Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on March 28, 2003.
Practice is not simply to gain a skill or power. It is, in many ways, to gain a particular Lifestyle. What this means is to clarify a behavior of living and realize a higher mental attitude according to O'Sensei's teaching of harmony and the excellence of the human individual.
This is not something to be taken lightly and therefore practice must become an important aspect of one's life. Practice is important just as our Life is important. Life is not just making money, eating or fulfilling our own desires, but in its greater meaning of making a better world not only for ourselves but for all others as well.
We are no better than the world around us. Please take a good look. Yes - there is a lot of work to be done. Please do not discriminate between "us" and "them," or between "me" and “you," or between "I" and the world. To realize that everything is within an integrated, indivisible Oneness, is the ultimate lesson to learn in our Aikido practice.
I say "Lifestyle" because this job takes every minute of our waking hours in order to accomplish within our Lives.
Today, we want to look at Aikido as a kind of "play," - money play, power play, political play and on and on. This is only a way to escape our higher responsibility and to remove ourselves for actively participating in our own lives. This sounds like a strange thing to say but it is true for the most part. We constantly shift the blame to others to escape into land where we can still play god. No, we are just human beings struggling and struggling on this Earth like all other living things. Please take your training seriously, because you are dealing with your own Life and it is a very serious and very important, very precious matter, indeed!
Please continue your Practice.