The Soul Spark, Creativity and Imagination

In preparing for an upcoming class at the Shuharikan, I've cited some of the wonderful quotes I'll be using to support the lecture as it relates to the use of imagination and creativity in developing and finding your Aikido.

The Soul Spark
“The world comes with shapes, colors, atmospheres, textures-a display of self-presenting forms. All things show faces, the world not only a coded signature to be read for meaning, but a physiognomy to be faced. As expressive forms, things speak; they show the shape they are in. They announce themselves, bear witness to their presence: “Look, here we are.” They regard us beyond how we may regard them, our perspectives, what we intend with them, and how we dispose of them. This imaginative claim on attention bespeaks a world ensouled. More-our imaginative recognition, the childlike act of imagining the world, animates the world and returns it to soul…”
James Hillman, The Thought of the Heart and the Soul of the World, pgs. 101-102, 118, 128-129

“For Merleau-Ponty, all of the creativity and free-ranging mobility that we have come to associate with the human intellect is, in truth, an elaboration, or recapitulation, of a profound creativity already underway at the most immediate level of sensory perception. The sensing body is not a programmed machine but an active and open form, continually improvising its relation to things and to the world. The body’s actions and engagements are never wholly determinate, since they must ceaselessly adjust themselves to a world and a terrain that is itself continually shifting. If the body were truly a set of closed or predetermined mechanisms, it could never come into genuine contact with anything outside of itself, could never perceive anything really new, could never be genuinely startled or surprised. All of its experiences, and all its responses, would already have been anticipated from the beginning, already programmed, as it were, into the machine. But could we even, then, call them experiences? For is not experience, or more precisely, perception, the constant thwarting of such closure?”
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World by David Abram

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.”
-George Bernard Shaw

Aphrodite, Soul Food and Aikido

So many of our experiences in life, through Aikido, our family and friends, revolve around a meal and "breaking bread." Aikido trips I've taken have provided wonderful memories of our training or talking in-depth of our lives.

From having a classic egg and toast breakfast with Kancho and Fred Haynes sensei in Georgetown, to eating dim sum and sushi at small crazy loud rock-n-roll spots in southern California with Geordan Reynolds sensei, Chino sensei and Sensei Bob and the Lincoln Continental, hitting the late night spots in San Francisco's Tenderloin area and the weekly Saturday breakfast with the Shuharikan Crew at The Downtowner in St. Paul, having a Cajun with Black and Tan toast, all are memories I treasure!

These two quotes are so descriptive and capture in such detail, the enjoyment of experiencing a fantastic meal while spending time with great friends.

"Little by little, I worked up a list of everything that according to my own experience and the knowledge accumulated through centuries in different cultures enhances passionate life, or just life in general. As is only natural, food headed the list." Isabel Allende, Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses

“To cook soul food you must use all of your senses. You cook by instinct but you also use smell, taste, touch, sight, and, particularly, sound. You learn to hear by the crackling sound when it’s time to turn over the fried chicken, to smell when a pan of biscuits is just about to finish baking, and to feel when a pastry’s just right to the touch. You taste, rather than measure, the seasonings you treasure; and you use your eyes, not a clock, to judge when that cherry pie has bubbled sweet and nice. These skills are hard to teach quickly. They must be felt, loving, and come straight from the heart and soul.” Sheila Ferguson, Soul Food: Classic Cuisine from the Deep South

Dawn toward East and Fred Haynes sensei

When I tested for San Dan (3rd degree Black Belt) I stayed with Fred Haynes sensei and his family in Toronto. During my stay we had many great training sessions and some even better conversations of his travels and views of what a senior instructor needs to do and was following the direction from Kancho sensei as his role is helping others find their Aikido and help “grow instructors.” (Photo: http://aikidoikeda.com.br)

This memory came back to me when I read East toward Dawn: A Woman’s Solo Journey Around the World by Nan Watkins. The first quote below struck me with the wonderful hospitality I experienced staying with Fred sensei and the ideal of tradition and passing down what you’ve learned to the next generation.

“You won’t repay me directly, but you will do things for others, just as I have done for you.” With that statement she showed me a path that I have taken-a lifetime of mentoring and friendship with young people, many of whom were foreign students in America, as I had once been in Munich. (pg. 19)

The next ideal was of how one evolves and grows in the medium they’ve chosen to express oneself. Having known Fred sensei for more than 15 years now and countless training sessions, clinics and conversations, it is always a pleasure to see his evolution as an Aikidoka, but more importantly as a wonderful mentor, friend, supporter and human being.

