Griffith Shukan News

 

 

Thursday October 4^th , 2007

 

 

 

CONTENTS:

 

 

1.      Maruyama Sensei Seminar – Thank You

 

2.     Aikido To The Bay Islands

 

3.       The Benefits Of Ki

 

         

 

 

1.       Maruyama Sensei Seminar – Thank You

 

Everyone who attended the Maryuama sensei seminar would agree that it was a great opportunity to learn from Maruyama sensei and a fantastic experience.  The seminar would not have been possible without a lot of organizing and planning. A big thank you to all involved in the planning of the seminar.  

Also thank you to all you assisted during the seminar,  whether, helping set up at the show grounds,  looking after the front desk, cleaning at early hours of the morning, getting lunch or looking after the bar.  There are too many names to list.  Thank you to all who helped out during the seminar.

Shirin

 

2.       Aikido To The Bay Islands

James Ryan (sometimes aikido student) is a teacher at Dunwich High and asked if I could come over for two periods as the students are doing Samurai projects.  On Monday Sept 10 Big John Gam and I traveled over to Stradbroke Island to introduce some Aikido to years 8, 9 and 10 students. 

I meet John at Cleveland and we boarded the 8 am quick cat for a lovely trip across the calm waters of the bay, James meet us at the terminal and took us to the school.  6 off 1200 x 2400 judo mats were available for us to use but with 25 students to organize it was never going to be a standard Aikido class, so we taught in the open on the grass outside the staff room.  (Out in nature, Ueshiba would have been proud)

On the way across on the ferry a finely crafted lesson plan was discussed formalized memorized and sanitized.  However, the youth of Australia have a shorter attention span than most other living things (all power to you Craig and Steve) so the lesson plan we discussed on the way over got adapted as the attention waxed and waned.  Teaching from the hip is the best description, but we followed a logical path starting with Ki principles and testing, through some basic techniques to Boken cutting, a small kata, and finally Boken tori.   (A BIG thank you to Griffith Dojo for the loan of 15 Bokens to assist with the lesson)

The lesson appeared well received with some natural talent displayed by several of the Dunwich High Students.  Despite fears of a reenactment of Yojimbo, (or the Jackie Chan movie of your choice) the lesson went off without any injury or drama.  90 minutes later and after a short Q and A session the kids had disappeared we packed up and James put us on the 11 am cat back to Australia.  James will get some feed back from the students and if positive, we may conduct a full Aikido class over there on a Sunday in the not to distant future, I spoke to Sensei Thom Hansen and suggested we may promote this class to the kids so that they can experience teaching from Brisbane’s senior instructor, if it all comes together it would be nice if some fellow Yuishinkai students can take part and assist. 

All in all a good thing for the school and Aikido.

Tony Neal

 

3.       The Benefits Of Ki

 

The Following has been submitted by Aran Sensei:

 Interviewer: You have studied many different forms of martial arts. Is there any one in particular that you are fond of? Murakami: No there isn't any one in particular that I like. They are all unique. It's not like I feel, "oh it's Monday so I should practice Tai Chi Chuan" or "it's Thursday so I have to practice Shorin-ryu". Personally, no matter how hard I practice or how well I perform a technique, I never think, "oh, I'm never going to perfect this technique", that is not the focus of my training. What is important is that in each moment I am focused on that technique, I lose myself in it and enter into a state of mushin [literally "no mind"]. This type of training is a form of Zen training, more specifically the Soto Zen [ the school of Zen Buddhism founded by Dogen Zenji]. Zen Buddhism teaches that the truth [of your existence] can only come from yourself. And can only be achieved through forgetting your own self [ego]. In order to forget your own self you must have a singular concentration on the moment which requires you to remove all other distractions or obstacles. When you can achieve mushin you have removed all distractions and have perfect concentration and are able to see the truth for what it is. You have forgotten yourself. In Karate, Kobudo or Chinese Kempo, when you practice your goal should be the same; achieving that singular concentration and forgetting yourself. The Kata and movements found in Budo are Zen. Their common denominator is the elimination of the self. When you can achieve this state of forgetting yourself, it is an absolutely wonderful feeling.

Murakami sensei's answer to cultivating and benefiting from "ki" is a simple one, to focus the mind by singularly concentrating on the task at hand. Again, Western scientific research corroborates Murakami sensei's belief that argues that a sharp focused attention to the activity or task at hand is essential to entering "flow" or getting your "ki" moving (Goleman, 1995). But this is not as easy as it seems and requires quite a lot of discipline to get passed that initial hurdle. The mind has a tendency to wander and become distracted easily."

Exerted from "Otoko Meitoku no Jinsei Gekijo" (The life drama of the man, Meitoku),(2000) pg. 172-174.

 

 

 

Griffith Aikido Newsletter Editor

Shirin Mohebbi

Email:  shirin(AT)internode.on.net