Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

Had a little minor surgery today and the pain meds tend to keep me up late so here i am scribbling in the wee hours -- just a few notes or themes to flesh out:

Explore budo and enlightenment

Walking a certain way relates to thinking a certain way—mind and posture—how we move is part of how we think/perceive/feel

Power of space—inner space and outer space— holding a space for change to occur

Timing/Action/ Intent
If you let desire(hope/fear) guide you/control your timing is self referential

Speed—sometimes the fastest way to your goal is to be still – the quickest step is no step

Touching the essence of the art – you become the Art- you become like the Spirit of the art

Ki – multivalent term—realties of energy in movement- healing- feeling- flow—depth—resonance with the hara

Bring your mind to one point

Moving from center

Self defense and defense from self
The movement toward safety and feeling at home in the world

Embodiment of principle with whole body and mind

How two bodies join and become one being with a shared center of gravity—how that being has its own intelligence/activity/function/karma – awareness is key

Wherever you focus awareness you awaken greater sensitivity—sensitivity arises – is not taught—has no obvious limits and in refinement goes to the core

Learning from instability—from chaos—release control and work with the shared center

Relinquish plans and agendas and allow meticulous accurate perception to arise

Live with principle and remove all boundaries

Explore the innate intelligence of the body the eyes-hands- arms- heart- belly feet hips- center- the breath

Do /Tao -- the mind that seek s the way

We study the self to forget self to learn to function from and unfixed unstuck integrated center

Techniques and kata are the playing out of basic axioms- demonstrating and preserving basic principles—what evolves out of engagement of the body/mind with those axioms is the true aiki or ju – but we mistake the finger for the moon

Same hand and foot – unifying forces in committed symmetry

Unbendable arm—how we transmit power and receive power – how we gauge space

Eye contact
how we use awareness and perception

Light touch – the engagement of sensitivity

Postural alignment—aligned in body and mind and breath- freedom within structure

Energy requires a container

Static and dynamic posture—internal and external locus of control

How we respond to off-balance/postural break—rigidified or flowing

To learn how the center moves we must be meticulously intimate with all forms of disequalibriam—fully embody off balance without resistance—embody the real pathway and once you realizing them in your own nervous system you can begin to sense them in the larger shared body

The separate fixed mistaken identity of self creates a blindness and imposes its own limitations on growth and function

The Move toward transcendence
Transcend self and other – transcend victory and defeat—accomplish the void—no mind/ no posture—become the universe
Our authentic ground of being
Beyond all fixed attitudes, beliefs, postures

I/Me/My is a relentless illusion that tempts us to deny the reality that nothing is a separate individual thing

Thought arises and mind observes thought—thought is an object of awareness not a proof of self—we repeatedly build up this illusion of self out of thought

Words wont transform your life—what we really offer that transforms is a process a form a practice that transforms the self and the universe— you are in the practice and the ppractice is in you – that’s all – the rest is up to you

The future of our art and our dojo and our organization is not so much dependant on our ideas and organizational structure but on the authenticity of our practice--

Principle of Ju—of joining centers

Violence and ugly energy defile a dojo and make it unfit for its function as an energetic container for the transformation of the self and universe

Leave the ego in the shoes-- this is a place of the great matter of life and death-- a zen sacred space that functions on many levels a once –stepping on the mat requires a change in energy – in a very real way it is not a place to bring “everything” on to it

Two ways of teaching – rolling in/rolling out—different kinds of kindness

Why do we practice?

Three minds in the body their functions and their interaction- -in classical Chinese anatomy the brain is almost irrelevant—mind exists in the heart and the soul in the belly – the head is almost left out—the head is good at regurgitation of intelligence but lacks authentic profundity


Resonance with student and teacher – best when both are in grown up mind

Skin flesh bones and marrow- how to get right to the core of budo

Real strength and skill is not flashy—you don’t wear it-- it has no stink of zen -- the practice is the practice of simplicity—the gi or the zen robe is not an exotic costume to play dress up—it is a reminder a movement toward simplicity and center—if you turn into something flashy – you miss the point

Practice is not about understanding but about realizing—making real and embodied with your whole self

Budo is for the cultivation of merit and the sharing of that merit to transform the world

The great matter of life and death requires the student to have sincerity in heart and mind, to seek to cultivate merit and virtue and share these qualities for the benefit of all

Aikido koans

Timing in the void
Make the whole world one family
Become zero
Seeing what is in front of you on all sides
Abandon opinion to let true opinion arise
What makes aiki. Aiki?give up control for awareness
Allow them to fall
True budo is love
Project ki
To understand kuzushi –feel kuzushi—one taste
Move within principle –freely
Do not chase expected results
Invite your demons into tea
Equanimity amidst chaos
The dharma that removes fear
Finger pointing to the moon—map is not territory
Two persons, one self
Falling the vehicle of purification and enlightenment
Move without preparing to move
Act with out acting—intentionlessness
Making relationships—awaken to responsibility
Contact/awareness at a distance
Breath and intention
Training with difference
Understand from the inside out—throw from falls
Keen eyed perception-mirror of heart/mind
Hara our second mind-center of gravity center line in the vertical plane one point
Storing energy and releasing energy
Do not seek conflict or maintain guile
Do not hide and run from conflict do not blind yourself
Work in small increments
Recognize you own compassionate nature
Mingle your eyebrows with the patriarchs
Nothing wrong with negativity, with obstacle
Each transition requires awareness and reaction
Do not grasp tightly – you may need to let go of it
Heaven is space—hell no space
What we surrender to we become
It is not teaching information that does it—it is helping students discover their own embodiment of the great matter
what are the ends and what are the means
Aggression will solve some problems—gentleness solves them all