Let Aikido Happen

A lot is written about spirituality and aikido, more so than most martial forms I suspect, but it is not inherently more spiritual than any of the rest of them.  We can make it a spiritual practise, or we can practise on the level of form alone.  It’s all good.

We practise Japanese martial arts in a dojo, which translates I understand as, the place of training in the Way.  The Way is a term used in Japanese culture to describe a practise in which we totally immerse ourselves, and use it to enter a state of flow, mushin or ‘no mind’.  It is this state that allows complete creativity and responsiveness without the conscious mind processing everything first and slowing it all down.

Anything can be practised like this.  Thich Nhat Hahn speaks of washing the dishes.  When we wash the dishes are we complaining to ourselves about having to do this, or looking forward to the cup of tea afterwards?  Are we thinking about work or recalling a past event?  We could try placing our entire attention on the act we are engaged in, feeling the warmth of the water, the smell of the soap, the glint of sunlight on the clean glass.  Washing the dishes this way we pay less attention to thoughts of future and past and more to the present moment and perhaps discover that the act of washing the dishes is an enjoyable one.

Obviously the same applies to martial arts.  So we pay close attention to the connection between ourselves and our partner. See everything in the moment, as it is, not anticipating, not thinking ‘I will move this foot next, then this hand’ but being in the moment.  Practising aikido one realises that the more we pay attention to the moment, to our partner, to our surroundings as they currently are at any moment, the better we act as martial artists, the freer and more creative we become, the less likely to be hit in the face.  Zanshin is used to describe this state of mind.  Know where everyone is in the dojo at all times.  Know where you are placing your attention.  Is it here?  Now? Fully?

We can practise alone like this. We can practise walking meditation alone. We can sit in meditation alone.  In aikido we practise meditation in a group. We move from person to person throughout the practise and attempt to put aside our egos to let aikido happen.

Elbow (hiji) power

Use the elbow of your partner to cut his own hips, to block his own attack. Particularly with techniques like kote gaishi, shiho nage, tai no henko etc, extend into uke's elbow and use their forearm like a sword to cut into their hips.

Meeting a master

I met my wife's teacher this week, a monk called Swami Purananda, who speaks beautifully and intelligently about God/Truth/Brahman/Spirit or whatever label one wants to attach to that which will not be described.

For forty minutes I sat there listening as he answered questions and spoke from experience, most obviously.
When I speak of the indescribable I am limited by my untrained mind, having had glimpses of true freedom but still being very much a seeker. I could have soaked up his presence for hours, he radiated groundedness.

The topic this particular night was recollection. Now recollection in this context means remembering not the past but remembering who you are (not your jumble of thoughts and ego) and remembering the universal in every moment. Remembering to train.

It was said: "Negligence in the act of recollection is the ultimate evil".  Negligence in recollection is a cocos choice which we later label ignorance. But we choose to ignore the life within, the abundant energies available to us all when we stop and pay attention. Ignorance is an active choice.

So we know that what we seek can be found within. Every great teacher tells us the same thing, yet we ignore this fact and continually look outside of ourselves for satisfaction... And we can't get none!

So letting slip or daily training results in it being that much harder to do it the next day and so it escalates from there. But if we know what we must do there is a choice we can then make: do what we know we should do, practice daily, allow the feeling and peace we cultivate to spill over into our day, our other arts, our relationships or we can ignore this sound advice and what we have found to be true in our dabbling practices and perpetuate the ignorance. This is not a moral stance but we must all make a decision and live with it.

I'm practising daily.

What holds up those hips?

I believe what we are missing as we stumble around the dojo is good strong, supportive, sensitive and responsive legs. Too often we forget what's holding up and moving our hips.
Our feet connect us to our world a hell of a lot more than our hands but we place all our attention in the arms and shoulders. Maybe this is simply because they are in our visual field.
Train your legs more. Stretch them daily. Massage your feet, feel down into them frequently.
You should be able too move slowly from one low posture to another without gaps or bumps.
Recommend maka ho, torifune, weapons and sumo shikko.

