Aikido & The Spiritual Path

Nothing makes life more meaningful than committing to something greater than yourself. Making such a commitment will lead you to discover your greater potential, and what is more meaningful than that?  These days my most immediate commitments are to family and career. But for decades now I have been engaged in 2 longterm practice commitments that brought profound meaning to my life. These are none other than Aikido & The Spiritual Path.

The Iwama Dialogues: Aikido & The Spiritual Path

Recently an old friend of mine, Bjorn Saw Sensei (Aikido Alive London), invited me to join a series of online discussions he is producing called “The Iwama Dialogues”, to talk about Aikido & the spiritual Path.

I’ve known Bjorn for over 30 years and we have a shared history of spending a few years together practicing Aikido in Iwama, Japan. We also share a longtime commitment to Spiritual awakening, having followed different but parallel Paths in this pursuit.

Because of this, Bjorn and I always have enlivened and interesting dialogues and discussions about spiritual matters, about the evolution of consciousness and culture, and about the promise and perils of practice on a higher Paths of practice.

So on July 5th, Bjorn and I invited some members from the Aikido community to join us on Zoom for a 90 min exploration of Aikido & The Spiritual Path. Here are some of the topics we touched on:

• How our early spiritual experiences because our orientations in life
• The value of single-minded commitment to practice
• Life during our “formative years” in Japan
• The genius of Saito Sensei and practicing Aikido in the Iwama dojo
• The limitation of aikido as a spiritual path
• The need to seek outside of aikido for further spiritual development
• Meeting my Buddhist meditation teacher U Pandita
• Spiritual protection vs. martial protection
• The importance of discovering a deeper meaning to life

Never before have I publicly gone so deep into life and training during my formative years in Iwama, and beyond. I found our dialogue to be very reflective, energizing, and meaningful. Perhaps it will add some meaning to your practice as well.

Enjoy!

Question: How do your practice commitments inform your life? Join the conversation by adding a question or comment below!

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