Well, we're home. It's been quite a week. We're tired, but I wanted to update as best I could before my head slams into the keyboard and I wake up Thursday.
Soke's class yesterday was great, profound even. He began with what seemed like 15 or 20 minutes of talk; talk about history, of current events, of the future of the Bujinkan, of what it means to study this art. He spoke of the evolution of weapons in Japan, from ken, to tachi, to ju (firearms), to katana. He touched on lots of stuff - difficult to process now, but I'll get at it this week. What struck me was so much of it included the macro view, not just of the art, but ourselves, and what it means to, "study Budo as a human being." He asked us to look deeply to discover the essence of Budo - it's human face - and not become stuck on the minutiae of techniques.
His movement was supple, light - Jiyu ni, with freedom. "Just disappear a little ..." he laughed as his uke seemed to thrust a bo right through him and then be thrown - bo and all - spectacularly. Sword, no sword, bo, no bo, weapon, no weapon, he moves with the very freedom of his consciousness, always in the right place, doing the right thing, at the right time.
And at the end of class, when I saw Nagato sensei administer three Godan tests, I felt a dramatic shift in my perspective. The only way I can describe it is I could see him cut, before he cut. All of them passed.
It's good to be home. Me sleep now.
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