Spiritual Aikido Sword
13 February 2008 10:27 PM Filed in:
Practices
Here at age 72 Strephon demonstrates Spiritual Aikido Sword.
Strephon has developed Spiritual Aikido from regular Aikido. He has trained in regular dojo Aikido since he was 46. Strephon has used his Spiritual Aikido practices in his professional trainings in dreamwork psychology as a regular practice, and in his own life. He has taught Spiritual Aikido courses to adults in spiritual centers.
Here in this ten minute film Strephon shows himself in action with a live Japanese, metal, practice sword.
The Spiritual Aikido principles emphasized are:
- follow the sword, do not lead it
- harmonize your being and body with universal laws of motion.
- do not impose traditional sword moves onto the natural swing and flow of the body holding a live sword
- practice effortlessly with the sword moving you in free and harmonious motion
- do not use muscle strength in your movements
- transfer your weight effortlessly up through the ground into your body and out your sword tip
- practice not by repetition but by internal awareness giving you full energy flow commitment in a balanced and harmonious way
- the natural movements of the sword will be there for you if you let go to them
- do not impose notions of the right and wrong way to do things with the sword
- be totally aware of yourself and your sword as one with your soul and your body, or you might damage yourself through asserting ego control
- the sword teaches the body and being of a person. The person does not teach the sword.
The above principles are all by way of saying that balanced sword practice, following the natural laws of the universe, is Spiritual Aikido, the practices of principles over forms for the experience of centered oneness with the universe in internal and external harmony
Strephon originated this form by simply following the natural motion created by his awareness of energy principles and sword movements. Others may have originated this form as well
Strephon has no ranking whatsoever with any martial arts organization by choice. Seeking external certificates and rankings is by nature contradictory to the principles of spiritual aikido, which is an internal form of the martial arts
When you experience this video of Strephon in his teaching Spiritual Aikido Sword let yourself feel what is evoked in you.
- do you aspire to be in balance with natural, universal law in whatever form you practice in?
- do you continually free yourself of technique, tradition and striving for recognition by others instead of following what feels internally right for yourself?
On a practical level you can see that at age 72, not that old yet, Strephon demonstrates an active body and awareness state achieved through almost daily practice. This practice is based on love, on renewing oneself daily through practice in love, defined as living from greater source energies than ego.
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Strephon teaching Spiritual Aikido to Romanian psychology students
22 September 2006 11:05 PM Filed in:
Practices
Video: Ovidiu Brazdau
Strephon trains his Romanian Psychology Students in Spiritual Aikido Practice and term Strephon uses for teaching Universal Energy Principles that show up in dreams and life.
Here you will see Strephon's students learning not to resist the stick coming at then but to move with it, adapting to its motion.
The opposite is resisting the force and the weapon coming at you in a defensive, rather than blending way. This principle in practice in life and martial arts can make you rigid and therefore susceptible to being broken more easily than if you are flexible and flow with energy coming your way.
Students get to experience directly what their attitudes are as seen in their use of their bodies.
Strephon always has training sessions for students in Spiritual Aikido to use during breaks from the intellectual work and in special sessions.
You do not have to be good at martial arts or sports to engage in this activity. You know immediately through the stick exercises what your attitude is in the body and how to begin changing it so that you act much more in harmony with what is happening to you in the moment, and how you are responding, of course.
Strephon teaches Universal Energy Principles, of Balancing, Centering, Flowing, Receiving and Giving, Intunement, Congruence and Accepting and Creating.
There are physical and mental practices for these so that students learn universal energy principles that they can apply to any area of their lives.
Strephon emphasizes working with these life principles in dreams and dreamwork, personal relationships and in body harmony and flow.
These exercises portrayed here show just a bit of the work with beginning students.
Strephon has sixteen years of on the mat Aikido practice and still does daily practice with the sword and in tennis though he no longer takes falls to save his seventy-two year old body from the trauma of being thrown to the mat at full force.
Daily live sword work is a vitalizing experience for Strephon as he takes breaks throughout the day from writing and researching at the computer.
Sex In The Dojo
09 November 2005 12:12 AM Filed in:
Life
Examples
Ethics are guidelines for human behavior for all those who live within a society.
If it can be done it will be done.
What will be done is not necessarily good for the individual or for the community. However, how do you evaluate what is good in behavior and in society?
Without a foundation in the fundamental principles that act as the context within which you live life, you have no foundation ground from which to live. You have a life being lived from chaos and lack of purpose. You are unpredictable.
In the example I have given elsewhere the head instructor of an organizationally approved, Aikido dojo in a certain country regularly dates and seduces the new pretty women who enter his dojo. We can assume that such practice is done elsewhere also. I have a more extreme life example I may analyze someday.
What should we do about such a situation, if anything?
It is generally assumed that a woman over the age of eighteen should be able to take care of herself sexually. Women who are twelve may want sexual experience but this is not approved by societies who hold to the age eighteen rule. So all those wonderful teenage years with mature genitals are not made public within the group and society and dealt with in the open where young people can receive advice and experience regarding their sexual lives.
