Make sure you have mastered the old

 

"Each day learn something new, and just as important, relearn something old." - Robert Brault

The battle cry of today's society might just be, "Out with the old and in with the new!"  But, is this adage really all that correct?

In today's instant society it makes sense to let go of what is "old" to make way for something new especially when it comes to technology.  However, in the martial arts, it is the complete opposite.  We intentionally take the road that leads us back to old in order to prepare us for the new.

These so called "old" skills are what most in martial arts refer to as "the basics."  It is easy today to jump into something much fancier, fun or exciting and to neglect or shy away from the things that are seemingly boring or outdated.  In the old days a common compliment about a good student was, "The basics are there."  If the student mastered the basics then it reflected well upon not only the student but the teacher as well.

Today, schools are cancelling music programs, only 10% of the cars sold in America are manual transmission and some schools don't even teach cursive handwriting.  Before we can throw something out, we must be sure we know exactly what it does or how it impacts us.

As you can see from the infographic about handwriting skills, there are numerous benefits to being able to write in cursive.  The  critical skills that one acquires from music, cursive handwriting or driving a manual transmission car are almost immeasurable.  Because there is no direct connection and any connection is circuitously obtained it is easy to accidentally throw them out as we separate the chaff from the wheat.

What made our previous generations perhaps better than our generation today?  It is hard to say, but one could argue that their "manual" skills or basics were much greater than ours.

Please take a moment to remember O Sensei today.

 

On this day 47 years ago, Morihei Ueshiba passed away.

Since O Sensei's passing, Aikido has become a global phenomenon and is now practiced in over 130 countries by millions of people.

Aikido training has changed my life.  Without O Sensei's teachings where would I be?  Hard to say, but I do know that I wouldn't be the person that I am today.

It's hard to believe that 26 years has gone by since I started Aikido and that 47 years have gone by since O Sensei passed away.

Obviously I never met O Sensei so it could be quite easy to downplay, overlook or forget his passing.  But, to remember O Sensei is to pay my respects to the person who has started this martial art that has given me so much.

I hope that as the years pass by that people won't forget O Sensei and his contributions.  Furuya Sensei once said, "It is just one day each year that you have to think about O Sensei, you at least owe him that much."  Sensei's chiding is something that I try to take to heart each year.

The Japanese word for practice or training is keiko which means to "reflect on the past" so in a way we remember O Sensei every time we train.  But, is that good enough?  Kojima Sensei once talked about how Japanese people don't celebrate birthdays and that every January 1st every person gets one year older.  It is only in their death that people get a "special" day.  Sensei is right about taking the time to remember those that we are close to or those we owe a special debt to.

The mark of a good student is one that does the right thing at the right time.  It is easy to be a good student when the teacher is present.  The final exam comes when the teacher is no longer around and our true nature comes out.

To take time out to remember O Sensei on this day is what a good student would do.  A bad student forgets even if it is by accident.  True character is what one does when no one is looking and when it seemingly doesn't matter any more.  A good student will do the right thing at the right time regardless of circumstance or who is watching.

Please be a good student and take a moment to remember O Sensei and all that he has done for us on his special day.

One of my favorite O Sensei quotes is:

"In true budo there is no enemy or opponent. True budo is to become one with the universe, not to train to become powerful or to throw down some opponent. Rather we train in hopes of being of some use, however small our role may be, in the task of bringing peace to mankind around the world."

Inspiring!

Restraint and humility

 

"Yaki-tachi wo saya ni osamete, masumasu masurao no kokoro wo togari keri." "Keep your tempered sword in its scabbard, first, polish a heart of courage."

According to Japanese culture, restraint and humility are the hallmarks of a true master of the marital arts.  Those two traits are more important than strength, speed, ability or accomplishment.  Anyone can cause harm or hurt other people, but only a true person of character can exercise restraint and practice humility in the face adversity.  It takes courage to be a person of character.

