Shochugeiko Day 4 noon, Day 5

During day 5 at noon Aikido, we spent the majority of class doing randori and switching partners on the bell. It was mostly good, but randori is a tough subject in Aikido for many reasons. More reasons, in fact, than I want to go into at the moment.

This morning and at noon, Jack Bieler Sensei from Denton, Texas, went over many of the subtle but differences between Seitei Jodo and the traditional Shindo Muso Ryu. In both classes, we covered the kihon (as performed solo, or tandoku dosa) and a little bit of the first kata in the Omote series (which the 8th kata in the Seitei no Kata), tachi otoshi. Those who had taken time off from work stuck around after the hour to look at the second kata, tsuba wari, but some of us had to get back to work.

We'll be doing more with Bieler Sensei during tomorrow's jodo class (which is two hours, so we should be able to go over more material).

It will be interesting to see what everyone thinks after the fact. There are some differences, no doubt about it, and it can be confusing as to what one should do with those differences. Should we adopt those ideas as if "this is the new way we're supposed to be doing it"? Should we say, "That's nice," and then just go back to the way we were doing it? Or should we pick and choose like a sort of buffet which ideas we like and which we want to leave by the wayside?

I don't exactly know the answer to that. Different people will probably have different preferences. The one thing I do know is, there is no One Way. There is truth all over the place. Despite this, I've noticed that human beings, for some reason, tend to crave a single solution and can't stand the idea of multiple answers. We want safety, I guess, security.

The only answer I can think of may be found in something Morihei Ueshiba once said: “You’ve seen my aikido; now go out and find your own.”