| Aikido - Unification of body and spirit |
 In Occident, we are the children of Cartesians. We cultivate intelligence but our body is sick, it is the victim of blockages and tensions. Hence, we understand a lot of things with our brains, we elaborate intricate and elegant theories, but as soon as it is time to turn words into concrete actions, we find it extremely hard...
|
|
| The heart against the sword |
 "Extend your heart rather than your sword." This injunction of the Japanese Grandmaster Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, is incontestably relevant for men and women of the entire world. It is urgent to meditate about it at a moment when everywhere around us, violence extends its ravages. It savagely opposes peoples, ethnicities, religions and nations. After the horrors of two World Wars and the atrocities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, wars keep raging on, propagating never ending killings, child mutilations, tearing of families, senseless massacres, destruction and vandalizing. The worst of it all is that violence penetrates even up to schools where children kill and injure teachers, supervisors and even comrades for no reasons. |
| Principles and Techniques of Aikido |
 Our mental representation of a man attacking or defending is a visual process based on the conception that we have of the human body when it is resting but this static vision is fundamentally flawed. Even though the human body is indeed a composed of a torso fitted with four limbs and a head in the way that has been immortalised in so many statues around the world, this representation does not translate the reality of the dynamic aptitudes of our body. This is however by this motion that we must represent our adversary.
|
| The strength of the Japanese spirit |
The emperor of Japan Hirohito died at age 87. The destiny of this man raises many questions and the numerous books (more than 150) that were dedicated to him still have not fully explained this mystery. Even though the emperor Hirohito should not be identified to his people, one cannot help but wonder how Japan, a country that was annihilated in 1945 by the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has managed to become, in such a short time, one of the leading world powers. Without claiming to provide a complete answer this question, I would like to give a testimony based on my personal experience that might provide relevant explanations. |
| |
|
