Shodan reflections on the questions: “Where am I? Who am I? What am I doing?”

Congratulations to Dan Reid who passed his shodan test over the weekend of December 2-4, 2016; the Northwest Regional Seminar held at Multnomah Aikikai. Part of the requirements for his test included a written essay. This essay is published with his permission below.

Shodan Essay

The warm June air inside the university gym was thick with sweat, so the announcement that Chiba Sensei’s weapons class would be held outside was a welcome treat. We were in the thick of 2007 Summer Camp, and we all filed eagerly into the fresh air with bokken in hand. After a vigorous session of suburi and kirigaeshi among the broadleaf trees, we sat in seiza on the cool grass and Chiba Sensei gave a lecture. During his talk he said that whenever he trains in any form, he asks himself three simple questions that have stayed with me ever since:
“Where am I? Who am I? What am I doing?”


These questions may seem innocuous on the surface, but when I begin to parse their
implications they reveal hidden depths of meaning. The effort to internalize them and keep them at the forefront of my mind has been a core element of my Aikido and Zazen practice for nearly a decade.

The first question is the most straightforward and accessible, but the answer to “Where am I?” is not a street address or set of coordinates. Instead, the answer presents itself when I open all my senses completely to my surroundings. I try to widen and soften my field of vision in all directions, open my ears to small and distant sounds, smell and taste the air around me, feel the light breeze drying the damp spots in my gi, feel the smooth oak of my bokken, feel gravity pulling my body downward and pressing my feet into the earth. The sensation of gravity, which is actually a relativistic distortion of space- time, opens the door to perceiving existence in all four spatial dimensions of “where.”

The second question, “Who am I?”, seems to be the most deceptive of the three to Westerners. The answer is not my name; it can perhaps be best understood through other questions. How do I see myself when I’m not looking in a mirror? What does my inner voice sound like? What do I feel like inside my skin? Eventually, I begin to understand that this is not actually separate from the first question. This realization feels similar to the Hindu maxim “that art thou,” which reminds us that the outer universe we perceive is not different from our inner universe. The spatial boundary of my skin is a convenient external reference for my individual identity, but it is permeable and temporary. There is a constant exchange across the boundary of air, food, water, waste, sweat, light, thought, and speech. Continuous streams of cosmic rays and neutrinos from the far corners of our galaxy zip through my body without slowing down or noticing that I’m here. After my consciousness dissipates in death, my body will likewise disperse into the local ecosystem. Ultimately, “I” am a finite occurrence in time; understanding the second question effectively extends the first into the temporal dimension.

Finally, “What am I doing?” can be considered an intersection of the first two questions. When I do something, the “who” of the second question projects agency to affect or alter the “where” of the first. This “doing” includes but is not limited to what we perceive as direct action; it is uke’s committed strike, but it is also nage’s receiving and blending with the energy of that strike. The interaction between partners in Aikido training reveals the fuzziness of the boundary between self and other. When uke and nage both fully commit to a technique, we become like a binary star system, each orbiting a geometric point in space between us that is our common center of gravity. In the martial tension of each encounter, the center of the technique can move anywhere within or

between our bodies depending on our ma’ai, momentum, balance and weight distribution, points of contact, and intentions. When we can perceive the center’s movement, the possibilities for reversals, kaeshiwaza, and freestyle practice begin to present themselves, until the distinction between nage and uke is simply one of convenience.

Of course, I am by no means a master of any sort, and a visceral understanding of these ideas is difficult to maintain in my daily life and practice. Indeed, they often elude me altogether. However, these three simple questions have been enormously valuable to me as I remember and return to them again and again. I will always be grateful to Chiba Sensei for giving us this gift in that lecture on the grass. 

Daniel Reid, November 2016


Dan Reid has contributed an article to Dojo News previously.  Enjoy his September article "The River of Aikido":
http://multnomahaikikai.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-river-of-aikido-by-dan-reid.html

Two new Shodans! Northwest Regional Seminar December 2-4, 2016

Congratulations to Dan Reid and Greg Corbin. They passed their shodan test over the weekend of Dec 2-4, 2016 on the occasion of the Northwest Regional Seminar. More than ten Birankai North America certified instructors were in attendance.

