Understand through Practice

 

As I near the end of 2009, I come to the realization of just how much time and energy I've spent talking about my practice. It's not necessarily a bad thing, of course. Comparing notes with other aikidoists, reading articles about the art (and once in a great while, writing one), and studying websites and whatever related media I can find - this is by no means a waste of time, in my opinion.

Even blogging about aikido (and whatever else I want to) has its merits. All of this is something akin to an aikido education. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

This evening I found myself reading and commenting on an article by Peter Goldsbury, that my sensei sent to me. The article discusses the question of whether aikido is teachable, and the author goes into a bit of detail about the Japanese education system, and how the student segment of Japanese society is structured, from a sociological viewpoint - and whether what we're doing on the mat can actually be called teaching.

So here's me, replying to my sensei's email, telling him what I think. He and I have great conversations after class sometimes, during which moments I learn a lot about the world of aikido and my place in it. He appreciates my input and respects my opinions, a priviledge I have yet to earn. But he has trained virtually every day for the past fifteen years or so, where I have trained two or three days a week for only the past four or five (and there have been long breaks in my training during that time). I don't know much about Peter Goldsbury, but I have read a lot of his articles on the Aikido Journal website. From this I can see that he quite clearly has a great deal more experience and a deeper understanding of the art than I.

So I guess here's my point. Is there such a thing as over-reading? Maybe over-commenting? Over-writing? Can an aikidoist be over-educated in aikido? I don't think so, as long as we don't allow all of that educatin' to take precedence over our mat time. But where am I supposed to draw the line? I know aikidoists who don't read anything about aikido, never participate in these discussions, and avoid blogs like anemic people avoid razors - and their aikido is far better than mine.

So at times like these, in my moments of indecision or hours of ignorance, I tend to go back to the source. And what does the source say?

In a poem, Morihei Ueshiba O-sensei said this: "Aiki cannot be exhausted by words, written or spoken. Without dabbling in idle talk, understand through practice."

From Jorge Garcia, 4dan (my sensei):

While the last statement indeed is one that the Founder said, we also have to look at what he did. Did he study, read, and comment?  Indeed he did. John Stevens reports that he constantly pored over sacred texts, countless of his students reported that he lectured about Aikido endlessly. The preface to the book, the Secrets of Aikido, rehearse one such event. Comment? Reams and reams of comments exist. I have many pictures of the Founder studying with piles of books around him. There are photos of him giving classes using visual aids no less, teaching  students who couldn't follow his teachings very well.
 
The Founder completely prohibited the use of weapons at Hombu dojo while practicing them every day at Iwama. One statement in isolation may not paint the whole picture. One thing about the Founder was his concern for efficiency. He didn't like people handling the sword and teaching others if they didn't know what they were doing. This was reported to us by Akira Tohei as the reason for that weapons policy. I suspect that the quote you cited has that feature in the light of the Founders own conduct. He didn't say that talk was idle, he said that there is such a thing as idle talk. As you know from reading my articles on our website, I am a strong believer in learning through practice and in learning by yourself. So much so, that I am probably on one extreme fringe of that view point. It's not commenting that I advocate nor talking about Aikido. In my programs, I am encouraging people to do their own study and the guides I present are helps to people who almost universally lack the background to be able to do that. I provide them a path, a way to do it but again, they must do the work and in fact, we won't force anyone to do it.
 
While practice will teach us, we must also study as the Founder did and we must read as he did as well. He was studied in the Chinese classics as well as in aspects of Buddhism and the Japanese ancient works like the Kojiki (on which he based most of his teachings).etc. Most of what he said can't even be understood apart from the resources. I believe it was idle talk, ignorant comments and study with no training that he made reference to. Think about that. I have studied his life very carefully. I think I am correct in this but if I am missing something, please share it with me.  I agree with you when you said,  "I don't think so, as long as we don't allow all of that educatin' to take precedence over our mat time." I just think that juxtapositioning it next to your first statement was sending a mixed message rather than a united one. I felt that the last statement could provide support to people with an undue bias against study and reflection by using the Founders own words in a way he may not have intended.
While I am a man with a house full of books, I train a lot more than I study. I am in the process of balancing that out somewhat. I think his comment would make more sense by paraphrasing it by saying, Without dilligent training, all talk will be idle.

Without dilligent training, all talk will be idle. Of course, my teacher's words are exactly right - I may have misstated my point - and I can attest to the fact that he is a man of deep study and vigorous training. It is  through dilligent training that we gain understanding - but not ONLY through dilligent (physical) training. We need to study the Founder's intent, or else we risk becoming aikido technicians only, as opposed to aikido practitioners. I think this is my teacher's pointObviously, it's not a bad thing to be a great technician, but one must also learn the philosophy behind what we're doing on the mat; the reasons why we do what we do. Why did the Founder move to the left during that technique? Why does Sensei turn away from the grasp instead of into it? Sometimes the answers aren't physical at all, and somethimes they are to be found in the books. After five years on the mat (I know that's not a long time, but it feels like a long time right now), I still don't understand many of the techniques we do. I may not have a firm enough grasp on the hpilosophy - the principle - behind them.

The four books I've got my nose in most right now are The Spiritual Foundations of Aikido by William Gleason (a longtime student of Saotome shihan in the ASU), Aikido and the Harmony of Nature by Mistugi Saotome shihan, The Essence of Aikido (this is a composition of the spritual teachings of the Founder, as compiled and translated by John Stevens), and Progressive Aikido: The Essential Elements by Moriteru Ueshiba (Doshu).

In The Essence of Aikido, we find 100 of the Founder's way songs (doka). The mere presence of do many writings by the Founder - as well as Stevens' comment in the book's preface that traditionally, doka written by a master have twelve levels of meaning - serves to prove my teacher's point, above. The Founder was indeed a man of letters, as well as of rigorous training.

Doka #7 is the aforementioned verse, "Understand through practice". John Stevens explains that his own translations are generally more in keeping with the spirit of the original than with the exact letter, but I believe this to be a much better translation, if you'll indulge me:

Aiki - [its mysteries]
can never be encompassed
by the brush or by the mouth.
Do not rely on words to grasp it,
attain enlightenment through practice!

Comments

[Nick Lowry]

welcome back -- reminds me of a quote from oscar wilde:"education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught."

[Lokin]

Reminds me of the story of Buddha and the flower. Zen is not something that can truly be understood by the mind, it must be experienced. A person can teach and explain zen, but all of those aspects are like the finger pointing to the moon. One must find the path and see the moon for themselves. Thus they have an experience of zen and truly understand it. A book I am reading right now is Zen and Aikido, it also travels along these lines. If a zen monk only studies the scriptures and books and teachings he has become preoccupied with the finger and never grasps the most important element, a personal experience of the moon. This is like a technician of Aikido like you pointed out, preoccupied with the finger, missing the moon. There is a quote from O'sensei that sums up the general idea that if you miss the moon in your practice, you are not doing aikido at all.