HEAVEN EARTH MAN

HEAVEN EARTH MAN

Vertical alignment, connecting tissue, tightening the slack. Grounding, centring and extending. O Sensei’s recipe for creating a connected Aikibody in your self. The square representing Earth; stability and form, i.e. the body. The triangle representing Man; will and intent, i.e. the mind.

The circle representing Heaven; consciousness and spirit, i.e. the heart.

The In Yo (Yin and Yang) relationship between heaven and earth, the vertical connection goes through the centre, the Hara where we build up and store our Ki. Using our in and out breath, our Kokyu, we harmonise the forces of up and down, of fire and water. We create a floating bridge, standing in the no-space right in between Heaven and Earth.

Tempering and polishing your body and mind through ceaseless training slowly conditions it to accrue a diamond core, a solid tight coil that unwinds as it spirals outward, softening as it reaches an ever expanding sphere of influence. This practice, this Shugyo, creates a formidable body that can be devastating in its effect. Now what sets O Sensei apart is not his mastery of this ancient martial art, but his revelation on top of it, his spiritual awakenings and insights. This added an intelligent and moral understanding as to its ethical use, but more so, it informed and ushered his skill and ability beyond the normal combative mindset into a transcendent spiritual nature with an overreaching love for all things; man and world alike. His spontaneous movements became restoring acts of kindness, of healing rift and aggression. This was not a mere personal choice but a movement of nature itself.

When we find alignment with the will of Heaven we will find that our actions conform to its true nature of love and compassion. Whether we have accrued a skilled Aiki-body or not, we will display a natural spontaneous loving-kindness regardless of circumstances. Now we all can do with a little more training as this body of ours is unruly, prone to mischief and generally pretty lazy and unfit. Make it a temple where Heaven can reside in and we all be so much better off for it.

Safety in Numbers

Fear of losing ourselves in the crowd is understandable. Individuality and privacy is something sacred to us Westerners. Not always a commodity in other parts of the world where the population is used to live on top of each other. Crammed living conditions and poverty makes it difficult to live alone. Family values and social norms rules much of the day to day living. Community; whether that be tribal, religious or of a cultural tradition, often override any drive toward a private life in the sense that we see it here in the West.

Our independence have made us strong we like to believe. Made us free. We oppose to be influenced by anyone, especially by any larger entity, whether that be government, state or media. We pride ourselves by making up our own mind. Alas, sometimes we find ourselves alone and isolated, often through the choices we’ve made and the directions we’ve taken. Often in stark contrast to the lives that we come across in our travels in Asia for example, and sometimes it stirs a welcoming feeling of wanting to be part of something bigger.

Religious community is not meant to be an escape but to be the natural result and outcome of coming together in the spirit. Sharing a fundamental and sacred bond based on faith is not something arbitrary.

It’s supposed to be a recognition collectively and individually of a shared sense of belonging. Family and friends, peers and elders, come together because we share humanity. Religious longing, spiritual satisfaction and plain old camaraderie, all point to the same sense of belonging.

Unity implies many. Oneness includes everyone. Love is not personal.

Collective awareness of a greater sense of being includes the individual.

We come to understand we can’t live in isolation but can thrive in community, in relationship and in companionship with others. Whether we like it or not, we do depend on others and others depend on us.

Can we come to realise that the ending of division, the freedom of the soul, brings about coming together with others. Can we then not fear communion and instead embrace it?

Full Spectrum

Can you contain all variables? Extreme right to extreme left? From the smallest to the largest, from the innermost to the furthermost star in the galaxy? From white to black and every nuance in between? Can you change?

From the slowest to the fastest, from the softest to the hardest. Ice to water, water to vapour and then back again? Can we display a wide range of functionality that changes and transforms depending on what we encounter. Can we adapt and match?

Can we join a movement that never ends? Can we play the full spectrum and experience all things according to their own distinct feature? Can I be you? Completely you; body, soul and spirit. May I endeavour to know all things just as they are?

To be free you must let go of control. To come full circle demands surrender. To be taken up by this Earth we must die into it. Become it.

As summer changes into autumn the colour of the leaves turn red and yellow and as they change I change too; my mirror face seen in this world.

Bodhi is originally without any tree;

The bright mirror is also not a stand.

Originally there is not a single thing,

Where could any dust be attracted?

Hui Neng, the sixth Chan patriarch (founder of the Zen lineage in China) is quoted having said this preceding his nomination to the head of his branch of Buddhism. He is gently taking the focus away from the self to something impersonal, something absolute and universal. His sect would be called the school of ‘sudden enlightenment’ that later crystallised into the well known Zen practice of Shikantaza or Zazen, plain sitting meditation and its realisation in, and experience of, the instantaneous awakening of Satori.

Bodhi refers to wisdom or enlightenment, a state of being. The tree refers to the body and the mirror bright to the mind. ‘Do what is good and do not do what is bad, and keep cultivating your mind’ was the Buddhas answer to someone who wanted a simple advice of how to live his teachings. And though we need to cultivate, train and diligently practice both body, mind and heart daily, we would do well to contemplate Hui Neng’s stanza as to the nature of being itself.

Satori, or awakening, can happen spontaneously with or without practice. It can happen by yourself or in company. It may be prompted by something or it may just dawn on you. It is nothing but a confirmation of what already is. Nothing is added nor anything taken away. You may very well have already experienced it, without even knowing it or recognising it? It may be your everyday experience and so it is, according to the saying above.

More than just dispelling our ignorance and confusion, this mirror-like quality reveals the transparency of your self. Having no fixed abode, we’re able to see ourselves in all things just as if looking into a mirror.

And even more so, we take on the quality of what we perceive. Just as the full moon is reflected on the ocean, its surface embedded on the waters.

And even more, by granting consciousness outside yourself, you in fact imbue and enlighten all things with your spirit. When you wake up, all things wake up simultaneously. When you turn the light on the whole room becomes bright. Your smile will cause a chain reaction, spreading the love.

Domination and execution in Aikido

Mainstream Aikido today is propagated by former students of well known Shihans, many now passed away. Despite O Sensei's spiritual emphases on the development and evolution of his art; as a way of love and peace, many branches of Aikido still adhere to an "old school" style of Aikido where one man is pitted against another where domination and execution dictate the interaction. Skilfully and with mastery the opponent is subdued and controlled. Technical ability with agility and strength wins the day every time. This is quite impressive and when uke is compliant it makes for good viewing. These old school teachers have little or no understanding of the idea of sharing a relationship in a partnership that extends beyond duality. To give up winning and loosing means nothing to them. Even O Sensei's spiritual insights declaring Nothingness or Oneness is misused for personal justification to manipulate and control the other. Martial prowess is the mark that puts you on the hierarchy board at the headquarters. How can we say goodbye to an Aikido that still rewards the domination and execution approach? Not by becoming weak in technique nor by lacking in principles for sure but by taking the fight out of the relationship. By treating the other as oneself. To care and to match any encounter as it is a training ground for sensitivity. To blend and to join without opposition. Not to use kokyu power to subdue but to bind together, to unify. Old school teachers teach by blocking. They grab and resist with solid kokyu, inhibiting your movement. Then they make their point and ease of their hold allowing you to proceed, thinking they've improved your Aikido. Little do they understand how inherent in their well meant approach exists the very duality true Aikido abhors. There is a sign in Iwama that prohibits the use of force to block a technique. This points to the understanding that the teaching and training of Aikido always must happen in a relationship, in partnership with the other. It's a mutual engagement, a shared event. It upholds the notion of unity and ultimate oneness. Both uke and nage must change to conform to each other. It's no good if one remains aloof, practicing his one-mans-aikido without considering his partner. Aikido is not a fight and we do not compete. So why train in that way? Because many of the old Shihans never understood what it means to train without an ego. They came to be masters of the art; invincible and untouchable. So their students of today, now big teachers themselves, still uphold this old school attitude and still teach a domination and execution Aikido to impress. How sad to see that the spiritual ideal and realisation of O Sensei has been lost

on much of the Aikido world today. There is no need to drive a technique home. There is no point to be made by enforcing a principle.

Treating Aikido as a practice of duality will never result in harmony.

Using spiritual principles of nothingness and emptiness can never be used to justify insensitive behaviour to your partner. Oneness does not exclude humanness. Love is the total engagement covering all aspects in a relationship, on or o the mat. Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion, will use all her arms to save, heal and protect in all and every instance.

Awakened Aikido

When we realise who we are, when we come to see our true Self, we won't feel right to drive a technique home anymore. It feels wrong to dominate and to execute our uke. To inflict pain and suering now becomes impossible. Our real conscience has been awakened and we realise what we do to others we do to ourselves. Love is active in everything we do. To suppress and to control is seen for what it is and we hesitate to over-power our partner. Rather, a mutual relationship ensues where we care for the other and a natural blend will create a combined movement. Our engagement naturally adjusts to the conditions at hand, never wanting to enforce a specific outcome. The egos instinct to win and to survive is no longer the ruling objective. We rather give up and surrender its will to control and to dominate. Now it feels ugly and wrong to use it to gain advantage. Love always remain the one standard that we hold ourselves to. This awakened heart shows right and wrong immediately and our conscience won't let us overstep the mark. If and when we do, we will feel nauseous and bad about it.

Shame over what we did is the real sign and remorse is fitting and an apology is in place.

Non-dual Aikido

'There is no other'. That does not mean that only you exist. It means that both you and I are one. It means that all things are one. Some take the statement to mean that if you realise that you are the only one, or its equivalent; that there is no one, you can get away with murder. But far away is the true meaning of such a profound statement. There being no one means you are not two. One with the universe, though a very personal experience, includes all beings and all things. This means in reality not two. Then you must include the other in your oneness or nothingness; whichever you prefer. Non-dual means no other, not two nor three. We are one. So in every encounter it is not enough to view your own experience as one of unity or one of nothingness; you must awaken this quality between you. It's not enough to take for granted that oneness is a fact; you must enliven it in the relationship. You must imbue the non-dual quality in your interaction. There is no one there but you must make that real between you. It will never be enough to live only your own understanding or even your own experience. You must make it so together. You must make the non-dual real for both of you. If you do not, it is still just glorified one-mans-aikido; the personal egos spin on oneness. This means your relationship becomes super real; flesh and blood embodied existence. The formless quality of Sunyata, the Buddhists concept of nothingness, takes on form and becomes a living breathing reality. One breath comes to mind. Kokyu is the link from the unseen to the seen. Oneness no more a profound statement and mental ego fantasy but a living breathing manifestation of no separation, of no duality.

A Two Way Street

In the end, one way traffic runs out of momentum and we lose interest.

The teacher/student relationship may suffer this outcome. Friendships becomes untenable if not sustained from both parties. But it's not a tit for tat kind of deal. It's not a you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.

Neither is it a business arrangement where we exchange goods and services of equal value. True friendships base their relationship on care and love, on affection and trust, with no need to wait for the other to make the first move. Not counting scores nor holding grudges. Aikido practice works in the same way. We give and we receive freely, not holding back. We offer ourselves gladly to the other. We don't protect and act miserly. We receive and welcome, taking care of what is given, handle it with care and return the favour. A two way street where we exchange information and experience, enriching our lives as we meet half way.