At age eighteen a woman is now suddenly supposed to be mature sexually when she has not been allowed to have sex with more mature and older men and women to build up her experience and confidence?
It does not make sense, does it?
The best love you can give a person is to introduce them to new life in a way that they can accept it and integrate it into their being.
Thus, one problem is that we do not give our teenagers open support in handling their new sexuality. It is obvious that groups are needed to impart life skills and experience. The family unit is too small and certainly not well trained usually to impart life skills in an objective and effective way.
Thus in our example we have young women, eighteen to twenty-five, entering an Aikido dojo where the head instructor then seduces them.
Are these women equipped to handle a powerful male in his thirties with years of Aikido training and development?
First, since Dojo Aikido as it is today does not deal openly with sexual issues, then it is not clear to new students "what the rules are" so to speak.
In the Aikido dojo the culture is imparted in little remarks and behaviors, all involving another fundamental human instinct, aggression.
One dojo instructor has claimed that Aikido practice is all about sex in the energy forms of blending as in sexual love making.
However, closer to the truth is that Aikido practice is quite aggressive. You attack and defend. You do not blend in a unity as you do in sex. When tori has uki in a wrist grip and uki goes flying through the air, that is a transfer of motion and energy.
Aggression is the transfer of motion and energy from one person to another.
Sexuality is the mutual enhancing through motion of energy.
It is easy to see how one can confuse one with the other. In both is the expression of energy. However, in good unity sex there is a buildup of energy through mutual blending and enhancement.
Surely in sexual mating you do not throw your partner away! In Aikido you do! In Aikido your uki must learn to fall and pick herself up. The tori does not mutually enhance you. The tori, the thrower, gives you away to yourself.
Well, you can see distinctions here but also some similarities.
We can ask, is the sexual expression of mature Aikido practitioners also like their Aikido practice? Do they tend to throw their sexual partners away? Do they come together with them but don't stay locked in mutual embrace?
Using myself as an example, I have had many sexual partners over the years, and, yes, there is a tendency in me "to move on." It has taken real courage and a counter move on my part to stay with one partner a long time. I have chosen sometimes well and sometimes not well. Here is a famous story about someone else I knew.
A talented Aikido Instructor and psychologist was partnered with an equally talented Aikido practitioner and psychologist. But she left him and when asked why, she said she wanted to have children and for that she needed a different man. She married a lawyer who was a warm father to their children and protective of her and his family as well.
Talk about the archetypes! Talk about energy flow! She may have been right.
Our thinking and real life examples are used to make us aware of Spiritual Aikido, the practice of the fundamental energy principles that underlie the Universe.
For our Aikido dojo head, who practices a beautiful Aikido, we can also say that the young women students he has sex with have a right to experience sex with him, and to learn that "the Aikido Way" does not involve permanent relating through time but is only for practice in expressing the Life Force in the moment.
All fine and good. Unfortunately, Aikido, as an international movement in personal development, does not make sexual practice for Aikido students overt.
This is some of the most challenging evidence that Physical, Ueshiba Aikido does not, does not, teach the energy principles of Spiritual Aikido, or they would surely apply them to life, practice them and talk about how they are doing in their practice.
Human talk is for sharing and learning about life. Can it really be true that sex, one of the great energy forms of expression, is not freely talked about in and out of the Aikido dojo?
As we have seen from the above analysis, Aggression and Sex can seem very close together, so much so that one instructor said "Aikido is sex."
Well? Cannot we better say, "Energy is energy, and there are many forms in which to express energy?"
Sex and Aggression are two fundamentals. Let's keep working to become clear about them.
For a courageous article on sex by an Aikido instructor, with comments from readers, see:
Penetrating the Heart of Aikido by Ross Robertson
: http://www.aikiweb.com/columns/rrobertson/2005_02.htmlBudo And Spiritual Aikido Ethics Statements
08 November 2005 10:40 PM Filed in:
Practices
Judo's dojo kun, written by Kyuzo Mifune is one example from a
dojo, or training school:
http://www.aikidojournal.com/article.php?articleID=322
COMMENT
This is clearly, good, practical advice for decent people. But maybe a bit limited in terms of life itself. One's best life must not be lived only in the dojo.
I would write a commitment statement as follows:
The Commitment Of A Spiritual Journeyer
~ As a beginner in living from the Greater Center within and without, I commit myself to develop my whole being from a greater center than the ego's desire for reward and for control.
~ As a beginner in consciousness I consciously choose to live at a daily level the fundamental energy principles of life, such as centering, balancing opposites, giving out and taking in, receiving and focusing, and dealing with everything which comes my way in life with a reconciling and harmonious attitude and practice. I will practice wholeness in all things.
~ As a spiritual journeyer I give up the common attitude of striving to be a winner and avoiding being a loser. I pledge to taking accomplishment and loss in equal measure and seek to maintain a non-attached attitude regarding both.
~ I seek to maintain a positive attitude but without rejecting negative moods and experiences as necessary to life.
~ I commit myself to daily practice of the principles and practices of the form of personal development I engage myself in. I recognize that daily practice is necessary to making any skill, form or value an integral part of my life.
