{"id":2202,"date":"2018-06-05T15:42:15","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T19:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/?p=2202"},"modified":"2018-06-05T15:44:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T19:44:00","slug":"memorial-seminar-in-brooklyn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/?p=2202","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Seminar in Brooklyn"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"525\" height=\"296\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dBDsS2xT6GQ?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Liese Klein, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newhavenaikikai.com\/\">New Haven Aikikai<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The mat was packed for all three days of the Chiba Sensei Memorial Seminar at Brooklyn Aikikai June 1-3, 2018. The event featured instructors George Lyons Shihan of Bucks County Aikido, Toko (Jenny) Flower Sensei of Athens Aikido and Ryugan (Robert) Savoca Sensei of Brooklyn Aikikai.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2203\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2203\" style=\"width: 955px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/chiba-sensei-and-george-lyons.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2203 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/chiba-sensei-and-george-lyons.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"955\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/chiba-sensei-and-george-lyons.jpg 955w, https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/chiba-sensei-and-george-lyons-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/chiba-sensei-and-george-lyons-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2203\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Lyons and Chiba Sensei, late 1980s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>From Lyons Sensei\u2019s closing remarks on June 3, 2018:<\/h4>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019ve been running through my memories of meeting an extraordinary person, Chiba Sensei. What do I remember about those days? Much of it is just in my body now, as best as it can be. I\u2019m working to cultivate that so hopefully it\u2019s alive in me. Chiba Sensei said once: &#8216;Until you\u2019re a master of it, you\u2019re a slave to it.&#8217; That one kind of stuck with me.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Discussing the teacher-student relationship, in many ways we struggle to understand it. Right up until Chiba Sensei\u2019s death I was trying to understand it. Even now, I work on it, even though he\u2019s gone. Of course I don\u2019t think he\u2019s gone, in some way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is the problem of authority, giving over to an authority. In my opinion I think it\u2019s not surrender to it but more transcending it, if that makes sense to you. At first it might feel like you\u2019re surrendering to your teacher. But hopefully we\u2019re going past that. You\u2019re not going to be a slave to your teacher, that\u2019s the not the intention. The intention is to let go of something, and to transcend it. Then you\u2019re free to do whatever you want. And you\u2019re probably very grateful, as I am. So you are master of it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You are supposed to stand on the shoulders of your teacher. Your teacher is someone you have always put up, so it\u2019s a difficult idea. Somehow maybe we can drop something and you can reach your teacher for the first time, as a full grown human being with full potential.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Funny, but we somehow put something in the way. It\u2019s human nature. I see it on the mat in just basic things. When I say, &#8216;Don\u2019t move your feet like that, do this.&#8217; They say &#8216;Hai, Sensei!&#8217; and they do the same thing they did before. It didn\u2019t change one bit. I\u2019m a human being too so I make the same stupid mistakes. When we do that, I think we just can\u2019t hear it yet. Eventually you can, you can hold more. When you finally hear it, you say, &#8216;Why didn\u2019t you tell me?&#8217; [Laughs.] This comes to the point of training over time. In farming you can\u2019t pull the shoots up early to make them grow faster. It takes time. If you pull the shoots up, there\u2019s nothing there.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the same way, when you\u2019re practicing it takes some time. It has to mature. It\u2019s just the nature of things. You come to the dojo every day, every day. &#8216;What\u2019s the point of this? I can\u2019t do ikkyo one more time, I\u2019m out of my mind.&#8217; You keep doing it until something gets out of the way. You make every effort that you can until you realize that all that effort is getting in the way. It\u2019s a paradox you have to solve yourself, everybody does.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m really pleased to be here with you to celebrate the life our teacher. For you guys, be careful because the stories get bigger and bigger as time passes. It was incredible times, but we tell stories\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is the time. Now is the time. This is our time. It\u2019s fun to hear stories about the past, but when you\u2019re sitting around with a bunch of people talking about the old days, be careful. This is the day. Today is the day. We\u2019re proud to be here with you, proud to know you, and may we carry on. &#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"525\" height=\"296\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Nv9jXvuEEQM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"525\" height=\"296\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zOtFpkwICQY?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Liese Klein, New Haven Aikikai The mat was packed for all three days of the Chiba Sensei Memorial Seminar at Brooklyn Aikikai June 1-3, 2018. The event featured instructors George Lyons Shihan of Bucks County Aikido, Toko (Jenny) Flower Sensei of Athens Aikido and Ryugan (Robert) Savoca Sensei of Brooklyn Aikikai. From Lyons Sensei\u2019s &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/?p=2202\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Memorial Seminar in Brooklyn&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,24,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chiba-sensei","category-seminar","category-birankai-aikido-instruction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2RSKg-zw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2202"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2208,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2202\/revisions\/2208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}