Path Rider

Aikido; the way of aiki. Sometimes we refer to the path of Aikido as our chosen way of practice and O Sensei would say that it would be our misogi, our purification or preparation of our soul. To make it strong in the spirit, to realise our mission on this earth. Essentially a spiritual path of awakening, Aikido educates both body, mind and heart. A student will benefit from its teaching whether or not he or she are conscious of it at the start. Once an interest has arisen and the student takes on the task of pursuing their own spiritual awakening the road broadens. Now their whole life is considered and put under the lamp. Aikido will still serve a purpose but the main drive and focus has now slightly shifted; from a martial perspective to a spiritual holistic context. This is actually what needs to happen if the Aikido of O Sensei is going to reveal its heart. It must become a personal mission to see it through to the end.

It's not an easy choice but nothing is more rewarding.

Once you see that really you have no choice but to follow this way, you'll realise that time itself is the essence of this path. You'll ride your own destiny into the future. Time never stops and such is the way.

Never ending forward motion. Aikido teaches us to yield when confronted. Surrender then and flow around. Like water that never

stops. When time is seen as your path you'll ride it with ease, learning and educating yourself along the way.

Unitary Conversation

I'd like to highlight a very special way of communicating together in a group. Many times when we gather in groups, for coee and a chat after practice, we tend to speak one to one or break up into smaller groups. There is nothing wrong with this as people have their own interests and motivations. But if we would suddenly chose to participate with the whole group as a singular entity we would find that our awareness expands, taking in everybody, listening keenly to what each and everyone has to say, waiting patiently for ones turn to speak.

Or more accurately, paying attention to the flow of the conversation and being interested in it, to the point where you naturally join in when the opportunity presents itself. A spontaneous and living conversation where everybody participates and lean in. This feels so much better because we all share equally in an exploration and get to experience an abandonment of self, freeing up our social claustrophobia to an unified group consciousness. This activated field serves as a platform for spiritual inquiry because we begin to see the impersonal and universal human conditioning as one that we all share, and we also begin to recognise that this field of communication itself is an ego-free zone. In order to participate wholeheartedly we must suspend our self referencing and self consciousness. We lay our attention on the other, on the dynamic of the group itself. It will mirror our attempts to own it, and also our ability to stay with it. Spiritual inquiry, or Satsang in Sanskrit; staying in the company of truth, is the most powerful transformative tool we have to enhance our spiritual awakening. And this is happening together with others. So please, next time we meet, pay attention to the whole. Forget about yourself and join in the exploration of a unitary consciousness.

The temptation to point a finger

It's relatively easy to spot other people's flaws. We see them all the time. It sticks out like a sore thumb. We moan and groan on other peoples expense. We make light of, and make fun of, traits and habits all the time. True, it's quite easy to take the backseat approach and tell others how to drive. It's safe and superior to be the witness; to qualify and judge what we see. This quality of observation, of objectivisation, can be a good tool. We learn to see things objectively just as they are.

We learn to see things without inferring our own feelings about them.

This gives us room to understand the situation in a larger context. But when we are tempted to tell the other, or point out certain things, we must consider the relationship and the context in which the interchange happen. We must consider host and guest, where am I? Who am I? Is there an established bond and understanding between you. Why am I addressing this? What is my motivation? In fact the finger is turned on oneself and we must consider our reason for wanting to criticise. Many times we'll find that it serves our own self image, puts us in a more favourable light. We take the drivers seat even though we're still in the backseat. Whether the information is true or not matters less if the motivation comes from needing to assure oneself, needing to justify ones own views. The ego have a great need to establish a pecking order. It needs to know where it stands in regards to others. This happens faster than we can imagine, and the outcome is always for the ego to come out favourably, regardless whether it takes an inferior or superior roll. Now we all know none of us are perfect and there's plenty of room for improvement. I don't need to tell you that, so I already assume that you know. So with this in mind, I qualify my own participation and remain open and curious about the other. If in doubt, I ask. If I don't understand I ask for clarification. I question instead of criticise. I give a benefit of doubt and I trust the other as I would trust myself. With this approach there will be no need to point a finger and yet all question marks can be resolved.

Food For Thought

With risk of upsetting near and dear ones I use what is at hand.

Everyday occurrences lends themselves to scrutiny. I smack my lips and put my teeth into it. Interchanges, conversations, arguments and incidences all serve up a healthy portion.

When I met the late Yogi Ram Surat Kumar of Tiruvannamalai in southern India, he held my hand and said; 'I learn from you'. This elderly man had been called the 'beggar-saint' sitting outside the temple entrance for years observing everything passing in and out.

Observing others one learns about oneself. All human foibles can be recognised in oneself. Then as to leave me without any doubts, he said that all, everything, is God.

So please excuse me for using you as food for thought. I'm grateful for your kindness and I'll share myself with you if you're hungry.

Guardian Lions

The two fierce-looking lion-dogs that guard the entrance to the Shinto shrines in Japan always slightly unsettled me. Who are they? Where did they come from and why are they there? Guardian deities of a supernatural origin. One on the left and one on the right. Pass in between them and hold your breath. Enter the sanctuary and pay your respects. Even when leaving you feel their wide-eyed gaze in your back.

They are not kidding, they will protect the purity of the place. Who are they then? The lions are always presented in pairs, a manifestation of yin and yang. The one on the right has its mouth open and is called shishi ( lion) because it resembles that animal. The other has its mouth closed, looks rather like a dog, is called komainu ( lit. Korea dogs). The open mouth is pronouncing the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, which is pronounced "a", while the closed one is uttering the last letter, which is pronounced "um", to represent the beginning and the end of all things. Together they form the sound Aum. The male is inhaling, representing life, while the female exhales, representing death.

But it just dawned on me, they are my hands! My left and right hand curled into lion paws, ready to defend myself, my body, my temple.

Guarding the outer and inner sanctuary, my flesh and my heart, and further in, the innermost, the holiest of Holy, my Spirit. Suddenly it all makes sense. My hands are my first line of defence. Through which you may pass if you have no evil intent. That's why we wash our hands and mouth before entering. We make a show of good intent. To come clean before oering our prayers. Sitting dogs with wild eyes seeing your every move. Hands at an arm-length from the heart, at rest unless prompted by an innermost response. How appropriate for an Aikido analogy. Ki extends through the body with the help of Kokyu, the breath. It reaches the fingertips and projects beyond. The breath sustains the life of the limbs. It feeds the blood and energy flow. So even though the lions are out there by themselves right at the entrance, they are intimately connected with their source in the innermost shrine.

Serving the two sides of an independent whole they balance their duties between them. Fire and water. Allowing in and letting out.

The Blame Game

Snarly remarks, innuendoes, vented frustration and accusations. And just because it doesn't happen as you expect, as you want, you feel justified to lay the blame, expecting people to roll over and to apologise. Someone walks in front of you and trigger your pent up anger. You bite their head o before they know what's going on. Then in your defence you go out of your way to justify your own behaviour, explaining why they must understand and tolerate your outbursts, invoking a license to kill in fact. If that doesn't work you'll use the last resort; the 'you did it too' equaliser and walk away with wounded pride happy that you managed to spread the shit.

But this is more than just a personal rant where I am as guilty as the next one. This conditioned behaviour extends into a culture of thinking on a global scale. It demarks an inability to be fully responsible as a people. It extends into a culture of always finding an excuse, a reason, to avoid recognising ones own part in any situation. Always blaming the other and never owning up to ones own faults. We see it in politics, we see in international conflicts, we hear it in the religious dialogue. Always being the victim, blaming society for ones own horrendous acts. 'He made me do it' or as in the oldest tale of them all; 'She made me do it'.

New Cultures

'Be an island unto yourself' was the Buddhas farewell message. I think it should be read 'be an island unto yourselves'. He was addressing his monks, his sangha. They had become a fellowship of peace and tranquility. They all had left the householders life for a contemplative monks or nuns life. The Buddha had introduced them to a new way of life, to an alternative way of being. He had awakened something in them that became more important to them than their normal everyday life. A timeless wisdom, an insight and understanding that surpassed society at large. They accepted a new lifestyle and created a new culture amongst themselves. They became an island of liberation in the sea of samsara; the sea of endless suering of birth and death.

If we want to be free, we too need to create islands of peace. We need to cultivate a new way of being amongst like-minded and samehearted. Free individuals who has stepped away from the cultural norm, from our respective society's framework and identity.

Migration throughout the ages has helped in leaving old ways and embracing new ones. Leaving ones home is fundamental in becoming free. Pilgrimage is such a venture. To journey away from the norm. To pursue something outside of our daily routine.

The very choice and act to travel in the name of spiritual search is in itself a spiritual practice. It open doors, it allows the spirit room to move. Going on a pilgrimage is taking several steps towards God and knowing his hospitality he will come to meet you on your way. Leaving the known behind we travel afar to get to know ourselves. We often find more than what we expect and return home enriched in soul and in spirit.

Martyrdom

Some Muslims advocate martyrdom to be the ultimate goal within the Islamic faith. Nor is Martyrdom foreign to the Christian and Jewish tradition either. So maybe we need a better understanding of what it entails and means? To die for a cause or for ones beliefs, and here in the religious and spiritual domain, for ones Faith, means dierent things for dierent people. In many cultures men and women were ready to sacrifice their lives for honour, love and for pride, to save face; to save ones reputation, ones name and integrity. Many cultures display a pride in who they are as a people. Both Arab and Jewish Orthodox societies are very proud male-oriented tribal family traditions. Both are closely intertwined with their respective belief-systems. Both are based on their Faith; on their religious adherence to the letter of the law. Religion underpins the very foundation of who they think they are, personally as well as a people. If that source is threatened or challenged there will automatically be a gut reaction to defend ones position, either as an individual or as a people. One will defend and also fight for vindication, even to the point of death. This is many times seen as a righteous duty, a must to defend ones name. 'An eye for an eye' says the Old Testament. Using this as their justification they strap bombs to their

chests and try to take as many as they can with them to the gates of Hades. This is blindness to the true spiritual meaning of martyrdom, which is in itself a wonderful description of what it means to die having lived a life in the service of God; of truth and ultimate goodness. To give up ones life serving God is act of love and generosity. It is giving in the name of love and ending ones life fully surrendered to it. It is never an act of madness nor an attempt to kill or maim others. Martyrdom is when you die to Gods will. You sacrifice yourself in his loving service.

Jesus showed the perfect way of martyrdom. He did not resist evil, he did not seek revenge, he stood firm till the end. He did this for us, to show us his love for us. He died so we could be free, so we could learn from his example. This is true martyrdom: Not to betray love. But let this not be a matter for blind belief but seek it out in the depth of your own understanding, of spiritual affirmation in revelation. Seeing the truth will dispel all superficial notions and clarify its deeper meaning.

Get Your Priorities Right

The whole over the small. The larger encompasses and includes the small, but the small cannot include the whole. That is the nature of things. A wider circle can contain a smaller one, but not the other way round. Larger and larger spheres of influence include in succession all lesser ones. The individual is included in the family, the family in society and society is included in a larger world view. It’s a natural hierarchy of designation and we find ourselves in all of them simultaneously, yet depending on the circumstance one or two takes precedence over the others.

There’s a constant flux between these fields of engagement.

Sometimes we have to concentrate on the individual, take care of what is close at hand. At other times we need to pay attention to the group we are in, to participate in a consensus for the good of the situation.

While in a larger altruistic state of mind, we include and think of the whole world and even beyond. This ability to shift perspectives is a natural and necessary thing for us to do, just like an automatic zoom lens focuses instantly on what it is directed towards.

