The Yoshinkan means " The House of Cultivating the spirit". How do you cultivate the spirit? Is it through the incredible, push-to-the-limit and more of the human body via rigorous, insanely and deliriously painful training of the Yoshinkan style? Is it the choice of coming to the aikido classes on the strict time table week after week?
Which dictates me? The body or my mind? Would the situation/circumstance maybe dictate my action? Who or what is control? The situation, the inevitable trial of daily difficulties or chores, or the tired and strained body? No one tells me to come and do all the adult classes. Of course it is insane ... or is it?
It is the choice i made (and continually, daily choose to make) A decision to the walk the holy pilgrimage. The road to self-enlightenment via genuine Aikido training. I try to focus not on the pain, not on the lack of sleep or even the self discipline aspect. My focus is on the striving. The 110% of effort i give everytime i am given or faced with a task or job at hand. It could even be a situation, a moment in my daily "off the mat/off the gi" life - ah yes, real life, anytime ... anywhere ... the 110% focus and concentration to perform any given task, technique, move regardless of how my body feels or regardless of how crap i feel ... i give it my best shot at all times. I would not be worried about making a fool out of myself, or any mistakes or injury/death consequences. Yes, a true do or die attitude fair dinkum. Of course the more i train, the less likely the negative will rear its head because i train so i can be prepared with or without notice.
There are times when the inevitable hits. Situations where we can't control. As practising Aikido students, we make the best out of it. Salvaging the moment as Sensei would phrase it. Harmonising the danger and consequences to reflect our training in our craft and art. Know your craft and know it well. Mentally, physically and spiritually. From the Art to the Science and from the Science to the Art of Aikido. To see and practise the Aikido in everything that i do at every moment of my life.
Life training in Aikido is not a salad bar as Sensei would put it. We have to take the good with the bad and the other way round. We can through daily training in Aikido, condition ourselves (especially off the mat and off the gi) to deal with every situation with the same 110% focus as if we were in our gi and on the mat, hearing and listening to Sensei's commands or doing the drills.
First we react to the count, then to a situation, then to any movement ... as our awareness expand our zanchin increases ... our senses sharpened ... reacting as fast as anticipating ... feeling, sensing and connecting with the situation/uke/shite. Blend, harmonise and be as one with nature and its forces. I tell my body what to do and not the other way round.
I think the reason for the non-competive element in Aikido is to ensure the individual achieve his/her goals realistically. I do not compare myself with others or their progress. I do learn from their forms whether they are better or not. Everyone and anyone can teach me, but in the end it is up to me to open up and learn ... wittingly or unwittingly. In the words of the old Samurai, ... "True victory is victory over oneself .... masakatsu_agatsu"
