A heartfelt merci beaucoup to the French Ki Federation clubs for a wonderful weekend seminar, and welcome cheese-coffee-and-chocolate lunches between practices. Sensei Bonita led illuminating practices covering shihonage & yonkyo and shedding new light on 1st form ikkyo. We had a convivial (Italian) meal on the Saturday night. As always, a great welcome from our kind French hosts. An impressive dojo right near the Gare du Nord and Eurostar. If you weren’t there this year, book on early for next time, as places fill quickly. We look forward to welcoming the Parisians at the August UK Summer School. A bientôt.
~ Pete Bailie
Adam :
Ever since our first Ki Aikido seminar in Paris with Sensei Williams over 30 years ago (such wonderful classes, full of generosity 🤩 The only mistake we Froggies made was preparing Earl Grey tea for the tea break 😳 …), I’ve always cherished fond memories of these seminars, which we now organise every year as the sun returns. Sharing knowledge and Ki with one another, a spirit of openness and camaraderie, laughter, raising a glass to our shared friendship – that’s pretty much what this March seminar is all about.
The one we experienced with Sensei Bonita was no exception to the rule. I really appreciated her kindness and her willingness to listen. A thousand thanks to her. It will be a pleasure to have her back among us. On the tatami, over a drink or a delicious pizza…
Christine :
Sensei Cornish’s teaching was incredibly precise, and she had a calm energy about her. It was a real pleasure to learn 😀
Françoise :
I warmly thank Sensei Bonita for her courses where we could catch all the benefits of the lightness. It arrived at the right moment for me, just after having lost my dad. Her way of teaching so calm helped me very deeply to recover my coordination.
Jean-Claude :
I really appreciated Sensei Bonita’s personality and teaching style, particularly her constant willingness to answer all the participants’ questions. Her practice, her gentleness and her kindness have helped me develop my lightness with confidence whilst remaining attentive to my partners. I’d love to do it again if possible.
Marc :
The AFKA spring course is a very important event for me. It is so important because I experience it on different levels: first and foremost as a student, but also as an organiser and president of the AFKA. I prepare for it several months in advance.
It was a real pleasure this year to welcome Sensei Bonita and to be reunited with our friends, mainly from France and the United Kingdom.
This seminar is often magical, thanks to the quality of the teaching and the strong bonds that form between us through the practice of Ki-Aikido.
The more chaotic the world becomes, the more I appreciate this moment of harmony on the tatami.
I hope we will continue to meet for many years to come at the AFKA Spring Seminar!
Zoé :
This was my first seminar. I was delighted to meet all these Ki-Aikidoka who had travelled from afar. It was an interesting experience to be able to train with experienced practitioners of different grades. The welcome was perfect. It’s a shame that the Sunday morning class, which was for all grades, didn’t involve beginners like me more; we had to train together but separately.
Sylvie :
Ki-aikido seems very different to me from the martial arts I have practised so far. Whereas in other clubs we were asked to bow to the photo of the ‘founding master’, here we bow to the Ki symbol, which is placed first. The founding master is symbolised by a photo just behind it, which strikes me as a benevolent gaze rather than a deified ‘authority’.
For me, this means that what we respect is Ki, which I see as a universal force carried by all living beings, to varying degrees. By bowing to the Ki symbol, we bow to life and show our respect for all forms of life.
At least, that is how I understand it for the moment. The senseis’ modesty allows me to respect them deeply. I have been deeply impressed by the high moral calibre of the AFKA teachers and Sensei Bonita. We all see ourselves as the ‘centre of the world’ because that is how we perceive it. But the effort to ‘develop our ki’—that is to say, perhaps the projection of our mental strength onto the outside world—gradually accustoms us to being attentive to the world and not projecting onto it our fantasies, our prejudices, in short, our ignorance of that which is not ourselves.
It seems to me that the practice of Ki-Aikido allows one to gradually develop genuine ‘moral qualities’. It is also an exercise in modesty that allows me to adopt a learning attitude, to set aside my superficial and social self in order to let my ‘inner self’ express itself. What I mean by “moral qualities” is the ability to take the other person and their sensitivities into account in our interactions with them; it is the effort to focus on the other person rather than on oneself. In this way, I place myself, so to speak, in a receptive position.
As for the course, the atmosphere of respectful camaraderie was, as always, present and truly wonderful!
