Morihei Ueshiba (O-Sensei)

Aikido

As ai (harmony) is common with ai (love), I decided to name my unique budo, "aikido," although the word "aiki" is an old one. The word which was used by warriors in the past is fundamentally different from that of mine.

Aiki is not a technique to fight with or defeat the enemy. It is the way to reconcile the world and make human beings one family.

True budo is a work of love. It is a work of giving life to all beings, and not killing or struggling with each other. Love is the guardian deity of everything. Nothing can exist without it. Aikido is the realization of love.

Budo

Budo is not felling the opponent by our force; nor is it a tool to lead the world into destruction with arms. True budo is to accept the spirit of the universe, keep the peace of the world, correctly produce, protect, and cultivate all beings in nature. The training of budo is to take God's love, which correctly produces, protects, and cultivates all things in Nature, and assimilate and utilize it on our own mind and body.

True budo is the loving protection of all beings with a spirit of reconciliation. Reconciliation means to allow the complettion of everyone's mission.

A mind to serve for the peace of all humanity is needed in Aikido, and not the mind of one who wishes to be strong and practices only to defeat an opponent. There are neither opponents nor enemies for true budo. Therefore, to compete in techniques, winning and losing, is not true budo. True budo knows no defeat. "Never defeated" means never fighting. Enemies In Ueshiba's budo there are no enemies. The mistake is to begin to think that budo means to have an opponent or enemy; someone you want to be stronger than, someone you want to throw down. In true budo there is no enemy or opponent. True budo is to become one with the universe.

In aikido we do not train to become powerful or to throw down some opponent. Rather we train in hopes of being of some use, however small our role may be, in the task of bringing peace to mankind around the world. In this hope we become one with the Universal.

When an enemy tries to fight with me, the universe itself, he has to break the harmony of the universe. Hence at the moment he has the mind to fight with me, he is already defeated ... Those who have a warped mind, a mind of discord, have been defeated from the beginning.

Training

You must continue in your aikido shugyo (austere training) ever more diligently. In doing so, you should not be negligent in devoting yourself to training and to attempting to improve. At the same time you must constantly reflect on what you have done. As a result, you will have developed and attained a balanced body that is one with your mind.

Take-musu

Aiki

Aiki has a form, and does not have a form. Aiki is a life which has a form and still flows with change; it expresses itself by changing itself. A form without a form is a word and poem which expresses the universe limitlessly.

Mitsugi Saotome

The Unity of Aikido

So often people study aikido, but they don't study Aikido. They study ikkyo or shihonage or iriminage thinking, "This is the correct ikkyo. This is the correct shihonage." This is nonsense. Instead of separating the techniques for study, we must study to see their similarities, the same application of principle, the same philosophical result. There is no perfect ikkyo, but any ikkyo is correct if executed spontaneously, sincerely, and in harmony with a particular situation. For in each situation, the degree and direction of force is different, your position is different, your feeling is different, therefore the application must be different.

Respecting Differences

Blind loyalty is most dangerous for it is all too easy to twist the ideas of lyalty and righteousness with the lever of human greed and selfish ego. A selfish ego has no respect for differences. It orders, "Everybody think like me, everybody look like me." How would you really feel if every face were only your image, if every mind affirmed your thoughts? People talk of harmony, but have no respect for a different idea or a different way. The study of harmony is to learn to respect the differences and to study the unity found within those different points.

Aggression

If you don't have aggression, you can't survive ... If somebody attacks you and you have no aggression you cannot defend yourself, right? But, when an attack comes, you harmonize. There is this kind of balance in many systems. Aggression is a ways of managing a system with feedback and adjustments ...

The problem with aggression is that people see it as a sickness, a craziness, something egotistical and unbalanced. On the mat, if you try a technique using too much aggression, you lose your balance, your center. So, people think aggression is no good. But this is wrong. If he aggression is adjusted by feedback, there is harmony. This is AIKI.

Growth

People feel safe being told: this is correct, this is not correct; but it is not that simple. A teacher can only give you a hint; he can only show you the Way, not travel it for you. You must discover Truth for yourself. Both instructors and students need to assume a more scientific attitude in their training. As a shallow question, receive a shallow answer. No deep questioning, no painful searching; no true growth.