Official September 14, 2003
newsletter
Mark Crary
Ever have that feeling that you’re in a rut? Nothing seems to change, or progress in your life is at a standstill? Maybe you feel like your training is at a standstill and you think you will never “get it”? The term for that in Japanese is SHUGYO. The following is from Dave Lowry’s book “Sword and Brush-The Spirit of the Martial Arts”. I hope it helps to explain this feeling of frustration, and helps to get us all through these periods in our lives and training.
SHUGYO
Is it too early in the morning? Get up and train. Is it cold and wet outside? Go train. Tired? Weary of the whole journey and longing for a moment to stop and rest? Train. Continue on in the spirit of perseverance—this is the advice for the bugeisha who reaches an obstacle in the Way, as surely he will. It is advice that will be lost on the novice. The beginner’s enthusiasm is such that he cannot imagine what blocks could lie ahead to halt his progress. If some decisive challenge to his continuing on does appear at this early stage, he will likely abandon his practice all together. The art has not yet penetrated into his daily life. Practice can be quit without damage to the psyche. It is the most advanced bugeisha who must face the dilemmas and potential obstructions that can have serious emotional and psychological consequences. It is shugyo to which he must turn at these times if he expects to overcome and persevere.
In most physical pursuits the newcomer’s level of skill accelerates rapidly. Eventually, a plateau in learning is reached, a relatively short one that will, with little effort, be surmounted. As he continues, the practitioner periodically encounters plateaus that are longer and longer. Progress becomes harder to judge. At this point, when the activity is a hobby, the participant can convince himself that further polishing is unnecessary. He may be content to remain where he is, performing at a constant level. Or he may cease the activity entirely and find another. The bugeisha experiences the same swift start, the same plateaus, the same periods without progress. But the bugei are not a pastime, and the options for the bugeisha when those difficulties arise are not so simple.
Eventually, the bugeisha has doubts. Why spend so much time at this activity that has no practical value and has no tangible reward? Friends might advise to give up this silly venture, to find something a little more mainstream to do with his time. Injuries might also tempt him to end his journey on the Way. Boredom dulls his concentration. He is tormented finally, as self-doubts and questions about the worth of the whole thing consume him. There is every reason to quit and apparently none to continue. The model set by the master seems unattainable. And yet, when asking for answers from his teacher is now met with a firm and familiar reply: TRAIN!
On the outside, the master is indifferent to the plight of the bugeisha at this stage. Inside, he is keenly attentive. He watches to see if the student can pull from the center of his being the motivation to continue. The master knows that if the student lacks sufficient self-actuation, he will not persist in finding the Way. Much as the master may care for his student, he cannot bring the bugeisha through this crisis of agony and confoundment. If the bugeisha endures, he finds himself entering onto a new horizon. He will have ascended to the elevation of the Way called shugyo. The bugeisha at the shugyo level of training finds himself at a mountainous crossroads. It has dawned on him that the bugei are enormously difficult. He has progressed far enough to realize the promise of rewards he can find nowhere else. He may wish to quit, but if he forges ahead into shugyo, he cannot. He has passed the crossroads. His training remains directed at a perfection of outer form, but after entering shugyo, the development of the inner person has become paramount in his daily practice. The bugeisha involved in shugyo now strikes more exactly, with more deliberate precision, because his target has become the self.
Shugyo is thought of as austere training, or the process of solitary training. More positively, it is the path taken by the bugeisha to overcome barriers. It is arduous. Shugyo is trying and exacting and will not let him rest. And once he passed the crossroads, it is the only means by which to proceed on the Way.
Rob Roberts
I once wrote a paper that Sensei reminds me about frequently. In it, I said that I was trying to purge aggression from my life. This seems simple; a person may think that since he isn’t currently attacking anyone, he doesn’t have any aggression in his life. However, sometimes aggression exists but we do not recognize it as aggression.
Let’s consider a hypothetical example. Suppose there is a plan to create a new park in town. Is this aggressive? Of course not! But let’s think about the possible ramifications of this plan. How will this park be paid for? Let’s suppose that it will be financed with a modest property tax increase.
