器晩成
Taiki bansei
Great talents mature late
In Aikido, it is said that within each technique hides a secret. In Japanese, something’s inner mystery or hidden purpose is called an ougi (奥義). Ougi itself can be directly translated as “heart’s purpose.” The secret can be a secret to the technique itself or a secret about life. The more I train, the more I realize how true this idea is. During the pandemic, I have been doing a lot of Yoga at home and the other day the instructor was talking about how pushing into the ground properly with our legs enables our hips to activate which can then cause our nervous systems to relax. This topic is something that I have heard several times. However, later that day I was teaching the tenkan exercise in Aikido class and I realized that this exercise is done in a similar way and thus can be done for the same reason and perhaps that is why every class always begins with the tenkan exercise without the throw. The ougi is buried deep within the bones of the technique and its secret can only be exorcised through experience and we only gain that experience with the act of doing. This realization in particular only took me 31 years to discover. Oftentimes we mistake knowledge for realization. The difference between the two is in the application of doing. Wisdom is only knowledge realized through experience. The Japanese proverb, taiki bansei means “Great talents mature late.” What that can mean is that the longer we do something the more likely we are to succeed. Thus, the secret of life, which is actually not a secret at all, is that we get out of life what we put into it. I don’t know much about Aikido, but I do know that if we put the time into the technique, it will reveal its secrets to us. Therefore, the secret to anything is to just keep practicing.
Today’s goal: It is easy to cast something or someone aside because we “know.” It is entirely much more difficult but valuable to stay the course rather than quit. What can you delve deeper into?