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links for 2008-01-15

spirituality

Hippie Shit

1.) Meditation Accessories:

I ordered a zafu (meditation cushion) from Four Gates last week, and it arrived today. I got my first choice of color, Zen Black, and it’s quite tall for a zafu — almost overstuffed. I like it, though. I haven’t given it a full half-hour sit yet, but the ten minutes I’ve spent on it leads me to believe that the days of my left foot falling asleep 20 minutes into a session of zazen may well be over. The novelty of having my own zafu may even get me to practice zazen at home on a more regular basis, which would be helpful in so many ways.

2.) Yoga:

Saturday’s Aikido class left me sore as all hell, both yesterday and today (and probably tomorrow, too). Shoulders, arms, glutes, hams, and quads, mainly. To balance out my stiff soreness, today’s evening exercise was working out (well, I guess you could call it “working out”) with my Yoga for Dummies DVD. Damn, yoga makes me feel good.

My only beef with the DVD is that I’d like to be able to do the practice with the instructor leading, but not explaining every single move. I needed that the first two times I watched the DVD, but I don’t need the explanations anymore; I do want some sort of instructor-led something, though. A happy medium between the super-explainy Basic practice and the bonus Intermediate “sun salute” practice would be nice.

Still, though, I feel awesome. Still a bit sore in places, but awesome overall.

3.) Macrobiotics:

After Aikido on Saturday, Sensei and I sat down and connected for a while. It was very pleasant, and a little unexpected. I sometimes assume that he’s a busy guy with other concerns and lots of stuff on his plate and lots of students senior to myself, and it makes me feel just a little more special to be invited to sit down and chat. Among the things we talked about were my new job, Mormonism, and macrobiotics.

I’m not sold on the idea of going whole-hog into whole foods. I’m still a product of my environment, and I like my convenience foods. Even so, I don’t know much about macrobiotics; as a student of Aikido, though, and in our lineage in particular, it seems highly recommended to at least know what it’s all about. Sensei recommended a book called The Hip Chick’s Guide to Macrobiotics as a very cool and accessible introduction to the subject, so I Googled it. Turns out that the Hip Chick has a website and a blog, which is hip indeed.

Don’t worry: I’m not turning all hippie on you all. There’s nothing weird or counterculture about wanting to a.) be in touch with oneself, b.) not be sore and stiff, or c.) not feel like crap.

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Aikido Recap

Wednesday, Jan 2: Reviewed suwari waza (kneeling) techniques for sixth kyu test: shomen uchi ikkyo omote and shomen uchi ikkyo ura. Spent the full hour working on just those, with occasional moments of showing sensei the same techniques tachi waza (standing). Learned a lot, refined my skills. Realized later that I had developed blisters on my knees that had since burst, leaving my knees skinned.

Saturday, Jan 5: Returned to Aikido class for a second time in one week, which is not the norm for me. I need to prepare for my test on the 26th, though, so I stepped it up. My knees sported standard band-aids.

Before we broke into ranks to study for the testing, my fate was foreshadowed by unexpected bleeding from a shaving oopsie on my ankle. Later, once we broke into ranks, we once again started with suwari waza; within ten minutes, my band-aids had failed and my knees were bleeding all over my white gi. That class ended up being pretty much a wash, as I kept having to leave the mat to re-band-aid or re-secure said band-aids with medical tape. After class, everyone claimed that I was “hardcore,” although I knew that the initial blisters that had caused the bleeding had to be a result of poor or incorrect kneeling technique on my part.

Wednesday, Jan 9: This time, my knees sported the proper wound attire: large, fabric band-aids made especially for knees. i brought one extra, just in case, and left it in my bag in the changing room.

Again, we mukyu (unranked students) began with suwari waza techniques; this time, though, I was basically forced by my now-delicate knees to use proper technique. I made sure to keep my toes curled up under me, and to walk purposefully on my toes and knees, rather than just scooting and pivoting myself around. I also found myself pulling up my pant-legs and checking my knees whenever I got a free moment; the left knee was generally fine, and the right knee did start bleeding, but not enough to soak through the band-aid.

We then spent some much-needed time on two tachi waza techniques: mune tsuki kotegaeshi (the link shows a slightly more physical version than we practice) and yokomen uchi shihonage. Near the end of class, while I was acting as uke (the attacker/throwee), I felt my ankle scrape across the mat. I’d already gotten a mat burn on that ankle recently, and it hadn’t quite healed, so I wasn’t surprised when my training partner pointed out that I was bleeding. I excused myself, ran off the mat and into the bathroom to clean up, then into the changing room to apply my Band-Aid Of Awesomeness. Once I got myself all squared away and back on the mat, it was time to line up and show the class what we’d learned.

The mukyu demonstrated the two tachi waza techniques we’d studied. It was the first time I’d done any techniques in front of Sensei and the entire class, and it was good practice for how testing will feel. After we were done, the other ranks showed what they’d learned. The next rank up from us did a more advanced suwari waza technique, and the rest all demonstrated weapons work. I see now why we’ve been focusing on weapons more than before: weapons work is apparently a major part of testing for some of the higher ranks.

Assuming I go to two classes a week from now until testing, I have four classes left until testing day. If I step it up and attend three classes a week, I could make it six classes total. I could probably use the extra classes; there are ten techniques total that I need to know, and of those ten, I only feel totally confident with seven. I’m not entirely sure what the other three are. I probably know the techniques, but don’t know them by name. Actually, after a YouTube refresher, I’m feeling OK with identifying most of them, but I know I need some detail work with the techniques.

I also need to get some more practice with rolling, as I haven’t really had to roll for some time now. I was feeling fairly confident with it at one point. In the test, I’ll have to do at least ten forward rolls consecutively (not like these, thankfully — something similar to this, but more of a roll than a breakfall), and I don’t feel comfortable enough with rolling to do that right now. I will in a couple of weeks, though.