Taxes are collected by force, if necessary. In fact, there are a certain percentage of people who are evicted from their homes every year because of tax matters. This is aggression.
While an increase of a fraction of a percent may be trivial to us because we have jobs, it can be a choice between heating and eating for those who exist on the barest margins of survival. Property tax is only one example of good intentions turned into aggression; there are many more.
Please think about everything that you do, and everything that you believe, and ask yourself, could this somehow be made into aggression against someone else? Ask yourself if this new service or convenience that you desire is so important that it justifies taking the property, livelihood, or even the life of another person.
Gihan Cathcart
After training in Tangsoodo for four years, I’ve come to realize that after each promotion, my understanding of the art is much less than I’d thought. I’m humbled continually as my seniors point out seemingly minor adjustments to my form or techniques. Yet in these minor adjustments, the true art is revealed. What may have been acceptable at a lower rank is now frowned upon. I’m required to grow spiritually, mentally, and physically. This is a long process that requires patience on my seniors part and my own.
Yet, the process is rewarding. As I’m working on my own faults and trying to correct them, I also see every other participant working to achieve the same goals in accordance with their own levels. It’s a beautiful thing to see someone trying to improve and also having an open mind to see what they need to work on. We all need each other in class, weather we admit it or not. The beginners need the senior members for guidance and the seniors need the juniors to see what they themselves have forgotten and need to work on. This process forms a bond between the members of our club. Everything I’ve mentioned here is old news to most of us. Yet I write this for the beginners and the new students that join. Have goals, but don’t focus on the finish line; enjoy the journey and remind yourself that you did the best you could. Each time you practice, it’s new and different. Also remember that there really is no finish line. Growth is a lifetime process.
Adam Tohn
Everything is energy, the sun, heat, life, and tang. Energy in Tang is two different things, power, such as the power of a punch, and pure bodily energy. The bodily energy can also be controlled with and by your mind. It starts and ends in your tantien. Out of this comes a constant river of energy. The main energy goes to your heart, mind and senses. Other streams and branches also flow out of the river, into your whole body.
The different styles and arts of martial arts change this river depending on what they focus on, where they originated, and what they are used for. For example, Tang has a circular river, and the body of the person using it has constant energy waves leaving his or her body which can be felt in a slight way by people around them. This can be different in the way the person trains. If they just train to train, there is no river. If the person trains for a purpose, for the art itself and is aware of this, they have the strongest energy. It matters not whether they are a 10th Dan or a beginner at the very first step of training, they still can have an energy that can make your hair stand on end.
Mike Parenteau
Do you know what 3D pictures are? They are the ones where there is a myriad of nonsensical patterns, with colors and shapes, and upon looking at them in just the right way, produces a 3D holographic image. There are plenty of books and artwork to amuse one’s self with these things. Many people get a kick out of them and could spend hours trying to find each shape buried away inside the picture. Jane, my other half, can’t figure them out. She’s tried everything. She just can’t seem to get the hang of it. She’s asked me many times to try to explain how to see the images, but it’s something that’s hard to put into words.
When I first came to train with Sabom Nim, my feelings were much the same as Jane’s when it comes to those 3D pictures. “Get creative,” he’d say, or the famous one-liner, “Flow.” For me anyway, that was easier said than done. My background in Tae Kwon Do was rote memorization. All of our one-steps were specific, not unlike our Hyung we study today. So coming to his school, I was very much taken aback.
Sabom’s take on this however is very simple. Use the tools you’ve acquired in a logical and efficient manner. He often says, “Block, kick, punch.” For a long time, this just didn’t do it for me. I recall telling him on numerous occasions that I was having trouble with my one-steps. An assignment Sabom delegated to us, years ago, required us to list some goals we wanted to achieve for the year. One of mine was, “to do better at one-steps, flow.” This was around the time I was a red with trim. Seniors have trouble with this stuff too.
