One time only…

Any instant is the same as thousands of infinite eons.
And thousands of infinite eons are the same as a single instant.
Kegon-Kyo The Sutra of Flowered Splendour (1)

I like technique and have always tried to follow and remember technique as precisely as possible. I can track how techniques have changed over time. We used to call it shihonage; it’s now ude gaeshi. We used to practise repetitively mostly with some level of movement, now the spectrum flows from kata to kakari keiko, all with precise technique.

In a way, I think about practising technique as being about layers. Technique is like an onion, if you like. You get the rough brown bit on the first few goes, and then gradually you get further into the essence of it with practice. This is probably still true, although technique is just that – technique.

At Kai Cho Moxon’s retirement and hand over ceremony, he gave a class. It linked back to when he started training in martial arts and he shared techniques that he didn’t understand when he was first introduced to them. He encouraged students not to focus on technique as he was trying to emphasise principle. One technique was ai gamae tsuki. This can be a thrust on what I would call the outside (as opposed to gyaku gamae tsuki). In technical terms that is what it is, however, using ki, the technique was less recognisable, although when done successfully, no less powerful.

This idea of focussing on principle interests me. Unfortunately, when focusing on principle, the necessary depth of understanding may simply not be there. This is a different thing from a more pure demonstration of principle which retains all the essence of technique without being bounded by it. Exploring principles in some abstract way where we determine whether or not we sense aiki in what we do does not contain that truth of what we do. It still matters that what we do works. At the same time, making it work in a way that does not contain the principle of what we do is not much point as it ignores the art in which we are training. So the challenge becomes to realise principle, through the practise of technique, so that we can practise our martial art free from that technique. Put another way, Kai Cho Eacott said that in practising technique we are teaching our bodies. Bodies learn slowly, but do not forget. If we try simply to teach our mind, minds learn fast, but forget and transform and lose precision in that perceived understanding.

I’m thinking about visual representations of what we do. If ai gamae tsuki is moving our body off-line, raising palm up partners centre line to connect with the jaw and tilting Uke’s jaw back, so that the body follows and they end up doing an ushiro ukemi, that is a reasonable representation of the technique of ai gamae tsuki. I can imagine drawing stick figures representing this. Alternatively, ai gamae tsuki is about moving the body, so that our energy is directed along a weak direction for Uke, then takes and redirects Uke’s energy back on itself. This is far closer to principle and such a visual representation is about energy in all things and how it interacts. The stick figures just don’t quite communicate the same thing here. However, when the body knows the feeling and where to move in time and space to redirect that energy harmoniously, we have aiki.

So what’s this to do with time?

The art is contained in one technique. For the most part, it doesn’t even matter which technique. I could change the above quote to say “A technique is the same as many techniques; just as many techniques are the same as one.”

As clichéd as it sounds, training is about life. Because truth is contained in a single practice and that is the same as all practice. A single moment in our life is universal. And the pressure of training, in part, is about challenging that moment – Intensifying it so that we can realise that truth. Each practice should be about doing it once. Kai Cho Moxon would remind us that on a battlefield, it is likely that there would only be a ‘once’!

What this tells us?

Focussing on a technique is important. The technique is teaching us, teaching our bodies the principles of our art. Each practice needs to be a single practice. Each strike or turn is a single practice. It is because in a single practice, everything is contained. It is not one of many. That is why we are to avoid bouncing cuts as Kai Cho Eacott has reminded us so many times. In those instances, the cuts are not true – they are merged together and lost.

Understanding the principle of our martial art is entwined with understanding that one instance in practice is universal and we learn by creating those instances.