Aikido and Shambhala
by Jim Richardson
The mythical Tibetan Kingdom of Shambhala is said to have been peopled by enlightened meditation practitioners--gentle warriors confident in their indestructible basic goodness; fearless, compassionate and awake. As a student at the Shambhala Centre in Toronto, I am inspired by the vision of how we could be. Instead, we are diamonds shrouded by layers of confusion; strong and loving warriors whose brilliance is clouded by crude habits of mind and action. Happily, clouds are empty and can dissipate.
Everyone has their path. Mine includes aikido which complements Shambhala discipline. Both cultivate a mindful cheerfulness, not glee-clubbish but seriously playful. Students are invited to wholesome self-development, facing demons, and discovering resources usually left sleeping in this mall culture.
The aikidoist and writer George Leonard speaks of how we seek to impeccably centre and offer our whole being to our practice when we remove our slippers and bow to O'Sensei. "Putting it on the mat" is our commitment to the truth of our aikido. It is humbling and inspiring to affirm on the mat our fundamental strength and dignity which is more about relationships and less about our scheming little egos.
Similarly, we remove our shoes and "take our seat" in the Shambhala Centre shrine room and begin to open to our essential self which is carried on the breath and has no name.
None of this is easy. Both traditions emphasize that the road to fearlessness lies through fear, whether, like me, you re about to confront your first break-fall, or are willing to allow a horrific thought-form to just be there as you sit with presence and hopefully don't wobble. Over time some trust and confidence seems to germinate. Budding warriors!
It is interesting to consider experiential and elusive energies or forces known to aikido and Shambhala. "Ki" or "Chi" may or may not be the same as "pneumo" known to the ancient Greeks, or Polynesian "mana", or be related to yogic "prana". There has never been definitive measurements of such forces to satisfy rigid Western empiricists. But the evidence from "subjective empiricism" recognized by the investigator of transformative disciplines, Michael Murphy, is convincing to me, coupled with my own (occasional) experiences.
Also appealing to me are the writings on "drala" energies by Chugyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, the Buddhist scholar and founder of Shambhala training, and on the Shinto "Kamis" or gods--as much energies as beings--by Morihei Ueshiba. These descriptions are richly poetic and to an outsider, likely arcane. Yet the words reverberate deeply and refer to literal enlightened forces that can be cultivated with practice and devotion.
Finally, I'll mention the love and generosity that seem to underlie both arts. This was surely kindled by Ueshiba and Trungpa but the source of the flames exists in another place. The Abode of the Kamis perhaps, or Shambhala?
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