Aikido Dreams

Hey That One Dude's Post In The Spiritual Forum Reminded Me Of Something!

Dreams! How often do you dream about Aikido?
I can't remember the last time I've had a night sleep that didn't involve dreaming about being in training at some point in the night. (well there was the one non-aikido dream where I kept calling 911 naked but only got my sempai on the phone..but I digress .)

I figured this could be a fun discussion. What are you Aiki-dreamin' about?

Haven't had any aikido dreams, but I had some REALLY strange dreams while taking my previous style.

I've had a few. Some really weird. In one dream I was being chased by this group of thugs and I stumbled into this hall and there was a small guy at the front who seemed to be lecturing all these people who were kneeling on the floor. I was too busy fighting off the thugs to really notice what was going on.

Anywho suddenly I get thrown across the room and as I look back this little guy is bouncing these thugs all over the place and giving them one hell of a beating, so much so that they run off. The little guy says nothing to me, he just walks past me and starts lecturing the people again so for a couple of minutes I'm left just sitting there kinda dazed.

Then the little guy, clearly impatient and somewhat annoyed starts motioning me to join everyone else. I do as I'm told but as I'm walking towards the group I realise the little guy is O-Sensei and I reach him he sticks his hand out with a huge friendly grin on his face, I take hold of it and he batters me into the mat for god knows how long.

In another dream I was on a course with my dojo and Sensei tells me to go to the airport and pick someone up. So I get into the car and drive to the airport and O-Sensei is there sitting on a large trunk with some Shihan or other teaching Aikido to anyone that would listen.
So I walk over to O-Sensei and tell him that I've been sent to collect him and that the course has already started. O-Sensei just grins and nods. I ask if the Shihan will be joining us and O-Sensei says "Oh just leave him, he's always doing this, he's fine" so we leave the bags with this shihan and I start to drive O-Sensei to the course. We're nearly there when O-Sensei spots a man at the side of the road with a noodles stand and O-Sensei immediately has me stop the car declaring that he wants noodles. I politely ask if we shouldn't go straight to the course. O-Sensei waves his hand dismissively and announces, "They can all wait a bit longer; we will have noodles." So we had noodles.

"we will have noodles " will become my new catch phrase.

I can't say I've ever dreamed about aikido, but if I take my drugs right before going to sleep, I get some reeeaaaaallly strange dreams. They're kinda fun actually.

I dream about aikido almost every night. Usually working on whatever techniques have been most prominent in my classes that week. Once I dreamed about just throwing around a friend of mine who does several martial arts, including aikido, but whom I have never trained with.

Last seminar I think I woke up more tired than when I went to bed the first night because I was reviewing everything Ikeda sensei had been showing us in class that night.

Onegaishimasu. Aikido has saved me in many a bad dream when, in the dream, I would suddenly remember that it is there for me.

In gassho,

Mark

I just thought about starting a thread about Aikido dreams, but found this one.. It's gonna be a long post, so dont read if easily bored.

I've had Aikido related dreams last few nights in a row...

In a dream two days ago i found myself in somewhere totally unfamiliar to me, it was mountainous, rural area, just like in northern Finland, but there were some houses and those were Japanese.. I was walking along this narrow road, going somewhere, why, i don't exactly know, but it was sort of important. At this point i was wondering, why there's nobody around, even there was these countryside houses... At that point the dream sort of skipped to the place i was going...

I found myself in a small dojo, really simple, but beautyful little house, i was standing on the mat, looked around.. There was sword stand, some small table with two vases and flowers on it, a sword stand with couple of nice looking katanas and bokkens, not much other decoration. The dojo had quite a few big windows, really well lit up place. when i looked back to where i was originally facing i saw two people.

I was totally srprised to see O-sensei and Morihiro Saito to pop out of nowhere.. I looked at them dumbfounded for a moment and then it hit me! I have bow them and sit down.. So i did. O-sensei looked at me with sort of a little bit pissed off manner. Then after the bows he started to talk. Strangely he talked a weirb mix of fluent Finnish with Japanese accent and some Japanese words here and there. Saito sensei was quiet.. O-sensei asked me, "are you really serious with budo now? You say your plan is to make this your way of living and to became a master? Do you have any idea what it takes?" I replied, "yes, that's what i'm thinking." To that O-sensei aswered: "very well, know that it will be a life long work, you'll get beaten, tired, humiliated and desperate many times! You have to recieve a lot of pain on your way and you must be determined and ready to sacrifice everything if you wish to become a master..." "But if you're ready as you think you are, i'll teach you. Just don't cry and run when it starts to hurt you.."

