Articles with the Tag aikido

The Creative Aliveness of Center

Developing the Center, Sensei's thoughts
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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-A Light on Transmission by Mitsugi Saotome (pg. 63).

Introduction

In our last on-line class we continued our series of classes focusing on center.  We worked with a deeper practice of  chinkon kishin by adding alchemical imagery of fire/water steam from O Sensei.    Chinkon kishin refers to calming the spirit and returning to the divine or the source.  The breathing practices related to chinkon kishin O Sensei called the Breath of Heaven; Breath of Earth and the Breath of Human Beings-The Secret Teachings of Aikido translated by John Stevens (pg. 108).

In today’s class we will work more directly with the alchemical imager of fire-water-steam at center.  O Sensei referred to this but did not as far as we know leave a detailed outline of the process.  We will use a practice of fire/water steam at center from T’ai-chi, an art closely related to Aikido and with similar connections to Taoism.  The practice is described in detail the book Cheng Tzu’s Thirteen Treatises on Tai Chi Ch’uan by Professor Cheng Man-ching (Treatise Three pgs. 30-33).

Our Aikido technique will be katate-dori irimi nage.

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

Five Principles for Ki Breathing

Breathing tip of the day

Our tip today on the misogi breathing is to visualize your exhalation as not only cleansing your body but also the space around you.  Then with the inhalation and pause visualize the space around you as well as your body is filled with life-giving energy. 

  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 toes
  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

  

  1. Let’s begin with a round of practice with the technique.
  • Begin with the practice on katate-dori irimi nage.
  • Get feedback on the technique to establish a baseline to use for comparison as the practice progresses.

Creative Aliveness of Center

  1. Let’s begin where we left off on Saturday with the rowing exercise (kogi-fune undo). Place particular emphasis on the hips moving first before the hands and arms.  The rowing exercise is an ancient Shinto practice from the yamabushi, the mountain ascetics.  O Sensei’s version came from a famous teacher, Bonji Kawatsura, who reputedly learned from a mountain wizard who was 697 years old. 
  • Let’s return to the technique to see how this round of the rowing exercise has enhanced our performance of the technique.
  1. The rowing exercise has given us a good basic center from which the rest of our practices can build. Now let’s work with the chinkon kishin breathing exercises, the Breath of Heaven, Earth and Human.

Breaths Practice

Breath of Heaven

Breath of Heaven starts with the hands resting on your legs.  Then the hands move in front of your center and up the center line of your body as you inhale. 

Then the palms turn outward and circle down back to your center with the hands crossed over each other as you exhale.  Visualize the movement of heavenly energy as water circulating throughout your body, emanating from your center and spine.  

The goal of the practice is to touch the divine source and bring it into your own center. 

The practice is described in detail in Aikido the Way of Harmony by John Stevens (pgs. 31-33).  It is also illustrated on our Group Facebook Page.

Breath of Earth

Then let’s move on to the Breath of Earth.  This practice starts with your hands in front of your center palms up with the thumbs pointing toward each other. 

There is a starting exhalation which focuses on aligning the shoulders and upper body with the hips.  Next is an inhalation with the shoulders rising slightly.  Then an exhalation with the breath focused on center and the shoulders relaxing.  Visualize the movement of grounded earth energy as fire-water-steam, from the interaction with the water energy of the breath of heaven and the fire energy of the earth circulating from your center and spine throughout your body, connecting you deeply to the earth.  

The goal of the practice is to touch the life giving fecundity of the earth and bring it into your center. 

The practice is described in detail in Aikido the Way of Harmony by John Stevens (pg. 34). 

Breath of Human Being

Then let’s move on to the Breath of Human Being.  This practice starts with hands in front of your center palms up with the thumbs pointing toward each other.  Then visualize the energies of heaven and earth coming together in you center. 

Visualize the energies of the breath of heaven and the breath of earth giving birth to you the human being, through the life-giving steam like energy,-The Heart of Aikido translated by John Stevens  (pg. 48 and pg. 103).

Our goal is to experience through your center the fullness of our humanity as the blending of heaven and earth. 

The practice is described in detail in Aikido the Way of Harmony by John Stevens (pg. 35).

  • Let’s return to the technique to see how this chinkon kishin breathing practice has enhanced our performance of the technique.
  1. Using the foundation from the rowing exercise and these breathing practices let’s go more deeply into the alchemy of center. The center is like an alchemical furnace that can generate a very refined energy to feed the entire body, mind and spirit.  This helps to create a sustainable experience of center because it is a constant source of this refined energy which can aid in the development of physical health, emotional strength and spiritual stability and growth.

