the Way of the Turtle

Iaido Class
Friday, January 12, 2007

More talking than anything else this class... we got some stories from Atlantic City regarding George Alexander and Dana Abbott (both of whom I'd met at previous Expos) and a warning that the latest martial arts fad is the samurai and sword arts (he's a bit behind with that... that started about 3 years ago.) Then we split into two groups, with each group getting a philosophy lecture and a chance to practice katas. Our lecture focused on several concepts - yudan nashi (never being off-guard), hogen (universal sight, or having a deep understanding of the natural order of things), and heijoshin (constant peace of mind.) Much of it was a review of things we'd discussed before. (For a more detailed look at these concepts, see the initial philosophy section of Shimabukuro and Pellman's 1995 book Flashing Steel.) After that we had a chance to work on katas on our own, so I took the time to run through most of the ones I've been taught (didn't practice yin-no-kata and yan-no-kata due to the kneeling involved in them.) Not incredibly productive, all told, but it did force me to review my katas and it was fun sharing stories with Miss Moller and Rich on the ride to and from Utica.

JMH