“What is Aikido?” Now there’s a question that should make you think. How can you answer this question in a completely authentic way, that is not based on something that you heard or read about? Is it possible to hold this question in a way that will help you in getting to the essence of Aikido?
How deep are you? Are you a deep thinker? Do you enjoy deep conversation with others? Are you able to feel deeply into yourself… and into the world around you? Or, do you prefer to stay superficial, like a cork bobbing up and down on the surface of the water? In this blog post I am exploring what it means to be deep… and the fundamental practice where “Mindfulness Deepens.”
The late Austrian psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl famously said “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Not only is this brilliant quote profoundly true, but it is also a very powerful description of how mindfulness actually works. I invite you to join me in the below Facebook Live replay as I unpack the profound meaning of the “Mindfulness Between Stimulus & Response”.
In one way or another, we are all teachers, and we are all students. Surely from time to time, you find yourself helping another, or getting another’s help in understanding something new. At the very least it is safe to say that we are all learners. It is in this spirit that I’m sharing my latest post on 3 Ways To Be A Better Aikido Teacher (And Student!).
Being skilled in Aikido or any other “path practice” does not mean that you are also skilled in every aspect of your daily life. The sad truth is that the development you gain in the dojo does not automatically translate into the world. In order to take your Aikido from the dojo to the world, you need more. You must create “bridging practices” that will help you with the important practice of integration. In this blog post, I’m going to teach you 3 Key Bridging Practices For Aikido that will effectively help you take your Aikido from the dojo to the world.
In January 2018 I did a 4-part facebook live series on “Aikido And Teaching.” In this blog post, I am sharing with you the 1st of these 4 video teachings. As I opened this series I decided to speak about a topic that touches everyone walking along the path of Aikido. Namely, “How To Choose An Aikido Teacher”?
The biggest trend in personal development these days is “mindfulness.” The popularity of Mindfulness today is especially interesting because even though it is adopted as a post-modern practice, it has been the core transformative practice of spiritual awakening traditions for millennia. Mindfulness also happens to be the primary awareness training that lies at the heart of Aikido practice. We call it “Zanshin” – the mindfulness of aikido.
How intentional are you about your practice and what do you ultimately hope to gain? Do you even consider your desired outcome? In this “Dharma Bite” with Zen teacher and author Diane Musho Hamilton, we discuss how meditation gradually brings you into a greater sense of simplicity in your life. But part of gaining this simplicity is understanding what it means to have few desires, but have great ones.
Do you see defeat as a good or bad? If you’re like most, defeat is something you would probably rather avoid. In fact, in some cases, the thought of defeat can be so unacceptable that you’d rather not participate. But even though defeat may feel completely undesirable, what are the possible upsides to defeat? What did the mystic poet Rainer Maria Rilke mean when he said: “the purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things.”
How aware are you of fear? How does fear feel in your body? How about your mind? Is your experience of fear that fear is in you, or that you are in fear? In the below “Dharma Bite” I continue in my series of Dharma Discussions with Integral Facilitator & Zen Sensei Diane Musho Hamilton on this very topic. In this excerpt, we talk about the competency of containing fear with awareness.
