It's too bad we choose to judge without wondering why we are so affected by what we are judging. I have never seen an exception to the rule that, what irritates us the most can be our greatest teacher. If we allow ourselves to reflect upon what is "coming up" for us inside our minds in response to what we judge, well, as Bruce Lee said in Enter the Dragon: "It is like a finger pointing to the moon. Don't stare at the finger or you will miss all of that heavenly glory!".
I have studied Aikido for many years - my first teacher was Akira Tohei Shihan, then Keith Moore Sensei and Fumio Toyoda Shihan, and then Andrew Sato Sensei.
One reason people "bash" Aikido is perhaps to them it looks like a choreographed dance; two partners working together. The one being thrown (uke) often seems to "go with" the thrower (nage). With beginners and those who have lost the beginners' mind, this is too often true. I have often seen practitioners who just make circles and arm movements and hope their uke will roll and fall for them without considering more deeply why the movements work.
And while each of us must find our own answers, uke can assist nage to learn. In other words, it is uke's job to assist nage to learn - but with resistance and encouragement according to nage's level of training.
I have also studied Taiji and other arts for years, and I can tell you such lack of mindfulness occurs in all those arts as well. I think it is not the art, but the mind of the practitioner which must be challenged. Perhaps Aikido itself plays the role of nage to our minds, which must "take a fall" and be open to learning.
Well, now that I have said all that, there is one thing I myself would like to "bash" about my own Aikido experience.
I often felt trapped and bored during classes because after so many years of training in various martial arts, dance and movement therapies, I wanted to allow my movements to be more intuitive and in accordance with my own nature. However, the other advanced students I would practice with would discourage this, saying I had to do the techniques the way their teacher said they should be done, or some similar reason.
There seems to be too much emphasis on trying to keep the Aikido "pure" or some such nonesense. I've been to seminars taught by several of O Sensei's students, and my first Aikido instructor, Tohei Shihan, was one of O Sensei's students and personal assistants. None of these teachers taught the same way O Sensei taught them. How could they if they were to teach the art from their own truths, from their heart?
My Taiji teacher, Kimball Paul, once said, "Do your own Taiji!" Yes, O Sensei came to Aikido through much hard practice of other arts, but what really made this art of his so amazing was the divine inspiration he recieved to make it his own and something different in the world. For example, if martial arts are truly more about stopping the fighting in the world and building character and wisdom, and challenging oneself, then why has only Aikido discontinued the use of tournaments?
In many ways, then, Aikido is a rather socially evolved art, yet I hope its instructors and practitioners alike do not forget the joy they felt when they first began their training; the dojo can be a wondrous, Willy Wonka-like laboratory of experiment and reflection.
All great thinkers were considered crazy and challenged or "bashed" by their peers. Just as in any other art, such as music or painting or dance, the styles we practice today were often synthesized by one person who withstood the bashings of others to express his or her own divine spark.
here's to beginners' mind!!
darren
