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What is Aikido? It is easy and not easy to define. I think when you are just beginning to practice, it is the easiest to define Aikido, because that is the time you know the least about it. As you learn more and more about it, an answer becomes more and more difficult.
We know that “ai” means harmony, “ki” is our life force or our energy, and “do” is a way or a path.
Aikido differs from other martial arts because of its goal of harmonizing with the energy in an attack that is directed toward us. Other arts try to resist an attack with a block, or to follow a block with a return attack. Our goal is not to block, resist, or respond to the energy by using our strength. Instead we let the attack energy run its course, and we try to attach our energy to it. Once we have done this, we try to lead our attacker’s body, and hopefully his mind, to as peaceful a solution as is possible in that situation.
Responding in proportion to the seriousness of the attack is another trademark of aikido -- we try to do only what is necessary to end the violence.
So this is what I believe is the “ai-ki” part of aikido. The other part is the “do.” The Chinese character used in Japanese writing for “do” means “path,” that is, a path like a road that you walk on. Walking on a path takes time, and the longer the path, the more time it takes. I think O’Sensei meant for our walk on the path to continue for our entire lives. Aikido may start on a mat, but it goes off the mat, too, into the rest of the things we do in our lives.
Many things we learn in aikido can be applied in almost everything we do, and can be used as a way to better ourselves and to bring about better relationships with other people. As we try to better ourselves, we begin to notice our faults, and how hard it is to correct them. This helps us to realize that it is hard for others to improve, and make us less critical of their weaknesses. When we try to see an individual’s feelings through their eyes, we gain understanding and are less likely to be in conflict with them. Here is how I compare aikido practice to daily life:
As we wait for an attack, we practice staying “centered,” that is, to be calm as an unknown situation quickly unfolds. What I’ve learned here has helped me stay calm and focused in unpleasant situations I’ve had with problem people in my life. On the mat, as the attack is executed, we focus on the attacker, not on ourselves. In personal situations, the application of this is to avoid immediately meeting force with force, and has helped me to focus first on what’s coming at me, knowing that I can listen first and then respond, if need be. The next thing we do on the mat is to join with the attacker; in a personal encounter this means to see a problem through the aggressor’s own eyes. From this point onward, we try to provide a solution, whether on the mat or off the mat, that leaves both people happy, or at least ends the confrontation. In the process of learning to fight, we actually learn how to avoid fighting.
In his book, “The Art of War,” the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu says the goal of war is not victory over the enemy — the goal of war is peace. What he realized is that a conflict is really only over, when both parties to the conflict are in harmony with each other.
I first began Aikido as a means of physical exercise. I wanted to do something that would keep my interest, because I knew if I picked something boring I wouldn’t stick with it, and then wouldn’t be exercising. Also, I had never been involved with any type of martial art, but this aspect attracted me, too, and what little I knew about aikido seemed to make sense to me.
What I’ve received from Aikido was unexpected, and obviously a whole lot more important than what I came looking for -- and I look forward to finding even more.
All material copyright © 2000 Thomas J. Hosmanek.
All rights reserved.
Shodan Essay #1
What is Aikido?
by Tom Hosmanek 5/20/1995
Test judged by
Masayuki Kaneshi-Mesa Shihan, Aikido, rokudan