I remember Chiba SenseiTeacher; anyone who gives guidance along the way; literally "born before" saying years ago that you should have one thing in your life that has ‘no holes’ in it.

Something that you have worked on diligently, passionately, turning it over and over, inside and out. I was thinking of this as I watched Roo Heins perform the Japanese Tea Ceremony recently at our dojoPlace of the way; a place for strengthening and refinement body, mind and spirit; training hall. Not that tea ceremony is her thing with no holes, but rather that I observed so clearly the studied, practiced movements; the distinct and deliberate sounds; the timing and rhythm of the ceremony. I saw how such a thing could become ‘perfected’. Roo spoke of her teacher who has been studying tea for more than fifty years! Really? Fifty years to perfect making and serving tea?

As we spoke later, she talked about the difficulty in her pracetice of bringing her awareness fully to the ‘guest’ or recipient of the tea during the ceremony. Aha, I thought, that’s what takes fifty years!

It’s the ‘other’ that makes these practices more interesting, challenging and potent. That which will show you your openings. Maybe basket weaving would be a less challenging pursuit, no ‘other’ to contend with, or is there? In AikidoThe word "Aikido" is made up of three japanese characters: ai - harmony, ki - spirit, mind, or universal energy, do - the way. Thus Aikido is "the way of harmony with universal energy." it is so obvious, your attacker is always there. But sometimes you train with a partner who seems to have absolutely no idea that you are on the other end of their arm. Just an execution of technique. This is certainly a stage of development in Aikido practice, the proper placement of hands, feet, hips, irimiFront technique, entering, moving into and through the line of attack, tenkanTurning, etc. But what of the ‘other’? This level of study gets more difficult but also more interesting; how to bring another into the technique to make it whole. How to bring a drinker to a bowl of tea?

Technique and form serve as a map to direct us, but it takes practice, imagination, patience and awareness to really include another. It can take a lifetime to completely exhaust the openings in one’s practice, whatever it is. We should all be so lucky to live a long enough life.