Give.

"Having the chance to be Uke for Soke is an Honor" - Nagato Sensei.

It is often that I feel that I will never understand his teachings or absorb the transmissions into my soul.
Sokes class always ends for me with a pleasant fatigue of the body and mind while vaguely smiling at the inner confusion of the experience.
To me, the role of Uke is the " art of surrender ". As uke, we take on the role of walking forward into death. With the correct mind, we can understand this as a lesson in Sutemi and developing the "guts" of the warrior. To be uke means to "give" yourself to tori. We can view this as also "give and return ", because we are recieving lessons from our selflessness. Those that cannot let go of the Ego and cannot allow their training partner to throw,kick,punch, or inflict pain on them have, in a sense, turned their back on learning. The first move to transcend the ego is to acknowledge it. We must then have the "guts " to step aside of ourselves and become an empty tea cup ( if you will ) to recieve direct transmission from the body ( taiden ) Sprit/Heart ( Shinden ) and Verbal lessons ( Kuden ). These are like a Sanshin ( three hearts ). It is so important to develop the heart of Sanshin, I feel. This heart is like that of a three year old child. It is said that the heart of a three year can live on for a hundred years. So, we must try hard to capture this correct heart for the chance to learn the "Art of correct living."

It is easy to become annoyed or frustrated with oneself for not immediately being able to understand Sokes teachings. I think it is important to acknowledge the fact that, these teachings are not meant for everyone.
Even those that recieve regular time as Sokes uke, does not automatically guarantee that they will "get it". Everyone is on their own Shugyo.
Absorbtion of the Art is a lesson also of the principles - Distance,Angles and Timing. Please look at these three principles in a manner like a human relationship or that of the way of Society and how people and communities grow.
In my eyes, I view being uke as a " conditioning for the future ". For me, I try to just open myself as much as possible. As a result, I hope that I will naturally absorb the transmissions into my subconscious and hara.
From there, I just keep training. I believe if one intellectualizes this Budo too much, the conscious mind will create things that are not really there. Over time, ones movement will develop in a direction different to that of the teachings. It is important to understand that Taijutsu is the Art of the Body. Learn through "doing", not "thinking". The thinkers in the dojo become stagnate in their taijutsu, they become narrow minded, yet still think they are doing the right thing. The proof is in the pudding.
This opens us to the concept of Rokkon Shojou or the purification of the six senses. Our training is always revolving around this. We aim to purify our sense to be able to "see" what really is. As a result, we will make correct decisions, know when and when not to act, and move freely.
The initial stages of learning requires people to mimic. This is an essential skill to have. If one cannot mimic, one cannot learn. This relates to Sainou Kon KI - the Talent, Soul and Capactiy of the person.
The greatest compliment in the initial stages of training in the dojo is to move like your teacher. This shows the teacher that you are open to learning and his instruction. Is this not what every teacher wants?
The more pure of heart the student is, the greater capacity. The student can absorb teachings without the clutter or distractions of the mind and what IT thinks IT has seen, heard or felt.
We often see that self purification practices are listed at the beginning of training in the Ryuha. If the student of the martial arts does not have a clear and pure heart, eventually, they will act with clouded judgement and cause problems. Peace is the foundation of budo. We must first make peace with ourselves. Eventually we may be lucky to obtain the "Mind and Eyes of God" - Kanjin Kaname.

Soke has recently used Gan Shi Nankotsu as the theme for the past year. It has a relationship with Womans Self Defence, of which was taught to him directly by Takamatsu OSensei. This type of training is as applicable to men as it is to women. As men age, so to does their abilities of strength. If one required strength to defend oneself during old age, they would surely loose to a younger, more stronger opponent. This is common sense. And, the progression of budo training over the years is a logical one as well. All we have to do is watch Soke.
Soke, however, has instructed the 15th dans to ensure that their students understand taijutsu before teaching "finger techniques". If not, the students will misunderstand that teachings and just use "finger power" and not taijutsu. In fact, this skillful use of the fingers is possibly the result of mastering Shin Gi Tai Ichi - the unification of the spirit,technique and body.
Shin Gi Tai is the base behind everything we do. We can also possibly acknowledge that giving the Godan test is in fact a test of this unified ability.

I often have seen hight ranking instructors being held down by Soke, trying to "stop" him from applying pain with the fingers to various parts of the body. This is terrible. Wen one thinks about it, the person trying to avoid the pain is in fact trying to avoid the teachings. It is important to "give yourself" and trust Soke. He is giving you lessons of the highest.
It is an honor to recieve pain from him!
Soke once said after inflicting pain on me quite hard, " I can do this on Duncan because he trusts me." I am speaking from experience.
I am not trying to make myself sound better than anyone else, I am just stating my belief on what it is to be uke within the Bujinkan.

You may not understand why you are being called upon to be uke, and you may not even understand what was done to you. The most important thing is that you accept the teachings. Eventually, I believe, when the time is right, the answer or knowledge will come. But, if you stop training, it will not. You have to keep training!

Don`t ask questions with your head, let the questions and answers come through the body. It is when the answer comes from within, that you know it is the truth and you have really understood it. This answer will never be forgotten because it has been learned through Shin Gi Tai, and not your brain. It is called Tai-jutsu NOT Atama -jutsu.

南虎