In learning, one comes to understand that man is ignorant.  That ignorance isn't stupidity but the lack of knowledge about humanity.  A universal truth is that every person suffers and is going through their own stuff and thus sometimes lashes out.  This lashing out is really them hurting themselves.  This ignorance is what drives them - it drives us all.  By studying a martial art, one realizes this idea of universal suffering.  We come to understand that circuitously that it is not this person's fault and that they act in a harmful way because they are ignorant of their actions and are suffering.  Knowing this we come to understand our own ignorance and realize that to destroy them will only hurts us.  It takes courage to go against our fears and egos and demonstrate restraint to show compassion.  In understanding their ignorance we are able to find the humility and strength to confront our own suffering and thus we are made better by this person's actions.  This is the circle of life - we exist to help each another.  Only with study can we come to not only understanding this, but to embrace it as well and thus we exercise restraint.

There is a scene from Akira Kurosawa's Sanjuro where Toshiro Mifune's character Sanjuro is trying to rescue Lady Mutsuta and her daughter who are being held hostage.  He is angry over his inexperienced cohorts actions which alerted their captors to their escape.  In trying to motivate his cohorts, Sanjuro suggests that he has to go and kill the henchmen because of their mistake.  Lady Mutsuta over hears his chiding and says playfully, "You're too sharp. That's your trouble. You're like a drawn sword. Sharp, naked without a sheath. You cut well. But good swords are kept in their sheaths."  Sanjuro acquiesces and instead offers to be used as a step stool so that they can escape out a window.  She says, "Oh no I cannot, it would be improper."  Sanjuro says, "Hurry before I have to go and kill more people" to which Lady Mutsuta gives in and they all flee to freedom.

Lady Mutsuta's high manners and demeanor made Sanjuro have to be a better martial artist.  He was forced to become more like her and had to think and find a way to escape without killing.  In that one moment with that one exchange, Lady Mutsuta made him not only a better martial artist but a better person too.

Happy Earth Day!

 

  "Create each day anew by clothing yourself with heaven and Earth, bathing yourself with wisdom and love, and placing yourself in the heart of Mother Nature" - Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace

Earth Day is Aikido Day.

At its core, the philosophy of Earth Day is the same as the way of Aikido.  The philosophy of Earth Day is simply to protect and conserve the Earth.  The philosophy of Aikido is also to protect and to save mankind.

Simply put, the philosophy of Earth Day and Aikido is one of love.  Aikido believes that all things have life and that all life is precious and thus must be protected and conserved.

Aikido believes that everything is connected or inter-related and that all things in nature have this circling back effect.  To attack or hurt others only brings harm to ourselves.  Therefore, to destroy, abuse or neglect the Earth is against the philosophy of Aikido because harming the Earth only brings harm back to us.

When a person confronts us, we understand that this person is suffering and thus we are not truly the focus of their aggression despite what they might think.  We also understand that this person is really only going to hurt themselves in the long run - the police will come, they will go to jail, they might lose their job, or their spouse might leave them as a result of their actions.  Understanding all the unintended circumstances we don't want to add to this person's misery and so we try and "save" them.

We save them with Aikido.  The Aikido techniques are designed in a way to minimize the damage to the attacker and to diffuse the person's anger, aggression or more importantly their suffering.  To do Aikido is help this person because they are blinded by their emotions or their suffering and are in need of kindness or compassion not aggression.  It would be the same for an upset child who tries to strike us.  We know they don't know any better so treat them with kindness and compassion and we don't destroy them.

The Earth is our home and just like our attacker, we need to treat it with kindness and compassion.  After all it provides us with so much.  Please do something today to show your appreciation to the Earth for all it does for us.

"When you see a stranger regard him as a thief!" - Japanese proverb

When I was a student, we had to announce ourselves whenever we entered or left the dojo.  We had to say, "Good morning Sensei it's David" or "Good night Sensei, thank you.  This is David" every time or we got a scolding from Furuya Sensei the next time we came.  Sensei used to say, "Only a dorobo (thief) enters without announcing themselves."  This stems from the Japanese proverb, "When you see a stranger regard him as a thief!"

