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

The Aikido of the Ki-no-Nagare Aikido Dojo

In the Aikido world there are many ways of training and many different ways Aikido is understood by it’s practitioners. The way of practicing Aikido has changed from the time of O-Sensei.

These changes have several reasons, but generally speaking, the major problem is that there has been a separation in terms of how practice is actually done from the spiritual teachings; the spiritual teachings do not lead the actual practice, they are seen as separate from it.

Hikitsuchi-Sensei used to say: “True progress in Aikido does not come from concentration on developing technique, but, as the heart opens the technique changes as a result. This cannot happen through making technique the most important thing in your practice. Budo is not technique”.

Opening of the heart can be developed through the practice of Aikido techniques, which is one reason O-Sensei called them kami-waza, techniques of the divine, since that opening leads, according to O-Sensei, to unification of our heart with the heart of the divine, — but there has to be an intent or a movement in that direction (meaning the opening of the heart) both on the part of the practitioner and on the part of the instructor; and how can opening of the heart be a primary intent if we do not wish to discover Aikido as unconditional and universal love, — which is how O-Sensei defined it?

It cannot happen as long as Aikido is practiced dualistically — that is in terms of succeeding in technique against someone, or over someone, as for instance in the concept of self-defense or in sports. Or as something external to one’s self, as technique that can be perfected, and rewarded with grades, thus implying competition and comparison with others…

“Aikido is misogi — misogi is Aikido.”
O-Sensei

Furthermore, the Aikido of O-Sensei is not done as a reaction to an attack. The attacking movement is called forth and connected with by the tori before the movement begins! Ideally there is just one movement that takes place through the two bodies.

Ki-no-Nagare Aikido tries to be as congruent as possible with the philosophical and spiritual thinking that is in the Founder’s writings and talks. For example, O-Sensei stated clearly that the practice of Aikido must be one half part Bu and one half part Bun, as the two edges of the holy sword in Shinto, the Tsurugi, — a word/image that was used by O-Sensei to express the activity of Aikido.
So, through listening and studying in the Ki-no-Nagare Aikido Dojo we practice to relate Aikido to all aspects of the Universe, and to all aspects of Life.

Here you can download the guidelines for Aikido practice by Peter Shapiro Sensei:
Guidelines for Aikido Practice