Alumni Profiles

Nate Gilbert
BA Interdisciplinary Studies
(Aikido, Group Dynamics and Education)

As an interdisciplinary student, Nate Gilbert combined classes on Group Dynamics and Education with his Traditional Eastern Arts curriculum to form a degree of his own making. Graduating in 1999, he earned a black belt in Aikido in 2002 and continues to assist Naropa's primary Aikido instructor, Jude Blitz, as a teacher's assistant.

"I find that the supportive and contemplative atmosphere provided in Naropa Aikido classes offer a safe space with an intellectually engaging dimension not found in other training," he says. "It gave me an introduction to theory and concept, without which I would not have considered beginning a martial art."

Nate grew up in New Jersey and Maryland, where he studied theatre and attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington D.C. He attended a large state school in Maryland for two years, which was just long enough to see what he "did not want from college."

"I was drawn to Naropa because of the focus on meditation and the alternative nature of the institution," he says. "I began at Naropa as an Early Childhood Education major and, to satisfy a contemplative practice requirement, decided to try Aikido. I was hooked. I took all the offered courses (Aikido I - IV) and began to train at Boulder Aikikai.

"Aikido is good for the ego--in the Buddhist sense. From the very beginning of my training at Naropa, I found Aikido practice profoundly challenging to my constricted, ego-centric tendencies. Aikido practice has a way of illuminating, in a very concrete way, how self-centered one can be, and how that gets in the way of genuine interaction with others. In my first semester, I was amazed to find how frustrated I was when I couldn't make people fall down like my teachers could--I couldn't 'get it right.' I came to see that frustration as a brilliant opportunity to notice my own experience and relax. In letting go and becoming more comfortable with myself in Aikido practice, I found myself more 'successful' outwardly."

Now enrolled as a graduate student in Contemplative Psychotherapy, Nate plans to graduate with his master's degree in May 2008. His final paper is entitled "Crisis and Center; Aikido and the Contemplative Perspective in Emergency Psychiatry," which describes how his ten plus years of Aikido training and work with Naropa greatly inform his current work with Emergency Psychiatric Service at the Mental Health Center of Boulder.