The Aikido School of Excellence

18/04/2024

12/04/2024

It’s a paradox.

Training in Budo is like a zen koan, it’s a puzzle to be solved.
One does not understand such a paradox through “flowery” training, nor can one intellectualise its essence.
This has been the way since ancient times, the study of satsujinken(death sword) and katsujinken(life giving sword) are entwined.
The founder didn’t create “the art of peace” to avoid this paradox, but rather to unravel it.
This is well documented by those Japanese masters that trained with the founder, including Maruyama Sensei.
Aikido is not a dance(Kendal 2017), aikido is very serious, life and death(Kendal 2017) aikido means to risk your life, to give up your life to find the way(Tao) (Byron bay, 2005).
One does not come to aikido to train because they believe they have a heightened sense of consciousness, one comes to aikido to developed a heightened level of consciousness through tanren, through forging the body.

Through learning to kill one learns how to not kill.

Through violence one discovers peace, that is why Aikido is the art of peace, because trained in a certain way, aikido has the capacity to transform the person doing the training.
I extracted from a recent peace by zen master roshi the most important parts, that Budo is a paradox, and that when this paradox is resolved we lose all sense of self, this was the founders message.

Henry Kono stated that the founder would repeatedly enter the dojo angry that the deshi didn’t get it, that “I (Ueshiba), and he (Uke) don’t exist…”
There is no easy, flowery, intellectual way to realise this truth.

One must be forged in the fire of tanren to know, that in Uke exists this truth, that death and life are born together.
Those that avoid the fire cannot resolve this paradox. One who cannot kill is by definition not peaceful, they have no choice but to be that way.

“Some aikido teachers talk a lot about non- violence, but fail to understand this truth. A pacifist is not really a pacifist if he is unable to make a choice between violence and non- violence. A true pacifist is able to kill or maim in the blink of an eye, but at the moment of impending destruction of the enemy he chooses non-violence. He chooses peace. He must be able to make a choice. He must have the genuine ability to destroy his enemy and then choose not to. I have heard this excuse made. "I choose to be a pacifist before learning techniques so I do not need to learn the power of destruction." This shows no comprehension of the mind of the true warrior. This is just a rationalization to cover the fear of injury or hard training. The true warrior who chooses to be a pacifist is willing to stand and die for his principles. People claiming to be pacifists who rationalize to avoid hard training or injury will flee instead of standing and dying for principle. They are just cowards. Only a warrior who has tempered his spirit in conflict and who has confronted himself and his greatest fears can in my opinion make the choice to be a true pacifist."
Yukiyoshi Takamura

There is no path to Ainuke except this path.

Roshi
Although it is an easy thing to talk about “Zen and Swords- manship in oneness,” what type of relationship is possible between an art for killing people and a Way for man to live? What must one do to bring these two things into unity? The matter cannot be solved by intellect alone, nor can the question be answered merely by words. We could say that this apparently absolute contradiction must be resolved naturally out of one’s self, but to actually experience this oneness is not an easy thing. However, no matter how perplexing this problem is, man basically feels a need, or should we say is required, to resolve this apparent paradox………
In Musashi’s life, the art of killing leaped beyond death into myoki, wondrous “play.”
This is not a state in which one can be removed from the idea of killing by mere thought. (That is just talking about it, or intellectualising it)
If that was true, the idea of giving life would be on the same level and could not be more than dualistic thought.
The dualism of “killing” and “giving life” itself must both be killed - and at the same time transcended.
This in terms of the words of Harigaya Sekiun is ainuke (mutual passing). For all people and in all things one must be able to grasp this point, the state in which truth is fulfilled. Why is this possible? Because man can negate negation. In terms of the Hagakure “The Way of the samurai is to die.” In understanding this, man can attain self realization……

30/03/2024

“You should think of ukemi as being the secret to aikido. This is my personal experience. During my uchideshi time the founder made me fall without questioning, on top of this I was scolded mercilessly when my ukemi was bad…I was made to become aware of the fact, that my body didn’t move as one with o-sensei’s body. When I think about it now I feel ashamed, that I thought it would be good just to take a showy ukemi.
Ukemi means reading your partner’s breath, and if one will not respond towards the nage (the person who throws) you cannot speak of true ukemi. Mastering ukemi means noticing the signs of your environment…
It is important that you always can correspond with sh*te (the person executing the technique) whom you are facing. This however is very difficult.
Though it is hard to learn a natural ukemi, an ukemi without force, you have made a huge progress in your technique whenever your body understands a little bit more about it because you have learnt to utilize the executing person’s breath power in your own technique. And in my case, I was uke of O’Sensei…
It is important to experience naturally strong techniques. If you cannot do ukemi soft and flexible, it is most likely, that you cannot execute a technique soft and flexible.
The natural ukemi in aikido also makes you understand life.”

