Year: 2016

From Shiro Kuma's Blog by kumafr

The last class was about “zero style”. To be zero, you have to be one, body and mind. Sensei’s movements are so simple that it is impossible to repeat them. Sensei was magic and full of energy, and we saw how far we are all of his level of understanding.

After class, I went for dinner with Philippe, the Mitrou brothers, and a few students. We all felt drained as if emptied of our energy (maybe he sucked it out from all of us). The dinner didn’t last long; we went to bed rapidly.

Once again, this magic of Sensei reminded of the Taoteking: “Accept, and you become whole, once whole, the world is as your home.” (§22 Taoteking)

Sensei wants us to be “zero”, but zero is not nothing. Last July he said that “at the centre of zero, there’s one”. To achieve this zero state, we first, must become “one”. And for me, this “one” is the same as this “whole” depicted in the Tao. The “wholeness” is the result of acceptance and receiving. In Japanese, it can be translated by “Ukeire”. (1) Ukeire also has the meaning of receiving as in Uke Nagashi. (2)

It means that when you accept (receive) the attack of your opponent, you trap him in the space you control, and you can play with him. There were a few references to “Asobi”, playfulness, during the last classes. (3) This control of space is similar to a spider web. Tori is the spider, and Uke, the fly. He has no chance to win once wholeness is achieved.

Each time I attack Sensei with the intention of getting him, I don’t succeed. In fact, the harder I try, and the faster he traps me. Sensei is like a spider waiting for a bug to glue into his spider web. It is quiet and efficient. Uke is unable to think properly, and to surpass his defences.

At some point, Sensei referred (again) to the bug held in the space of your hands and being unable to bite: Amo isshun no tamamushi. (4) As a bug, you cannot decide what to do. It is scary. You see your defeat the moment you launch the attack. There’s nothing you can do to avoid it. Sensei repeated a few times “Tatakai Janai”, don’t fight. (5) In fact, there is no fight per se. As you are the only one trying to fight, you end up fighting yourself.

Being the receiver, he doesn’t need to hurry, as the Uke, I am delivering myself to him. Whatever the type of attack, he waits for it, receives it, and weaves his actions on the many elements I’m giving. He has no intention of winning; he simply doesn’t lose. He controls the space; there is no fight. Being united as a whole, he receives and accepts my attack, and “the world is as his home”, I’m just a bug for him to play.

The ancients said, “Accept, and you become whole”, Once whole, the world is as your home. (§22 Taoteking)

This is Ukeire, the Tao of the Bujinkan.

Bzzz!

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1. 受け入れ/ukeire/receiving; acceptance
2. 受け流す/ukenagasu/to ward off; to elude; to turn aside (a joke)
3. 遊び/asobi/playing|play (margin between on and off, gap before pressing button or lever has an effect)
4. Amo isshun no tamamushi
中一瞬 の 吉丁虫
中 amo: centre, inside, during
一瞬 isshun: one moment
吉丁虫 tamamushi: jewel beetle
5. 戦い/tatakai/battle; fight; struggle; conflict

From Shiro Kuma's Blog by kumafr

Hatsumi sensei said in class that “you cannot be good doing Bujinkan, if you’re good, you are not doing Bujinkan”. It reminded me of Salvador Dali’s quote: “Don’t be afraid of perfection, you’ll never reach it”. This quote could summarise what we are training these days. Don’t try to be perfect.

From Shiro Kuma's Blog by kumafr

After a recent class with Hatsumi sensei, we were on the train to Kashiwa with Adonis and Harry Mitrou, the twin brothers from Greece. We were speaking of the training we just had, trying to understand the profound insights that Sensei shared with us.

From Shiro Kuma's Blog by kumafr

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I feel gifted to have access to so many fantastic teachers,  when I train in Japan. But I feel even more lucky when I have two classes in a row with the same teacher.

That was the case yesterday as Senō sensei opened the Sunday training after teaching us on Saturday. When we teach, we often keep unfolding the same idea over a few classes. The Japanese Dai Shihan do the same. 

Yesterday, Senō sensei continued with the Binkan concept (1) he taught on Saturday. 

Budō is about developing this sensibility in the middle of the encounter. When your six senses are in tune with the opponent, then your body reacts without thinking. This sensibility begins with your ability to sense the opponent with your skin, binkanhada (2). 

This is why when we move we have to keep the body relaxed. The less tension we put in the body, the better we feel the other’s intentions. When this feeling extends to the whole body, this is Taikan (3). 

Taikan doesn’t only concerns the bodily sensation,  it is also the result of your experience. We know it because all of us have already experienced it before. The more you train, the better you can “sense” uke’s movements. Sometimes it feels that time is slowing down. 

This ability to sense the opponent doesn’t come overnight. It is something, like the Sakki test, that builds up gradually. One day you have it. It is something you acquire with consistent training and study. Some practitioners will develop it in twenty years, others in thirty years. But at some point, I believe that everyone training seriously within the “Bujinkan borders”  will get it (4).

At the end of the class, Senō sensei explained that in the time and space where the exchange is happening, Uke and Tori are exchanging: this is Kawasu (5).

I see Kawasu to be similar to modern chatting. When you chat with a friend, each one writes in turn, and exchange ideas. But as you have all experienced,  due to the speed of writing, there are moments where ideas get mixed up. Your answers come too late, your correspondent is already speaking of something else. And it gets hard to follow. 

When this is happening you get this type of exchange: 

– uke: how are you? 

– tori: fine. What about you?

– uke: I’m going shopping.

– tori: maybe we meet there? 

– uke: I had a bad night.

– tori: I must get some fruits.

– uke: I think I ate too much yesterday. 

– tori: I have to eat healthier. 

– uke: when? 

– tori: everyday. 

– uke: no, I meant when do we meet? 

Etc. 

At some point,  each one is following his own train of thought,  and doesn’t listen to what the other is writing. 

The same thing happens during the exchange/fight with the opponent. If Uke attacks, we should not try to put our intention in the exchange, but sense him with Taikan,  and go with the flow until we can defeat him. 

Kawasu is an important part of the fight, and will benefit us, as long as we don’t try to impose anything to the opponent. As Hatsumi sensei says “be zero, don’t do a technique. Anyone can do a technique and therefore, becomes previsible. Be unexpected”.

The best way to be unexpected is to develop sensibility. 

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1. 敏感/binkan/sensibility; susceptibility; sensitive (to); well attuned to

2. 敏感肌/binkanhada/sensitive skin

3. 体感/taikan/bodily sensation; sense; experience

4. Bujinkan borders: to me,  the Bujinkan is a complete system that doesn’t need extra “add-ons” from other fighting systems. Teachers adding MMA,  or sports-like techniques to the Bujinkan syllabus, are missing the point. The Bujinkan is perfect in itself,  anything you add, proved your lack of competence. Would  you put a Mp3 player inside a guitar? No. Don’t cross the “border” before you understand all that you have to understand. 

5. 交わす/kawasu/to exchange (messages, greetings, arguments, etc.)|to intersect; to cross; to interlace|… with one another; … to each other