I’m sure many of you had or are having the same feelings about one-steps that I did. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still working on my one-steps. The whole premise of Sabom’s and Grandmaster Lee’s teachings is the concept of the “pursuit of perfection.” So, I thought I’d share with you some things I’ve observed and learned over the years with Sabom Nim:
1. Start simple: When you begin your one-steps, start simple. Don’t immediately go for the takedowns and other fancy things. It’s best to work up to them gradually.
2. Relax! This is difficult, especially if you’re like me and you’re genetically predisposed to being tight. Stretch well before class starts (that means get there early!), and maybe do some light meditation before class as well.
3. “Unlearn what you have learned”: Okay, this might sound like Yoda talking but it’s true. Basically what I mean is don’t plan your one-steps out. Don’t say to yourself, “I’m going to do this, then this, then this”, before your partner has even thrown the punch or kick or whatever the technique is. It is up to you to keep an open and CLEAR mind. This goes hand in hand with suggestion #2 above.
Now, you might be saying to yourself, “Well, that doesn’t tell me anything?” or “I thought you were going to give me the Holy Grail here!” Well, no one can really do that for you. One-steps are about self-discovery and self-improvement. So therefore, only you can find it for yourself, and that’s through training. Hopefully, the suggestions above will make your journey a little quicker.
Ryan Goettsche
I was thinking the other night about our school and it’s lineage and figured out that we are not too far off, in terms of generations, from the founder O’Sensei. Now if memory serves me correct, we are basically seventh generation. O’Sensei trained Koichi Tohei Sensei who taught Damian Sensei, who taught Kadlabowski Sensei who taught Sabo Sensei, who taught Medeiros Sensei, who has been teaching us.
We have been fortunate as a club to have a solid lineage back to the founder and not just in rank because I’ve found through the years that in many schools, rank is just something that is handed out freely and with no regard for what it truly stands for. Every Sensei that I have listed has kept with traditional training and been a dedicated practitioner of Aikido. That alone speaks volumes to me about how they were taught.
If any one of them had decided to add concepts or techniques from other arts or dropped philosophical values and techniques that they didn’t want to practice, Aikido would have been lost to the next group of students who learned it and so on. If that had happened, I know that what we do today would be totally different than what it could have been. There is by far enough to learn and apply in your training if you open yourself up to it and without introducing something else of your own.
Now I know that we all feel like we fail from time to time at putting everything that Aikido embodies into motion or we don’t talk about or work on certain things, but it isn’t a bad thing to feel like you aren’t fully practicing Aikido in yourself. It’s all about the effort put forward to do the best that you can at that point in time that your understanding allows. This isn’t something that you fully understand after two or five or twenty years. It is a life long effort to work on polishing your soul through training.
I know that we have a very good school with good leadership, etiquette, and deep values and commitment to continue to walk down the long path that O’Sensei has put before us and which we have agreed to walk upon. I feel very fortunate and humble to have found a school that has such a strong lineage.
When I first started training I wasn’t after private lessons from some high-ranking instructor. I didn’t want to become some kind of invincible fighter. I just wanted to practice a martial art.
I have found in our school far more than I ever expected to find from an instructor, fellow students, or myself. Aikido has become such a part of my life as a whole that I can’t even really put into words how wonderful that past nine years has been for me. Not to say that I haven’t had my moments where I wanted to quit, but having worked through those times has actually made it an even more special time for me. I remember thinking “Wow, I’ve been training for two years. Seems like so long.” Then I thought about year four, then five. I haven’t thought about that for a while now, but now I think about how it’s been nine years.
So much has changed all over in those nine years and here I am. Wow! But then I think about Sensei and twenty five years, or Isoyama Sensei and fifty plus years…pretty humbling to think about how many times they’ve gone to class, how many times they’ve picked themselves up off the mat. I’ve still got a long way to go, but hopefully I’ll be able to find the end of the road someday, be it in this life or the next or the next.
I Love summer vacations because you get to go to different places besides Colorado or Colorado Springs. My first was going to California with my mom and brother. My second was to Wisconsin and the next was to Kansas. I am going to talk about the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon was huge with a river at the bottom and it had temples.
