In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Laurin Herr and Bob Noha, two of the esteemed co-authors behind the captivating book, Aikido: The Art of Transformation: The Life and Teachings of Robert Nadeau Sensei (click link for more info)
Robert Nadeau Shihan, is an extraordinary teacher (I wish I would’ve have discovered years ago) whose work extends far beyond the mat into the very arena of human potential and universal harmony.
This book is a fascinating tribute to a remarkable, passionate, and most influential teacher of Aikido.
As Laurin Herr explains in our talk, the project began as a Roku, a Zen tradition of collecting stories about an elderly teacher, which resulted in over eighty heartfelt personal recollections from Nadeau's students.
These stories, coupled with a chronological history and a synthesis of Nadeau Sensei's core lessons, offer an inspiring resource that the authors hope (as do I) will reverberate long into the future.
Nadeau Sensei’s journey began as a teenager, driven by questions about the nature of the Universe and the meaning of life. His early explorations into judo, yoga, meditation, and bodybuilding laid a unique, and beneficially synchronistic foundation for his pivotal encounter with O’Sensei in Tokyo in the early 1960s.
Nadeau Sensei’s time with O’Sensei was "life changing," opening him to "deeper knowledge through direct experience of the energy, design, and functioning of the Universe".
As Bob Noha highlights in our conversation, Nadeau's background, unlike many who sought martial prowess, prepared him to recognize and absorb O’Sensei's emphasis on the true purpose of Aikido being personal transformation.
This concept of transformation is central to Nadeau Sensei’s unique teaching style. He doesn't just teach techniques; he asks students, "Don’t ask me how I did this. Ask me who I have to be where this is possible". This inside-out approach to Aikido emphasizes direct energetic engagement and full experience.
To make O’Sensei's esoteric energy practices and arcane language accessible to Western students, Nadeau adaptively rephrases concepts, using terms like "vitality," and "juice," instead of Japanese terms such as Ki. This reframing, enriched by Western psychology and the Human Potential Movement (where Nadeau was a headliner at Esalen institute), has made his teachings widely influential.
Nadeau's cosmology, echoing O’Sensei’s, defines “Dimensionality” through three coexisting realms: the Manifest (physical reality), the Hidden (subtler, influential energies), and the Divine (primordial source). He teaches that anyone can access these finer dimensions through practice. Key to this is "Easy the I," a practice of releasing the overthinking mind ("I" as ego) to access deeper feeling and sensing, allowing for spontaneous, intuitive responses without conscious control.
Perhaps one of Nadeau's most powerful insights addresses the perception of negativity: "Don’t buy this ‘dark forces’ thing. All energies at their source are pure. Don’t be afraid of your own power". This is Nadeau's "monster theory," which posits that seemingly "dark" or "monstrous" energies are merely intense forces that, when processed and embraced, can become powerful allies.
Even at 88 years old, Robert Nadeau Shihan continues to inspire, actively teaching weekly classes in Mountain View and San Francisco, as well as online Zoom sessions that attract a worldwide audience
He is a teacher of teachers, with many senior students carrying on his direct transmission of O’Sensei's essential teachings. (Click links below for information on the dojo.)
Please don't miss this opportunity to gain deeper insights into the life and teachings of this remarkable teacher. Listen to the full interview and pick up your copy of "Aikido: The Art of Transformation" to enhance your own study of the "Aikido that cannot be seen with the human eye".
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