Deep Practice

Recently there was a jodo thread that passed my way. I asked Bieler Sensei if I could post his comments here. In the discussion jodo folks were discussing the 10,000 hour training till mastery idea. I liked Jack's response as it stands on it's own as an article. I altered a few words to make it flow as an article rather than a email between folks. Please comment and let Jack know you liked the article so we can encourage him to be a regular author here at the blog.

So take it away Jack...




I have found there is serious cross-pollination between Sword, Stick and Aikido, and it gets more serious the further along we get in each. There is a threshold where our capacity to find correlations increases; we penetrate to fundamentals and start to see how they apply elsewhere. This usually requires repeatedly shedding strength and ego and even success, in order to reshape ourselves correctly according to our new understanding of principle. “Good body mechanics is always good body mechanics” as Lee Sensei put it. “Good mental attitude” too…. Correct practice, at whatever level, is essential, so we don’t end up being black belt masters of garbage.


The phrase "Deep practice" is mostly used referring to seminar experiences. However serious practice every day also must include the element of intensity and focus on reality – what is really happening at each moment? Going through the motions is OK. Doing Aikido with lame or unrealistic uke (training partner) is OK. But the “deep practice” experience requires the challenge of reality. The sword can or cannot really cut you. The stick can or cannot really dominate your opponent. Kuzushi (balance breaking) really overwhelms an honest, powerful, stable, committed attack, and uke is neither acting out the response nor selfishly altering the timing and scenario. The value of seminars is not just access to information, but increased standards, intensity of practice and pressure of scrutiny. The reality that other people are doing it correctly and succeeding, and expect you to.




Iaido is the greatest crucible for zanshin, since everything is in your mind. You must be the enemy with a sword, and you must understand and maintain the strategy of your enemy at the same time you have to monitor your actions and not get lost in details. There is no partner to keep you honest or even focused; not even your teacher can, except by example.


Conversely, partner arts always have the element of ego interfering with principle. Getting the job done, wrong, is ok. Doing a jodo kata poorly, in one situation, against one uke, who may or may not be “giving you” the technique, can be successful at the moment. It’s OK. But it’s a dead end, it doesn’t grow. It’s like “beating” someone in randori – you get the technique, give yourself a medal. You used the practice to boost your ego. What are your criteria for victory? Ultimately, we should be practicing to GET IT, to do the correct movement in the correct way at the correct time, while relaxed and with minimum effort. Separating the ultimate goal from immediate success is the hardest thing about any partner practice. When we do it right, we know it and it surprises us. There is a feeling of joy and confidence, and we wonder what the heck we were doing the rest of the time. Perfect practice makes perfect. Slow down, relax, do it right. Repeat.




- Jack Bieler

Unencumbered Spirit

"Tolerate the mistakes and faults of others,
But not your own.
Endure you own difficulties and disgrace,
But not those of others."

- Hung Ying-Ming 洪自誠

Kata 型 as Rinsho 臨書

When I was studying in Japan I spent a great deal of time with a brush in hand studying the fine art of shodo 書道 - or way if the brush. Sadly I was largely a solitary practitioner and my practice was informal. I met very few martial artists that also studied calligraphy. At one J.E.T. gathering for English teachers I met one. The conversation quickly got to the point we both had discovered, shodo 書道 and budo 武道 are parallel art forms. They are identical in many of the core educational principles, and every practice session in one form opens up understanding in the other.

When I first started calligraphy I wanted to do cursive and splashy pieces. Similarly in aikido I wanted to do randori. According to the Japanese educational model, in both art forms it becomes vital to build the structure of the art by carefully copying the works of master artists. In budo we call the practice kata 型 in shodo it is rinsho 臨書.

Latley much of my budo practice has been original movement. I teach my cutting edge of artistic understanding. This is useful at times, but lately I have worried about how my student's art will suffer. They need a logical way to wrap their heads around the problems and principles of budo. Thankfully the masters have preserved the art in a puzzle called kata, our brush-less rinsho.

