Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on August 24, 2003.
合氣は生き物
Aiki wa ikimono
Aiki is a living thing
Sometimes, when I am studying a particular blade or sword guard, I often do not realize how much time has gone by - several hours pass like it was only a few minutes. When we become engrossed in our studies, we seem to lose awareness of everything else - we lose ourselves
in our subject and do not think of anything but the subject itself. Once I realize this, I immediately think, "Oh, look what time it is,” Or, "I'm hungry," or, "I didn't realize how long I was studying.” At that moment, I revert back to "self" awareness.
This should happen in our practice too. If we are really concentrated, we will not think of anything else. I often see students who are too worried about their "self image” or "reputation," or worried about their egos and these people never reach a deeper state of concentration in their practice.
One doesn't need any particular skill or talent or grade in order to achieve this ideal mental state - simply love practice and love what you are doing. Simply throw yourself into your training - you will have more energy to train and not realize how hard or long the practice is. When class finishes, you will say, "The time went by so fast!” This is the ideal mental state for practice.
If our mind is distracted or split with too much on our minds - too many other issues and ideas, we will always lose energy, feel tired and not catch on quickly to the instruction.
Drop everything! - mind, body, ego, everything, when you train. You will see how well you focus on what you are doing and you will feel how much energy you can muster up from within yourself.
If we practice in this way, we will learn to bring up this inner energy at any moment we desire and this is one result of good training.
It is not a matter of strong or weak, just practice single-mindedly.