This idea of announcing oneself or one's intention can still be seen in Japanese society today.  When a person comes home, they say, "tadaima" or I'm home.  When we see someone you know in the morning one is supposed to say, "Ohayogozaimasu" or Good morning.  When a student visits a dojo, they are supposed to bring a letter of introduction from their teacher that states the student's rank, how long they have been training, something about their character and a request to allow them to train.

This insular idea comes from the "village" mentality that the Japanese had that dates back hundreds of thousands years.  If you were from their village then a Japanese person would bend over backwards to help you, but if you were an "outsider" then they would be very suspicious of you.

From a martial arts perspective, this distrust of outsiders came because of the practice of dojo yaburi (道場破り) or dojo challenges, but some call it dojo storming.  Dojo yaburi is when a person comes to the dojo to challenge one of the students or the teacher.  Supposedly, if one could beat the teacher then they would take over the school and the students. Resources and students were scarce and so this was a frequent occurrence.

This idea of regarding a stranger as a thief is one that still exists today.  One of the main differences between Japanese and Western people is that Japanese people don't talk to people they don't know and they especially don't idly chit-chat with strangers.  This closed-offness is something that confounded Western businessman in the 1980s as they tried to infiltrate the Japanese economy.  Usually, no introduction meant no business.  One needed to have an "in" in order to start a business relationship.

There is even a famous Zen story closely associated to this idea of strangers and thieves:

One evening, Zen Master Shichiri Kojun was reciting sutras as a thief with a sharp sword entered, demanding that he give him money.

Shichiri told him: "Do not disturb me. You can find the money in that drawer." Then he resumed his recitation.

The thief found the money and began to leave when Shichiri said, "Don't take it all. I need some to pay taxes with tomorrow."

The intruder gathered up most of the money and started to leave.  Shichiri then said, "You should thank a person when you receive a gift."  The man thanked him and ran off.

A few days afterwards the thief was caught and confessed to his crimes.  When Shichiri was called as a witness he said: "This man is no thief, at least as far as I am concerned. I gave him money and he thanked me for it."

After he had finished his prison term, the thief became Shichiri's disciple.

In Japan, whenever you enter someplace you are supposed to state your intention and one does this by how one announces themselves.  Students have to greet their teachers and show they are ready to learn and this is done with the first greeting.  Customers always air on the side of politeness so they usually say, "Sumimasen" or excuse me prior to asking for something.

Who are you when you think nobody is watching

A martial artist must have hin.  The dictionary definition of hin or hinkaku is to have grace or dignity, but it is a hard word to translate into English because it has no direct translation.  Hin can be thought of as an air a person has about them or more generally how they carry themselves. The famous Kendo master Mochida Moriji used to say, "Since we are not at war anymore, a kendoka should not be aggressive but should be a person of hin."

There is a story (that may or may not be true) that supposedly describes Mochida Moriji Sensei and what it means to have hin.  One day a famous Kabuki actor named Ichikawa Danjuro was riding in a taxi when he saw a man walking down the street.  The man walked with so much presence and grace that it caused Ichikawa to say in awe out loud, "Who is that man?"  The taxi driver supposedly said, "That is the Kendo master Mochida."

I don't know if this is a true story or not but I do have another story told to by Furuya Sensei about one of his Iaido teachers named Ebihara Sensei.  Ebihara Sensei was one of those old school sword teachers who carried himself like he was eight feet tall despite being someone of slight stature.  He had so much presence that he embodied his art.  If he just walked into the room, you got scared and stood up straighter.  One day Sensei went to the movies with his friends.  They were being rowdy as young people usually do when they are away from their parents.  As they were playing around Sensei noticed this man sitting in the front row with impeccable posture and right then he realized that it was Ebihara Sensei.  Sensei immediately stop messing around and told his friends to stop.  Ebihara Sensei never turned around or made any notice of their presence, but his mere presence made Sensei and his friends behave.  That is true hin.

