Welcome to Fall

Ichi-yo ochite tenka no aki wo shiru. "With the fall of one leaf we know autumn has come."

A couple of years ago we stumbled upon this small temple in the suburbs of Kyoto.  The temple is called Komyo-in.  It is off the beaten path, but well worth the visit.  It is one of the sub temples of Tofukuji which is just down the street.  You can just sit on the veranda for as long as you want and just take in the awesome rock garden that is bordered with Japanese maple trees.  We went in the summer so the maple trees weren't in bloom, but from the vast number of maple trees it must be incredible in the fall.  I just loved sitting there and taking in the quiet while looking at such a serene place.  Whenever I go back to Kyoto again, I will try and spend at least an hour just sitting there.

Here is a link with more pictures and some information about Komyo-in. http://kyoto.asanoxn.com/places/higashiyama_sth/komyoin.htm#photos

Aikido is a personal journey

There is no competition in Aikido.  Despite this maxim, it is still hard for people to accept.  Competition itself is not bad, but what it brings out in us can be detrimental.  It can be harmful  because it has a detrimental affect on the ego. Let's think about the game of golf.  Golf is fun.  Golf is social and the experience can actually be heightened when others play it with you.  There is technically no winning or losing in golf since it is a personal pursuit where the golfer is trying to improve upon a skill.  There is also no such thing as a "perfect" game - nobody ever shoots a 0.  Given that golf is a personal pursuit it can actually make someone a better person because they have to conform to a set of rules which penalizes them if they break them.

However somewhere along the line, golfing became more about winning by beating others than as a means of personal development or sportsmanship.  This has brought about such unsavory things like cheating, performance enhancing drugs and bad behavior.  In a 2002 survey of America's top 400 top business executives who play golf, 82% admitted to cheating.  In a 2011 poll, 54% of the PGA tour caddies said they had witness some form of cheating.  Today with sponsorships and praise, we only care who won or who was the best and we rarely care who is the better person.

This could happen to Aikido also if there was some form of competition.  What would dojos be like if there was a competition for prize money and sponsorships?  How far would people go to "sell" the competition by speaking disrespectfully about their opponents?  What would people be willing to do or more importantly forgo in order to win?  The answer is that Aikido would then go the way of every other martial art where the emphasis is on who has the best abs.

Aikido is a do or way and like golf it is a singular journey where the only competition we have is with ourselves.  If we are not training for ourselves, we are training for our egos or more importantly other things and other people.  Our ego wants praise, accolades, fame and fortune - everything that exists outside of ourselves.  This "win at any cost" perspective is one of the negative sides of competition and thus why there is no competition in Aikido.   This is why O Sensei said, "Masakatsu, Agatsu" or that the real victory is the one over yourself.

Dojo Christmas Party

 

Dojo Christmas Party

Socialize - Dinner - Gift exchange

When: Saturday, December 6th Time: 6:30-10:30 PM Where: Smokehouse in Burbank Cost: $50.00 adults, $35.00 children

Everyone is invited to attend.  Please sign-up on the sign-up sheet on the bulletin board.

Nakasendo - the road between Tokyo and Kyoto

There are five routes called the Gokaido in Japan that connect the capital of Japan, formerly Edo, with the outlying provinces.  The five routes are: Tokaido, Nakasendo, Koshu Kaido, Oshu Kaido and Nikko Kaido.  Today most of the routes have been replaced by modern day freeways or highways, but there are still some parts that have been preserved.  The Tokaido and Nakasendo have the most notable areas that have been preserved. The Nakasendo is one of National Geographic's 50 tours of a lifetime.  The Nakasendo connected Tokyo (Edo) with Kyoto.  It was the trail through the mountains that supposedly was preferred because you didn't have to cross any rivers.  Originally there were 69 towns that travelers could stay at or get a soak in an onsen or traditional bath.  Today only patches have been preserved and some towns have legal mandates which prohibit change.

I have always wanted to go to these preserved places and maybe I will get around to making the journey.  I found this video of Nakasendo that was  really nice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNwP-umm9h0

Dojo Fundraiser - please help

The Ice House Comedy Club in Pasadena has kindly arranged to help us raise funds by making tickets available for purchase

($20 each).  You can buy a ticket and catch one of their shows, get  some for friends and family, or just get the warm glow that comes from helping out the dojo.

Many thanks to student Jackie for making this possible. Please contact Jackie for tickets or more information.

