It is my understanding through training we learn to fully utilize the heart. Not to understand and develop our heart while engaged in training may only relegate our practice to one of merely moving about without commitment or connection. To learn from our heart is to learn the meaning behind the existence of all things. Aikido is to learn about one‘s true self, then work to achieve whatever it is that defines the meaning of your being. To take this path, you will be faced with many problems, and will be forced to find ways to deal with them. It is difficult with many failures, but just as nothing is wasted in the universe, neither is the life of each person who trains in the way. Everybody and everything have meaning. In our practice to be better than someone else is really not important. What is important is to be better than you were yesterday. Wisdom usually is, hard earned: from life or work experience, from difficulties or suffering, from decades of study or years of a dedicated practice, or any combination of the above. Without this effort or “heart” in our training there will be no accomplishment.
As humans, we are all trying to survive in this competitive, materialistic universe, so there needs to be a space somewhere this life that exists for something beyond our sense of survival and practicality. Hence the dojo, a place for the most part unused for hours each day waiting for us to find our heart and sense in this universe. The dojo is where we find the true value of our training.
Sandai Doshu - Aikido is not the kind of martial art in which there is competition to determine superiority, but rather one that strives to realize an essential ideal of forging respect among people.” I don’t ponder how Aikido and/or the Aikikai should directly contribute to society. It is not the way or approach that we should take. Instead, each Aikido devotee, after a long time period of practice, shall consider how they can offer their power and knowledge cultivated by Aikido practice to the betterment of our society.”
Andrew M Sato August 2022Chief Instructor ~ AWA
