This paradox of training in Aikido is a difficult one. Over the years I have met all types of people that train for many different types of reasons. Health, spirituality, martial prowess or just to attempt to find that thing missing in their lives.

We are told Aikido has two dimensions, spiritual and physical.

Just as studying religion or theology implies the study of a higher power or deity, so to the study of budo or a martial art implies the accumulation of the knowledge on how to fight or defend oneself.

 What are you studying and teaching, a religious philosophy, or a martial art?

The practice of one degrades the art to little more than a synchronised dance, beautiful but martially ineffective. It implies a higher level of spiritual awakening exists without physical adversity as a precursor to this realisation. It becomes “intellectualised spiritualism”, as though a destination can be arrived at before a journey has begun…..

The second puts the study of the martial aspect above the philosophical. Learning practical application for defence purposes and physical responses to aggressive encounters as the correct martial journey.

But my question is do these two paths need to be exclusive of the other?

In most people’s approach, these two training methodologies cannot be taught as a cohesive co dependant theology.

The pacifist and the warrior struggle to coexist in a world whose history has hoped for one, but always relied on the other. Paradox indeed…….

In my personal journey, I didn’t get into Aikido for philosophical reasons, I wanted to study budo.

I went to Japan because of the flowery training that I perceived in the majority of practitioners within my own country. This is not every person’s journey, but my own.

The path to understanding the philosophy of Aikido didn’t came through preconceived ideology on the subject of love, peace and harmony or any random (and rather egocentric) idea that my actions or thoughts would influence an entire world, but rather through the training of the body, and a lot of hard won introspection.

Spiritual awakening through physical adversity, if you like….

The journey is fraught with difficulty, and it is impossible to pass on your personal sparks of wisdom along your journey, what I would like to ask though is, has your path been filled with honesty and sincerity?

Sunao-the Japanese term for these English words is integral to the study of budo. Have we been honest and sincere in the way we have trained and studied or the reasons why? Or have we allowed preconceived notions that come from ego to distort our reality about what we are doing in the dojo?

Have we become zealots or acolytes whose vision is clouded by our own ideology?

Most that know me understand how I feel in regards to indoctrination, how it stifles the mind and traps the spirit. Any path that can offer(or at least pretend to)a way to spiritual growth, also gives us the potential for creating a trap for the very thing it professes to set free – the spirit.

Love, peace and harmony are great virtues. Actually, the highest level of aspiration for human development I believe is benevolence, but the journey to this destination, if we tread along the path of Budo, must be Shinken shobu – training in dead earnest.

 A constant battle to the death between the ego self and the true self.

Every moment a chance at introspection, every moment a look into the self, into the basic practices that define the art, firstly as it was intended – as a martial practice that, through the process of overcoming these preconceived ideas transforms the heart of the person in the conflict.

Understanding death and rebirth, facing fears and overcoming, facing prejudice and overcoming, facing adversity and overcoming, facing the self and overcoming, facing egotistical ideas and overcoming.

Shoshin is the mind of the beginner.

It is the very essence of the study of budo.

It is ever the mind of the student, open to change, willing to listen, humble and inquisitive.

One person’s spiritual journey can be another person’s purgatory. We cannot pretend to understand the storm without standing in the hurricane. The founder once said “the conflict has to be experienced to be understood.”

The journey is within, the struggles personal and the destination unknown.

Teaching others is one of life’s greatest privileges. 

Learning to teach the self one of life’s greatest victories.

This truth is found on the mat, if we allow ourselves to be challenged enough find it.

This is Tanren, within the heart of the forge is the greatest heat. 

But for one to be tempered one first has to allow the process to happen. Metamorphosis is Tanren, and implies change through heat and pressure. Change can only materialise if we believe change is necessary. Surrendering our beliefs to the flames creates freedom.

This was the wish of the founder, That training in the art of Aikido replaces the need for other forms of spiritual purification, when done correctly Aikido becomes this very ritual, Misogi Harai, a spiritual cleansing, through hard martial practice, and lots of ukemi. Our own self righteousness doesn’t allow this change, it prevents it.

I believe Aikido can create a path to understanding true benevolence, if we just do one thing……

Surrender to the flames of the forge……….

