Martial Art : Go from the surface to the depth

Am I what I think or what I feel ?

In martial arts the question may be asked.

Past maters, great samouraïs or monks from monasteries have developed knowledges, of which we only have few techniques left. But behind it there was and should still be much more.

Our thoughts direct us, influences our way to be but can also trap us, on the tatami among others, in the gesture.

Energy is free, it belongs to everyone, it doesn’t direct, it doesn’t shape, it doesn’t trap, on the tatami it doesn’t lock up the gesture.

Its discovery and its comprehension can be achieved in multiple ways.

Akuzawa Sensei is a perfect emple. In his study of martial arts, his life path, he came to this encounter with the energy (Ki) which he transmits to us through his langage, that of the Aunkai: not words or so ever so little, and beyong gestures, the perception, the feeling of what makes the gesture born just.

The fondation of his teaching are the Tanren. And if we observe them in a different way than gestures meant to be repeated over and over to obtain the perfect position, we find out that within them lies a path of perception that goes beyond the movement of muscles and articulations. The Tanren as seen by a dancer I know are a free dance of the body, they animate it, untie it, they are a circulation door for the energy within us.

Energy (the Ki, the t’chi…) scares, because it is uknown by our being. And when a human is in fear, he attempts to take it down. As soon as we search in ourselves, fear wins us over, because we ignore what we’ll find at the end of this research.

The way to counter this fear is to be like the child who discovers things simply. He lives through them, he experiments them, he feels them, he doesn’t attempt to control them, nor does he try to succeed at once. Time has no power over him, that’s why his progress is so extraordinary.

To remain in this discovery state of mind is the key of the greatest martial arts masters.

Akuzawa Senseï is one of the great masters of our time. Year after year he keeps blazing through the deepening of his practice because he is in constant research. He doesn’t stop at the gesture, not the perfection, not the body, he always searches further into the perception. 

Not long ago, an instructor and friend of mine told me he met many long-time martial art practioners which had the same speech “we’ve had enough of technique, we would like more depth”

The depth the practioners search for can be found, because it isn’t a technique, it is what animates it, it is what we are.

Akuzawa Sensei says it « we need to work on ourself ». 

The work on ourselves isn’t physical or technical, but a personal work, inside us, about our way of beeing and apprehend things, of looking at things or even feel them.

By moving from the quest for the perfect gesture, technically or in terms of efficiency, in search of the feeling we arrive to the « dorsal root » of martial arts, to their base, the depth that’s being searched so much.

Akuzawa Sensei has updated this dorsal spine, he didn’t create the Aunkai as another martial art, but as a link between us all. He updated and constantly refines what the link between us all is, the axis that keeps everything standing : a column composed of gestures to feel, work on perception, of ourselves, of the other, of what links partners or adversaries, and in which the Energy, an element long kept secret because misunderstood, misinterpreted, and allowing such power that when misused can be dangerous, finds its rightful place.

The Aunkai is an excellent too to go deeper in practice for those fed up with technique, and to understand by feeling what the Energy (Ki) means in martial arts and what it brings.

Discovering the Energy with the help of the Aunkai, we’ll talk about this again soon.

The essential is invisible to the eyes