Combining and Refining

We will use a practice of fire/water steam at center from T’ai-chi, an art closely related to Aikido and with similar connections to Taoism.  The practice is described in detail the book Cheng Tzu’s Thirteen Treatises on Tai Chi Ch’uan by Professor Cheng Man-ching (Treatise Three pgs. 30-33).

The position of the hands will be explained during the class.  Begin by placing your attention at the heart/solar plexus area in the front of the body.  As your attention rests gently in this area you will notice an increase in the level of energetic activity.  As you maintain your attention in the heart solar/solar plexus area the build-up of energy will cause the energy to overflow and travel down the front of your body to the lower part of your center.  This is the fire energy of the heart mind.

Next, shift your attention to the kidney area in the back.  Once again as your attention rest gently in the kidney area you will notice an increase in energetic activity.  As with the heart solar/plexus area, maintaining your attention on the kidney area will cause the water energy of the kidneys to rise from the bubbling well-spring area in the front of your feet and move up the legs and travel to the upper half of your center. 

This creates a balanced state at center, in which the fire energy is below and the water energy is above.  As the fire heats the water a very refined steam like energy is generated that moves to the base of the spine and then up the spine to the top of the head.  As the energy moves to the top of the head.  Place the tip of your tongue at the point where your two front teeth come together.

 The energy moves down the front of the body back to the heart/ solar plexus area and the cycle is complete.

It is most important to keep your mind focused on your center throughout the practice once your fire and water energies are positioned in your center.  If your attention wanders the interaction between fire and water will slow down and eventually stop.  It will resume when your attention returns to your center.

The goal of this practice is to feed your entire system with this highly refined life giving energy from a place of centered balance.

  • Let’s return to the technique to see how this practice of fire/water steam has enhanced your performance of the technique.

Conclusion

This series of classes is designed to offer a deeper and multi-dimensional experience of center.  The more vibrant and alive the experience of center, the easier it is to maintain center as we go through our regular daily activities.  Today we worked to create the experience of a deeper fuller center by adding a practice of fire/water steam alchemy to the breathing practices from our previous classes.

Feedback and discussion.

Cheng Man-ching Master of Five Excellences translated by Mark Hennessy (pg. 59).

Practice before next class

Practice the alchemical fire/water steam practice before a daily life activity and see how it enhances your ability to accomplish the task you selected. 

Finish with misogi breathing and bowing out.

Working With the Unit

Blog, Sensei's thoughts, Working with the Unit
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Introduction

In our last on-line class we completed the series on integrating and upgrading the I.  Today we are starting a series of classes on the unit.

Overview of the Unit

The unit is the part of ourselves that contains the skills and abilities necessary to accomplish the tasks for which that unit is created.  The energetic content of the unit is decided by the skills necessary to perform that particular function and therefore will vary from unit to unit.  Performing brain surgery is a very different unit than running a marathon.  Being a parent is very different than being the CEO of a company.  One of the questions asked most often in Aikido is, why is it so difficult to transfer the good feeling I get in class to other activities?  One way to respond is that the energies of Aikido are unique to Aikido.  The chemistry is the same but the chemicals (energies of the unit) are different in each situation.

The unit is the clothing we wear to accomplish particular tasks or assume particular roles.  O Sensei called the unit haku-Essence of Aikido (pg.27). 

This process as I of “inhabiting” particular units is often unconscious.  When we walk to our car to drive home, that is a unit.  Some basic units are much more a part of our identity than others.  Your choice of work; your place in a family or other important social groups are examples.  

The overall goal of this series of classes is to help create a more balanced and integrated unit that functions better and  allows a better forging to occur between the I and the unit resulting in better performance and more personal satisfaction. 

Our goal initially, is to experience the basic parts of the unit and their interaction with each other.  It is in this interaction that a real opportunity for growth and development resulting in the improved performance of the unit exists.  If the basic parts of the unit are not consciously experienced we are starting from a place of fragmentation rather than wholeness.  Our best experience is not available for the task at hand and if it is not addressed we will experience the downstream negative effects of it, in reduced satisfaction and performance. 

One way fragmentation occurs is action is taken from only some of the energies of the unit that are the most readily available to our experience.  An example is we get a good idea of taking action and without allowing a more complete experience of the other energies that make up the unit of that idea we run out of energy and can’t complete the task well or at all.  This can happen when the idea or one of the energies of the unit is put in a position of carrying the whole task of performance.  A fully formed unit is much more likely to produce the outcome we envisioned. 

