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Peace & Harmony

What is harmony?
a harmonious state of things in general and of their properties (as of colours and sounds); congruity of parts with one another and with the whole

To describe this within aikido I especially like the second part of the above sentence... Congruity of parts with one another and with the whole.
So in aikido, if we use this statement, one part of our body must be working with the rest of our body and also our body must be "one" with the world or universe!

So if we want to train in harmony we must consider:

If we ever need to use aikido outside the dojo, in self-defence, we must still use the above principles i.e. still consider how our technique will affect our attacker.

This is a quote from "The Art of Peace" by O'Sensei:

To injure an opponent is to injure yourself. To control aggression without inflicting injury is the Art of Peace.

At a seminar in Hertfordshire Sensei Sargeant spoke about Aikido and our intensions. A technique is just a technique, this alone isn't aikido! Aikido combines mind, body and the universe and so we must not be out of harmony when doing Aikido. This means, sensei was explaining, that we must not be the attacker when initialising a technique but we must be drawing on their spirit and initialising a technique. We must not think aggressively we must be in harmony!

It is important to walk in everyday life with a confidence that we are all together on the planet. Every place, has its rhythm and while we can be in harmony with ourselves we must also understand that we can become harmonious with where we are and understand the rhythm of the city, town, village, mountain range or anywhere that we are.

More about Peace and Harmony

AIKIDO EVERYDAY