Sunday, September 14, 2008

Ikkyo - Sept powerful idea

The word "ikkyo" has a lot of meanings!

1) Ikkyo is a self defense skill. Ikkyo means "first technique", and it is the first technique that O Sensei taught to his students. Another more descriptive name is "Arm Bar" because in this technique, the arm is straightened at the elbow and used as a lever (or bar).

2) As a life skill, Ikkyo also contains multiple ideas:

a) To enter (or be) Without fear: learning to face and release the fears that stop us.
I think it is important to discuss with the children that "Fear" is not always bad!
Fear is designed to stop us from hurting ourselves:
fear of a hot stove
Other fears stop us from doing something that we really want or need to do:
fear of the first day of school, fear of failure

b) Without hesitation: learning to "stop trouble" before it starts!

I do this when I give my students the "evil eye" or (worse yet) "the eye+index point"

I shared with the students a story about how my neighbor has woken me up at 11pm all summer long as he puts out his trash on Sunday night. He has to drag the trash cans right past my bedroom window, and being woken from a sound sleep, this tends to sound like monsters coming in the window - giving me quite an adrenaline rush. I didn't want to be a bad neighbor (ie I was afraid to complain), so I just put up with it.
...Until last week, when I got really aggravated, and finally said something to the neighbor about it. Lo and behold, this week the trash went out during the day! Woo Hoo!
... what if I had said something WEEKS ago...instead of hesitating? Better sleep all summer long. This type of "Social Ikkyo" is a very difficult practice for me! If you hear a voice in your head that says "What will they think...?" you might need to use this Ikkyo.

I have more to say on Ikkyo, but I'll save that for another post.