We were applying sunblock, changing into our swimming suits, and placing everything we didn't need safely in the car... including my purse. Who needs their purse as they are floating lazily down a river on an inflatable tube on a nice summer day? That's right, no one. However, there comes a point where one does need the keys that are nestled inside said purse when they are done tubing, getting hungry, cold, and ready to go.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I had the incredible insight that I had done something wrong before our inner tubes even had the chance to think about hitting the water. Angela suggested calling the Orem police in hopes that I could get my car unlocked free of charge. It may be appropriate to mention that Thad's cellphone was having inner sim issues, and was not in a good mood, for it proceeded to break and then ingest the plastic teeth-flossing contraption that was prodding its reset button. Of course, my cellphone was, along with my keys, nestled safely inside my purse. We borrowed the good 'ol tube-renting-man's cellphone and a tattered book of yellow pages. The Orem police was annoyed that I called them about a locked car and referred me the the sheriff's office. The sheriff I talked to promptly informed me that after an indefinite amount of time, someone would perhaps be coming to our present location.

Thanks to Thad, this unfortunate situation led to one of the most exhilarating moments of the day. He found a long rope tied to a tree branch, which was suspended over the river. Of course, our first reaction was to stare at its awesomeness, and then go for a swing!

After some time, the sheriff did show up.

Sheriff: "I'm not going to guarantee that I can get you into your car."
               ....takes a look at the car....
             "I'll try not to damage your car too much as I try to break in."

I sure wasn't feeling confident about Mr. Sheriff! Once he started working on the lock, it took him less than two minutes and not a scratch to show. We celebrated by taking a few more swings!

There were calm, contemplative moments,

(ET phone-home)

(almost....almost...almost...)

moments of perspective...

and then we sat back,

and enjoyed the view!

I just started reading Aikido: The Peaceful Martial Art, by Stefan Stenudd. This one idea in particular was very eye-opening and refreshing. If you are a martial artist, what do you think? What stage are you in? Does this apply to you?

“immovable, tense, with sharp edges”*

At this point, we are not familiar with using different parts of our body in new ways. We are getting comfortable with our own mind/body coordination and eye/hand coordination. When we punch we are stiff, and when we are being attacked we jerk the attacker around and move with much tension in our bodies until our attacker is on the ground.

“supple, softening, though still almost immovable”*

By now, we begin to connect a little more with our attacker. We try to use their momentum instead of generating our own. However, our feet are still heavy and our movements are still stiff. Our movements are not yet fluid.

“The techniques flow. Attackers fall like bowling pins...

You can do your aikido for a long time, without losing control or energy.”*

At this stage, your movements are fluid. Your techniques feel continuous, and there is a good balance between you and the person you are throwing / attacking.

However, water is not soft. It cuts paths down mountains, throws around ships, and can damage villages. You can do better than this.

“embraces without pushing, and adapts without resisting”*

The main difference between water and air is that air entails being soft without being threatening. When being attacked, you help the attacker along and the attacker ends up landing his attack somewhere different then initially intended. Meanwhile, the attacker feels no resistance during the technique and feels exhilarated to suddenly find himself ultimately directing his attack towards nothing. While this seems to be an awesome level to achieve, we can go further.

“Empty space has no body, no substance whatsoever. Still, there is no force great enough to conquer it, no fire to burn it, no power to threaten it, and no room too big to be filled by it, or too small to fit it."*

Think about it, even air has some sort of resistance. If you swing a tennis racket through the air fast enough, you’ll hear the resistance. There would be no resistance if you did the same in outer space. If you can become a vacuum (mentally), anyone who tries to attack you, is essentially attacking emptiness - they are helpless. This only works if you, yourself, embody this emptiness.

“In the aikido of emptiness, the aikidoist has become invisible, like nonexistent. Everything moves within and around the partner. Self-defense has ceased to be an ingredient. Threat and violence fade away. Only at this stage, a serenity that reaches beyond one’s own mind can be achieved.”*

Ahhh, to one day be able to reach this level is beyond my wildest dreams! How about you?