Greg left, Dan right; testing for shodan Dec 3, 2016

Part of their requirements included writing an essay.
Here below is Greg Corbin's essay. The next post will feature Dan Reid's essay.

Greg Corbin, December 2016:

Shodan

My daughter asked me – why Aikido?  I explained it like this.  I was first exposed to a martial art (Taekwondo) at an early age, around 6 years old, taking lessons with my father.  I liked it but as with so many things at that age it didn’t stick.  Still, the seed had been planted and I kept coming back to martial arts, formally and informally.  

Toward the end of high school and the first years of college I starting training in Taekwondo regularly and was close to taking my black belt test when school and the rest of my life became too much of a distraction.  I loved the training, and was disappointed not to continue and reach black belt, but my priorities were elsewhere at the time.  

Fast forward a few years and I found myself living alone in Boulder, Colorado.   Looking for something to fill my time, keep in shape, and meet new folks, I gravitated to martial arts again.  This time Shotokan Karate.  I was instantly addicted and knew right away that Karate was an even better fit for me than had been Taekwondo.  I don’t have the impossibly long legs the most successful Taekwondo practitioners all seem to have, I always struggled with the high and flying kicks, and the direct, seemingly simple approach of Karate just made sense to me.  Plus, the style mirrored my personality.  I loved it.  Couldn’t get enough.  Went to the dojo every chance I could and even travelled to the home dojo in Denver for special trainings.  I progressed quickly, but less than a year after I started I was on the move again.

It was more than a few years before I made it back to martial arts.  A couple years floating, a couple years in graduate school, a couple more passing through LA, then law school, a new job, a son, another new job, a daughter, pushing to make partner at my law firm, the years stacked up.  But the seed had been planted.  And as it happened, a good friend and law school classmate had his shodan in Aikido.  He had trained in Japan, but I didn’t know enough, and was too focused on school and being newly married, to learn much about his path.  What I do remember is that one evening during our first year of school he and I went to check out a local Aikido dojo.  He and I had been playing around with basic Aikido techniques at the gym and he seemed interested in getting back to formal training.  So I went along.  I remember visiting Multnomah Aikikai and talking with Suzane Van Amburgh Sensei, and yearning to train.  I just wasn’t in a place to add another obsession to my life.  

A decade passed, my kids were older, I had made partner, my wife’s veterinary clinic was on solid ground, and every day I drove home past Multnomah Aikikai.  I had been doing so for years, but one day, and I have no clue why, I decided it was time to start training again.  That was eight years ago.

So, I told my daughter, I never got my black belt.  When you do, will you be done, she asked?  Now that’s a good question.  Yes, and no.  I will have achieved a goal that’s been stuck in my mind since at least high school.  So I’ll be done with that.  But will I be done with Aikido?  No.  Here is how I explained it to my daughter.

It’s like your soccer.  You know the basics.  You can pass, dribble, trap, shoot, and play different positions.  You are starting to have a feel for the field and anticipate plays.  And now that you have those skills, you can see how much more you have to learn, and that you can be even better.  Learning the basics has opened your eyes to a deeper level of play, and you know that if you keep training you will improve and understand the game in ways you can’t even imagine now.  It’s the same for me with Aikido.

I know many of the techniques, and I’m even reasonably competent with some of them.  I know the things to watch for when Sensei is demonstrating (foot work first!), and I see connections I couldn’t have imagined when I started.  I can’t do everything, and I only do a few things well, but it’s different than when I first started.  Yes, I still need to practice katate dori ikkyo, and all the others, but it isn’t just choreography.  I know I need to use my hips more and my arms less.  I need to relax, and breath.  I need to think about the angles, and I need to be aware of where uke’s foot is.  I need to make a center to center connection, and not lose it.  I need to be light, and heavy, at the right times.  I need to look up.  I need to move, get low, and stay there.  And I know all of that leads to something more complex, more subtle, and more satisfying, and I know I’m just starting to glimpse it.

But is that enough?  It’s hard, I get bruised and sore, I’ve been hurt, and I may never need to use these techniques to defend myself.  Is getting better at a physical skill worth all that?  Maybe.  I do like being good at something, and I love the idea that the more I practice the better I will become.  It feels like the ability to improve is infinite.  It isn’t boring, and it’s nice to move after a full day at the office.  The physicality is exhilarating.  But it’s more than that.

