Fiddling with this
And that technique
Is of no avail.
Simply act decisively
Without reserve!
-O Sensei

Thank you Dan Sensei for a great class!

19

Throw away holiness and wisdom,
and people will be a hundred times happier.
Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit,
and there won't be any thieves.

If these three aren't enough,
just stay at the center of the circle
and let all things take their course.

-Lao Tzu

Driving Directions To Dojo

Here is a link for driving directions and a campus map. The visitors parking lot is just off of Oakwood Drive and Olds/Robb is just East a couple of buildings on the same road. The entrance to the building is on the far side. See you on the mat.


http://www.emich.edu/recim/directions.htm.

Keiko begins!

Ann Arbor Aikido has found a home at last and will begin by meeting every Wednesday from 5-7pm. We have a very large top quality tatami mat space to welcome all practitioners. Class fee $5 for EMU REC members, $15 for non-members*. Use of Rec center facilities available for the day to any participants.


Ann Arbor Aikido
100 Olds/Robb Combatives Room
Eastern Michigan University Campus
Ypsilanti, MI 48197

For more info call: 419.494.8058

*Membership to EMU REC available to public for $80/Semester.

New Space

We have found a new home!

53

The great Way is easy,
yet people prefer the side paths.
Be aware when things are out of balance.
Stay centered within the Tao.

When rich speculators prosper
While farmers lose their land;
when government officials spend money
on weapons instead of cures;
when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
while the poor have nowhere to turn-
all this is robbery and chaos.
It is not in keeping with the Tao.

Road trip

There will be no class on Saturday, March 28 in order for us to attend the Gleason Sensei seminar below. Class will resume next week.

Gleason Sensei Gasshuku

William Gleason Sensei, author of the newly published "Aikido and Words of Power", will return to Shobu Aikido of Ohio to lead a gasshuku the weekend of March 27-29. For directions and entire class schedule please go to: www.toledoaikido.com.

Thank you Dan Sensei!

Thank you so much to Dan Sensei for a wonderful and challenging seminar today and for generously sharing your insights with us. We eagerly await your next class. Domo arigato gozaimashita.

March 7 Seminar

Training will begin for Ann Arbor Aikido with a seminar with special guest instructor Dan Messisco Sensei (6th Dan). This is a one day seminar on Saturday, March 7 from 10:30-noon and 2:30-4pm. Cost $50. You can find a collection of video clips of Dan Sensei at http://www.youtube.com/user/dendando.

Regular classes will follow every Saturday from 10:30-noon. Fee $10/class.

Best

"I am willing to accept less than the best, but never to strive for less than the best. To do otherwise is like taking aim without setting your sights on the bull's eye." D. Shaner

Chicago Aikikai 11/08

With Mitsugi Saotome Shihan and Jay Weik Sensei

26

The heavy is the root of the light.
The unmoved is the source of all movement.

Thus the Master travels all day
without leaving home.
However splendid the views,
he stays serenely in himself.

Why should the lord of the country
flit about like a fool?
If you let yourself be blown to and fro,
you lose touch with your root.
If you let restlessness move you,
you lose touch with who you are.

-Lao Tzu

True Victory

"Though one should conquer a million men on the battlefield, yet he,
indeed, is the noblest victor who has conquered himself." Buddha

Heron Standing in Water

"The bird moves when it must; it does not move when stillness is appropriate.
The secret of its serenity is a type of vigilance, a contemplative state. The heron is not in mere dumbness or sleep. It knows a lucid stillness. It stands unmoving in the flow of the water. It gazes unperturbed and is aware. When Tao brings it something it needs, it seizes the opportunity without hesitation or deliberation. Then it goes back to its quiescence without disturbing itself or its surroundings. Unless it found the right position in the water's flow and remained patient, it would not have succeeded." -Deng Ming-Dao