Description:
thoughts & words | Lee Lavi Ramirez
Contents:
Taking Sensei's Ukemi
The most challenging moments during my Aikido apprenticeship were while I was in the Uke role for my teacher. In the first year I was not called much for demonstrations, and felt a great hunger for it. When the moment finally arrived, I found myself doubting about my desire to be "in the fire" on a regular basis — although that was a point of no return.
First, it was a physical challenge, my body was not quite ready; I was always tired, I didn't eat right, nor was I drinking enough water. Yet, I had a great drive to experience the pressure and learn this new realm.
The next thing I had to study was how to empty my mind. Stop guessing and assuming on what's coming next. I learned to calm my internal noise, as I was called to take Ukemi. I tried different ways to prepare myself for the moment I was called up. It took months, but watching the more experienced Uke closely, and getting their advice helped greatly.
After being able to approach without assumptions, I had to work on a...
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Autumn
Quiet.
Abruptly whistles,
Autumn wind.
Steel blue skies.
Dry leaves
rustle under each step.
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A new season at Junior Blind
A year had past since I started teaching Aikido at the Junior Blind of America. It was last September when some of my students, a friend (guest from Japan) and myself, drove to the Ladera Heights area, for our first interaction with quite a special group of adults. We had no idea on what we will encounter. The students were challenged with partial and total blindness. All of them lived at the Junior Blind of America campus. By the end of the session, this Summer, they told us how they gained confidence within their bodies, how they felt more secured and balanced. They lost some of their fear of falling, and experienced less vulnerability.
A couple of months of Summer vacation passed, and tonight we started a new session, with a new group. Half a dozen enthusiastic adults started their Aikido practice. It was such a great joy to see such energy, teamwork, and a serious thirst to this new learning. I couldn't stop smiling...
Eliazaro, Maria, Marcy, Ishmael, Bret, and Louise — thank...
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Moments of hardship
The other day I was watching this short video, in which Pema Chodron, sheds light on our tendency to resolve things from the outside, rather than from within us.
It made me think how I sometimes try and control the whole world around me, and adjust things outside me and not from within. This brings me to think about injuries in my practice, and the choices made on how to handle them. An injury brings us to hardship; frustration, inconvenience, and pain.
An injury is like a rest in music. The musical piece cannot not be exist without rests. One element completes the other, and make it whole. Our training will not be complete unless we encounter moments of hardship. Injuries present us with an opportunity to make a choice on the type of rest we will take. In cases of injuries or illness, many of us choose to be off the mat. Often, I see students who choose to take a few weeks off the mat, as well as away from the Dojo.
We have to remember that there are many ways of dealing with...
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images of the new space
We completed building our new Dojo, and now we are celebrating its newness.
Photos by Roger Hoffman
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Homeless bound
I had no idea on how homelessness was so close to home. I've lived in Granada Hills for almost seven years now, and drove almost daily through the busy shopping center on the Northeast corner of Balboa and San Fernando Mission Boulevards. Right in between the Jack in the Box and behind the Trader Joe's store there is an island, full of bushes. The bushes were full and quite tall, and used to be the home of some people. Yet, most of Granada Hills residents were not aware of that, and so was I.
The first time I noticed this was when I opened my Aikido school, on San Fernando Mission, and started walking to my bank across the street. As I was passing by, I heard people talking, and then saw a few chairs in between the bushes, with people on them, talking and drinking. The next time, one early morning, I noticed the sleeping bags, and even a mattress. I started seeing them walking around; we would greet each other and exchange some words. They would check out the progress on our...
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Images of the path
We are featuring an exhibit of Roger Hoffmann's photography at our new Dojo, a series of five images taken in Japanese gardens.
Roger sees the progression on the path easily expressed here and this is his description to each of the images:
Practice - "You don't know what you don't know"
1. Reading, watching, thinking vs. doing.
2. Just do it.
3. Follow the class even if you don't know or understand what you are doing.
4. Lots of repetition.
5. Your mind might not get it, but your body is learning.
6. Get into a schedule.
7. Not haphazard.
8. Predictable.
9. Repetitive, risk of boredom, push through, there is so much depth to
Aikido.
10. Keep an empty mind, beginners mind.
Path - "You know what you don't know"
1. Junior kyu levels
2. Not all who practice join the path.
3. Commit to the path, the dojo, your sensei, your fellow students, your
community.
4. Understand what it means to practice in and out of the dojo.
5. There is more Aikido off the mat than on...
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Just before the move
Two weeks of construction are behind us. 6 tons of demolished walls, air ducts, and drop ceiling materials have been cleaned out of the space.
This is the time for the finishing processes: painting, tiling, flooring and, finally, moving in.
We are so fortunate to have so many people around us who genuinely care and connect with our Dojo.
So many donated from their time and energy. We received paint donation, labor at cost, and variety of provisions that made the construction process much shorter and cost effective than originally anticipated.
The excitement is in our hearts. Our first class at the new space will be on Monday, June 22nd. I hope many of our friends will come and help us infuse some great practice energy into our Dojo's new home.