Excerpt from “The Ukemi in Aikido” by Kenji Shimizu, 8th dan
From “Interview with Aikido Shihan Kenji Shimizu - Part 2” Aikido Sangenkai,
November 2016

27/03/2024

THINK BY YOURSELF
– By Soke Masaaki Hatsumi

In ancient times, a person who strived to learn budo would do individual keiko. After learning skills from his teacher, he trained himself to master those lessons. He had to have the determination to study through the techniques alone. Going into the mountains, he would repeat his solo training in nature, fighting with animals and trees.
These days, so many people forget to ”go into the mountains.” These people tend to desire the easy way out. If they are having problems that are complicated, they immediately ask someone older to solve it for them. Moreover, the elder gives them easy advice. Most people answer nicely because they think it would be good to help the situation along, but in fact, this often ends up hurting the individual`s growth.

It might be a little different for keiko in budo, but some problems can only be understood by the person who has the problem. An advisor gives suggestions trying to solve the problem through applying his own experiences, while the listener ( who does not have those same experiences ) listens to the guidance as if it were being recieved from some divine being. There is sometimes a serious danger in missing a lesson`s important point. Therefore, you should sometimes offer the advice, ”Ponder the dilemma yourself.” You may consider this ”coldhearted.” However, being cold illustrates the need to solve a problem ( finding warmth ).Perhaps some days later, the individual will return saying: ”I can`t figure out a solution…” and he will recount his problem in a totally different manner than his first telling. You will now be able to discern how to offer advice that is more appropriate by judging from his revised account.

In budo, we inform students of the proper answer after the “torment” of making them think for themselves. Some things must be learned through suffering or they will be forgotten for the rest of your life. We must all learn to solve our own difficult problems. Furthermore, in budo, we suffer great pains to master the best techniques. It was throught the pains and labors of our ancestors, who became the founders of our traditions, that these techniques were invented.

23/03/2024

I can relate………

Aiki Dojo Message - Authenticity

“The courage to be happy also includes the courage to be disliked.” - Author Ichiro Kishimi

The best Aikidoists have the courage to be disliked.

One of the things we are striving for in our Aikido training is to be shinsei (真正) or “authentic.” To be authentic is “to live your life according to your own values and goals, rather than those of other people.” Thus, in order for some of us to be authentic, we need to have the courage to be disliked.

Having the courage to be disliked is not intentionally becoming the villain in someone else’s story. It is also not actively and intentionally being selfish. Having the courage to be disliked is to intentionally be authentic which might cause some people to not like us. Some of those people might not like us because their entire relationship with us is based upon always getting their way. True relationships always have a balance - sometimes we give and sometimes we take but we never take more than we give, and we never give more than we take.

In Aikido training, there is also this balance of give and take. When we train with our partners, we should always be pushing them to help them improve. Reverend Kensho Furuya Sensei said, “Take them to their [furthest] level and then take it one step farther.” He didn’t end it with “smash them” or “kill them.” Sensei specifically stated, “one step farther” with the key word being “one.” Only going one step requires restraint and discipline.

An interesting thing happens when some people start Aikido training. Some have a problem grabbing their partners strongly or striking them. When you ask them to grab your wrist, they hold it very gently. When you ask them to hit you, they intentionally come up short or miss. One reason why this phenomenon happens is because we were conditioned that intentionally grabbing people, striking them, or throwing them down is impolite. Later in our training, we learn that a strong attack is not only necessary but, on a certain level, the polite or right thing to do because our job as someone’s training partner is to push them “one step farther” so that they can improve.

Sensei used to jokingly say, “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few arms.” What he meant was that in class, students should train hard with the intention of training hard and giving their partners a good workout. To do that, sometimes they might get frustrated, angry, or even hurt. If we train hard with the intention to hurt or dominate someone is wrong. If we train hard with the intention of helping them improve and they get upset or hurt, then we didn’t exercise Sensei’s “one step” rule. We are only human, and this is likely to happen more often than not, but if it does happen then we should apologize afterwards and better meter ourselves the next time.

In Aikido, we are striving to understand harmony. Not so much harmony with others but harmony within ourselves. That we can find true harmony within ourselves while in the presence of others as they are attacking us is the true paradox of Aikido training. True harmony means living authentically and thus some people will like us and some people won’t.

Today’s goal: Know your true worth and have the courage to be disliked.

This post appears in a slightly different form @ www.aikidocenterla.com/blog

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11/03/2024

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