I think of the role of the artist in society, of how the artist stands outside the mainstream, exiled as recorder of human experience, critic of human behavior, town crier, visionary…No matter when, no matter where, each of us is on a journey, day by day, year by year, whether we are conscious of it or not. The artist’s journey is purposeful; the artist may not be a tidy citizen, but the artist knows why he or she is here: to tell a story, to awaken our minds and hearts to the bigger story of the universe beyond. I admire the artist, who with heightened ability of expression is able to articulate the pain and joy of the human journey through writing, painting, sculpture or music. (pgs. 29-30)

During my trip in 1999 I also had the great privilege and honor of training and testing with Jim Murray sensei. His home and dojo are located at Base Borden and it reminded me of my family’s retreat in northern Minnesota. One has the opportunity to smell the fresh air during the day, see the stars on a clear evening and hear the call of a loon as the moon reflects across the lake.

I look out the window at the sky and know that though I am in a foreign country on the other side of the earth, the sun, moon and stars are still there as my familiars. (pg. 49)
Taking time each day to retreat from the spoken word brings us in touch with the natural world and with the universal spirit. Perhaps I am able to live so easily among these people on the other side of the world because we are communicating at a level beyond our surface differences. I am with people whose greeting and farewell refer to the divine qualities within each of us. It is in that divine spirit beyond words, beyond language, that we have much to share. (pg. 61)

As I reflect back on the training in Toronto two key themes arose: where was I training that day and where were we going to eat, followed by some cold beverages. I trained with Fred sensei, Alister Thomson sensei, Tim Webb and Rod Rhem sensei, Seibukan Dojo, Jim Murray sensei, Base Borden, Mark Handley-Derry sensei, Shinseikan Aikido Club, David Stinson sensei, Seidokan and the many Aikidoka training at each of the respective dojos.

Throughout history, enlightened souls have shown us in their words and actions how to live in harmony with fellow humans and with all life on earth. Iris Murdoch, the British philosopher and novelist, said it well in one of her essays: “Love is the imaginative recognition of, that is respect for, the otherness of another person.” Respect for the otherness-a beautiful and necessary aspect of love, of understanding and relating to all kinds of people. One of my childhood heroes, Albert Schweitzer, took this thought one step further. He taught “reverence for life,” extending respect beyond humankind to include all forms of life. (pg. 75)

The final thought I had was how far the Shuharikan and Aikido in St. Paul has come in the last 10 years: scores of people who've trained at the dojo, the number of individuals who tested for Kyu and Dan ranking, hosting Kancho sensei and the many wonderful people we've hosted and met during our travels. The greatest treasures have been the deepening of friendships with Gordie, Glen, Jim and Maggie and with all those we've trained with and have been able to share the mat and celebrate with over cold beverages.

…so have I traversed in this last decade of my life the world of emotion-from deepest sorrow to profound joy. I made the journey, step by step, day by day. (pg. 174)
Developing my talents and moving out into the greater world, I learn that the diversity of people-and all forms of life-is to be cherished: the differences between us are insignificant in light of what we hold in common. (pg. 175)
I’m in travel mode, and it’s a wonderful gear to be in. It’s an entirely separate state of mind from that of being rooted in a particular spot. The essence is movement. The challenge is confronting the new. There is no boredom of routine, no daily job to go to, no responsibilities other than myself. (pg. 177)

The Collaborative Habit and Dancing

And some people only think Aikido is hard on the feet! What a great photo!

Twyla Tharp's book The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together includes excellent quotes one can apply to their Aikido training, work, or family.