Most of us pretend to be certain way only when we think others are watching or will notice.  A martial artist never gets to have an off day and must be en garde.  To be en garde means to assume that we are being watched and judged by our behavior.  That is why Sensei used to say, "Always act as if your teacher is watching."  Please take care and carry yourself with hin or with the utmost consideration.

.

It is easy to judge.

 

Complete this sentence.  That person is ...

a Jerk. a Loser. Bad. a Dork. a Geek. a Weirdo. Ugly. Fat. a Wimp. a Human being.

Every word on that list besides the last one is a label that comes as a result of a judgement.  To truly see someone we must look past the labels that we or society has placed upon them.

People are first and foremost human beings and we must do our best to see them as that.  This will enable us to see them first and hopefully not judge them second.  I know, easy to say and hard to do.  I am just as guilty as the next person, but I am a human who is just trying their best.  How about you?

Every person is a human being who is doing their best to find kindness, compassion and forgiveness just like you and me.  I hope that I can see you.  Can you see me?

Dojo party tonight

Food, drinks and fun.  Please come join us tonight for our Seminar Social.  Everyone is invited to attend. 6:00 PM 1211 N. Main Street Los Angeles, CA 90012

"Success is no accident." - Pele

 

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” - Pele

This weekend is our annual O Sensei Memorial Seminar.  Our dojo has observed O Sensei's passing every year since it opened in 1974.  Furuya Sensei started doing a memorial seminar commemorating O Sensei's passing in 2005.

One of the main reasons why Sensei started doing a memorial seminar was that he felt that people were starting to forget O Sensei's passing.  So, he felt that the best way to memorialize O Sensei was with training.

Each year as I plan this seminar, I labor over schedule.  Besides trying to find the best mix of times and number of classes, I try and think about the students and what they need.  Of course, every seminar should be filled with good techniques, good teaching and hard work, but I also think about the student's experience.

This year, I thought that I would do it "old school" style and do it like our monthly Intensive class and not invite any outside guests.  This way, we could we could teach the classes our way and not have to be stressed out with guests or feel the need to ourselves.  In short, I just wanted the students to train hard unencumbered.  So I decided to do it like our monthly Intensive and start early.  O Sensei was a huge advocate of early morning training and said that the Earth's energy is the most abundant in the early morning.

Pele said, "Success is no accident" and he is correct.  To get something different we must do something that we don't ordinarily do.  The seminar is an opportunity to for each person to experience their success.  I say "their" because each person's journey is different and each person has their own stuff to deal with.  Teachers and students alike, each of us has an obstacle to overcome.

Some people need to be more patient and go slower.  Some need to show heart and stay to the end.  Some need to forgive and just show up.  Each of us has a journey and I hope that this seminar will give each of us the opportunity to grow.

Friday, April 15th: 6:30-7:30 PM: David Ito 8:00 PM: No host dinner at Nickel Diner

Saturday, April 16th: 6:30-8:00 AM: David Ito (please be there by 6:00 am for clean up) 8:00-9:00 AM: Breakfast 9:30-10:30 AM: Ken Watanabe 10:45-11:45 AM: Memorial Service 12:00-1:00 PM: James Doi

6:00 PM: Seminar Social at the dojo

Sunday, April 17th: 7:45-8:45 AM: David Ito 8:45-10:00 AM: Brunch 10:15-11:15 AM: Ken Watanabe 11:15-12:15 PM: James Doi 12:30-1:30 PM: David Ito

Live life by the C's

 

Wednesdays always seem like the toughest to get through.  Maybe that is why they call it Hump Day.  This picture illustrates a good outline to help  you get out there and go for what you want in life.  To be successful requires some "C's."  Choice-Chance-Change.  I would add three more C's: Courage, Consistency and Constancy.

