Play & Book Excerpts
Aikido: The Art of Transformation
(Park Street Press)
Being Present, Open & Settle, Allowing
Nadeau Sensei encourages new students to begin where they are. As Osensei told him, you don’t need to go anywhere special to practice Aikido. It is here and now.
The first step is getting Present. This means being Present in your body and mind. One way to get Present is to settle into your experience. You might begin by naming the elements of your felt experience in real time, letting go of judgment without trying to change what you are experiencing. This can be as easy as labeling your sensations, feelings, moods, or surroundings. Listening more deeply in this way, we can begin to let go of preconditioned thoughts and habits and develop the inner spaciousness needed for new growth—spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and energetically. Feeling the rhythms and sensations of your breath can also be a powerful way of bringing your attention to the present.
With this orientation to practice, you naturally release tension. Letting go helps to shift the focus from thinking to deeper feeling and sensing, from cognitive understanding to embodied experience. Whatever the approach, being Present in the here and now is a good way to start practice, according to Sensei.
Another way Nadeau Sensei encourages students to be more present is a process he calls Open and Settle. To open to the experience of finer energies may involve breathing and feeling more freely or opening one’s gaze to see more widely. And, at the same time, to settle into one’s body, both physically and energetically, for a more direct experience of whatever is present.
Open and Settle is one of Sensei’s most accessible exercises for beginners and advanced students alike. He often uses it as a kind of energetic warm-up, a familiar foundation for further explorations. For example, he might follow Open and Settle by asking students to more fully receive the invisible support emanating upward from the ground beneath their feet. He will guide students to feel the soles of their feet, then to sense the surface of the mat that supports them, and then to feel the floor beneath the mat, and the earth beneath the floor.
Opening and Settling is accelerated by appreciating these natural forces and aligning with gravity. Practicing this way cultivates a fuller sense of grounded presence.
Nadeau Sensei’s emphasis on being grounded with a stable base reflects his lifelong training in judo, meditation, yoga, and Aikido. Training with Osensei at Hombu Dojo, Nadeau recounts, included classes with long sessions of suwari-waza (seated techniques done on the knees) and lots of seiza (formal seated posture on the floor), which he believes Osensei emphasized to settle everyone in their lower bodies and bring them down to earth for a more direct experience of the ground.
The practices of being Present and Open and Settle are designed to gently guide students to feel more completely and realistically what is happening in their lives in real time.
Nadeau Sensei also highlights the importance of what he calls Allowing to bring a fuller experience to any part of these internal practices. To allow something is to accept it as it is as it unfolds. Sensei says, “Allow yourself to open more,” “Allow yourself to settle more,” “Allow more base,” or “Allow more space.”
Open and Settle, and Allowing, require practice and repetition before changes gradually become apparent. However, the shift from thinking to feeling and deeper sensing can be faster once the process becomes familiar.
Nadeau Sensei encourages new students to begin where they are. As Osensei told him, you don’t need to go anywhere special to practice Aikido. It is here and now.
The first step is getting Present. This means being Present in your body and mind. One way to get Present is to settle into your experience. You might begin by naming the elements of your felt experience in real time, letting go of judgment without trying to change what you are experiencing. This can be as easy as labeling your sensations, feelings, moods, or surroundings. Listening more deeply in this way, we can begin to let go of preconditioned thoughts and habits and develop the inner spaciousness needed for new growth—spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and energetically. Feeling the rhythms and sensations of your breath can also be a powerful way of bringing your attention to the present.
With this orientation to practice, you naturally release tension. Letting go helps to shift the focus from thinking to deeper feeling and sensing, from cognitive understanding to embodied experience. Whatever the approach, being Present in the here and now is a good way to start practice, according to Sensei.
Another way Nadeau Sensei encourages students to be more present is a process he calls Open and Settle. To open to the experience of finer energies may involve breathing and feeling more freely or opening one’s gaze to see more widely. And, at the same time, to settle into one’s body, both physically and energetically, for a more direct experience of whatever is present.
Open and Settle is one of Sensei’s most accessible exercises for beginners and advanced students alike. He often uses it as a kind of energetic warm-up, a familiar foundation for further explorations. For example, he might follow Open and Settle by asking students to more fully receive the invisible support emanating upward from the ground beneath their feet. He will guide students to feel the soles of their feet, then to sense the surface of the mat that supports them, and then to feel the floor beneath the mat, and the earth beneath the floor.
Opening and Settling is accelerated by appreciating these natural forces and aligning with gravity. Practicing this way cultivates a fuller sense of grounded presence.
Nadeau Sensei’s emphasis on being grounded with a stable base reflects his lifelong training in judo, meditation, yoga, and Aikido. Training with Osensei at Hombu Dojo, Nadeau recounts, included classes with long sessions of suwari-waza (seated techniques done on the knees) and lots of seiza (formal seated posture on the floor), which he believes Osensei emphasized to settle everyone in their lower bodies and bring them down to earth for a more direct experience of the ground.
The practices of being Present and Open and Settle are designed to gently guide students to feel more completely and realistically what is happening in their lives in real time.
Nadeau Sensei also highlights the importance of what he calls Allowing to bring a fuller experience to any part of these internal practices. To allow something is to accept it as it is as it unfolds. Sensei says, “Allow yourself to open more,” “Allow yourself to settle more,” “Allow more base,” or “Allow more space.”
Open and Settle, and Allowing, require practice and repetition before changes gradually become apparent. However, the shift from thinking to feeling and deeper sensing can be faster once the process becomes familiar.
As illustrated in the diagram on the previous page, , he speaks about three different levels at which a person may respond to the energies of a given situation: “Think, Feel, and Sense.” Thinking is a normal and necessary response to a new situation. However, Sensei describes overreliance on thinking as being up in our heads and largely oblivious to our inner feelings and body sensations.
He teaches that we are all capable of feeling and sensing deeper dimensions of ourselves and connecting with finer and finer energies. Gradually we can integrate upper-level awareness with deeper-level experience. We practice this internal work ourselves to actualize the process. Reading these paragraphs and understanding the concepts is not enough. According to Sensei, sustained practice approached honestly is essential for a self-driven process of inner change.
He teaches that we are all capable of feeling and sensing deeper dimensions of ourselves and connecting with finer and finer energies. Gradually we can integrate upper-level awareness with deeper-level experience. We practice this internal work ourselves to actualize the process. Reading these paragraphs and understanding the concepts is not enough. According to Sensei, sustained practice approached honestly is essential for a self-driven process of inner change.
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This excerpt is written by Susan Spence, 4th Dan
Susan has studied with Robert Nadeau since 1984 and has been an instructor at his schools in Mountain View and San Francisco. She currently works as a physical therapist and biofeedback specialist treating children and adults. She believes she has become a better person, a better physical therapist, and a better healer through her training. She is a co-author of Aikido: The Art of Transformation - The Life and Teachings of Robert Nadeau. Her co-authors: Teja Bell, Laurin Herr, Richard Moon, Bob Noha, and Elaine Yoder. ABOUT ROBERT NADEAU and THE BOOK:
A widely influential figure in the development of Aikido in America, Robert Nadeau is one of the few American direct disciples of Aikido’s founder Morihei Ueshiba Osensei. This book, written by his students, presents, for the first time, the profound lessons and deep impact of a pioneering teacher who’s been central to the spread of Aikido in the West. The book also explains Nadeau’s unique teaching, his core concepts, and basic practices centered on energy refinement, direct experience, and inner transformation. |
Susan Spence
Photo Courtesy: Susan Spence |
