The Best Seek Not Only to Win But to Understand

Aiki Dojo Message - Understand?

The best Aikidoist seeks to understand.

Aikidoists take the world view that there are no accidents. If there are in fact no accidents, then everything fits together into a puzzle forming a bigger picture. Thus, everything has meaning. I am not talking about it from a philosophical or religious standpoint of who gets to be in control of the direction. What I am talking about is trying to understand oneself within this moment and understand the meaning of how or why this occurrence factors into the larger picture. With this mindset, an Aikidoist becomes a seeker.

Every day when students arrive at the dojo, they should have an intention - they should be working on something. They should be proactive and work to perfect some aspect of their technique or themselves. Those that just show up, will gain some benefit but those that have a purpose will improve much faster.?

Improvement in Aikido is incremental. We improve inch by inch, or step by step.

One thing students should be working on is perfecting their footwork. It is thought that the better the footwork, the more efficient the technique will be. Conversely, the more the feet move in a nonsensical or wasted way, the more inefficient the movement will be. In the old days of teaching, footwork was the last thing they taught. It was the last because if a student knew the footwork, then they also knew or could figure out the timing of the technique or how the technique generated power. This information could then be used in the future to defeat the system, the technique, or the teacher - so it was taught last. Therefore, even the smallest step has meaning and importance to the overall movement. Interestingly, when the Japanese say, kyakkashouko (脚下照顧), it means “look carefully where your own footsteps fall” but it can also mean “know thyself.”

When I was a student, Furuya Sensei used to end his talks and some of his blog posts with the rhetorical question, “Can you understand this?” The way I took it, was that it was an open challenge. It was like he was saying, “Go home and think about this and see if you can figure it out.” I could have just sat there and nodded my head waiting for the class to end or I could try to be proactive and try to understand it. Trying to understand something is about “introspection” or naisei (内省) and it creates the mindset of intentionality. A person who has this doesn’t just want to be told the answer. A true seeker wants their own “aha” moment and to discover their own meaning. They don’t just want to borrow someone else’s enlightenment.?

The goal of every human being and Aikidoist alike is to find themselves. At Ryoanji temple in Kyoto, there is a famous tsukubai or stone “washbasin.” On the face of the stone basin there are four kanji characters that are surrounding a square. The ideographs alone don’t mean anything, but when combined with the square (口), the characters become 吾 唯 足 知 which translates as ware tada taru wo shiru or “I only know contentment.” Through training, we only train to know contentment. Contentment is a function of knowing ourselves and understanding the meaning of our lives and its components. Everyone wants to win, but the best Aikidoists want more - they seek to understand. Can you understand this?

Today’s goal: If everything happens for a reason, seek to understand. Ask yourself, what’s the reason for this??

This post appears in a slightly different form @ www.aikidocenterla.com/blog