January 2010
18 posts
1 tag
“Junbi Taiso,” by Nev Sagiba →
In the equestrian world, non-riders, in a similar way like to think that horses are for sitting on and they can’t wait to hop on. They get dumped. If you don’t understand a horse from the ground up, you will never be a true rider, merely a bully with no understanding. In the few instances I’ve taught people to ride they do not get to sit on a horse until they are ready. If that takes six months...
“Life is like a gathering at the Olympic festival, to which, having set forth...”
– Pythagoras
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“Horse’s Prayer
To thee, Oh my master, I offer my prayer
My life and...”
– Equines in India
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On Writing Zen Combat →
“Zen ken shu!” my white-bearded painting and calligraphy teacher said to me one day. “Zen meditation is the sword is the brush! Understand one and you understand all. But you cannot come to understand one without the other two.”
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Three Techniques That Have Everything →
The three principles of aikido are kokyu-ryoku, tai-no-sabaki, and ki-no-musubi. Each of these principles is used to properly train and execute every aikido technique.
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“Aikido is for losers,” by Bruce Baker →
So if losing the attitude, losing the blindspot, losing the stupidity is what Aikido helps one do, sure, add it to your list of things to try out. Move it up on your “bucket list” you should have made when you were a kid realizing that you ain’t gonna live forever and there are things you want to do before you die.
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The Aiki Academy » Conflict and Conflict... →
When we can’t run away, aikido can give us another way to respond, a way that is neither fight nor flight. Aikido says: “Don’t fight. Don’t flee either. Let go instead. Let go of the whole situation. Go inside it. Follow it through. Use only your intuition”.
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“Long Term Victory,” by Nev Sagiba →
In most ancient cultures, lasting thousands of years longer than the stultified, limping histories we laud so much because of a few gadgets, their story survived all manner of attrition because of something that transcends all gadgets: Respect. In these true civilizations based on higher, more noble values of contribution, rather than mere fear of lack, it was mandatory to be a well rounded,...
“А с другой стороны, есть такие люди, шо у них душа как тот пацюк у подполе,...”
– Вернуться по следам, Глория Му
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Saving the Raja's Horse | Science & Nature |... →
The Hindu Rajputs resisted India’s Muslim conquerors for hundreds of years before accepting Mogul control in the 16th century. In that era of almost constant war, the Rajputs employed a legion of bards to chronicle their exploits—in songs of great horses as well as great men—tales so bloody they make the Greeks and Trojans of the Iliad look like Quakers.
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Thinking About "Dan" From "Dô(Tao)"
Endô... →
Grading is a means of objectively evaluating one’s capacity and progress by one set of standards. However, I believe that such a viewpoint has no relevance to seeking the Tao. For how far and how deep one has gone are internal questions that only the practitioner can answer. I have come to believe that it is impossible to measure each person’s depth in their pursuit using a fixed...
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“Кто не ездил галопом, тот ничего не знает о счастье. Галоп - это словно ты...”
– Вернуться по следам, Глория Му
Memorable quotes: Yukiyoshi Takamura on pacifism →
Some aikido teachers talk a lot about non-violence, but fail to understand this truth. A pacifist is not really a pacifist if he is unable to make a choice between violence and non-violence. A true pacifist is able to kill or maim in the blink of an eye, but at the moment of impending destruction of the enemy he chooses non-violence. He chooses peace. He must be able to make a choice.
Solo Training - Why Iai? →
Some practitioners of modern martial arts deride kata training, claiming that an adherence to form is inherently weak. They claim that one trains stereotyped responses by rote and repetition, thereby rendering oneself unable to respond with freedom to an unpredictable, random attack. On the other hand, one’s freedom is limited by one’s neurological organization — stereotypical patterns of action...
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“You Have To Understand With Your Whole Body,”... →
To “get” Aikido you have to understand with your whole body. This means DOing. Aikido is a DO so we must do before we can understand.
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Aikido (good summary article) →
Aikido is a Japanese martial art that includes techniques for bare-handed wrestling, using weapons, and dealing with the armed enemy.
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“The Rules and Limitations of Aikido,” by Nev... →
We live, for the time being, in a softened and protected society. This may not last forever. How you comport yourself in the face of more, shall we say, feudal circumstances, greater challenges the future is to bring, remains to be seen. Will we, under similar circumstances, have the moral integrity and far reaching vision to intend to BUILD a world, a family of humanity, as the ancients...
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Ki →
Ki means many things to many people. There are many ways of defining it, ranging from scientific and bio-mechanical explanations to extremely spiritual viewpoints, and people’s feelings about it run the gamut of complete disbelief to mystical adulation. O Sensei believed in Ki, and he apparently talked and certainly wrote about it a lot. He did take a rather mystical approach to it, which...