Wednesday, October 12, 2016

The spirit of aiki

The tedious, repetitious and monotonous learning routine tests the student's commitment and will power,but it also reduces stubbornness, curbs wilfulness and eliminates bad habits of the body and mind. In the process,his or her real strength,character and potential begin to emerge.the spiritual mastery is inseparable from the psychological but begins only after an intensive and lengthy period of training.

Yagyu mumenori himself stressed on overcoming the ego through self discipline in the art of swordsmanship. In a treatise known as "the household transmission on the art of fighting he writes that the goal of training in the martial arts is to overcome six kinds of diseases:

The desire for victory,
The desire to rely on technical cunning,
The desire to show off,
The desire to psychologically overwhelm the opponent,
The desire to remain passive in order to wait for an opening and
The desire to become free of these diseases.

The egoless self is open,flexible, supple, fluid and dynamic in body,mind and spirit.
Such a way thinking is the essence of all the martial and cultural ways in the Japanese tradition.

1 comment:

Nyang'or Vincent said...

Thanks for this post Walter. It is so inspiring