From Shiro Kuma's Weblog by kumafr
Tachi kumiuchi is not about cutting, crushing or even hitting; it is about finding the openings in ukeâs body in the midst of an ever changing encounter. These openings get visible only if you are connected to: space, time, and the opponent at all time. As always “simple is difficult” and to find, to keep, and to use the connection efficiently is very hard.
We have to find the connection to the situation to move in harmony with it. We have to be a small boat floating on the sea and following the rhythm of the waves, no intention, no destruction.Â
It is the same with budô, we have to go with the nagare (flow). En no kirinai is the key to understand that and keep the connection with our environment (human or not) and solve the problem. But we often think too much and this permanent thinking hinders the results of our understanding. Too often we want to find a technical solution to  the fight (to life?) by over-analyzing, over-reasoning and over-thinking everything.
 âEnlightenment cannot be found through the sensesâ said Sensei once. And becoming natural is to go beyond our senses in a realm of possibility not limited by our vision/understanding/perception of reality but by getting access to a dimension where mere reasoning is not working. This is the âzero stateâ or ânatural stateâ taught by Sensei during many years. This is now our goal, our objective.
The moment you understand that the natural connection between everything goes through your body (and not only the brain), you reach the mushin state and you become aware of the implicate world underlying the explicate world that we sense.
Sensei said recently that âkanâ in bufu ikkan meant âgoing throughâ and this is exactly this connection between the visible and the invisible realities that we can link here. We become able to see through the illusions of the visible reality to have a glimpse of âRealityâ to find the openings to off balance uke and be happy!
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