All the principles of heaven and earth are living inside you. Life itself is the truth, and this will never change. Everything in heaven and earth breathes. Breath is the thread that ties creation together. When the myriad variations in the universal breath can be sensed, the individual techniques of the Art of Peace are born.
Breath. The universal process of exchanging energy by transforming a thing into its opposite. Inhale, exhale. In, out. Rise, fall. Hot, cold. Active, passive. Front, back. Feed, consume. The ancient symbol of the T’ai Chi embodies this duality of exchange. Without this interplay all would be static and stagnant. It is the very mechanism of creation. Aikido gives us a way to understand that dynamic, to agree with it, and to benefit from its power. From the simple principles of irimi (entering) and tenkan (turning), omote (in front) and ura (behind), to extending and contracting, and advancing and retreating, Aikido explores the concept of breath at the physical level. In practice we learn to deal with the varying emotional levels of our partners, and ourselves, and we learn breath on the mental level. Practicing, and thinking on our practice between classes, keeping a deep commitment to a path, allows us to see the play of breath on the spiritual level. During the execution of a technique our aim is often to take our partner’s balance, and this is equatable to interrupting the breath. We also focus on filling our technique with power, timing it with inhale and exhale, and we float in the dance of our own breath.
Stumble it!
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