Yesterday I was re-reading the founders book that was written as a technical guide. I haven’t actually had this book in my possession for many years as it was on loan.
Anyway I was just thinking about 2003. This should have been a pivotal year for many in Yuishinkai as it was the year sensei introduced “moon shadow foot” and “lizard leg”, very profoundly deep concepts from ancient Japanese kenjutsu.
As with most great teachers, a brief and simple explanation of these movements was provided. For myself at the time, I was lucky to spend considerable time as senseis uke for these explanations, as the concepts had come about as a result of him meeting me the year before.
One concept in particular nagged at my subconscious. I had heard the term before suigetsu- the shadow of the moon on the water. Sensei said this was a major concept in shinkage-Ryu Japanese kenjutsu.

The founder of Aikido puts great emphasis on this concept in his written discourse regarding yokomen attacks in the introduction of his book. He talks about it in regards to ken-po (the first or ultimate teaching of the sword). I had forgotten this reference as it had been such a long time since I had underlined it in my book. I remember when it happened. After this seminar I spent a year trying to learn as much as I could about this “moon shadow” concept. I bought every book on shinkage-Ryu I could find. The best one though was not the highly recommended translation by Thomas Cleary (which wasn’t recommended until 2014, and remained unread by other very very senior Yuishinkai “masters” until after this recommendation – WTF……..)(https://greatoceanaikido.com/category/william-reed/), but rather one by Hiroaki Sato, I have had this paperback lesser known volume silence 2003, it’s pages turning a slight brown colour now.

In it, not only is the book of family values( this is the shinkage-Ryu family written technical book) explained by just one of the three great masters of the family(muneyoshi, munenori, hidetsuna) but all of them of the period of their experience give their own personal experiences unravelling these concepts in actual practical settings. I found Yagyu Jubei’s explanations to be especially helpful.

Internalising these concepts through changing your physical training as well as your philosophical viewpoint will alter your perceptions of Aikido irreversibly.
There are 2 main parts to this but also many other concepts that are co-related to them.

I remember the 2004 seminar when sensei spoke of the concept of “soft eyes”, of looking but not seeing. He explained how Japanese “No” actors utilised soft eyes and a trained “sixth sense” awareness to move about the stage whilst in full costume and mask. I remember spending entire sessions with eyes half closed trying to walk forward and backward around the dojo. Why? Did it relate to the concepts taught(but very obviously ignored) the year before. How does how we “see” relate to suigetsu? What does the shadow of the moon and the feet have to do with how we use the eyes?

I heard that it was professed recently by a former student that sensei didn’t start teaching important internal “aiki” concepts until after he reunited with Okajima sensei and had his Daito Ryu connections. What was actually being stated was that being spoon fed concepts by a teacher rather than doing self investigation was more prevalent after years of frustration on senseis side at the fact his senior instructors weren’t doing the work he expected after he introduced Okajima, than before this time.

But I digress, where were we …the concept of the moon shadow. The place where the mind resides, and the importance of leaving this place undisturbed in motion. First BS concept that had to be destroyed – physically leading “ki” by having uke chase your hand around the orbit of your body like a dog chasing a piece of string. If the mind of the attacker resides in the hand of the attacker(that’s where the intent lies ie, if I want to grab you my mind is in the hand that would grab) and this place MUST remain undisturbed, I cannot move in the old way. Nor can I think in this way. If I have INTENT TO LEAD and the attacker has INTENT to attack, surely this is aiuchi(mutual death). If his mind is full, and it’s physical realisation is in the hand in motion, I must do my utmost in my motion to keep the mind trapped at this very point/line of intention(line of intention being sternum driven NOT hand driven, whoops the rabbit hole deepens….) and not create intended deviation of the attackers mind thereby altering his intent and breaking his concentration cycle.

This is where the feet come in. How can I move in relation to this line keeping my attackers target in the perceived line of attackers whilst simultaneously allowing myself to avoid getting hit? My lower sternum/ solar plexus region must remain aligned with this region of their body. Sensei calls this the heart chakra or heart to heart connection. I cannot overstate it’s importance. The study of suigetsu is the study of this point in relation to movement in a martial context.

