“The Art of Peace is the principle of nonresistance. Because it is nonresistant, it is victorious from the beginning. Those with evil intentions or contentious thoughts are instantly vanquished. The Art of Peace is invincible because it contends with nothing.” - Morihei Ueshiba
The true goal of martial arts training is non-violence or “hiboryoku” (非暴力). This statement seems like a paradox. The other day, a friend asked the question, “Does Aikido encourage violence?” The short answer is no. My friend is a mediation student, so I tried to explain it to him from the standpoint of meditation. In meditation, one thing that we are trying to strive towards is mushin (無心) which literal translation means “no mind.” Erroneously, some misunderstand mushin as a state where we are trying to not think or the absence of thought. I don’t think that this understanding is true because what we are trying to achieve in mediation is equanimity or learning how to not hold on to our thoughts. This same misunderstanding happens in martial arts as we think that non-violence means the absence of anything violent. Violence/aggression is a primal tendency and so we cannot eradicate it from our minds. Understanding this, in Aikido we are learning equanimity where we are not that we are trying to suppress violence but how to manage our violent tendencies. From the standpoint of violence, any form of resistance or retribution on any level, mental or physical, can be considered violent. Thus, in Aikido, we are trying to learn how to better deal with situations which previously could only be solved with violence. What Aikido is trying to do is to teach us how to manage our desire to deal out violence when attacked. In Aikido, we learn how to move with the attacker to ensure our safety and theirs. We are all capable of violence and hurting others, but it is only the trained and learned person who can put a limit on the violence. Physical movement is just physical movement, but it becomes violent with our intention. Therefore, violence is really about intention and so we try to not engage in violence but also try to have the intention to not be violent as well. The situation might be violent, but our intention is compassion rather than destruction. Digging a hole to plant a tree is virtuous but to the insect who got crushed it is violence. No matter how hard we train, we can never be completely devoid of violence. Thus, the goal of training, like mediation, is equanimity where we do not hold on to the desire to be violent or act on that desire. That is why the true goal of training is not to learn how to be violent but to learn how to manage the violence which arises inside of us.
Today’s goal: Try to understand in what ways you engage in violence with not only others but with yourself as well. Be kind!
Watch this video of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to better understand non-violence.