Is there something out there that you want?   Then, have the Courage to take a Chance, Choose to be Consistent and be Constant in order to create Change.

Have a great day!

What is Aikido?

https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?language=en#t-1198063 Do you want to understand Aikido?  Then watch this video, but please watch it until the end.  What researcher Brene Brown is speaking about in this TED talk is the underlying philosophy of Aikido.  It is difficult to explain what Aikido is.  Aikido, more than just being a martial art, is an understanding of not only the world but of humanity too.  What I can tell you about the philosophy of Aikido is this:

Every person is good and only doing the best that they can. Every person is suffering and going through their own battles. Every person is human and humans make mistakes. Every person is ignorant to the true cause of their actions and thus not entirely at fault.

Therefore, every person deserves kindness, compassion and forgiveness just like we do.

Aikido is built on this platform of love and compassion but that too is a bit abstract when laid over this martial art called Aikido.  It is hard to explain Aikido, but this video describes the whys or underlying motives and the hows or impetus for the structure of the Aikido techniques.  I hope you can understand.

The martial artist's credo

 

Who we really are is reflected when we are at our top and hitting our bottom.  "Two things define you.  Your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything.  This aphorism by Imam Ali Ibn Abi Tabib is so true  that it could possibly be the martial artist's credo.

Every great martial art and every great religion teaches us that we must be humble and to show humility regardless if things are going bad or good.  This equanimous mindset is what budo strives for.

Probably the hardest things to do is be patient and kind when things are not going well and kind and humble when they are.

Heijoshin Kore Do

What is the ultimate goal of training in Aikido?  Calmness.  The ability to be calm is born out of Aikido's harmonizing nature.   Without harmony we cannot be calm.  Without calmness we cannot act appropriately.  When we are confronted, our training teaches us to be calm, centered and collected so that we may act mindfully in an appropriate manner.  If we are not in harmony then we run the risk of reacting or acting mindlessly.  How does this sense of calmness arise?  This scroll reads, "Heijoshin Kore Do" or the original mind is the way gives us a clue.  Many interpret this to mean that the original mind means calmness.  This is true but it doesn't leave us with much to go by when it comes to attaining this sense of calm.  I believe that the original mind that we are striving for is the mind that we had at the moment when we were born that was free from the bindings that society conditioned into us as we grew up.  When we are born there was no anger, jealousy, fear or hatred.  The only thing that existed was the love from our parents or caregivers.  From there we grew to know fear and that fear manifests in things like anger, hatred, jealousy and scarcity.  With that realization, we try to get back to the heijoshin or "original" mind and shed those negative traits.

We return back to the heijoshin only by training.  Training is the vehicle by which we develop ourselves so that we may meet any of life's obstacles with sense of harmony that is calm and centered.  That is why Furuya Sensei used to say, "The Way is in training."

Time to make the donuts!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwfrBbNo5Jg Time to make the donuts!

Martial artist are people who stave off pleasure for purpose.

Do you remember these commercials for Dunkin Donuts with Fred the Baker?  The commercial is a series of shots of him waking up before the crack of dawn muttering, "Time to make the donuts."  I think what the advertisers were trying to get across was that their donuts are delicious because they are baked fresh every day by a human being.  What a great commercial.

One way to look at this commercial is from the point of view of what it means to be an adult.  To me, being an adult means sometimes staving off pleasure for purpose.  The reality of being an adult means that sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do because they need to get done.  A martial artist is no different.  In order to get good, we must do things that we sometimes don't want to do, are too tired to do or are bored with.  Getting up before the crack of done when all of his competitors are asleep is what a serious baker aka a true martial artist must do to be successful.  Therefore, Fred the Baker is just modeling the behavior of what it means to be not only an adult but a good martial artist too.  As martial artists we have to do things that need to get done when they need to be done and there are never any short cuts in training or life.

Do you want to be good?  Then I guess it's, "Time to make the donuts."

