Articles with the Tag aikido

I appreciate everyone participating in this new format and welcome to everyone coming for the first time.  We are working to keep our regular class schedule going so it will be easier to return to our training together.

Please share any comments, suggestions or questions.

This difficult time; while we wish it was not going on, is an opportunity to deepen our practice by appreciating what is really important to us and what we can let go of-The Secret Teachings of Aikido translated by John Stevens (pg. 33). 

Introduction

In our last on-line class we continued our series on a fuller/finer experience of the I/self.  We worked to balance and integrate the I and then made a dimensional shift from level 1 to level 2 and then to level 3.  We then expanded the practice to include how a deeper experience of I/self can have a positive effect on the creation, specifically the Aikido technique we are training with.

Today we will continue to work on this deeper experience of the I/self with further dimensional shifts. 

We will continue to focus specifically on the co-creative function of the I/self in relationship to the creation.  Our focus in this class will be on the healing capabilities in the creation resulting from a deeper I/self experience. 

Defining I/self can be a difficult task.  We will rely more on experiential practices than definitions in words.

However, a very basic outline may help us to get started. 

O Sensei talked about the consciousness we call self as being present even before the dawn of creation. 

By this he meant two very important things that will help us to focus our practice. 

First, consciousness at this most original level played an instrumental role in the birth of creation itself.  O Sensei said the energies of creation, coming from spirit, that formed the creation, flowed through the consciousness we call the self at the very beginning of creation.  Consciousness was present even before the creation and was a co-creative partner in the birth of creation. 

Second, since consciousness was present prior to the creation, it is not a part of the creation or the function of creation but is an experiential partner to creation.  At its most original level, self is a mirror that provides clarity and order to creation precisely because it is not entangled in the creation itself. 

We worked with this to some degree in our most recent series of classes with the experience of the Pure Witness.

When you experience the beauty and harmony of the balanced energies of creation this experience provides a clearer opportunity for I/self to shine through. 

It is however important to recognize that when you feel the balance and harmony of creation you are not experiencing the self but a beautiful experience of the creation.   

That the I/self functions as a witness or experiential partner to creation is true at this most original level of creation. 

Our more normal experience of I/self, which we are calling I, provides a consistent sense of personal identity.  This is true in both the ordinary and extraordinary experiences in our daily lives, regardless of which aspect or level of the creation with which we are interacting.

This is how we have been using the experience of I in our forging practice.

The I/self is the part of our system, at a basic level, that provides a qualitative experience of satisfaction and meaning to our activities.  It is the source of our perspective on our lives and our world in both an immediate and overall sense.

The health of the I is a big factor in how well we forge with the units that are important to us both in the sense of personal satisfaction and wellbeing and in our functional performance. 

The overall goal of this series of classes is to experience progressively finer/fuller dimensional levels of I/self.

O Sensei and most other spiritual traditions teach that the I in our ordinary frame of reference is entangled with the creation so that we don’t experience the I/self in its deeper, finer levels. 

He said starting at the dawn of creation and then as the creation unfolded, we became increasingly entangled.  This entanglement interferes with our ability to more fully experience I/self and also interferes with the functioning of creation itself.

We have all experienced versions of this in our daily lives.  One example is when attempting a difficult or challenging task the harder we try the less able we are to complete the task.  In some cases we may get so upset over our inability to function at the level we desire that frustration and anger boils over and causes us to say “I don’t know who I am.”

Our plan for this series is first to practice disentanglement between the I and the creation. 

This process will allow us to backtrack from an entangled state to a state closer to the experience of I/self at the most original level before entanglement first occurred.

Today our focus is on the co-creative aspect of the I/self as a healer. 

We will use the technique, kata-dori ikkyo, to represent a portion of the creation to help us to experience the co-creative changes occurring in the creation as we work with deeper levels of I/self. 

The changes will be influenced by the level of I/self you are experiencing as well as the features of the technique.  It is important to recognize that your level of experience of I/self is a part of the co-creative process.  The creation in its manifestation, in this case as an Aikido technique, is a partner in the co-creative process.  The creation gets a vote as well as the I/self.   

We can also continue an additional practice we added in our previous series.  On a purely voluntary basis, select a call-off with which you would like to work throughout this series. 

This will help to make the practices in each class more personal and well connected. 

It is an opportunity to practice dimensionality with something of specific significance to you over a series of classes and in a longer timeframe.   

Our technique for today will continue to be kata-dori ikkyo.

Let’s bow in and start with misogi breathing and a good full warm-up.

Five Principles for Ki Breathing

Our tip today on the misogi breathing:

As you go through the three rounds, notice at the pauses the availability of healing energy in your body. 

1. Breathe out with the sound of HA, don’t let your breath just leak out
2. Breathe out as calmly and quietly as possible
3. Breathe out the Ki of your head to the Ki of your toe
4. Breathe in from the tip of your nose until your body is full of air
5. Calm your mind infinitely smaller at the one point after inhaling.

Co-creative Healing Experience of the I/Self

1. Let’s begin with a round of practice with the technique. 

• Begin with the practice of kata-dori ikkyo. For our practice today let’s frame the uke’s role not as an attacker but someone in need of healing.  As you go through this first round of practice ask yourself what healing does my partner need?
• Get feedback on the technique to establish a baseline to use for comparison as the practice progresses.

2. Let’s start with a basic practice of clearing and settling. This is how we begin our forging practice.  Here we will spend a little more time and attention by working through several levels of clearing. 

It is a simple process of relaxing and settling.  Feeling the back, the under half of the body and then deeper. 

Let’s go through three cycles of clearing to experience clearing at a deeper level.

What is your experience of this deeper level of clearing?

3. From this deeper level of clearing let’s work with the two parts of the I/self. We work with the I/self having two parts in our forging practice. 

One part is more awareness oriented and the other is more experientially oriented.  Our shorthand for these are the mind of I (awareness/thinking) and the body of I (feeling/experience).