I’m better because of Aikido.  I’m a better husband, father, lawyer, friend, and person.  I work on staying centered.  I try not to let the circumstances around me take my balance.  I recover more quickly.  I let go more easily.  I breath more often.  I used to get stress headaches all the time, but haven’t had one in years.  I think about my connection to others, and I think about how to respond to the energy (positive and negative) sent my way by them.  I try not to react out of emotion, especially anger or a desire to win.  I value community and service to others, and I do my best to accept and respect differences.  I try to be aware of my surroundings.  

I didn’t learn all of these things from Aikido, but the practice brings them to the front of my mind.  I find parallels between on and off the mat all the time, and I think about how to apply the five pillars in my daily life.  I have a long way to go, both in and outside the dojo, but without training I won’t improve as quickly.  

So, why is because I want to be better.  I want to keep exploring, I want to be better at my art, I want to be a better person, and I know Aikido is the way for me to do that.  It isn’t about rank, though the recognition will feel good and put a very old goal to bed.  It’s the path I’m on that I want to continue.

Greg Corbin

The River of Aikido by Dan Reid

The River of Aikido

Dan Reid, August 2016

Aikido is many things to many people. For me it is like a broad and deep river flowing through time. It springs from its source in the mountains with O’Sensei Morihei Ueshiba, runs down and spreads across the plains and valleys with his students, and carries us forward through the decades as we continue to train. And like any river, the deeper we venture into the water, the more powerful the current becomes.

I first discovered Aikido in May 2000 at Tom Read Sensei’s dojo in Arcata, California when I was an undergraduate at Humboldt State University. I had always had a fascination with martial arts and Eastern philosophies, but up to that point I had only dabbled my toes in the water. My training at Northcoast Aikido gave me a chance to wade in and start to feel the current. My body began to learn these strange new ways to move, resulting in sore muscles that I never knew I had. As I continued to train, the movements and techniques gradually began to feel more natural, and I began to understand the first layers of their underlying martial logic. At the same time, the humbling knowledge that the more senior students and sempai had been training for years or decades reminded me how little I yet understood. I began to sense the depth of the channel that stretched out before me.

I moved to the Bay Area after college in 2002 and reconnected with my training at Aikido Institute of San Francisco under Gloria Nomura Sensei. After wading tentatively into the water from this new bend in the river, I gathered my courage and plunged in headfirst. As one of Chiba Sensei’s disciples, Nomura Sensei and her students carried forward his unique interpretations of Aikido in a vigorous and challenging style of practice. The training seemed dauntingly martial and even severe at first, but as I began to accept my fear and give myself to the swiftness of the current, I found that it supported me even as it swept me downstream. My body began to change, my instincts and reactions began to align with the practice, and I grew more confident even as I struggled through my own limitations. At the same time, my membership through the dojo in Birankai International connected me with a worldwide community of Aikidoists. I had the opportunity to train with many new people through seminars and Summer Camps, and I realized that the river of Aikido has many streams, channels, and tributaries, all flowing toward the same sea.

The deep and serene waters of Aikido have also been an enormous source of stability and community during periods of transition and difficulty in my life. I moved to Minneapolis in 2007 when my wife started her doctoral program there, and I had the opportunity to train at the Twin Cities Aikido Center for the next three years. The members of TCAC became like a wonderfully boisterous extended family, and the training and friendship I found there carried me through many trials in my professional life. We then moved to Oregon in 2010 when I began graduate study at UO, and I was lucky to train briefly with Steve Thoms Sensei at Eugene Aikikai before the combined demands of children and architecture school forced a hiatus. Even when I was unable to train, however, I always considered myself an Aikidoist, and the pull of the river’s current was never far from my mind and heart. We then spent my wife’s internship year from 2013-14 in southern Illinois, and I was able to rejoin the stream with an Aikido community there to continue my training through another difficult period.

