Memorial - Christopher Curtis

Our beloved teacher and great friend, Christopher Curtis Sensei, passed away at home on June 9, 2023, with his family by his side. Christopher David Curtis was born June 23, 1944, to David Webster and Dorothe Brown Curtis in Upland, California, where he grew up on a ranch in Northern California. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University with a degree in Theatre Arts, he worked as an actor for several years in New York City. In 1969, he first encountered Aikido while preparing for a role with the Open Theatre. In 1972, he moved to Hawaii and worked with his parents on Molokai before moving to Maui. In 1974 his life was completely changed when he met his Aikido teacher, Shinichi Suzuki Sensei. Through the years, he trained with Koichi Tohei Sensei in Japan on many occasions.

In 2000, he was appointed Chief Instructor of the Hawaii Ki Federation, and in 2004 appointed Ki Society Advisor to Europe. He taught many seminars in the United States, Holland, Germany, and Spain. Authoring several books, “Letting Go,” “Ki Aikido on Maui – A Training Manual,” and “Otomo – A Journey.” He was a prolific writer, speaker, and teacher.

He was devoted to training and traveled exclusively with Suzuki Sensei worldwide. Like his teachers, he led by example and asked everyone not just to believe him but to aspire to experience all that is available to everyone. He was larger than life, and his personality and hugs were filled with massive Ki.

He also built a thriving business, Chris Curtis Landscapes, a landscape design, construction, and maintenance company on Maui which his daughter, Aiko, and son, Quinn, now own and operate.

He is survived by his wife, Lynn Curtis; children; Joshua, Jenna, Aiko (Patrick), Quinn (Naomi); sister, Anne Bacon (Nat) of Molokai; brother, Eric Curtis (Mary) of Kona and 6 grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

A celebration of life was held by family, and a public Memorial to Curtis Sensei was held on July 15, 2023, at the Shunshinkan Dojo. The Family has requested that, in place of Koden or flowers, donations can be sent to Hawaii Ki Federation Endowment Fund (at Maui Ki-Aikido/Hawaii Ki Federation, PO Box 724, Wailuku, HI 96793), or by link: https://tinyurl.com/Hawaii-Ki-Federation-Donation

In Loving Memory

Thank you for giving without waiting. Thank you for showing without directing. Thank you for revealing what was always here and I never used to notice. You will always be present. Jose Costa

Dear Curtis Sensei…
Onegai-shimasu !

I was wondering what I could write…

The first words that are coming in my mind are “Thank you”.
As I often told you during these three last years :

Thank you for your kindness…
Thank your for your wisdom…
Thank you for your teachings…
Thank you for our emails…
Thank you for your book “Otomo” that you sent to me…
Thank you for your answers each time I had a question about your group discussion…
Thank you for your questions that made me thinking more more deeply…
Thank you for your many advices…
Thank you to have considered me even we never met in person…

Thank you…

Aloha !
Avec Respect
Philippe Poirier
Iles de la Madeleine

Dear Sensei, thank you, thank you so much for everything! From the day we first met many years ago, you turned my imagined world upside down, always helping me on the way towards discovering our true nature, never let me be complacent with a status a imagined I had achieved… without being pushy, but rather by supporting, questioning, inspiring, yes, mostly by inspiring through your example! I will also forever remember and cherish our time together when traveling Europe during your visits here! I miss you, miss our conversations, miss your touch that felt (and still feels) like being touched by the universe… I can still feel your presence… while walking the path… to live life fully… Mahalo & Aloha, Sensei! Olaf Schubert

Thank you so much Sensei for being my gateway to the universe and discovering the true meaning of (inner) beauty. You will be in my heart forever. Christel Buchloh

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquility;
The gentleness of heaven broods o’er the Sea;
Listen! the mighty Being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder—everlastingly.

Dear child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,
If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine:
Thou liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year;
And worshipp’st at the Temple’s inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not.

I believe this poem by William Wordsworth describes the relationship between me and Curtis Sensei. Me being the child, living life knowing something is going on but not paying attention and Sensei knowing there is possibility in all of us, patiently trying to explain and show how to pay attention and where to look. Every time pointing out that life is perfect the way it is.

You said about the otomo that it is his job to:
walk three steps behind the sensei
walk next to the sensei
walk three steps in front of the sensei.
You were the sensei, thank you for being my otomo.

I am so proud and grateful to be able to say that you were my teacher. And I hope that some day when we meet again you will be able to say that you are proud and grateful to have me as a student.