E-mail: jcgu3ss@yahoo.com

Don't let the outside affect the inside

Don't bring the outside inside. One the hardest concepts for students to grasp as they start their training in a traditional dojo is to maintain a sense of self-restraint.  The dojo is not a place for personal feelings, desires or problems.  The more I study Aikido, the more I realize that what I am really studying is the art of self-restraint.

This idea of self-restraint is at the core of Japanese culture where conformity, humility and restraint are paramount.  Tatemae and honnen are two concepts that embody this idea of restraint.  Tatemae 建 前 is the face you show outwardly and honne 本音 is your true face that you hide inside.  Tatemae and honne enable an overcrowded nation to function as a single unit, but it is what also allows students to grow and foster in an environment designed for not only their well being, but their growth too.

This idea of self-restraint begins with students and teachers leaving the outside world outside.  People's problems or feelings are their own and thus should not be brought into the dojo.  Sensei used to say, "Cut off your head and leave it at the door."  This enables the practice to be without prejudice, worry, anger, or anything else that causes a distraction.  This lack of distraction environment makes the conditions conducive for learning.   From this environment springs the beginnings of not only strong Aikidoists, but better human beings.

So when people come to the dojo they should be ready to learn and help others grow and they can only do this by not bringing the outside inside or as Sensei said, "Leave your head at the door."  Oh and this is also one of the main concept or highest teachings in budo too - don't let the outside affect the inside.

Form is the basis for speed, power and intuition

The first duty in any student's Aikido career is to master the form as best as they can.  There are two main reasons why you have to master the form first.  The first reason why you have to master the form first is because there are hundreds of minutia that your mind cannot keep track of in order to make the techniques work.  The second reason is that once you have mastered the form, the movement can enter the subconcious which is beginnings of the development of intuition or sixth sense. A long time ago my mom told me a story about a lady she met who had been studying Aikido for a long time.  She told my mom this story about being in a car accident and how Aikido training saved her life.  She said that she was sitting in front passenger seat during a head on collision.  As the car struck another car she felt her body shift to the right and as she looked over her shoulder her friend who was sitting in the back was sailing by as she was ejected through the front windshield.  She doesn't know why she shifted but felt that the ushiro waza (techniques from an attack from behind) in her Aikido training helped her to sense that something was coming from behind and to shift away from it without thinking.

In ushiro waza, I was taught to never look back in order to see which side the attacker was attacking or what attack was to come.  If I waited too long, I got jammed and if I went too early I broke the connection and therefore I had to use my intuition to find the right timing for the right attack.  However, I could only use my intuition if my form was correct.

From this story you can see how the "form" of the movement might have saved this lady's life and that is why I urge all of my students to concentrate on mastering the form of the movement first.  After that you can develop speed, power and intuition.

Nothing is really important unless it is important to you.

Nothing is really important unless it is important to you. I recently read this article (link below) about a house in France where the owners of the house have left one of the rooms untouched since WWI.  Apparently, the original owners were so grief stricken that their son was killed in WWI that they left his room exactly the way he left it before he went off to battle.  When the parents sold the house they put a stipulation that the room go untouched for 500 years.  Oddly enough, despite the fact that the stipulation isn't legal, the room has been kept untouched and the house has changed hands a few times.  The current owner hopes his children keep up the tradition but stated, " I don't give a damn. What happens after me, generally speaking, I don't care.... But I think it would be a shame to get rid of all this."

A couple of years ago, someone broke something that belonged to the dojo.  I saw this thing in the trash and asked everyone what happened to which most replied, "I don't know."  Later that day a new student told me that one of the senior students sat on it and broke it.  The broken item wasn't what upset me, but how the senior students reacted.  Nobody even cared enough to take responsibility and many of them attempted to cover it up.  The item was worth no more than a few hundred dollars, but the significance was that it was one of Sensei's personal belongings.  The item can be replaced, but its sentimental value can never be replaced now that it is gone.

Things are only important to us if we think they are important.  An antique baseball card can fetch 2.1 million dollars or a 13th century Kamakura era sword can be purchased for $400,000, but its only real value or importance is to the person buying it.  I certainly wouldn't buy a sword for $400,000, but I did buy an autographed copy of Kodo for $50.00.  So I guess it is relative.