Without first establishing this most important of connections understanding “internals” will escape everyone.

Why is this area of the body so deeply related to Budo?
Why is it talked about by the founder as the essence or first teaching?
Why was this concept the first related by sensei when he established Yuishinkai?
Why was how to look ( have soft eyes)the second concept related by sensei and how did it relate to the first? If the opponent is the moon and we are the water, what is the relationship between these two points?
How does this relationship allow the water to “read”(reflect) the moon?

The true study of Budo is about breaking down often long held beliefs that bind us to our “dogma”. Ignorance stifles learning. In Yuishinkai since day one sensei has encouraged beginners mind. Beginners mind means a thirst for understanding a concept beyond the small morsels that fall from the senseis table.
Free yourself to learn. Never the teacher always the student. Learn to truly be a student, to remove ignorance and self importance.
Non of these teachings were ever hidden by sensei, they were openly taught at a basic level of understanding from the very beginning in a hope that someone – anyone would be hungry enough to seek out the recipe from the taste of the crumbs on the floor.
Alas the truth is most believed the already feasted at the same table a the master, and understood the recipe from the same perspective as him.
We are what we repeatedly do. Let’s us focus what we repeatedly do on changing ourselves to be better at being the beginner.
Ask hard questions and face hard truths. The one at fault is usually the one looking back at you in the mirror…..

Ueshiba sensei said, “Aikido is 95% perspiration and 5% philosophy.” By saying that, I have said everything.” (A. NOCQUET)

It has happened to the art that I love. I suppose that it has happened for quite a while now, but it took a lot of time to actually understand how this came about. I was raised in a strict Pentecostal household, attending church 7 times a week, I have seen first hand the transformative and zealous fervour created by attachment to dogma. I have unfortunately also seen the negative effects that such zealots can have on those that don’t share the same values and ideals proposed by the self imposed leader of such cults. Passive aggressive inference means that non compliance leads to ostracisation, ridicule and bullying. Love is replaced by revenge, peace by psychological violence, harmony with discord and so on.




The art of Aikido has been overtaken by the zealots, and the Experience of Aikido has been replaced by intellect.






Dogma and ideology appeal because it is easier to attach to the philosophy than it is to do the work to become the philosophy. The art was supposed to be about the self, about understanding that self by experience, by working through breaking down the ego self during the experience.




When the art becomes more than the action,
Aikido becomes the institution that the training was supposed to destroy.





“Aikido isn’t a religion, it completes all religions” (O’Sensei) because the experience of aiki replaces dogma and ideology.




True experience rejects all forms of dogma.





Dogma provides a shield for the weaknesses of the ego to thrive – fear, ignorance, arrogance and deception are the actual virtues propagated by such an approach, though those propagating will tell you exactly the opposite of this.





In this paradigm, charisma and intellect define mastery rather than actual ability. We only need to look back 80 years or so to see how devastating an effect a good orator can have on the collective minds of a nation for evidence.






In history those with actual ability have existed on the fringes of society, the face they put forward to the world doesn’t possess the mask that the dogmatic hide behind.
The dogmatic approach creates acolytes that pay homage to the dogma rather than having an environment where the experience can instill in the student their own realisation.








The method becomes the training, and words replace actions. Intellectualising what Aikido is without experiencing what aikido could be is a sickness of the mind.
Dualistic rationality becomes par for the course.







Analogy and metaphors infer a state of subjective understanding that, within their very nature, promote a segmented detached reality of understanding.






“ I can relate to that”…. but the “that” that is relatable isn’t the experience it relates to, which is only truly comprehended by the one that has had the experience.





What “isn’t” is superimposed over what “is” and taken for fact, but the experience can never be separated from the one experiencing, it is a formed symbiosis, a type of communion or agreement that isn’t shareable in any measurable way with someone that hasn’t had the experience for themselves.






I can describe water to someone that has never seen it, but to truly understand the “wetness” of water, one has to experience that for themselves.








Those that don’t understand the experience defend with extraordinary passive aggressiveness their right to institutionalisation. They claim, through references to obscure passages – written or spoken, then taken out of context – to be passing on the one truth of Aikido – their truth.







