road that lies ahead of us in 2011.

It is also traditionally the time to make New Year’s Resolutions – a commitment to do more of, to do differently, to know more and deeper and to be the change we want to see in the world – even if it is only in the immediate world we inhabit. It is the time we make our intentions for the coming year.

So in respect of our aikido training, here are some thoughts for the new year:

• · Two elements will deepen our practice: intent and intensity. On the mat, train as if your life depends on it; off the mat your life does depend on it. As a martial art, you need to train as if you intend to use your aikido someday to protect your life, or the life of a loved one. Do NOT train as if your life is currently threatened, but train as if it may someday be. Take your training seriously and with proper intent and intensity for practical real-world application.
• · As a spiritual discipline, you need to train as if your spiritual life depends on it. No matter what your partner does, you must uphold your own level of ethics and behaviour. One’s spiritual / personal development depends on sticking strictly to one’s work and progress. No-one can do it FOR anyone else. We can help our training partners, but we cannot do it for them.
• · We also need to train with intense intent. Intensity follows intent. If your intent is to spend some time socialising with your training partners, your training intensity will be minimal. If on the other hand, you intend to be able to apply your aikido either to defend yourself or to improve yourself, your seriousness and intensity will be higher.
• · Train consistently and persistently. Progress doesn’t just come; any skill needs consistent attendance and persistent practice to deepen.
• · O-Sensei also wanted us to train joyously and in a celebratory manner fully aware of the serious (and dangerous) martial art aikido is.
• · Train slowly and consciously. This means paying attention to the little details. The best way to progress quickly, is to progress slowly. Pay attention to the little things – inside and around you – and you will be able to make big changes.

Here's looking forward to training with you in 2011!!!

See you on the tatami

On Courage

I found a samurai in a rather unusual place... Reading a collection of writings and speeches by the late Steve Biko, I write what I like, I came across a piece that struck a chord with me....

A few months before his incarceration and eventual death in detention at age 30, Bantu Steve Biko was interviewed by an American businessman.

You are either alive or proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can’t care anyway. And your method of death can itself be a politicising thing. So you die in the riots. For a hell of a lot of them, in fact, there’s really nothing to lose – almost literally, given the kind of situations that they come from. So if you can overcome the personal fear for death, which is a highly irrational thing, you know, then you’re on the way.

And in interrogation the same sort of thing applies. I was talking to this policeman, and I told him, “If you want us to make any progress, the best thing is for us to talk. Don’t try any form of rough stuff, because it just won’t work.” And this is absolutely true also. For I just couldn’t see what they could do to me which would make me all of a sudden soften to them. If they talk to me, well I’m bound to be affected by them as human beings. But the moment they adopt rough stuff, they are imprinting in my mind that they are police. And I only understand one form of dealing with police, and that is to be as unhelpful as possible. So I button up. And I told them this: “It’s up to you.” We had a boxing match the first day I was arrested. Some guy tried to clout me with a club. I went into him like a bull. I think he was under instructions to take it so far and no further, and using open hands so that he doesn’t leave any marks on the face. And of course he said exactly what you were saying just now: “I will kill you”. He meant to intimidate. And my answer was: “How long is it going to take you?” Now of course they were observing my reaction. And they could see that I was completely unbothered. If they beat me up, it’s to my advantage. I can use it. They just killed somebody in jail – a friend of mine – about ten days before I was arrested. Now it would have been bloody useful evidence for them to assault me. At least it would indicate what kinds of possibilities were there, leading to this guy’s death.

So I wanted them to go ahead and do what they could do, so that I could use it. I wasn’t really afraid that their violence might lead me to make revelations I didn’t want to make, because I had nothing to reveal on this particular issue. I was operating from a very good position, and they were in a very weak position. My attitude is, I am not going to allow them to carry out their programme faithfully. If they want to beat me five times, they can only do so on condition that I allow them to beat me five times. If I react sharply, equally and oppositely to the first klap, they are not going to be able to systematically count the next four klaps, you see. It’s a fight. So if they had meant to give me so much of a beating, and not more, my idea is to make them go beyond what they wanted to give me and to give back as much as I can give so that it becomes an uncontrollable thing. You see the one problem the guy had with me: he couldn’t really fight with me because it meant he must hit back, like a man. But he was given instructions you see, on how to hit, and now these instructions were no longer applying because it was a fight. So he had to withdraw and get more instructions. So I said to them, “Listen, if you guys want to do this your way, you have got to handcuff me and bind my feet together, so that I can’t respond. If you allow me to respond I’m certainly going to respond. And I’m afraid you may have to kill me in the process even if it is not your intention”.

