One Hundred and Fifty-five

When working with the bokken I treat it as I would any uke. That is I seek to establish a connection with it so that we may move in concert our respective motions congruent. I don't practice choreographed kata any longer, having given it up 5 years ago. I practiced the traditional bokken katas for many years and took from them what they had to offer.

Maruyama Sensei showed me there was another way to wield the bokken, a way that he showed openly but no one seemed to be able to see. It wasn't what he did; for he demonstrated the traditional movements, it was how he did it. While his students concentrated on stringing together the correct sequence of movements, he flowed like water moving through a winding, curving pipe. The strikes were there but so seamlessly were they woven into the pattern that the weapon just moved through the point of contact and continued on its way. The bokken seemed to move of its own accord as he led/followed it around.

It is from those observations that I developed my method of working with both the bokken and jo staff. The short clip below shows Simon performing some free form work with the bokken.

One Hundred and Fifty-four

The Master of Anywhere squatted beside the stream. For a long while she did nothing, lost in the symphony of the stream as it wound its way among the rocks. Her vision, global at first, slowly narrowed as the stream wove it's music for her until her focus was concentrated on three maple leaves resting upon two rocks that lay in the water at her feet.

The leaves clothed in the varying shades of warm reds and yellows of mid autumn lay where they had fallen two upon one rock one upon the other. The central point of each leaf pointed in such a way as to lead her eye from leaf to leaf, describing a triangle. The leaf triangle emphasized the triangular nature of the relationship between the two rocks. The rocks in turn led her to notice how the pattern of the flowing water also described a triangle. Leaves of the air, rocks of earth, currents of water, arranged by chance, observed by chance... at once the splendor of it all hit her as she imagined that all the years of her life had led her to this point, at this time, in order that she may observe this simple arrangement of leaf, rock and water.

Energy surged within her; building from her center it boiled and roiled until she felt that she should explode if it was not given free reign to escape and be released into the world. With a mighty cry of exultation she rose from her position, arms outstretched, face turned to the heavens and poured forth her energy in one explosion of release.

It is said that her cry was heard for many miles in all directions and the people marveled at the joy contained therein. And all who heard it were filled with hope and a feeling of healing as though some spirit of redemption had been loosed upon the world. Far, far away the Master of Anywhere lay at the foot of the maple tree and slept the dreamless sleep that is known by only the very, very young and very, very old among us.

One Hundred and Fifty-three

There can be
no resistance
in the absence
of control.

Control,
even of myself,
an illusion;
takes me out of
the flow of life's rhythm,
moves me away from now...
robs me of my center.

O Sensei -
'To truly implement the Art of Peace,
you must be able to sport freely in the
manifest, hidden and devine realms',

Control is the absence of freedom.