O Sensei laid out the parts of a fully integrated unit-Essence of Aikido (pgs. 32-33).  He called them the four souls and the eight powers. 

The four souls are: 

  • The intelligent soul
  • The rough soul
  • The gentle soul
  • The optimistic soul

The eight powers are:  movement and calm; release and solidification; retraction and extension and unification and division.

These are high level examples of what makes up a fully functioning unit.  We are going to work with his four count model and apply it specifically to the units we experience.    

The version of the unit we will work with in this series of classes is:  the idea; the structure; the intuitive element and the unifying principle.  The first two energies we refer to as the obvious ones.  They come up easily and often.  What is my goal and how will I achieve it?  The second two we call the not so obvious because they often have to be called up specifically in order to be consciously experienced. 

One example is the task of building a house.  Energy 1-the idea-is like the architect who does the design.  Energy 2-is the contractor who actually builds the house using the blueprint from the architect as a guide.  Energy 3-is the interior designer who designs the living space so the house is not only livable but a pleasure to live in.  Energy 4-the overall manager who brings the other three together into a fully working unit.

One very important principle throughout this series is that every unit has value!

We will use a kata like version of a basic Aikido technique as our physical reference.   

Before we begin to work with the unit, let’s bow in and start with misogi breathing a good full warm-up.

A tip on the misogi breathing is to visualize your breath going out to the ends of the universe and bringing back life affirming energies that fill your system from all corners of creation.

Fullness of the Unit

We will use the basic Aikido technique morote-dori kokyu nage as our practice technique. 

  • Let’s begin with two rounds of morote-dori kokyu nage. As we do it try and remember your experience so we can refer back to it as our practice progresses.
  • Feedback on the first round of practice.

Now we will work on each count of the energies of this unit- morote-dori kokyu nage-in turn to directly experience what each adds to create the fullness of the unit.

At each point there is a sense in which you become a different person, there is a shift in identity as we quoted Nadeau Sensei in the previous classes.

  1. As we do the morote-dori kokyu nage practice, ask the question what is your idea of the technique? This is a way to get in touch with count 1 of this unit.  A moment or two of full presence will usually bring in a sense of what count 1 or the idea energy of this unit is. 
    • How did the focus on count 1, the idea of the technique change your experience?  
  1. Let’s move on to the second count of this unit which is the structure. As we do the morote-dori kokyu nage practice, ask the what is your experience of the structure of the technique?  This is a way to get in touch with count 2 of this unit.  A moment or two of full presence will usually bring in a sense of what count 2 or the structure energy of this unit is. 
    • How did the focus on count 2, the structure of the technique change your experience?
  1. Now working on the third count of this unit which is the intuitive. As we do the morote-dori kokyu nage practice, ask the question what is your experience of the intuitive energy of the technique?  This is a way to get in touch with count 3 of this unit.  A moment or two of full presence will usually bring in a sense of what count 3 or the intuitive energy of this unit is. 
    • How did the focus on count 3, the intuitive energy of the technique change your experience?
  1. Let’s move on to the fourth count of this unit which is the unifying energy. As we do the morote-dori kokyu nage practice, ask the question what is your experience of the unifying energy of the technique?  This is a way to get in touch with count 4 of this unit.  A moment or two of full presence will usually bring in a sense of what count 4 or the unifying energy of this unit is. 
    • How did the focus on count 4, the unifying energy of the technique change your experience?
  1. There are milestones of fullness in units moving to a deeper level of consciousness with which we can then identify as our center of gravity just as we experienced with the I. Nadeau Sensei uses the analogy of starting out as tourist in a new place; then becoming a resident and then a citizen.  Let’s go through one more round with morote-dori kokyu nage practice as our reference, and visualize instead of being held by a regular size person we are being held by a giant.  Allow a moment for the energies of the unit to adjust.  This will often create a disruption through which we must relax and open to the larger version of the energies of the unit.
    • Repeat morote-dori kokyu nage.  How did working with the technique with a giant as a partner change your experience?

Conclusion

In this class we began working with the experience of the unit.   This included identifying and experiencing, at a working level, the four basic energies that make up the unit and what they each contribute to a fuller experience and improved performance.  We then made one shift in dimensions and worked with the energies of the unit at that level.

Practice before next class

Pick a unit of your choice and work with the four counts of that unit and make one dimensional shift.

Vibration and Connection The Aikido That I Pursue Seishiro Endo (pg. 141).