Training from a Beginner’s Point of View.
Nicole Cary
Training for me has been quite a lot of fun. I get to meet new people, have a good time, relax, be myself and learn new techniques every time I train.
Training with Sensei Medeiros has been an experience for me and hard to forget. I remember being a little kid and thinking of what it would be like to train with my mom, dad, brother and Sensei.
Sensei almost always has a special way of remembering how to do a move if you are having trouble with a technique, for instance, with Kokyu nage, one of the first moves is “wipe the table” his thoughts are very helpful. I have not been training for very long but I know I will be trainee for a very long time.
Page Lewis
Vernon as an obedient student on a leave of absence - here is my article:
Hi all! Here is my (hopefully) amusing background as it relates to my KI training.
I was first introduced to KI ten years ago, and I found it very different and fascinating. I could no longer stay with the group that taught me I had to move. I didn't know what other groups worked with KI energy the way this group did but it left enough of an impression on me that I got a tattoo of the KI symbol on my back seven years later.
Last year I saw a documentary on the subject of Aikido practice and its use of KI energy. That's when I started to look for an Aikido school. The Center for Aikido was my first stop. I was very happy to learn that there was a group of people here in town that used KI in their daily practice and which made me feel welcomed.
I'm on a leave of absence now for about two years because I'm going back to school for an MBA. But I hope to drop by occasionally to practice. Of course now I have a little reminder of Aikido as well - a scar from knee walking.
Take care,
Jude Miller
It has been approximately one year since our club has occupied our current space, and I must say that I have taken for granted how fortunate we have all been. Some of our newer members were not present for our tenure at the Judo Institute, so I will provide some background.
Our club shared space with 5 or 6 other clubs for a majority of our stay. There were judo clubs, kickboxing clubs, and clubs for children and mixed martial arts, and so on. Most of these other clubs viewed the dojo/dojang as if it were a mere gym. It was always loud, with children running around screaming, music blaring in the background, and people always going in and out making their conversations for everyone to hear. The building was also particularly filthy, as I remember our club being the only one that ever cleaned anything. Since our club had reserved a decent time to hold class on the main mat, other clubs would challenge our right to be there, always citing that “...they had more students.”
To put it simply, there was little respect among the numerous clubs for each other or the facility itself. I can honestly say that our group was the exception. Now that our club has it’s own space; we are no longer subject to these many annoyances. There is a clean and quiet place for us to train, in addition to a “sincere and genuine” atmosphere. The atmosphere at the Judo Institute more resembled that of a gym or circus rather than a dojo/dojang.
I believe it is important for our beginners to understand how fortunate it is that we have our own place to train and appreciate it. As some of us senior members know we may not always have access to such respectable and convenient facilities in which to train in.
What I want to stress with my short (and admittedly biased) writing is simply the importance of maintaining the upkeep and respectability of our current “home” while we have it. It is the responsibility of EVERYONE who trains here.
Nathan Medina
Sitting in an uncomfortable kneeling position called seiza, and trying to do my best to mimic the peaceful looking straight posture of the senior students, I tried to make sense of what my new teacher explained,
“We practice our technique and we forget our technique, we practice and forget until there is no technique to practice.”
“What? No technique?” Here I was my first day training as a new student to learn true martial ways and my first major lesson was to forget what I am taught? At that moment Aikido felt about as far away from me as its Japanese homeland. Sure, I had read a lot about Aikido, and knew a considerable amount of the way of harmony, but at that point I seemingly knew nothing about it.
Looking up I saw the cool flame in Sensei’s eyes and decided I would give just about anything to possess the knowledge of these hakama-clad men.
“… The technique becomes a part of you.” Hearing this; the equivalent of O’Sensei himself knocking on the front door; and in a moment of realization it came to me; this is true Budo, immovable Budo, far from any sport.
That night I learned something (something I may have been searching for so long that I already knew.) I already seemed to know instinctively; the real reason I sought out Aikido. As we continue our training I only aspire for more and I hope to always have the privilege.
