The martial art of Aikido is a spiritual practice. It is a spiritual practice because the technical application of Aikido is “nested” within a universal humanistic philosophy. And this philosophy is further nested within an Absolute spiritual perspective.
Aikido’s founder, Morihei Ueshiba, referred to this as the manifest, the hidden, and the divine. The manifest is the realm of physicality and techniques. The hidden is the realm of principles and philosophy. The divine is the realm of spirit Absolute.
This is a developmental frame that reflects the spiritual potential of human beings. Practicing Aikido in this framework activates growth and development. It will constantly challenge your egoic limitations and continuously lead you forward into your spiritual potential.
Compiled from the Aikido tele-summit, “Aikido At The Leading Edge.” Join 50 of the world’s top Aikido teachers as they answer a single question; “What is your #1 tip, or practice advice for someone to keep their Aikido at the leading edge?”
Christian Tissier, Robert Nadeau, Linda Holiday, John Stevens, Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Wendy Palmer, Robert Frager, Jan Nevelius, David Shaner, Joe Thambu, Koichi Barrish, Patrick Cassidy, and many more!
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The word Dharma is an ancient Sanskrit work meaning “Spiritual Teachings”, “Universal Principles”, or “Ultimate Reality.” And even though it isn’t always held this way, Aikido is an art that rests on the foundation of universal principles. This is the “Dharma Of Aikido”.
By all accounts, Aikido’s founder O Sensei had a profound spiritual awakening into ultimate reality. It was this awakening that transformed his martial arts into Aikido. Ueshiba’s Aikido was a profound expression of the Dharma, which in Aikido has one fundamental taste: Conflict becomes resolved into wholeness.
As a person who is walking the Path of Aikido surely, you know the dirty little secret about this art we all know and love; mastery in Aikido takes time! Everyone knows that there are no shortcuts to getting good in Aikido… or are there?
Here is the replay from yesterday’s ALE Community Call on “The 3 Lessons I Learned From The ALE Tele-Summit That Are Guaranteed To Transform Your Aikido.”
Enjoy!
If you’re a serious practitioner of Aikido then I am sure you are no stranger to the occasional struggle. Like every other developmental practice, hitting personal limitations and working on the edge of your comfort is unavoidable. As true as this is in ourselves, so too is it true in the world.
I have recently been conducting a series of “Dharma Discussions” with several of my friends who are meditation teachers. These discussions are exclusively for our current “Meditation For Aikido” course participants. However, these discussions are so good that I’ve decided to take some “bite-sized” excerpts and share them with my blog readers. I’m calling them “Dharma Bites” and here is the first many more to come. Here is an excerpt from a Dharma discussion I had on “The Wisdom Of Awareness, Tolerance & Allowing.”
Fuerth, Germany – Integral Aikido Seminar w/ Miles Kessler (6th Dan Aikikai)
In our previous chat, master facilitator Mark Walsh (“The Embodiment Podcast”) and I spoke about 3 phases of our personal development, namely “retreating from the world, returning to the marketplace and expressing our practice in virtual space” – and how each one of these moves comes with its set of challenges and learning curves. In this video once again we’re off to the races as we romp through the topic of “Polarity, Sex, & Enlightenment.
Well, I’m back from the Dead Sea Seminar for about 10 days now, and my life is finally getting back to normal. I’m still catching up on things, but I thought I’d make a quick blog post here of a video my friend Mark Walsh from Integration Training made with me out at the Dead Sea.