"Rinsho (臨書) means copying masterpieces. The whole idea is not to copy the text exactly as it is, but catch the spirit, rhythm, style and energy of given work. It is the oldest and most proper way of studying calligraphy."

"Copying Chinese manuscripts is base of our study. I begin every day with at least one hour of rinsho. I remember my teacher scolding me for writing sousaku (創作, own composition) too often and neglecting rinsho. It is the only way to understand how powerful writing can be." -Ryuurui

Like Ryuurui comments, you are not copying either the kata or rinsho exactly. You are searching to express it's spirit in your own way. I remember a shodo friend of mine in Japan reading a critical letter from a master to his students. The students had been copying the master too closely and missing a key element of the practice.

Musubi - 結び

Musubi is a concept that I believes forms one of the core principles of aiki based art forms. Over my years of training I have felt various artists express it in radically different ways but at the end of the day musubi 結び, or connection between centers, is one of the common denominators high level people all have mastery of in their practice. After 30 years in the art, this is the quality I look for to see if people are understanding the art. How connected are they?

As I often do, when exploring a concept I love to break down the kanji, the Chinese character to see what secrets lie in store for us.

結び - むすび ending; conclusion; union

結び目- むすびめ knot

結び方 - むすびかた way of tying a knot


So from a budo perspective, I would say

結び - to be connected or related; to join together

Now let us explore the kanji 結 deeper and explore it's construction and etymology.



結う

to do up (hair); to braid; to fasten; to fix


結ぶ

1: to tie; to bind; to link;
2: to bear (fruit);
3: to close (e.g. deal); to confirm; to conclude;
4: to close tightly; to purse (e.g. lips);
5: to unite (with); to ally; to join hands

Here is what you get if you type 結 into Google search.





The character is made up of two clusters of ideas. 糸 and 吉


糸 a fine thread

Pictographically the writing 糸 represents a twisted string.




吉 - good / lucky / auspicious / propitious / favorable / fortunate

the speech 口(mouth) of a sage 士(a man of learning) = 吉 auspicious


Now that I have beaten you to death with kanji lets see it in action




First we see Goldberg Sensei, the head of Kiyamakan Kodokai Daito Ryu. He has an intense musubi so it is good for illustrative purposes. He connects deeply with Aiki-no-Tai AikiBody. It profoundly affects his partner. Centers are connected. He is imposeing on his partners center, while his own remains structured.



Then we see Stenudd Sensei. Watch as he moves right into the structure of the person. Both Kondo and Stenudd have intense musubi that really sock it to the structre of their partners.

And here I give a brief description of what musubi is and how it is created. I have 10 more years experience on this topic now, so I would make some corrections in my own presentation - but the lesson is still a good starting place if you are trying to wrap your head around the concept.


On the softer side of musubi practice we will see a short lecture by Lowry Sensei. He talks about the quality of touch it requires to establish musubi. This is a really useful lecture he has here that should be viewed often.







And as a final piece of musubi trivia for the day. Musubi (different character) also means sushi made from spam. Go figure.

AikiKen video notes

I shot some video of Hussey Sensei for a few minutes when we were training with a bokken.

Etymology and calligraphy for Bu 武 - martial

Modern Japanese: martial, manly, strong, powerful, mighty, brave, power of fighting
Mandarian: fierce, military, valiant, wushu
Cantonese: military, martial, warlike


What is the story and etymology though? What are the composite symbols and how to they interact to form the character bu 武? This was a tricky character to unravel. So many people have put their own theories and etymology on the character that it has become shrouded. Just yesterday I was involved in a debate in the dojo about it.


The character is made of two parts, or radicals.




In modern Japanese the character means: stop, halt, heave to, interrupt, suspend

This has caused a bit of confusion to the modern budo practitioner. The radical is actually a pictograph for a foot. The primitive origins of this character has a feeling of 'to walk' rather than the modern stop.





Primitive Chinese: A long handled non descript instrument - usually a hoe or ax
Mandarian: halberd, spear, lance


How do these radicals dance together to form the concept Bu 武?