Look for, and find your range, your different set of perspectives. Learn of the many and multifaceted spheres you are included in. Simply being human we participate in so many levels, in so many identities, that

sometimes we choose one to be more important than the other just for self-preservation. We find it difficult to be all things at all times so we lay more emphases on one over the other, just so we don’t lose ourselves.

Many times we cling to the individual sense of self when we’re part of a group, fearing we will loose our sanity if we let go.

When we realise that it’s only a matter of focus, a focus that constantly keeps shifting, we become fascinated by the ability to stay with any situation as it unfolds and develops. We come to see that there’s a natural and spontaneous adjustment happening all the time in accordance with the situation. And if you bear in mind the context in which you find yourself in, you’ll naturally take the largest perspective in order to be able to include all other possibilities. You’ll be able to define what’s right in any given situation depending on a clear and holistic view, including all lesser circles of influence.

Really it’s not a matter of freedom of choice. If you pay close attention you’ll find that the situation often calls for a specific engagement. For example, in school, in the class-room, when the teacher speaks or engages the whole class, any chitchat with your friend next to you, will be seen as a disturbance and a lack of concentration for the whole.

Here, and in many other situations were we find ourselves with others, the larger context takes precedence over the smaller. There’s a natural priority towards the greater. Someone walks into the room and we naturally open the circle to include him or her.

So when together with others, please bear in mind that the whole takes precedence over the parts. The parts are included and make up the whole, but remember, the parts only partake as pieces of a larger puzzle. Getting our priorities right mean we’re keenly aware of the context, the situation we’re in. We open our heart and widen our perspective to let other people in, to include more into an ever widening circle. Going from an individualistic ego frame of mind, to a more inclusive relationship with a larger group, toward a greater human engagement with a wider perspective in mind.

Paying attention you’ll find there is no need to favour one perspective over the other, as you shift naturally and with ease between them at a moments notice. Your freedom is based on this unhindered and unfettered engagement with the world. There is no better or worse view.

They hold equal importance yet they serve different functions, and knowing their field of engagement allows you to qualify them and for you to get your priorities straight. The larger always contain and include the lesser, never the other way round. You are both. You equally contain and surpass yourself all the time.

The Life Boat

Noah’s ark, a lifeboat of sorts. Gathering all of us; man and creature, to save us from the flood. He built it according to specifications from God. To house as many as he could to ferry across the sea. When the floodwaters rise it floats on top, always buoyant, above the surface.

We all need a sanctuary, a refuge from the swell and chaos of life, a rescue from the risk of drowning. In spiritual terms this is essential as the world is seen as to be sunk in an ocean of suering and chaos of untold confusion and distress. Unknown to most these floodwaters covers the whole Earth, submerging whole continents beneath its waves.

Once awake to a spiritual reality beyond the normal, we realise the necessity of vessels to keep us safe. Just as an island can be a refuge, a lifeboat serves the same purpose with the added benefit of always being able to stay afloat when the flood rise or sink. Once the danger is over and the waters recede we find ourselves on dry land yet again.

How then, do we build these arks of rescue? To carry many together, to hold us afloat for a safe passageway according to Gods direction and measurement. We create a context in which we hold ourselves to a standard. Evenly balanced of all sorts. We get on-board, leaving what we know behind. Riding the storm out we wait till the land appears.

Of Perfect Accord

I'll set myself a task. To respond to events I find myself in. Totally and unconditionally. Without hesitation or delay. I will listen, pay attention and echo what's needs to be done. I will be there for you. Ki musubi we call it in Aikido. Before the event and after the event I have not deserted you. I'll read your mind and answer before you ask. I'll be with you completely. In sync but more prior than before.

If I can manage I'll be the cloud in your midst. Close at hand to catch what you drop. To serve and be of help. Helping me be a better man.

I'll say stop before you've had enough. I set an example by myself. Hold a standard as a way of change. Telling things as they are. Bare the truth if I dare. Complicit I act alone with or without you. As from an order from above, dictates from another man that I recognise I must obey.

Helping me helping you.

Make it your own

Spiritual practice never takes off until you make it personal. You have to want it. You have to pursue it. It’s not enough just to participate in a regular exercise, whether that be Aikido, meditation or yoga. Simply being a Christian, Muslim or Jewish doesn’t necessarily give you access to deeper states of being. You have to put your mind to it. You have to seek it and investigate it. Study hard and come to some discoveries. You want to understand your own life-experience in a greater context. Why am I here? Who am I really? What does it all mean? Is there a purpose?

Sophistic speculation leads nowhere. Empty philosophy and even well spouted dharma will not earn you enough merit to enter the mystery.

Practical and sensible, common sense and crass ‘real’ world experience, is no guarantee for a depth of insight and spiritual wisdom.

The doors to your own kingdom won’t open unless you crave it. A deep desire to know yourself must forego a penetrating revelation into your own true being.

Being cynical and skeptical about spiritual matters, won’t get you any nearer to your own intrinsic absolute nature. Curiosity and eagerness, inquisitiveness and innocence are the precursors to opening up your heart. Daring to question everything opens your mind to new possibilities. Fearless you take it upon yourself to go all the way, to leave no stone unturned in order to discover who you are. Make your journey very personal. Make it your own.

KARMA

This much overlooked younger sister in the spiritual family. We often neglect the little-sis of older brother Dharma. Paying no attention to her quirks and follies, we much rather listen to Dharma with his wise words and lofty aspirations. Dharma makes us all feel good, he draws us near with promises of long life and health, happiness and cleverness. While his sibling, his sister Karma is forgotten. She only rants about doing this and doing that, never tires of pointing out our flaws and mistakes. A real bore she is.

And yet when we do listen to her, as she won’t go away nor leave us alone, we put it off to the distant future, shelving it for a rainy day.

‘Today is the ever-present moment’, Dharma instructs, ‘never mind the coming storm, be here now!’ Eternal life cramped into the tiny space of the here and now, we dream ourselves away. Finding refuge at the feet of Absolute Truth.

‘Action’, she says, ‘create ripples in the fabric of space’, affecting all around like rings on water spreading near and far, ‘inherent in the cause is the effect’. Karma being so direct and clear, her brother often calls her ‘Instance’ with affection, lending her his spotless mirror to behold her beauty in. ‘Everything is self-evident’ she says flicking her hair back, ‘your words and deeds have immediate effect’. Upon self-reflection we see our intention laid bare in what we say and do. Without pause Karma continues, babbling on about how we affect everyone around. Hard love is sometimes difficult to hear yet inescapable if we care; we will reap what we sow.

Return to the beginning

Re-calibrate, reset your clocks, begin again. Get rid of the old, burn your bridges, stamp out history. If what you know holds you captive, let it go. If the past defines your future, make a clean break.

The end of time heralds a new beginning. That's why we reset our calendar at Jesus death. He pushed us into a new era. His passing ensured a new phase in history. And a new world is born, brought into being, to last into eternity.

Collectively and individually can we go through this catharsis? Can we die to ourselves and be reborn again? Into a new time, into a brand new world where we don't rely on the old, on what's been.

Existential crises push us to look deep within and forces us to face our self. Being forcefully pushed out of our comfort zone accelerates the crises and we're likely to come into contact with the spirit realm.

Can we then find a new way of communicating? Will we listen with our spirit? Can we learn to communicate with the unseen? Can we speak silently to our maker and hear what is being said to us in return? Can we make come alive a living relationship with the spirit realm that speaks of the harmony and unity of all things; nature and man, of you and of your mission?

Can we return to the beginning? Can you speak with me in the old language, the silent dialogue of our shared spirit? Can we be that sincere to listen with our inner self and learn to communicate from that place. This secret dialogue is ongoing, happening in my soul as we speak. I communicate meaning. I share my deepest thoughts. In it I’m alive, eternally grateful and caring. I care for us, for our world, and for our future.

Magnetic Duality

Surrender enables access. Separation, conflict and violence indicates a blockage, a stop of communication, a halted flow. A barrier is holding us apart and there is a divide between us. In spite of this, there is an inherent magnetic quality drawing people together. There is a natural wanting to meet, to share and to partake. We are a community, wanting to be together. When this is not allowed to happen spontaneously and naturally, separation and loneliness comes over us. When we hold each other apart, at arms length, we restrict full access to our being.

Sometimes this is done fully justified and rightly so, but it does limit the availability of the person. We limit the love possible between us.

Naturally we don't want harm to come our way so we have a sensible protective shield to stay o the most oensive influence. Yet there is way of meeting oppression and ill-will, even anger and frustration. War, violence and conflict usually breaks out after a prolonged state of separation, of divided opinion and opposing wills. We could even say that the inherent magnetic pull makes it impossible to stay apart and even though the encounter happens in anger, the anger itself is a sign of frustration of not being able to be together. It is an attempt, however poorly, to come together. We lash out, as a last resort, to restore communion. Our spirit seeks union, and we unknowingly make any attempt to make that happen, with or without violence. Now can we meet this advance without reacting against it in fear? Can we see the need for inclusion, acceptance and union? Can we transform and restore the relationship to a common ground, to a natural bond? Can we see that in order to pull this o we must surrender. Completely let in, allow access into our being, in order to gain access in return. By accepting the incoming force as an attempt to be included, we recognise the lack and fulfil the need. When we let in the other, we gain access and can then compliment what's missing and balance the imbalance. This demands maturity and responsibility, to help another, to appease strife and pain. It takes training to be able to receive, hold and transform aggression. We need a firm foundation in our center to let the other in. We must include the other into our system, into our being, without fear or hesitation. This takes training but once you understand it, you will be able to practice it everywhere in your daily life.

This is what Jesus did to perfection. He surrendered his life without hesitation or objection, and thereby was granted access to anyone who would call on his name for rescue and salvation. He made himself available by dying. Anyone who's in need of restoration and

communion, who are isolated and alone, separated from the other, can experience the fulfilling capacity of his mercy as he is available to restore all that is missing. This principle is deeply mysterious but within everyone's reach. It makes sense out of human relationships and explains the wholeness of union, our oneness in spirit. What is a miracle indeed, is that we can train this principle in the dojo at our Aikido sessions. So when we realise that separation and violence are only a sign of the division of our natural being, we will be able to restore it through our practice of Aiki.

So you can see there are two movements. One that surrenders and one that resurrects. One that lets in, and one that enters out. We accept, grant access, and then we restore and fulfil. This we do wilfully, intentionally, with the understanding that we take full responsibility to heal the relationship. This is a tall order and demands a lot of maturity but in the end, we have no other choice than to take it on. Because if we don't, who will?

Barriers

Coming up against it, it feels like an insurmountable wall. A mental block and total meltdown. Anger and frustration builds. Panic is close.

Like a wounded animal we seek cover. Having no idea of how to overcome our inner turmoil or of how to release the pressure, we are challenged to who we are and to what we believe. We scramble to safety avoiding any criticism, deeming it a personal aront.

This encounter we face can be the greatest teacher. It starkly reveal our held ideas and expose our diďŹƒculty of letting go of fixed positions. But under this enormous pressure we have a chance to see what needs reckoning. It enables us to break free of old patterns, rigid structures and set ways. It is painful but it will help us grow. No matter what the blockage is, going through it and exposing it will free us up. It will bring about an advent of new possibilities with greater capacity and freedom.

