A new season at Junior Blind

A year had past since I started teaching Aikido at the Junior Blind of America. It was last September when some of my students, a friend (guest from Japan) and myself, drove to the Ladera Heights area, for our first interaction with quite a special group of adults. We had no idea on what we will encounter. The students were challenged with partial and total blindness. All of them lived at the Junior Blind of America campus. By the end of the session, this Summer, they told us how they gained confidence within their bodies, how they felt more secured and balanced. They lost some of their fear of falling, and experienced less vulnerability.

A couple of months of Summer vacation passed, and tonight we started a new session, with a new group. Half a dozen enthusiastic adults started their Aikido practice. It was such a great joy to see such energy, teamwork, and a serious thirst to this new learning. I couldn't stop smiling...

Eliazaro, Maria, Marcy, Ishmael, Bret, and Louise — thank you for your courage and curiosity. I look forward to our next encounter!

Moments of hardship

The other day I was watching this short video, in which Pema Chodron, sheds light on our tendency to resolve things from the outside, rather than from within us.

It made me think how I sometimes try and control the whole world around me, and adjust things outside me and not from within. This brings me to think about injuries in my practice, and the choices made on how to handle them. An injury brings us to hardship; frustration, inconvenience, and pain.

An injury is like a rest in music. The musical piece cannot not be exist without rests. One element completes the other, and make it whole. Our training will not be complete unless we encounter moments of hardship. Injuries present us with an opportunity to make a choice on the type of rest we will take. In cases of injuries or illness, many of us choose to be off the mat. Often, I see students who choose to take a few weeks off the mat, as well as away from the Dojo.

We have to remember that there are many ways of dealing with hardship, and as Pema Chodron said, we usually choose to deal with outside adjustments rather than the internal adjustment. To face our hardship, and find ways to train our mind to work though a hardship, will bring about greater presence and many benefits.

I know a person that was injured seriously, and broke his arm, that chose to be on the mat, working on one side only, on his uninjured side. I know another person, who underwent a major surgery, that was not able be on the mat, yet physically attends the Dojo regularly and watches classes, learning through Mitori Geiko (observation practice). This inspires me.

Our hardships have a gift to give us; will we choose to cover the whole world with leather, or simply put our shoes on?