A Long Term Friend is concerned about politics in the dojo
This Wednesday, October 8th, Kayla Feder and Nick Walker will co-teach a class at Aikido of Berkeley in order to raise funds for the Obama/Biden campaign. A friend feels strongly about this and wrote to say so.
I'm sorry, guyz and galz, but I think this is a disgrace. It's an explicit statement that only those who are for Obama are welcomed to train at the dojo this Wednesday. It's also an implicit statement that those who do not support Obama are outcasts -- not part and parcel of the dojo -- which really has nothing to do with politics but everything to do with serenity, peace, and love.I responded:
And to perfectly clear, the problem has nothing to do with Obama either. It would be every bit as big a problem if the fund raiser was for Hillary, McCain, Nader or Paul. And I would be just as disappointed because I would hope for greater clarity of vision from such good people as I've found at the dojo.
Just put this simple test to it: Would OSensei have involved himself and his school in a partisan political campaign? Did he ever?
I miss you and it is lovely to hear (read) your voice! As ever, you may be relied upon to take a position with passion and it is a pleasure to hear (read) you again.
I disagree with a great deal of energy. I feel certain Kayla Senei and Nick Sensei will support the notion that anyone may feel free to train our not train on Wednesday or any other night, as always. A visitor might choose to pay a mat fee and ask that it go to the dojo instead of Obama if they do not wish to support his candidacy, thereby getting the benefit of training in the dynamic atmosphere that will undoubtedly ensue, but without having to support a cause with which they do not agree. This is flexibility I believe you would be unlikely to find in the "camp" of either the radical right or left, or the "radical" anybody for that matter.
I hear a concern that those who do not support the Senseis' and the majority view in the dojos involved will feel like outcasts and, as we are human beings, this must always be a concern. Aside from continuing to provide every evidence to the contrary on a daily basis, I'd love to hear suggestions from you about how we might make it clear that no one is outcast as we continue to act with clarity of vision on the strength of our convictions and navigate the shoals of difference. Perhaps by sharing this conversation? As Kayla Sensei has made super-clear that the AiBerk Yahoo group may not become a discussion list, I haven't approved your message for circulation, but I feel compelled to respond and invite the Senseis to do so as well precisely because Aikido of Berkeley and Aikido Shusekai (though I may not speak as part of that group until I can train with them regularly) do not, in my experience, exclude any person or viewpoint from the mix.
The seeds of O'Sensei's martial dedication are most often attributed to decisions he made as a child after his father was attacked and beaten by a gang of thugs hired by a rival politician. He went to war based on his beliefs and became personally involved in political affairs to the point that, in the Spring of 1912, at the age of 29, he moved his family into the wilderness of Hokkaido and became a politician of sorts (town manager?) himself. Though I am not an expert, by any means, on the inner workings of O'Sensei's history, I cannot imagine an strong spiritual and martial teacher of that era ignoring the social realities of his students. As politics and daily life were integrated, and character was certainly included in the training a master would give a student, I feel certain that political reality and martial study were related in the dojo community. Even if they were not, I am certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that a dojo is the ideal place, rather than the last place, to learn to work well together through conflict, the most important aspect of which, in this mechanized era, has to do with the decisions a group of any size makes based on the beliefs of its members, also known as politics.
"The Way of a Warrior, the Art of Politics, is to stop trouble before it starts. It consists in defeating your adversaries spiritually by making them realize the folly of their actions. The Way of a Warrior is to establish harmony." - Morihei Ueshiba (I believe from the Introduction written by John Stevens for Aikido)
You honor us with your opposition today and integrity in long relationship. I would LOVE to train, sit, drink, talk, and just be around you again at some point in the near future.
Peace,
Brandon
Teaching Aikido to Kids
I'm writing today because I've been working 24x7 for the last week preparing for the stuff mentioned below and am simply exhausted, if very pleased.
Warmest congratulations to Aviv Goldsmith Sensei whose organization, Aikido in Fredericksburg, presented Aiki Kodomo Kenshukai - Teaching Aikido to Children Seminar from October 3-5, 2008 at Aikido of Berkeley in California.
As this work is near and dear to my heart, and as Aviv is Vice President of Aiki Extensions, and as the event was hosted by Aikido of Berkeley and Kayla Sensei could not join us this weekend, I endeavored to help Aviv and his lovely spouse, Donna Pienkowski, to make the event a success. It was, and then some, on many levels. Each presentations offered a sense of continuity of best-practices, as the most experienced teachers seemed to echo essential and basic principles supportive to the learning of each child in each developmental period. Each presentation also offered new techniques and tested approaches that make familiar techniques arise as though new in application to different challenges. I realize as I write this that I'm beginning to sound like a brochure, so I'll stop, but I must highlight the contributions of Aiki Extensions members that illustrated, almost by coincidence, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that aikido for kids is at the forefront of the contribution martial artists are making around the world to building cultures of peace.
AE brought Jose Bueno Sensei of Ação Harmonia Brasil to share his intuitive teaching techniques and offer a peek at the new video AHB is releasing right now, telling part of the essential story of working with children in the favelas (slums) of Sao Paulo, Brasil.
