From Chapter 2

Practicing Basic Technique: Training Mental Attitude and Vision

Often, after I have demonstrated a technique in the course of teaching a class and am watching my students practice, I see them performing movements that are completely different from what I have shown them. They have not observed the subtle but essential difference between what they have seen before and what I have demonstrated. Learning to observe clearly and truly is not as easy as it may seem. Even on a purely physical level, a student's preconceptions can place blinders on his vision. If people can have such difficulty observing what is in front of their eyes, you may imagine how much more difficult it is to be receptive to the much more subtle and elusive motivations that inform the physical movement. The first task of the beginning Aikido student should be to learn to see—to observe with an open mind what his eyes tell him and to keep his spirit receptive to the deeper meaning behind technique.

I believe that training yourself in the art of perception precedes the ability to train in basic technique successfully. You must labor to hone not just your ability to clearly observe physical movement but your mental and spiritual acuity as well. You must be able to develop your intuitive sense of the intent and meaning behind the movements that your teacher demonstrates and to gain an insight into the mental and spiritual qualities that he or she possesses. I cannot overemphasize the importance of closely following the instructions of your teacher.

What you have observed, you must polish by repetition. Repetition is a great teacher and will show you your mistakes. For instance, if you are practicing suburi, or repeated cuts, with the sword, you do not have to swing the sword well if you only cut five times. To do a thousand cuts poorly is impossible; your body will tire long before you have completed them. But if you persist in your determination to do a thousand cuts without stopping, you will eventually learn the correct and efficient way to use the sword, for to perform the movement properly is the only way it is possible to accomplish such a large number of repetitions. Only through practice will your level of comprehension of techniques increase. Your teacher cannot answer through your intellect the questions of your body. To learn Aikido, you must perform the movements you are shown again and again until your own body teaches you the natural wisdom of movement and allows you to absorb the knowledge that your instructor gives you.

Gaining mere literal knowledge and technical skill is not the goal of Aikido practice. You must work to improve your character and raise your consciousness to a higher level. The study of Aikido cannot be a selfish study. You must develop your sensitivity toward others and your concern for them in your daily interactions, both in practice and in your daily life. Such understanding must accompany your technical development. If you are ignorant of the effect that your actions are having on the mind and body of your partner, you will never realize the true purpose of practice, let alone effective technique. This is why it is so important that you never practice in such a way that you cause pain or injury to your partners. This is a moral responsibility. An injury that you cause someone could impair his ability to earn his livelihood. Imagine, for example, the repercussions of breaking a surgeon's fingers.

Being sensitive to the needs of others implies development of not only the five senses we are familiar with but the sixth and seventh senses as well. The sixth sense we might call intuition. It is the ability to see beyond the mask of your own face and catch the elusive signals that are beyond the range of the physical senses. The sixth sense allows you to see intent, to see the action forming in the body before any move is made. It allows you to read the feelings of others.

The seventh sense is more difficult to describe and to develop. "Divine inspiration" might be an equivalent term in English, but this term can also mislead. What I am thinking of when I speak of the seventh sense is the ability to see how every action reflects the essential patterns that resonate through all nature. For example, expansion and contraction are natural functions that govern our breathing, and they are also principles that govern the creation and the destruction of galaxies. In Aikido, contracting and expanding the body constitute a large part of the movement that creates successful technique. The seventh sense is the wisdom that allows us to maintain the awareness of the governing laws of nature in all things.

The seventh sense is the sense that enables you to erase the boundaries between yourself and your fellow human beings, to know that to harm another is to harm yourself, to feel the pain of others as your own pain—to sense the world as a whole entity rather than a collection of individual parts at war. Think of how you hear music. You do not listen to it note by note. You hear a whole piece and understand its beauty. The seventh sense is the ability to hear the whole music of the universe in which you participate, to hear how the note that is yours to sound fits into the song of which it is a part. Training in Aikido should strive to unite us, in both body and spirit, with the way of nature.

Developing the seventh sense helps to ensure that your relationship to your practice partners will be fruitful. Your practice partners come to you with a great variety of experience. They are of different ages, professions, and temperaments. No two come with the same physique, the same character, or the same way of thinking. This seems simple but is often forgotten. It is important to remain constantly aware of each of your partners' different abilities and limitations.