They claim without any evidence that training in Aikido can create such absurdities as world peace(never happened in the known history of the planet), harmonious society, harmonious relationships, great business relationships, love of all beings, reconciliation of man and many more ideological socially acceptable current trends. Aikido in business, Aikido principles for life, Aiki philosophy for de escalation of violence usually having never truly experienced violence, these are the catchphrases and pitfalls that now exist to detract the trainee on their journey through the Aikido world.








They start society’s, groups and fan clubs, positioning themselves to prove they can enhance current acceptable social values such as emotional intelligence or mindfulness, using catch phrases like collaboration, integration, exploration and harmonisation to lure new acolytes to the path of their perceived wisdom. they can nearly always validate their dogma by making sure that many speaking on important subjects have the intellectual equivalent of a Shihan level, a PHD.





This PHD adds strength to the positions that they take on their interpretation of how Aikido is to be done. I would argue anyone that has dedicated their lives to the experience of Aikido to the level of mastery hasn’t had time in their life to get a PHD on any other subject, because mastery of the art of Aiki through experience takes great time and great sacrifice.



They claim a traditional martial art yet reject as outdated the very training methods traditions and social environments that created the great teachers of the past whose pictures hang on their walls, and whose quotes they throw around to justify their standing. Just as religious zealots justify violence in opposition to dogma, they are the very hypocrites that use such things as a shield to hide behind their lack of actual experience.



They reject the experience that these people had and replace it with the knowledge these people gleaned from the experience as the actual experience.




The Confucian ideology that all Japanese were grounded in had absolutely nothing to do with harmony of all fellow humans (what size ego do we have to have to believe that such a concept, unrealised by any great spiritual master in history, can actually be accomplished through the art of Aikido), but rather the change of oneself.




The change in oneself, the family, the city, the region, then the country was what the aim was supposed to be. Aikido is about harmony for sure, but of the self, the first step, learnt in the experience of Aiki, in the experience of the true role of uke and how that role then leads to the accumulation of the wisdom of how to do Aiki.



Your dogma will not change the world, just as the dogma of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and any other religious practice you care to name hasnt managed to bring peace to the world. Instead of helping create a better world, you have done the opposite by creating another dogmatic attachment then bolstering your position by inviting others of mediocre understanding to validate a position that should never have existed separate from the experience.


On the mat, in teaching and in training talking has replaced hard work. Great orators love the sound of their own voice, love to share their wisdom, and gladly tell you how long they have trained in the art to assure their place at the top of the pile.

How can anyone argue with such a font of wisdom accumulated over many years of training?

Fortunately those in the know realise in no human endeavour ever – does time equate to ability – except, extraordinarily and uniquely, they will insure you, in the art of Aikido.

No one needs to have their training in Aikido justified by adding philosophical/religious/spiritual connections.






The act is, and of itself alone, enough to justify the doing.







When experienced the way the founder intended, through Misogi(ukemi), through tanren(heat and pressure), through Shugyo(arduous repeated training and diligent effort) aikido doesn’t need dogma and institutionalisation, it frees itself totally from the need for such base human attachments. At one time or another all practitioners will be given this choice, given an invitation to join the zealots or be ostracised, to make do with the experience, or to give up on it entirely.

In the current world the internet has become the platform from which these zealots ply their trade, a pulpit from which they reach out to a global audience with beautifully edited videos, workshops and group expert panel discussions on any dogma deemed appropriate in current social circles.


As human beings with any moral virtues, love, peace, understanding, goodness, meekness, righteousness and gratitude should occupy space in our lives. These are not what Aikido brings to the world, but what it hopes to enhance in you. In rejecting the current trend towards a more philosophical pseudo-intellectual, dogmatic Aikido the art can be preserved for future generations to have and live in the experience. Supporting current trends means the art morphs to become an anti- art, and I propose the opposite of what the founder intended when he himself proposed the experience.




Stand strong in the face of increasing opposition, resolute in commitment to define the self through the experience of the art, and not fall before the false Gods on the way to your promised land….

There are very deep philosophical principles hidden in the art of Aikido. These principles aren’t discovered by the Ancient Greek version of philosophical debate, but rather discovered in the forging of the physical body, through hard work and tenacity.

