Tuesday, February 26

Sensei means one step ahead

I’ve been asked why I’m doing this blog at the end of my training instead of the beginning. Excuse me, getting a black belt is not an end point but the starting point. When you get shodan rank the attitude is “ok now you’re ready to learn aikido.”

Huh? What the hell have I been doing all this time?

Let’s say you decide to learn how to play the guitar. You buy one, find a teacher and the next thing you want to do is play “Stairway to Heaven”. The look on their face means they’d like to smash the damn thing over your head and not waste their time. If you asked the top guitarists in the world about their skill, most would say they are still learning.

Tohei Sensei is 88 and despite having had several heart attacks and strokes is still at it. A friend told me old her boyfriend once asked her “Why are you still training after black belt. Aren’t you good enough?” he ignorantly inquired. That’s why he’s an ex now.

In this culture achievement is viewed as an excuse to stop. Been there, done that. Did Jack Nicholson stop acting after getting three Oscars? No. Did Payton Manning give up football after winning the Superbowl? No. Did Britney Spears give up - ok, bad example but you get my point.

Often when people achieve black belt they stop. Not me, I assure the sensei I’m not going away. Like a bad rash I’ll always come back. As many times as I wanted to quit I couldn’t, this is too important for my spiritual growth.

“Be not afraid of going slowly be afraid only of standing still.” goes the Chinese saying.

Monday, February 25

What is this all about?

I’m on the road to a black belt. . . in the slow lane. I’ve been training in aikido for a long time. I’m not going to say exactly how long because even I’m embarrassed at how long it’s taken to get this far. I know this isn’t supposed to be an issue with a life long practice but it is. Admittedly I had a lot of detours along the way. My mom died, I quit to work in a play, then my sister died, which triggered a serious bout of depression and drinking. Finally my relationship with the senior sensei crashed for complex reasons, requiring me to switch instructors and get use to her style.

It does take a long time to get a shodan (first degree) rank in the Ki Society. I asked around and it averages about 7 years. As one sensei put it “Getting to shodan is a marathon but that last little distance is a sprint.”

You know those pathetic out of shape runners who straggle in hours after the winners have crossed the finish line and most of the spectators have gone home? That’s me, the stubborn turtle. I may be slow but I’m not giving up.

It’s not just learning cool moves or wearing the outfit that makes me look like a marshmallow with a belt around the middle. It’s not about being to kick ass if some dumb shit should threaten me. Frankly with my temper even before I started training it would have been a bad idea for some dumb shit to threaten me. I would have ripped their arm off and beaten them senseless with it. No, this path is about being centered and calm; choosing the right way to respond to any attack, verbal, emotional, physical, whatever. It’s about being here, now.

It requires persistence and discipline; that means keep training even if you’re tired from work or you don’t want to go to the dojo because the weather is lousy, I bicycle so that’s a great excuse. It means you may spends weeks learning a single waza (art) over and over until you’re sick and tired of doing it cause you never get it right but you need to keep doing it until your body remembers so when you’re attacked you, react automatically. It requires a lot including meditation and ki breathing. Most of all it requires a lot of self-examination.You have to reprogram the way you think, react and deal with situations to reflect what you’re learning. It’s worth it, really. I just wish it didn’t take me so damn long.

A Brief History of Aikido


Aikido was founded by Uyeshiba Morihei, (1883-1969). Although at first sickly and preferring to stay indoors to read, he realized the importance of being physically strong after his father was beat up by supporters of a rival politician.

At nineteen he joined the army, serving in the Russo-Japan war with honors. He displayed an uncanny ability to dodge bullets- he said he could sense when a bullet was coming even before it was fired. After the war he resigned and returned to married life and farming

Later he learned Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu considered the forerunner of aikido, from Sokaku Takeda. He studied for a month, earning the minimum teaching requirements of 118 basic techniques. Like most martial arts, aiki-jujutsu was passed secretly from one generation to another and taught only to high ranking samurai for hundreds of years.

"The way of the sword is over; from now on make these marvelous techniques known everywhere.” His teacher told him.

Morihei had an epiphany in 1925 when a visiting Kendo instructor wished to test his reputation, such challenges were commonplace, the loser becoming the winner's student. Relying on his sixth sense "A flash of light indicated the direction of the attack. " he easily avoided the fencers wooden sword. Later, while resting in his garden, he suddenly felt bathed in a divine light, the ground quaked as a golden spirit entered his body. The barrier between the spiritual and the material worlds dissolved.

"The Aikido which I'm doing is a path that builds people, a way of forging and tempering the body and spirit. It is not a way that injures others, nor is it one that wields against them the sword of evil. I humbly ask that you also give deep thought to these considerations... In true budo there is no enemy. True budo is the work of love. It is not fighting or killing. Rather it gives life and fosters all things; it is the task of generation and perfection. In love, the protection of all is uppermost, and without love nothing can be. Indeed the "Way" of Aiki is a manifestation of love. "

Morihei had many students who went on to create their own brand of Aikido. His son Kisshomaru inherited the work at the Aikikai foundation Morihei started in Tokyo. Tomiki Genji created a competitive form while Koichi Tohei formed the International Ki society which stresses the uses of Ki .

Koichi Tohei was born in 1920. Like Morihei he was a sickly child who set about improving his health with martial arts training. After graduating from Keio University he was drafted and served in WW II in China. After returning to Japan he continued training in Aikido as well as misogi, a vigorous form of meditation and chanting, kendo (fencing) and yoga. Tohei became the chief instructor and introduced aikido to America ( in Hawaii) in 1953. He eventually received the highest rank of tenth dan in 1969 from Osensei.

In 1974 he established the Ki Society to teach ki-aikido and kiatsu. This branch of aikido differed from what Morihei taught with it’s strong emphasis on the use of ki.

“What I learned from Ueshiba Sensei was not technique but the true secret of Aikido, non-dissension; not to resist your opponent’s strength but to use it.” Tohei sensei explained in an interview with William Reed.

Today his son Senichi heads the organization. The head of the Northwest Ki Federation, Calvin Tabata, an 8th dan, has trained for more than 40 years and spent considerable time training closely with Tohei Sensei.

Saturday, February 23

The Origin of Stubborn Turtle.



No it's not some weird Native American or CIA code name. It came about when I went to a local Asian Celebration and stopped by a booth for the Japanese Immersion School, "Get your name in Kanji" they claimed.  Well I'm betting McLaughlin doesn't translate well so I had to come up with something doable. I had already chosen a turtle as an animal totem. You know, a small hard shelled animal prone to snapping. Yeah that's me. I needed a bit more and considering my too many years of training and feeling like I was getting nowhere- stubborn was a good word.

"Can you write stubborn turtle for me? "  I asked and after a note of surprise and consulting with another calligrapher, I got it in kanji. Thus Gankyo Game was born. 

Friday, February 22

making a blog is like testing for rank

I have started this blog to chronicle my training in aikido but first I have to conquer technology. I know computers pretty well, after all as a writer and graphic artist I have been using them for years but they still give me fits.

You see one of the important things we learn in martial arts is being centered and calm. By and large I have learned to deal with the little annoyances in life like bad weather, Regis Philbin and taking at least three trys to get my shit together when leaving the house. Except for one thing: computers. When they are bad, I go ballistic and my years of discipline and meditaiton are the only things that have kept me from hurling the damn thing through a window, so I guess this aikido stuff does have practical applications after all.

"How patient can grasshopper stay when faced with the fiendness of computer programming?" Stay tuned.