by Kimbal Anderson Sensei
So the definition.of Irimi we’re going to work with right now is the idea of entering through the center line by half-half-half… My sword-teacher said: “Split their sword in two.” You can’t do that by force – you have to do it by finesse and feeling an ever thinner, thinner, thinner, thinner, thinner line. If you understand this you can go through their energy really quickly
And you cannot hesitate. You have to develop sufficient understanding, and then simply trust that you can make the shape, that you can do the line, that you can do it without fail.
Irimi does not have a place for checking in,
So you develop martial spirit: shinken shobu. You enter under the cut of the sword, because you’re going to get there before it descends… you’re going to control it before it descends on you.
You’re not going to wait for it to be falling at you at a dangerous speed and then try to fix it.
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Now, apply this to everyday life… you see how it would be different than waiting for a complete breakdown, for things to go South, before you do something?
No. You just seize the initiative.
If you keep doing this, pretty soon you don’t even see it as different: it’s just a way of living. You say “I’m going to go do that,” “I want to do that,” and you just go do it.
And whatever happens as you’re going along, you’re going to trust that you can develop skills, find help, all the necessary things to proceed forward.
But, on the other hand, if I could convince you that there is no possibility of you getting enough knowledge while you’re in the process of doing something… well, then you’d spend your entire time p r e p a r i n g to do it. And you would never risk learning any thing. Because you already want it to be guaranteed – and in a certain way. You don’t want to adapt, either.
But when we’re doing irimi in here and your partner changes their movement a little bit, you don’t just stop and say, “oh… Let’s do it again.”
You learn to experience it. And you learn how to adjust.
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So what we do in the dojo is: we give you all the skills you need to adjust as needed and in the moment. And what I’m always watching for, is that moment where you say “Oh! I already learned this. We did this about six months ago… I had no idea I could do it now…!”
Because it emerges out of you spontaneously.
And usually that happens, and you look around, and you say: “Did you see that? That was really weird!” And then you try to think it into existence again.
Which is different from having developed the martial spirit, and just doing it.
Trying to think it into existence is always frustrating. It’s like running a xerox of a xerox of a xerox… Pretty soon you’ve got a grey spot on a piece of paper. Which convinces you that you cannot be autonomous and strong and part of the universe and be alive. So then you’re perfect to work at Walmart – or at Micron – or at Google… It’s a self-governing mechanism.
So I’m trying to create treason in your minds so that you free yourselves.
And you may find that’s why you don’t have all the energy that is flowing in the universe… that’s why the universe isn’t flowing through you very much… It’s because you’ve shut it off. Unconsciously you’ve shut it off. Because you’re not sure what to do.
Wouldn’t you say, not knowing what to do is the big problem?
Because with all the apparent teaching institutions we have in our culture, they’re not ever teaching a complete picture… so you can never see a “what to do”… So we become used to not knowing what to do.
And then if you find someone that would help you, then you say: “Well, I don’t want to do it that way…”
So you don’t know what to do, and you only know what you don’t want to do?
But what can you create from knowing what you don’t want to do?
You can stop stuff.
Which means the universe can’t flow through you very well.
And that’s why people are in love with destruction and apocalyptic thinking.
It’s so easy to burn down someone’s house. It’s hard to find trees and grow them, cut them into lumber… that takes some doing. Screaming and yelling that you’re so powerful, not so much.
Same thing in training.
Don’t tear yourself down.
Take the time. Build it carefully… a page at a time.
Don’t self-destruct.