What you seek...

 

What you seek... Cannot be found on your phone or online. It cannot come from others. It can only be found inside of you.

Martial artists are seekers.  We are looking for a place of self-mastery.

Our true inner beauty is hidden inside us and covered up with layer upon layer of conditioning and feelings.  It takes a tremendous amount of courage and training to get to a place where we can feel comfortable enough to let our true inner beauty shine.

To be able to "let it go" and open ourselves up takes countless hours of training.  We have to teach ourselves how to undo what has been done and to unlearn what has been taught.  The main goal of martial arts training is to liberate us from ourselves.

Every great martial art teaches us that true mastery only begins when we learn how not to fight.  This is the paradox of the martial arts - one learns how to destroy an opponent but then doesn't.  We don't because we realizes that the real opponent that we are fighting against is really ourselves.  At this place and with this clarity we can unleash our innate beauty and find that harmony or happiness that we thought was waiting for us at the end of our fists.  That moment when we realize ourselves or find that place where we "find ourselves" is when we can unleash our true inner beauty and greatness.  This moment is what O Sensei referred to as Masakatsu Agatsu or "the true victory."

I wish that I could tell you that martial arts training was designed to teach us how destroy others, but it really is just an ingenious way to help us defeat our real enemy - our self.

I saw a nice quote by the prolific Karate teacher, Gogen Yamaguchi that sums it all up, "I will be happy if you understand that the essence of the martial arts is not the strength, not the art, but that which is hidden deep within yourself."

So true indeed.

Do you have a daily practice?

A true warrior trains in order to deal with the question that lies between life and death - "How do I live knowing that I am going to eventually die?"  In Japanese to see life in the presence of death is called shichu usho. In Buddhism it is said that, "Life is suffering."  In many ways and on many different levels this is one of those truisms - life is full of unsavory situations.

Besides being a physical way of life, our martial arts training teaches us "how" to deal with life and meet all of its ups and downs with a sense of calmness, clarity and acceptance.

Existentially, when one is confronted with the reality that they will not live forever or that they may soon die, it can create a sense of despair and in Japanese this is called seichu musho or "seeing death in life."  To be able to live in the face of death or shichu usho requires that we be in the present moment with a sense of calmness, centeredness and acceptance.

To be calm and centered, one needs to have a sense of stability in their life regardless of what is happening around them.  One of the best ways to find that calmness is to have a daily practice.  Having a daily practice gives us stability and enables us to move from a place of chaos and meet our challenges with calm, clarity and acceptance.

A daily practice is something that one does out of personal discipline to push them out of complacency and back into the present.  It could be something as benign as waking up every day at 4:30 am to meditate and clean your room or something bigger like forcing yourself to do your homework every day.  One of Admiral William McRaven's daily practices was to make his bed everyday after he got up.

I recently read an article by Max Moore's How Soap Saved My Life where he illustrates how he found that having the daily practice of cleaning himself enabled him to meet the possibility of his death with a sense of clarity and acceptance.  With a daily practice Max Moore was able to turnaround a horrible situation into a life changing event.

A daily practice is nothing more than an almost spiritual discipline that one exercisers on themselves to stave off complacency and negativity.  What will you do as part of your training to improve yourself and and to meet your challenges calm, cool and collected?

Special thanks to Heraldo Farrington for initially sharing this article.  Mahalo!

Source: http://www.ozy.com/true-story/how-soap-saved-my-life/68580

Click here to support Max Moore

Time to get to work

 

目指すべき所に、近道は存在しない Mezasubeki tokoro ni chikamichi wa sonzai shinai "There are no short cuts to any place worth going"

What do you want to achieve in this life?  What are you willing to do or sacrifice in order to make that dream come true?

To get what we want requires that we put in the work and make some sacrifices.

Getting what we want then comes down to one thing - choice.  We must choose the course of action that will enable us to achieve our goal.  With that being said, there are only two questions we must ask ourselves: "What is my goal?" and "Does this bring me closer to that goal?".

