The founder of Aikido, Ueshiba Morihei, said: "The innermost secret of Aikido is to wipe away one's own evil spirit, to harmonize oneself with the work of the cosmos, and to bring oneself into unison with the cosmos. The heart of the cosmos is the great "love" which is everywhere. Any Budo (martial art) which cannot be harmonized with the cosmos is destructive, and is not the true Budo. The true Budo means the way of love. It's aim is not to fight and kill, but to preserve and nurture life. That is the way of love; to create and nurture."

We practice Aikido everyday, thinking that Budo is the way to achieve the strong self, the absolute self, through the means of fighting to deny others. However, the founder asks us to learn to harmonize with the heart of the cosmos, and to know the way of symbiosis between others and oneself. The destructive Budo of denying others, and the mutualistic Budo of symbiosis. How can we integrate these two contrasting images of Budo?

I practiced my Aikido waza with all my power for the first ten years after I started Aikido. However, I became to doubt the benefit of such practice, and began to practice very softly, removing strength from the upper part of my body when I reached the age of thirty. I realized that removing strength from the upper part of the body was important to facilitate soft practice. That is, I threw away my selfish approach, in which I was too conscious of my strength, and I tried to concentrate all my ki on my partner.

A short time after I had changed my way of practice, I realized that waza exists in the relationship between my partner and myself. While concentrating entirely on the relationship with my partner, I came to experience a state of something very nice, though only for a moment. In this state all consciousness vanished, and it was as if I was riding on a big wave. When in that state, I could unconsciously see my partner's movements very well, and could move very naturally in accordance with their movements. I also discovered myself always being positive, optimistic, and doing my very best. I could feel the full energy that was always throbbing within my partner. By not concentrating on myself, on the contrary trying to concentrate my awareness on my partner, I came to experience the feeling that my partner and I moved together as one.

The founder showed one of the ways of Aikido practice when he said the following: "What I would like the Aikido ascetic to do is to watch the real state of the universe, and to awaken oneself by doing so. Once awakened, then act quickly. After action, reflect on oneself quickly. By doing this, I would like you to improve yourself day by day. Looking at the current of a mountain stream, you can learn the ever-changing conditions of your body from the water flowing between rocks, and from the trees and bamboo bending in the wind." This may lead you to question and review your own way of doing things. And by trying not to be too conscious of yourself, you watch the relationship with your partner. In this way, by learning the word's of the founder and his predecessors, I try to deny my thoughts as much as possible, and make an effort to move softly and feel the partner's ki and harmonize with that ki. And I believe that I will be able to practice so-called "mutualistic" Aikido someday as the founder described. (June, 1999)