Many times our mental and emotional reaction to a personal diďŹƒculty is the one thing we need to face. It's not necessarily the practical obstacle that needs addressing but our very emotional gut response to it that hold the clues as well as the keys to a deeper understanding.

In this sense it becomes a spiritual challenge. Are we ready to deal with our self? Are we ready to look deep within and face what we see?

Communication is the way forward. Bring it into the open, throw light upon it. Question it and inquire. Maybe when we do this even the greatest walls can fall?

Becoming You

What if you had a secret double? What if you lived a double life? You by day and superhero by night? But somehow you hadn't made use of your cape for a very long time. What if you had super-powers but kept it all under wraps? Wouldn't you like to fly? Dust o your wings? Donne the mask and cape and take on the world? Become who you knew yourself to be? Fearless, courageous and strong? Wouldn't you want to be more? Be really who you were, full and complete? This double life we now live in secret, hiding or waiting to disclose, holding ourselves back, serves no one. Give yourself the permission to express yourself.

Becoming you, is the best thing that can ever happen. There is nothing you can't do. Your day-time alias is not your true identity. Bring your night-time superhero status to bear when you wake up from your dream. Realise it was always the other way round, you have always been this fantastic being with incredible powers, not this ordinary person with its pseudo identity. To realise who you are gives you the freedom to express yourself completely. You're able to listen, take in and learn, accrue knowledge like a sponge. Think, grasp ideas, understand and make decisions. You'll be free to make up your own mind about all things, stand tall in your self and be glad to be held accountable. Becoming you is the best thing that ever happened.

Lost Identity

Maybe we don't pay it enough attention. We often cling on to our nationality as being who we are. Even as a resident of another country we often remain identified with our former homeland. But sometimes, out of necessity or need we change nationality and are proud to become citizens of our newly adopted country. Others want to leave an old oppressed society to join a more free world. So we gladly assume a new identity. Many nationalities gather under one flag. We swear allegiance to the sovereignty of the Queen or to the Constitution of that particular nation. We declare obedience to its laws and customs. Some swiftly adapt to the change of identity while others remain who they always been. Either way, there is an anchor in their own sense of belonging to a nation, to a country, to a specific nationality, either new or old. Sometimes in our journey through life, there can come a point where we lose all sense of belonging anywhere specific. We loose our sense of belonging to any nationality or country. We find ourselves homeless. We no longer identify with who we used to be. We no longer feel any commonality with our fellow countrymen. It's not a mere fanciful idea suited a hippie lifestyle but a real loss of roots in any kind of notion of belonging. This will reveal itself in a rare adaptability to circumstances and lend itself to being able to move across borders without much concern. Also it will give you a rare sense of independence. One where you don't take too seriously the dictates of any one nation. It seems like they've lost their grip on you. No longer a loyal subject you feel free to roam wherever there is space. No more any need to conform to a national standard or creed. This is not a rebel attitude but a true knowledge of belonging nowhere. There's a vacuity where before there was a nationality. An empty room that has no address. This is quite uplifting, quite extraordinary and filled with happiness.

Self Reflection

I'm always interested in finding out the cause of any misunderstanding.

What did I say and do? What did I assume? What did I want? The mirror of self reflection comes in handy. Even in retrospect my image lingers in my memory. I can study it in detail after the event has played itself out. I can return and revisit my state of consciousness at the time of the interchange. I must look at myself and not cast blame nor turn the mirror on someone else. First I'll ransack my own conscience and map my own part in the drama. Secondly we could address the whole situation, the dynamics involved; each other's intention and motivation behind any disagreement. We may take each other to task, querying deeply into the psyche; its wills and desires, its fears and its wants, with the intent to come clean. Perfectly redeemed once the full truth is revealed as the Truth will indeed set us free as long as we are ready to bare it all by holding nothing back and daring to express it. This is the process of change. Wanting to go to the bottom of it. To see the truth of any given situation. Not to settle for a 'agree to disagree' compromise.

That is maybe the norm in our society; not to take each other, nor ourselves, seriously enough? To save face we avoid confrontation of the source or origin of a conflict and we go our separate ways. Never facing the real depth of any encounter. Never wanting to meet in an absolute truth that exists in all of our relationships. This is a tragedy and it never solves anything. It only cements our own prejudged opinions and digs ever deeper our own trench of ignorance. It is a real challenge to dare to face everything and to see it through to the end. But if we do, we will experience the fantastic release into freedom and truth. We will see with common eyes and we will recognise one truth that stands as our witness. Together with others there will be the recognition that we share the same event, the same experience. The mirror of Self reflection exposes everything.

Shadow Play

Muhammad Ali made us understand shadow boxing. Dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee. He moved. He smiled. He would fight his shadow opponent, knock him out and crack a joke at the same time, making us all laugh. He combined physical grace with good-hearted humour. Never with evil intent his remarks were poignant and hit the mark. He rolled with the punches when pressed against the ropes.

Never caught flat-footed he ducked and dodged, moving continuously around and away. Opening himself up to let the other one in. Only to close the gap and catch him on the counter. Back and forth, flowing in and out. Truth was more important to him than winning and he was the greatest because of it. He could tell a white lie a mile away. Never lost a chance to make history count. Eight nine and ten. Down and out. Knock out.

What can we take from this? What can we learn? In the movement, in the dance. A boxer spends a lot of time shadow boxing, honing his skills, moving his body. Similarly we need to get into the body, move it around by ourselves. Doing it alone help us establish a natural center with its accompanying balance. It's like free-dance. We play and move, a never-ending motion that feels good. We pretend there is an other that we interact with. We do Aikido by ourselves, we shadow play. It happens in a relationship with our shadow, our invisible other.

The Indonesian shadow puppet play comes to mind. All night long it acts out the drama with its accompanying spellbinding music. A prolonged, never ending play. A motion that doesn't stop. Here it moves in relationship, in a shadowland of myth and legend. It's mysterious and evanescent. A quality we want to imbue. It's a good story. About the gods of old and their tales spoken through the Hindu epic Ramayana.

Our Aikido can be like a story told. An interconnected flow of events spanning a lifetime. Begin by telling us your story. Tell it with your body.

Act it out. Make a believer out of us.

Rock ‘n’ Roll

Taking ukemi is the hardest thing for many. It's not easy to teach our body to roll. To receive with the body; the literal meaning of ukemi might not make it any easier but it gives us a direction of how to appreciate the way of handling an attack. To absorb and to accommodate, to match and to blend with any incoming force. It teaches us to adjust, to become pliant. Educating uke is the most important lesson we can learn. If not learnt before reaching black belt many will neglect its study in favour of perfecting their technique and execution as nage. Now a Shodan pride gets the better of them and they close up, hindering anyone access to their core. For many this is a goal to be achieved, to become strong enough that no one is able to penetrate their defence.

So the hierarchical dance continues, cementing its structure of strong mans aikido rules. Educating uke is about opening up, allowing in, finding balance in receiving. By third kyu this should be well understood and practiced on a daily basis.

Lila

Wanting,the in-explainable feeling of desire, will not spare anyone. What makes us want something? The attraction is undeniable. Loving something, wanting it to the point of needing it. The force is compelling yet it comes and goes. It shifts and changes. Hunger, the physiological need to sustain life, our brains method to keep us alive. A cellular response to feed ourselves. The body knows what and when it needs and how much. Sexual needs, sexual desire and attraction, stir upon contact. A need to procreate, a basic instinct to keep life going runs through our veins. A biological necessity to keep the species alive.

Hardwired we instil personal meaning to something completely impersonal and universal. Are we but programmed machines albeit slightly fleshier? Maybe we are already the ultimate artificial intelligence? Acting out our pre-programmed DNA in a completely predictable manner. All these desires then, sustain Life itself; physical life, individual and communal. Desires are geared toward life. So what does that tell us about the deeper meaning behind Life itself; its spiritual truth and ultimate purpose? What does the Absolute want?

What does God desire? If He loved you before you knew him, He desires you. Only you and nothing else. So how does that manifest within you as a human being, as an individual person? Because what God is, and what God wants, can only be perceived through his creation, through us. So we may gain insight into the nature of God through our own all too human traits. Desire is one of the strongest motivational forces there are. Can we then see its absolute nature, its spiritual truth? Life's own wanting; wanting itself, through our experience of desire. If God sees us through the mirror of his own reflection, we must instinctively long to get back to Him. To become one. To return to unity. To be One.

Dukkha

Sooner or later you will encounter massive pain. So far we might have been fortunate enough to personally avoid the most horrible of circumstances yet death and destruction is all around us in this very unstable world. We have all been touched by it, some more then others and many lives have been destroyed by violence, war and decease.

Suffering seems to be part of life. History is rife with bloodshed. Heroes and villains defined by it, politics and business wrapped up around it.

Neither does normal day to day living escape strife and conflict.

How you hold your internal sense of being dictates how you will feel about yourself in relationship to this enormous amount of suffering, within and without. Have you found a way out of samsara, the wheel of life and death? Have you escaped dukkha, or unsatisfactoriness and suffering? Are you lost in your own pain or do you have a plan? Are you OK with going on being the victim of your own inner turmoil? Do you want to live this way? Inner psychological pain or outward physical pain amount to the same. Discomfort and unease, stress and anger rule our interactions.

Fear being projected out and returned in amplified ways. How can we be free from this nightmare? This endless cycle of birth and death. Can we find peace in a war-torn world? Can we allow ourselves to let love rule? Internally as well as outwardly? Can we live with the pain as part of our being without succumbing to fear? Can we transform all experience into a larger sense of self where we are not overwhelmed by

its severity. Can we be serious about facing all suffering without denial nor fear? Can we see beyond death?

This is where the spiritual life takes over. We cross over from death to life, from fear to love. It’s an added dimension to your life. It will stay with you as a friend in need. Seek it, for without it there will be no respite from pain.

No Time

There really is no time to loose. Where there is no time your experience becomes very fast. God's speed you could say. You can no longer catch even a moment of your time. It's gone long before you know it.

This makes you hesitate to look back. Traveling in almost light speed one turn of the head will surely affect your direction and throw you off course. Taking your eyes off, even for a second the road ahead, you'll miss thousands of miles rush pass you in an instant. So this becomes your ever present moment. No time to look back in an experience of heightened awareness to stay the course. Straight as an arrow you move into the future in breathtaking speed. Real time reveals itself and you marvel at its velocity. Einstein's Space/Time continuum becomes your present living experience and science turns into reality.

With this, I can't take my eyes off you. I don't want to miss a beat.

Almost as possessed I crave to be with you. Not a moment goes unnoticed. What a wonderful world we live in, when we have no more time to waste.

The Absolute nature of all things; Embodied Reality

Detached, above, beyond. Behind, within and present. Immanent and underlying. Qualities that describes our contemplation of the absolute nature of experience. An Absolute realisation of the nature of existence itself reveal your true self, your true ‘I’, your real identity. Timeless and limitless, without gender and nationality, you experience consciousness itself.

The Hindu non-dual Advaita 'equaliser' approach neutralises all distinctions and jams all things into the one single attribute of one taste.

It cancels out the varied experience all things inherently consists of and makes a flatland out of a virtual Himalaya of peaks and valleys. It demonstrates a comatose state of assumed equilibrium. A pretentious claim at peace supreme and absolute realisation. How mistaken their view is, neglecting to recognise the inherent attributes all and every thing display which makes this universe so full, so diverse, so rich, so varied. Embodied reality manifests an infinite multitude of specific unique qualities, each reflecting its own unique characteristics.

