Sensei

As I mentioned before, my father passed two years ago. I assume there are many ways to be a good father. There is no formula.

My father's generation, the same one as my Aikido teacher, seems to not want to talk about their care and love to their own child, but instead show it. My father was born as the first son, and so was I. I don't remember him talking to me much, but rather showing me what he wanted me to be. So I had a hard time understanding him, what he meant, and what he wanted.

Almost 40 years have passed since I began practicing Aikido, and I have come into a position to be called Sensei. What I teach is called Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido. Shin Shin Toitsu can be translated as "oneness of mind and body", and Aikido has been translated by my teacher as "the way to oneness with ki".

Being in this country for so long, I have been exposed to many teaching styles, and many ways of coaching or training for sports. Occasionally, I step into my daughter's aerial acrobatics class. I am always impressed by the generosity and planning that goes into the teaching, and how creative the instructors are in presenting it.

Western teachers and coaches seem always to focus first on success, and present this to their students. Contrarily, teachers of traditional Japanese arts such as Noh, Kabuki, koto, singing, and martial arts, are known for first saying "that's wrong". There is a very famous story from a Noh player: a student asked him, "What is Noh?"

The teacher replied, "If I tell you, you are never going to understand Noh. Period."

For a long time, I struggled with what style of teaching is good for students in the US. If I want to be popular, obviously I have to be like a Western coach, and encourage my students. But as a Japanese artist, I would rather not teach the essence of the art, and simply check on what they have developed. I would rather encourage intuition, and learning of the body rather than the head. Too many ideas will block it, and the teacher's job is to tell them to knock that off.

So the student has to steal what the teacher does, day by day, moment by moment. Japanese arts rely on becoming a way of life.

"Shin shin toitsu" is a process of changing consciousness, which requires positive reinforcement, so students accept it easier on a conscious level. But again, Japanese traditional arts have to be blended into the daily activity, into the subconscious, which requires clarity and precision. In other words, it has to be called wrong when it is.

Some years ago, there was a discussion in the Aikido community over whether a Sensei is a teacher/coach or an artist. A coach encourages and inspires, but has to be there all the time, almost to the point of annoyance. An artist, on the other hand, is more like a gardener, who must pay constant attention to his plants to know when to stress his plants and when to feed them.

Shin Shin Toitsudo was founded by Tenpu Nakamura sensei, a philosopher. His thought is carried well by my teacher, Koichi Tohei Sensei. Aikido was founded by Morihei Ueshiba Sensei, who was a very traditional Japanese teacher, who taught nothing, but showed the Way. I am very glad to be able to draw on both sides - the intellectual and the intuitive. I feel very complete as a human, rather than highly specialized to one side or the other. It is sad to see some people who criticize teachers and celebrate artists, or vice versa. Both ways are dead wrong. There is no formula, just as there is none for how to be a father.

Any animal can be a father, but we human can pass something on. Something more than shelter and basic needs. I feel lucky, not because I was born as a lord of creation, but as being Sensei who can pass something to next generation and enjoy doing so.