Our goal, initially, is to experience these parts of the I and their interaction with each other.  It is in this interaction that a real opportunity for growth and development of the I/self exists.  When there is a lack of connection or even conflict between the parts of the I we are starting from a place of fragmentation rather than wholeness. 

If this lack of integration is not acknowledged and worked with we will experience the downstream effects of it in reduced satisfaction and performance.  It will also make it difficult to progress to dimensionally finer experiences of I/self. 

One way this happens is that part of the I ranges out and tries to obtain satisfaction from outside itself. 

An example is when the mind of I tries to direct the unit, it results in maintaining the fragmentation of the I within itself and interferes with the unit’s ability to perform. 

From O Sensei’s perspective, this tendency toward entanglement and its results is a key part of the difficulty of the human condition.

Bringing the two parts of the I into a more balanced and integrated experience with each other is a big step toward reducing entanglement and its resulting negative effects.  It is also an important first step in experiencing dimensionally finer levels of I/self.

Our practice starts by allowing each part of the I an opportunity to experience itself. 

In some cases this may take some time as one or both parts may need to balance and integrate within themselves before they can interact with their counterpart other half.

Let’s now move to a practice of interaction between the two parts of the I. 

Starting with the mind of I, let’s use the practice from our forging classes.  The mind of I has a capacity to mirror.  Often this mirroring capability is turned toward what is going on in the outside world.  Here we will turn it inward.  As the mind of the I, allow a mirrored image of the body of I-the more feeling/experiential part of the I-to form in you the mind of I.

What is the experience of this mirrored image?

Then switching perspectives move to the body of I.  Allow yourself a moment to change perspectives. 

Before we continue with the mirroring practice, what is the difference in your experience between the mind of I and now the body of I?

Rrom here the body of I mirrors the mind of I.  The body of I may take a different approach to mirroring than the mind of I does.  It may not even be visual.

What is the experience of this mirrored image?

We now have the two parts of the I mirroring each other.  What is your experience?  What is their relationship with each other in this mirroring process? 

Is there a greater overall experience of wholeness as I?  Focusing on the co-creative capability of the I, as we go through the technique, pay careful attention to the change in the technique as well as your personal experience. 

The change in the technique provides the concrete result of the co-creative interaction that comes from the I.

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it as the more whole co-creative I. Does this more whole I help your partner to begin the healing process? 

4. Let’s now move to a deeper level of experience of I/self.

We can use the circle/center practice to get started.  Open a circle of the next level of I/self and the next level of center of I/self.

Our question-what is the circle and the center of the next level of I/self?  We can use O Sensei’s principle of the mountain echo to allow the experience of the space to present itself.

Then let’s repeat the mirroring and integration practice with the I we just did, but now at level 2.

How is your experience different than level 1?

Again focusing on the co-creative capability of the I, as you go through the technique, pay careful attention to the healing outcome for your partner from the technique as well as your personal experience.  The change in the technique provides the concrete result of the co-creative healing interaction that comes from the I.

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it as the level 2 co-creative healing I.

5. Let’s now move to level 3 of I/self. Let’s work with a quieting practice we have used in previous classes.

Our practice is a breathing exercise from Koichi Tohei Sensei.  He calls it the Breathing Method That Transcends Breathing-Aikido in Daily Life (pgs. 36-37).

The practice starts with a very slow and quiet inhalation through the nose and then focusing your attention on your center.  This allows your attention to rest comfortably and gently on your center. 

From this gentle focus on center move the hands into position in front of your center with the left hand on top of the right, thumbs pointing toward each other.

This part of the practice is added to Tohei Sensei’s.

Visualize the circle formed by your hands as an opening to a place of great, great quiet. It is an opening like a tunnel or a portal to a quiet place where we can ask the question what is the experience of the next level of I/self?

We can continue to use O Sensei’s principle of the mountain echo to allow the experience of the next level of I/self to present itself.

Then let’s repeat the mirroring and integration practice with the I, but now at level 3.

How is your experience different than level 2?

Again we are focusing on the co-creative capability of the I, as we go through the technique as a healing practice for your partner.  Pay careful attention to the change in the technique as well as your personal experience.  The change in the technique provides the concrete result of the co-creative healing interaction that comes from the I.

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it as the level 3 co-creative healing I.

Conclusion

In this class we continued our series to experience finer/fuller levels of I/self.  We started with some fundamental practices from our forging process. 

Then we worked with a more refined level of I/self going from level 1 to level 2 to level 3. 

At each level of I we went back to the technique to experience how each level of I resulted in a co-creative healing change in your uke.

In future classes we will continue to explore the co-creative actions of the I/self as we move further from entanglement to wholeness-The Secret Teachings of Aikido translated by John Stevens (pg. 32).

Feedback and Discussion

Practice before next class: 

Select a daily life activity and take a moment to pause and allow the experience of I/self to integrate with the task.  See how this co-creative integration may change the task.  

You may also take a moment to experience any dimensional shifts in the area you selected as your call-off for this entire series of classes.

Finish with misogi breathing and bowing out.

I appreciate everyone participating in this new format and welcome to everyone coming for the first time.  We are working to keep our regular class schedule going so it will be easier to return to our training together.

Please share any comments, suggestions or questions.

This difficult time; while we wish it was not going on, is an opportunity to deepen our practice by appreciating what is really important to us and what we can let go of-Shinki by Nobuyuki Watanabe (pg. 60). 

Introduction

In our last on-line class we continued our series on a fuller/finer experience of the I/self.  We worked to balance and integrate the I and then made a dimensional shift from level 1 to level 2 and then to level 3. 

Today we will continue to work on this deeper experience of the I/self with further dimensional shifts.  We will focus specifically on the co-creative function of the I/self in relationship to the creation. 

Defining I/self can be a difficult task.  We will rely more on experiential practices than definitions in words.

