Read the Air（雰囲気を読みましょう）
Ninpo is highly about awareness and situational natural reaction. Correct physical training indirectly develops our innate abilities that will allow us to avoid confrontation, disruption of the harmony or the atmosphere.
We must learn to read the atmosphere of the situation, adjust without detection and exercise impeccable self control. We must also be able to quickly determine if our own actions or presence attracts attention.
I will give you a simple example. There are things that we might do in our own home dojo that are not done in Japan. Your teacher may insist on the developed of a specific habit for various reasons. However, this may not be acceptable in Japan or any other dojo. Therefore, to quickly control your own developed habits or actions are essential.
This is not only an exercise in etiquette, but also a lesson in the mindset of Ninpo.
What Soke is teaching us is not physical-skill is already achieved to a sufficient level in the Bujinkan, according to Soke -What he is teaching is the connection OF and IN the space. As he Soke said last night…”Kukan no Tate (shield) and Kukan no Suki” (opening).
Allow your shield to protect your openings and your openings to lower the shield of the opponent.
Ninpo Ikkan –武心和
April 11, 2008 at 5:23 pm
This is something that i have been refering to for many years, although i usually call it “situational space management”. Most people i mention it to give me the raised eyebrow. However….i had the opportunity to engage in a lengthy conversation with a native Japanese man during a flight from Chicago to Orlando. At one point this subject was broached, and his comment was, “You are speaking of harmony. It is simply an awareness of harmony in any place at any time. One must take great care not to disrupt the existing balance, as that is violence. You might say that maintaining the harmony here is in essence being invisible.”
Mark Spada