I define collaboration as people working together-sometimes by choice, sometimes not. Sometimes we collaborate to jump-start creativity; other times the focus is simply on getting things done. (pg. 4)

Collaborators aren't born, they're made. Or, to be more precise, built, a day at a time, through practice, through attention, through discipline, through passion and commitment-and, most of all, through habit. (pg. 12)

Watch them, learn from them. And see if you don't soon feel that, far from being burdened with a partner, you're beginning to find new options and new ways of thinking. Thinking? Collaboration may be a practice-a way of working in harmony with others-but it begins as a point of view. (pgs. 13-14)

The sooner you establish a routine, the more smoothly your collaboration will advance. The first requirement of collaboration is commitment. (pgs. 26-27)

The root of any collaboration is interchange-literally, change. Nothing forces change more dramatically than a new partnership. Collaboration guarantees change because it makes us accommodate the reality of our partners-and accept all the ways they're not like us. And those differences are important. The more we can draw upon our partner's strengths and avoid approving our partner's weaknesses, the better that partnership will be. (pg. 36)

You need a challenging partner. In a good collaboration, differences between partners mean that one plus one will always equal more than two. (pg. 36)

As for me, I learned ways of extending movement from one place to another that would never have occurred to me had I not been able to transpose myself into this amazing artist, to feel the innumerable hours he trained, drilled, and practiced from one inside edge to the other outside edge and back, carefully tracing his patterns into the ice. (pg. 43)

Collaborative projects offer tutorials in reality. And that tutorial always presents the unexpected. (pg. 63)

Crisis focuses energy. When it really matters, people rise to the occasion. (pg. 86)

Richard Avedon taught me what Keats called "negative capability"-a willingness to suspend judgement and see reality as another might. That's creativity at its most openhearted. Those pictures of the two of us remind me that the ultimate best result of any collaboration is learning to look through your collaborator's eye. (pg. 117)

But beyond the scoring of your collaboration lies the real gain-the chance to interface with others and to develop a whole new tool kit of values. Our lives are performances-each of us starring in a play we come to know as our own. Essence isn't just who you are. It's who you are with other people. (pg. 143)

Peel an onion and country cooking

A number of years ago I had the great opportunity to train with Gaku Homma Sensei, Nippon Kan, when he gave a clinic and lecture here in Minnesota.

The technical training was wonderful, but the things I best recall were some of his interpretations of Aikido. One was that there is no right or wrong way to do Aikido, just different variations. He noted this idea came from the many individuals who trained with O'Sensei. They trained with him during different periods of his life; thus bringing about different focuses or points of view. The description was that you should liken this to an "Aikido globe" and it is all Aikido.

The second was we should appreciate the change of seasons or periods of the year in which we train and the evolution our bodies go through. These changes are also reflected in and tied to the foods we eat during the respective seasons. He noted many of the first classes he taught in Denver were followed by gatherings where he cooked for the students.

Some of these ideas are found his book The Folk Art of Japanese Country Cooking: A Traditional Diet for Today’s World by Gaku Homma:

To balance mind and body, we need to refocus and appreciate the season-to-season gifts we receive from nature. If we eat what is given to us naturally, we can find truer nutritional fulfillment, as well as a truer understanding. (p. 22)

Part of the true essence of Japanese country cooking was carried in the hearts of the people who first created the foods. By experiencing their creativity in arranging these ingredients, we can truly enjoy the richness of these foods, emotionally as well as physically. (p. 18)

Early this spring I came across the book Chef: A Novel by Jaspreet Singh.

The gastronomic writings brought me back to the descriptions Homma Sensei used and to the many layers of learning one goes through during their study and training in Aikido.

These are some of the "tasty" samplings - enjoy!:

'Pay attention to simple things, Kip. If one cannot deal with a simple dish properly, there is no way one will be able to handle the more sophisticated. Take a tomato, for instance. What is the taste of this tomato? There is no such thing as the set taste of a tomato. Taste lies in the surface, the way you cut it...
'Before cutting a tomato, give it the reverence it deserves and ask: Tomato, what would you like to become? Do you want to be alone? Or do you prefer company? Apricot, what would you like to become? Would you like to become more than yourself in the company of saffron?
'Saffron, who are you?'(p. 27)

'Kashmiri is the language of poetry,' he said.
'There is no such thing as the language of poetry,' I corrected him. 'Poetry can be written in all languages. No language is inferior. When I peel an onion in the kitchen there is poetry in it.'
'You are not entirely wrong,' he said. (pgs. 37-38)

...Chilies are South American. Coffee, Arabian. "Curry powder" is a British invention. There is no such thing as Indian food, Kip. But there are Indian methods (Punjabi-Kashmiri-Tamil-Goan-Bengali-Hyderabadi). Allow a dialogue between our methods and the ingredients from the rest of the world. Japan, Italy, Afghanistan. Make something new. Channa goes well with artichokes. Rajmah with brie and parsley. Don't get stuck inside nationalities.' I would watch the movement of his hands for hours on end. Once the materials stripped themselves bare, Chef mixed them with all that he remembered, and all that he had forgotten. Sometimes he would contradict himself, and that was the toughest thing to master in the kitchen. (p.88)

Peripheral Vision, Metsuke and Shuchu-Ryoku

My mentor and friend, Mary Texer, shared a wonderful book with me: Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals that Will Make or Break Your Company by George S. Day and Paul J. H. Schoemaker.

