Advanced Aikido. Phong Thong Dang

choice. Aikido develops and trains one in that choice. Aikido chooses peace through strength. Aikido is not the body of war, but the spirit of loving protection and peace. Most ways of peace have been philosophically strong and physically passive. History suggests that those who challenge peace do not appreciate, respect, or respond to a passive, compliant approach to peace. Those who want control and power often take this passive, compliant position of peace as permission. While fighting to end wars has brought only temporary peace, it has proven to be the only means to stop tyranny. Therefore, a way of fighting had to be developed in which the philosophy of peace and the responsiveness were congruent and did not add directly back into or give perpetuating permission to more aggression. Aikido accepts that there is conflict and aggression in the world. Rather than responding with passivity or fear, aikido enters directly into and blends with the conflict. Aikido can redirect the aggressive energy, utilizing it against itself, without adding more aggression. This blending and redirecting continues until the aggression is subdued. The advanced aikido practitioner responds directly to aggression, requiring honest and genuine strength of character. Using only the aggressive energy offered, without adding to it, requires a relaxed body and mind and a minimum amount of physical strength. This is the beauty of the aikido way of peace.

      Today in most dojos, Shinto practices are still performed, though more out of respect for the custom than for spiritual conversion. For example, in Shintoism bowing is an expression of worship. The clapping of hands two or three times is also a Shinto practice to summons the kami before offering a prayer. The shomen, meaning head, at the front of the dojo reflects many of these early Shinto practices. A picture of O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba reflects a respect for ancestors and the gifts they give us, and suggests that our ancestors still watch over us as we train. The frame of the shomen is often a torri (gate to a Shinto shrine) that suggests and reminds us that aikido is a spiritual practice.

      In part due to these modern reflections of Shintoism, many still hold that the practice of aikido is spiritual by nature and will put one in touch with higher power. O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba believed that aikido was a gift from the spirit to help heal a violent world. In 1903, O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba received a certificate of spiritual enlightenment from Reverend Mitsujo Fujimoto at the Jizoji Temple.

      AN INTRODUCTION OF THE OMOTO RELIGION

      Omoto translates into the great origin or the great source. It is a religious and spiritual movement that came into being based on the insights and experiences of its foundress, Nao Deguchi, in 1892. Its interreligious work of joint worship and exchange with other religions are central to its divine mission. This work continues today.

      Nao Deguchi was born December 16, 1836, into a family of a poor carpenter in a mountain village northwest of Kyoto, Japan. It was a time of famine, high taxes, oppression, and social and political turmoil. Her early years were filled with suffering and hardships. Because she was illiterate, her family farmed her out to the Deguchi family as a nursemaid and servant girl.

      Eventually the Deguchi family adopted her, and she was given in marriage to another of their adopted children. From that marriage, she produced eleven children, three of whom died at birth. Her husband was a carpenter by trade and overgenerous and a drunkard by nature, leading to a life of extreme poverty. Nao continued to be a model wife even after her husband fell from a roof and broke his pelvis. He died in 1887.

      In 1892, at fifty-five years of age, appearing possessed and in a dream state, Nao Deguchi received visions detailing plans for the salvation and reconstruction of the world. She saw a divine palace and figure in her visions. This figure spoke through her. All, including Nao, feared she was insane or possessed by an evil spirit. She questioned the spirit and was tested by fortune-tellers and priest-mediums whose occupations were to verify such entities. It was soon confirmed that she was possessed by or channeling a great deity, Ushitora, who wished to reconstruct the world. Her lifelong suffering was a test and preparation for the task she was about to undertake.

      Even though she was totally illiterate, Nao began to produce automatic writing detailing the plan. The content of the Ofudesaki, the scripture of Omoto, reached 200,000 pages by her death in 1918. One of the prophecies was the coming of a man from the east.

      Onisaburo Deguchi (1871—1948), after meeting Nao, became a follower of Omoto in 1898. He later married the daughter of Nao Deguchi in 1900. Adopting the family name, he became a central figure, spreading the teaching of Omoto. His charisma, humanity, and colorful ways helped spread Omoto beliefs as well as generate controversy. At times, there were disputes about the direction of the Omoto faith and the difference between Nao and Onisaburo. In 1904, at the age of thirty-three, possessed by the spirit of Mizu, he wrote the Divine Signpost, a sacred text of the Omoto faith.

      The religion gained enough followers to become a significant religious and social force. Due to the movement's growth in popularity, the Japanese government brutally suppressed it in both 1921 and 1935. The Japanese government was concerned about the outspoken Omoto movement, its opposition to many government and cultural practices, and the fact that the Omoto cult had not received official recognition and permission. In both instances, the government destroyed property, and arrested and imprisoned high-level officials of the Omoto religion.

      When Onisaburo Deguchi met O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba in 1919, there was an instant meeting of the minds and recognition of kindred spirits. O'Sensei accompanied him as a bodyguard in several misadventures, including one to Mongolia that resulted in imprisonment. Due to O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba's long years of martial training and cultivation of a still center, he was able to detect the intent of bandits and avoid bullets during an attack. The ability to detect intention of an assailant encompasses the ability to develop awareness, with minimal body clues, of an attack and the line of that attack; an intuitive awareness of the level of intent to do damage; and the ability to respond by getting out of the line of fire or attack. Onisaburo believed not only that O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba was a great fighter but also that he was to be a great leader of budo.

      Onisaburo influenced, supported, and encouraged O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba in the development of what was to become aikido—a martial art of peace based on universal spiritual truths. Several of the prayer and meditative practices taught to O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba by Onisaburo Deguchi sustained and strengthened his intense willpower and unmovable spirit.

      Many of the spiritual and metaphysical lectures given by O'Sensei in the teaching of aikido came from this Omoto/Onisaburo influence. Many students did not understand this top-down, universal conceptualization approach to training in what they defined as a very physical martial art. The technical training was the application of the universal spiritual truths.

      In a more recent text by Hidemaru Deguchi (Deguchi, H.), successor of the founder, he writes on the creation of meaning. He states that the path of self-cultivation is to know one's true self, to recommend self-examination, to see oneself as part of the whole, and not to be confined by the notion of hell. In the search for human sincerity, one should look for one who can weep and feel anger, shows true merit in times of adversity, lives in freedom, lives devoted to what he or she believes and does his or her very best, practices self-cultivation to the final moment, produces a driving force for advancement, and is not encased in a hard shell. A way of life awakened to love means to not show merit, appreciate action, or be enslaved by ideology and the cultivation of conjugal love. Action cultivates true strength through practice instead of theory, seeking self-knowledge within oneself, spurring on the body, experiencing varied circumstances, and living from the gut. Nature's providence is a world of interest—work in accord with nature's timing, surrounded by innumerable teachers, going with the flow, following the rhythms of heaven and earth, and the world is an interesting place. Living with all one's might means looking above and looking below, seeing between two opposing things or forces, and living appropriately; sometimes fighting is best, overcoming both good and evil with forgiveness and tolerance.

      THE OMOTO PHILOSOPHY

      The philosophy and practices of the Omoto religion (Deguchi, O. 1904) found practical application through aikido techniques. Musubi, which usually means connecting, also means giving birth to spirit. Musubi is the bringing forth of life by the energy generated when two opposite energies or ki sources come together. The great laws of the universe came from its inherent active energy that demonstrates a will or intent