THE PRINCIPLE OF AIKIDO

Aikido has but one principle-the universal reality of life. In their own nature as living human beings all possess the basic secret of Aikido. The purpose of Aikido is to better people’s lives, to make their spirits blossom and become strong, and by making better people to make a better world. Aikido exists in this principle and this purpose, not in the style of movement or the technical details through which Aikido is taught. If the principle and the purpose are present, any technique can be Aikido. If they are absent, so is Aikido.

Aikido is the study of wisdom. If you cannot control and trust yourself — if you cannot see yourself clearly — you will never have any knowledge or trust of others and you certainly will not be able to control them. The purpose of Aikido training is not to create aggressive fighters but to refine wisdom and self-control. As a student of Aikido, you must study to improve and polish yourself, not to compete with others.

The story of the Samurai in Japan is a story of blood, death, and cruelty. Out of the bloody turmoil came some of the most peaceful and enlightened men in the history of Japan. Destruction and chaos gave birth to a philosophy of communion with the divine principles of the universe, and of [ultimate compassion for our fellow man.]

This is not so great a contradiction as it sounds. What man is more likely to know the true value of life than one who knows the reality of death? Who is more likely to realize the moral destitution of conflict, bloodshed, the vicious cycles of revenge and retaliation, and the power struggles they engender than a man who was immersed in those things? Certainly, there are many that have philosophized about the evils of war and recognized it’s futility from a distance, but often their ideas have not been informed by a true knowledge of those evils. They did not know their enemy; therefore, when their theories were put to the test, their enemy proved stronger.

Amid the spiritual poverty of war, then we find some of the richest understandings of the way to peace. This spiritual awareness was bought at the cost of a great deal of suffering and a great many lives. Most of those who followed the way of the sword remained embroiled in conflict and deadly combat. They were unable to free themselves from the fear of death and of the repercussions that their own violent actions might bring upon them. Inherent in the training to become a great swordsman and warrior, however, were concepts that contained the keys to escape from their entanglement in conflict and bloodshed.

The swordsman who was trained in dealing out death did not kill purely for the sake of killing. He killed to protect something he valued-his own life, his honor, his lord, his people, or all of these things. The art of the swordsman was thus dedicated to the accomplishment of two opposing ideas-the preservation and the destruction of life.

-Mitsugi Saotome