The point is that in order to find something important we must care.  In Japanese culture they believe that everything has an inherent value and thus should be treated with respect.  The thinking is that to find value and respect for other people or other things is to find value and respect for yourself.  Please take care of your dojo and treat it with the utmost care and respect.  It really is important.

http://news.yahoo.com/france-wwi-soldiers-bedroom-frozen-time-033623350.html

A well trained student

Whenever Sensei met with another martial arts teacher, they would lament about their students and every once in awhile they would talk about some student being, "Well trained."  This always puzzled me because Sensei would comment that someone is well trained, but he never talked about the criteria for what it meant to be well trained. Only after I became a teacher did I realize what Sensei was talking about when he said that someone was, "Well trained."  Generally speaking, being well trained means that one does the right thing at the right time with a sense of spontaneity and seamlessness.  Sensei once told a story about a well trained a student who put a lit cigarette in between this famous sword  teachers fingers just as he brought his fingers up to his lips.  It was so spontaneous and fast that Sensei didn't even see the student light the cigarette.

Spontaneity and speed can only be achieved after the student has achieved ishin-denshin.  Ishin-denshin refers to the connection between two people.  The teacher's mind thinks it, the student's intuition perceives it.

How does the student develop intuition?  Intuition is nothing more than a heightened sense of awareness that is only developed through experience.  A good student reads all the clues then lets his intuition take over acting.

Training intuition in Aikido is no different.  You have to do the techniques over and over ad nauseam before you can develop an intuition about what is coming next.  Once you can do that then you try and take your training to the next level and spend time with the teacher trying to further develop this awareness and intuition.  If one can successfully read the teacher and know what he wants before he wants it, you will have something truly special and there won't be anything you can't learn or eventually do.

Martial arts IQ: Takeshi Mitsuzuka Sensei

Here is a video of one of Sensei's iaido teachers.  His name is Takeshi Mitsuzuka.  Surprisingly, there are very few videos of him doing Iaido.  Sensei studied under him in the early 1980s and this video is right around the time.  Mitsuzuka Sensei was a student of Nakayama Hakudo who founded Muso Shinden Ryu Iaido. He passed away in 2008 at the age of 88 almost exactly one year after Sensei. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mp55f34JPY&app=desktop

My 100th post

Hmm.  What should I post about today for this auspicious occasion? I have thought about this long and hard.  To be perfectly honest, I don't consider myself much of a teacher and in fact I feel like I don't know anything.  So many today are white belts in skill but 10th dan in self-promotion.  Nothing makes me sadder than when I read someone's bio and there are obvious exaggerations.  I know from my own experience that it is very difficult to live one's life with integrity, humility and truthfulness.

I have re-posted something Sensei posted on September 27, 2005 to his Daily Message that I thought might be appropriate for my 100th post.  Please enjoy!

To live for one's self is most probably the most practical, realistic way to live.

To live for others is most definitely the most beautiful way to live.

To live with a caring heart for others will influence you every second of every day of your life.

To live to throw others down or defeat them will probably effect you only for a few seconds only once in your entire lifetime.

It is useless to be strong and skillful without a caring heart for others.

To lose or win is only chance and the way of the world - it is typical to desire to win, it is realistic to know that you will lose.  It is wiser not to waste your time with such trivial matters when you can use your life and energies for much more worthy efforts.

After teaching my students for so many years, I have realized that there is much more to teaching than making someone strong and skilled.  It all has to do with heart and life and righteousness . . . . . if our lives are not directed towards finding a peaceful way to live, we can never understand what O'Sensei's teachings are nor what is the spirit and true meaning of Aikido.  However, we can never separate ourselves from the correct practice of Aikido itself. . . .

Whether we are walking, riding a fancy car, crawling on our hands and knees, or being pushed or carried along on the shoulders of others, the road must still be correct. . . . In this way, we can never separate ourselves from correct training or a correct understanding of Aikido. . . . .

When you think you can do anything you want in this world, you are only being silly. Think of your mother, your father, your sisters and brothers, those you work with, those you practice with, your friends and loved ones, your neighbors. . . . what you have to do in this world is very clearly in front of you. . . . all you can choose for yourself in the Path you take - luckily you have chosen Aikido, I think it is a kind of Karma that you are blessed like this to enter O'Sensei's world. . . . Please don't miss this opportunity and apply yourself well to your practice and support the dojo.

The serenity of a splash

 

Furu ike ya!                               The old pond, ah! Kawazu tobikomu,                    A frog jumps in: Mizu no oto.                             The water's sound.

