Aikido Philosopy - Essay for Sandan

Even before I started studying Aikido many years ago, I was fascinated by the relationship between the mind and the body. As a child, I was not encouraged to participate in sports or to be physcially fit. Later, as a young adult, I started getting more interested in playing sports like volleyball and climbing mountains. I spent two years studying and practicing dance before I was lured (kicking and screaming) into Aikido by the woman I later married.

Out of those early days of exploring what I was capable of doing and thinking about how my mind controls my body, and how my body controls my mind grew a passionate exploration of how people relate to each other. Aikdio (like other arts) is a practice that puts people into violent situations. Unlike other martial arts, however, O-Sensei has taught us that we do not have to respond to violence with more violence. Instead, we can resond with control, with compassion, and with love. This appeals to me on both an intellectual and spiritual level.

Where Aikido has given me insight into how I can respond and react to other people, the study of the sword has given me glimpses of my soul. To me, the sword is a mirror of my true self. When I pick up a katana (or bokken), my inner state becomes visible: if I am calm and centered, the sword cuts like a breeze over grass. If I am upset, the sword does not cut at all. In all my study of Western philosophy, literature, and religion, there is nothing to compare to this.

Teaching others about Aikido has become a strong element of my own study. On many occasions being asked to explain some technique or help someone get over a problem in technique has clarified those techniques in my own mind. It also becomes a study of the human body, since as a teacher, I must watch my students carefully. this has led to some very deep insights about people just from watching the way that they move (or don’t move).

In the end, Aikido is so much a part of me, that it cannot be explained separately. I do not have an Aikido philosphy, I am one.