:)


* denotes quote from Aikido: The Peaceful Martial Art, by Stefan Stenudd

This seminar was very different than any other seminar I have attended in the past. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it was my first seminar after attending kenshusei. Perhaps it was being invited to an impromptu get-together where two full bottles of whiskey were consumed, and we tried different kinds of food with ponzu sauce! Perhaps it was the fact that I felt more prepared and confident than in the past. The first few seminars I attended were big eye-openers. I met so many people who had been doing aikido for years, and I was introduced to and practiced techniques that I had never seen or done before. I felt almost lost in the sea of expert aikidokas. For the most part, I had the mind-set that I would try to do my best and to learn as much as I could. I always left inspired to learn more.

This time, I thought to myself, I will be able to keep up with the class. I won't get lost or overwhelmed so easily. Laughingly looking back, I can't say that I didn't make a lot of mistakes and that I didn't get lost quite a few times. I can still hear Nakayama Sensei's voice "Yoshi, what are you doing!" "Yoshi, you weren't paying attention!" However, instead of being shy and holding back due to ignorance and confusion, I extended ki and worked harder.

My favorite parts of the seminar is when we learned ikkyo, iriminage (regular and quick version), sokumen iriminage, suwariwasa, hanminahtachi, and last but not least, koshinage!

I have learned ikkyo so many times, but this time, I felt like I really understood what it was all about. I still need to practice it a lot, but one thing at a time please!

When practicing iriminage, we learned the footwork that made us look "cool" when executed correctly. Who doesn't want to look cool when they're throwing people around? Not only that, but the correct footwork actually makes the technique easier to execute!

I think sokumen iriminage is quickly becoming one of my favorite techniques. I worked with Mark, and occasionally it would feel smooth and effortless rather than jerky and aggressive.

Suwariwasa is when both the attacker and defender are sitting seiza (on their knees). It is actually harder to move around efficiently on your knees than on your feet. For those of us who were scuttling around on our knees, Nakayama sensei gave us step-by-step instructions to maximize the effectiveness of only a few "knee-steps" in order to complete a technique.

Hanmihantachi is when the attacker (uke) is standing and the defender (nage) is kneeling. This may feel daunting because you are sitting while someone standing attacks you, but really, you just feel like I do when tall people attack me! (Yes, I am short.) All joking aside, in some ways, you have the advantage because the standing/taller person has to bend down so far to reach you. They are already off balance so you can easily tip them over.

Koshinage (throwing from the hip) was always a technique I was weary of. I did it a few times in kenshusei, but I never felt very comfortable. At the seminar, I learned to "crawl" when I took the ukemi (very important!), and then I learned some tricks and tips from Nakayama Sensei and Carol Barker Sensei. Iryna and I worked together because we were roughly the same height - and that really helps!

A grand gathering at the Sims' house

(The mind/body connection)

It seems to be a tradition that the Sims' graciously host a dinner at their beautiful house on Saturday evenings. It was at this dinner where Nakayama Sensei, Amjith, and I had a conversation about the "body leading the mind." This conversation was interesting for multiple reasons. One reason being that it's a 180 on the usual "mind over body" idea, and another reason being that we heard an interesting talk on this exact topic at the TEDxBoulder conference just one week ago! Eric Farone gave a talk about "Useful applications of the mind/body connection." So we always talk about how we always give into our bodies. For example, if we want to snack on junk food, but we know we shouldn't, sometimes we do anyway. So there are times when we should listen to our minds, but there are things that the mind can learn from the body. In Nakayama Sensei's case, we were talking about zen meditation. For anyone who has tried zazen, I would be surprised if they fell in love with it the first time they practiced it. It tests patience, mental strength, and physical stamina. Nakayama Sensei talked about relaxing the mind via relaxing the body. When you are thinking of something, your brain is working to produce that thought. If only we can relax our bodies, and relax our brains, we can let go of our thoughts through relaxation. This is a completely different approach than the usual "clear your mind, clear your mind, clear your mind - focus, focus, focus - breathe, breathe, breathe - count, count, count" approach that I have been taking. Now, being able to control the mind through the body is just as hard as controlling the body through the mind - it takes diligence and practice.