Floyd Medina
This is a short article on how I became interested in the art of Aikido. A long time ago when I was around 5 or 6 I was very much interested in martial arts. This was due mostly to the popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the flood of Ninja movies at the time. Eventually my interest faded. Then a little later in life I started to slowly find an interest in them; the interest slowly became rekindled.
A TV show or a movie did not bring this interest; it was due to a few things. It was somewhat influenced by some of my friends. Each of them had taken a different art. One had taken Shotokan Karate, the other Taekwondo, and another Chinese Kempo. I also wanted to train. Naturally, each of them told me to take their art, because their art was the “best.” So many to choose from, which will it be?
Now would you like to know how I rolled across Aikido? Well, it was mostly because of a video game. The game, which was for the PlayStation 2, was called Virtua Fighter 4. It is a game in which you start off as a 7th Kyu beginner and progress through until you reach the Dan rankings and finally Master level. Well I really liked this game as you can tell, this is because video games began to bore me, but this one did not; it was really fun! Just like in the old days. Well any way, there is this character in there named Aoi, (pronounced Oww Yee – fitting name, you’ll see). Aoi uses Aiki-Jujutsu style, and as I became better, no one could beat me or touch me (all the techniques are accurate). I thought for a long time about how cool it would be to do that in real life, but it was just a game, right? So eventually I got on the Internet and typed in “Aiki-Jujutsu.” Many sites appeared. I started to read about Aiki-Jujutsu and soon found out about Aikido. At first I wanted to take Aiki-Jujutsu but then I read O’Sensei’s philosophy and really liked what I had read. So it wasn’t Karate or Taekwondo or Kempo, now it was Aikido that I would do. Now I practice Aikido. I feel that I have only gotten a taste of Aikido; I liked it; it was Tasty!
Two of my cousins are involved in police work as street cops. The situations that my cousins talk about are sometimes violent. They seem to talk of how they control situations with physical force and this makes me feel glad I wasn’t there. I would not want to make the choices that they have to make.
The book Aikido Talks is about conversations with American Aikidoists written by Susan Perry & Ronald Rubin. An interview with Shinichi Suzuki is what stuck out. Sensei worked in the police department for 32 years. “I’ve never used Aikido techniques in my police work Sensei states;” “I’ve never needed them, not once! I tried not to be involved in violence, but to control people.” “In order to control people, you have to control yourself.” “I always try to have control – what the Japanese call "osaeru, ki de osaeru.” You hold them – you hold them – with your mind and body. If you direct Ki with your mind, and maintain calmness and don’t slack, you’d be surprised how much control you can have over another individual.”
Tohei Sensei taught Suzuki Sensei breathing. “Suzuki-San, from now on you must breathe for one hour each day.” Suzuki went on a rigorous schedule of breathing every day.
I do not want to quote this book for pages and pages. My main contention is this: By practicing on a daily basis you can have an effect on yourself and maybe on those around you.
Personally I don’t want to control other people, but maybe a calm, centered, breathing person who is extending Ki and has weight underside can control him or herself.
As I sit her thinking about all that I have read while compiling our long over due publication I am always amazed by the offerings our school gets from its student body. The range of subjects that the students chose to express in their writings astounds me. These topics cause me to be re-educated; to feel puzzled, to think, to feel proud, to simile and laugh often and sometimes I am moved to cry.
I often think how did I get here? Why did I stay? What would my life be like if I had not kept this school open? Where would I be in life if I had not participated in keeping this dream alive? What have I gained or lost in order to have these experiences with this school and all those people who have passed through the doors?
While the idea of a perfect school is intriguing to me the reality is that the school is a microcosm of the world outside. My job is to share the art of Aikido or Tangsoodo with those students who choose to ask and participate. This is what I accepted to do by choosing to stand up in front of a class. This act of teaching others is supposed to keep me honest and keep the school on track.
Personal emotional wellbeing is important in daily life for we are the creatures that experience the world around us and create the path we walk. Dissatisfaction, wishful thinking and dishonest acts cause us to see and experience the world through a fog. Precious physical, spiritual and mental energy is wasted and time is lost forever. This idea I am pondering may be the prime reason so many people set goals, for with out goals they would have no course by which to navigate their lives.
