Aikido Martial Arts Quotes

Aikido ain't a defensive nor offensive martial art. It proactively halts the enemy's intention to attack.

To appreciate the best opportunity for attack and defence, you must fully understand the rhythm of movement. (Page 28).

O-Sensei was frequently head to say. 'Aiki is not a technique to fight with or defeat an enemy. It is the way to harmonize the world and make humanity one family.

To gain mastery you must unite the qualities of spirit, strength, technique and the ability to take the initiative. (Page 31).

We need to remember that the primary goal of Aikido is harmony and good relations between people. If we don't cultivate a harmonious heart along with technical skill, there will be a lack of integration in our practice, which will show up in behavior off the mat.

We face the enemy and contend with him—if he turns away we let him go. (Page 13).

Don't make the mistake of depending on the presence of certain people for your training,' he advised me. 'Teachers come and go. My own teacher, O-Sensei, died not long ago. I could have given up when O-Sensei passed away. Instead, I've continued my practice, even though I've found it difficult at times. Don't rely on other people. Do your best Aikido practice wherever you are.

If you try to learn with your intellect, it is more difficult to absorb the teachings on a deep level. The mind looks at something and says, I don't want that; I want this instead. But as you simply continue to train, something changes. What changes is deeper than your intellectual knowledge, deeper than mind or heart.

In Aikido training, we learn from everyone. We learn from the most experience people, but we also learn from new students. Everyone is connected through the heart and develops a mutual understanding. It is important to create a place where that can happen.

Aikido is not ultimately Japanese: It is an art of universal truth and international significance.

Aikido means the oneness of the way of the spirit, of being at one with the life force. (Page 17).

[...] before you can control your opponent's body you must first control his mind. (Page 17).

Now is the most important time. The world today is chaotic-you know this. But the age of the heart will come. O-Sensei emphasized that we must return to the heart. Firmly grasp O-Sensei's philosophy–the heart of Aikido–and integrate it into your technique, into your own body. Train hard and well, until, like O-Sensei, light shines out from your heart. Then what comes out of you naturally will be Aikido.

Through my willingness to train every day and to dig deep in the after-class ukemi sessions, over time I earned the respect and friendship of my training partners, who were mostly Japanese men sincerely surprised to find themselves training with an American woman.

The subtle working of ki is the maternal source that affects changes in breath. It is also the source of martial art as love. When one unifies mind and body by virtue of ki and manifests ai-ki (harmony of ki), delicate changes in breath-power occur spontaneously and "waza" (proper technique) flows freely.

To reach an understanding of Aikido as love, you have to be shinken [completely focused; as if wielding a real sword]. You need to commit yourself, body and soul. Without a wholehearted focus, you won;t be able to effectively love yourself or someone else. You can't half-heartedly achieve a true love. It has to be shinken. It must be real.

Forgiveness is like the martial arts of consciousness.  In aikido and other martial arts, we sidestep our attacker's force rather than resisting it.  The energy of the attack then boomerangs back in the direction of the attacker. forgiveness works in the same way.  When we attack back, and defense is a form of attack, we initiate a war which no one can win.

Seek to become conscious of being filled with ki, the power of the universe, and to use that power well. To be at one with this great power is aikido, the way of the spirit. (Page 17).

Aikido practice is a method of incorporating the fundamentals of Great Harmony, Great Love, and Gratitude into one's own heart. To integrate these fundamentals into Aikido technique, I have to eliminate the sense of winning and losing. The feeling of completion must be completely transmuted into the heart of gratitude and harmony. If I am able to do that, I will transcend issues of relative strength or skill.

Internal martial arts such as Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Kua, Hsing-i, and Aikido speak the language of the psychedelic body. What is more psychedelic, in fact, than the ability to feel how an opponent will attack before a single gesture is made?

Should you devote your life to asshole aikido? While that would not be entirely unworthy, there are probably better things to do with the limited time one has in life, things such as learning to paint large canvases in the abstract; refining one’s taste in jazz; or, indeed, learning the martial art of aikido for the sake of the practice itself (rather than for the few occasions one will ever use it in a fight). Life affords only so much time, and there are better things to do—sweeter spots to hit—than perfection in the asshole management arts.

But when I sat listening with the other Aikido students and teachers on the mat at the Kumano Juku Dojo, all of us dripping with sweat and focused intently on the practice of Aikido in the here and now, the Floating Bridge of Heaven did not feel like an abstract reference to a story of the past. It was a vivid invitation to venture into the world of the spirit, and to integrate that sacred spirit of creativity into all of our actions. It was a compelling reminder that to O-Sensei, and by extension to all sincere students of his art, Aikido was far more than physical technique.

However keen you may be to begin your study, before you venture on to the mat and attempt any of the basic techniques it is necessary to know something of the principles that govern aikido, for unless you do understand a little about posture, movement, balance, gentleness and courtesy, you will not be a satisfactory pupil. (Page 18).

The principle of avoiding conflict and never opposing an aggressor’s strength head-on is the essence of aikido. We apply the same principle to problems that arise in life. The skilled aikidoist is as elusive as the truth of Zen; he makes himself into a koan—a puzzle which slips away the more one tries to solve it. He is like water in that he falls through the fingers of those who try to clutch him. Water does not hesitate before it yields, for the moment the fingers begin to close it moves away, not of its own strength, but by using the pressure applied to it. It is for this reason, perhaps, that one of the symbols for aikido is water.

Similar weapons used through the ages include a huge array of sticks, arrows, and javelins. In modern times you might consider an AK-47, F-35 Jets and Javelin Missiles. Though perhaps not as respected as the Asian ways, each of these weapons can be practiced by its user to a level of skill which resembles art. (Surely piloting a multimillion dollar jet fighter at supersonic speeds is at least as respectable as mastering Aikido?)

An hour. Not nearly enough time to lose five pounds, have a makeover and become glamorous and sophisticated. Why, oh, why hadn’t she learned French? Or aikido? Anything that would make her interesting for Jonny Blaze? She briefly wondered if aikido was the martial arts training or the dog breed, then sighed. Too late to worry about that now. As it was, she was going to be stuck being herself.

O-Sensei described his Aikido as the art of loving attack and peaceful reconciliation. ‘Attacker’ and ‘Defender’ joined together in a startling, seamless harmony that rendered violence harmless.”[38] This is the path of a true martial artist who wants to bring harmony to the world and to him or herself.

Aikido is budo. The goal of aikido is the development of personal, social, and spiritual awareness, responsibility, and accountability through the discipline and practice of a martial art. Aikido, empty-handed and with weapons, is the training of the heart and mind for self-defense, if necessary, and for physical conditioning.

Yagyu Munenori himself stresses the overcoming of 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 disease: 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 burning desire of the Founder in establishing aikido was to keep the most valuable legacy of budo alive in the modern world. In order to accomplish his goal he went beyond differences in outward form to grasp the essence of each martial art and to bring it to life in a new form. The motivating force was his intense spiritual quest to discover a life-giving and life-affirming philosophy in budo. The result was the transformation of the heart of budo into the heart of aikido, the way of harmony and love.