However, a very basic outline may help us to get started. 

O Sensei talked about the consciousness we call self as being present even before the dawn of creation. 

By this he meant two very important things that will help us to focus our practice. 

First, consciousness at this most original level played an instrumental role in the birth of creation itself.  O Sensei said the energies of creation, coming from spirit that formed the creation, flowed through the consciousness we call the self at the very beginning of creation.  Consciousness was present even before the creation and was a co-creative partner in the birth of creation. 

Second, since consciousness was present prior to the creation, it is not a part of the creation or the function of creation but is an experiential partner to creation.  At its most original level, self is a mirror that provides clarity and order to creation precisely because it is not a part of the creation itself.  We worked with this to some degree in our most recent series of classes with the experience of the Pure Witness.

When you experience the beauty and harmony of the balanced energies of creation this experience provides a clearer opportunity for I/self to shine through. 

It is however important to recognize that when you feel the balance and harmony of creation you are not experiencing the self but a beautiful experience of the creation.   

That the I/self functions as a witness or experiential partner to creation is true at this most original level of creation. 

Our more normal experience of I/self, which we are calling I, functions to provide a consistent sense of personal identity.  This is true in both the ordinary and extraordinary experiences in our daily lives regardless of which aspect or level of the creation with which we are interacting.

This is how we have been using the experience of I in our forging practice.

The I/self is the part of our system, at a basic level, that provides a qualitative experience of satisfaction and meaning to our activities.  It is the source of our perspective on our lives and our world in both an immediate and overall sense.

The health of the I is a big factor in how well we forge with the units that are important to us both in the sense of personal satisfaction and wellbeing and in our functional performance. 

The overall goal of this series of classes is to experience progressively finer/fuller dimensional levels of I/self.

 O Sensei and most other spiritual traditions teach that the I in our ordinary frame of reference is entangled with the creation so that we don’t experience the I/self in its deeper, finer levels. 

He said starting at the dawn of creation and then as the creation unfolded, we became increasingly entangled.  This entanglement interferes with our ability to more fully experience I/self and also interferes with the functioning of creation itself.

We have all experienced versions of this in our daily lives.  One example is when attempting a difficult or challenging task the harder we try the less able we are to complete the task.  In some cases we may get so upset over our inability to function at the level we desire that frustration and anger boils over and causes us to say “I don’t know who I am.”

Our plan for this series is first to practice disentanglement between the I and the creation. 

This process will allow us to backtrack from an entangled state to a state closer to the experience of I/self at the most original level before entanglement first occurred.

Today our focus is on the co-creative aspect of the I/self. 

 We will use the technique, kata-dori ikkyo, to represent a portion of the creation to help us to experience the co-creative changes occurring in the creation as we work with deeper levels of I/self. 

The changes will be influenced by the level of I/self you are experiencing as well as the features of the technique.  It is important to recognize that your level of experience of I/self is a part of the co-creative process.  The creation in its manifestation, in this case as an Aikido technique, is a partner in the co-creative process.  The creation gets a vote as well as the I/self.   

We can also continue an additional practice we added in our previous series.  On a purely voluntary basis, select a call-off with which you would like to work throughout this series. 

This will help to make the practices in each class more personal and well connected. 

It is an opportunity to practice dimensionality with something of specific significance to you over a series of classes and in a longer timeframe.   

Our technique for today and Thursday will be kata-dori ikkyo.

Let’s bow in and start with misogi breathing and a good full warm-up.

Five Principles for Ki Breathing

Our tip today on the misogi breathing

as you go through the three rounds, notice at the pauses between rounds how the practice changes your experience of your body.  

1. Breathe out with the sound of HA, don’t let your breath just leak out
2. Breathe out as calmly and quietly as possible
3. Breathe out the Ki of your head to the Ki of your toe
4. Breathe in from the tip of your nose until your body is full of air
5. Calm your mind infinitely smaller at the one point after inhaling.

Co-creative Experience of the I/Self

1. Let’s begin with a round of practice with the technique. 

• Begin with the practice of kata-dori ikkyo.
• Get feedback on the technique to establish a baseline to use for comparison as the practice progresses.

2. Let’s start with a basic practice of clearing and settling. This is how we begin our forging practice.  Here we will spend a little more time and attention by working through several levels of clearing. 

It is a simple process of relaxing and settling.  Feeling the back, the under half of the body and then deeper. 

Let’s go through three cycles of clearing to experience clearing at deeper level.

What is your experience of this deeper level of clearing?

3. From this deeper level of clearing let’s work with the two parts of the I/self. We work with the I/self having two parts in our forging practice. 

One part is more awareness oriented and the other is more experientially oriented.  Our shorthand for these are the mind of I (awareness/thinking) and the body of I (feeling/experience).

Our goal, initially, is to experience these parts of the I and their interaction with each other.  It is in this interaction that a real opportunity for growth and development of the I/self exists.  When there is a lack of connection or even conflict between the parts of the I we are starting from a place of fragmentation rather than wholeness. 

If this lack of integration is not acknowledged and worked with we will experience the downstream effects of it in reduced satisfaction and performance.  It will also make it difficult to progress to dimensionally finer experiences of I/self. 

One way this happens is that part of the I ranges out and tries to obtain satisfaction from outside itself. 

An example is when the mind of I tries to direct the unit, it results in maintaining the fragmentation of the I within itself and interferes with the unit’s ability to perform. 

From O Sensei’s perspective, this tendency toward entanglement and its results is a key part of the difficulty of the human condition.

Bringing the two parts of the I into a more balanced and integrated experience with each other is a big step toward reducing entanglement and its resulting negative effects.  It is also an important first step in experiencing dimensionally finer levels of I/self.

Our practice starts by allowing each part of the I an opportunity to experience itself. 

In some cases this may take some time as one or both parts may need to balance and integrate within themselves before they can interact with their counterpart other half.

