Читать книгу Complete Aikido. Aikido Kyohan: The Definitive Guide to the Way of Harmony онлайн

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Suenaka recalls an incident during one of his evening meals with O’Sensei during his first visit, which echoed their first encounter in O’Sensei’s hotel room in Hawaii a month earlier. The event impressed on him, in an unexpected and almost comic way, aikido’s guiding philosophy; that O’Sensei, martial master though he was, literally wouldn’t even harm a fly:

“As we got ready to eat, he noticed a fly on his bowl of rice. There were some other uchi deshi eating with him as well, and we all noticed the fly and were ready to chase it away, and he stopped us. ‘The little fly won’t eat too much,’ he said. ‘We’ll just let him eat his fill and then let him go away, happy.’ We tried to tell him about flies carrying diseases and all that, but we all ended up just sitting there watching the fly eat until it eventually flew away.”

On his fourth day in Japan, Suenaka realized it would probably be in his best interest to report back to his duty station before the MPs began searching for him. After taking his leave of O’Sensei, Suenaka hopped a cab back to Tachikawa Air Force Base and again reported to the CBPO. This time, he was sent to his squadron for assignment. It was there that Suenaka met Captain Rausch, his squadron commander and the man who was to unwittingly play a pivotal role in Suenaka’s continuing martial education.