Day 4 | floor plan demolition is done
Day 5 | AC ducts are pulled down
Day 6 | ceiling demolition is done
Day 10 | ceiling is covered
Day 11 | the sign is installed
Day 12 | at...
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New home
On Saturday afternoon, as I was signing the lease for our new Dojo space, I noticed that I wasn't having the feeling I usually have when signing significant agreements; the butterflies were not fluttering in my belly. It was a solid and quiet feeling, that was not accompanied with doubt.
View Larger Map
This morning, the construction process started with demolition of the present layout.
This unit used to be the headquarters of a mortgage company, with lots of cubicles, offices and a massive amount of internet and telephone wires. In the next few days these will be cleared, the drop ceiling will be removed and a large, open space will be waiting to be filled with a very different kind of work. As a very dear friend of mine wrote:
"The photo of your new dojo space is one of the most ironically wonderful things I have seen in a long time--in a collapsing economy shady organizations that sell housing loans go out of business and become dojos. Excellent!"
May this place be a home for...
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The blessing of changes
Most of my life I had great resistance to changes. So when we found out that the Los Angeles School District is planning to build an elementary school at the current Dojo location, I felt uneasy. Although we were getting information in the mail about the process, and meeting with our relocation officer, I still preferred not to think much about it.
Now, we are at one of the ending stages of the relocation process; we found a new space, we are preparing to sign a lease, and are brainstorming about the design and construction of the new Dojo. Now, we put our resistance aside, as well as the inconvenience, the fears and concerns. We ignite our creativity and sharpen our pencils, we bring about our vision and heart.
I envision a community of people of all ages; who are taking on a practice that is a source of empowerment in their lives. People who enjoy the process of learning, and willingly exchange their energy and gifts with others. I see a wider outreach within the community; a...
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A big heart story
This is a true duck story I found in my inbox today and I just had to share it:
Michael R. is an accounting clerk at Frost Bank and works downtown in a second story Office building. Several weeks ago, he watched a mother duck choose the concrete awning outside his window as the unlikely place to build a nest above the sidewalk.
The mallard laid ten eggs in a nest in the corner of the planter that is perched over ten feet in the air. She dutifully kept the eggs warm for weeks, and Monday afternoon all of her ten ducklings hatched.
Michael worried all night how the momma duck was going to get those babies safely off their perch in a busy, downtown, urban environment to take to water, which typically happens in the first 48 hours of a duck hatching. Tuesday morning, Michael watched the mother duck encourage her babies to the edge of the perch with the intent to show them how to jump off!
The mother flew down below and started quacking to her babies...
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Forty years later
Morihei Ueshiba, O'Sensei, the founder of Aikido, was a remarkable individual. A man who preceded his era, and softly crossed the square boundaries of the structured culture he was born into. He inspired others by his charismatic and enlightened way of being. He passed on April 26th, 1969, forty years ago.
Here is a small story that demonstrates his uniqueness:
A few years ago a couple of my students visited Japan, and their hometown of Iwama. The wife's family lived very close by to the Iwama Dojo, in Ibaraki perfecture. O'Sensei lived in Iwama from 1942 to the year of his passing. He built a shrine dedicated to the deities of Aikido, called Aiki Jinja (????), where he was holding the daily ceremonies and prayers of his spiritual practice of the Omoto-kyo (???) religion.
My student was attending the daily classes for a while, and she volunteered to clean around the Dojo. One day she was asked to help tiding O'Sensei's office. To her surprise, she saw a calligraphy, one of many...
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Simple pleasures
I opened my eyes this morning in a soft bed, after a good night sleep. I was laying there for a while, listening to the birds. I got up, washed my face in cold water, and looked out the window; the sun was shinning bright and everything looked so green outside. Now sitting at the desk, my cat is purring on my lap, I hear a sweet whispering conversation between my daughter and husband in the bedroom, and the water, boiling for tea, in the kitchen. Soon the scent of the jasmine buds will fill the study, and I will take small sips of this hot pleasure. I will go outside to water the plants, enjoy the new red leaves on the maple, and the new growth of the vegetable patch. Later I will take my daughter to her Ballet class, be delighted again with her adorable movements, and will then go to the Dojo for an Aikido class, for my daily practice.
Simple pleasures — never to take them for granted.
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Sacred lands
This past weekend, my family took a short vacation on the Central Coast of California. We got to experience some of the most breathtaking views of the Pacific Coast; strolls on mighty cliffs in Montaña del Oro, sunbathing on the wide shell beach South of Los Osos, and walks on the silky sands North of Moro Bay.
Yet out of all these majestic landscapes, I was captured by a simple looking place, a small farm in the middle of nowhere. This magical place is called Huasna Valley, about an hour drive East of Arroyo Grande.
Many years ago, these lands were Chumash Indians territory, as they were the largest Indian group in the state of California, ranging from Malibu to Morro Bay and well into Kern County. Many places in their territory were considered sacred — Huasna was one of their "portals to heaven" sites.
