"The Secret of focus is virtuous intention. Nothing else. Any fool can focus. Any fool can concentrate. But the real life, and deathness, comes in why you are focusing. The reason that you are focusing is important. The techniques you learn in Aikido are not weapons. They are tools which can be used to save a life. If you use them as weapons, you will get cut by them. You will hurt somebody or get hurt. If you use them with virtuous intention, you will go right through the opposition. I stole this theory from 150 Japanese sword teachers."

-Terry Dobson Sensei

Summer 1999 Training Stories

-Kimbery Richardson

I targeted this summer of '99 as a time to train with my teachers and my teachers' teachers. When I teach a lot, I can get stale. So an infusion of wisdom and clarity is a good thing. It has been a bountiful summer of Aikido. I thought I would share with you some of the clarity I attempted to steal from these teachers.

Practicing with Anno Sensei at the Santa Cruz Summer Retreat was like coming home. I was startled to see a man jump for joy in his demonstrations of Aikido. He would step on the mat in a profound and unabashedly humble manner. At times he glowed. A 70 year old man with 45 years of training wanted us to know he was a student in process.

When Anno Sensei began training in Aikido at the age of 23 technically he was too young . Since 25 was the age limit he managed to keep a low profile on the mat. O'sensei let it be. Anno Sensei spoke of O'sensei as someone he loved deeply. What I do not know how to describe is the feeling of watching my teacherÍs teacher express his deep gratitude for the art. The word 'deep' popped up everywhere. "Reach for heaven. Examine yourself deeply. Shower you and your partner in the spirit of the universe. Surrender to the spirit of the universe fully, deeply." He took ukemi for 170 people on a Friday. And he flipped over the excellence of a 10 year old kid who practiced rondori before each class. Anno Sensei called him an 'Aikido Embryo'.

There was much more. In June Tom Read Sensei visited the Emerald city. He gave eloquent guidance on the role of uke in Aikido. Though the attacker by definition, uke's role is to seek out and follow nage's direction as perfectly as possible. No resistance. As uke and nage progress in their training, their ability to be aware of the unique characteristics of leading and following deepen, the fight falls away and they get a glimmer of how to melt aggression in the blend. It is at this point in training that unending energetic lines become available to them. And the power of magnetism gets felt on a body and a spirit level.

I began training with Saotome Sensei in 1981. Since then I travel to Colorado most years for a week in August to train with him and Ikeda Sensei at the Rocky Mountain Aikido Retreat. It's a ritual. Saotome Sensei's grace and fierceness makes me all too aware of my mortality. He is so adamant that a 'wake up and die right' kind of attitude is necessary in acknowledging uke and allowing him in. You sit there on that mat as he lectures and demonstrates and lectures. Your legs are killing you... yet you can't escape feeling the crackle in the air. When that man is inspired, the room is infused with 'Just die into the move and die again. 'You can see it so fresh. His presence inspires the budoka in me. He requires that I ask 'how does this teaching weave its way into my daily life?' I developed a tolerable sense of compassion for my injured body this summer and was astounded by how much it was willing to work with me if I would be kind to it... or at least respectful. Watching Saotome Sensei and Ikeda Sensei nurse injuries during the training retreat demonstrated how one might move in the art with an injury..... carefully and adeptly. I try to share my experiences with my teachers when I teach class, but there is quite a bit more than what I say. It is not that I am stingy, I just get on a track that doesn't always include the stories I would like you all to have. So here is an attempt take a moment to share with you the experience of training with Takeda Sensei on Labor day week-end. The below text is a transcription of Saturday morning class. The words in straight print are Takeda Sensei; the italics are mostly mine. -K.R.

Takeda Sensei: Without trying to go for a technique cover the body of uke while stretching him out.

Kimberly: (Ah, this looks like Swari waza Ikkyo. He is referring to the energy body?!)

Think about the whole and its parts.

Too much attention is paid to the pieces of the technique.

Try to relax and find the feeling you are seeking.

Don't worry about how it looks.

It is about unification.

It doesn't matter how you are connected.

(He described this as drunk man technique- ushiro kubeshime. "Just be patient, relax, bring uke to the center and move." "The subtlety of it is daunting," says my partner.)

Practice the whole without attention to the details of the parts.

In Aikido you often hear about entering ......many techniques start that way.

Go for the center and then turn.

(Irimi nage)

Find the feeling of gathering the energy to the Center.

You must find Center in body and spirit.

Once there wherever you turn uke will turn.

Hands just support and maintain the Center.

(Make your center heavy, make your hand heavy as an extension of a heavy center)

Changing angles gives more options.

Relax.

Your body already knows your center.

