{"id":2765,"date":"2024-09-20T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/?p=2765"},"modified":"2024-08-29T16:55:40","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T20:55:40","slug":"a-message-from-r-savoca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/?p=2765","title":{"rendered":"A Message from R. Savoca"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p><strong>R. Savoca, Senior Council Chair, Chief Instructor Brooklyn Aikikai<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is my pleasure to reintroduce Biran Online to the BNA community.\u00a0After a hiatus, this online journal will go forward with editor Cecilia Ramos.\u00a0My personal gratitude goes out to Cecilia for reviving Biran Online, and my hope is that it provides a richness to our community.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One question that seems to come up in the larger martial arts community is \u201cWhy practice Aikido?\u201d&nbsp;There are arguments for and against its relevance and effectiveness in the modern world, none of which hold much interest for me.&nbsp;At a recent seminar, George Lyons Sensei said something I wholeheartedly agree with: \u201cIf we practice Aikido sincerely and deeply and long enough, the \u2018we\u2019 will get rubbed out &#8211; the ego will be seen through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking at the current state of the world &#8211; with its many divisions and conflicts &#8211; it is apparent to me that Aikido is even more relevant and necessary than perhaps it has ever been.&nbsp;If practiced with honesty, Aikido forces us to confront the simple fact that there is a human being before us.&nbsp;In my mind, our practice is to work with this person, with all the perceived difficulties they may present, and creatively reconcile whatever the situation is offering us.&nbsp;Only by doing this can duality be seen through, and true peace be known.&nbsp;Perhaps, if our practice is sincere enough, we can know this peace more often and carry it into the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wish for the success of Biran Online and hope the members of BNA will actively participate in submitting articles. Onward!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"477\" height=\"519\" src=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2766\" srcset=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image-1.png 477w, https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image-1-276x300.png 276w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 477px) 100vw, 477px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: perhaps some of our members might like to write something about why they practice Aikido.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>R. Savoca, Senior Council Chair, Chief Instructor Brooklyn Aikikai It is my pleasure to reintroduce Biran Online to the BNA community.\u00a0After a hiatus, this online journal will go forward with editor Cecilia Ramos.\u00a0My personal gratitude goes out to Cecilia for reviving Biran Online, and my hope is that it provides a richness to our community.\u00a0\u00a0 &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/?p=2765\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A Message from R. Savoca&#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_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-why-i-practice-aikido"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2RSKg-IB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765","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=2765"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2784,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2765\/revisions\/2784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biran.birankai.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}