Aikido as Bodywork

(Note the highlighted text in the following article by Ellis Amdur )

Aikido is Three Peaches - Part I

It is very significant that Ueshiba Kishomaru wrote about the book, Takemusu Aiki (reprinted in four sections in Aikido Journal recently) that it is the work most representative of O-sensei’s thinking… . It occurs to me, then, that perhaps we should take him at his word. When Tohei Koichi derisively comments on Ueshiba’s explanations of aikido, saying that all he learned from O-Sensei was the concept of relaxation, but otherwise scorns Ueshibas statements as incoherent gibberish, is it possible that, although Tohei allegedly became a master at relaxing his body in martial arts training exercises, he simply did not understand that Ueshiba was using HIS relaxed body to accomplish very different aims?

It is quickly apparent that what makes O-Sensei even more difficult to understand than he otherwise would be is due to the fact that he freely mixes classical Shinto, Buddhism, Taoism and neo-Shinto concepts and images, often within a single paragraph. But if one claims that Ueshiba’s explanations of Takemusu Aiki were extraneous to the real thing - shihonage/irimi-nage, or aiki-social-work, or relaxation - then we are also choosing to regard him as an idiot savant, one of those eccentrics who, amidst the babble of his autistic process, somehow stumbles on valuable information.

In Ueshiba’s first statements, he defines aikido as the Way of union and harmony of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. Note that very significant trinity, which later, one footnote suggests, come into fruition in a circle. He gives many definitions of aikido, but I see a trinity here as well: as a purification rite, as a procedure to make kotodama possible, and a means of protection of all of creation.

Ueshiba defines the aikido practitioner as one who assists in the administration of the Universe by serving as a sword. Note: “as a sword,” not “with a sword.” It is significant that he uses the word tsurugi rather than katana. The straight sword was associated with ancient days and ancient ways, the primordial semi-myth, semi-history of the Yamato people who are described in Kojiki. Therefore, he is very clearly not saying that aikidoka should become God’s sheriff, wandering the world and righting wrongs. This is a spiritual pursuit, not a vigilante activity.

Ueshiba states that the primary divine work is … “unifying with God in harmony.” It is remarkable that Ueshiba states that in putting spirit and body in order, these are independent of each other. In short, spiritual austerities OR practice of the martial art of aikido are each only half of aikido. The realization of this harmony will not take place through prayer or meditation or good works or any other spiritual practice, nor will it take place merely by practicing aikido in our Yoshinkan, Aikikai, Ki no Kenkyukai or other training halls. These two activities must be pursued in parallel, not together. Thus, one can’t train the spirit simply by a sufficiency of tenchinage.

He likens aikido to the work of insects, fish, birds, and other animals in cleaning up impurities. By using this image, he is saying that just as that which makes an insect most insect is its chewing up rotten wood or carrion, that which makes a human being truly human is purifying ourselves from all sins and impurities. This, he is saying, is why we are alive.

In Part 2 of his first talk, he once again offers that infuriating and inspiring concept that Aikido is the work of love. And this love is very clearly linked in the meandering exposition that follows with a fundamental rupture between the two creator gods, Izanagi and Izanami. In brief, these two deities who exemplify the yin and yang forces of the cosmos, are divorced due to their creativity. Izanami is so damaged by her birthing of the fire god that she passes on to the underworld. Izanagi, in a near-mirror image of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, misses his wife dearly, and goes down to Hades to see her. He is horrified by her disfigurement, and she is enraged by his rejection. She pursues him, first by agents that are emanations of herself (a she-demon, and an army). Izanagi forestalls the former with a sword and the latter by casting three peaches behind him. Fiinally Izanami herself pursues him, only to be blocked by a huge boulder at the doorway between the two realms. Consider the archetypal meaning here. Izanami is terribly damaged in giving birth, (creation bears destruction within it), and the demonic resides within the most beneficent of forces. Izanagi gives his wife no compassion whatsoever, even though she was destroyed giving birth to his son. There is a fundamental rupture between the worlds. Izanami threatens to kill a thousand people a day, and Izanagi counters by saying he will build 1500 birth huts a day.

