Autopilot has preprogrammed destination and assumes that there are clear skies ahead. Oddly, breathing is set to a specific outcome which is instead conflict so it is necessary to reset and let breathing be used for relaxation instead of primal survival. Continue reading Attention Passengers We Will Be Experiencing …
Looking across the river the young monk asks the master, “How do I get to the other side.” The master replied “little monk, you are on the other side.” My favorite story is different story about two monks but as I remember it involved a drowning maiden. Continue reading Growing up on Zen…and the silken maiden.
Appearance has been the driving force of how we interpret what it means to “be strong”… but the things we do to look and feel strong do little to improve our stability or capacity to withstand force. Continue reading You are stronger than you “look”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lqUVoLorWk]
Saito sensei breaks down O’sensei’s movements into a concrete starting point to understand the abstract and generative potential of aikido. The step-by-step approach also illuminates how a martial art can be peaceful and be an effective response to violence. Aikido’s roots are in the samurai and it is important to look at how something so lethal became the “Art of Peace;” riai is the place to start… Continue reading Riai… How Aikido Moves from Death to Resolution.
The Kanji for “ai” in aikido is usually translated as harmony or blending but the ideogram combines a mouth and the gathering of sticks to build a house… this represents a different purpose.
Continue reading Into One House…The “Harmony” of Ai