The business principles in the book are directly applicable to one's study of Aikido.

A concept in the martial arts is Metsuke or "soft-focus;" and is sometimes referred to as "seeing-eye" or the "mind's-eye." It is seeing without focusing on a single point and yet permits awareness of the total field of vision or peripheral vision.

In Yoshinkan Aikido a key principle is "Shuchu-Ryoku" or focused or concentrated power. The development of this power is done through the training and alignment of the body.

Some high-lights below from the book wonderful describe Metsuke and Shuchin-Ryoku in practical real-world examples.

Splatter Vision: Seeing the Forest and the Trees

Some combination of directed and undirected search may be ideal. The FBI, for example, trains its agents to use a scanning approach called “splatter vision.” This involves scanning a crowd for would-be assassins by looking into the distance and not focusing on anyone in particular. Once the agent fixes a general gaze, he or she looks for deviation or change. Is someone restless, looking around too much, slowly putting a hand into a coat pocket? From among hundreds of faces, the agent seeks a lone assassin; suspicious activity then triggers a more intense focus. By balancing directed and undirected scanning, a single agent can spot signs of trouble across a fairly large area. (p. 52)

Guidelines for Scanning
Many parts of the periphery may be important to scan. Once you have identified an area as important, you can then choose among approaches to investigate that zone.

A few general principles can guide this process:
• Actively manage the process. This can help to focus attention and resources on those areas of the periphery that are most important.
• Use multiple methods. The key to active scanning is to avoid overreliance on the methods and information sources that everyone else uses. To gain fresh insights, we must go beyond seeing what others see.
• Treat scanning as an iterative process. The results of your scanning may suggest a larger or lesser scope. Each scan offers new insights that inform the next scan.
The meaning of any weak signal detected at the periphery will depend on the position and strategy of the company viewing it. The diverse signals identified through scanning might fit together into many different coherent pictures. (pgs. 70-72)
The process of making sense is even more complex when it relates to peripheral vision. The images are, by definition, muddied and imprecise. They are distorted like the edges of a fish-eye lens, and there is a high noise-to-signal ratio. In human vision, the periphery lacks detail and color. The mind can easily jump to the wrong conclusions about something that is seen out of the “corner of one’s eye.”
Many times, when it relates to the periphery, we jump to the wrong conclusions about what we are seeing. In other cases, we fail to understand a real threat or opportunity and don’t see it until too late. (p.74)

Conclusion: The Quick and the Dead
Learning quickly and efficiently is vital in responding to the periphery. Organizations [or individuals] that can gain clarity about what is happening before their rivals will be in a better position to act on opportunities in the periphery or respond to threats.

…learning can be improved and accelerated by the following approaches:
• Use scenarios to learn. Scenarios not only help interpret the future but they can also help in probing and learning. They organize signals that may seem to be random noise into a pattern. They show where knowledge and insights are needed…
• Fail fast and cheap to accelerate learning. Experiments can be the best way to learn about the periphery. Keep them as small as possible to extract the most learning with the least risk. While good peripheral vision is important peripheral vision is important in identifying opportunities, the real value of the periphery is to explore mistakes.
• Use real options. One of the best ways to increase the learning-to-risk ratio is to use real options. Options can turn small investments into powerful learning opportunities. They can help to reduce uncertainty before major investments are required. The idea is to keep the upfront investment low while learning and preserving the upside potential. (p. 116)

Focus Attention on Specific Challenges

The problem with a broad periphery is that the organization [or individual] can easily become overwhelmed and its attention can become diffuse. There is a vital need for prioritization and focus to direct attention to specific areas while continuing to promote a broad awareness. (p. 165)

