How has wado changed your life?

[Gusei21]

The only certainty for me is this: The longer I do this the harder it becomes.
The more I think I understand the less I know.
There is no end. Just the journey.

[oneya]

Are you talking of life or wado Bob ..?

oneya

[Gusei21]

Are you talking of life or wado Bob ..?

oneya

Ippon!

[oneya]

.
I don’t believe wado ryu - as such - can change one’s life whilst it remains extraneous to one’s life.

Just a couple of days ago I was looking at a photograph of yabumi practicing (Suzuki Ha) kihon gumite gohonme and there was another eureka moment when I realised another very small piece from Naihanchi kata had fallen into place. I was reminded that ‘everything is connected to everything else in life’ and life is made up largely of our unknowing and our discoveries. Maybe wado ryu just polishes our prisms?

oneya

[wadoka]

I have pondered this a while and the only answer I can give I know Wado has suited my life, as opposed to changing it. I started Wado at 11 years old, so I couldn't give a story along the lines that I was heading down a bad path and Wado helped bring me back on the straight and narrow.

The language of Wado, the analysis within Wado and the dynamics of Wado seem to suit my nature.

I would also hate to say that Wado is my way of life, too esoteric for me and would always be a tongue in cheek comment.

I do know that when I drive on a long journey I do tell myself to relax the shoulders, drop the elbows and not to grip the steering wheel. I also know that I kick ass on Just Dance 3 on the Wii, maybe it is all that kata training and having to dutily follow the actions of someone in front!

[oneya]

Holy Kihon Gordon..!! I have just tried to get my head around "Just Dance 3 on the Wii" along with a few other baubles and beads being offered to the natives this morning and finally realised you're actually going to fill the huge Hitchens' void that his passing has left in my life as I grappled with the “Whatever happened to that God fellow?” question this Xmas.

I thank you for that because the wado ryu rhythm method was failing miserably with its much vaunted but damnably lengthy 'heuristic clarity package' and Seishan, my usual morning energiser, wasn’t performing any Christmas miracles either. Mind you I had suspected epiphany was nigh and even sensed you might be the herald when you advised Shep to go back before going forward when picking up his Samsung GT-S5260. I will have a goodish day now that I know Transcendence still follows Kaisetsu, at least in the 2012 edition of the Wado Ryu Encyclopaedia for next year anyway.

Regards

oneya

[wadoka]

I can only bring glad tidings Reg. Santa didn't leave the bag of answers that I emailed him about. Neither did Jim Fix It for me.

Everything else I will need to fill my own void. Wado is a funny old world, but I like it.

I had a moment the other week when doing Passai with a green belt. Pinan shodan hit me in the head when doing the yamazuki, nearly literally.

[dangars]

After 10 years of not training I realised how much I missed it, has it changed my life I don't think I can answer that. I have been taught to respect others through my training and it has made me more relaxed, one thing I have noticed since going back is that the cold doesn't get to my joints as bad as it had done the past few years. I'm glad to be back training where I started as an 8 year old this new year I will be upping my training as I am planning on grading at the next course!
Hope you all have a excellent new year,
Dangars

[kyudo]

How did wado change my life?
Did it?
As others, I have no idea what my life would look like without wado. I might have been a bad-ass ninja. Who knows? But I missed out on that one on account of wado.

So I don't know. I just enjoy the training. No more. No less.

[kyudo]

Some additional musings on how wado 'fits' into my life…

Over the years I learned that In wado everything, every movement, every position has a purpose. If a foot or hand is positioned in a certain way, it's not for looks, it's for a specific purpose.

However, in the West we lived (and still live for most part) according to the maxim: form follows function. On first glance, this sounds very wado like. But it's not. In wado form doesn't FOLLOW function, rather form IS function. In the west 'modernism' was bred on the notion of form follows function. Modern cars, towns and products look the way they do (and have their flaws) beause of that. With the grand exception of Apple products. Steve Jobs, Apple's founder, had a whole different maxim, which he probably derived from his many trips to Japan (he loved Japan and was much into zen). Jobs said: design is how it works. And fundamentally that's the difference between an iPod and an MP3 player. Between an iPhone and a mobile phone. Between Mac and Windows. Not trying to fuel a technology debate here, but doesn't the same apply to wado? The way it looks IS the way it works.

As for me, I'm obviously not Steve Jobs. But already as a kid and a young man I had serious doubts about 'form follows function'. I asked myself: shouldn't form BE function? I looked at the professional tools I used during my stint as a carpenter and furniture designer. And I asked myself: why are these tools so beautiful? No designer ever bothered to design a claw hammer. Yet, a well balanced claw hammer is a marvel of beauty. Why is that? Because its shape IS its purpose. The one doesn't follow the other. They are one. The claw hammer got shaped over the course of generations. All superfluous forms were eliminated to arrive at its beautiful essence.

Therefor, carpentry is how I got on the same track as Steve Jobs and Hironori Ohtsuka.

But it took me a while to realize that the same goes for wado. I can't say wado influenced my view on design. Rather the other way round: my look on design influenced the way I practise wado. But wado was a perfect fit. My MA journey didn't start out in wado. But I'm pretty sure that one day it will end there.