Mililani Aikido Club

02/06/2023

Aiki Dojo Message - Don’t Focus on the Outcome

神社を尽くして天命を待つ
Jinji wo tsukush*te tenmei wo matsu

Do your best and leave the rest to fate

The best martial artists don’t focus on the outcome. When we focus on the shohai (勝敗) or “outcome,” our minds have predetermined the place where victory or the end should be. By having a predetermined endpoint, our minds are putting a cap on our tolerance. Thus, if we reach the place where we thought the victory would be and it doesn’t materialize, we run the risk of losing hope and we end up quitting. The problem with trying to anticipate the end is that the true end or outcome of something is completely arbitrary. In Japanese, they say shobu wa tokinoun (勝負は時の運) or “Victory depends on the luck of the day.” Letting go of the outcome and giving up our attempt to control it enables us to live in the here and now where we can focus solely on doing our best. Understanding this, the Japanese say Jinji wo tsukush*te tenmei wo matsu (神社を尽くして天命を待つ) or “Do your best and leave the rest to fate.” In the olden days, having a mindset based upon winning or losing was thought of as akinai konjo (商い根性) or “The businessman’s mind.” The businessman is always “calculating” their actions for profit. The warrior has samurai katagi (侍氣質) or “samurai spirit” and is only concerned with being resolute and doing their best. In Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s book Hagakure, he writes, “A real man does not think of victory or defeat. He plunges recklessly towards an irrational death. By doing this, you will awaken from your dreams.” As it is understood in Buddhism, the dream in this sense is a mayoi (迷い) or “illusion or delusion” which keeps us from reaching enlightenment. From the standpoint of the martial arts, through our training, we are trying to reach a similar type of enlightenment called myou (妙). At the level of myou, there is no winning or losing, just sublime movement. Neurological scientists believe that the human brain is incapable of focusing on two things at once. Therefore, to reach this sublime state, we must either focus on winning which will disable us from doing our utmost best or focus on doing our utmost best and disregard the desire to win. If samurai means “one who serves” then we must only focus on doing our best. Today, most of us are not fighting in battles, but we can still use this samurai mindset to better our lives. By not focusing on the outcome, we can just pour ourselves into the act of doing and free ourselves from the confines of achievement which today’s society so greatly covets. That is why the best martial artists don’t focus on the outcome.

Today’s goal: Don’t focus on the outcome; only focus on doing your utmost best.

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

Terasaki Budokan - Little Tokyo Service Center

02/01/2023

01/25/2023

Come join us! It’s the beginning of a new year! Stop by our class times to check us out and receive information on how to register.

Please feel free to forward this post to anyone interested!

Practices: Tuesday & Thursday- 7 pm to 8:30 pm

Location: Mililani District Park

For all adults and children (ages 6yrs+)

We teach non-competitive SELF DEFENSE. Good EXERCISE that helps improve FOCUS, possibly reduce stress, self discipline, and builds confidence.

See you there!