Let’s now move to a practice of interaction between the two parts of the I. 

Starting with the mind of I, let’s use the practice from our forging classes.  The mind of I has a capacity to mirror.  Often this mirroring capability is turned toward what is going on in the outside world.  Here we will turn it inward.  As the mind of the I, allow a mirrored image of the body of I-the more feeling/experiential part of the I-to form in you the mind of I.

What is the experience of this mirrored image?

Then switching perspectives move to the body of I.  Allow yourself a moment to change perspectives. 

Before we continue with the mirroring practice, what is the difference in your experience between the mind of I and now the body of I?

From here the body of I mirrors the mind of I.  The body of I may take a different approach to mirroring than the mind of I does.  It may not even be visual.

What is the experience of this mirrored image?

We now have the two parts of the I mirroring each other.  What is your experience?  What is their relationship with each other in this mirroring process? 

Is there a greater overall experience of wholeness as I?  Focusing on the co-creative capability of the I, as we go through the technique, pay careful attention to the change in the technique as well as your personal experience. 

The change in the technique provides the concrete result of the co-creative interaction that comes from the I.

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it as the more whole co-creative I.

4. Let’s now move to a deeper level of experience of I/self.

We can use the circle/center practice to get started.  Open a circle of the next level of I/self and the next level of center of I/self.

Our question-what is the circle and the center of the next level of I/self?  We can use O Sensei’s principle of the mountain echo to allow the experience of the space to present itself.

Then let’s repeat the mirroring and integration practice with the I we just did, but now at level 2.

How is your experience different than level 1?

Again focusing on the co-creative capability of the I, as you go through the technique, pay careful attention to the change in the technique as well as your personal experience.  The change in the technique provides the concrete result of the co-creative interaction that comes from the I.

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it as the level 2 co-creative I.

5. Let’s now move to level 3 of I/self. Let’s work with a quieting practice we have used in previous classes.

Our practice is a breathing exercise from Koichi Tohei Sensei.  He calls it the Breathing Method That Transcends Breathing-Aikido in Daily Life (pgs. 36-37).

The practice starts with a very slow and quiet inhalation through the nose and then focusing your attention on your center.  This allows your attention to rest comfortably and gently on your center. 

From this gentle focus on center move the hands into position in front of your center with the left hand on top of the right, thumbs pointing toward each other.

This part of the practice is added to Tohei Sensei’s.

Visualize the circle formed by your hands as an opening to a place of great, great quiet. It is an opening like a tunnel or a portal to a quiet place where we can ask the question what is the experience of the next level of I/self?

We can continue to use O Sensei’s principle of the mountain echo to allow the experience of the next level of I/self to present itself.

Then let’s repeat the mirroring and integration practice with the I, but now at level 3.

How is your experience different than level 2?

Again focusing on the co-creative capability of the I, as we go through the technique, pay careful attention to the change in the technique as well as your personal experience.  The change in the technique provides the concrete result of the co-creative interaction that comes from the I.

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it as the level 3 co-creative I.

Conclusion

In this class we continued our series to experience finer/fuller levels of I/self.  We started with some fundamental practices from our forging process. 

Then we worked with a more refined level of I/self going from level 1 to level 2 to level 3. 

At each level of I we went back to the technique to experience how each level of I resulted in a co-creative change in the technique.

In future classes we will continue to explore the co-creative actions of the I/self as we move further from entanglement to wholeness-Shinki by Nobuyuki Watanabe (pg. 26).

Feedback and Discussion

Practice before next class: 

Select a daily life activity and take a moment to pause and allow the experience of I/self to integrate with the task.  See how this co-creative integration may change the task.  

You may also take a moment to experience any dimensional shifts in the area you selected as your call-off for this entire series of classes.

Finish with misogi breathing and bowing out.

I appreciate everyone participating in this new format and welcome to everyone coming for the first time.  We are working to keep our regular class schedule going so it will be easier to return to our training together.

Please share any comments, suggestions or questions.

This difficult time; while we wish it was not going on, is an opportunity to deepen our practice by appreciating what is really important to us and what we can let go of-Philosophy of Masters by Dr. He-Young Kimm (pg. 12). 

Introduction

In our last on-line class we continued our series on fuller/finer experience of the I/self.  We worked to balance and integrate the I and then made a dimensional shift from level 1 to level 2. 

Today we will continue to work on this deeper experience of the I/self with further dimensional shifts. 

Defining I/self can be a difficult task.  We will rely more on experiential practices than definitions in words.

However a very basic outline may help us to get started. 

O Sensei talked about the consciousness we call self as being present even before the dawn of creation. 

By this he meant two very important things that will help us to focus our practice. 

First, consciousness at this most original level played an instrumental role in the birth of creation itself.  O Sensei said the energies of creation, coming from spirit that formed the creation, flowed through the consciousness we call the self at the very beginning of creation.  Consciousness was present even before the creation and was a co-creative partner in the birth of creation. 

Second, since consciousness was present prior to the creation, it is not a part of the creation or the function of creation but is an experiential partner to creation.  At its most original level, self is a mirror that provides clarity and order to creation precisely because it is not a part of the creation itself.  We worked with this to some degree in our most recent series of classes with the experience of the Pure Witness.

When you experience the beauty and harmony of the balanced energies of creation we are providing a clearer opportunity for I/self to shine through.  It is however important to recognize that when you feel the balance and harmony of creation that is not the self but a beautiful experience of the creation.   

The I/self functioning as a witness or experiential partner to creation is true at this most original level of creation. 

Our more normal experience of I/self, which we are calling I, functioned to provide a consistent sense of personal identity.  This is true in both the ordinary and extraordinary experiences in our daily lives regardless of which aspect or level of the creation with which we are interacting.

This is how we have been using the experience of I in our forging practice.