I have often reflected on my haphazard navigational choices in my own life that I have created. I came to the conclusion that my life goes better when I leave things alone and accept the happenstances that come my way. Whenever I consciously attempt to put things in order or fix things, I make things worse. This is main reason I do not put enormous amounts of energy into advertising for our school. This would fail because of my belief in happenstance. Our school does better because I do not have to pander to the conceits of the outside world. Those who want to learn what we know and offer will come.
With this said I want to thank all of you who truly carry the spirit of our school in their hearts, for without you I would not have achieved all that I have achieved. Despite my private personal losses, I have much to be thankful for. However I am fully cognizant that at any moment everything could all disappear in an instant.
I wish to thank my first instructor John Sabo Sensei from San Diego Ca. For without Sensei I would have surely faltered in my training. Sensei Sabo has always been a phone call away whenever I needed advice on serious matters. Sensei’s guidance is always the same. “Just train!”
Thank you Professor Render for all the years of helping me with my personal difficulties, for without you I would have no one to turn to in times of struggle.
Thank you Mr. Margrave for believing in my abilities to teach Aikido all these years, for without you I would have had no one to turn to when my girlfriend needed expert legal counsel in her battle for what was rightfully hers.
Thank you Mr. Crary for being around all these years and entrusting me with your son’s early childhood development with Aikido, for without you I would not have had the pleasure to know what it would have been like to have taught my two grandsons Aikido for five years.
Thank you Mr. Roberts for all the years of hanging out and watching Xena, for without you I would not have discovered Amiga and I would have one less person to vent my tales of woe to.
Thank you Mr. Garcia for being the first young person to earn a Shodan rank in our school, for without you I would not have known the value of my knowledge of Aikido because you have learned it well! You are an inspiration to all of us who see you move.
Thank you Mr. Goettsche for not quitting when it seemed that quitting was the logical thing to do, for without you I would not have had in times of need a Nidan in Aikido to turn to both on and off the mat.
Thank you Mr. George for always quizzing me about the many aspects of Aikido and questioning your role in the school, for without you I would not feel at peace, because when I am away from the school I know you always take care of important matters.
Thank you Mr. Parenteau for trusting my judgement about Tangsoodo and Tangsoology all these years, for without you I would have no reason to feel inspired about anything. Yes! I still miss our Miss Reel. I know it is wrong to wish but I wish she were still here with our group training. What a waste of mental energy!
Thank you Mr. Hoyt for all the great ideas and correspondence with our long lost Amigo Pollo, for without you I would have never taken that road trip down to Texas, because I did not like being away from my girlfriend and son. I missed them every minute I was not on the mat. However I learned something interesting about my Aikido that weekend. I thank the technology gods for cell phones.
Thank you Mr. Miller for enduring the struggles with Kyosa and myself, for without you I would never have had the opportunity to see Tangsoology develop in an already skilled practitioner of another art. You truly look like Tangsoology when you move. I have come to the understanding that Kyosa and I are diehards, but we both know how difficult it has been and because of you we have something to gage our success by.
Thank you Mr. Speaks for spending all your free time listening to me vent, for without you I would have lost the connection to the greater Tang Soo/Soo Bahk Do community. I appreciate your heightened interest in Tangsoology. You have often reminded me why we practice and what values we are attempting to keep alive. The teachings of Master Jong H. Lee will forever persever because I heed to your advice. You are correct! I did train with him and I need to teach you all that I can before my memory fades.
Thank you Ms. Cathcart for taking that almighty first step away from the familiar. You came to our school at a good time when it was getting popular again. Mr. Arnold was instrumental in keeping the spirit alive. Our school could not have succeeded without his help. However without you, we would have no female energy in our school nor have had the pleasure to promote to a high rank the second female to have earned red belt in our school
I want to thank all the new students for considering our school for their navigational choices. May we grow together for as long as we are able. These are the emotional reasons why I am here. There are no others.