The interview with Steve Biko conjured up many thoughts for me, as I hope it will for you. Maybe it will help you think about your own courage as it did me. How many of us are willing to suffer –as he did – for what we believe in? How many of us “activists” are still prepared to do so; those of us who regale others who were not there with stories - many of them becoming embellished in the retelling- how many of us persist today, continue to stand up in the face of injustice and without fear or favour are able to speak unpalatable truth to overweaning power. How many of those who call ourselves “activists” or not are able to do that – especially with our friends. It is often a battle that is harder to do than with our enemies.

How many of us are in fact willing to sit with ourselves in integrity and speak unpalatable truth to power to ourselves when we utilise our power to wrong another?

Recently I had the misfortune to see, hear and feel the pain as a colleague who does amazing facilitation work had to confront the disjuncture between what he says and what he does. And face the prospect of the complete destruction of a meaningful relationship. I saw the physical and emotional torment the situation caused him. I know that well; I too have visited that place. In the end, he lost the battle within himself, choosing instead to retreat behind carefully crafted internal walls where no other person can touch him – and there in his solitude, far away from anyone else, he felt in (false) control.

Being a warrior is hard. More than fighting, it is also about being willing to die – and for death not to matter. Knowing what you stand for means you don’t fall for everything.

Our training on the tatami offers us the space for that kind of preparation. At a technical level, practice in irimi (entering with the body) in the face of an attack helps to clear away the impurities that stick like barnacles to our technique. At another level, training with full awareness and consciousness – even on the days we would rather not – helps to clarify for us our purpose and how we live that our in relation to others.

As we refine what it is we stand for, the challenge becomes to implement that in all aspects of our lives – how we work, how we play, how we relate to others, how we love. At that point the artificial distinctions cease because there is no difference between me the brother, son, colleague, facilitator, writer, teacher, seeker after insight, lover or friend. When those carefully crafted yet artificial distinctions we cherish inside us fall away, the true warrior, samurai (one who is in service [to humanity]) can step forward. That is perhaps Takemusu aiki – aikido (the spirit of harmony) without form.

While Steve Bantu Biko paid the ultimate price at the tender age of 30, each of us has the space to grapple with those self-same issues in less terminal circumstances. Thanks to the sacrifice of people like him.

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar... To step out from our comfort zones and to know and show what we stand for.

See you on the tatami...

On creating connection

Remember, you cannot hold bliss

in your fist;
You can hold bliss only in your open hand – OSHO

Much of the training this year has been about bringing softness to the hard edges in my technique…. Whereas last year the focus became about facing my fears and nurturing the ability to stand up, in the face of an attack (sometimes even on my integrity) without aggression, this year - 2010 – was about finding the softness within and without. And while last year was focused on body movements (tai no henko) and especially on practicing kaiten and irimi, this year the focus shifted to creating musubi or connection with your training partner (uke).

We create musubi in many ways:

When we start our training, the connection starts when uke grabs our hand or our shoulder. Here the focus is on the proper body placement in relation to uke.

Later it progresses to connecting when uke starts his or her shomen (overhead) or yokomen (lateral) strike or launches a tsuki (punch). This is a slightly higher level of training because it doesn’t rely on a physical touch but rather connected to uke in the moment the attack becomes expressed. The downside of this stage of practice, is that it can still remain reactive training, dependant on getting the timing right. Move too late and the strike connects. Move too early and uke has the opportunity to realign and to change the attack – and again the strike connects. At this level of training it is important to be at the right place at the right time.

The most difficult stage ( or rather the most challenging one) is yet to come… In this stage, one connects with uke’s intention – as expressed in many miniscule body movements (shifts in posture, state of the eyes, change in breathing even or a readying of the shoulders). This is the stage of sen-no-sen, of connection with uke as a human being, with his or her spirit and the moment of the possibility of transformation.

Not surprisingly, this stage requires us to still the noise within, to find the still-point that TS Eliot speaks of, where the dance is. The relaxed power to move, to truly connect and to flow can only come when we have let go of the fears, faced the doubts and when we choose to step forward and engage notwithstanding – into the uncertainty of what will happen in the next moment. It happens when we choose to reach out to the other person.