I dont remember that word by word, but that was the main point of the talk.. Then O-sensei got up, i did too, usual bows, "onegaishimasu" and there i go, O-sensei started teaching me all the basics, and he was really precise, he taught me same stuff over and over, and it felt like my movement and stuff never peased him. He was really in-your-face with his teaching. Every time i made a slighttest of mistakes, i stopped me, said something like "no! that's no good, do it again, this time with a flow.." or something along those lines.. It was quite fun, it's hard to tell about time in dreams but this class under O-sensei's guidance went on for hours.

Then at some point he said he's feeling tired and is going to leave.. So he just disappeared after some bowing and thank yous. Saito sensei was all that time just sitting there, watching.. When O-sensei left, Saito got up and told me he's now going to teach me some sword work. Strangely, O-sensei was talking in Finnish all the time, but Saito sensei was talking in Japanese.. As usual in dream weirdness, i understood him. It might have looked quite weird to watch, Saito speakink Japanese to me and i talking in Finnish to him.

Well, he game me a long lesson about swords and the dream eneded... I woke up and i was unusually tired at the morning.

Same sort of dreams have been going on now for maybe a week, that one two days ago was only one with old masters. In other dreams there's usually some unknown sempai or sensei showing me stuff and practicing.

I dunno, but i think it's good to have these dreams, at least it shows that my mind is working on the stuff and that's where the Aikido comes from.

Wow... that's pretty vivid. Most times my dreams are moral choices. Do I use it to hurt this aggressor or do I keep him from harm. Sometimes I get to rewind after I do the latter... or maybe its my imagination.

I had a really odd one once. I dreamed that I went to my dojo and everyone was practicing kuji-in. I found it kind of odd, but joined in. My Sensei said something to me about it being very powerful, then I woke up.

Yea, it was rather intense.... No wonder after watching so many videos about the late masters etc. But still weird. And it was so life like.

Funny thing by the way, in most dreams i've had which involved so kind of violent moments, i usually was unalbe to defend myself any other way than running.. That has changed recently. WOnder what that means..

Haha, guess what, strangest thing happened, i had a Aikido dream again... I was in some nice looking rather big dojo training with bunch of people and we were doing things with bo, some katas and stuff...

And today at my second class, first thing we did, we dug out some Bo's and did some katas, posture/movement etc. I had sort of pre learning class about Bo in my dream. Never had tried it before.

My dreams are random, weird, and normally a bit on the dark and creepy side. However, I notice that there is always a conflict, and when I am attacked, no matter how hard I try, the punches and kicks do nothing to my opponent. However, when I focus and use the principles taught to me by aikido, it is a flawless victory, sending the enemy soaring into the air, followed by an astounding crash to the ground. I never really dream of the early Masters, but I find myself against the images of the Japanese-themed demons a lot; I also find myself performing techniques I could barely if ever accomplish (at my current skill level) with the greatest of ease. Over time, "rolling out of bed" has taken on a new meaning for me :-p Every time I awaken from such a dream though, it gives me that much more motivation to continue to do my best and push myself to achieve that which can only be done in a dream.

Okay, you got me this time. All the other times I chickened out
of telling the dream from when I was in college.
Sooo many years ago (lol). I was on a wooden platform, with a
roof over it, Japanese style, looking out over some trees. No one
was around. We may not have had Aikido yet at Cornell, our Moroccan judo teacher's cousin from France only taught it my last term before I graduated.

Maybe I had seen the Aiki Shrine in a book back then, but maybe
not. Maybe I did and it just looked like a cool building and
appeared in a dream.

After about three months of Aikido at Cornell,I graduated and went to work at a Japanese store, took some courses at Columbia and stayed with my grandmother during the week, and found NYAikikai, at a time when people, including actors and dancers and one police
officer .... were just finding out about Aikido, it would take
too long to describe the many different people who did....
but the dojo was still small...

Anyway, years later I went to the ceremonial exhibition (embu) at Iwama and it was beautiful, all the demonstrations by Second Doshu and the other students of O Sensei and their students all taking turns on that small platform.

Me? After a few months at Hombu I went home, my mom had
said there was Aikido at the local Y. I went to see the director and
he said it had fallen thru (it may not have been Aikido after all,
he wasn't sure )and where did I come back from and
could I teach it. I said okay if we call it introduction. Later,
when they wanted to enlarge the program another Connecticut
dojo came down to help out, and then others came, but that
was the start.... Whenever I was teaching it was a great
opportunity to work on my homework .... those of you
who have taught probably know what I mean.( Yes Yamada
Sensei we mostly stuck to basics!)

The only demo I gave was at the Y, the New Haven group
ran it and I got to pick my favorite, which at the time was
hanmi handachi. I hadn't intended to impress the audience, it
was just my favorite at the time, but they cheered to see a
seated person throw a standing person. Please keep that
in mind if your knees are fine and you are giving a public demo.
They don't know that the attacker often goes off balance to reach
down and the rest can be relatively easy . Suwari waza
training can be great to learn center and balance, etc. if your
knees are okay. Sorry to be lecturing, but it's an experience
I'll never forget.

nope. never had an aikido dream. had ninja fighting dream where i was fighting them naked. had zombie fighting dream. damn buggers just won't die! after watching the latest Iron Man movie, i had dreams of fighting beautiful women in tight leather outfits (not going to mention what i was or was not wearing). lately, i have been dreaming about noodles.