The I/self is the part of our system, at a basic level, that provides a qualitative experience of satisfaction and meaning to our activities.  It is the source of our perspective on our lives and our world in both an immediate and overall sense.

The health of the I is a big factor in how well we forge with the units that are important to us both in the sense of personal satisfaction and wellbeing and our functional performance. 

The overall goal of this series of classes is to experience progressively finer/fuller dimensional levels of I/self.

O Sensei and most other spiritual traditions teach that the I in our ordinary frame of reference is entangled with the creation so that we don’t experience the I/self in its deeper, finer levels. 

He said starting at the dawn of creation and then as the creation unfolded, we became increasingly entangled. 

This entanglement interferes with our ability to more fully experience I/self and also interferes with the functioning of creation itself.

We have all experienced versions of this in our daily lives.  One example is when attempting a difficult or challenging task the harder we try the less able we are to complete the task.  In some cases we may get so upset over our inability to function at the level we expect that frustration and anger boils over and causes us to say “I don’t know who I am.”

Our plan for this series is first to practice disentanglement between the I and the creation. 

This process will allow us to backtrack from an entangled state to a state closer to the experience of I/self at the most original level before entanglement first occurred. 

We can also continue an additional practice we added in our previous series.  On a purely voluntary basis, select a call-off with which you would like to work throughout this series. 

This will help to make the practices in each class more personal and well connected. 

It is an opportunity to practice dimensionality with something of specific significance to you over a series of classes and in a longer timeframe.   

Our technique for today will continue to be mune-tsuki irimi nage.

Let’s bow in and start with misogi breathing and a good full warm-up.

Five Principles for Ki Breathing

Our tip today on the misogi breathing

as we have worked on in our recent classes, is to experience the pause between inhalation and exhalation as an opportunity to experience the I/self. 

1. Breathe out with the sound of HA, don’t let your breath just leak out
2. Breathe out as calmly and quietly as possible
3. Breathe out the Ki of your head to the Ki of your toe
4. Breathe in from the tip of your nose until your body is full of air
5. Calm your mind infinitely smaller at the one point after inhaling.

Fuller/Finer Dimensional Experience of the I/Self

1. Let’s begin with a round of practice with the technique.

• Begin with the practice of mune-tsuki irimi nage.
• Get feedback on the technique to establish a baseline to use for comparison as the practice progresses.

2. Let’s start with a basic practice of clearing and settling. This is how we begin our forging practice.  Here we will spend a little more time and attention by working through several levels of clearing.  It is a simple process of relaxing and settling.  Feeling the back, the under half of the body and then deeper. 

Clearing 

Let’s go through three cycles of clearing to experience clearing at deeper level.

What is your experience of this deeper level of clearing?

3. From this deeper level of clearing let’s work with the two parts of the I/self. In our forging practice we work with the I/self having two parts. 

One part is more awareness oriented and the other is more experientially oriented.  Our shorthand for these are the mind of I (awareness/thinking) and the body of I (feeling/experience).

Our goal, initially, is to experience these parts of the I and their interaction with each other.  It is in this interaction that a real opportunity for growth and development of the I/self exists.  When there is a lack of connection or even conflict between the parts of the I we are starting from a place of fragmentation rather than wholeness. 

If this lack of integration is not acknowledged we will experience the effects of it in reduced satisfaction and performance.  It will also make it difficult to progress to dimensionally finer experiences of I/self. 

One way this happens is that part of the I ranges out and tries to obtain satisfaction from outside itself. 

An example is when the I tries to direct the unit, it results in maintaining the fragmentation of the I within itself and interferes with the unit’s ability to perform. 

From O Sensei’s perspective, this tendency toward entanglement and its results is a key part of the difficulty of the human condition.

Bringing the two parts of the I into a more balanced and integrated experience with each other is a big step toward reducing entanglement and its resulting negative effects.  It is also an important first step in experiencing dimensionally finer levels of I/self.

Our practice starts by allowing each part of the I an opportunity to experience itself. 

In some cases this may take some time as one or both parts may need to balance and integrate within themselves before they can interact with their counterpart other half.

Let’s now move to a practice of interaction between the two parts of the I. 

Mirroring Mind and Body of I

Let’s start with the mind of I, utilizing the practice from our forging classes.  The mind of I has a capacity to mirror.  Often this mirroring capability is turned toward what is going on in the outside world.  Here we will turn it inward.  As the mind of the I, allow a mirrored image of the body of I-the more feeling/experiential part of the I-to form in you the mind of I.

What is the experience of this mirrored image?

Then switching perspectives move to the body of I.  Allow yourself a moment to change perspectives. 

Before we continue with the mirroring practice, what is the difference in your experience between the mind of I and now the body of I?

From here the body of I mirrors the mind of I.  The body of I may take a different approach to mirroring than the mind of I does.  It may not even be visual.

What is the experience of this mirrored image?

Fuller I

We now have the two parts of the I mirroring each other.  What is your experience?  What is their relationship with each other in this mirroring process? 

Is there a greater overall experience of wholeness as I?

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it as the more whole I.

4. Let’s now move to a deeper level of experience of I/self.

Level 2

We can use the circle/center practice to get started.  Open a circle of the next level of I/self and the next level of center of I/self.

Our question-what is the circle and the center of the next level of I/self?  We can use O Sensei’s principle of the mountain echo to allow the experience of the space to present itself.

Then let’s repeat the mirroring and integration practice with the I we just did, but now at level 2.

How is your experience different than level 1?

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it as the more whole I-level 2.

Level 3

5. Let’s now move to level 3 of I/self. Let’s work with a quieting practice we have used in previous classes. 

Our practice is a breathing exercise from Koichi Tohei Sensei.  He calls it the Breathing Method That Transcends Breathing-Aikido in Daily Life (pgs. 36-37).

The practice starts with a very slow and quiet inhalation through the nose and then focusing your attention on your center.  This allows your attention to rest comfortably and gently on your center. 