As our six sense organs perceives phenomena, they translate the direct experience into our system of dierent senses; thought, feeling, touch, sound, smell and taste. We compartmentalise them and design its range. We humans have a limited spectrum of what we can identify and utilise. The full expression of any odd thing escapes us yet if we open our perception a little wider we'll find an enormous amount of information flooding in. We become aware of qualities inherent in things, colours take on feelings, sound carries meaning, thoughts carry intent. We could say the universe is full of experience of all sorts, radiating out of single cells as well as out of super galaxies, each pulsating and vibrating its own song, its own qualities, blending and mixing along the milky way.

Much of this exuberance of experience is lost on us, but we are learning to measure more and more fields of expression through the fine instruments science create and we become aware of the sound and vision this universe constantly is awash with. Each little component bearing its own distinct mark and beaming its own inherent quality as it is being expressed in its manifestation. All living things and all innate matter all bear the basic building blocks of existence and therefore radiate its energy through its specific form, making each and every one of us unique and special.

Nothing is excluded from this direct experience of themselves through their very own specific nature. Everything is seen as it is and everything

is revealed by its own appearance. With this approach Advaita becomes embodied and real. No longer other-worldly and aloof but now intrinsic in each expression of any one thing. This universe sings a song of its own doing. It has been playing it since the Big Bang and describes its own unique singular destiny.

'You can't move from where you're not' my teacher told me

Where are you now? What is your present experience? Bodily, mentally and emotionally? But also, where are you consciously? Can you be aware simply of the presence of being itself? Right now? In this moment can you accept all that is? All that is occurring inside your own system? Accept who you are, completely without prejudice? Only when we do will we be able to move forward. Or rather, when we do, we allow movement to happen by itself. When we fall deep into ourselves there is a spontaneous outpouring wanting to express itself. A natural curiosity and interest to be part of, to share and to participate with life itself. But to begin we need to be at ease with who we are. So we return once again to the simple yet stark reality of clear and conscious attention. We become more aware, in the present movement of how we carry ourselves, of what is running through our mind, and of how our emotions can have a hold on us. Acceptance of yourself must forego any interaction if it's to be conducive and mutually beneficial. So, where are you now?

Once we come to terms with our present situation through unconditional acceptance we can discover that within this very moment of now there exist a direction forward. A natural movement that clarifies your path or way ahead. You become aware of a line of action that presents itself to you. Now the crux of the matter lies in this, you must choose to follow it, to respond to it. And it's not something far away in the future but right in front of you, your next step. You'll find it utterly positive but possibly also a little daunting as you may not be accustomed to the flexibility needed to engage without prior knowledge. The unknown factor of being alive to the moment won't escape you. Yet this may be very thrilling and exciting as you decide to engage from your presence of being with curiosity and openness.

A New Lease of Life

‘The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.

This command I received from my Father’.

We struggle against life as we encounter difficulties and affronts.

Psychologically, emotionally and physically we tense up and contract.

Being confined we react and fight against the pressure, even to a point of panic. Finding it futile in the long run we give up, we surrender control and accept the conditions. In this acceptance we find a release that relaxes us; body mind and heart.

This can be quite scary to do, to give up under pressure, to surrender to an overwhelming force. Not knowing what this means, not being sure where it’ll lead, not sure you’ll survive? Fear of death is so instinctual and our whole being will react and fight to stay alive no matter what. We can come in contact with this primordial survival instinct within us in order to understand better how to respond in times of crises, whether during a physical, emotional or mental constraint (usually they combine in reaction to a threat to the system), to learn of ways that can handle and deal with a real and felt threat.

When there is no way out, when all resources have been exhausted, and we find ourselves trapped, either we panic and blow a fuse or we surrender completely. In the dojo we can practice this under safe circumstances with the trust and confidence in our fellow Aikidokas, so no restraint becomes too threatening. We must listen keenly to what comes up as this practice is very powerful and can be deeply challenging. Just to contemplate this scenario can itself be personally very confronting. Contacting your deepest fears and facing them.

When we learn that reaction and fighting against can only do so much, we turn to other solutions. We come to try out giving in, letting be and accepting our predicament. We see that giving up must be total, an all or nothing approach, if it’s going to have an affect. We can’t leave even a little resistance to be there as it will inadvertently draw attention to itself and serve as a point of oppression. Finally we give up all of it, we throw up our hands and surrender unconditionally; ‘Your will be done, not mine’. Even death can not scare us anymore.

In this letting go, we can find a new access to our constraint. We no longer fight it so we’re able to feel it, blend and merge with it. We become putty in their hands as it were, we mould to their grip and in our softness of not being reactive anymore we find that we feel into

their system, their being and intent. Now there is an awake quality that lets you move in sync, or rather, you’re being moved by the enfolding situation. And you’ll find that within this acceptance and surrender there can be a way where your system, your whole being, can come alive again, now inclusive and new.

Whether your captors let you go or you’re able to rise within a restraint, you’ll discover a new lease of life. You’ll find that you’ve come out of the clasp and grip of death unharmed in spirit. There never are any guarantees for survival and health, either bodily, mental or emotional but there is a way where we can deal with all of these real life challenges that will make a difference in your response and in the way we live our daily lives. Surrender doesn’t come easy, but it is a prerequisite for the ultimate freedom of our spirit. It is a condition for a new lease of life. In it we’ll discover a new way, a new way of being, a resurrected self free from fear.

Self Emptying

Empty yourself of your self. Go on, let go of yourself inwardly. Release the tension and energy held up inside. Begin physically, with the body.

Let it be loose, relax the muscles and relax the breath. Then feel your emotions and release the hold they have, return to the present moment.

Find the still point inside. Breathe and relax your mind, emptying it of worrying thoughts. With clear and present awareness continue to empty any hold on yourself. Let go of all history and of all future. Let yourself fall away from yourself. Let body and mind drop off. Release the grip of your ideas. Die to your self. The process of self emptying goes from the gross to the subtle, from the physical to the spiritual. It's a process of becoming more and more sensitive, of questioning who you are in essence.

Establish mindfulness and let the breath come in and out in a natural flow, a pleasant abiding in the here and now. Pay attention, narrow your gaze, one-pointed withdraw within. Fall slightly back into yourself, detach from your sensations, observe your breath. Keen and awake in your practice, intent on full awakening. Realise no limitation. Freedom from self.

With or Without Power

What does it mean to be powerless? Or for that matter, what does it mean to be filled with power? Powerful or powerless, is it a matter of choice? The life-force itself seems to be an expression of power; a will to live, to grow and to survive. Yet it faces a constant threat in ill health, ageing and death. But given the right conditions it will persevere through its natural lifetime. In the best of times, in its prime, it can manifest its full potential for power. It can consciously harness and display a great amount of strength, both inner and outer. Embodied existence is but a full realisation of the resources available at any given time. Tapping into a source of hitherto unknown power will bring a rush of a new found wholeness that seems at times limitless. A full expression of power is such an aďŹƒrmation of life itself that it might be diďŹƒcult to deal with its later subsequent demise. Is there a middle way between the ebb and flow of personal power where we can find peace?

Where we will not freak out at being without power? Where the peaks of strength does not blind us to a normal relationship with ourselves. In Aikido, how do you deal with power? With or without it? Is it a requirement? Can we start from nothing and come alive within a relationship? To rest easy with nothing, no power, and let an ensuing engagement build power and grow its own life-force through a natural balancing of the conditions at hand. To realise no-power and let power develop from within.

Two Extremes

Polar opposites but not in the Yin and Yang complementary way. Two views that stand in stark contrast with each other. Two perspectives that are on either side of a spectrum. When confronted with challenging personal reflections some react with anger, pushing the whole issue aside, blaming and pointing the finger the other way, resenting being picked upon. Others listen and humbly accept any truth revealed and learn from it, wanting to overcome personal obstacles through introspection and acceptance. Facing the truth of who we are means we are ready to deal with its implications, with its real consequences.

The teachers roll is to point these things out, to highlight traits that hinder a closer relationship, a closer bond.

Aikido is a deeply transformative practice, a spiritual discipline that demands humility in learning. Trusting the teacher is essential in order to progress. Facing oneself is not a private matter. Practices that cement ones already established patterns and hardened conditions are not to be favoured. Self inquiry is spiritual work that goes hand in hand with meditation. Facing a wall in meditation, in itself, will never challenge your inborn and accumulated tendencies that are on display every day in your life. Only through constant interaction and learning the hard way can we come to terms with our own expression in relationship. Letting go and surrendering is a must in order to progress, and absolutely essential if you’d like to understand yourself.

Your progress is measured in the quality of your relationships, in the love that is expressed, and in the clarity with which you abandon yourself. Aikido is an intimate relationship and a communion, a bringing together of two opposites becoming one. It’s never a private matter, never a solo journey. The way you talk, the way you respect others, the way you negate yourself, offering up your own weaknesses before judging and condemning others. It’s not about having strong views and defending them, it’s about being humble and learning to have an open investigation about what is true and real. A living conversation that listens and learns. The truth is simple and not difficult to grasp, but only if you’re ready to take on some self criticism. But you can’t just do it in the comfort and safety of your private home. It has to be faced and accepted publicly, together, with no hiding place for the ego. In the dojo we must bow down, accept responsibility and allow for some display of humility in all seriousness. Let us do it in a gracious manner, with laughter and joy, killing the pride and self importance lurking inside.

Tenderness and sensitivity, two qualities of absolute necessity if you want to progress in Aikido. The physical interaction instantly reveal where we are, we need to slow down and listen to what our body is doing, listen to our reactions and fears. If we do, our relationship instantly changes, we adapt, we feel into, listen and adjust. Step by step we learn. Beginning with ourselves, then extending this feeling to the other, ultimately feeling the whole interaction as one movement, not anymore in opposition. But please, start with yourself.

Divine Duality

You know how it feels when someone’s got your back. You rest easy.

Your walk is confident. Like when your older brother or sister watch over you when you’re out. Like when the boys in the hood got you covered. This gives you a reassurance as you grow up, you feel protected and cared for. You naturally feel an allegiance to your benefactor and guardian angel. So how not more so from your own beloved parents? Their unconditional love and protection extends beyond the normal. Alas, in this world this is not always a given and can be frighteningly absent in many many cases.

Isn’t it interesting to see a child emperor, ruler of vast lands and numberless people, completely helpless and vulnerable, still only a child, with no power in him or herself, be venerated by the masses? It is said they rule by divine injunction, by the command of heaven. No need for a great warrior King leading his troops from the front. Just an innocent child with the right connections. No sword is needed, just a word and his will is done.

Do you know your own father? Do you know who to rely on? Who’s got your back? When you realise that spiritual insight and revelation comes with an inherent relationship so absolute we may call it ‘Heaven’, ‘Father’ or the ‘Divine’, we will cease to struggle, cease to put up a fight and stop trying to overcome. Powerless and vulnerable we are the sons and daughters of the most high God and by virtue heirs to the throne.

Faith is this living flame of kinship, between you and your father, where a constant communion and dialogue occur. A divine duality if you may.

A lifeline between heaven and earth. A child emperor with a divine parent.

Ritual

Turning towards a real yet unseen reality. Assuming things to be other than they seem. Invoke and envisage a spiritual immanent presence.

