“Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force.” - Lao Tzu
In Aikido, the best allow the technique to work.
Most of us think that life is for the taking and so we spend a tremendous amount of time forcing things to happen. Up to a certain point, this carpe diem mindset works quite well and even brings us a certain amount of success. It even helps us along the way in the beginning of our Aikido training. Then, after a while, something happens and forcing things is no longer a functional strategy for improvement in our Aikido training.
Furuya Sensei said, “Every technique hides a secret that can only be unlocked with diligent training.” One way to look at what he said is that every technique has a mechanism or many mechanisms which make it work. In route to finding those secrets, we tend to force the technique to work. It takes a bit of time to settle down and just allow the technique to work because we think that we are somehow in control and have the power to make things happen.
Allowing the technique to work means that there is a right time and method of employing leverage which makes the technique successful. When we push, pull, let go or hold at just the right moment, the technique effortlessly unfolds, and we can take our opponent’s balance and fell them with ease. Along the way, we start by applying our efforts in the wrong place and at the wrong time and must muscle the technique to work.
In Aikido training, beginners are always trying to force it. It takes a few years for them to start to calm down and allow the technique to work. An interesting phenomenon is that after shodan or first-degree black belt, students again return back to trying to force the technique to work. Then somewhere around fourth degree black belt, the student settles down and starts allowing the technique to work again. Typically, this happens because of fear. Not so much about being afraid but a fear that they don’t know or understand the technique and they don’t want to seem incapable and so they start forcing it.
One of the many things we are trying to cultivate in our training is heijoushin (平常心). Heijoushin means “original mind” or “ordinary mind” and it was the mind that we were originally born with before life and conditioning changed us. The direct translation is "peace of mind” as hei means “peace,” jou means “ordinary” and shin means “mind.” Thus, it means the everyday ordinary mind is at peace.
A heijoushin mind is balanced and composed which allows it to move freely and not react to the opponent’s attack. Here, we are in an equanimous state and can observe and engage appropriately. Conversely, when we are hyper focused on forcing this thing to happen, our minds go into something called shishin (止心) or “a stopped mind.” This mental state becomes so preoccupied on a single aspect that it can only react to the advances of the opponent and thus, the body cannot move freely.
In Aikido and in Life, things will happen and, most of the time, we will be confronted by things that are seemingly out of our control. Training teaches us to not force things but to constantly act with inner peace and presence of mind even under the most dire of circumstances or conditions.
The best Aikidoists aren’t the best because they are the physically strongest. They are the best because they have achieved a calm mindset which allows them to know where and when to apply leverage and thus they never force things to happen.
Today’s goal: If it doesn’t fit, don’t force it - find a way to allow it to happen.