~ I will combine physical practice with spiritual practice in equal measure. I will not hide from myself and others my true nature. I will seek always to take one hundred percent responsibility for myself in everything I express and do.
~ I recognize that I am not alone but live my life in the context of relating to others. This means that I practice, not living through others, but relating to others in a harmonious and balanced way, seeking for those of similar purpose to myself what I also desire for myself.
~ I will seek to solve all conflicts within myself and with others. Failure to do so means that I will seek help where necessary in solving conflicts that anyone has with me or I have with them.
~ I will not teach anything that I have not learned myself. I will give up those attitudes, practices and ego attachments that stand in the way of my practicing and learning the principles and skills that I am devoted to.
~ I will learn from everybody as I can, neglecting and rejecting no one to the best of my ability. I will see everyone and everything in a positive and reconciling light, whether they act or react to me this way or not. I will not act solely for selfish ends no matter how difficult someone else may be making my life.
~ I will review my day and my actions at the end of each day so that I may know consciously what I have done and not done for my spiritual values and journey.
~ I will live as an example to others, but not for others. I will accept myself as I truly am so that I may accept others as they truly are. I will not interfere with others' lives or seek in any way to control them, unless temporarily for their own good.
~ I will reflect clearly on all important actions I take. I will act decisively when dangers are about to overwhelm values. I will act decisively when new values are there in potential to be actualized.
~ I will live for greater purpose in all of my life for all of my life.
~ On this date and in this place I so commit to the above practices and values to the best of my ability.
http://www.aikidojournal.com/article.php?articleID=322
"Have no falsehood in mind. Reluctance and deceit are not conducive to the inner harmony required by judo practice. Do not lose self-confidence. Learn to act wholeheartedly, without hesitation. Show reverence toward the practice of judo, by keeping your mind in it. Keep your balance. The center of gravity follows the movement of the body. The center of gravity is the most important element in maintaining stability. If it is lost, the body is naturally unbalanced. Thus, fix your mind so that your body is always in balance. Utilize your strength efficiently. Minimize the use of strength with the quickest movement of body. Acknowledge that what is called stillness and motion is nothing but an endlessly repeated process. Do not discontinue training. Mastery of judo cannot be accomplished in a short time. Since skills depend on mental and physical application, constant training is essential. Keep yourself humble. If you become self-centered, you will build a wall around yourself and lose your freedom. If you can humble yourself in preparation for an event you will surely be better able to judge and understand it. In a match, you will be able to detect the weak point of your opponent and easily put him or her under control."
COMMENT
This is clearly, good, practical advice for decent people. But maybe a bit limited in terms of life itself. One's best life must not be lived only in the dojo.
I would write a commitment statement as follows:
The Commitment Of A Spiritual Journeyer
~ As a beginner in living from the Greater Center within and without, I commit myself to develop my whole being from a greater center than the ego's desire for reward and for control.
~ As a beginner in consciousness I consciously choose to live at a daily level the fundamental energy principles of life, such as centering, balancing opposites, giving out and taking in, receiving and focusing, and dealing with everything which comes my way in life with a reconciling and harmonious attitude and practice. I will practice wholeness in all things.
~ As a spiritual journeyer I give up the common attitude of striving to be a winner and avoiding being a loser. I pledge to taking accomplishment and loss in equal measure and seek to maintain a non-attached attitude regarding both.
~ I seek to maintain a positive attitude but without rejecting negative moods and experiences as necessary to life.
~ I commit myself to daily practice of the principles and practices of the form of personal development I engage myself in. I recognize that daily practice is necessary to making any skill, form or value an integral part of my life.
~ I will combine physical practice with spiritual practice in equal measure. I will not hide from myself and others my true nature. I will seek always to take one hundred percent responsibility for myself in everything I express and do.
~ I recognize that I am not alone but live my life in the context of relating to others. This means that I practice, not living through others, but relating to others in a harmonious and balanced way, seeking for those of similar purpose to myself what I also desire for myself.
~ I will seek to solve all conflicts within myself and with others. Failure to do so means that I will seek help where necessary in solving conflicts that anyone has with me or I have with them.
~ I will not teach anything that I have not learned myself. I will give up those attitudes, practices and ego attachments that stand in the way of my practicing and learning the principles and skills that I am devoted to.
~ I will learn from everybody as I can, neglecting and rejecting no one to the best of my ability. I will see everyone and everything in a positive and reconciling light, whether they act or react to me this way or not. I will not act solely for selfish ends no matter how difficult someone else may be making my life.
~ I will review my day and my actions at the end of each day so that I may know consciously what I have done and not done for my spiritual values and journey.
~ I will live as an example to others, but not for others. I will accept myself as I truly am so that I may accept others as they truly are. I will not interfere with others' lives or seek in any way to control them, unless temporarily for their own good.
~ I will reflect clearly on all important actions I take. I will act decisively when dangers are about to overwhelm values. I will act decisively when new values are there in potential to be actualized.
~ I will live for greater purpose in all of my life for all of my life.
~ On this date and in this place I so commit to the above practices and values to the best of my ability.