Tesfaye Tekelu, head instructor of the Awassa Peace Dojo, and his compatriot Meshu Tamrat, are touring the USA to appeal for funding to support the Awassa Children's Project, Youth Campus and Peace Dojo, the latter founded with the support of Aiki Extensions. The two trained in the seminar and then offered a video and an improvised gymnastics demonstration, while circulating and telling Awassa stories of welcoming hundreds of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS into their learning community and touring the country taking messages of awareness and prevention before news cameras and before thousands who come to their circus and theater shows. Beyond this essential work, it is also as a direct result of their efforts that aikido has come to be know nationwide, throughout Ethiopia, and is now required in all secondary schools in Addis Ababa.
Association Building Community
Fairly regularly, somebody asks me what ABC is again and I write something like the following. I like to put it in front of other ABCers to get feedback, so here it is...
ABC is Association Building Community. Through a community building process, that created a three year ongoing group that began over a decade ago, I recruited a bunch of older activists who have been through any number of initiatives many of which went the way of the dodo. As is typical of bootstrap efforts that are not driven by cash, they imploded because of internal relational meltdown. Each of these elders had come to the conclusion independently that excellent and essential work craps out because even "peace" activists don't 1) assume there will be conflict 2) train in the process arts to deal with it as a first priority 3) apply their skills in their own situations 4) build their own communities by redefining peace itself as conflict done well. Tired of this immaturity, and often due to health related issues, they faded into the background ("personal work", meditation, prayer, etc.) and began contributing less to others after some three of four decades of service. Today we attempt to pay attention to our own process and life transitions (deaths, birthdays, illness, etc.) and build relationship with each other and then, at whatever pace seems appropriate, generate a project here and there over the years, from community building facilitator trainings, to offering umbrellas to new ideas needing support, to mediations for shared business owners about to sue each other, to consulting and providing as-needed services to community serving groups, to providing executive staffing service for other non-profits in serious trouble. Most ABCers go pretty slow and I, as the youngest at 39, try to bring our pulse up to what can be recognized from the outside as a sign of life. Right now I'm looking for more energetic people, at most my age, who can show up for community on a regular basis and will make passionate demands for guidance and support, and give energy to change the world we live in for the better.
Testing, testing
Some times I just like to experiment with profiling...
My results are below. What do you think?
I've always liked the warrior metaphors a bit too well, and become a bit addicted to their heroism, which is different from simply being heroic when required.SPRING | THE WARRIOR SPIRIT
Psycho-physio profile: The Warrior Spirit; typical fitness club member/trainer; large mesomorph, strong musculature; good competitive athletes. Intrinsic Motivator: Achievement/Action - Most Compatible Workouts: Conventional, highly physical or active exercise or T’ai Chi Ch’uan: Helps Springs stay connected, balancing their tendency to ignore their intuition and physical warning signals such as pain.
Springs are the quintessential go-getters. Their number-one intrinsic motivator is their initiative and drive for achievement. Springs are mavericks, pioneers, adventurers and entrepreneurs — “take charge” people. Springs have a strong mental component to their temperament, and like to think they have logical reasons for everything they do — although their decisions are just as likely to be based on emotion and instinct. They are competitive and impatient; others can sometimes interpret this as being pushy or controlling.
Springs love conventional strength/cardio workouts, which satisfy their need for stimulation and a sense of achievement. Their best intrinsic motivator toward regular exercise is a sense of competition — if only against themselves. Springs tend to lose focus or get distracted by the next challenge that comes along, So while Springs are the least likely to enjoy T’ai Chi, because T’ai Chi can help them stay in tune with their own body’s signals. It can also help them stick with an exercise routine through its depth both of different exercises and of its Principles, which provide logical reasons for them to work out.
This entry has rambled more than a little. May as well close on a down, Fall, heading into the Dark note, now that September is over. :-)
The loss of Aidan, as is often the case, remains a defining reality in my life. Metaphors abound that create the possibility to see it with a kind of understanding: wounded healer, Grail King, crucifixion, depression, resurrection, Death the Ultimate reason for humility and/or irrelevant terror, etc. All this applies while nothing explains much, of course. Greg Mogenson wrote an archetypal psychology book called God Is A Trauma which pushes open (a bit further than did his predecessors - which is always the hope) a door to how I understand much of religion, suffering, and psychology in intellectual terms.
Loss has sweetened even the meanest parts of my life by amplifying my desire to see beauty everywhere in a way that I would have passed over before for lack of need. Grief has crippled me too in a way that standing up where my heart can be seen requires some kind of Grace-fantasy as a prosthetic. I never knew it was possible to hurt like this. Now I do and that has changed me in a way that is simply so - way beyond submitting to a good-bad frame. Let me be clear this change is not one to which anyone in their right mind would ever submit willingly. There is nothing heroically transformative about sitting up again and taking nourishment after having your spiritual head kicked in for several months. It's simply the worst thing I've ever known, to date, and leaves dents from the kicking.
The future requires our attention and dedicated, collective action no less for being unlikely and fragile. If you value a child or can imagine yourself doing so, then you have a by god obligation to get your ass in gear and start teaching by example every young person you can reach how to live with the realities of ambiguity, fear, and finally death. Lack of this training is the root of the violence the large, aggressive children so often in power today perpetrate on the rest of the world. The next significant maker of peace, or of genocide, is a kid you know today.
Labels: aiki, Aikido, daily, dojo, grief, polis, politics
| posted by Unknown @ 10/06/2008 01:24:00 PM
