Beginner’s Mind (Shoshin) “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”.
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki p 21
Wonder
If we want to train on the highest level, then we want to always have a sense of wonder. When we say “It’s wonderful,” we mean it has a sense of mystery about it. It’s a wonder. You must have a sense of wonder about this moment. If you think you know what it is about, you are probably wrong. You have to find that sense of not knowing. You cannot listen with half of your mind closed off. You have to be one big, open, innocent ear. This is not so much to listen to a particular person exclusively, but to perceive everything that is in this way; to take it all in. This is how we train in the dojo.
Letting Go, Talks on Aikido by Christopher Curtis
A Special Stillness
A Special Stillness.
In the space between each thought and act is a special stillness that carries from stillness to stillness giving balance to thought and act.
Everything arises from and returns to stillness. Stillness is the ease in which non-thinking and non-doing happen of themselves.
207 The Tao of relationships
by Ray Grigg
Victory
Victory over oneself is the primary goal of our training. We focus on the spirit rather than the form, the kernel rather than the shell.
P86 The Art of Peace By Morihei Ueshiba
Conflict
It is surprising how many conflicts are prevented, managed, or resolved using a sense of humour, humility, and good manners.
P15 Aikido Weapons Techniques by Phong Thong Dang and Lynn Seiser
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Say to yourself first thing in the morning: today I shall meet people who are meddling, ungrateful, aggressive, treacherous, malicious, unsocial. All this has afflicted them through their ignorance of true good and evil. But I have seen that the nature of good is what is right, and the nature of evil what is wrong; and have reflected that the nature of the offender himself is akin to my own – not a kinship of blood or seed, but a sharing in the same mind, the same fragment of divinity. Therefore I cannot be harmed by any of them, as none will infect me with their wrong. Nor can I be angry with my kinsmen or hate him. We were born for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth. So to work in opposition to one another is against nature: anger or rejection is opposition.
p12 Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Socrates
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
Socrates
Japanese Tea Ceremony
A traditional Japanese tea ceremony to celebrate John Hurley Sensei long service to the Fortitude Valley Aikido Dojo preformed by the lovely ladies of Hakuunan Brisbane