After this wonderful dinner and conversation, we were serenaded by Bill, a professional violist, who played two beautiful movements of Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 (arranged for viola). He also shared his experiences of playing in the opera, and delightfully entertained us by imitating the musical quirks of his fellow colleagues. To end the night, we learned everything we ever needed to know about life by watching the "Life of Brian."

I'd like to take a moment to thank Paul for graciously hosting us at his place during the seminar. We would also like to extend an invitation to anyone attending a multi-day Salt Lake aikido seminar to stay at our place. We live an hour away from the dojo, but we don't mind the drive.

After the seminar we had some free time, so we acted like tourists in Salt Lake City. Iryna, Amjith and I took a short hike up the historic trail to Ensign Peak and walked around Temple Square.

Our friend, Thad Roberts, was asked to speak at a TEDx conference in Boulder, Colorado on Aug. 7th, 2010. When Thad told us about this many months ago, we all said "Road Trip!"

(8/5/10)
There were seven of us that met up and drove from Salt Lake to Denver. Before our adventure began, we fueled up at Cafe Rio, one of our favorite places to eat.

Salem, Yoshi, Amjith, Dave, Angela, Greg, (and Thad is behind the camera)

About half way to Boulder, we picked a hotel to rest at for the night. We all squished into one room, and it felt like a grown-up slumber party. No pics. Sorry, what happens in half-way-to-Boulder stays in half-way-to-Boulder. lol

We made it to Chautauqua and checked into this sweet little cottage the TEDx organizers hooked up Thad with.

That night, there was an informal dinner at Pica's Mexican Taqueria that the speakers and the friends of speakers were invited to attend. During the dinner, we mingled, and even got to meet a few of the organizers of the event. Oh, and by the way, the organizers did a great job overall. Cheers to Andrew, George, and the rest of the team!

We spent the rest of the evening on Pearl Street. It's "the street" to go to. The place reminds me of San Franscisco (with the mime artists), a hint of Park City (due to some eclectic shops), and an art festival (because of the street entertainers). At that place, we met up with Joey, and eventually Matt.

Speaking of Matt, he owns a Tesla. Thad got behind the wheel and drove off into the night!

Matt & Thad in a Tesla

(8/7/10)

Today was the big day! Angela and I decided to make breakfast together: bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, and fried egg IN toast.

Thad got word that his talk was now 18 minutes long instead of the 9 minutes he was told to prepare. He had to spend part of the day restructuring his talk, and then memorizing it! He did a great job! To summarize briefly: Thad's talk was about quantum space theory (QST). He talked us through visualizing eleven dimensions (way cool), and how this model explains so many of today's mysteries about the universe (wow!). Thad's amazing slides were done by Jeff, a man of many talents. We missed you there Jeff! As soon as I get the official video, I will post it here. For now, you may be interested in this website.

Yoshi & Amjith

That night we celebrated with a house party. Our top secret discussions won't be revealed here, but we had a great time. At about 4am, Greg, Salem, Dave, and I took a walk around the neighborhood. We saw a fox around the premises, checked out the nigh sky (it was a good night and location for star gazing), and pretended to be ninjas - it must have worked because no one saw us!

As Salem, Greg, Amjith, and I headed back, we stopped by one last Mexican restaurant to complete our adventure. The food was phenomenal!

On a random note, I have to say that we ended up buying a lot of energy drinks (please don't ask why!), so I drank two. I was fascinated by the tabs, so here they are for your viewing pleasure also. I'm sure you'll be able to identify the drinks!

All in all, a successful trip! If you'd like to know more about Thad and his lecture, visit his website at http://www.einsteinsintution.com.