What is Aikido?

Aikido is a unique art revealed by its founder O-Sensei Ueshiba Morihei (1881–1969). Aikido arised in the context of the Japanese martial arts. Some of it’s external forms resembles techniques from older Budo. But Aikido is not a syncretistic form out of old schools. Aikido has left the old forms behind, transforms the old arts and emphasizes the internal aspects.

The translation of Aikido

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 words which make up Aikido, ai, when written with a different Chinese character means love. O-Sensei said clearly that the word ai in Aikido carries both meanings; connection/union-with, and love.  And when O-Sensei used the word love, he used it in the sense of universal, unconditional love, that is, divine love.

Hikitsuchi-Sensei, explaining the meaning of love in Aikido, used a simple Japanese word Dai (great); Dai-Ai that is Great Love.

It must be underlined that the word Ai does not mean harmony. It means connection or union-with. The ai of aikido has nothing to do with any concept of winning or succeeding over an other with a technique or strategy of harmonizing or blending with their ki. There is no winning, and there is no other in Aikido.

„If you think about is 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 others. This is Masakatsu-Agatsu-Katsu-Hayaibi.”  O-Sensei

O-Sensei has stated clearly that there is no victory in the usual sense of being over an other in Aikido. Rather, by true victory – victory over ourselves – we are able to enter a state of true victory beyond time or space (Jap.: Katsu-Hayaibi). There can be no enemy or an other without time and space.

Our goal is to find our true self, our true purpose (Jap.: Ten-Mei).  Through the unification of body, mind and ki we come to understand and experience both ourselves at the deepest level and the entire working of the Universe. Our small personal self, our ego, and its strategies/plans falls before the great plan of the Universe working through us.

Therefore, a correct translation of the words Aikido would be: The Way of Union with the Love and the Energy that sustain the entire Universe.

Ki-no-Nagare Aikido

Ki-no-Nagare Aikido is an advaita or non-dualistic* Aikido which tries to be as congruent as possible with the practice and vision of Aikido’s founder, Morihei Ueshiba O-sho, O-Sensei.
Taking form as the living spiritual gesture within the movement, together with the principle of absolute non-resistance and training in inryoku**, Ki-no-Nagare Aikido functions as spiritual education*** leading to actual transformation and the opening of the heart of the practitioner.

* According to O-Sensei there is no enemy in Aikido. What is more, there is no partner or other. “One can never fully understand Aikido without at the same time understanding true nothingness.”
** Inryoku, power of drawing to oneself, gravity. The spiritual state/power resulting from practice which allows the uke to be drawn into the aiki relationship with the tori.
*** According to O-Sensei Aikido is ki-iku, tai-iku, chi-iku and toku-iku. It develops four aspects of the individual soul or spirit (mitama); the kushi-mitama, ara-mitama, nigi-mitama and sachi-mitama.