Continuing from last week’s post this is a great video of Endo Sensei leading a seminar demonstrating how breathing, looking, and moving is the foundation for “being” an aikidoist. I will also mention that last time Endo Sensei was in the states I had the opportunity to get harshly criticized for being one of “those people” who don’t attack like an aikidoist. There are plusses and minuses to that as well.

Endo Sensei has the most relaxed, patient, and responsive aikido I have every seen. His ability to maintain “hoshin” (released mind) even under “attack.” is remarkable. It is very natural to fixate on “x” about a person, interaction, technique, attack, etc but it is very different to un-focus in order to see the whole picture.

The video is divided in to breathing, looking, and movement. He starts with the standard image of breathing with your abdomen even though as he says ~you don’t breathe with your abdomen, you breath with your lungs.~ He says old masters instructed you to breath in through the heals of your feet. He again says ~you don’t breath with your feet but the image helps you breathe in a way that is right for practice.~

Endo Sensei then talks about looking with “Kan” sight which he describes as seeing broadly by not focusing on what is close to you. This allows you to see the whole person or group that is in front of you. The analogy of looking at the big picture came to mind as I watched this section.

Lastly, he talks about moving past an attack naturally. Aikido is unique in that the aim is not to stop the attack which allows , through natural motion to move beyond the attack like a passing train. It is difficult not to dodge your head to avoid a strike which protects your head but leaves the rest of you in the way. The everyday movement of walking is a far more efficient way to move entirely to safety.

There is a small part where Endo Sensei talks about how to attack. Endo Sensei presents a perspective that both the attacker and the person responding with an aikido technique should both take the opportunity to learn about aikido. This means that you not only respond like an aikidoist but you attack like an aikidoist as well, focusing on being relaxed, balanced, and stable in both roles. Everybody learns aikido all the time in this approach which is great.

****Disclaimer****
So, the reason why I got “scolded” was that I was trained from the perspective where your partner agrees to be the crazy guy. Your partner provides the opportunity to see if you can maintain your centered state and still do effective aikido when facing aggression. Aikido is the most effective when someone is really coming at you and it really doesn’t work if your partner latches on and your aren’t doing the technique right. In this scenario when you are the attacker you get in touch with your more aggressive side and then have to regain your center when you switch roles back to doing aikido. It’s a different process for learning self-regulation and non-opposition in response to internal or external aggression. I had the chance to “attack” Endo Sensei but I took the role of the “crazy guy” which he did not appreciate….. I still love his aikido…