Dodging Bullets

This blog is to first of all with everyone a very Merry Christmas and New Year's holiday. And to try to bring into some perspective the very troubling shooting and mass killings in Connecticutt. It is amazing that the holidays which is a time for friends, family, renewal, could be this year prefaced by such a gruesome tragedy. So how might we look at this from an aikido perspective?

This was a brutal gun crime. And part of the history of aikido was the founder Morihei Ueshiba Osensei's ability to dodge bullets, which in a documented fashion occurred on more than one occasion. This seems more in the realm of a comic book. And how could the children and teachers involved in that troubling event be expected to do something superhuman?

But the true message of aikido is a transformational and at the same time a revolutionary one. Find within yourself true balance. Extend that out into the world. Have that balance within you touch the balance of the world around you. Extend that balance out to others and include that to mean helping them instill that balance within themselves. We have all experienced feeling dark or negative thoughts at times. But to be able to say to oneself "I am not that darkness. I am not that negativity". is crucial. For then our collective "I" becomes easy with itself and the potential for the underlying balance within each of us can step forward. If enough people get this message then events like those of recent days will not occur. And we have each helped each other to "dodge the bullets'' so to speak. And this form of dodging bullets is achievable and necessary.

Aikido of San Jose and its companion schools have had a rich year in terms of community and personal growth/transformation culminating in some wonderful kyu and dan exams both here in San Jose and in Sebastopol. I have included in this blog a video Christmas card from Aikido of San Jose giving the year in pictures with a musical background. I hope you enjoy it.