Over and over in my mind plays a throw-away comment many years ago by the late Shihan Ken Cottier that the essence of kokyu-nage (breath power throw), indeed the essence of Aikido lies in these three elements – body placement, timing and kokyu-rokyu (relaxed breathing).

This past year I have often struggled to get these three elements just right both on and off the mat; I have often found myself in opposition to uke, clashing (sometimes only subtly) with his/her attack or running into uke’s power. Always, and without exception, that has been because I have been in just the wrong position relative to the attack. Many times I have berated uke (in my mind) for an improper attack – yet, honestly, it is only my placement that is at issue. The attack is the attack. I was “killed” five times in demonstration in December for every time being in the wrong place along the arc of the bokken’s cut.

At other times, my timing’s been off. With practice, thankfully it has improved over the years. Yet as uke for Kubota Shihan, I was reminded that there was a tardiness in my attack and response. And while that may be hidden in my ordinary practice, when a 7^th dan holds up a mirror to you, those imperfections and areas of improvement are highlighted. And so I have to wonder also whether off the mat, how many opportunities that slight hesitation has lost me? So next year I will train more consciously exploring where the caution, where the hesitation lies….

And still the relaxation – and the power that comes from truly being relaxed – eludes me. Not always, mind you. And I am more aware now where and when it is absent. But still here too there is room for improvement.

And so, as I write these reflections perhaps the challenge in making a real connection starts to reveal itself:

Much of it lies in what I do (or say), how I place myself in relation to the other person. Do I assume a cold, dispassionate distance, do I open myself up completely (also to the possibility of being disappointed or hurt), do I subordinate myself completely enduring the strikes believing resolutely that there is no gain without pain? How do I blend with the other person, without giving up the essence of who I am, without losing myself in the process?

Nonetheless, one third of connecting with someone else is just turning up, being present; without being around there can be no connection. So it all begins with taking the decision to be there. And with that decision to be there, to relate, it is important to then be there fully to allow for the possibility of the connection.

Timing too is crucial. How much is too much, or too little, or too late? In moving, do we move together or to a different beat? Am I truly present or stuck in a distant and fading past or lost in the fluffy promise of a fuzzy future?

And lastly, the challenge of truly connecting to another human being lies in being relaxed, relaxed enough to be myself… What stops us from that state? What fears drive us to hide (parts of) ourselves, to clothe ourselves sometimes in garments of civility and friendship even without ever revealing ourselves to allow true intimacy?

And of course we choose how to connect.

Sometimes we get it right; sometimes we don’t and invariably then we get hurt – or worse still hurt the other person. In this practice called Life the only real mistake is to continue to make the same ones over and over.

So here’s to deepening our awareness, deepening our musubi, our connectedness to one another… And opening up to being transformed by the connection.

See you on the tatami in the New Year!

What is Aikido and What Does Training Mean to Us?

On August 29, 2010, Seiichi Sugano Shihan (8th dan) passed on. He was one of O-Sensei's live-in students (uchi-deshi). Known for his vibrant Aikido, he continued to train and teach even after 2003 saw him undergo an amputation below his left knee. Until the last, he continued to refine his aikido, challenging his students across the world to refine theirs too.

Below is an article Sugano Shihan wrote about what Aikido meant to him...

Progress

When it comes to progress, I think we may have to ask how progress relates to Aikido. In a sense consciousness to achieve or to progress is the essence of sports. In the world of sports, one is considered to have achieved his or her goal when that person becomes a champion.

However, Aikido exists outside such a frame of progress. There is no clear attainment point in Aikido no matter how many years one practices. In other martial arts, the results of practice are clear by the number of

people one threw in a lesson. Aikido has no such clear results. One must meet the demands of self learning. It can be hard to continue Aikido unless one has a desire to constantly learn.

The teaching method, too, is an important subject. In the case of sports, there are matches, so there is a clear result. Since one’s progress is apparent, the teaching method has always been studied and evaluated. Meanwhile, in Aikido, the basic teaching method whereby students [observe and copy] the throws and techniques shown by their teacher and then repeat them has not changed from old days too much.

It is important that the teacher tries to make the training meaningful for the students, and it should be done with an intention to help the students develop their ability. No development or the progress will be made only by showing one's strength and preeminence.

Progress also depends on how the students would like to practice. One might simply enjoy training as recreation. For those people who would like to train seriously, it will be more interesting and helpful for the development of their abilities if they have the right kind of teaching and opportunities.

