Zanshin: Ripples in a Pond

Goto Sensei stopped us halfway through morning weapons class. We had been practicing Ken Suburi #1, the most basic and fundamental move in our weapons curriculum. Some would say it's the strike on which the entire superstructure of Iwama Aikido is built. In other words: its' important; and we weren't getting it.

He said we were forgetting to create a space at the end of the strike to sink, expand, and let our spirit radiate out. He was right. Often at the end of the strike we would just rush into the next strike like aiki-automatons, full of mechanical motion but without spirit or martial presence.

Goto Sensei drew a metaphor. "Imagine," he said, "that you are by a pond and you have just thrown a large rock out over the surface of the water. The rock hits and makes a splash, sometimes the splash continues with a column of water rising and then falling in the center, but it's still the splash. But then, after the rock sinks and the splash subsides there is still something happenning: ripples radiate out in circles."

"This is 'zanshin'," Goto Sensei said, looking at us, and then demonstrating the finish of the strike.

Most westerners would probably look at the still finish position, as in the photo, and say, "nothing is happening." But this would be to miss some very important action. Goto Sensei's spirit and presence radiated out from the still posture in powerful waves of ki and focused awareness just as though they were ripples in a pond.

So we went back to practicing ken suburi #1, taking care to make the strike and then be the ripples as they radiated out into the dojo space.

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Comments

[Robert]

shodan translates as bneegnir or someone who has learnt all the basics of karate and have trained ther bodies,ready to now learn karate proper.The beginning or number one level

[Alessio]

yo quiero agadcerer tambien de mi parte a ambos por esta informacion.Yo estoy a punto de empezar aikido, en la ciudad de azul.La verdad siempre me gusto esta arte marcial y me parece maravillosa. Me han ofrecido empezar un arte marcial que se basa simplemente en golpes.Pero no me interesa dejar al oponente fuera de combate o inconsciente.Solo me interesa saber defenderme ante una situacion en la calle, y ademas de eso poder aislar mi mente un buen rato con el aikido. Es algo que me gusta mucho, no lo he probado aun pero estoy muy ansioso por empezar. He visto como se hacen las clases de aikido y estoy seguro que me va a gustar mucho. Si hay que comparar el aikido con otras artes marciales Me quedo con el aikido 1000 veces. Son mis gustos.Por ahi hay personas que prefieren artes marciales que sean puros golpes. Yo no. Mientras la violencia se evite, mejor. Agradezco a ambos por los comentarios que dejaron a un novato como yo.Siempre me hice la pregunta si el aikido servia para la calle.Ahora creo haber entendido. En los entrenamientos simplemente practicamos los movimientos para perfeccionarlos, lentamente. pero uno debe ir mas alla de esos movimientos lentos y perfeccionarlos aun mas al 100%, asi sabremos afrontar una situacion en la calle o en cualquier lugar.Muchas gracias. a ambos. GRACIAS.Dejo mi correo. Es