What are you looking for?

Is Bucks County Aikido the dojo for you?

No sugar coating it, training here is going to be difficult. The beginning student can expect practice to start out slowly, but eventually lead up to being rigorous and intense. Each person is challenged in their own way and each person responds differently to challenges. Athletic people sometimes give up and others who have never really done anything physical become great practitioners. The question is what’s in your heart. What are you looking for?

We live in a society that’s saturated with ideas of fame and fortune.

Our pursuit of material gain sometimes seems insatiable. My teacher once asked me if there was anyone in this culture that is poor but famous. I couldn’t think of anyone. Even if success doesn’t bring prominence it’s still assumed that it’s synonymous with some kind of material reward. How would you define it?

The emperor's rooster

Generally, the martial arts are categorized into such a small box that it’s hard to imagine it might help with anything more than self discipline and maybe the chance to hang onto your wallet in a back alley encounter. There is a story about the emperor’s fighting rooster who was trained so well that no other rooster would fight him. You might think it’s about invincibility, untouchable physical prowess, but like all parables there is a hidden meaning.

Conflict is an integral part of life

In Sun Tzu’s classic The Art of War, it’s written that conflict is an integral part of life and that subduing the other without battle is the most skillful. To grasp this you must go into it, deepening your understanding by continually putting yourself at risk. It won’t be enough if all you are looking for is technique. In Zen training it’s said you have to be willing to cut off your arm. In other words, you will not remain the person you are if you want to get to the heart of this. You are going to have to face every dark corner, turn yourself inside out. You are not going to add to what you are; you are going to drop what you think you are.

Success on this path is a quiet one

If wealth and fame is what you seek you should look elsewhere. You may even find that dedication to a path that is not concerned with such things can bring a great deal of misunderstanding from others in our culture. Maybe though, after many sacrificed nights and diligent practice you are more awake and attentive in the moment and are able to keep a passerby from tripping and falling with a well timed helping hand. Maybe you find yourself handling a situation that makes you wonder if you transformed potential violence with a casual smile. Perhaps, selfish concerns de-emphasized, you find deeper connections with other human beings. That attention, that smile, that connection may take a lifetime of study. Could this be martial art?

Right here, right now

I am often asked if I’ve ever had to use Aikido. Or, would it work in a real situation? The questions are genuine but skim the surface and can sometimes feel disappointing to a regular practitioner who has been working hard in the art. Still, they deserve an honest answer that hopefully will encourage more questions. Yes, I use it every day. This is the only real situation, right here, right now. If the practice gets through, it’s not just in our doing; it’s in our being.

Training here will be difficult

If what is written here interests you I hope you will look into it more deeply. There will always be obstacles but let no scheduling conflict, no injury, no financial crisis stop you. Training here will be difficult. It may not bring fame and fortune but what you might find instead is a path and a practice that makes life rich.

George Lyons
Bucks County, Pennsylvania