The Art of Peace functions everywhere on earth, in realms ranging from the vastness of space down to the tiniest plants and animals. The life force is all-pervasive and its strength boundless. The Art of Peace allows us to percieve and tap into that tremendous reserve of universal energy.

Everything in the world has an energetic state and direction.  How these energies meet and resolve is what  Aikido studies.  The goal is to get these interactions, using the metaphor of martial art, to produce together an outcome that is harmless for all.  By dealing with the enormous variety given by a variety of attacks, techniques, body types, energy levels, engagement, excitement, speed and emotional state in the context of Aikido it becomes possible to take the skills learned “off the mat” and apply them in the larger context of our daily interactions, our lives, and ultimately our worlds.

In this world everything has an energetic state and potential.  All of that can be harnessed by proper positioning, intent and technique as practiced in Aikido.

If you have not
Linked yourself
To true emptiness,
You will never understand
The Art of Peace.

One of the core principles of Aikido, and indeed of any mastery, is the art of “not being there”.   One trains hard, for many years to learn, digest and incorporate the principles into ones body and soul in a deep way.  It’s not a journey of acquiring more skills as much as it is realigning the few core principles you have into more effective ones.  In training we pile on bunches of new ways of thinking and moving, new metaphors and new skills.  Once we have ground those deep into the fields of our being they give birth to a new way of acting within a discipline, and finally a new way of comporting oneself.

This depth of understanding and enlightmenment is a rare thing.  When my teacher, Kato Hiroshi Sensei, comes to put on workshops at my dojo I get a glimpse of what such a thing looks like from the outside.  When he is not trying to detail a specific motion for us to learn, when he is simply moving, Aikido springs from him without any perceivable effort.  That is what O’Sensei’s poem points too.

The Art of Peace is medicine for a sick world. There is evil and disorder in the world because people have forgotten that all things emanate from one source. Return to that source and leave behind all self-centered thoughts, petty desires, and anger. Those who are possessed by nothing possess everything.

The world suffers from a lack of respect for others and a failing to understand the ways in which we are all interconnected.  My thoughts and soul are mine alone and can only be shared with others through word, action and choice and even then never fully.  However, the path of my life is intimately connected with, influenced by, and influencing every other thing in the universe.  In Aikido we get a reminder of that.  As the attack comes we respond.  The more we respond with design, goal and assumption the less Aikido our technique will be.  In the moment of the conflict, Aikido engenders us to let go of thought and hoped for result and instead simply match the attack for what it is – an interaction of energy.  By embracing the energy of an attack in a desire for peace, and letting the principles of Aikido determine our body’s motion, we can resolve the dance with the highest goal of martial art in mind: Someone attacks me and we both emerge unharmed.

Aikido points to a belief and practice that can lead to the resolution of all the world’s qualms in the same way.

All things, material and spiritual, originate from one source and are related as if they were one family. The past, present, and future are all contained in the life force. The universe emerged and developed from one source, and we evolved through the optimal process of unification and harmonization.

Science, Religion, and Philosophy all strive for an understanding of the world as it is.  And, as each looks deeper into the structure of the world they lead to an intuition that somehow there is a basic substance of creation.  Different subsets of these methods come to different understandings, but at some level disciples of each feel that there must be some kind of singular thread running through it all.  Quantum Probability, Godhead, Original Conception – all different names for one intuited hope.  They then trace up from this most basic point to understand the form of the larger objects in creation, and a picture of unity of purpose emerges.  Each and everything in all of creation is at some level of the same basic stuff, and is a part of the total form of what creation is.  The world is bounded by these two extremes, origin and totality.  From the single point of origin each thing becomes more sophisticated and individualized, seemingly independent and differentiated.  But, seen on a global scale the interconnections are apparent and necessary.  A line of relation can be drawn between any two things in the whole of the world without too much mental difficulty.  The entire dance running together in ways that can seem chaotic when seen from the small scale of inside the process, but which are apparently meshed when seen from a grander viewpoint.

In the context of physical conflict as practiced in Aikido it is possible to see a single attack, and the responding technique, as being opposed to each other.  However, when we broaden our vision, and practice the principles deeply, a dance of connection develops and the forms become a method of unifying with and dissipating aggressive action into something not only harmless but beneficial for our development.

One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.

The onus of training is not anything external.  You make the choice day to day, moment to moment, “Am I training?  Am I going to actively learn from this experience and find a way to develop from it?”  The answer to that question depends wholly on you and has nothing to do with your situation.  If you are capable of asking it then you are capable of answering it, and you are capable of answering in the affirmative.

My Sifu used to say, “If you don’t train when it’s raining, and you don’t train when it’s hot, and you don’t train when it’s windy, and you don’t train when it’s cold, and you don’t train when you’re tired, and you don’t train when you’re sick… when are you going to train?”