Finally, my family and I moved back to Oregon in 2014, where I had the opportunity to join Multnomah Aikikai. This return to the Birankai community was a long-awaited homecoming. I feel fortunate to be able to continue my development in Aikido with Suzane Van Amburgh Sensei and Aki Fleshler Sensei, who also trained with Chiba Sensei. A sense of continuity in the lineage of my training stretches upstream through Van Amburgh Sensei, to Fleshler Sensei and Nomura Sensei, to Chiba Sensei, and finally to O’Sensei at the wellspring of Aikido. However, to paraphrase an old saying, one never swims in the same river twice. The flow and swirl of its currents and eddies are constantly carving new channels, silting in old ones, eroding old banks, and depositing new ones. Aikido is a living river that evolves with the dedicated training and stewardship of its practitioners around the world, and it is my honor to be considered a fellow Aikidoist. I can’t wait to see where the flowing water takes me.

Aikido private lessons at a special price

Lucky break! 

Get started with a series of four aikido lessons at a special price. 


When you schedule all four private lessons and make one payment you'll save $40!

Regular price for four lessons: $300
"Lucky Break" price: $260


Private lessons taught by Suzane Van Amburgh, 5th degree black belt, Birankai certified shidoin instructor. Learn more about Suzane Sensei.

Offer limited to new private lesson students. Book before Sep.10, 2016.

Location: Aikido Multnomah Aikikai, 6415 SW Macadam Ave, Portland OR 97239
Schedule: Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat time slots, subject to availability.
Contact Suzane: spacetomoveinfo@gmail.com or use the "Contact us" form on the right-hand sidebar of this web page.

Get started in Aikido practice with private lessons!

Take a Tour of the Adult Aikido Class Schedule

Tour de Schedule

Here's a walk-through of our adult class schedule. People often ask questions about what classes are like, which classes they should attend and who teaches when. I hope this tour is helpful to members in understanding our class schedule.

Our classes tend to range from about 2-15 people. Classes are small and the people leading classes are attentive to who is in the class. The class will be geared to the folks who show up for class. So, show up and the class will be tailored for you! Exercises taught are scalable. That means movements demonstrated can be practiced at a beginner level or a more advanced level, along a spectrum. Teachers and senior students are happy to work with beginners.

If you are a beginner we recommend you practice 2-3 days per week and make at least one of your classes a "Fundamentals" class. After watching attendance patterns and trends in teacher availability, we have established that certain class times make sense to designate as "Fundamentals." These class periods have attracted beginners consistently: Tuesdays 6:15pm, Wednesday 6:15pm and Saturday 10:30am.

Beginners are not constrained to Fundamentals classes! Feel free to practice Mondays and Wednesdays or Tuesdays and Thursdays or Monday 12:30, Wednesday evening and Saturday morning, or any combination that works for your schedule. All regular adult members are eligible to attend any unrestricted class.

	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
10:00 AM						Private lessons
10:30 AM	Private lessons					Fundamentals/ All levels: SV
12:30 PM	All levels: SV				All levels: AF	Periodic special Saturday classes, usually noon-1pm :SV
			Private lessons			Private lessons
5:00 PM	Reserved		Children's class	Reserved	Children's class
6:15 PM	All levels: AF (SMS/JO)	Fundamentals/ All levels (except for first Tuesday*) rotate among AF, SV, JO, SMS	Fundamentals/ All levels: JPO (SMS)	All levels: AF (JO/SMS)
7:30 PM		Bokken/ Iaido: SV/AF		Weapons & Body Arts: AF (SMS/JO)

Who teaches which classes?
Everyone who leads a class in our dojo does so on a volunteer basis. The teachers all have jobs outside the dojo and we all balance dojo with work and family commitments. So, we have an adaptive system in place for covering classes. One person serves as "primary' teacher of the time slot and 1-2 others serve as back up. The four main people leading classes stay in tight communication to make sure classes are covered. Here is the primary teaching schedule:

Monday 12:30pm:
A new class taught by Van Amburgh Sensei (SV). The nature of class will be determined according to who attends regularly.
Monday 6:15pm:
Usually taught by Fleshler Sensei (AF).
Tuesday 6:15pm:
Teaching responsibility rotates among all four (AF, SV, JPO and SMS). First Tuesday of the month we hold advanced class open to 2nd kyu +. Beginners are encouraged to observe class. If you are dressed in gi, you may be invited onto the mat for part of class.
Tuesday 7:30pm Iaido/ bokken class:
Fleshler or Van Amburgh Sensei
Wednesday 6:15pm:
Oliva Sensei. Previously Van Amburgh Sensei taught this class regularly however she is now teaching more in Forest Grove. Wednesday night will be a good night for Oliva Sensei to teach regularly starting in May. Through March and April you may see Sean Sheedy Sempai or Van Amburgh Sensei teaching on Wednesdays.
Thursday 6:15pm:
Fleshler Sensei. This class tends to be faster paced requiring more challenging ukemi skills.
Thursday 7:30pm:
Fleshler Sensei. This class may incorporate weapons work, body arts or both.
Friday 12:30pm:
A new class taught by Fleshler Sensei. The nature of class will be determined according to who attends regularly.
Saturday 10:30am:
Usually taught by Van Amburgh Sensei. This class time has been popular among beginning students. Content is usually geared toward developing the skills to be able to perform a 5th kyu test well. All levels benefit from this practice. The fundamental techniques of the 5th kyu guidelines lay the foundation for the entire curriculum.

Weekends:
Periodically special classes are scheduled on weekends. Van Amburgh sensei often runs themed classes on Saturdays noon-1pm. Flesher Sensei runs a Sunday morning practice about once a month. Regional seminars are often held over a weekend. Stay connected with Upcoming Dates and the Seminar page for details on weekend events.

Cancellations:
Once in a while we run into a situation where no one is available to teach. At that point we look to a long-standing member to open the dojo and host a "free practice." That member holds responsibility to maintain a safe practice atmosphere and be available to help people out responding to questions, etc. Participants may be self-directed and collaborative in their learning.

If we ever need to cancel a class an announcement will be posted on Upcoming Dates. We also do our best to notify by email the people who attend classes regularly. Please keep us updated with your best email address.

Upcoming Dates is a Google doc maintained by Van Amburgh Sensei. You can get to it from the Dojo News navigation bar or go to http://tinyurl.com/aikidodates.
Here's the google link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q6wm7n72FK4IT3XthH61MF-WfoZpULjZBJX0LnR3dms/edit

Aikido Multnomah Aikikai 6415 SW Macadam Ave Portland OR 97239

Winter Training Intensive 2016: From the Ground Up

Multnomah Aikikai provides winter intensive training in January of each year. 

Winter training is a time to sense your center; a deep ember, burning and warming your body. Nurture that ember and sense the fire within you.

Through practice with each other the fire grows and radiates, warming the hands and feet, radiating out and sparking the fire in each other.

The theme for this January’s Winter Intensive is  From the Ground Up.   Look for opportunities to condition your core, hips, legs and feet. Sense the strength of your lower body and the power the ground offers. Fuel your technique, your ukemi and your spirit.

Share with each other what you’ve learned about conditioning and taking care of your feet, legs, hips, and core.

When the lower body is strong and well coordinated you can make good use of the ground forces to support movements of the upper body. Chest, spine and shoulders become supple and free.

We’ll practice our techniques from suwari waza, hanmi handachi and tachi waza this month.

In Japan, winter intensive is a time period when people resolve to practice everyday. This January, come to the dojo as much as you can and mark your attendance every day that you come in. At the end of the month we’ll recognize the mu-kyu, kyu and dan members who trained the most.

Schedule changes and special events for Winter Intensive

For January, we’ll practice in a different rhythm on Tuesdays and Thursdays in three class segments. This will allow us to add a fundamentals class, a nikkyu and above class and a iaido/ sword handling class to our training schedule.

Tue 5:45-6:30pm, fundamentals

Tue 6:45-7:30pm, all levels

Tue 7:45-8:45pm, sword handling for aikidoists/ Iaido class

Thu 5:45-6:30pm, fundamentals

Thu 6:45-7:30pm, all levels

Thu 7:45-8:30pm, 2nd kyu and above

The rest of the class schedule, Mon, Wed, Fri, Saturday remains unchanged.

Special events:

Jan 5,  First Tuesday

Jan 9, Sat: Balance Challenge

Jan 12, Tue: Kagami Biraki; full community event

5:45pm - 6:30pm Fold a Crane for the New Year

6:45- 7:30pm Traditional New Year’s practice for all levels

7:45-8:30: celebrate with tea and sake.

Jan 15- 17, Fri- Sun: Winter workshop Power Without Struggle;

More news to come! Stay Connected!

Follow Dojo News and check in regularly with Upcoming Dates