In Belgium, I teach classes called “inner school” in response to the solicitation of students’ desire to learn further. I initially limited the classes to only forty students with black belts. I call it a school program, rather than a seminar. It takes place in a training camp form. There also was a request in the Netherlands, so I started the school over there, too.

Even though there are only few of these schools, there are people who wish to attend programs like this with great interest. I believe that more places and more opportunities should be given to such people.

Kata

It is generally said that Aikido is a practice of Kata (forms). However, Aikido practice does not include “Kata”, but a “repetition of the skills” or “repetition of the movement” to be exact. One tends to have a fixed image regarding term “Kata”. If people with some knowledge of the martial arts hear “Kata”, they would most likely have an image of something fixed. It is important to carefully choose the terms we use because people tend to anchor a certain image.

In the case of Aikido, if one is doing the same Iriminage, one is not repeating the same thing.

Subconsciously, the throw changes depending on the partner. As for the practice of Kata, one must concentrate on it and think about it while practicing precisely as possible. The nature of such practice cannot vary depending on one’s physical or emotional conditions. Aikido practice, on the other hand, can be done more freely as it does not have fixed forms which have to be done precisely.

I think the fact one can train freely is a positive benefit of Aikido practice. Nonetheless, one must make sure that the practice does not end up impulsive and inconstant.

Now, there are many terms used in Aikido that are brought from different martial arts other than Kata. For example, “Ukemi” comes from judo. [But] Aikido ukemi is about following the movement of the nage and is different from that of judo.

Another example is “Suburi” which is a movement of swinging a bokken. The term comes from kendo. It is difficult to express the exact meaning of the term if the term is adopted from another context. Therefore other knowledge is necessary to display one's experience. Without knowledge, a term is apt to have nothing solid but only mood and feeling.

Levels of Understanding

In Aikido, one learns by experiencing through the body. This alone would only result into physical experience, even after ten years of practice. If one continues practicing for many years, of course, the body becomes strong. However, the level of understanding can still be doubtful.

Everything is learned physically as a result of experience, but to display what has been learned, some verbal expression and other methods become necessary. Hence, one should find opportunities and try to learn various things outside of Aikido.

O-Sensei realized it in the Omoto religion. I don’t think one could fully understand the discipline of Aikido without something like that. Learning by the physical experiences certainly is important, but I think it is also important to experience something new besides Aikido to stimulate one's thought and brain.

It is necessary to study basics things without being disturbed by one’s own mood and …feelings. The lesson method of Aikido is left to the decision of each instructor, and this is a good thing about Aikido. If strictly codified, the independence which is the merit of Aikido is lost.

Of course, balance is important, but I think it is better that one has a good level of skills, specifically posture, the sense of maai, directionality, the principle of the sword line, gaze and so on. It is often seen in enbu (martial art performance) that people just stand straight before a partner waiting for the attack. This is because there is no awareness of the sword line at all.

O-Sensei frequently talked about gravitation training. Gravitation training is for learning how to lead and go together with the partner’s movement. One can learn this using katatetori.

Such basics can be learned through body movements. In other words, the principle of Aikido skills will be understood through the apprehension of body movements. Small details of each technique are different, depending on the individuals, but there is always a sense of maai and directionality in any technique. Therefore, as long as there is an understanding of the principle of the skills, it can be applied to all movements.

That understanding is indispensable to progress to a further stage.

Aikido starts from the attack.

Aikido, in a technical sense, is an attack. One does not wait for the partner’s attack before doing a technique. One initiates it from oneself. For instance, the instructor holds out a hand when teaching katatetori. I don't stand still in front of a partner and wait for my hand to be grabbed. Instead, I hold out a hand and “let the student take it.” I am showing how to set it like that first. However, it is not generally explained that the nage is the one who shortens the maai to set up the situation to do the technique.

In the beginning, Aikido is taught in the way of self-defense techniques to help students understand it more easily. Nage reacts to the attack. If it remains at this stage, it would become a habit that one never starts moving unless being attacked.

To overcome this habit, it is necessary to know that nage should be the one who sets out first to do the techniques. Only then the depth of your understanding towards the techniques will change, even if one seems to be doing the same techniques.

Strike a Woman, Strike a Rock

August 9 is National Women's Day in South Africa. It is a day to celebrate the contribution to the struggle against apartheid made by many selfless women both in South Africa and in exile. It is also a day to remember the current struggle of women in this country to be accepted as equal to their male counterparts.