How can we imbue meaning and invite something sacred into potent ritual? We have to believe it's possible and we must truly trust our own inner being. Faith is not blind but a deep conviction and assurance of a super-natural dimension just a hands reach away.

Ritual in Aikido serves our practice. It abandons our self importance.

Bowing, we accept subordination. Clapping we call to be heard; we collect and compose ourselves. In communion we share the body and the blood. We turn towards, invoking a mystery.

This is done wilfully, with intent. We invite and assume. We leave a seat for a guest. Empty gesturing amounts to nothing. We must understand our ceremonies, our rites. We must conduct them with a sincere heart, knowing their meaning, touching the implied.

Love is the essence of ritual. Love of the divine, of your own inner self in communion with something eternal, something beyond the normal.

Become acquainted with this hidden realm, your very own backyard.

Turn towards.

Touching the Void

Impenetrable we believe, and yes it's true, we can't enter the Unknown, the land beyond our senses. That would be like disappearing into a black hole. We are hesitant to go there, to touch the Void, the very edge of existence, where you disappear and is no more. Yet we are irreversibly drawn towards it, some men can’t stay away, it exerting a magnet-pull on their very being. Even when we’re fascinated by it we’re too afraid to touch it. It’s too big, too final. Too absolute.

But the opposite is true, the Unknown can enter our world, like a dam breaking. The mystery can come into our lives, not the other way round.

We can't break on through to the other side but we can open the floodgates and let it flow into our lives. Open our eyes and let the light in, let it flood your heart, saturate your soul. Once we pierce the void, accidentally or consciously, it can overflow our lives. It flows into this world, filling it with joy and love.

Identity Crises

Breaking free is never easy. Breaking free from what? From something other people hold you to be. Breaking free from what your society expects from you, from what the norm dictates. Parting from your roots whether that be cultural, religious or family. Saying farewell to the past.

Becoming your own free man or woman. To stand alone in love.

That’s why it’s easier to be a wanderer, to be an immigrant. Having left your home you’re already on your way. Following your own heart, listening to a new song, widening your horizons. But it’s an inner journey and you know it. You have no choice, you just have to go. This process of growth will leave many behind but many will also be there for you. Those that have gone before you and those that will follow close behind.

The truth is, nothing has changed. You are what you’ve always been.

Inside, your inner experience of yourself has never been different. It’s just that we dare to say so, we finally own up to who we are. We realise that we’ve never been all that imposed and accumulated stuff that people label us with. We realise we have always been free and we have always known it.

Repercussions can lethal, devastating and frightening but there is no way back. Once awake to life as it is there can be no more turning a blind eye to reality. Cultural norms, religious trappings, family ties, they will all linger, reminding you of what you left behind, of what used to hold you down. Now they serve a greater understanding and you’re even able to incorporate them with compassion, treating them with the love they deserve.

A multilayered multidimensional reality spreads itself out in front of you.

You find yourself free within it, moving with ease from one to the other.

Like knowing the languages of different countries you communicate with each and all alike. Like memories from your past they all blend into a rich mixture of experience enhancing your present lifestyle. No more a crises but the very soil out of which you once came.

More than One

'Wait, there's more!' I was told. What? How can there be more? I'd realised Oneness and was over the moon, all my dreams had come true. Nothing more needed, all was perfect. Simple yet extraordinary.

'There is more'.. the statement lingered. It stuck in my mind for years.

Somehow the Diamond Sutra attached itself along the way. 'Form is emptiness, emptiness is form' and all that. The diamond cutter, that cuts through illusion, the Buddha dharma in essence. I've always viewed this teaching as favouring Oneness; the unity and sameness of all things. One taste running through all things.

The most valuable diamond is the one with the most facets; a manysplendored thing, each side perfectly reflecting the essence of the diamond. Cut to perfection it sparkles in the eye of the beholder.

If all form is emptiness then all sides reflect the same essence. Like in life, dierent facets, showing a multitude of sides or expressions, are all inherently perfect reflections of one thing. The more sides to it, the more multi-faceted a thing is, the more valuable and sparkly it appears.

The more experienced and deeply layered human, the more fascinating and interesting he or she is. The more sides to a man, the more multidimensional he is, the richer in expression he is. Each side to him reflecting the essence as well as all other sides.

Indeed there is more to it than meets the eye. Each and every facet in themselves serve as a perfect window to see things in a new light. Any angle lends itself to introspection into the mystery and beauty of life itself. The diamond sutra expounding the richness of life really says 'Emptiness is form, form is emptiness'.

No Need

When the need to execute and to dominate take leave you’re left with freedom. When you have no need to know you don’t impose. Not needing means you can relax and let things take their course.

Recognise the impulse to want to control and see its need as the survival mechanism of the ego. Buddhism calls it desire, wanting this and wanting that, but it’s more a need to be in charge than desiring things and wanting things your way. It’s a need to stay alive as a separate entity.

Once the need in you is seen, you can drop it. You don’t have to act upon it in order to affirm who you are. Don’t think you’re beyond this need. It plays itself out every day; in Aikido it is evident in our need to ‘do’ the technique, to manage the situation and in our wanting to be on top. This need pits you against me, even involuntary causing separation, leaving both people with a sense dissatisfaction. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

This need can sometimes be mistaken for wanting to learn. But the opposite is true, learning can happen naturally once this desperate need is done away with. Yes it is desperate, manically holding on to a sense of self, to a sense of separateness, to a sense of being good enough or even better than, the other. In its fear of losing everything it clings to life in sheer desperation. Ego death is the scariest thing.

Sole Survivor

Finding ones owns freedom can be fraught with misunderstanding.

Realising that we are free to move, that not much can have a hold on us, we experience a sense of power and blinded by this newly achieved agility we may loose sight of the other, of the relationship. We might even use it to our own advantage. We can demonstrate this personal freedom in contrast to restraints and inhibitions. It is indeed selfempowering to feel this detachment as we gain an upper hand against the adversary. There is an element of surrender, of giving in, to be able to accept any confrontation, that is helpful and conducive in any relationship but if we go on and use it to promote our own personal ability it retains the ego’s need to stay alive.

Personal freedom comes with a price. You become all alone. Since the freedom is for your self it can not include any other. Your freedom stands in stark contrast to the other. There can be respect and acceptance of the other and ones relationships will be based on personal autonomy, on personal integrity, but not on union, oneness or non-self. Mastery often display this personal empowerment, and men are drawn to it, fascinated by the skill level. Yet it leaves me dissatisfied.

The relationship is lacking something. Something essential. It always set in place a hierarchy structure that would be completely unnecessary if both met in mutual freedom, inclusive non-obtrusive union, in the common field of knowing who we are prior to division.

Surrender takes us deeper to where self has to be let go off. Where there will be no survivors left. No one left to reminisce.

A Clean Slate

When we meet we must come with a clean slate. No baggage please.

There’s a natural order that wants to manifest but it can’t be detected unless we prepare it. If you bring something we will have to work with it, which is fine but it doesn’t allow for something new to appear.

If we want to meet anew, fresh, and discover a genuine mysterious balance that can come into play when we start from scratch, from nothing, we must come free of any agenda or wish of having it one way or other.

There is a guest and host dynamic, a yin and yang interplay, a male/ female polarity that creates the necessary tension for fusion. In Aikido it’s the uke/nage relationship that is the activating force. Between two people there always exists a balance between opposites, between the negative and positive poles, between fire and water, Heaven and Earth.

So when we bring two together, when we meet, if we take our hands off and leave it alone there will ensue a creative process that unfolds by itself. When a man and woman come together in the depth of silence there will be natural movement where each will discover their inherent nature in perfect harmony with the other. A match made in Heaven.

This process is very intimate and requires a lot of patience and love. We have to let go of fear in order to be this naked with each other. We can always come to it anew and discover a new relationship each time. In Aikido and in life, perfect resonance is when we meet with a clean slate and discover the dynamic that comes out of two becoming one. O Sensei never tired speaking of the interchange between fire and water, between you and me.

If you come with an agenda I will by necessity have to blend with it. If you take the lead, for example as in dance, I will by nature have to follow. If I don’t we’ll clash. Same in Aikido, nage attacks and uke follows and responds, blends and harmonises. But if you refrain from taking the lead there will be a natural balance and process inherent in the relationship itself unknown to both parties beforehand. To discover this is what is so fascinating and exciting because it is not fixed. It changes, it is fluid and it moves.

Try it today, wait till it naturally responds, till it takes shape by itself. Go into it, be attentive, participate and don’t hold back. It has a surprising ability to blend no matter what comes at it. With a clean slate you’ll discover so much more. Trust.

The Guru

Knowing your Guru is knowing your Self. Seeing your guru is like seeing yourself in the mirror. You see your own face in the face of the guru.

Your relationship to your guru is the deepest most profound relationship that is possible to have. It goes beyond mother and father. Way beyond this planets life cycle. It exists before time and space. It is a love relationship. Through unconditional surrender to the guru you will encounter a love you have never known. You just need to think of your guru and he/she will be there, inside your being. No distance or time can keep you apart. The guru will appear when you are ready to leave this world behind. The guru is the doorway to eternity. It is an inner matter and you can't foresee it or look for it. By the grace of love and truth a relationship comes into being. It is an eternal bond we can not understand the reason for but for the knowing of being One Self.

Devotion is but the natural inner attitude towards this secret sacred bond you share. My spoken words turned into flames, the letters I read caught fire. My inside was a wild fire burning, flames coming out of my eyes and out of my mouth. This raging fire would burn everything in its wake. As white extreme heat filled my chest, communication was taking place inside my heart. I was given a treasure for safe-keeping that had be honoured by being true to it, wanting to keep it pure, unspoiled.

The guru doesn’t do anything, neither does the student. Nothing happens by choice but you are brought into relationship by grace. It is a mystery to both alike.

Being You, being me

How would all your personal trauma look like if you were every other person? If you are every single being out there, human, animal or organism, yes even inanimate things, then you'd be able to stand back from the overly one sided identification with your personal self. You'd see yourself in every other, and you'd see their own specific conditioning perfectly making up who they are. You'll find a impersonal and universal commonality in all of us, that will dislodge any overly bias towards your own self. Your own trauma or condition is no more nor less than every other thing that share this planet with us. It's liberating

to see that we all share this common ancestor, our accumulated karma as it were, albeit in slightly dierent shapes and expressions. We'd realise that you are in fact me, and I am you. We are the same being embodying all life form. But even more, we're also part of all inanimate objects, the planet itself, and more, even space itself is part of our manifest form. Now what more do you need to get some perspective on your own situation? It's all part and parcel of the same thing. Being One implies being everyone.

Live and let live

There is no condemnation in Christ they say. How do we understand that? Many Christians would state that they are not condemned, that they are not judged. They are accepted as they are, warts and all. There is a beautiful truth in that but now I'd like to point to the meaning of the saying for us carrying that attitude towards others. What would it mean for us not to condemn the other as we meet? In Aikido it is essential in order to be able to blend naturally with what's coming your way. To accept and to work with whatever presents itself. How can we recognise in ourselves our tendencies towards instant judgement and evaluation upon meeting or seeing another being, or for that matter, encountering any situation? Can we be aware of the wall it puts up between you and the other? How it hinders free communication. A 'live and let live' attitude allows for all things to be as they are. No need to have it your way, no need to impose my views. The living truth will reveal itself and we all will benefit from it. Love rules this attitude for without love there can't be any room to allow for another.

