Category Archives: A Way

…Sensei and O-Daiko…

Yamabudo!!!!…..

…dark river pointing at the moon!!!…

O’Sensei no Kuden: a ‘Way’

In order to penetrate deeply into even a single Way,  you must proceed by making yourself without desire for anything else at all.   And in fact you will find that the moment you become without desire:  you feel complete freedom.  And you will find that in this world, everything becomes the possession of the man with no desire.

– – – O’Sensei,  probably audio-recorded by by Masatake Fujita,  transcribed by Sadateru Arikawa Shihan, published in Aiki-Shinzui,  p.49

O’Sensei no Kuden: a ‘Way’ (2)

What I am teaching you is the Tao – the Way – that harmonizes man and the [natural] universe. It  is a resonance that comes from the ocean.

– – – translated (and possibly paraphrased in translation) by Itsuo Tsuda,  recorded by André Nocquet Shihan.  Published in  Shobu aïki.  La victoire selon l’art chevaleresque de Morihei Ueshiba,  by J-D. Cauhépé and A. Kuang,  p.37

…Yama-budo!!!…

Musashi on martial practice as a ‘Way’…

The Scroll of Emptiness

…otherwise known as The Book of the Void, The Scroll of the Void, The Book of Emptiness – from the GoRin no Sho: the Book of Five Rings

This being the Scroll of Emptiness, I must now set down plainly in writing [the manner in which] Ni-To-Ichi-Ryu Martial Practice is a ‘Way’: –

The heart of what is called ’emptiness’ has [traditionally] been seen as the place where there is nothing, [and as] a thing that is not known [in the way that other things are known]. [Well,] of course emptiness is where there is nothing! [But] to know the place of “there is” while also knowing the place of “there is nothing”, that indeed is emptiness.

In the world at large, there is a mistaken view that sees the state of mind where you do not discriminate as emptiness. This is not true emptiness, it is the common, confused heart [that we all share]…

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O’Sensei no Kuden: a ‘Way’ (3)

A man who is knowledgeable knows what things are un-knowable, and he works at knowing those things that can be known. But an enlightened man knows those things that have not yet become knowable…

– – – reported by Mitsugi Saotome Shihan,  Densho to Tomoshibi    p. 42

…shin-ku to ku…

True Emptiness
and Emptiness: without
that connection in your heart,
you cannot know
the Way of Aiki…

– – – O’Sensei

…the notion of a ‘Way’…

It is easy for us, today, to miss the meaning of a “Way”. As a concept, a “Way”, a “Road”, a “Path” dates back to a time when travelling by land was by far the more difficult option. For most of human history, travelling by water – on a broad river or hugging the coast – was easier, and travelling overland was both arduous and dangerous. It was something one might do to access a sacred site, or some unusual fruit or root, or to acquire some particular knowledge. Traveling in this way changes you, and only by experiencing it can you know why it is also “Tao” – the origin and ground of being…