Six Lessons from the Periphery

Lesson 1: Peripheral vision is more about anticipation and alertness than prediction.
One of the overriding principles of effective peripheral vision is that it will always be less clear than focal vision. The periphery is blurry; it is not in color. Weak signals are by definition faint. The future is basically unknowable. Even with these limitations, however, peripheral vision enables two kinds of anticipation: preparing in the face of uncertainty and acting before anyone else can. By the time a clear prediction or forecast can be made, it is probably too late.
Lesson 2: The problem is not a lack of data but a lack of good questions.
…unless one focuses this [information] gathering on expanding the field of vision, no matter how carefully they look, they won’t see opportunities and threats unless their scope is broad enough.
Lesson 3: Scan actively but with an open mind because the periphery won’t always come to you.
Don’t wait for the periphery to come to you; often, you must explore it. While passive scanning plays an important role in peripheral vision, you also must explore the periphery actively through directed hypotheses and undirected journeys into the unknown. Active scanning is not a one-time or annual event. It must be a real-time process that draws on a broad repertoire of techniques and approaches.
Lesson 4: Use triangulation to better understand the periphery.
Just as the eye uses triangulation to provide depth and meaning, multiple perspectives on the periphery are needed to comprehend it. If the periphery is confusing, look at it from different angles. This is most easily done by bringing different people with diverse views into the process and by using multiple methods or techniques. This is especially important because the periphery is inherently blurry and incomplete. The conflicts and differences in viewpoints, as well as multiple hypotheses, can help illuminate different parts of the picture.
Lesson 5: When catching glimpses from the periphery, it is wise to probe before jumping.
Don't always trust what you see out of the corner of eye. It is important not to jump to conclusions but to take time to learn more about the periphery. We must amplify the weak signals with directed probes. We also must act prudently through a portfolio of real options and experiments to maintain flexibility until the uncertainty is more tolerable.
Lesson 6: Balancing peripheral and focal vision is a central leadership challenge.
The resources and attention devoted to the periphery are often taken away from investments in the focal area. Organizations [and individuals] must strike the right balance between focal and peripheral vision. The eye works its wondrous way by combining inputs from the rod cells that are scanning the periphery and the cone cells that are used for focal vision in good lighting conditions. (pgs. 168-170)

Survival of the Most Responsive

All of us have limits-individually and in our organizations-in how far we can see and in our ability to detect and act on weak signals at the periphery. We also must recognize that peripheral vision is different than focal vision. The process of peripheral vision requires different capabilities and approaches than focal vision. Like being aware that a sudden outflow of the tide is a sign of a coming tsunami, recognizing these warning signs early can mean life or death. [Individuals] can recognize and act on opportunities more quickly. [Individuals] can avoid being blindsided by the market, technology, regulations, and competitors. It takes skill to do this well, but as the environment moves more quickly and becomes more uncertain, the payoffs from strong peripheral vision will be greater than ever. As Charles Darwin observed, "It's not the strongest of the species who survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change." (p. 179)

Aiki Soku Seikatsu

The first time I really thought about and spoke about "aiki soku seikatsu" was during a January Kan Geiko (Winter Training) training in the early 1990's when I was either a brown belt or shodan, at the Shindokan Dojo in Huntington Beach, California with Geordan Reynolds sensei.

You have to remember, January in California is great compared to Minnesota, temperature wise that is. A nice 60 to 80 degree difference will cause one to break out t-shirts and shorts any day!

After training one morning we went to a nearby park with a little restaurant and enjoyed breakfast with a great Aikido conversation.

Geordan sensei shared his 'philo-fuel' thoughts of training with Kancho sensei in Tokyo and Kushida sensei in Ann Arbor.

The notes I captured can't do justice to the energy that he exuded of the trainings, learnings (some of which I cannot share!) and general friendship building he went through and anyone who has had the great opportunity of training or enjoying a beverage with him knows what I mean!

My notebook says:
"'soku' = 'equals,' 'seikatsu' = 'life' such that 'so for aiki, so is life.' This of course means that in terms of the human condition, all that we suffer or enjoy in the dojo and on the mat can be found reciprocally in daily life. Bumping into things we can't change: trauma, drama or joy!

He concluded with the thought "as one trains regularly and performs shugyo, one forges their spirit and come to realize THEY CAN DO ANYTHING!"

To me the quote “aiki soku seikatsu = Aikido and life are one” really means that I have met wonderful friends, gone on many trips around the world, trained with some of the most famous Aikidoka to ever step foot onto a mat and after class, sat down and had something to eat and drink with them and learned about their families and lives, that is the true treasure!