Shingen-Aikido-Dojo – Aikido-Blog.de

Jeff Sensei did write us an eMail and mentioned this old indian analogy. We like it because it got a lot to do with Aikido and tolerance:

“There are four blind men who discover an elephant. Since the men have never encountered an elephant, they grope about, seeking to understand and describe this new phenomenon. One grasps the trunk and concludes it is a snake. Another explores one of the elephant’s legs and describes it as a tree. A third finds the elephant’s tail and announces that it is a rope. And the fourth blind man, after discovering the elephant’s side, concludes that it is, after all, a wall.

Each in his blindness is describing the same thing: an elephant. Yet each describes the same thing in a radically different way.

if only we could all truly see…”

We already mentioned “Shugyo” publishing the article about “Shu-Ha-Ri”. “Shugyo” is a term that seems to have different meanings. Time ago, a “Shugyosha” was a Budoka, travelling from Dojo to Dojo to learn.

The word “Shugyo” is built from two syllables: “Shu” meaning as much as “discipline”, “respect” or “learning” and “Gyo” as much as “art”. Maybe the meaning is “to learn the art”.

To translate the meaning “Shugyo” is difficult and seems to also mean to “polish one´s spirit”. It means to unify spirit and body and to challenge oneself. This also means to be honest, to work at your own ego and to go beyond the limit. To recognize and reflect your own mistakes and to get out of the comfort zone.

“Shugyo” seems to be related to “Misogi” (purification). It is obvious that we can practice “Shugyo” every day, by solving tasks we do not like, i.e. to make your bed, wash your own Gi, do the washing up. But in actual fact it means to open your spirit, purify it and be honest against yourself. Not to give up but to mature.

On the physical level “Shugyo” can be practised by repeating movements like cleaning the Tatami, concious seating and breathing accompanied by discipline.

In Germany “Shugyo” in life often seems to be unknown and uncomfortable. It starts at school where someone throws away his rubbish or does not clean his shoes entering. The cleaning of the school is left for somebody else to do. In Japan the pupil do clean their own school. This is a way of discipline and challenging oneself, that helps being honest with oneself and going beyond the limit of laziness and impurity.

“Shugyo” can also mean to learn something new, to visit a new Dojo and to behave with respect and discipline. To visit a strange seminar with new challenges which can only be learned by being humble. Humbleness never can be wrong anyway as we all make mistakes and can purify by practicing “Shugyo”.

In our understanding everybody visiting a good Dojo, that is not a school of comfort, is practicing “Shugyo”. Everybody visiting a good Dojo is reaching beyond one´s own limits, trains regularly and tries to mature conciously or unconciously. The more you practice, the more intensive the “Shugyo” and therefore the maturity.

“Shugyo” seems to be connected with asceticism, to concentrate on the important things, to purify the mind, to challenge oneself and to mature. As little as we can read about the meaning of “Shugyo”, the meaning seems to be different for every one of us. All in all it seems with keeping one´s mind open we reach another form of awareness, and with the help of “Shugyo” we get closer to “Shingen“, the highest form of awareness.

If you know more about the meaning of “Shugyo”, please do us a big favour and comment this article. We are working hard to find out more about the meaning of “Shugyo”.

When we visited Venice in February this year (2007), a lot of our impressions had to do with Budo. Still in 2004 and 2005 we were visiting Venice to take photographs of the masks at carnival. This year was completely different. This is the story:

The date we had with the three German masks from Stuttgart had been cancelled that first evening. Somehow we did not get the chance to meet the three ladies. Instead we had dinner at the “La Bitta”, one of the nicest (if not “the nicest”) restaurants in town. We met two professors, who were seated at the neighbour table and both also don’t believe in coincidences. Marco is a professor for sinology in Venice. He spent years in China, Taiwan and Japan. Within the few days of our stay in Venice, Marco explained a lot about China, he showed us the University and helped us with the Kanji of our “Shingen-Dojo”. After we returned home from Venice, a kind young German fellow confirmed the Kanji and also sent them in proper letters. Without him we would not have looked for the Kanji, but as he mentioned so nicely: “There is nothing worse for a Japanese but to read a word without knowing the right token.”.

