What is Aikido?
Aikido is a martial arts based, yoga like practice, created by the Japanese master Ueshiba Morihei, O-Sensei (1881–1969).
Why yoga like: According to O-Sensei Aikido’s purpose is to connect our centre with the centre of the Divine, to connect our heart to the Divine energy and to develop a “Spirit of Loving Protection of Everything”. Aikido is about connection rather than winning over someone. It is a Budo of oneness.
Aikido arose in the context of the Japanese martial arts. Seen from the outside, its forms and its way of practice resemble techniques and practice from older Japanese Budo and Bujutsu, particularly Daito-Ryu Aiki Bujutsu, Hozoin spear and different schools of sword.
But Aikido is not a synthesis. It is something alive and new, born from the satori or awakening of O-Sensei.
The meaning of the word Aikido and its translation
Ai – Union-with / connection-with / love
Ki – The original unborn undying energy that sustains the entire Universe
Do – The Way
The first of the three characters which make up the word Aikido, Ai, can also be written with a different Chinese character, in which case it means love. O-Sensei said clearly that Ai in Aikido carries both meanings; connection/union-with, and love, – in the sense of unconditional love, – that is, Divine love.
Hikitsuchi-Sensei, explaining the meaning of love in Aikido, used a simple Japanese word, Dai (great); Dai-Ai – Great Love.
Ai in Aikido does not mean harmony. It means connection or union-with and love.
Ai in Aikido has nothing to do with any concept of winning over or succeeding in defending against an other with a technique or strategy of harmonizing or blending with their Ki and thus controling them.
There is no winning, and there is no other in Aikido. To repeat: Aikido is a Budo of oneness.
“If you think about winning, you will in fact lose everything. Know that both you and your opponent are treading the same path. Envelop adversaries with love, entrust yourself to the natural flow of things, unify ki, body and mind, and efface the boundary between self and other. This is victory in Aikido, – Masakatsu [true victory]-Agatsu [victory over ourselves]-Katsu-Hayai-Bi [state beyond time or space].”
O-Sensei
O-Sensei has stated clearly that in Aikido, by our attaining True Victory, [Masa-katsu], – [which is] Victory over ourselves, [A-gatsu] – we enter the state beyond time or space [Katsu-Hayai-Bi].
There can be no enemy, no other without time and space.
Aikido practice enables us to find the truth of ourselves, and our true purpose in being born on this earth (Ten-Mei).
Through practice our separate self with its strategies/plans falls before the great plan of the Universe working through us.
Therefore, the correct translation of the word Aikido is, The Way of Union with the Love and the Energy that sustain the entire Universe.
Aikido as Shin-no-Budo (True Budo)
Aikido is usually considered to be a martial art. This is not entirely untrue; however, O-Sensei defined Aikido with the words Shin-no-Budo – True Budo. The True Way of Bu.
The word Bu is usually translated as ”martial” in English and French and as „Kampf“ or “Krieg” in German. But in fact the Chinese character for Bu is a pictogram showing a weapon (a kind of halberd) being held together with the character for stop.
Both O-Sensei and Hikitsuchi-Sensei said clearly that a primary meaning of the word Bu is to “stop attack”. And according to O-Sensei, it also means the moving creative activity of the universe.
The word Bujutsu is more banal and is closer to the words „martial art“ or „Kampfkunst“, because, in its simple translation “techniques of Bu” it implies something done to get a defined result, – techniques which stop or counter attack, – that is, techniques, or the art, of self defense or of combat.
Budo – The Way of Bu – implies something beyond the use of technique. It speaks rather of spiritual and psychological awakening, development and growth. In fact Hikitsuchi-Sensei, quoting O-Sensei, emphasized that “Budo is not technique”.
„True Budo is the loving protection of all with the spirit of reconciliation. Reconciliation means to allow the completion of everyone’s mission.“
O-Sensei
O-Sensei most often referred to Aikido as Shin-no-Budo – True Budo. He would define Shin-no-Budo in different ways but usually he defined it as “union with the divine”, “union with the center of the universe“, “union with divine love“.
After his enlightenment when O-Sensei experienced what he described as the all previding, all sustaining love of God or Divine Love. He said that the expression of this love is the true meaning of Bu, that Bu is love.
„True Budo is the work of love. It is the work of giving life to all beings and not of killing or struggling with each other. Love is the guardian deity of everything. Nothing can exist without it. Aikido is the realization of love.“
O-Sensei
Unlike Karate-Do, Judo, Jujutsu, forms of Kempo or other martial arts or ways, Aikido does not teach how to fight or how to win over someone.
„A mind to serve for the peace of all human beings in the world is needed in Aikido, and not the mind of one who wishes to be strong or who practices only to fell an opponent.“
O-Sensei
Aikido is not meant to defeat an enemy by technique, speed, strength or strategy. In Aikido through the relation to our partner we are able to forge, polish and purify both our inner and outer selves.
In Aikido there are no enemies – there is not a partner to be seen as separate from ourselves, that is, there is no other.
This is expressed in practice by unifying with the partner even before the move begins, thus leading him out of seperation and bringing him into sense of oneness.
The goal is to overcome competition and duality. Aikido is non-dualistic. In Sanskrit such a state is called advaita.
This works to bring about the spirit what O-Sensei called “The Spirit of the Loving Protection of All”.
„We ceaselessly pray that fights should not occur. For that reason we strictly prohibit matches in Aikido. Aikido’s spirit is that of loving attack and peaceful reconciliation. In this aim we bind ourselves with the other through the power of love. By love we are able to purify others.“
O-Sensei