The noted budo author Dave Lowry gives a common, but from what my research shows to be an historically inaccurate, etymology of the character.

koryu.com

"It would seem logical that the character for the spear alone would be sufficient to connote military. But, in making up the kanji for bu, the brushstrokes for spear are accompanied by additional strokes that mean "suppressing a revolt. " The whole character for military, then, actually refers to "quelling an uprising by use of the polearm. "

Another common interpretation I see many authors quote, the radical 止 means 'stop'. Thus many people therefore the character BU is interpreted to mean... To stop the spear, an interpretation implying a defensive and peaceful nature. While this is a nice poetic version useful for the modern dojo, it is clear this is not the historic root of the word.



Etymology of the character 'bu'武.

In old Chinese 止 did not mean stop. Originally it meant 'foot'. Added with this - 戈 - Remnant Primitive, A long handled non descript instrument - usually a hoe or ax.


to walk 止 with a weapon 戈 = 武 martial




The Funky Buddha blog reaffirms my research.

Funky Buddha

"Let's look at the kanji bu (武). Bu actually translates to military affairs or martial. The kanji is a compound of two other kanji: hoko (矛) which means halberd and ashi (足) which means foot. The kanji depicts a soldier/foot-soldier carrying a halberd, this in turn depicts military acts or martial. This is the accepted translation of bu."

Atari 当たり - 当り

A few weeks ago Hussey Sensei lent me a video that was published by the Aikido Shihan, Endo Sensei (2025 edit I no longer have the video, and its advertising on youtube has been deleted). The theme of the video is Atari 当たり. I love new terms and principles to search for in my practice.

In the context of aiki I had never heard the us of this term before. I usually have seen it in shooting arts. In kyudo 弓道 (way of the bow) 当たり or 当り Atari is the Ya (arrow) hitting the target.




Obviously in aikido it has nothing directly to do with the arrow - so we must delve further. Maybe though it is where the attention to connection is "shot". As I said, Endo's video was sadly deleted from youtube. The one artist that I have seen doing something similiar to Endo's work is from Kodokai. Here is a segment of the video of Daito Ryu Kodokai's Kodo Horikawa sensei. This level of connection he shows I feel is a great example of musubi/atari.




Let us take a look at the modern Japanese character 当 next to the ancient seal script version.




1: hit;
2: success;
3: guess; prediction;
4: affability; friendliness;
5: sensation; touch;
6: bruise (on fruit);
7: situation in which a stone or chain of stones may be captured on the next move (in the game of go);
8: bite (of a fish on a hook); strike; (Suffix)
9: per; each


As a side note, this is the same character that is used in the word atemi (当て身) I did a write up on that concept a while back. Check it out also
My Atemi 当て身 Article

This older form of this symbol, of course comes from China. The older version of the word looks like the following picture.



In modern Chinese this symbol means: bear, accept, undertake; just



So looking at the characters this time did not really help illuminate the concept of atari 当たり. Fortunately a few sensei have already taken a crack at solving this riddle.

"Atari is a concept that's not as well known, at least in the West. My first introduction to this term was from Robert House sensei, from Aikido of Commerce. Robert trained with Endo sensei in Japan in the late 80's and said he made many references to "ateru", which I believe is a reference to "atari". Robert described this concept as similar to the feeling of fly paper. There is a stickiness that uke must strive for in order to feel the ki of nage. The connecting point where uke and nage meet is the atari point. Only by maintaining this point can center and ki be transmitted to one another. This is not to say that this point is fixed or static. It can move up and down your body, it can be maintained with the hands, arms, shoulders, hips, even the head. This connection point shifts and moves during practice and it keeps the two as one unified body."

Dan Dease
Head Instructor
Central Florida Aikikai

Original Article

(Atari)"This means something like ‘to hit the mark’, ‘to catch’ (as in catching a fish with a line or rod). As I understand it, in Aikido it means taking control of your partner at the first instance of contact. This contact is first made through the point of contact – through the wrist, for example, with kata-te dori. This can only be achieved with completely relaxed shoulders and arms, but with a strong centre. The strength of your centre must radiate through your relaxed upper body."

- Dokodemo Diary