There are currently openings for Adult and Children students. Interested candidates are invited to observe a class. The dojo is co-located with the Toledo Zen Center at 6537 Angola Road Holland, OH 43558 jayrinsenweik@gmail.com

Aikido is a non-competitive martial art that can be practiced by almost anyone. Aikido techniques do not rely on physical strength but rather develops relaxed power through the focus of intention and Ki. The result is a creative method of non-destructive conflict resolution.

Aikido is practiced on many levels. The first level is includes the development of stamina, flexibility, and learning how to focus one's intention. The second level is built on the first and stresses self-defense techniques that teach the natural order of movement. In this process the students also become adept at ukemi, the art of rolling, falling and protecting oneself. Aikido provides the opportunity for the development of the entire person. It is a workout of the entire body and mind and results in increased strength, overall physically fitness, flexibility and centeredness.

At the third level students are gradually introduced to the secrets of receiving and harnessing the power of ki, they also develop spatial awareness and learn to judge proper timing and distance. During this training the goal is to establish and maintain an energetic connection to your partner and to lead them off balance. This eliminates the need for more destructive means of resolving situations.

The highest level of aikido is mind over matter. This involves the use of visualization techniques, the power of intention and ki, breath control and meditation. Aikido is truly a spiritual martial art that explores themind - body - spirit connection. This advanced level of training at Shobu Aikido reaches a level not easily found elsewhere. The student learns how to manifest power and effectiveness by the focusing of intention alone. This level depends on and can only be reached through the refinement of technique and the students own deepest feeling. For this reason it alternates between the physical and the spiritual.

In the process of practicing aikido, students inevitably find themselves less stressed and more energetic, better equipped to manage life's many conflicts with calm control. Aikido is great for adults and kids alike because practice encourages respect for self and others, self control, cooperation and responsibility.

Gasshuku or weekend long intensive seminars with William Gleason Sensei are available seasonally.

Children's aikido classes provide a friendly, non-competitive environment for students to become more physically fit, agile, flexible, aware, focused, and relaxed. They learn how to safely fall, roll and perform a variety of self-defense techniques in a supportive, comfortable setting, and parents like Aikido because kids learn how to be powerful without becoming destructive.

An Excerpt from Jay Sensei's Non-Discrimination Talk at the Ohio Statehouse November 13th, 2008.



"Those discriminations and distinctions that we fight for and with, actually don't exist, save in our own mind. And so a simple practice that almost any Buddhist, and specifically the Zen lineage, the one that I hold and represent, will engage in is the practice of silence. Contemplative silence. And from the point of view of our particular lineage, if to some degree that contemplative intelligence has not been awakened, then we suffer. We suffer from the effects of our own entrapment in conditioning. And so I thought it might be a nice thing for us to just take a second, and please sit straight with me if you would for a moment. In zen you know words fail. And by the way, also, most mystic and contemplative traditions (practice this), its not strictly a Buddhist thing. If you look at Christian mysticism, Jewish mysticism, over and over the gate is silence. And so as we take just a second, please bring your attention to your breath, and please just feel the breath enter the body, and leave the body. And as you hear the discussions outside let them continue. Don't try to fight them, but don't let yourself get pulled out and distracted by them. All of us share this breath. There is not a Buddhist breath, there is not a Democratic breath, or a Republican breath, or a gay or a straight breath. There is simply this breath. Thank you everyone."

-Jay Rinsen Weik

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful. The satement that there is only this breath; not red or blue or gay or straight; bu this breath, shared by all relly struck me.

Even as I focus on my breath, I am still thinking of it as my breath. Thank you for this.

-Rob from Canada

November 17, 2008 at 9:28 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Saotome

Blog Archive