The paths of the energy at the heart of the Aunkai

In martial practice, each and every one of us can see different types of practioners, amateurs as well as veterans, those who come to defend themselves or to search for something : they’re researchers.

As far as I’m concerned, I tend to categorize myself as a researcher since I began to practice casually and my goal has always been the following « understanding the energy ».

The energy, depending on civilisations and cultures has quite a lot of names, the ki, t’chi, Ka … ? and many more.

The more time has passed, the more my vision of the energy has changed, the one I had in the beggining is not the same anymore. In order to properly understand that notion of the energy, I realized that you must observe it from multiple angles.

I have a friend who is always taking exemple on the look we have at a same valley but from different hills. It’s true, it is like watching the stars while forgetting everything that’s composing our universe.

We are completely a part of the universe, we share its size, nothing differentiates us from it. 

Our limits are those our mind has determined. We are thinking beings. That means each of our actions must bring us to think over why we did that action.

Why do we not need this notion of the energy anymore ? Because our civilisations have taken a path that’s made non simplistic by the material vision of things.

This also what understanding the depth of the Aunkai is about.

In my search of an understanding of the energy, I crossed roads with Akuzawa Minoru. Before I met him, my first day of Aunkai practice deeply called to the depths of me. It was like an echo but difficult to get a hold of. I then decided to dig deeper in order to understand. The more I moved forward, the more the certitude of the direction became clear.

My meeting with Akuzawa Sensei confirmed that the core of his work was the energy.

The langage of the energy is subtile but not innaccessible. 

The Tanren are the langage that Akuzawa Sensei gives us to understand.

Like in every teaching, there is a way to do so, a way to approach the subject.

For the Aunkai, it is the work on ourselves, because for the energy to express itself, we’re gonna need to feel things within ourselves. That feeling must bring us to self questionning in order to find our actual depth and our original state.

I can practice the Tanren in a physical way without questionning but the result will not be as phenomenal as it should be because I will miss the langage of the Tanren.

Akuzawa Sensei

The Tanren speaks to us, it’s then up to us to listen in order to understand the message it’s delivering.

Keep in mind those questions : Why does Akuzawa Sensei only use a few Tanren ? Why is that ? 

Why has he transformed them with the time ?  

Whenever the practice of the Tanren seems meaningless to you, ask yourself that kind of question.

Akuzawa Sensei talks about a « Forge ».

I studied metalwork, I know how a Forge works.

The first image that comes to mind when talking about « forging the body » is that of a blacksmith hitting iron with his hammer.

But that, is not Forging. That is heating the material in order to make it flexible and be able to transform it in what we desire.

Tanren are Forges designed to get rid of the physical stiffness of the body and have the energetic potential be released from it.

Akuzawa Sensei has his own langage. 

In order to understand, you must read it, not try to interprate it. 

阿吽会

When Akuzawa Sensei show the Aunkai logo, he brings the attention on the importance of the flames : flames, symbol of the Forge and the Awakening in bouddhism.

What’s essential is invisible to the eyes