Dobora, owning the restaurant “La Bitta” with her husband Marcellino, also has a diploma in Sinology and magically painted the Kanji for “Shingen” onto the backside of the business card of the “La Bitta” that first evening of our visit. We found out later that they were the right Kanji for the meaning (compassionate eye). We had not expected Debora to have such a wonderful knowledge of Sinology and also to practice Jiu-Jitsu. We clearly found some common interests that evening.

Coming to think of it, Venice has a long history of trade with Asia (Marco Polo). Many spices were exported to Europe through Venice. Therefore it is not a coincidence we were visiting the epicentre of experts for Asia. The university (”Universita´ Ca´ Foscari Di Venezida, Dipartimento dei Studi Sull´Asia Orentale”) is situated in the centre of Venice and we had the honour to have a tour for several hours. We learned that when the university first moved into the old Venetian building, they found out there was original fresco showing oriental motives hidden under a lot of paint. Also this does not seem a coincidence. The photograph showing the print-Kanji of an original Chinese typewriter was taken with our visit at the university.

Arigato gozaimashita to Marco, Bruce, Debora, Marcellino and to the kind young German Aikidoka !

Universita´ Ca´ Foscari Di Venezida, Dipartimento dei Studi Sull´Asia OrentaleDruck-Kanji für eine chinesische Schreibmaschine Die asiatische Fakultät in Venedig

It is amazing what Budo can do if it is taught deeply and trained the same way. My wife Geraldine and I did learn Aikido with Esther-Sensei and Bruno-Sensei at the Tenshin-Ryu in Kempen, Germany (Reynosa-Sensei at Ventura, USA has a deep influence onto our Aikido. He is our sensei now and we are extremely happy about his caring).

Like the both (Esther-Sensei and Bruno-Sensei) said when we trained with them (free quotation): “At the beginning of training Aikido you will start catching falling teacups”. Once you train much longer this kind of awareness will be growing stronger. You will notice problems, will be able to read a face behind the facade and learn a lot more things. Those will be different for everybody and everyone will have to find this out for her-/himself.

Aikido is definately a great thing to do. But one of the premises is to find the right people/teachers/senseis. Masayuki Shimabukuro is one of the important people at Budo and he explains about “awareness” in four steps: “Nikugen -> Tengen -> Egen -> Shingen”. With reading his explenations about these four expressions, one realizes how philosophical Budo can be.

The first level – “Nikugen” (what the author describes as “naked eye”) – is a two-dimensional seeing. You see something but you do not realize neither form nor background. This might be compared to the state a baby sees things like.

The secons level – “Tengen” – is what the author describes as a “neutral perspective”. In simple words he means that seeing lots of trees, you realize that there is a forest (”see the forest for the trees”).

The third level of awareness – “Egen” (Interpretive Sight) – is what you can notice with a lot of grown ups. With this step it becomes possible to subconcious foresee a possible accident by observing two cars approaching a blind intersection. Still – Masayuki Shimabukuro finds – “Egen” with people is very limited to physical things and happenings whilst the true “Egen” could in fact be used to “see” a lot more. For example one could realize what clashing will happen when two completely different characters meet.

The fourth step is very interesting – “Shingen/Hōgen” (Compassionate Eye). Compassion in the German language is often mistankingly understood as “pity”. Compassion is completely different, maybe compared to a parent – children relationship of both meanings. The fourth level – that will possibly never be met by most people – means objectiveness and compassion. The true Samurai will understand things objetively and he has got the ability to foresee, what results will come out of the doing. The Samurai sees things “with understanding and compassion for ALL those affected, so that his action will be not what is best for him, but what will be the best for scociety as a whole.” (quotation Masayuki Shimabukuro).

It is very interesting to read, what the fourth level is. Fact is that it will possibly take a very long time to get even near to this level of awareness, because the ego and the personal understanding and prejudice play against that. Also the personal circumstances will influence the objectiveness, although being at the fourth level, you will certainly take care of those.

To cut things short, at that fourth level you will not see the abilities of people in a dependence on looks and superficiality. You will look behind the facade into their hearts and see the true personality. The views of Masayuki Shimabukuro are very interesting and he takes great care in etikette and philosophy. In our eyes he is a very important person in budo and humanity.