This poem is by Basho (1644-1694) and is probably the most well known haiku ever written.  I was blown away by this haiku when I first read this in D.T. Suzuki's Zen and Japanese Culture.  For some reason it always makes me think about fall and a cool morning sitting by a pond.  Upon reading this, I find myself transported to another place that is hard to explain.  In this place I can actually feel Basho's emotion as he is caught up in the moment.

I have never been one for poetry and in fact I have always thought of it as an unmanly pursuit but something about haiku really touches me.  For me, good haiku encapsulates the Way and what it means to follow it.  Good haiku is like Aikido - simple yet sophisticated.  The writer is able to be present in the moment but yet convey a sense of feeling within that present moment.  When you are attacked, being in the moment dictates that you only observe and don't react - true Budo is nothing more than this.

What does each rank mean?

People always ask me about the criteria that I use to determine rank.  This question comes with a large set of subjective answers that varies from teacher to teacher.  The knowledge or skills set is different between kyu ranks or mudansha and black belts or yudansha. For me, mudansha students are evaluated on what I like to call their Aikido conditioning.  Their Aikido conditioning refers to things the student needs to get into shape such as their ukemi skills, rolling ability, and basic technique differentiation as both uke and nage.  At the mudansha level, technical nuance isn't that important as long as they can perform the movement in a fairly competent manner and perform the right ukemi with each technique.

For yudansha at each level, the precision becomes greater and the student will be required to demonstrate everything they have learned up to that point.  At shodan, the student will need to show general knowledge of the technical form and display the Aikido conditioning they have built up.  Since shodan is the proverbial beginning, technical differentiation is more important than technical nuance while serving as both the nage and the uke.  Being able to do the techniques being called out and the proper ukemi is enough to pass the shodan exam, but not enough for subsequent black belts.  At each level of black belt, the student is evaluated on their technical precision, grasp of timing and spacing, breathe control, and mental awareness or basically where they are supposed to be and what they are supposed to be doing.

The last and most important at all levels is the candidate's character.  A student with no athletic gifts and a great attitude will go farther than an athletically gifted student with a bad attitude and I would promote the former a 100 times over the latter.  I personally will not promote anyone with a bad attitude or corrupt character.

Be a mindful of yourself

Under promise and over produce.  Over the 24 years I have been practicing Aikido, this is the one shortcoming that students always seem to succumb to.  I am well acquainted with this lesson myself because I have I suffered through it numerous times.  For instance, I once asked Sensei if I could wash his car once a week in trade for dues.  He agreed and we made a deal that I would wash his car every Saturday after class.  Easy enough and for months it went great and I thought I was making out like a bandit until one day it rained.  I was about to leave and Sensei stopped me and said, "Hey, aren't you going to wash my car?"  I said, "But, it's raining."  Sensei went to lunch and I had to wash the car in the pouring rain and I did it because I thought he was going to check it when he came back.  When he returned, I just got yelled at for an hour about my follow through and personal character. This was a hard concept to for me to grasp.  I didn't understand that to be a warrior means to be someone of character and one of elements of character is ichigon or more specifically bushi no ichigon in marital arts.  Bushi no ichigon specifically translates as a warrior says one thing, but it really means that a warrior is person of character and hence that person says what they mean and only means what they say.

As a young man growing up I got a warriors education from Sensei.  He didn't just teach me the martial arts but more about what it meant to be a person of character.  A person of character is someone you can trust and respect and who lives his life with honor and integrity.  Therefore to start this journey be mindful of what you not only say and do, but also what you think - it really does matter.

So my suggestion to everyone is that they should under promise and over produce.  This is the best way to stay off the radar.

Learn by doing

"What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing." - Aristotle Aikido is unfortunately an experiential thing which means you have to do it to not only learn it but someday understand it.  There are many schools of Aikido and numerous ways to teach Aikido.  Our school takes the hands on approach.  In order to advance the first think you need is a good attitude, but after that you need to come to class.  Sorry no way around it.

A picture is worth a 1000 words, but actually doing it speaks volumes.  The concepts and theories of Aikido are so verbose and difficult that words and talking about it just get in the way.  Aikido is one of those things you can't truly learn until you experience it.  So you have to learn to do Aikido by coming to class.  Please have a regular training schedule.

Mind matters most

I saw this story the other day and I thought about you... Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save her.." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?" Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her. You see, understanding and attitude, after all, is everything.

