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Old 01-20-2006, 10:30 AM   #58
MM
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,996
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Re: Have you ever experienced this?

Quote:
John Boswell wrote:
After sleeping on it and thinking about it, I've just about come to the conclusion that I have experienced these energy releases before. AND, if people are considering them the goal, then they definitly are on the wrong track.

I would equate these releases with dan rankings. Shodan means... you're ready to start learning, right? (surely I'm not the only one to have heard that?)

So... once you've opened up your spiritual self and have released that energy inside you... you're ready to start learning.

Makes sense, if you think about it. How many people are still struggling just to open up their spiritual side? And even if they do, how many people recognize what just happened? Either way, you're still really just starting at Square One.

Time to reach out and figure out what Square Two is.
I reread your post and realized that I'd covered this subject in my latest blog entry. I'll paste it here. Let me know what you think about it. I would equate my level 3 with Shodan rank. So, yeah, what is Square Two? And how many more levels do I have to go through to get there?


Mark

Begin paste:

Before class last week, we had visitors in the dojo. They wondered about Aikido and I was demonstrating how in Aikido we move and blend during an attack. I had someone attack, I moved and blended, but this time something different happened. Let me take a step back for a moment and explain some things first.

Initially, in my training, there were blocky movements and attempts to get where to step and how to step down. Next, I worked on getting timing right. Slowly I progressed from really hard and muscular to somewhat softer techniques (but still not great). At one point, I performed a technique where I ended up going, hey, why are you (uke) on the mat. I didn't do anything, or so I thought.

To sum up the levels I experienced:
1. Starting. Working on movement.
2. Timing. Working on timing.
3. Body. Working on using less muscle and more aiki.
3. Correct movement, timing, and body.

In level 1, it was all beginnings and getting to moving where I should be. At times, my moving would be just right but my timing was off. Still, my aikido definitely worked better.

Examples. Yokomenuchi Shihonage (YS). I'd initially move to the inside of the attack, but be way too far away from uke to really keep moving for shihonage. Then I'd get better and actually be just right so that I could start shihonage but I was looking at my feet or too surprised that it was working that I'd lose the timing.

In level 2, I worked on getting where I should be at the right time so that the technique worked smoothly.

Example of YS -- My movement was good and my timing was good such that shihonage flowed, but I used an extra amount of muscle to get things done.

In level 3, I took out more muscle and just used enough energy to make the technique work.

Example of YS -- Aikido happened and I'm left wondering why uke was on the ground. I didn't really feel like I did anything at all.

So, in a basic overview that was the levels that I went through. And I'm okay with attempting to be softer, use less muscle, and finding uke just on the mat and me feeling like I didn't do anything. That was where I was at.

Now, however, I got a glimpse at another level in my Aikido. (And no, these levels aren't linear. They intermesh with other levels, both known and unknown.) From my first paragraph above, when I moved and blended, something strange happened. It was exactly like a technique from level 3, but this time, all during the technique, I could feel everything that was happening. I felt uke's presence/energy/attack and I felt myself blending and moving uke to where I wanted uke to go. I knew throughout the technique that I was doing one of those "Hey, why are you on the ground, I didn't do anything" only this time, I DID know what I was doing. But I wasn't thinking what to do; I was just in that moment in time with me, with uke, and with Aikido. Aikido happened and this time, I was the whole, but yet not the whole. It was a very definitive feeling. Something I've never experienced before but something that I do want to train towards. It was one of those "cool" moments in Aikido.
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