01/09/2023

Aiki Dojo Message - Wry Smile

The best martial artists always have a wry smile or kosho (苦笑). In the west, there is a difference between a bitter smile and a wry smile. A bitter smile is supposed to show disappointment while a wry smile indicates “a false acceptance of something that is negative.” In Japanese, there is no distinction between the two as both kusho (苦笑) and nigawarai (苦笑い) mean “a bitter smile or wry smile” but are supposed to be a form of sarcasm or satire. In the martial arts, a wry or bitter smile is similar to the Japanese understanding. Martial artists are always supposed to be undaunted, and they show their undauntedness with a wry smile. The wry smile demonstrates that they won’t be defeated easily. Everything that a martial artist has gone through in their training and in their lives has made them harder to kill and with every adversity they surmount, they become stronger and stronger. Smiling in the face of adversity comes from the martial arts idea dojo de naki, senjo de warau (道場で泣き戦場で笑う) or “Cry in the dojo, laugh on the battlefield.” The harder a martial artist works, the harder they are to beat. In old martial arts movies, the hero always sarcastically laughs when their life is threatened. This is known as a hardship laugh. They laugh not because of some nervous fear but rather they laugh to mock their opponent’s arrogance to say, “Do you think I will be that easy to kill.” Another way to look at a wry smile is from the context of the First Noble Truth in Buddhism or dukkha (苦) which is common translated as “All existence is suffering.” Thus, if all of life is suffering and all paths have strife, uncertainty, pain and uncomfortableness, then we should choose the path that we want. Thus, a martial artist wryly smiles as if to say, “This is my life and my choice.” Nietzsche said, “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” Understanding the Buddhist perspective, then on a certain level there is no one meaning - it is a cycle. The martial arts are a constant cycle of self-improvement - we have realizations, work on them, fail, work some more but ultimately we improve. The laughable realization comes when we become aware that under each layer of improvement lies another layer that needs improvement - this is the game. There will always be another opponent to defeat (usually yourself) or another layer that needs to be attending to. Understanding that this is the game of life, a martial artist wryly smiles when confronted with adversity. Someone once said, “Every time you find some humor in a difficult situation, you win.” In the martial arts and in life, smile to remind yourself that this is the path that you have chosen and smile so that your opponents know that you won’t be easily defeated. That is why the best martial artists always have a bitter smile.

Today’s goal: “Smile in the face of adversity, be contemptuous of danger, undaunted in defeat and magnanimous in victory.” - Sumitro Djojohadikusumo

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

.budokan

12/31/2022

12/17/2022

Throwback Thursday - Depth of Spirit

Reverend Kensho Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on July 28, 2005.

There is nothing more important than creating trust and friendship in the atmosphere and spirit of a family in a dojo. The old art schools in Japan were known as iemoto (家元) or "family system" arts. Today, we want to see martial arts as a business because we gauge everything in terms of money - and quantities of money are a measure of our success. We cannot see anything outside of the idea of money.

We must focus on the art and our practice and how we can benefit mentally, physically, and spiritually from it in our Lives. However, the reality is that we still must pay the bills and rent which forces us to conform to popular and typical standards of behavior and thinking of the world in general today.

The challenge is to find the perfect balance between today's materialism and how we have turned the insubstantial idea of money into a reality and our personal, inner quest for self-understanding and self-enlightenment through the Path of Aikido.

If everyone pulls together and if everyone works as a tight knit family of good friends and practice partners in the dojo with all of us of one mind and one spirit, then all challenges can be met, I firmly believe, to maintain and preserve our dojos as dojos and Aikido as an art rather than a business.

Ultimately, we must understand that through studying the true essence of Aikido as Budo, we can come to a real understanding of what is trust, family and "one spirit" according to O’Sensei's teachings. Let us all work together to continue to support dojos and our practice.

It is quite often the so-called "reality" of the physical technique as in "martial arts techniques" often lead us to the world of fantasy, conjecture, and supposition. More often the not, it is the "spiritual world" of self-enlightenment and understanding that brings us in touch with the true reality of the world.

To think that physical technique is the path of the physical world, and the spiritual world only lies in idle conjecture and chit-chat is only the superficial assumption of the misinformed and misdirected.

What is the difference between Aikido practice and exercise or a sport? It is a matter of depth of spirit. If our efforts are self-centered as in personal exercise or in being competitive with others as in a sport, it is already a superficial and shallow activity. In Aikido technique, one strives for both the salvation and well-being of the attacker (the other) and the defender (the self), which creates an activity and mental energy which is both profound and complex.

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

Read more about Furuya Sensei here: http://www.kenshofuruya.com

.budokan

12/17/2022

SUBSCRIBE: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=SenNoSenProjectSupport us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/guillaumeerardThis is a rare dem...

12/15/2022

Aikido Shihan Hiroshi Tada's story of his experiences on entering Ueshiba Dojo after World War II.