AikiWeb: The Source for Aikido Information AikiWeb's principal purpose is to serve the Internet community as a repository and dissemination point for aikido information.
Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.
If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!
This poem and others are available in my books, Nothing Works: Meditations on Aikido, Buddhism, the Tao, Zen, and other inconsequential things....and, Nothing Special, and Nothing Matters..., available thru Amazon.com, in print and Kindle editions and Barnes & Noble websites.....Also available as an e-book via Smashwords.com. Try this link: www.nothing-works.com for the full array of options.
With my back to a small Japanese maple
I look up at hazy puffs of white clouds
Drifting, drifting…
Beyond the clouds I see a small lake
Lake Ueshiba, surrounded by some
Low, rolling, green hills
The green hills of Musashi Station
That we are famous for
Nestled at their base is the small village
Of Chiba: bright, golden sangawara tile roofs
Easy to spot even from far across the station
After all this time I still marvel
At seeing half my world upside down
But, I count myself lucky to be here
Olde Earthe has fallen on hard times
And for a professor of Natural Science
And Philosophy, and a part-time
Aikido instructor
Musashi Station is a precious haven
And a small, priceless part of Humanity
As a space-faring species
Soon, the aikido seminar with my group
And a delegation from Valhalla Station
Will meet to start practice
And the small sun of the station
Will shine on swirling black hakama
And white gis
For now, we warm up with ancient
Low-tech wooden weapons - bokken and jyo
Under a serene artificial sun
In a high-tech chrysalis
Far from a dying Olde Earthe
Sometimes
You find their marks
You find evidence
Of those who have gone before
They did it without fanfare
Not seeking attention or fame
Not even acknowledgement
They just did it
Ghostly remnants
Reminders that it can be done
Fragments of a psychic journey
Hammer holds left
In spiritual mountains
That can guide you to the peaks
And what lies beyond
I don't know how the young do it?
They breeze through life with no clue
Though, of course, they think they do
At what point does that change?
For me, each step is filled with
Agonizing existential dread
I place one foot forward
And, somewhere, a star explodes
Another step, and the last of a species
Goes extinct, one more, a war starts,
A child cries, galaxies collide,
The homeless wander on by,
Quantum realities split apart; yet, another
And the universe expands even further
Stretching my mind and sanity even more
I tell myself: I can make it! I can make it!
Just get to Starbucks!
When we speak of a nothingness
Outside of existence
We speak of a relative nothingness
Not true emptiness
We still have a this or that
A this and that mind set Absolute emptiness is one with being
Not separate from it
It is not out there
It is near at hand
We are forced to say
It is not this thing or that
Therefore, it is this thing or that Fire does not burn fire
The sword does not cut the sword
Perhaps it is a language problem?
Aikido is my regular misogi practice
No talking, tongue to roof of mouth,
Breathing through the nose
Warm-ups with torifume,
With furitama, with otakebi
Responding as uke without thinking
(Or, at least, trying to)
Performing as nage without thinking
(Or, at least, trying to)
No other-criticism
No self-criticism
No self
Quiet
08-17-2020 04:25 PM 
