Henkawaza As Metaphor For Change

By Ron Houle (Nidan - Portland Aikido, ME)

I was watching our Chief Instructor, Wayne Douglas teach Henkawaza.We had been using shihonage as the main defense from a frontal attack.He was talking about what to do if Uke moved and regained his balance.At this point he introduced henkawaza, saying "change the technique toiriminage". It was at this point that I got to thinking aboutintentions. I was remembering being in Aikido class a week earlier andpracticing a certain technique with a very strong uke. As I am throwinghim he decides to muscle me and my response is to continue to throw himusing the same technique even though it was not working. After a while Iwas forced to change the technique, henkawaza, to fit the newsituation.

We do what we do. God forbid if anyone gets in the way. Ourintentions, our ways become top priority and nothing should stop the waywe do things even if our way is not working. We live in a society that isextremely goal oriented. We decide we're going to get married, get thatjob, graduate from college, get our shodan. We are often not aware ofthe every day changes that can impact our goals or intentions. Becausewe are not aware we may never meet our goals or understand that maybe weneed to change our goals and move (like henkawaza), in a new direction.O' Sensei said, "Aikido brings the universe to us." All of who we are canbe seen in our physical body and our movements. If we continue to studyour physical body through the practice of Aikido our body will give usthe answers to our life. As well as practicing Aikido I also practiceYoga. I would like to quote from the book Light on Yoga by B.K.S.Iyengar. In the book there is a forward written by Yehudi Menuhin. Hestates, "The practice of yoga induces a primary sense of measure andproportion. Reduced to our body, our first instrument, we learn to playit, drawing from it maximum resonance and harmony. With unflaggingpatience we refine and animate every cell as we return daily to theattack, unlocking and liberating capacities otherwise condemned tofrustration and death." He goes onto say, "That most of our fundamentalattitudes to life have their physical counterparts in the body."

Aikido and yoga have much in common, everything is reduced to thephysical body. Henkawaza teaches me to stay alert to changes, feelingsattitudes and to take the time to work with these changes before movingon to new goals new intentions.