Howdoe,
Toby

Over the years I attended many workshops led by Curtis Sensei, sponsored by Chinn Sensei in Torrance, Ca. I appreciated his perspective and his deep desire to share what he had learned over many years of practice. He always challenged his students to be more than what we thought we could be. He wanted us to understand the deeper nuances of Ki. I was in touch with him over the years to ask his advice about ki breathing and meditation and he was always quick to respond. He really was a great teacher. I will miss his thoughtful words and his challenging questions.
I will miss him.

Best regards,
Paul Schoenfeld
Seattle Ki Society

Sensei, we miss you. We thank you for all the wonderful time we spent with you at your seminars. So many wonderful memories of our travels together across Europe. You showed us the way, we will continue to walk it. We will always keep you in our hearts. Steffi and Thorsten

Aloha all

My name is David Hewahewa. I have been a student of Christopher Curtis Sensei since 2007. 3 years prior to joining Shunshinkan dojo on Maui, I was a drug addicted framing carpenter in a lot of pain. My father had passed unexpectedly about 5 years prior to that . I did not think that it effected me, but apparently it did. I slipped into a world of late nights and hard days, I was functioning enough to get by, so I thought ! Slowly I was letting down my employers for which I was the lead of the company, my family whom I loved very much, but I was in a full blown addiction crisis. My fathers family line comes from a long line of healers and advisors in the Hawaiian royal lines, but he never shared any of that with us growing up. I think he just wanted us to live a free life and just go full blown into the American lifestyle. I found this out after his passing. The pain in my body and mind was almost unbearable at this point hard long nights hard long days still trying to provide while I was in this sickness. I decided to go to a Hawaiian healer to deal with the physical pain, he knew my mind was sick too, but he worked on me as he talked while he worked on me. He asked questions slowly but surely I became his student. 3 years I studied I learned and worked on people after my day job. Now free from addiction everything was coming together well for me. I was great at my job again,.. my family was very happy, I was helping a lot of people .I started leading blessings ,people started to request me to work on them. I really wanted to learn what my dad hid from us all those years. Right when I thought I was getting really good. BOOM !!!! I was hit with a series of crazy experiences that was frightening to my core. Basically my ego was cracked for the first time. Spiritual battles , my teacher just so happened was in Japan doing healing work there. I was on my own. When my teacher came back he seen me shook, I quit my construction job in the middle of a crucial time for the company, they were shocked as I was the main dude running things. I told my teacher I was going to work on people full time. He watched me as I was struggling , nothing I did was helping me out of my frightened state of mind. I was asking other Hawaiian elders for help, they just smiled.

That’s when I just so happened walked by the dojo. I joined immediately, I trained in the beginning classes for a long time before seeing Curtis sensei.

Cause if you couldn’t roll you couldn’t go to an advanced class. Finally I was sitting in the first row, it was a big class, many high ranking people, Then Curtis Sensei came out, as he was talking he said something that made go,

I WENT THROUGH THAT!!! I don’t know if anyone else here went through that, but I did. I went home after class I really didn’t know how to email and stuff yet, there was no need for me to learn as my carreer didn’t require. I figured it out and wrote him on my experiences. He gave me the whole history on the “dark night of the soul”. He told me David, darkness is only the absence of light, all you have to do is turn on the light. That light is your AWARENESS. Ever since that time I became a student, I haven’t been the most committed student at times as the years went by. But his voice and presence is never far from my mind. I have had the privilege of serving as his otomo on interisland trips and Maui seminars hopefully some of that as rubbed off on me.

Eternally Grateful

David Hewahewa

One of my favorite Curtis Sensei memories was asking a question of him. I worked carefully and long, honing down my question, refining it, abandoning many possibilities, until just one remained. I asked, “What is the wholesome recovery of intellect?” Which to me was a serious and important question both directly for me personally, struggling with the intellect as a habit for mind to separate into concepts, and for others as I teach each week. There was a pause and he replied, “Do you have that question when your mind and body are unified?” I looked… And said, “No, sensei.” And he moved on… I had a jumble of thoughts, like, “Wait! That was a really good question!!” But I said nothing and held his answer. Over the years and years this answer has sunk deep roots and bloomed in my life. It became an orienting experience for practice and living. I use it almost every day to bring perspective to any attachment or thinking that may be moving within me. It was a perfect answer, both as a teaching moment and turning words, but also I have come to see that it actually answered my question. But I had to do the work to earn the answer. Perfect. Thank you Sensei. For your courage to look into me and others and accept nothing less than our true, vast, empty, full, awake taiga self. Ki ya! Steve Self, Durango CO USA