We spent a casual Easter afternoon with a few friends, their children, the farm's dogs, chickens and goats. The children decorated eggs, fed the animals, and went on...
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Peeling off
When people ask me what one gains while training in Aikido, I usually answer that in my own experience it seems like I have thrown away more than I obtained.
Some of them raise an eyebrow; How can that be? After all, now you are stronger and more skillful...
I believe that this is what meets the eye. Under the surface, on an internal level, a person is being slowly peeled. The journey progresses inwards, into the core.
After walking long enough we find out that many things such as ranks, belts, and titles are merely symbolizing the step-stone we are on at a certain moment. We realize that the practice of clarity, awareness, manners, and compassion are far more profound. We understand that simplicity, integrity and kindness are leading us on a quiet road. And as we walk deeper and deeper within our search - we are peeling off.
While we train daily, sweat, and work our bodies, we throw away false concepts, expectations and beliefs, bad habits and some parts of our personality that do...
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Spring power
Spring!
It's showing everywhere.
The tulip's buds, the velvet swellings on the maple,
all rising from a long sleep.
Awake,
connecting to what is, not to what isn't.
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Nature's school
There is an idiom in Japanese: ???? Kachou Fuugetsu. It literally means: Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon. The meaning of it is: Experience the beauty of nature, and in doing so learn about yourself.
O'Sensei wrote: "Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks. Also learn from holy books and wise people. Everything - even mountains, rivers, plants and trees - should be your teacher."
Many of us prefer to learn from authority figures, such as teachers, coaches, and parents. Nature's wonders are everywhere, and yet we are not aware of most of them. Scientists today are discovering some cutting edge technologies that are found in animals, and mainly in insects — such technologies that may be greatly beneficial to humanity, yet we don't have the knowledge to duplicate them.
In our practice we can learn from everything around us, not just from our teachers. Every moment brings a new lesson, and may provide an opportunity for discovery. Nature is a mirror we...
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Moving on
"If you find a path with no obstacles,
it probably doesn't lead anywhere" .
~anonymous
I believe that having a student-teacher relationship is essential in the study of Aikido. There may be a variety of occurrences and different reasons for a student to be looking for a new teacher. I remember the first time I saw my teacher. I had a strong gut feeling that I must become his student. For a long time I brushed this idea off, because it didn't make sense logistically. Sensei was teaching in Northern California, while I was running a printing company in Los Angeles. The chances of this to happen did not seem realistic at all.
Sometimes, we need to make a commitment first, and then deal with the logistics and consequences. It took many months of envisioning and debating with my logical side before I made my commitment. Eventually, I joined the Berkeley Dojo in 1995, and all the details (though somewhat complex) fell in place; I took a flight every Thursday to Northern California, and...
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A serious enjoyment
During most of my life I found it hard to enjoy myself while I had to be serious. Enjoyment was usually unraveling while in a light and carefree setting. Therefore, when I started to practice Aikido in my thirties, I did not incorporate much seriousness into my daily training. It was more like playtime, that I got to have after my workday. I took a couple of years to understand that this practice requires one to face the preciousness of each moment, a life and death feeling, in order to really deepen the training. I kept bumping into my own walls; my habit of making jokes, taking it easy and behaving in a casual manner. As time passed I learned to find the balance between mindful intensity and the feeling of lightness and enjoyment.
One of my students talked with me today about his doubts, arising from the ongoing aches and pains, frustration and the misunderstanding of Dojo etiquette. On one hand, he wants to train harder, faster and with more intensity - while on the other hand he...
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Self control
Citrus blossom scent —
my whole body smiles.
I cannot do anything about it.
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Beyond words
Deeds speak louder than words, so it seems. I remember seeing some instructors who accompanied the demonstrations with a great deal of verbal explanation. I believe this is the common way of teaching, especially in the West. Students are expecting to have a verbal instruction. Some people who come to observe a class at our Dojo tell me afterward that they expected to see more verbal instruction than was demonstrated during the class. I say that I learned that Aikido practice should not be taught on an intellectual level. The least we try and explain it with words, the better. In my own practice I find that repeating a technique, and experimenting with it, in silence, brings about more clarity than talking about it. There is wisdom in our body that allows knowledge to avoid being filtered by our mind, embeds it with our muscle intelligence, and creates true understanding.
The great Zen master Takuan Soho, wrote:
"We must know that it is not enough just to see what the Mind is, we must...
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Love as a practice
While many people here in the US exchanged flowers, chocolates, diamond rings, or small valentine cards yesterday - I kept thinking about "love as a practice".
So I looked for the definition of Love, and here are a couple that I found:
From Merriam-Webster dictionary:
love 'l?v noun (1): strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties
(2): attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers
(3): affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests.
From Wikipedia:
Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense interpersonal attraction. Love is not a single feeling but an emotion built from two or more feelings. Anything vital to us creates more than one feeling, and we also have feelings about our feelings (and thoughts...
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