Nice video of Saito Sensei
There is a very high quality video of Saito Sensei practicing at Iwama in 1964 available to view at Oliphant blog.
It is the way to reconcile the world
and make human beings one family."
O' Sensei
There is a very high quality video of Saito Sensei practicing at Iwama in 1964 available to view at Oliphant blog.
Last night in class, Sensei told us something that i found really thought-provoking. He was talking about Judo first, telling us how in Judo when your partner pushes, you pull and when they pull, you push. He went on to say how Aikido has changed this: when your partner pulls, you enter; when they push, you turn. I found myself thinking about what this might look like in everyday circumstances--in discussions with my life-partner, or in business or work. What does it mean to enter when someone verbally pulls at you? How can we turn when we are being pushed emotionally or energetically? Sensei often talks about telling ourselves a story: our partner wants us to see something, so turn and look. What do they want us to see? I find this such a powerful question. When you are angry or upset or we are in conflict of some kind, what do you want me to see? How can i turn and look? And still keep my center?
Dear Aikidoka,
In August of 1920 Mohandas K. Gandhi set himself firmly on the revolutionary path by a simple and gentle act of rejection. This peaceful rejection of the validity of his oppressors to rule
The core concept at the heart of Gandhi’s revolution was something he called “Satyagraha”. Satyagraha involves the use of personal sacrifice to facilitate the dawning of awareness of wrong action on the part of the oppressor. This is done through a willing, passive, acceptance of the wrong intent for as long as the realization takes. Intrinsic in this process is the transformation of the negative energy of the wrong intention into a positive universal energy by the power of ones own passive, non-violent response. In its extreme applications, as
On closer examination, there are several parallel and compatible principles between Gandhi’s Satyagraha and O’ Sensei’s Aikido that lead to an expansive realm of questioning about what we, as Aikidoka, are really doing.
Love for the wonder-filled diversity of the divine manifest in all things and absolute compassion and tolerance for the shortcomings of ones fellow travellers resolved as the core guiding principles of Aikido. It is here that the parallels between Aikido and Satyagraha converge. To evolve and grow as a human, one must be willing to aid the understanding of others as well as one’s own. It is through this fostering of the other that one is able to move forward on one’s own journey. This is a core principle of Aikido. As one’s own understanding of Aikido deepens one’s progress forward slows as a result of a greater and ever increasing responsibility to foster the growth and understanding of those who come behind.
At their absolute core, Aikido and Satyagraha are about intention and how one responds to intention. Each requires an internal forging process that allows the individual to steel oneself to calmly wait for, and subsequently receive the expression of negative intention with a compassion-based non-violent response. Aikido, while undeniably a martial form, is intrinsically founded in the principles of non-violence.
It is through the intentional application of technique from a centre of joyful, loving compassion and an equally powerful desire to protect self and other that the Aikidoka receives and then transforms the negative intention much as does Satyagraha. As the Aikidoka extends this protective energy outwards the negative energy is received and then redirected to a safe resting place. At this point the Aikidoka creates an open space between themselves and the source of violent intent. The Aikidoka chooses to remove oneself and end the conflict thus protecting self and other. Or the Aikidoka chooses to accept the opportunity to practice, joyously receiving the intent for what it truly is, a gift of learning from the universal energy.
The well of energy runs dry when every attack one projects outwards are joyously received, joyously avoided. This effect is further compounded when subsequent aggression is just as joyously awaited with what is frequently a disturbingly pleasant mien. This very same set of principles applies to all interaction and the Aikidoka has made a conscious choice to respond in accord with those principles.
In the practice of Aikido one chooses and accepts, by acting, the responsibility to protect themselves and their aggressor from the harmful effects of the negative intention. There is no inherent need to injure the attacker. There is only a commitment to love, learning and compassionate protection. All technique functions as a tool for the restoration or creation of consolidated and cohesive positive energy moving in conscious harmony with the living universe. Once that unification takes place and the energy comes briefly to rest no further force or energy is required. The truest, most sincere form of response on the part of an Aikidoka to any form of negative intention is to harmlessly disarm the intention, return the weapon to the attacker and gently ask them is they want to try again. This steeling of self can only come about through ones willing acceptance of ones fundamental human responsibility to protect everyone, self included, from their own negative intention.
Aikido and Satyagraha rest on the twin concepts of responsible choice and conscious guardianship. While cliché in the modern world the essence of both paths is “To Serve and Protect”. Both paths are equally powerful, both paths equally influential in their effects on culture, society and person. Sincere commitment to the sacrifice of self, physical, material, emotional, psychic or spiritual, are the essential core of personal transformation. Whether one chooses the passive non-violent path of Satyagraha or the active, non-violent path of Aikido as a means of changing self and world the choice is the same. It is clearly a choice towards guardianship.
O’ Sensei saw the divine in all things. The same was true for Gandhi. Each man possessed a personal belief structure that made it impossible to see the world in any other way. Each spoke of respecting the gods within as deeply as one should respect the gods without. It was a fundamental choice on the part of both men to nurture and in turn partake of the nurturance of the beneficent, benevolent, bounty of the universe.
By Floyd Blades
© 2007