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The founder (Morihei Ueshiba) intended aikido to be far more
than a system of techniques for self-defense. His intention
was to fuse his martial art to a set of ethical, social, and
dispositional ideals. Ueshiba hoped that by training in
aikido, people would perfect themselves spiritually as well
as physically.
It is not immediately obvious,
however, just how practicing aikido is supposed to result in
any spiritual (= psycho-physical) transformation.
Furthermore, many other arts have claimed to be vehicles for
carrying their practitioners to enlightenment or
psycho-physical transformation. We may legitimately wonder,
then, whether, or how, aikido differs from other arts in
respect of transformative effect.
It should be clear that
any transformative power of aikido, if such exists at all,
cannot reside in the performance of physical techniques
alone. Rather, if aikido is to provide a vehicle for
self-improvement and psycho-physical transformation along
the lines envisioned by the founder, the practitioner of
aikido must adopt certain attitudes toward aikido training
and must strive to cultivate certain sorts of cognitive
dispositions.
Classically, those arts
which claim to provide a transformative framework for their
practitioners are rooted in religious and philosophical
traditions such as Buddhism and Taoism (the influence of
Shinto on Japanese arts is usually comparatively small). In
Japan, Zen Buddhism exercised the strongest influence on the
development of transformative arts.
Although Morihei Ueshiba was
far less influenced by Taoism and Zen than by the
"new religion," Omotokyo, it is certainly possible to
incorporate aspects of Zen and Taoist philosophy and
practice into aikido. Moreover, Omotokyo is largely rooted
in a complex structure of neo-Shinto mystical concepts and
beliefs. It would be wildly implausible to suppose that
adoption of this structure is a necessary condition for
psycho-physical transformation through aikido.
So far as the incorporation of Zen and Taoist practices and
philosophies into aikido is concerned, psycho-physical
transformation through the practice of aikido will be little
different from psycho-physical transformation through the
practice of arts such as karate, kyudo, and tea ceremony.
All these arts have in common the
goal of instilling in their practitioners cognitive
equanimity, spontaneity of action/response, and receptivity
to the character of things just as they are (shinnyo). The
primary means for producing these sorts of dispositions in
trainees is a two-fold focus on repetition of the
fundamental movements and positions of the art, and on
preserving mindfulness in practice.
The fact that aikido training is always cooperative provides
another locus for construing personal transformation through
aikido. Cooperative training facilitates the abandonment of
a competitive mind-set which reinforces the perception of
self-other dichotomies. Cooperative training also instills a
regard for the safety and well-being of one's partner. This
attitude of concern for others is then to be extended to
other situations than the practice of aikido. In other
words, the cooperative framework for aikido practice is
supposed to translate directly into a framework for ethical
behavior in one's daily life.
Furthermore, it should be clear that if personal
transformation is possible through aikido training, it is
not an automatic process. This should be apparent by
noticing the fact that there are aikido practitioners with
many years of experience who still commit both moral and
legal infractions. Technical proficiency and broad
experience in the martial arts is by no means a guarantee of
ethical or personal advancement. This fact often comes as a
great disappointment to students of aikido, especially if
they should discover that their own instructors still suffer
from a variety of shortcomings.
In fact,
however, this itself constitutes a valuable lesson:
Technical proficiency is an easier goal to attain than that
of personal improvement. Although both of these goals may
require a lifetime of commitment, it is considerably easier
to make the sort of sacrifices and efforts required for
technical proficiency than it is to make the sacrifices and
efforts required for substantive personal transformation and
improvement.
The path to self-improvement and personal transformation
must begin somewhere, however. Perhaps the most important
(and easily forgotten) starting point for both students and
teachers of aikido is to bear constantly in mind that the
people one is training with are one and all human beings
like oneself, each with a unique perspective, and capable of
feeling pain, frustration and happiness, and each with his
or her own goals of training.
If one takes seriously the notion that part of one's aikido
training should aim towards self-improvement, one may
sometimes have to consider how one will be viewed by others.
Someone may have superb technical ability and yet be viewed
by others as a self-centered and inconsiderate bully. |
