PART II: ENTER COLORADO
Entering Denver and Boudler, Colorado with butterflies in my hara. Lots
of time to practice shakuhachi and write.
The root of my heart
Desires to blow the flute
On the cavern floor
I step on the path
Wind blows eternally none
I am still a child
Moving to extreme
I back into a balance
Again I miss it.
Blowing the bamboo
All waste and hurt fall away
only beauty left
I walk into death
Opening lotus people
ro tsu re chi ri
Concentrated air
fueling the bamboo tube
breath sight, empty sky
The clock ticks falsely
The mind makes movement and sound
The bamboo shatters
The Kiss of Emptiness
Bamboos waiting to merge again
exploding the 4th dimention
perfectly imperfect they call to me
to stroke the earth-light-dark shining surface
to evoke the sonic power
riding on the edge of eternity
of elemental bonding
through light and dark combinations
pulling ki from the center point
opening and closing the empty forms
deeply moving
deeply yearning
a bell in the distance
floating in the empty sky
embracing the mountain
anywhere
everywhere
nowhere
roots clutching
extracting you from primordial ground
touching makes the alchemy happen
sculpting into true wonder
we kiss
and the Universe awakens
as waves crash against sand and stones
whispering like harmonics of first timing
remembering
forgetting
remembering
letting go
the harmonics of first meeting
6/25
Yesterday was an auspicious day. After helping David Wheeler make a
poster for the Shakuhachi Masters concert, I returned to the hostel
where I was staying, and my friend, James and I visited the Nippon Kan
Dojo (www.nippon-kan.org) in Denver, the largest Aikido dojo in the
Rocky Mountains. It's founder, Gaku Homma was the last uchi-deshi (live
in student) of the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba. It's a truly
impressive structure with an adjoining traditional Japanese-style
organic cuisine country restaurant (called DOMO, ranked one the of 5 top
Japanese restaurants in North America), and Japanese folk art museum. I
first visited the dojo 5 years ago after attending the big World
Shakuhachi Festival in Boulder in 1998. My friend John Uchikura, who is
also an avid Aikido practitioner and shakuhachi player was with me and
we walked into DOMO restaurant inquiring to speak to Gaku Homma Sensei.
He happened to be cooking that day and speaking to us from the kitchen,
we explained to him that we were shakuhachi players just coming from a
big festival. I asked if he would like us to play for his customers in
the restaurant. His eyes widened and he agreed. So John and I proceeded
to play a selection of folk melodies and honkyoku switching off and
playing duets every now and then, as we walked around the restaurant.
When we finished, Homma sensei insisted we sit down as he was going to
prepare a meal for us. The food was sumptuously and beautifully prepared
in the traditional folk-style of old Japan. Afterwards he personally
gave us a tour of the grand dojo and museum. As a parting gift he gave
us copies of his books written about Aikido and Japanese cooking, which
he personally signed. We promised to return someday and to perhaps train
Aikido the next time. That time was yesterday. We wanted to eat at DOMO
restaurant, but it was closed that night. So we entered the dojo
entrance hall and genkan, and sat in the waiting area in front of the
main office. I was very surprised at how developed their system was for
organizing the students. He has so many students that everyone is
assigned a number and has to announce to the secretary their number
before they start practice. We heard, 405, 309, 250.....It's known that
Homma sensei has taught over 12,000 students at Nippon Kan. Amazing. I
asked the woman in the front office if Homma sensei was in and if it was
ok to see him. She asked who I was and I told her, "The Shakuhachi
player from Canada". She relayed the message to the sensei who came out.
I greeted him and asked if he remembered me. He said "Of course!" and
invited us to train with him that night and afterwards he would take us
out to dinner. James declined to train since he hadn't been practicing
so long. The secretary found an extra pair of do-gi for me to work out
in since I didn't bring mine, and I joined in the keiko (practice) which
was very interesting for me as well as fun. Very different style of
Aikido I'm used to from my dojo in Vancouver. I learned a lot from
practicing with his yudansha (black belts).
After class, we went out for sushi together and caught up on life
happenings. Returning to the dojo, Homma sensei leads us into the folk
museum and asks to hear my shakuhachi. As I evoke a melody from the
bamboo, Homma sensei approaches the okedo taiko drum in the corner of
the room, sits seiza in front of it and starts to beat and stroke the
skin gently, quitely, letting the sound of the shakuhachi fill the
space. We play together for several minutes in an organic session of
heart, flute, and drum then end in a trail of silence and potentiality.
I thank him for his hospitality and promise to return again in the
future.
To be continued....
-- Bamboo-In #214-130 W. Keith Rd. N. Vancouver, BC V7M 1L5 Canada Tel: 604-904-2069 Email: ramos@telus.net Url: http://www.Bamboo-In.com/al.html: -)=====0 (Happy face playing shakuhachi!)
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