Anyone can endorse a Japanese philosophical idea, anyone can claim to have a Japanese sword master hero whose philosophical ideas they uphold.

But to understand, and I mean understand as in have these philosophies enter your very essence, you have to have walked through the fire that these masters walked.

Take Yamaoka Tesshu for example. For his students to reach the level of understanding he believed necessary, he devised an arduous training regime of one thousand matches a day, beginning at one day, then three then seven. These were designed to “test the metal and elevate the spirit” of anyone accepting the challenge. Very few did…..

You cannot know his truths without entering his gate.

In Aikido, this is done as Uke. 

When I say uke, I don’t mean falling around a little on the mat, I mean actually training to a point where the line between life and death are blurred together. 

What does a master see in one student that they don’t see in others when they “test” their ukes? What is the measure of a man? (or woman)

Concepts that are deeply rooted in the essence of Aikido can only be understood from the perspective of one who has sacrificed themselves entirely in the furnace of ukemi. This understanding is in their bones, it isn’t just in their soul, it becomes their soul. 

Concepts like Ai-nuke, like fudoshin, like Mushin, like zanshin, these are just pretty words that have absolutely zero meaning to the person saying them if they haven’t been grasped in the physicality of arduous training. 

This is tanren. 

This isn’t a debate of an intellectual nature, this is being thrown in the forge, and passing through to the other side.

I will give you an example.

2006, Brisbane Australia. It’s been 40 degrees Celsius for 4 days, we are in a room with a low ceiling and there are 70 people in a room where the capacity really should have been 50. 

We are four days into a 5 day seminar, training 5 hours a day. I have been the uke for sensei for virtually the entire seminar. There was no breeze coming through the windows at all, and if there were, the room has only got windows on one side. 

It’s so very hot. 

I am from Tasmania, the day before I go to Brisbane it is still snowing. I have no time to acclimatise to this new heat and humidity.

I am sitting in seiza next to sensei, it’s the afternoon session, and he has just finished throwing me and is discussing a point about technique. 

I feel a strange sensation, my body has pins and needles all over and I start to feel my consciousness slip away, my vision tunnels and begins to go dark…. Am I fainting? 

I wonder, am I dying? 

Having a stroke? What is this strange sensation? I am calm, I remember thinking, if I go now, if this is the end, then there cannot have been a better end. I have given all there was to give…..

Luckily, sensei talks for a while, and this sensation slowly passes. I have no recollection of what he has said as my consciousness drifts between here and there.

He calls me again out of seiza, from my daze. I respond. He throws me again and again. I feel like vomiting, I feel heavy, I feel nothing…..

It ends and I bow to sensei. I need water. 

I stumble to my feet and in a trancelike state make my way to the back left corner of the room. My mind is still not with me. I am suddenly awakened by the beautiful voice of Yasuko san, it’s sensei’s wife.

In Japanese, she asks me – am I ok, and tells me I look terrible. 

Apparently my face is white, my complection having left my body completely. “Daijoubu”, I respond, I am ok. 

I need water. 

She fills my drink bottle whilst I take her seat, I drink my fill, she has a concerned look on her face for me, but sensei’s hands clap and shatter the respite. 

I am up again, and heading to the front once more. 

As I walk to him I glance to my right and out the door. On the balcony is a set of abou 8-10 chairs, and sitting on these chairs, in the shade with gi tops pulled open is every other senior instructor that was at the seminar, no time to digest this, I am asked to dive into the fire once again. 

“Hai” – Yes, sensei, I am there…….

When we ask ourselves why we failed to grasp the essence of the teaching, (if we ever do) why one is held above others at the reckoning, it’s quite simple.

When the time of testing the metal for the blade that was to be forged was at hand, the metal hasn’t been tested, and therefore wasn’t worth the time in the masters hand.

This is the essence of Tesshu’s philosophy, understood through great sacrifice.

This is the essence of Aikido Shugyo, – of tanren.

And this is the very heart of Ai-nuke.

Words! – There essence as hollow as a cry for help shouted through an empty valley.

Let’s train to understand true Aikido, and share a coffee ….after the mat time is done…