From this gentle focus on center move the hands into position in front of your center with the left hand on top of the right, thumbs pointing toward each other.

This part of the practice is added to Tohei Sensei’s.

Visualize the circle formed by your hands as an opening to a place of great, great quiet. It is an opening like a tunnel or a portal to a quiet place where we can ask the question what is the experience of the next level of I/self?

We can continue to use O Sensei’s principle of the mountain echo to allow the experience of the next level of I/self to present itself.

Then let’s repeat the mirroring and integration practice with the I we just did, but now at level 3.

How is your experience different than level 2?

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it as the more whole I-level 3.

Conclusion

In this class we continued our series to experience finer/fuller levels of I/self.  We started with some fundamental practices from our forging process. 

Then we worked with a more refined level of I/self going from level 1 to level 2 to level 3.  We completed the class by going back to the technique to get feedback on how levels 2 and 3 were different than level 1.

In future classes we will continue our movement to increasingly refined levels of the I/self as we move further from entanglement to wholeness.

My Journey With the Grand Master by Major Bill Hayes, USMC (ret.) (pgs. 80-81).

Feedback and Discussion

Practice before next class: 

Select a daily life activity and take a moment to pause and allow the experience of I/self to shine through as deeply as you have time for before beginning the task.  See how even a small experience of I/self may change the task.  

You may also take a moment to experience any dimensional shifts in the area you selected as your call-off for this entire series of classes.

Finish with misogi breathing and bowing out.

I appreciate everyone participating in this new format and welcome to everyone coming for the first time.  We are working to keep our regular class schedule going so it will be easier to return to our training together.

Please share any comments, suggestions or questions.

This difficult time; while we wish it was not going on, is an opportunity to deepen our practice by appreciating what is really important to us and what we can let go of-The Secret Teachings of Aikido translated by John Stevens (pg. 80). 

Introduction

In our last on-line class we began a series of classes on fuller/finer experience of the I/self. 

Today we will continue to work on this deeper experience of the I/self.  Defining I/self can be a difficult task.  We will rely more on experiential practices than definitions in words.

However a very basic outline may help us to get started. 

O Sensei talked about the consciousness we call self as being present even before the dawn of creation. 

By this he meant two very important things that will help us to focus our practice. 

First, consciousness at this most original level was an instrumental part of the birth of creation itself.  O Sensei said the energies of creation, coming from spirit that formed the creation, flowed through the consciousness we call the self at the very beginning of creation.  Consciousness was present even before the creation and was a co-creative partner in the birth of creation. 

Second, since consciousness was present prior to the creation, it is not a part of the creation or the function of creation but is an experiential partner to creation.  At its most original level, self is a mirror that provides clarity and order to creation precisely because it is not a part of the creation itself.  We worked with this to some degree in our most recent series of classes with the experience of the Pure Witness.

When we experience the beauty and harmony of the balance of the energies of creation we are providing a clearer opportunity for I/self to shine through.  It is however important to recognize that when you feel the balance and harmony of creation that is not the self but a beautiful experience of the creation.   

The I/self being a witness or experiential partner to creation is true at this most original level of creation. 

Our more normal experience of I/self, which we are calling I, provides a consistent sense of personal identity.  This is true regardless of which aspect or level of the creation with which we are interacting in both our ordinary and extraordinary experiences in our daily lives.

This is how we have been using the experience of I in our forging practice.

The I/self is the part of our system, at a basic level, that provides a qualitative experience of satisfaction and meaning to our activities.  It is the source of our perspective on our lives and our world in both an immediate and overall sense.

The health of the I is a big factor in how well we forge with the units that are important to us both in the sense of personal satisfaction and wellbeing and our functional performance. 

The overall goal of this series of classes is to experience progressively finer/fuller dimensional levels of I/self.

O Sensei and most other spiritual traditions teach that the I in our ordinary frame of reference is so entangled with the creation that we don’t experience the I/self in its deeper, finer level. 

He said starting at the dawn of creation and then as the creation unfolded, we became increasingly entangled. 

This entanglement interferes with our ability to more fully experience I/self and also interferes with the functioning of creation itself.

We have all experienced versions of this in our daily lives.  One example is when attempting a difficult or challenging task the harder we try the less able we are to complete the task.  In some cases we may get so upset over our inability to function at the level we expect that frustration and anger boils over and causes us to say “I don’t know who I am.”

Our plan for this series is first to practice disentanglement between the I and the creation. 

This process will allow us to backtrack from an entangled state to a state closer to the experience of I/self at the most original level before entanglement first occurred. 

We can also continue an additional practice we added in our previous series.  On a purely voluntary basis, select a call-off with which you would like to work throughout this series. 

This will help to make the practices in each class more personal and well connected. 

It is an opportunity to practice dimensionality with something of specific significance to you over a series of classes and in a longer timeframe.   

Our technique for today and Thursday will be mune-tsuki irimi nage.

Let’s bow in and start with misogi breathing and a good full warm-up.

Five Principles for Ki Breathing

Our tip today on the misogi breathing

as we worked on last week, is to experience the pause between inhalation and exhalation as an opportunity to experience the I/self.  

1. Breathe out with the sound of HA, don’t let your breath just leak out
2. Breathe out as calmly and quietly as possible
3. Breathe out the Ki of your head to the Ki of your toe
4. Breathe in from the tip of your nose until your body is full of air
5. Calm your mind infinitely smaller at the one point after inhaling.

Dimensional Practice of Fuller/Finer Experience of the I/Self

1. Let’s begin with a round of practice with the technique.

• Begin with the practice of mune-tsuki irimi nage.
• Get feedback on the technique to establish a baseline to use for comparison as the practice progresses.

2. Let’s start with a basic practice of clearing and settling. This is how we begin our forging practice.  Here we will spend a little more time and attention on clearing by working through several levels of clearing.  It is a simple process of relaxing and settling.  Feeling the back, the under half of the body and then deeper. 