Our answers will inform us of our course of action.

Change is about choice and martial artists are people of change.  We chose to start studying a martial art and we choose to keep going despite any discomfort that we might experience on the journey.

How badly then do you want change?  Change requires action.  Remember, everyone starts as a beginner.  There is no such thing as prodigies or phenoms - everyone has to put in the work.

Exercise vigilance

 

Be aware of your surroundings Be mindful of your thoughts and actions Because you never know who is watching

There is a saying in warfare, "A talented hawk hides his talons."  This is because in battle, the element of surprise is the number one asset any warrior has over their opponent.  We were taught that we should always assume that our opponent is of equal or greater skill.  This mindset keeps us ever vigilant in our training and thus enable us to not fall prey to our opponents surprise attack.

I read a recent article on CNN.com about travel advisories that recommended that people "exercise vigilance" while traveling abroad.

Martial artists are supposed to vigilant people.  Our training teaches us to be ever aware of "what is going on" at all times.  We don't have to "exercise vigilance" because we are always vigilant.

But, what does it mean to be vigilant?  Furuya Sensei used to say, "Always act as if your teacher is watching."  With this assertion, we will be aware and to be aware means being diligent in our approach and to act accordingly at all times.  If we are present in the moment then we can be aware of ourselves and our surroundings.  If we "fall asleep" then we lose the ability to monitor our own thoughts and actions and will completely lose track of our surroundings.

One can only be surprised if one didn't see it coming.  To be vigilant means to be first self-aware then secondly aware of one's surroundings.  How could we possibly be caught off guard if we are always on guard?  Always "act as if your teacher is watching."

The simple things sometimes are the hardest things

Just do as much as you can.Not more than you can. Not less than you can. Just as much as you can. But, are you doing as much as you can?

If one wants to get better at Aikido, all they have to do is just do more Aikido.  I can't tell you how many times I get asked this question, "What else can I do to get better at Aikido?"  My answer is the same answer Furuya Sensei would give which is, "just train more."  It is a common malaise for people to think that a magic pill exists or that the answer to their questions about Aikido or life are complicated or mysterious.  The truth is never quite that sexy.  If one wants their head to stop hurting then they should stop banging it against the wall.

The answers, if there is such a thing, can usually be found in the most obvious or most simplest ways or Einstein put it, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."  Simplicity applies to not only training but to life as well.

Stop doing that thing that causes you pain. Stop doing that thing that causes others pain. Trust more and don't ask so many questions. Be kinder to yourself and to others. Let go of control and just go with the flow. And most of all just train and be patient.

Spring has arrived!

 

The bluebird and the cherry blossom are the universal symbols that Spring has arrived.  In Japan, the arrival of Spring brings with it the opportunity for renewal and hope of prosperity.

The two motifs are a favorite among the warrior class.  Both symbols have a certain sense of balance to them in regards to life.

Bluebirds symbolize happiness but their songs also represents perseverance in darker times.  I am sure a samurai in the heat of battle who had the awareness to hear the song of the Bluebird would think that it was a good omen and that their song might give him the strength to carry on.  It is said that the Bluebird carries the sky on its back and with it eternal happiness.

If Japan had a national flower, it could easily be the sakura or cherry blossom.  The Cherry blossoms usually only blooms for one to two weeks from the first blossom called kaika (開花) and full bloom called mankai (満開).  After mankai is reached the blossoms begin to fall off the branches.  There are five petals of the sakura flower and thus it said to represent human beings.  Therefore the falling of the cherry blossoms off the branch are reminiscent of a head being chopped off or life being lost.  The cherry blossom falls off the branch at the peak of its beauty and just as men are cut down on the battlefield in their primes.  The cherry blossom reminds us that there is no tomorrow and that we must live our lives well.

Spring has arrived!  Rejoice, get out, find happiness for there is no tomorrow.  Oh and come to class if you can.