Patrick Cassidy Sensei, 6th Dan Aikikai, Henshin Aikido Course

Henshin Aikido at DefendU Ireland recently hosted Patrick Cassidy Sensei (6^th Dan Aikikai) for a weekend course.  To practice aikido for a whole weekend and perform but a handful of techniques might make most aikidoka balk, but exploring and feeling the natural, responsive movements that underlie the techniques and occasionally tasting the principles for ourselves was a hugely rewarding experience.  We have a lot to digest.

Techniques, it has been said, account for the last 5% of aikido in action. The rest consists of whole body movements that embrace the attack, blend with and direct whilst keeping uke off balance and one’s self in a safe place. Then there’s the unseen, the principles at work within the movement, the spirit of uke and tori both, gravity, unconscious reflex, ki, connection, the martial creative.  In aikido all this happens and then you apply the technique.

Cassidy Sensei introduced us to the weekend by describing aikido in terms of Technique, Principle and Perspective.  Using a conversation as an analogy, the words are the technique, the listening is the principle and friendship the perspective.  The perspective aspect of this concept could perhaps be looked as the context or relationship which frames the action. Friendship on the mats may be antagonism on the street.

Another analogy is that of a building. The top floor of it is technique and it extends to infinity, the infinite amount of techniques possible in aikido. A lot of teachers and so practitioners of the art will explore this level their whole aikido careers. There’s nothing wrong with this, it’s fascinating and martial and fun but there’s another level.  One day you’ll find the elevator that takes you deeper to the second floor, principle, also extending to infinity.  More to explore and it all educates you for your next trip up to technique. Then the ground floor, perspective, deeper still and forming a foundation for the levels above.

Simpler yet: Technique is How, Principle is What and Perspective is Why.

So, putting it into practice! We practiced slowed down fighting. Tori throws the punch very slowly, choosing a target on tori’s body and throwing straight at it. Tori at first waits until he feels the pressure of this attack on his body and absorbs it, folds around it as if they we wet clay. When the attack reaches its conclusion, uke attacks from this position. Tori again receives, moulding themselves around the attack, leaning, bending or folding until they lose balance and have to step. Uke attacks again from this new position.

Moving on from this, tori next imagines that there is a force field extending around the punch by about an inch, tori blends around this field instead of waiting for the punch to make contact. We extended this practice after a while to applying appropriate aikido footwork and blending around the attack and linking, as Sensei put it. Allow the attack in, blend with it, move around it appropriately and link with the attack, over extend uke and place them off balance.

This was great fun. Like a slow motion bar brawl, and produced some brilliant pictures. We look like we were beating lumps out of each other! Until you see the big smiles on all involved of course.  The next step up from this was tori practiced with eyes closed.  Tries to sense the attack before it makes contact and move to avoid it or blend with it. At times I felt my body saying ‘move now here!’ and I’d move and sometimes avoid an attack almost magically. Other times my mind would interrupt saying ‘Why? What are you basing that on? I’ll look like an idiot!’ and I’d get hit.  Lesson learned there – heed your body’s advice.

Whilst practicing with bokken I found something similar. Starting with bokken connected and facing each other in ai hamni, I found that with my eyes closed I moved better blending with the thrust when it came in, stepping out and counter striking.  Eyes closed I’d feel the attack and move appropriately and attacked pretty much on target. Eyes open and I anticipated the attack, responded slower, put myself in a poorer position.

Patrick Cassidy Sensei threw me repeatedly over the weekend and gave me the opportunity to hit him repeatedly (mostly in slow motion).  He was encouraging, funny, philosophical, enlightening and flowed like water.  And of course, like all good aikidoka, you knew underneath all that there was a bad ass martial artist ready to kick your ass (and a couple of the throws he occasionally blitzed me with confirmed this without doubt!).

I’m glad he will be guiding our aikido practice under the CAA, he’s got a lot to teach us.  So I’ll sign off by paraphrasing the man himself.

Don’t be soldiers. You’ll want to be a good little soldier, but don’t.  I could sit here all day drinking coffee and telling you what it’s like but you’ll have to drink some yourself to know what it’s like. Have a cup of aikido.