Our practice is not a realistic battle but a contrived situation that gives us the opportunity to polish ourselves both physically and spiritually. Our partner is not our enemy. Partners provide each other with the chance to face a hypothetical attack and resolve its problems. Uke's attack must be sincere and without malicious intent—just pure. Nage, in turn, must never inflict injury or show disrespect to Uke, who has put himself in Nage's power. To become angry or emotional or to attempt to injure your partner intentionally is not just a breach of etiquette. It is destructive to you as well as to your partner and very foolish. In my years as an instructor, I have witnessed many whose potential and abilities were wasted because of conceit and failure to see their fellow human beings truly. They refused to see their partners' physical limitations and ignored the vast possibilities that exist beyond those limitations. Physical development may stop as a person ages, but spiritual growth should never cease. Those who fail to understand this are the ones who lose their direction in life and lose the way of Aikido. To my sorrow I have seen many fall even at very advanced stages of training.

You must not succumb to anger, hatred, fears of your inferiority, arrogance, or other negative feelings in practice or in your life. Become a crystal mirror that reflects your life. Selfishness and conceit will cloud the surface of that mirror. You must remain humble and receptive, keeping in mind that the purpose of your practice is to improve yourself and to elevate your consciousness, not to compete or compare yourself with others. Practicing with unpleasant inner feelings and negative emotions obscures your inner vision and hinders you from seeing clearly what is happening around you. You will lose your sixth sense, that intuitive sense vital to seeing the imminent moves of your partners. You will lose the seventh sense of the link between the pattern and purpose of your practice and the patterns of nature. All things follow the path of nature, and Aikido is no exception. If your practice of Aikido becomes separated from this path, you will not be able to sustain the creative energy that allows you to progress in your training.

Of course, it is necessary to become strong; but physical, mental, and spiritual strength must all grow together. Aikido is a way of balance. A person with a strong body and a diseased or criminal mind is a menace to society. A person with a sound mind but poor health will have difficulty coping with the demands of reality. We must strive, in the long and difficult process of training, to achieve balance between body and mind and also balance within our minds and bodies. Emotional stability, physical equilibrium, and spiritual equanimity—these are the goals toward which our training is aimed.

Training with this intent helps us learn to look calmly on the changes and reverses of the economic and the material world. Real happiness lies beyond the turmoil of the world. We are bound by the laws of nature and of God, but within the law of natural selection exists the principle of evolution and adaption to the influences that surround us. Man's distinguishing quality is his great ability to adapt. By fully and humbly adapting to and accepting the laws of the universe, we liberate and place ourselves above animal strife. The key that looses us from its chains lies in the principle of evolution.

Like evolution, the study of Aikido is a long, slow, gradual process. Just as the mountaineer achieves the mountain top step by step, you must also approach your practice one step at a time. You must scrupulously review each step that brings you forward. The mountaineer, having gained a foothold, checks to make sure that it is secure before depending it to lift him to the next. Do not let temporary setbacks or failures discourage you. Aikido is progress, growth, and change, and some errors are inevitable. You will never reach a stage where you can say that you have finished your study, that you have "learned" Aikido. Just as life's lessons continue until your death, so should your training continue to develop as long as you practice. Patience, as well as hard work, is necessary to your training.

I would like, finally, to present for your contemplation the following excerpt from Morihei Ueshiba O Sensei's book, Budo, written in 1938. These are rules written especially for those entering the dojo for the first time.

PRECEPTS FOR PRACTICE TO BE UNDERSTOOD AND DEEPLY CONSIDERED

1. The original purpose of budo was to send a man to death with a single blow. For this reason you must obey your teacher implicitly in practice and never engage in competition.

2. The original budo is a study by which the individual connects to the whole. Therefore, you must practice with complete awareness of all that surrounds you. You should maintain this awareness along with a healthy degree of tension at all times.

3. You should always practice in the spirit of joy.

4. Your teacher can only give you an outline, a hint here and there to guide you. Only through constant practice will you master the practical use of this mystery. Learn to understand with your body. Do not engage in a futile effort to learn a great number of techniques but rather study the techniques one by one and make each one your own.

5. One should begin daily practice with proper warm-up exercises. This will strengthen the body and prevent undue stress on it. The first ten minutes of practice should be less rigorous than the practice that follows. There is no reason for injury, even for older people. Remember that your practice should be joyful.

You must gain an understanding of the real purpose of your training.

6. The original budo is training in the spirit of harmony. Its purpose is to produce real human beings who will improve the world. The techniques are secret teachings and show the secret principle of budo. They should not be disclosed to the public indiscriminately, especially not to those who might misuse this understanding.

Keep these rules in mind as you read the rest of this book. The meaning of some of them may not be clear to you now, but as you continue your reading and your practice, their meaning and their importance will become apparent. They form a context within which the principles of Aikido must be considered.