Let’s go through three cycles of clearing to experience clearing at deeper level.

What is your experience of this deeper level of clearing?

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it from this deeper level of clearing.

3. From this deeper level of clearing let’s work with the two parts of the I/self. In our forging practice we work with the I/self having two parts. 

One part is more awareness oriented and the other is more experientially oriented.  Our shorthand for these are the mind of I (awareness/thinking) and the body of I (feeling/experience).

Our goal, initially, is to experience these parts of the I and their interaction with each other.  It is in this interaction that a real opportunity for growth and development of the I/self exists.  When there is a lack of connection or even conflict between the parts of the I we are starting from a place of fragmentation rather than wholeness. 

If this lack of integration is not acknowledged we will experience the effects of it in reduced satisfaction and performance.  It will also make it difficult to progress to dimensionally finer experiences of I/self. 

One way this happens is that part of the I ranges out and tries to obtain satisfaction from outside itself. 

An example is when the I tries to direct the unit, it results in maintaining the fragmentation of the I within itself and interferes with the unit’s ability to perform. 

From O Sensei’s perspective, this tendency toward entanglement and its results is a key part of the difficulty of the human condition.

Bringing the two parts of the I into a more balanced and integrated experience with each other is a big step toward reducing entanglement and its resulting negative effects.  It is also an important first step in experiencing dimensionally finer levels of I/self.

Our practice starts by allowing each part of the I an opportunity to experience itself. 

In some cases this may take some time as one or both parts may need to balance and integrate within themselves before they can interact with their counterpart other half.

Let’s now move to a practice of interaction between the two parts of the I. 

Let’s start with the mind of I, utilizing the practice from our forging classes.  The mind of I has a capacity to mirror.  Often this mirroring capability is turned toward what is going on in the outside world.  Here we will turn it inward.  As the mind of the I, allow a mirrored image of the body of I-the more feeling/experiential part of the I-to form in you the mind of I.

What is the experience of this mirrored image?

Then switching perspectives move to the body of I.  Allow yourself a moment to change perspectives. 

Before we continue with the mirroring practice, what is the difference in your experience between the mind of I and now the body of I?

From here the body of I mirrors the mind of I.  The body of I may take a different approach to mirroring than the mind of I does.  It may not even be visual.

What is the experience of this mirrored image?

We now have the two parts of the I mirroring each other.  What is your experience?  What is their relationship with each other in this mirroring process? 

Is there a greater overall experience of wholeness as I?

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it as the more whole I.

4. Let’s now move to a deeper level of experience of I/self.

We can use the circle/center practice to get started.  Open a circle of the next level of I/self and the next level of center of I/self.

Our question-what is the circle and the center of the next level of I/self?  We can use O Sensei’s principle of the mountain echo to allow the experience of the space to present itself.

Then let’s repeat the mirroring and integration practice with the I we just did, but now at level 2.

How is your experience different than level 1?

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it as the more whole I-level 2.

Conclusion

In this class we continued our series to experience finer/fuller levels of I/self.  We started with some fundamental practices from our forging process. 

Then we worked with a more refined level of I/self.  We completed the class by going back to the technique to get feedback on how level 2 was different than level 1.

In future classes we will work with increasingly refined levels of the I/self as we move further from entanglement to wholeness.

The Spirit of Aikido by Kisshomaru Ueshiba (pgs. 46-47).

Feedback and Discussion

Practice before next class: 

Select a daily life activity and take a moment to pause and allow the experience of I/self to shine through as deeply as you have time for before beginning the task.  See how even a small experience of I/self may change the task.  

You may also take a moment to experience any dimensional shifts in the area you selected as your call-off for this entire series of classes.

Finish with misogi breathing and bowing out.

I appreciate everyone participating in this new format and welcome to everyone coming for the first time.  We are working to keep our regular class schedule going so it will be easier to return to our training together.

Please share any comments, suggestions or questions.

This difficult time; while we wish it was not going on, is an opportunity to deepen our practice by appreciating what is really important to us and what we can let go of-The Secret Teachings of Aikido translated by John Stevens (pg. 62).

Introduction

In our last on-line class we completed our series on dimensionality with a focus on a unified experience of the Pure Witness; including manifest, hidden and divine dimensions. 

Today we are beginning a series on a deeper experience of the I/self.  Defining I/self can be a difficult task.  We will rely more on experiential practices than definitions in words.

However a very basic outline may help us to get started. 

O Sensei talked about the consciousness we call self as being present even before the dawn of creation. 

By this he meant two very important things that will help us to focus our practice. 

First, consciousness at this most original level was an instrumental part of the birth of creation itself.  O Sensei said the energies of creation, coming from spirit that formed the creation flowed through the consciousness we call the self at the very beginning of creation.  Consciousness was present even before the creation and was a co-creative partner in the birth of creation. 

Second, since consciousness was present prior to the creation, it is not a part of the creation or the function of creation but is an experiential partner to creation.  At its most original level, self is a mirror that provides clarity and order to creation precisely because it is not a part of the creation itself.  We worked with this to some degree in our most recent series of classes with the experience of the Pure Witness.

When we experience the beauty and harmony of the balance of the energies of creation we are providing a clearer opportunity for I/self to shine through.  It is however important to recognize that when you feel the balance and harmony of creation that is not the self but a beautiful experience of the creation.   

The I/self being a witness or experiential partner to creation is true at this most original level of creation. 

Our more normal experience of I/self, which we are calling I, provides a consistent sense of personal identity.  This is true regardless of which aspect or level of the creation we are interacting with in our ordinary or extraordinary experiences in our daily lives.

This is how we have been using the experience of I in our forging practice.

Today, we will begin a series of classes on working with the I/self. 

