Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on August 30, 2005.
Humanity - Nin
The Japanese character for humanity is “nin” (仁). It is written with two radicals for "person" (人) and “two”(二). Originally, I think it was written with the same radical for “person" twice or, in other words, written by writing two "people." We cannot have humanity all by ourselves, but humanity begins with the presence of the other person. How we interact and respond and relate to the other person or other people is what creates "humanity." In classical Chinese philosophy, nin is a very important concept and underlies all ethical thinking in China - and this thinking spread all over Asia including Japan over the many centuries from earliest times.
Humanity is created by observing rules of respect, duty, compassion, bravery, loyalty, filial piety, etc. but this is also all under the overall idea of harmony. Through humanity we create “order” (or reason) and "harmony." Through this harmony, we enjoy peace in the country, in our families, and within ourselves in both mind and body. We can say that "humanity equals harmony" in Eastern traditional thinking. Because of this, we have Reigi Saho (礼儀作法) or “manners.”
Sometimes, we may look at these manners or formalities as rules which we feel obliged to break or ignore. . . who likes rules? But we must understand that the meaning is slightly different here. It is not a matter of rules for the sake of rules. These rules or manners called reigi saho teach us the best way possible to express our humanity towards others. The purpose of this is to create harmony. In many ways, Aikido and reigi saho are two sides of the same coin teaching us to create a harmonious world through humanity. I hope you will think about this and put it into your practice.