Kotsu Kotsu

On one unforgettable occasion, Maruyama Sensei was visiting Rutgers dojo . In our new location we had to walk the gauntlet of the weight training room to get to the practice space. Thirty-odd young men were lifting huge metal plates on various machines and sweating profusely. Three or four of us trouped through in our gi, feeling rather small in the presence of all that unadulterated muscle. I muttered something about how Sensei was still the strongest man in the room. Sensei immediately said, "Don't say I'm the strongest, say I'm the happiest man in the room!" That point comes back to me often. Sensei often says that having money, a girlfriend, a job, will make us happy of course, but the practice of aikido will help us become more happy even without money, without a girl (or boy) friend, without a job. Recently, because some trees fell in a storm , our house had no power for eight days. When it was turned on again we found that the hot water, the heating ...

In an earlier post , I wondered, "Is ki real?" Is ki an actual thing, or is it just a concept? I teach aikido to college students. So I hesitate to write about science as if I know anything, because I know I will be challenged! But I offer this: Only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum is visible to the human eye. We are all familiar with ultraviolet and infrared rays or waves and the ways in which they can be used: gamma rays, X-rays, infrared heat lamps, microwaves, and radio. Infrared light was only discovered by humans in 1800 and ultraviolet in  1901 . But animals such as bees  and snakes  have sensed these parts of the spectrum for eons. How might a snake's ability to find prey or a bee's ability to find nectar have been described or understood before we had instruments to perceive these wavelengths? Dark matter  is a discovery that has only recently become known to non-scientists. Only 50 years ago, in popular culture at least, ...

Last night I had a dream of a world gone awry. It started with a newspaper report showing multiple cars driving off a bridge that had collapsed. When I went to the scene (arriving instantly in my dream, of course,) I saw car after car going over the edge into the water. Many people saw the problem, but no one was trying to warn the drivers. The rest of the dream had more scenes of people unwilling to help each other even when all it would take was holding out a hand. When I awoke I thought hazily about this quality of empathy that was missing from the people in the dream. Empathy is something all humans - and perhaps many animals - share. We would try to help someone in danger without thinking, even if there were no direct gain. A psychopath , a person without empathy, has a mental disorder. Although psychopaths seem to make excellent business leaders , the idea of a world full of them is what makes zombie movies so scary. The concept that people are connected is not a...

At the start of Kokikai Winter Camp some years ago I greeted David Nachman Sensei. I told him I was becoming more dedicated to Buddhist meditation, but I was having difficulty with the lack of a sangha . "This is your sangha!" he answered, gesturing to the 200+ people beginning to fill the gym. This reminded me of a time I was asked to deliver a copy of a group photo to Maruyama Sensei . The photo had been taken at the previous winter's Kokikai Aikido camp. There were about 230 people in the photo, all sitting formally in lines, arranged with Sensei in the center. He zeroed in on their faces, all smiling, relaxed, happy. "If you didn't know," he said, "what kind of group would you say this is?" I wasn't expecting the question and had no idea how to reply. "What kind of group?" he persisted, "College reunion?"  We both agreed, no. "Family?" "No." "Religion?" Even religion, no. It was i...

When you think of the Buddha, you think of the young man who was born in Kapilvastu, who practiced many years in the forest and who went around India to live the teaching. But that is only a portion of the Buddha, because the moment when the Buddha began to build the sangha , he begin to transfer himself to the sangha and many disciples, monastic and lay, they continue the Buddha. You have to see the Buddha in the sangha . You have to be able to see the Buddha in the dharma (teaching). If you have not seen the dharma and the sangha , you have not seen the Buddha. The dharma is available in the here and the now. The sangha is also available in the here and the now. You do not have to go to India in order to see the Buddha.   If you believe that Buddha is a god, and can bestow on us the things we want, then that is not the Buddha.  The Buddha is a human being who has a deep capacity of understanding and of loving and of having maha karuna , great compassion, maha maitri...

In Buddhist practice, the "three jewels" represent the foundation of practice. These three jewels are the Buddha (or teacher), the dharma (the teaching), and the sangha (the community of practice). It's interesting that not only the teacher and the teaching, but the people around you are considered not just important but essential! This community of practice might also be described as "spiritual friends," or people who share the same goals of practice. If we look around, we can see that, whether they call it by this name or not, many groups understand the importance of "sangha" in supporting others along a particular path, particularly a difficult one: AA, mental health professionals, even Jenny Craig! Here's a quote from the Upaddha Sutra: Venerable Ananda said to the Blessed One, "This is half of the holy life, Lord, admirable friendship." The Buddha replied, "Admirable friendship is actually the whole of the holy life. Wh...

If I am judging this moment, I am not living it. If I am living it, I am not judging it.  Judging is head centered, living is heart centered.  Judging springs from doubt and insecurity. Living springs from love and contentment.  And each moment I choose again, as my choice a moment ago is no longer relevant.  -Michael Jeffreys