This is one of the Five Great Lessons that someone wrote about on their blog.  Understanding and attitude really are everything.  Having a good attitude and the right understanding are paramount no matter where we find ourselves or what we are doing.  Life will constantly throw us curve balls and there is nothing we can do about it.  What we do have control over is how we react to these curve balls.  It can be cliche or sophomoric to say, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" but that doesn't make it untrue.  What we think and what we say are very important but what you think matters most.  Understanding and attitude are not always in the things we say or do, but just like in Aikido it doesn't so much matter what we do when someone strikes, but it matters more how we react to it inside hence understanding and attitude are everything.

My kid reads the newsletter, why don't you?

My kid reads the newsletter, why don't you? Every issue of the newsletter the dojo has ever published is now available on the Internet for free!  That's right every issue since 1985 is available for you to read. Follow this link: http://aikidocenterla.com/newsletter.html

Martial arts IQ: Kanazawa Sensei - Violence is not the answer.

Every great martial art comes to the same conclusion at some time or another - violence is not the answer.  The difference between Aikido and other martial arts is that non-violence is something introduced in the beginning and not the end.  As Aikidoists, we understand that the person attacking us not in their right mind and as a result of is ignorant.  This lack of understanding or awareness is what brings them suffering because in the end they are only hurting themselves.  Knowing this, we try and use Aikido to resolve the conflict in a non-violent manner.  Kanazawa Sensei is a world renowned expert in Karate with 65 years of experience and has come to the same conclusion that violence is not the answer.  This video is the 2nd part  of four videos where Kanazawa Sensei talks about not only his history but his philosophies on life and Karate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgZcq9a1Z8o

Kuro obi - Black Belt DVD review

DVD Review: Kuro Obi - Black Belt

Most martial arts movies today are filled with incredible stunts that are performed by actors with little to no martial arts training.  This is wonderful and great for the genre of martial arts movies, but I always wish that the quality of the martial arts techniques in those movies was a little bit better.  Occasionally I come across a movie that really impresses me.  Kuro Obi is one such movie.  The scenery is stunning and it has a great story, but the real kicker was that half way through the story I realized that the two main characters were real martial artists.  I stopped the movie and Googled the actors and sure enough both were not only trained martial artist but teachers as well.

The movie takes place in the 1930s and is about three students named Choei, Giryu and Taikan who are the students of a Karate master who dies as the Japanese army attempts to take over their dojo.  The story follows the three students as they follow two diametrically opposing paths as they compete to be worthy enough to inherit their teacher's belt.  Choei and Taikan join the military where Taikan follows a more corrupt path as he brutally beats every opponent as he fights his way to the belt.  Giryu, who is injured, finds himself on a soul searching journey where he struggles to understand his teacher's last teaching where he forbade him from using Karate to attack.  The story's final chapter has Taikan and Giryu finally fighting each other for their teacher's belt.

The martial arts is excellent in this movie.  The scenery itself is reason to see this movie but the Karate is spectacular.  Taikan is played by Tatsuya Naka who is a 7th degree black belt and teacher at the JKA Shotokan in Tokyo.  Giryu is played by Akihito Yagi and he is a 7th degree black belt in Goju-ryu Karate and a 3rd generation teacher.

You can see the end credits of the movie here where Tatsuya Naka and Akihito Yagi are demonstrating their Karate katas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYUxr4Qaq3Q

Realize this!

Realize this!  There is no such thing as perfection. No thing is perfect.  No one is perfect.  No situation is perfect.  We can begin to see things as they are once we let go of our ideals.  Human beings are inherently flawed, things breakdown and s!@#$ happens.

There is actually only one true perfection and that is love.  Love allows you to see people for who they are.  Love allows you to see things as they are.  Love allows you to accept the situation as it is.

O Sensei said that Aikido is love.  I think what O Sensei was really talking about is that as we give ourselves to others when we take ukemi and that is love because we are sacrificing ourselves for another person's benefit.  However, what is the truest expression of love is that the nage knows that the uke is sacrificing himself and that the nage not only appreciates it but also sacrifices himself by letting go of his desire to hurt the uke thus love comes full circle.

The enso or circle calligraphy above symbolizes emptiness and it is supposed to represent the calligrapher's level of enlightenment.  The funny thing about an enso is that the more "enlightened" a person is supposed to be, the more imperfect the circle seems.  Perfection is not realized but moreover it is the realization that perfection does not exist is the truest expression of love and thus perfection.