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Unknown
I was sitting in a coffee shop in Japan with Yamaguchi sensei and some of his students. We had just finished training. It was near Ochanomizu Station and I was maybe shodan or nidan at the most.
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I was really blown away. First of all, by the range of topics that he pulled into the conversation and secondly,
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being a Western woman not having perfect Japanese language skills and also just being shoodan or nidan, I was amazed at the times that he drew me into the conversation.
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So it was really an amazing experience
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Unknown
Another really interesting thing about it was that.
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Unknown
He was kind of in charge of of the direction of the conversation in a way. He was one of these speakers. This is just my experience. Maybe somebody had a different experience with him. So he was not my main teacher, but this was a small group, maybe 5 to 10 people.
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Unknown
my experience with him that day was
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he was leading the conversation.
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And yet
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he was, in my experience, inviting me to join in. And my memory is that he was inviting other people or accepting of other people joining in as well.
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Unknown
And
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He wasn't trying to dominate the conversation, but he also wasn't passive.
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I couldn't help but think afterwards, actually, that
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the way he conducted himself in conversation in the coffee shop was the same as on the mat, I felt was that he was in control of everything, and the conversation started before someone could actually do something different.
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And he made it interesting enough that it drew people to this topic or that topic.
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So that really fascinated me.
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He moved from one topic to another.
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Unknown
I found it very interesting and the quality of his attention
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Unknown
was the same as as when he's on the mat. So I found that it was Zanshin, so there were pauses in the conversation. But.
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Unknown
somehow you couldn't just drop out of the conversation. The pauses were there when there was something very powerful or profound that had been said, either by him, himself or someone else. So people actually thought about what had been said. And I found this to be Zanshin. It really felt like we couldn't move on to the next topic when there was this, you know, something very interesting had been said.
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Unknown
And then there's a silence
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Unknown
and we're all pondering this interesting point.
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Unknown
From my point of view, it was like he wasn't waiting for the conversation to go here or there. He wasn't just watching. He was actually creating a conversation, creating a topic, guiding us to the topic. And it's the same. It was the same on the mat, I felt, was that we were moving. And then suddenly I found myself moving in this way or that way.
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Not sure why, not sure how. And then there's the resolution to it.
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Unknown
And this is what Zanshin is all about in my opinion. It's not just stillness and not just a pose, but it's active, directed, sustained attention that moves towards what's in front of you. It's maintained and sustained. And by the way, I go into topics like this more in depth in my weekly Aikido training videos newsletter. So look in the description if you'd like to to join that.
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Unknown
It's free.
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Unknown
Also, I want to look at what this actually tells us about Aikido and Aikido training.
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the sensitivity is not a mat skill.
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Unknown
So the next question then is what does this tell us about what Aikido is actually training
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Unknown
The sensitivity in itself is not really something like a technique, right? The mat is where you develop the sensitivity, but it shows up on the mat and off the mat. Then once you develop this sensitivity and sustained attention.
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Unknown
Zan Shin, I'm mixing them now. Actually, there are really two different things. But Zan Sheen's sensitivity, these various things that you train and develop through Aikido.
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Unknown
They start to show up off the mat as well, but you train them and develop them first on the mat or whatever your practice is, whether it's yoga or horse riding or meditation, whatever it is, the most advanced thing that you can develop in Aikido is accurate perception, not just technique.
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Unknown
If you're really paying attention, then
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you can perceive so many things, and then that informs the technique. And the better your Aikido gets, the less it looks like Aikido and the more it looks like just paying attention completely.
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Unknown
And what is the benefit? You know, most of us thankfully not ever going to be in a street fight. So then what is the benefit to doing all this? Aikido the benefit is when when you can take these things off the mat, these things like sensitivity and awareness
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And mindfulness, sustained mindfulness. So.
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How can we do this? How can we remain on this path? Or if you haven't been on this path, how can you embark on this path? How can you get on this path? So first of all,
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Unknown
we've got to pay attention. And that in itself is tiring. Really, really pay attention so that we're not just reacting to things that happen.
00;06;29;05 - 00;06;48;22
Unknown
We see them before they've happened when we're leading up. For example, when your attacker comes to grab your wrist, when you're new to Aikido, you're standing there with your wrist out, and then somebody grabs it and you go, oh, they grabbed my wrist. When you're more experienced,
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Unknown
You're already organizing your body and your structure and your alignment according to how they're coming towards you and your wrist.
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Unknown
So the beginning of the technique is earlier because you're paying attention more and more. So you see if they're leaning to one side a little bit or you know, they're there. Their stride is uneven because they hurt their knee last week.
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Unknown
And all that informs what you're going to do.
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Unknown
Yamaguchi sensei in conversation and on the mat
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Unknown
at least that day. Again, I don't know. Some of you have had experiences with him that I wasn't there for, but that day, what I saw was a man who was not reacting. He was fully engaged in that conversation and discussion and same on the mat. He was not just reacting
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Unknown
He owned the whole room. He owned that room in the dojo and also in the coffee shop. He owned that space around that table. I don't know how to describe it differently from that. Also,
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Unknown
the timing wasn't fast, the timing wasn't slow.
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And on the mat.
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There was so much before the contact had been made
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that the movement, the throw is just the last part of it. So from the actual contact through to the fall, that's like the ending.
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Unknown
There had been other stuff happened before, I feel.
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Unknown
So what you can do now? Stop waiting
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So don't wait for your partner to grab your wrist or to hit towards your head.
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Unknown
Try to move just a moment earlier than your usual
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Unknown
and then see how that feels. And then next week, try to move a moment earlier than that and continue in that way.
00;08;46;13 - 00;09;15;04
Unknown
In conclusion, technique is where Aikido starts. That's where we start our training. Presence is where it ends up, it develops a presence and the coffee shop story is part of the reason why I'm still training. I'll be teaching in San Diego in just a couple of days, September 4th through sixth, and I would invite you to join the wait list for my Germany tours coming up very soon.
00;09;15;04 - 00;09;47;24
Unknown
it'll be September 14th through 27th, and I'll be teaching in four different dojos in four cities Heidelberg, Bonn, Dusseldorf and Sehnde And there will be off the mat training as well as on the mat training. So we'll have some special breakout classes, some instruction and discussion between cities and it'll be a fantastic opportunity. So please join me and you can jump on the waitlist.
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Unknown
There's a link in the description below.
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Unknown
Thanks for joining me. See you again next time. Bye bye.