Uke Nage Relationship

My reason for saying 'evolution' is because much of today's and yesterday's (Iwama) Aikido is stiff and inflexible, hard and rigid. If we can't learn to become more sensitive, more intuitive, more soft, then our Aikido has stopped developing, halted its evolution.

"Techniques employ four qualities that reflect the nature of our world.

Depending on the circumstance, you should be: hard as a diamond, flexible as a willow, smooth-flowing like water, or as empty as space."

O Sensei

It's like a spectrum ranging from hard to soft, like a volume button, turn up or down. Increase or decrease power, softness and feeling. We need to learn it all. Not just one part of it. Being natural we all adjust according to circumstances. It's not so much about a must or need but wanting an ability to change depending on situation.

Love itself have the propensity to change according to the 'need' of any situation. That is the marvellous quality O Sensei described as Takemusu. It's not a violent reaction but an absolute perfect response to any situation. Sometimes hard, sometimes soft. Generally when we train Kihon we train hard, to establish our centre of balance and to develop kokyu power. Having done so over many years gives you the ability to relax your strength and use Aiki and softness to absorb and match any encounter. It is good practice, but most stiff practitioners have usually not trained enough years for the hardness to give way to sensitivity yet. But also we need to understand that it does not happen by itself but needs a conscious willingness to improve and change.

We need to educate Nage as much as we need to educate Uke of the meaning of Awase, of matching, blending and (Heaven forbid) cooperation. Being Uke means to receive, to be receptive. The ability to absorb, to blend and to match.

There are two ways of exercising Ki. One where you extend ki through and passed your opponent; mentally and intentionally directing the Kokyu, based from the ground, centred in your Hara, extended through your fingertips and beyond, in the line of execution. This can be very powerful and effective. This can be done with or without taking Uke into consideration. Of course, being sensitive to ukes resistance or force

helps in blending with the situation to gain maximum eect in your Kokyu-ryoku delivery. But even without blending with uke you may get the result wanted. Slam bam thank you ma'm. This is part of a tough training regime suitable for young men and we saw a lot of it in Iwama but also in Hombu. Good fun to a point.

But there is a second way or method to train your Ki. This way is all about feeling into your opponent, or rather, your training partner, as now you'd like to view the other not so much as someone to fight or oppose but to join and blend with. Upon being grabbed or attacked you now want to merge your energy, your ki, perfectly conforming to what lands on you rendering it powerless. Absorb nages attack and connect to his center in order to gain influence. Now redirect the flow of the motion, taking the balance, or center point, from the other and guiding the flow extending your Ki within the motion, through the other and beyond. This method is much more inclusive and less jarring for both. It cancels out any rough handling and insensitive behaviour towards uke.

Being the attacker, the uke, can also be done in two ways. One is where you attack willy-nilly, without necessarily feeling into your target. You attack regardless of connection. It's the kind of mindless attack from a crazy person or from someone who doesn't care to blend with the opponent. The second way to be attacking is to be highly aware and sensitive to your target. Then having a clear intent you blend with your target so not to be thrown o balance. You move with your partner not to become rigid on your feet, you sustain and maintain the attack yet feel and respond to Nages evasion.

Understanding Uke and Nage's role is essential in understanding Aiki.

Merging or blending can be done by one in the partnership and it's impressive enough, but if both blend together then the real magic can unfold.

Heaven and Earth

The up down dual relationship within your own body is essential to understand your internal strength potential. Correct posture, aligning your balance with the ground and extending up through your spine, opening your awareness in all directions, conscious of the space around your body, enables an eortless ability to function. In movement there's a dual sense of sinking and rising at the same time that must be supported by and lead by a conscious intent, a wilful directive in order to be powerful. Activating this sense of aligned structure and applying it upon contact will take the centre and balance of the opponent trying to establish control. Integrity and being centred combined with spacial awareness creates a formidable vessel that can ford any oncoming force. Now, do you want to use this for your own personal ego-trip or do you want to let yourself go and mix and match with the other? Your wish is conclusive to the eect of your engagement. Go on, be a master at your own expense, or serve others through selfless participation.

Surrender your desire for personal power, internal or otherwise, and join the ranks of normal people. Lend your experience to join and blend with the other. Use it without having to assert authority in the end. Resist the temptation to take pride in your achievements. Feel into the other, drop and lift the energy as you touch. Internalise the feeling impact and enter the other without meeting any resistance. Now care for the outcome and avoid executing uke as a means to an end.

Restore Order

Kuzushi: breaking the balance or undermining the foundation.

Destabilising or upsetting ones intent. Neutralising and pacifying an attack. Usually trained upon the moment of touch impact but can be activated at the point of intention, where the action begins. Simply by moving or shifting at the outset of an attempted attack or intent we can unbalance the line. We restore with one move the status quo, taking the edge o any attempt. O Sensei was a master at reading the opponent, moving before the attack was initiated. Sensing any attempt on his integrity. This is a spiritual awareness of the harmony of all things.

Instinctively and intuitively he responded to people's intended attempts

at the outset of their thoughts. O Sensei detected any disorder or imbalance in the natural way of how things move. He did this through his practice of balancing the two forces operating within himself, the yin and yang, the fire and water elements of our being. His body established through rigorous training and his mind enlightened through insight. Upon physical contact this equilibrium or inner balance would oset any outside influence trying to enter his space. So we train centring, grounding and extension, our up down relationship, a dual movement always in play, which then come to bear upon contact with an other. Relaxed integrity in body mind and heart lends itself to an eortless inner balanced sense of being. The practice of Kokyu serves to establish this body/being integrity. Kuzushi becomes the tool to restore order, to restore peace and harmony. At a moments notice, before even the act has come about, we unsettle any attempt, any invasion. Paying attention, being aware, we can comprehend this in a spacial encounter long before it even reaches your physical body. And upon physical touch an established body can have the natural instinct to respond to restore any upset by itself. Order is inherent in the system. But we must train this faculty through Kokyu and Aiki. Seeing it in this way, we will never use it to dominate or to suppress. We restore order where there is disorder. Dislodge evil intent with a perfect response.

IN YO

In sync with your in-breath learn to draw in your Tanden (Hara) or gut upon intent/contact, absorbing and allowing in the incoming force, accompanied with either a sinking/rising or a rising/sinking movement in the body followed by an expansion roll out internally of the belly as you breathe out with Kiai. This ability rests upon your vertically aligned body structure: Centred in your Hara, grounded down through your feet, expanded through your arms and hands with a supple upper body, shoulders and neck relaxed, creating an up/down interactive relationship with knees bent and hips flexible; a floating centre between Heaven and Earth. Establishing an Aiki body structure with an In Yo quality of rising and sinking simultaneously internally; a fire/water relationship; dropping, sinking and rising, expanding. This alignment to the ground through your Hara and expressed through your arms should

be active all the time; an established body-being structure whether you stand in one place or while moving. This alignment should cause an acute sense of spacial awareness, making the Ma-ai, correct distance, apparent and clear; a conscious awareness all-around. Maintain your integrity and move the whole body as one. The angle of a triangular Hanmi stance creates a line diďŹƒcult to target for uke but easy for you to shift. The Kuzushi can be enacted at the point where Uke decides to act, there is no need to wait for the attack to land or upon contact, preempting his move with perfect timing. Even with a distance apart you will enact the In Yo Kokyu breath, internally matching his intent, drawing him out into your rhythm and moving him with the fluctuation of up and down, Heaven and Earth, taking his breath away.

Irimi

Diverting Aiki; diverting the centreline, or more correct, taking the centreline by Irimi. A proper Hanmi, a correct triangular stance, creates the wedge, the angle, to enter. A diagonal Irimi deflects the opponents attack, making it ricochet o their centreline. Shomen-uchi raised from your Tanden, centre, in a circular movement creates the plain, with the support of your hips angle and your Tegatana's Ki extension. Enter either with a down/up or up/down movement, either uprooting or pressing down, dislodging or nailing your opponent. The timing is key.

Call out the attack or lead it in. Open or give a specific entry point to draw out the opponent. Using a ready stance centred in your Hara, vertical rested spine, arms loosely extended, spatial awareness heightened. Keep a closed Hanmi until you sense the correct Ma-ai, then swiftly open to let the other in. As he fall into the trap utilise upon contact the undulation of arms up, centre down or centre down and arms up. Create a resonating wave through the body that will in eect dislodge his centre through a spiral motion. This is called Kuzushi, taking the balance or centreline. Upon physical contact do not oppose the incoming force. Absorb and enter energetically inside the other.

Rooted in your feet, compressing your legs, centred in your Hara, and extending softly through your arms. Do not deflect Uke away but retain his centre under control, joined together.

Internal Affairs

Our relationship to ourselves can be and possibly should be, a relationship to Life itself. It’s an internal matter; how you know yourself to be. At one point we need to come to and realise an absolute relationship to life that does not waiver when feelings run wild or when our situation changes. A place free of any self doubt whatsoever, a place free from self condemnation. A place where your body, mind and heart are OK with themselves.

Whatever happened to you up to this point is all taken into account but it is water under the bridge, past and irretrievable. Where we are physically matters less, than where we are internally. Where do you abide when you are alone? Where do you reside? Have you come home yet? If you haven’t, then seek on. You’d want to finally come to rest within yourself.

You can be happy inside with no reason for it. Effortless joy in the face of hardships. A subtle assurance with no proof or evidence to show for it. You’d be strong enough to care for others while sharing the same burdens. Alleviate suffering where you encounter it, ease pain and confusion whilst in the midst of it. Smile because you can’t help yourself. Love in spite of everything.

This is internal strength, when you see the other as yourself. When there is no more separation, no more division. So when you feel sorry for yourself you feel sorry for the whole world and when you love your Self you love the whole world. And yes it’s an internal affair.

The Importance of Preparation

Come right with God, we say. Before we can do anything else, we need to have sorted our relationships. With friends, with family and loved ones, and then if not before, with ourselves. All things considered, how do you come right with God? O Sensei would say through prayer. A divine connection, in relationship to oneself, helping to establish a faith based communication. In Aikido we need not rely on empty words but with our body, mind and heart we can create a bridge between Heaven and Earth. In a vertical alignment centred in our Hara, we use our breath, mind and feeling to imbue an immanent sense of spiritual presence. Come right with God means we need to take a deep breath, humble ourselves and lay it all down, just in order to be able to pick it all up again to do our work with passion. Gather your thoughts and focus, think about it and take some time to go within. O Sensei’s misogi exercises of Torifune and Furitama and his meditation and contemplation discipline of Chinkon Kishin are physical and practical tools to establish your tanden, your center-balanced hips and to concentrate your Ki there. With the body more or less firmly stable you can with ease proceed with your meditation and/or prayer. This is turning within fully aware of establishing a single unified body-being. O Sensei would speak of filling yourself with shining Ki or energy, making your conscious awareness very palpable. With this ability to ‘hold’ the situation consciously you’ll be able to open or close the door on uke. I believe this is what O Sensei called the attractive force. Creating a power vacuum in which natural movement syncs with the other enabling you to control the flow, or rather, be in tune with the flow. This is not imagination but really a felt experience by both partners.

So before we come to the dojo to train it is recommended that we prepare our mind and body that by the time we step on the mat you’re ready to go. This will also help all others to tune in. By creating this field of unity our practice will be enhanced dramatically. Violence, aggression and competition is immediately seen for what it is and must be discarded in order to fulfil the perspective of selflessness. Standing on the floating bridge of Heaven we act with no sense of self-referencing.

