Throwback Thursday - Practice Hint: Morning Dew
Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on September 15, 2003.
It might help you when you practice Aikido, to try to “think" like Aikido, and not look at Aikido too much from your own personal ideas. Sometimes, we just have to put ourselves into the "Aikido mindset” in order to understand what is going on. This is particularly important in the beginning stages of our training. As we develop more skill and experience in Aikido, our own ideas will begin to emerge naturally and we can further question these (or answer them) in our training.
The perfect training mind is a free and open mind. In Aikido this means an "empty" mind - an empty vessel to receive all things.
Please be careful here - some people interpret this as “garbage pail" to receive anything and all things - even trash.
It is like our own drinking glass - maybe we put in purified water, or tea or some soft drink - but we would never put in anything dirty or unhealthy. Like our minds too, it is open and free - but still it is not the place for garbage, trash or unhealthy things. This seems like a pretty simple concept to understand, I think, but how many people aren't aware of this!
In Japanese, there is a saying, "Aka to majiwareba, akaku naru.” Or, "if your play with red, you will eventually turn red."
Confucius described this as walking through a garden in the early morning - your sleeves will naturally touch the leaves and pick up the morning dew. You cannot help but make your sleeves moist. Just as we make acquaintances with good people, we cannot help but be influenced by them. Just as we practice good Aikido, we will eventually become good at Aikido.
The wonderful Aikido master, the late Kisaburo Ohsawa Sensei always said, "Let's practice good Aikido." Such an easy idea - but so hard to do!
Sometimes we may think that Aikido is very difficult and too hard to understand - it is not. It is open and makes perfect sense, there is no contradiction or weak points in Aikido. Everything we need is there on the mats for us to discover. What is the difficult aspect of mastering Aikido is within our own minds and spirits. As O'Sensei said, "It is a matter of purification. . . . ."
Aikido is not a "technique" like learning how to peel a potato, making a martini or building a table. Aikido is an art and therefore it is a lifetime study. There may be a limit to the study of a technique, but there is no end to the study of one's self
Even Confucius was thinking about his studies and practice - while walking in the garden so early in the morning when he saw the morning dew upon the leaves. How much more do we need to practice ourselves?
And please remember, just as Confucius' long flowing sleeves will naturally pick up the dew on contact, there is no strain here or anything forced here as it should be with your own Aikido practice.