(What a magical mystery tour feeling it was at North Bay Aikido on that Saturday morning. I was thoroughly delighted and for what seems to be difficult to put into words, softly transfixed. Takeda Sensei was crisp, clear, clean - nothing on him. He described O'sensei as a beam of light. "That is what I can remember... light." "Physically light, Sensei?" "No, like a shower of light. He was a small man, but when he walked into the Hombu dojo his presence filled the entire room. Very big man in a small body. Very big spirit."

Over lunch Takeda spoke of his teacher and student of O'sensei, Yamaguchi Sensei. A senior teacher at Hombu dojo who recently passed away, he had flare and elegance and lightening reflexes. When asked about Yamaguchi's use of relaxation in Aikido, Takeda paused. Perhaps his relaxing style came after he agreed to be kamikaze submarine pilot in WWII. The war ended weeks before his mission was scheduled. It was as if he had already died, so life looked different. If he already had died, he could afford to relax in the face of attack.

Yamaguchi described O'Sensei as one of the last true budoka. When asked to explain further, Takeda reflected for a moment and said that it is hard to define this word. Samurai, warrior, one who wholeheartedly believed in the power of love to align.)

Draw them into your Center then move.

If you try to hard to remember everything you will wear yourself out.

(He never breaks a sweat.)

Without trying to force everything try to find the natural pattern.

Be heavy in your center. The Center never moves.

Vary the point of contact and the angle slightly to create alternatives.

Fall into your center like a raindrop straight down.

(Thinking of Ikeda SenseiÍs use of the image of a leaf floating off the tree in the wind. How effortlessly it descends to the ground. That is how the quality of your hand should be moving toward the floor [with uke attached]).

ItÍs not the arms...itÍs entering-irimi.

Without keeping them out you're cutting to your Center.

The bigger the person the bigger the center.

(Takeda Sensei likes watching Westerns and John Wayne. When Linda Holiday shared with him a story of OÍsensei liking westerns, he smiled. "O'sensei said that in the westerns the good guy wins.")

Use all of your concentration and focus.

Build waza upon Center.

Once you have entered into Center you can move back and front and side to side as well.

(I am hearing Takeda Sensei tell me to stretch for the feeling; to feel my partner and draw him to the center. Then move together. Images of Ikeda Sensei are surfacing. His words: "move together," "gets together," "catch it," "change the angle" come alive for me now. It is funny how you can receive teachings from someone for a number of years and try, try, try, to grasp it. Then someone else comes along and says it with a slightly different slant. Boom, there it is. Teaching cast in a pinkish-orange hue instead of yellow. It felt immanently more conceivable for my body. I felt like I would be able to do this. I fell in love with training.)

All are free to you.

The throw is to enter and change the direction of uke's motion.

(Uke looked like a rag doll. Takeda Sensei's pulses were sharp and invisible. It appeared like uke hit a wall when he got within inches of Takeda. It was mesmerizing to watch. I knew my mouth was hanging open, but I did not care. It has been this kind of summer. The weather has brought little sun, but the inspiration I have felt along with physical debilitation has been stunning. I have stayed with my body for the ride and tried not to whine too much. I knew I could view training from other points of view if I stayed centered, and somewhat even. I had nothing to lose really. Well, there were things to lose. Mostly my image of who I am supposed to be and how it is supposed to look.)

Center condenses to a smaller and smaller point- it gets easier as you practice.

(People are laughing as they train. There is a rhythm in the room, a spell-like quality. "Feel the rhythm of the practice" he says and the ukeÍs breath is sounding as he breaths out.)

Center of nage moves together with uke.

Keeping everything in a neutral point.

(Last year I dedicated my practice to developing the quality of 'compassionate detachment.' The idea was to increase kindness in my life and cut down on the anxiety that comes with being attached. This year I have focused on 'neutrality'. Every time I step on the mat I take a moment to feel myself as neutral. To me Takeda Sensei embodies the quality of neutrality. When taking ukemi from him, half the time I didn't know where to go in my body. After several directional changes I felt myself forgetting to attack. Like he stole my fighting spirit. I was in a washing machine experiencing intermittent whirlwind and stillness. Tolerating the stillness was profound. At times I had to stop thinking it was a tussle and try to feel more. Then I would remember. As I turned to face his center I found myself in an exquisite roleout. No fight and no question I was being moved without hesitation.)

Not down.

Not up.

Center.

Try to move and not twist.

This is image training.

There is the Center and there is everything around the Center.

( ItÍs Rowing practice. "Now this time be like a wave- reach out and draw in." )

If you just attack pieces of the whole nothing will move.

Bring everything together into Center.

Draw out -Extend.

(Takeda's Tenchi nage is beautiful. His arms stretched out like an octopus. He said something which brought up a desire to embrace partner. )

The whole will move.

Forget everything we did.

Your body knows.

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