Satyagraha and Aikido: A Comparison of the Teachings of Gandhi and O’ Sensei

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 India became the ground swell of a profoundly powerful movement and model that is still used to incredible effect almost 100 years later. That movement of mind and heart led to the freeing of India and stripped the illusions of glory and grandeur that concealed the savagery at the core of Imperialism.

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 India’s revolution proved, this involves the conscious acceptance of actual physical harm if not death.

The key to Satyagraha is the sacrifice of physical and emotional/psychic self through a willingness to receive and absorb the wrong intention of the aggressor. The will to sacrifice self on behalf of another rises from a place of love and compassion for the development of the other. One chooses to redirect the wrong intention away from another and absorb it into oneself in a “Better Me Than You” attitude. Through this redirection and absorption of the wrong action/intention and its subsequent negative effects one in turn returns that energy to the universe clean of the stain of aggression in a process very similar to the mantra ”Breathe in sorrow, Exhale compassion.”

A brief historical note. While the Indian Revolution and the subsequent sectarian violence was a bloody and brutal time in India’s history with atrocities on all sides of the conflict; it must be noted that the personal sacrifices and actions of Gandhi, governed by the principles of Satyagraha, restored peace on several occasions. Until his assassination in 1948 Gandhi strove to spread the principles of his beliefs by the combined force of his actions and his incredible character.

A brief comparison between Gandhi and O’ Sensei shows the surface commonalities the two men shared philosophically and personally: The incredible commitment on the part of both men to the betterment of the world through the forging and refining of self. The devotion to nature based pantheistic spiritual structures. The personal choice to follow the aesthetic path of personal and universal discovery. Both men were steeped in violent times and each made a conscious choice to reject the violence around them. Most importantly, both men possessed the ability to perceive the Universal in a way denied most of us.

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.

The two philosophies developed in very similar socio/cultural situations. Each was a response to the times they evolved in. Originally Aikido was a very hard martial form but as O’ Sensei reminds us time and again in his writings, everything changes in the face of the universal.

In his later years O’ Sensei redefined Aikido in the light of his personal epiphany and the understanding that it brought with enlightenment. It was at this time that O’ Sensei began to articulate his understanding of Aikido as “The Great Unifier of Mankind”. It was also when he began to clarify the more esoteric, spiritual aspects of Aikido.

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.

Students of Aikido understand this truth despite the surface appearances in the dojo. The image of Aikidoka rebounding from the mats, smiling and eager for the next throw, indicate something larger. Each movement, each extension of technique is nothing more than a response to an application of force or, in a worst-case scenario, actual violent intent. At that point the Aikidoka flows smoothly out of the path of the intention nullifying the negative consequences while at the same time consciously redirecting it away from a violent interaction. The love and compassion at the core of Aikido compels the Aikidoka to create a protective field of energy around themselves and the aggressor. Within this protective envelope the principles of Aikido create a structure of response that allows the negative intention to exhaust itself against a profoundly powerful non-violent, intrinsically joyful response. The Aikidoka can view it as an opportunity to practice, which is always a joyful occurrence.

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 aggressor learns through the combination of thwarted intention and the absence and rejection of forceful, violent intention from what is clearly a powerful, non-violent response to the aggression. In the liberation of India from British oppression the fact remains that the Indian population far outnumbered the British subjects. Yet under the powerful influence of Gandhi and his constant public and private practice of Satyagraha the people of India chose not to put the English to the sword. The choice of self-sacrifice for the betterment of all is the essence of Satyagraha.

An equally powerful combination of choice and self-sacrifice rests at the heart of Aikido. As one grows within Aikido an awareness of the power and influence of both choice and intent becomes clear. A multiplicity of responses present themselves to the force of directed intent, violent or otherwise. Each one allows the energy of the negative intent to dissipate harmlessly into the universe. Avoidance and redirection channels the energy in an active non-violent way that saps the energy of its force through the sheer futility of attacking something that insists on happily getting out of the way.

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.

Through the study of Aikido one learns how to clarify and refine ones intention so that the movements of ones life are in harmony with the divine energy of the universe, or as we call it, KI. One learns to surrender the defensive, instinctive ego response in the face of aggression and simply allow the individual to make a choice of negative intention while protecting self from harm.

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.

So, while the surface places the two schools of being on fundamentally different ground, in actuality the two men were not so far apart in the gift they sought to bring to the world. Love, compassion, nurturance and guardianship through a personal forging process of sacrifice and honest self-examination led them to a pantheon of knowings and epiphanies that still resonate in the modern world.

By Floyd Blades

Nanaimo, BC

© 2007