On the tatami, men and women train together. In aikido we are constantly reminded to consider the capacity of our partner – regardless of whether they are male or female. Our practice is really learning to accept uke for what he or she brings to the technique. We block our own learning when we train differently depending on whether uke is a man or a woman, and make assumptions about their capacity based on our own firmly held stereotypes and projections.

Valerie A Pinto, a Yoshukai karate teacher talks of how she, as a woman "coming up though the ranks as the only woman in our school, I had to work twice as hard as the men to be accepted by them. To actually earn their respect was even harder. I didn't have the power and strength most of them had, so I depended more on speed, agility and striking with precision. "

After years of training women survivors of rape and assault self-defence (a combination of karate, aikido and hapkido) she is still amazed by the reaction of her women students who say "you are not what I expected....". She maintains that "First I am a woman; as a very close second I am a martial artist.... I feel as women we need to be proud of who and what we are, and to let other women know that we are not different or special and that they can join us and, as women, help us share the power...."

Finally, a poem by Valerie Pinto, inspired by her students:

Are we Women

frail and afraid
protected from this cruel world
by the men we love

What happens to us
when the love is gone
when our father dies, our brother rapes us
our lover would rather hit than hug
who will protect us now?

We are Women
in our women's bodies
never educated in the aggressive and physical
world of men

But we are not frail
we are not weak
we have a great inner spirit
and we will not be afraid

If we learn to use our strengths
against the weaknesses of our oppressors
as David slew Goliath
we can change the balance of power
internally and in the world around us

We must become one
with our body, mind and spirit
We must learn to defend ourselves
and love ourselves

We're our only protection
against this angry world
and as sisters we must spread
the word and skills
we must spread the power

We walk together or alone
aware and unafraid

--Valerie A Pinto

(taken from "The Joy of Sharing the Power" by Valerie A Pinto in Martial Arts Teachers on Teaching by Carol A Wiley)

A Hidden Jewel

Each friend represents a world in us,

a world possibly not born until they arrive, and

it is only by this meeting that a new world is born

Anais Nin

The people who cross our paths, and especially those who linger for a while, touch our lives and help us see possibilities within ourselves to which we would otherwise be blind. They challenge us to be more than we think we can be. Sometimes they do so by pushing buttons that evoke a painful or angry response; other times they illuminate the spark of kindness, of goodness, of love that burns inside all of us. The wealthy driver of that big 4x4 from the leafy suburbs helps us confront our envy; the grubby homeless person offers us an opportunity to demonstrate our compassion and kindness. All of the people we meet have something to share with us – our friends have much to teach us; our enemies even more. How often do we not feel that the person to whom we are attracted fulfils us, makes us complete – that speaks to a quality that we feel is missing inside us. Very often it is the people with whom we differ, or argue, or dislike that have the most to teach us for oftentimes they hold up a mirror to us about those things within us we dislike or despise. So every person that crosses our path, is there for a reason. He or she touches our life and in how we relate to him/her helps to reveal us to ourselves.

So too on the tatami. In the training hall, you will come across many different people. Your partner is an individual who may share some similarities with you but who nonetheless has a different background to you, different physical abilities and even a different motivation for doing aikido. Some will be tall, others short; some will be strong and muscular, others frail or waif-like. For many reasons we may prefer to work with some people – often that is because we feel we know how they will move, so that the movement is "nice" and smooth. We may avoid others because they are "too rough" or "too stiff".

Every uke is precious. Every uke has something to show you about your technique. It is up to you to look for it. Does this uke jump beautifully into a perfect ukemi before you have executed the technique? Well then perhaps there's something to adjust in your timing or your telegraphing to him/her what you are about to do. Do you find that this uke is able to lock out against your technique? Rather than blaming uke for the technique not working, ask instead whether there is something in how you are executing the technique that allows that blocking to occur: Have you interrupted the flow of the technique? Are you too square when the movement is circular? Have you led uke into a place where his/her weight is bearing down on you and you cannot move?

And the main lesson to be learned from that interaction is "How do I choose to respond?" Do I give in to my frustration that my attempts at technique are failing and react with violence? Do I shout at uke for resisting when he should be flowing? Or do I feel where I need to soften, inside me, soften enough to flow around the obstacle and in doing so free myself of what is holding me back. On the physical level that may be uke, inside me it could be my need to prove myself, or my inability to listen to what the other person is telling me.

Every uke is a precious gift, because he or she has willingly come to you to help you refine your technique, and yourself.

Honour that gift in return by being a good uke to them.

See you on the tatami soon,

SenseiGG