O-Sensei states that aikido is the three peaches cast behind Izanagi to forestall Izanami’s hellish minions. They are not the agent of reunification of these two dieties; they are the means to keep each divine energy in its proper realm. He states that the practice of aikido is the embracing of the three worlds: the world of Appearance, the Subconscious World, the Divine world. Note that the subconscious world is elsewhere defined as Hades. Therefore, unlike a simple dualism of Yin and Yang, which merely must be balanced, in Ueshiba’s cosmos the human being provides a vital third force, emanating from the world of Appearances. Rather than a happy-ever-after fairly tale of reunification of estranged deities, humanity, through aikido, keeps things in their proper realm. Harmony, not merger. What makes aikido martial, what makes it a manifestation of the sword (tsurugi) rather than mere meditation is that, like the three peaches (yet another trinity) cast behind Izanagi, it maintains the forces of the universe in their proper roles.

I am less qualified to discuss kotodama than any other area in Ueshiba’s talk, but it seems clear that he is mapping out the energies of the cosmos, and procedures to shape and work these energies in order to advance toward the perfection of the entire world in order to establish a Heaven on Earth. In short, when Heaven is ON Earth, the trinity of the three worlds with become the circle, with Heaven, Earth and Humanity in harmony.

My thesis here is supported because Ueshiba clearly states that not only are the sins of humanity purged through Takemusu Aiki, but, he states, those of the entire Universe. The universe rests on three poles, one of which is humanity itself. The means to universal purification is kotodama. Aiki’s role in this, he states, is to protect love. Once again, aikido’s function in Ueshiba’s cosmos is the application of a protective force that enables the work of kotodama to occur.

Ueshiba describes himself as a deity - both Fudomyo, a deity to defeat evil, and a Boddhisatva, (a not-exactly-divine-but-somehow-closely-so) human who has devoted his life to the salvation of all beings. He then states, “I asked questions to myself and then understood. I have the universe inside me. Everything is in me. I am the Universe itself so there is no me. Moreover, since I am the Universe there is only me and no other.” If this is, to use the psychological term, a grandiose narcissistic inflation, then one can understand the irritation of those like Tohei. But if I might allow myself an editorial koan, “Jorai asked, ‘Do the grandiose narcissistically inflated have the Buddha nature?’ Senzan replied, ‘SUUUUUUUUU’”

When Ueshiba describes aikido as a religion without being a religion, he is stating that aikido vivifies religion from empty spiritualism, because of its dynamic qualities: it purifies, it actively relegates energies to their proper realm and it is, by definition, that which protects.

Ueshiba beautifully states, “The Earth has already been perfected…. Only humanity has not yet completed itself. This is because sins and impurities have penetrated into us. The forms of aikido techniques are preparation to unlock and soften all joints of our body.” ATTENTION HE JUST EXPLAINED AIKIDO PRACTICE!!!!! He defines why and how he created his method of training, distilled from his previous martial studies, why he selected out the techniques he did, and why he excluded others.

Practice is for the purpose of creating a body that is not only analogous to the enlightened spirit, but makes the enlightened spirit possible. He concludes his first talk: “Thus, aikido harmonizes with all nature while purifying sins and impurities. I, Ueshiba, would like to repair and firmly rebuild this world in correct order through the gate of martial arts.”

To bring this back to the mundane, I certainly do not see this as a prohibition into the research of technique. But it is clear that anything, however practiced, that would interfere with the simultaneous functions of purification and protection of the ordering of the universe, so that the divine work (kotodama) can take place, cannot be termed Ueshiba’s aikido.

Finally, speaking of narcissistic inflation, I am anything but a scholar, and I simply skipped a lot of things in the first essay - doctrine, detailed exposition of cosmology - that I don’t know anything about. But what I do understand seems quite clear to me. Rather than dismissing Ueshiba as speaking incoherent archaic mysticism, I believe that he left us a clear statement of what he was trying to accomplish, one that makes aikido far more challenging and enthralling than the idea that it’s watered-down Daito-ryu for the masses; that it’s a merely a method of conflict resolution techniques, sketched out physically, so we can integrate them in our psychology sessions or human resources actions; that it’s “love” as defined in Western terms such as agape or caritas; or that it is a martial art that’s “just as tough as yours is.” Any and all of these may be useful and even true, but I hope I’ve been able to illustrate that Ueshiba clearly said he was doing something else. Clearly - not obscurely at all. Given a spare moment and the blessings of the gods of the purple smoke, I may try again with some of his later essays at another time.

Author: Dueling with O-Sensei & Old School, as well as the new Instructional DVD: “Ukemi from the Ground Up.”

www.ellisamdur.com