Aikido: Love for the World

In honor of Valentines Day, I wanted to talk a bit about aikido's views on love.  One of the ideas that sticks out to me most in aikido writings in this respect is a love and respect for the world.  Indeed, my first Sensei defined "aikido" as "The Way of Harmony with Nature."  This definition seems in line with Ueshiba-Sensei's teachings.

In Ueshiba Kisshomaru's book, The Spirit of Aikido, he quotes O'Sensei on the nature of aikido's goals:

By virtue of the subtle working of ki we harmonize mind and

body and the relationship between the individual and the

universe.  When the subtle working of ki is unhealthy, the world

falls into confusion and the universe into chaos.  The harmonizing

of a united ki-mind-body with the activity of the universe

is critical for order and peace in the world.  (24)

To today's reader, this type of spirituality sometimes rings hollow.  However, I think there's a lot to be gained from O'Sensei's words even on a more metaphorical level.  Such a perspective of righting the world is familiar to me as well from my own Jewish upbringing.  In my culture, we called this notion, tikkun olam, "repairing the world," an idea which grew during the mystically-oriented early Middle Ages.  This is often taken to mean that every individual has a responsibility to contribute what she can to making the world a better and more fully-realized place, and in doing so, she will also fulfill herself.  To me, this is exactly the sort of harmonizing of which O'Sensei spoke.

Implicit in both of these mystic traditions is love: a respect and love for the world around us, a feeling that is all too often absent.  Jews recently celebrated Tu B'Shevat, the holiday honoring trees.  This holiday always serves as a re-centering point for me (even when I have little to no observance!); a reminder that the world is something which needs active care.  So many traditions and faiths look to the earth as nurturer, yet the modern world is so distant from it.

So, how to harmonize with the universe, to heal the world?  To me, there are many ways of doing this, and not all of them involve having a plot of land on which to plant, or enough money to make donations to World Wildlife Fund or Wildlife Conservation Society.  Instead, I believe O'Sensei's words can provide guidance.  As he suggests, the first step to healing the universe is to heal the self.  We must strive to integrate mind, body, and ki (whatever that term means to you).  By centering and unifying the self, we can then face the world with calmness and love.  When the "activity of the universe" seems against us, the centered being can face it without expelling hatred, fury, despair, or any of the other negative emotions which are so contagious to those around us.

Essentially, I see Ueshiba-Sensei's message as a cue to project love and caring in every situation.  Whether we face a friend, a lover, a colleague, an antagonist, or the workings of the world itself, we must train to face all of them with an acceptance of what is (as opposed to the fictions we wish), and with that acceptance, bring positive mind to others.

Picture taken from: http://www.huntington.org/uploadedImages/Files/images/JG_overview_1167x551.jpg

Here, Now

This week had a bunch of frustrations for me, and a bunch of great things.  Because of all of these things happening, though, concentration... didn't always happen.  I'm sure we've all been there - focusing on a task, and then suddenly, "If I had just... yesterday/last month/6 years ago, things would be different," or, "Tomorrow/next week/in 3 months I really need to ...".  Maybe this helps a bit in planning, but is not a terribly effective way to get things done.

For this reason, it hit me like a ton of bricks when during warm-ups Thursday night, my sensei suddenly said, "This is mostly for me, as well as you: Be here, now."  As soon as she said it, I realized that I had been a million miles away and phoning in my warm ups.  Of course, this is problematic because warm-ups don't just "warm up" your body - the ki exercises we do at that point in the class strengthen focus and the feeling of power that should inflect every technique, and they set each person up to do their best aikido that evening.  They are a centering technique, not just a way to limber up the muscles.

One of the great things about warm-ups, though, is that they do act towards centering.  We come into the dojo with scattered thoughts, and the formulaic warm-ups chase those thoughts out until we can exist in the present.  For me, they are one of the first steps towards mu shin - the feeling of alert "no mind" that I've talked about before.  They are indeed a reminder to "Be here, now."

This is a feeling that I think is vitally important to take out of the dojo and into the world.  Even if I can't face every task with a feeling of true centered mu shin, a smaller goal is to get more moments of "Here, now".  Rather than let my thoughts run rampant (and inevitably towards past and future) while I try to cope with work tasks, social functions, etc, I need to be focused on the task at hand.  The benefit to this approach is better concentration, leading to both faster and more precise work.  Then, I can worry about the future.

Of course, along with productivity, this style of focus also can open our eyes to the great things happening now!