Travis Eneix

It’s National Novel Writing Month, and I just eeked across the half way mark this morning. I’m a tad behind, but this weeks pep talk from the NaNoWriMo admins came from Neil Gaiman, and it put me back in good spirits. I was thinking about that while teaching Aikido this morning.

There’s a saying in Hollywood in the film making industry, “You have ten bad movie in you, now go make them.”

There’s a similar adage amongst writers, “You have 500,000 bad words in you, now go write them.”

I’d like to introduce the following adage to the Aikidoist world, “You have 100,000 bad techniques in you, now go do them.”

In an average hour long class I would guesstimate that I get through about 100 techniques. With taking three classes a week (in addition to the three I teach), that puts me at 300 techniques. Fifty two weeks a year comes to 15,600 techniques. So, after 6.4 years I should have gotten through my bad techniques and gotten into some good ones. Hmmmm, looking back from just over 11 years on that mat, I’d say that’s not too far off.

This is kind of the reverse of the old axiom, “Practice make perfect.” Instead it’s more akin to, “Repetition makes less not-perfect.” Being good at anything takes time and effort, and to have a goal to shoot for is incredibly useful. When writing into a void it is easy to get discouraged, thinking when will I ever get any good at this? With a target number of words, the edge is taken off the long hours of writing crap. So far, I am just about 175,000 words in. Another couple of years and I might actually be decent.

Consider the ebb and flow of the tide. When waves come to strike the shore, they crest and fall, creating a sound. Your breath should follow the same pattern, absorbing the entire universe in your belly with each inhalation. Know that we all have access to four treasures: the energy of the sun and moon, the breath of heaven, the breath of earth, and the ebb and flow of the tide.

In breath we replicate the continuous cycle of creation and awareness.  The Kabbalists call this the “Will to Bestow” and the “Will to Receive”.  Spirit, bestows the world, and the individual self receives it.  But, that is all, like the continuity of our breath, one ongoing cycle without beginning or end.  By working on our breath we see this sameness in other phenomenon and consume all similar processes into it.  Into us.  By attaching ourselves to this practice we become one with the cycle that contains everything.

In our distinct techniques the attack could be seen as the “Will to Bestow” and the response as the “Will to Receive.”  My teacher, Kato Sensei, has said that, “Ukemi is true Aikido.  All Aikido comes from your Ukemi.”  “Ukemi” is the art of receiving.

Ukemi is, in Aikido, the art of receiving a technique and falling without harm. It means to fully attack your partner, continue the attack during the technique, and when thrown to fall well. One key to this is Surrender.

In the moment you are thrown, the other person is (hopefully) dedicated to the idea of getting the technique right. That may mean they are invested with their ego, or it may mean they love the art, or it may mean they honor your participation, or it may mean they are lost in the moment, or any number of other motivations. In truth it is more than likely a mixture of motivations. But, regardless of the motivation they are invested in doing the technique correctly, and that means you fall. Resistance at this point would mean being confrontational at the very least, it would certainly not be in the spirit of Aikido, and it may very well lead to injury. Those are bad.

But, if you do not resist, and instead actively participate you will not only sharpen your partner’s skill, but your own. And, at the very apex of the technique, that means Surrender. Complete flowing with the moment as it is. If there is the thought of, “okay, here it comes, now I am going to fall, okay I’m ready” there will be hesitation, non-participation and resistance. Resistance could also come in the form of, “they’re doing it wrong!” Or, it could be, “Hey, that cute person who came to watch class because they are interested in joining is watching me! I’ll show them how cool I am by not letting myself be thrown.” [Sidebar: That is the WORST possible reason to not take a fall, just an FYI.] Resistance could also be in the form of, “Yeah, yeah, here we go again, I have done this technique soooooo many times! I hope the teacher calls for another, less boring, technique soon.” If anything other than Surrender is present at the apex of the technique then your ukemi will be less than it could be.

For me, that is one of the key points of Aikido. That moment holds so much potential and power. When I Surrender, just at that moment, my fall is like a breeze passing on a hot day - it cools, it gently caresses me, and it reminds me of not only why I do Aikido, but it also reminds me of exactly why I am alive.

Of course, I knew she would. Last night was the last day of Kato Sensei’s most recent seminar at my dojo. As is normal for his visitis we had a group of students ready to take black belt rank tests. There were three shodan (first degree), three nidan (second degree), five sandan (third degree), and one yondan (fourth degree) tests. Busy night! There were also two godan (fifth degree) demonstrations by two of the teachers who got promoted this year. My wife was one of the sandan tests and she was amazing!

I had the honor of being her uke for the test. That means that I trained with her for several months before the test and took most of the falls during her test. It was great! The head of our school, James Friedman, wanted to see intensity during the exams, and judging by how my body feels today, the look on my wife’s face last night, and the reactions from the capacity crowd we had (this time we even had to have some of the friends and family members sit on the mat!) my honey pulled it off.  One of the highpoints was during the three person attack at the end of the test.  I was one of the three.  Her last technique was a straight extension to my face. I took a good fall, and she followed through.  Biunced my head right off the matt!  My head hasn’t hit the matt during a fall in seven years!  It was AWESOME!

All the principles of heaven and earth are living inside you. Life itself is the truth, and this will never change. Everything in heaven and earth breathes. Breath is the thread that ties creation together. When the myriad variations in the universal breath can be sensed, the individual techniques of the Art of Peace are born.

Breath.  The universal process of exchanging energy by transforming a thing into its opposite.  Inhale, exhale.  In, out.  Rise, fall.  Hot, cold.  Active, passive.  Front, back.   Feed, consume.  The ancient symbol of the T’ai Chi embodies this duality of exchange.  Without this interplay all would be static and stagnant.  It is the very mechanism of creation.  Aikido gives us a way to understand that dynamic, to agree with it, and to benefit from its power.  From the simple principles of irimi (entering) and tenkan (turning), omote (in front) and ura (behind), to extending and contracting, and advancing and retreating, Aikido explores the concept of breath at the physical level.  In practice we learn to deal with the varying emotional levels of our partners, and ourselves, and we learn breath on the mental level.  Practicing, and thinking on our practice between classes, keeping a deep commitment to a path, allows us to see the play of breath on the spiritual level.  During the execution of a technique our aim is often to take our partner’s balance, and this is equatable to interrupting the breath.  We also focus on filling our technique with power, timing it with inhale and exhale, and we float in the dance of our own breath.