The I/self is the part of our system, at a basic level, that provides a qualitative experience of satisfaction and meaning to our activities.  It is the source of our perspective on our lives and our world in both an immediate and overall sense.

The health of the I is a big factor in how well we forge with the units that are important to us both in the sense of personal satisfaction and wellbeing and our functional performance in those roles. 

The overall goal of this series of classes is to experience progressively finer dimensional levels of I/self.

O Sensei and most other spiritual traditions teach that the I in our ordinary frame of reference is so entangled with the creation that we don’t experience the I/self in its deeper, finer level. 

He said at the dawn of creation and then as the creation unfolded, we became increasingly entangled.  This entanglement interferes with our ability to more fully experience I/self and also interferes with the functioning of creation itself.

We have all experienced versions of this in our daily lives.  One example is when attempting a difficult or challenging task the harder we try the less able we are to complete the task.  In some cases we may get so upset over our inability to function at the level we expect that frustration and anger boils over and causes us to say “I don’t know who I am.”

Our plan for this series is to practice disentanglement between the I and the creation. 

This process will allow us to backtrack from an entangled state to a state closer to the experience of I/self at the most original level before entanglement first occurred. 

We can also continue an additional practice we added in our previous series.  On a purely voluntary basis, select a call-off with which you would like to work throughout this series. 

This will help to make the practices in each class more personal and well connected. 

It is an opportunity to experience dimensionality with something of specific significance to you over a series of classes and in a longer timeframe.   

Our technique for today will continue to be kata-dori ikkyo.

Let’s bow in and start with misogi breathing and a good full warm-up.

Our tip today on the misogi breathing is to experience the pause between inhalation and exhalation as an opportunity to experience the I/self.  

 Five Principles for Ki Breathing

Our tip today on the misogi breathing

is to experience the pause between inhalation and exhalation as an opportunity to experience the I/self. 

1. Breathe out with the sound of HA, don’t let your breath just leak out
2. Breathe out as calmly and quietly as possible
3. Breathe out the Ki of your head to the Ki of your toe
4. Breathe in from the tip of your nose until your body is full of air
5. Calm your mind infinitely smaller at the one point after inhaling.

Fuller/Finer Experience of the I/Self

1. Let’s begin with a round of practice with the technique.

• Begin with the practice of kata-dori ikkyo.
• Get feedback on the technique to establish a baseline to use for comparison as the practice progresses.

Clearing

2. Let’s start with a basic practice of clearing and settling. This is how we begin our forging practice.  Here we will spend a little more time and attention on clearing by working through several levels of clearing.  It is a simple process of relaxing and settling.  Feeling the back, the under half of the body and then deeper. 

Let’s go through three cycles of clearing to experience clearing at deeper level.

What is your experience of this deeper level of clearing?

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it from this deeper level of clearing.

Awareness & Experience of the I

3. From this deeper level of clearing let’s work with the two parts of the I/self. In our forging practice we work with the I/self having two parts.  One part that is more awareness oriented and the other that is more experientially oriented.  Our shorthand for these are the mind of I (awareness/thinking) and the body of I (feeling/experience).

Our goal, initially, is to experience these parts of the I and their interaction with each other.  It is in this interaction that a real opportunity for growth and development of the I/self exists.  When there is a lack of connection or even conflict between the parts of the I we are starting out from a place of fragmentation rather than wholeness. 

If this lack of integration is not acknowledged we will experience the effects of it in reduced satisfaction and performance.  It will also make it difficult to progress to dimensionally finer experiences of I/self. 

One way this happens is that part of the I ranges out and tries to obtain satisfaction from outside itself.  One example is when the I tries to direct the unit, it results in both maintaining the fragmentation of the I within itself and interferes with the unit’s ability to perform. 

From O Sensei’s perspective this tendency toward entanglement and its results is a key part of the difficulty of the human condition.

Unifying

Bringing the two parts of the I into a more balanced and integrated experience with each other is a big step toward reducing entanglement and its resulting negative effects.  It is also an important first step in experiencing dimensionally finer levels of I/self.

Our practice at this level is to allow each part of the I an opportunity to experience itself. 

In some cases this may take some time as one or both parts may need to balance and integrate within themselves before they can interact with their counterpart other half.

Once each part of the I had had a turn and feels comfortable with itself, let’s return to the technique for feedback.

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it where each part of the I is comfortable with itself.

4. Let’s now move to a practice of interaction between the two parts of the I.

Let’s start with the mind of I, utilizing the practice from our forging classes.  The mind of I has a capacity to mirror.  Often this mirroring capability is turned toward what is going on in the outside world.  Here we will turn it inward.  As the mind of the I, allow a mirrored image of the body of I-the more feeling/experiential part of the I-to form in you the mind of I.

What is the experience of this mirrored image?

Then switching perspectives moving to the body of I.  Allow yourself a moment to change perspectives. 

Before we continue with the mirroring practice, what is the difference in your experience between the mind of I and now the body of I?

From here the body of I mirrors the mind of I.  The body of I may take a different approach to mirroring than the mind of I does.  It may not even be visual.

What is the experience of this mirrored image?

We now have the two parts of the I mirroring each other.  What is your experience?  What is their relationship with each other in this mirroring process? 

Is there a greater overall experience of wholeness as I?

• Let’s go back to the technique to experience it as the more whole I.

Conclusion

In this class we began a series to experience finer/fuller levels of I/self.  We started with some fundamental practices from our forging process. 

In future classes we will practice to move toward more refined levels of I/self, the goal being to get as close as possible the experience of what O Sensei called the most original self.

The Heart of Aikido translated by John Stevens (pg. 93).

Feedback and Discussion

Practice before next class: 

Select a daily life activity and take a moment to pause and allow the experience of I/self to shine through before beginning the task.  See how even a small experience of I/self may change the task.  

You may also take a moment to experience any dimensional shifts in the area you selected as your call-off for this entire series of classes.

Finish with misogi breathing and bowing out.