I don't have many dreams about Aikido; maybe the other arts get in the way. When I started up again in 2004, I was doing Silat and my instructor wore a blue-and-white plaid sarong. So one night I dreamed I saw people doing Aikido practice, and all of them had blue-and-white plaid hakamas.

Sometime in the past year or two, O Sensei was in one of my dreams. Other than his speaking English, I don't remember too much about it. I've had other dreams about regular practice, but I usually forget them as soon as I wake up.

Before I started aikido, I was involved in a few physical altercations (which is partly why I began training). As a result of these experiences I had been having vivid dreams of being in a fight with someone much tougher and stronger and not being able to do anything.

After a year or so of training, the dreams shifted. I was able to handle the physical situations in my dream without being afraid, but it was still difficult.

Now if I am attacked in my dreams, it is always a simple thing to take care of the situation. Feels much better!

Hello,

I have lots of aikido dreams, but they are generally like normal training. I'm neither better nor worse, and generally training with the people with whom I also train when awake.

But sometimes I start daydreaming about aikido, and that's more interesting. Today we went ice-skating, and I started to try tai sabaki (did not work very well), and while trying it had an imagination of aikido on ice, in hakamas, skates and gi, throwing each other elegantly and landing on the skates, doing henka and taikan (these DID work!), but then the imagination finished with having someone's head slit up by the metal part of the skates, and it ceased to be pretty.

And then I have this idea of all aikidoka coming to training in very brightly coloured silken hakamas, with dragons, flowers or geometrical patterns on it...should be beautiful. But in dreams they are just black & white, just like in reality.

Best regards,

Eva

I thought that I had a bad dream of a guy doing Ki Aikido with a bunch of multi-coloured ribbons and music, thankfully I had dozed off while watching a guy doing exactly that on YouTube.

Henry Ellis
http://nakazono-aikido.blogspot.com/

Phi Truong wrote: nope. never had an aikido dream. had ninja fighting dream where i was fighting them naked. had zombie fighting dream. damn buggers just won't die! after watching the latest Iron Man movie, i had dreams of fighting beautiful women in tight leather outfits (not going to mention what i was or was not wearing). lately, i have been dreaming about noodles.

ahaha ha ha aha ah ha ha ..........

The worst ones for me is I am able to leap up into the air like you used to see in the kung phooey flicks and do a flying kick and suddenly realise that you have nothing but a short 't' shirt on and nothing else!!!!
Now that is disturbing!! I tend to wake up in a cold sweat!!!!!

Henry Ellis wrote: I thought that I had a bad dream of a guy doing Ki Aikido with a bunch of multi-coloured ribbons and music, thankfully I had dozed off while watching a guy doing exactly that on YouTube. Henry Ellis http://nakazono-aikido.blogspot.com/

Didn't you wake up in a cold sweat after nearly knocking yourself out with those ribbons I sent you?

Mary Malmros wrote: I can't say I've ever dreamed about aikido, but if I take my drugs right before going to sleep, I get some reeeaaaaallly strange dreams. They're kinda fun actually.

Can you send me some of those......

I dreamt I was doing the practice of an ancient warrior culture, donned in the garments of old, learning at the feet of warrior-mystics and practicing with stern hearted colleagues with all the intensity and intent of life and death in order to hone skills and principles against a day of need.
Slowly I awoke to the gentle rhythms of a chorus of heavy breathing and the sounds of my own snoring. Oh dear asleep during visualised breathing at the end of class again. Clasping my broomstick handle with my best Seagal frown I strode purposefully from the mat as a light sheen of perspiration dropped from my ponytailed head, down tailored and heavily embroidered gi onto my neatly pressed rayon hakama whilst shaking my head, it must have been the skinny double decaff soy latte before class.

Attilio Anthony John Wagstaffe wrote: Didn't you wake up in a cold sweat after nearly knocking yourself out with those ribbons I sent you?

I did wake up in a cold sweat, but it wasn't the ribbons that were the problem, my socks were on too tight and I could not breath out of my toes.....

Henry Ellis
http://nakazono-aikido.blogspot.com/

Henry Ellis wrote: I did wake up in a cold sweat, but it wasn't the ribbons that were the problem, my socks were on too tight and I could not breath out of my toes..... Henry Ellis http://nakazono-aikido.blogspot.com/

Henry you are a bit of a card, BUT I LIKE YOU HA HA!!!

If ya can't laugh at yourself it's time to go and see a shrink I always think!!

Do you reckon the daft idiot who phrased that might have a foot odour problem, Hence the breathing through his toes?