Coming back from Training Across Borders there is a quote from O’sensei that sums up the purpose sought by Aikidoist coming to Greece from areas of conflict around the world: “In Aikido we do not train to become powerful or to throw down some opponent. Rather we train in hopes of being of some use, however small our role may be, in the task of bringing peace to humankind around the world.”
TAB (organized by Aiki Extensions) highlights a more specific goal of Aikido practice, demonstrating the connection between the verbal teachings of O’sensei and physical training. Linda Holiday Sensei instructed at TAB and stressed the importance of including O’sensei’s words as an aspect of training. She include a passage that she had translated from a 1975 flyer; in the flyer Morihiro Saito Sensei relays the following words from O’sensei:
Please forge your spirit through daily training. Together with all of you, I want to advance the cause of peace everywhere in the world.
Aiki is not a technique to fight with or defeat an enemy. It is the way to reconcile the world and make humanity one family.
In Aikido we do not train to become powerful or to throw down some opponent. Rather we train in hopes of being of some use, however small our role may be, in the task of bringing peace to humankind around the world.
All of us in this world are members of the same family and we should work together to make war disappear from our midst.
PLease click the photo to learn more about Training Across Borders and Aiki Extensions.
I find this peaceful approach to resolving conflict something that is so rarely seen or practiced in today’s societies. Our long histories of war, violence and hatred is proof of that. Of course it is much more complicated than just using peace as the answer to all problems, because that is not reality, but it is not complicated to adapt the mindset that promotes peace and even good natured thoughts towards your enemy, to diffuse that hate that they bring, rather than strengthen it and feed it with your own. That way, problems escalate and spawn new ones, and this is how you lose the real battle, the battle with yourself, because you are allowing yourself to negatively change, and allowing the opponent’s evil and anger to poison you. By maintaining a clear, strong-willed, and peaceful mindset you can never be defeated.
“In Aikido we do not train to become powerful or to throw down some opponent. Rather we train in hopes of being of some use, however small our role may be, in the task of bringing peace to humankind around the world.” – O’sensei.
I find that Aikido, we learn more about how to fight smart than to fight hard. Aikido is much more about mind and spiritual strength than physical strength. In Aikido, you win not because one is stronger than the other, but one is more psychologically aware of ones’ opponent and selves. But in order to do this, one must learn the art in Aikido because of something bigger than just to fight the opponent. Aikido brings a peaceful alternative to avoiding conflicts and resolute it in a way that defeats the conflict and not the opponent. Our world is often focused on how it can be better than someone else, either by defeating its opponent or being better – but Aikido’s principle is harmonizing one selves to the world and bring peace to all humankind. A much powerful notion of hate is to love.
“…we train in hopes of being of some use, however small our role may be, in the task of bringing peace to humankind around the world.” I think this is an absolutely beautiful way about thinking about aikido. I took an Asian art course a few semesters ago, and in that course I had the pleasure of learning a small bit about zen Buddhism through art. Old masters of both Chinese and Japanese art who practiced zen Buddhism would use their painting as a method of focus and meditation to achieve peace in themselves. I see aikido as very similar to the way these masters used painting to achieve their peace within themselves.
Even as an amateur aikidoist, I have experienced at least a kind of mediation by practicing it. When doing a technique, I rely on my uke to perform. There is a harmony between the uke and the nage that cannot be broken or else aikido would not be happening. This symbiotic relationship between the two aikidoists creates a sense of peace that I have experienced by practicing aikido. By practicing with each other, we are bringing peace and harmony to each other, and that’s beautiful.
As O’sensei said as stated before, we as aikidoists are bringing peace to humankind around the world. Even in the short amount of time that I have been an aikidoist, I believe that by practicing aikido I have become more peaceful at heart by learning to respect my uke. I will try to reflect this peace and harmony that I experience in aikido to similar experiences where I am either physically (although I hope not) or emotionally under attack by acting with respect, peace, and harmony.
In Islam there is a saying, the powerful one is not the person who can throw the most people, but the powerful one is the person who can control his own anger. Similarly in Japanese society, the same idea and saying is said as “In Aikido we do not train to become powerful or to throw down some opponent. Rather we train in hopes of being of some use, however small our role may be, in the task of bringing peace to humankind around the world.”
I believe the world needs a unifying source and if Aikido was taught to children in schools in multi ethnic groups so that the children may learn from vicarious contact with others what coexistence is and how it may be achieved through simplistic means – such as education in Aikido, but not just the moves, but the ideas the same ideals taught by O Sensei, but there must be an outreach from the higher society individuals to the lower class, to bridge the gap and allow for the process of healing to begin. So we may train together so that Aikido just isn’t “the Way” of Peace, it will be “the way” to reconcile the world and make humanity one family.
In Response to the article: “WE TRAIN IN HOPES OF BEING OF SOME SMALL USE…”
“Aiki is not a technique to fight with or defeat an enemy. It is the way to reconcile the world and make
humanity one family.” – O’sensei.
Martial Arts is very commercially recognized in the media as an offensive weapon against an enemy, or
just a physical action of defeating an opponent. It is truly interesting to me that Aikido is not centered
around the act of training, fighting, or the physical components but it is mainly about adopting a
mindset that promotes peace and goodness towards your enemy. In doing so, you promote peace and
love in your own life and diffuse the negative energy being given by an opposing force and transforming
it into a positive force that you can learn from and that can help you grow. With this sort of mindset and
energy, it is truly a way to “reconcile the world and make humanity one family.” I found it very
interesting that O‐Sensei has incorporated his own trainings of Martial Arts with his own belief systems,
similar to those of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. Under the 14 rules in the “The Art of Peace” I realize that
these beliefs are very similar to the Buddhist eight‐fold path to enlightenment and the Hindu Belief of
Karma. In order to become enlightened one must find inner peace within themselves, practice and
spread the teachings of Buddha, and within the Hindu belief system, and even according to Newton’s
Third Law, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Aiki has taught me so many things about
myself that I did not realize was there. It taught me to harmonize myself with the world and to make
peace with humanity because we are all one.