So before you go to the temple to pray, or to the dojo to train, prepare yourself. Set yourself right with God. Heaven-Earth-Man. A dual relationship in all respects.

Titans

How do we release strength? How do we release extraordinary energy where strength is felt as a stream, where muscles become supple and the ground seem to support you? Where do you draw your strength from? Where the body becomes completely relaxed and your mind reach in, surrendering to a love that encompasses the whole world.

Letting your body become part of the whole mass of the planet, feeling its entirety in your being.

Take time to feel deeply inside your own body, stand balanced, grounded and tall. Let your feet and legs grow into the earth, reach down and let the earth come back up through you, claiming you back to its soil. Reclaiming part of its body, home to where it belongs. Mother Earth becomes a living presence inside you, the closest ally you can have.

Surrender your hold on reality, let it crack and break up. Let your boundaries drop and let the floodgates open. Be flooded by more than what you can contain, allow the spirit to flow through. Don’t hold back the tears, ecstatic release frees up natural strength. This power is awesome, it’s healing and life affirming. Love released through the body sets you among Titans.

Like the Wind..

Like the wind it finds its way. It seeps into crags and nukes, through minuscule narrow gaps, flows unhindered through rock formations, shaping and softening as it breezes through. Don’t worry about your rock quarry, your bastion of defence. The wind will find its way through.

I was unaware of the build-up of the protective armour over time and was surprised to feel the wind pass in and through its defence shield, right to the heart of me, to the soft core of who I am. It passed so swiftly like water down a rock-face I had no time to set up new barricades, it was in before I could take a breath. It slipped in effortlessly, like a butchers knife knowing the joints.

You can hear its sound and feel its breeze as it touches your heart. The spirit of truth is rightfully likened to the wind. Free and unencumbered it enjoys the desert sands, all ancient rock ground down over eons, leaving it exposed to the sun’s merciless rays.

Seeing is Loving

An absolute spiritual view is a mere abstract notion without its accompanying quality of love. 'Seeing things as they are' is a typical Zen Buddhist expression of enlightened vision. Objective reality devoid of emotion is somewhat appealing to us men. So male spirituality many times gets away with murder. Stating objective truth as if it is the evidence of their awakened self. But how deluded they can be, everyone knows the tell tale signs of realisation is in the doing, not in the being. We got to walk our talk, and that will only be possible if we have awakened a compassion and a love for all beings, and for all of life. An absolute realisation and an awakened heart goes hand in hand.

Two sides to the same coin just as heat and light are the two aspects of fire.

In practice you can't divide them. They should both be manifested as one without the other is not the real thing. An absolute response comes from clarity of mind and heart in unison, from seeing things as they are.

Seeing then, is loving, and loving is seeing.

Conditioned Habitual Responses

Waking up to an unconditional state of being, to a freedom of the spirit, having an insight, an enlightenment revelation into the true nature of things, seeing your real self, a satori or kensho experience, realising that your true being is neither limited by time nor space, you are suddenly aware of a natural freedom intrinsic in your very self here and now. You come to realise you've always been free and you'll always will be free. This is your inherent state of being, unadorned and unconditioned. This free self responds naturally to all things around.

Opening your eyes to this unborn buddha-nature you see Truth Absolute and suddenly you recognise truth from falsehood, seeing things as they really are. You become aware of your own conditioned behaviour, your own accumulated karma and personal identifications.

You realise that much of your way of interacting stems from years of ingrained habitual responses, instinctual reactions and fear and lust driven motivations. You come to realise that this stands in stark

contrast to the pristine beauty of your absolute nature that you've just discovered.

At this point some people ignore or disregard their accumulated storedup personal baggage, preferring to lay all their attention to their inherently unblemished self, scoffing at anyone pointing out their unchanged automated habit-patterns, dismissing it as residual karma working itself out and ignoring their effects on others. This is easy to do as the ecstasy of awakening leaves you happy as you are, you've realised there are no problems and there never could be any problems.

But with awakening comes also an awakening of a true conscience that can't ignore the present state of affairs and you're made aware of your nicknacks. Now this is why in Buddhism so much attention is laid on Sati, on mindfulness training. To make you aware and conscious of the effect your words and actions are having on the world around you. Your true conscience is based on an awakening of love for all beings and all things, not a mushy kind of sentimental notion of love but a radical lens of discrimination that cuts sharper than any sword, seeing ignorance, suffering and unsatisfactoriness for what it is and establishing a natural compassion for all beings.

Establishing Sati or mindfulness, is stabilising your own realisation of the absolute nature of all things; an undivided relationship to life and a no-thrills attitude towards your own personal expression.

Now this free self that is your natural being, that is you, still makes choices, still walks left or right, still feel the repercussions of your actions good and bad, have no problem distinguishing personal identity from absolute nature, mutually inclusive, is able to walk the razors edge between right and wrong, between opposites and duality.

Hui Neng, the sixth Buddhist patriarch in China and the father of the Ch'an and Zen linages, admonished his students that there was not going to be any arguments in his school, based on the non-dual understanding of the direct seeing into reality. To indulge in argumentation would prove to miss the point completely.

Exposed

There is no other way to come together but to be totally exposed. We must surrender fully our own opinions and bare our soul without hesitation if we want to come together with other people. One to one or with several others, the criterium is the same. Traditionally you opened up to a teacher and therefore had an intimate close relationship with him or her that you valued beyond anything else. In this day and age we must open this circle to encompass many more people. The trust needed to do this must be implemented by everyones sincere intention not to take advantage of the situation. Spiritual achievement and accomplishment relies on how open your heart is. You must be able to dare to stand nakedly exposed for all to see. Only then will we have the humility to meet as the human beings we are. As if you're looking in the mirror, everything is seen. All little secrets and dirty tricks. Nothing is too sacred to spare. The teacher in any spiritual tradition was only there to aďŹƒrm and to confirm your realisation of surrender face to face. He or she would naturally know if the student was holding anything back. It becomes evident when the teacher is not holding anything back that the students unwillingness to give up is the main obstacle on the path.

We all can have insights and spiritual revelations left centre and right and become very self confident because of it, but unless we're ready to unclad our strongholds, our deeply held ideas and our pride, we won't reach the aďŹƒrmation we so dearly want. Now some students thinks it's enough to surrender to their chosen teacher and to no one else. How mistaken they are. The teacher only represents the real manifestation of any true meeting, for any time with anyone. But the Ego pride is often the last stumbling block for the student, not understanding the science behind self surrender.

I implore all of us to meet under these vulnerable conditions of being fully open and holding nothing back. Only then will there be room to explore the vision and unity of our joint spirit. To come together in spiritual inquiry and contemplation this is the required criteria just to get o the ground. It is the starting point of any serious discussion and dialogue. We cannot know beforehand. We must surrender our selves.

Not only by being open to take in new things but completely exposed as to what we are and what we carry with us. If we hide our deepest fears and weaknesses they will prevent us to meet the other. Only by sharing openheartedly our common personal human nature will we have the potential to meet in an extraordinary way beyond the personal.

To share the common spiritual foundation of our true self we must lay our fears and pride at the door to enter the kingdom of God. If we manage we will aďŹƒrm each other as the beauty of truth will be revealed amongst us for everyone to see and to experience.

So next time we meet, don't hold back because we don't have much time. There's an urgency that needs to be appreciated so we don't slack in our attitude and intention. Aikido you will find, works in the same manner. Only by being who you are without Ego pride will you be able to train in a evolutionary way that brings both of you together on the mat.

Keeping things ambiguous.

Leave the door open for people to come and go. Don't spell it out, utter the first three lines and let your friend finish the poem. How can you set things down as an absolute truth? Time won't halt for you. Fix it and you're left behind. My friend, a sailer, hears the wind and steers his boat in accordance with it. It's a living thing this Truth. It can't be pointed at because as you look it's already moved on. So my friend, in order to show me the wind takes me sailing. Now we're talking, we can share this experience together, our smiles confirm what's in our hearts. This is what happens when you meet the teacher. He takes you to a place that never stays still. Confirmation is the realisation of being in same boat.

We're all in it together. If you don't like it you're free to leave. That's why I can't pin it down. Slippery say some, but I say that's the nature of water on a bare rock-face. Falling free you don't have to clutch air.

Reciprocal Relations

Everything balances out in the end. The give and take tallies up, the yin and yang never strays far from each other. There is a natural order and a natural response that exactly mirrors whatever action taken, never too much nor too little. We get what we deserve, what we have coming to

us, is the common parlour. But this points to the truth of an appropriateness in all interchanges, in all of our relations. They should be reciprocal and if not, left wanting. We could probably find a scientific physical law that explains this (please comment if you know it). Leaving someone hanging is an apt expression. Leaving someone without a response is not honouring the relationship nor respecting the oering of a gift. All relationships are based on a mutual interdependency. The teacher-student bond is fixed by mutual trust. Human interchanges calls for response. There is a natural and instinctual reply to all connections, like a mirror reflecting back in precise detail what presents itself in front of it. Can we now become that transparent so we begin to respond in a mirror-like fashion to life around us. Without missing a beat, fully in tune with all things coming our way. Is there a perfect natural response inherent in any act? Can we find this living, mystical, perfect way of being that gives everything back without a moments hesitation?

But it's dierent from thinking on your feet, being clever in your replies, fast and witty. It stems from a deep compassion and knowledge of the truth absolute, of being in tuned with Love itself. It's not a self-righteous kind of reaction but a love-restoring kind of care for the whole.

Reciprocal means to give it back. Return the favour. Life keeps giving.

How do we give it back?

Investing Ki with Care

Aikido is powerful as we extend Ki energy through our technique. Using our breath in the Kokyu-throws combined with a full Ki-projection makes for a formidable demonstration of eortless power. Add a vertical alignment, a balanced centre, body grounded and a sink/rise movement we may touch upon a Chinese martial prowess and lean into the internal aspects of the art. And though many are called Master having achieved this skill it's not really Aikido until we add Care.

Technical ability, Ki and Kokyu mastery, internal strength, spacial awareness and sensitivity are all tools and skills needed to learn and understand Aikido, but without a spiritual insight of unity and of love and of its expression through what we know we can't say we've mastered O-Sensei's Aikido. It is essential that our skills are harnessed in order to blend with, not to upset, our partner. We need to monitor, funnel and temper our power in relationship to Uke. Love is expressed in the sensitivity you express towards the engagement. Ability and skill is revealed through your adaption to change, to blend with and care of your partner. So we need to match our Ki extension not to overpower our opponent, we must moderate our strength not to hurt or injure Uke. This does not mean we become sloppy or weak or Ki-less. Instead we become sharper, more focused, more sensitive and precise. We're able to slow down, draw the relationship into slow-motion, fully in control, pausing to let Uke catch up, imbuing them with the calm of a secure movement, instilling them with peace and trust. Reassuring them they are in safe hands. Now this engagement you can speed up if Uke is game. Like turning up the volume on your stereo as long as the relationship remains intact. This is training, from slow to fast, from basic to advanced, without missing a beat. All our martial skills must be subservient to our understanding of love and be appropriated accordingly. The Care factor will shape your Aikido. True Budo is not an art to kill but to heal, to restore a rift, to overcome division and to find common ground. Therefore instil your Ki with care.