Inside Karate July 1985 issue. Furuya Sensei being interviewed. The article is titled: The Path of Aikido: Breathing in Unison with the Universe
Throwback Thursday - On Violence
Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on October 1, 2004
To make a sword which cuts well or design a weapon which can kill many people is a product of man's intellect. To take this sword and turn it into a tool for self-enlightenment is a product of man's spirit. This is how I think Aikido came about.
Violence, whatever name we give it or however we rationalize it or dress it up or make it look like something else, is still violence.
I think that many people practice Aikido like an exercise or use Aikido like a weapon or tool for their own personal gain. Aikido does not only express a clever method of self-defense, or a way to express one's power, it is also the expression of a lineage. It is through the lineage that we are connected with O'Sensei and other great teachers going into the deep past - the source of our wisdom. I think that we must never forget this aspect of our practice.
Violence only breeds more violence. Like a chicken can only give birth to a chicken. To chip at a rock, you will only get a smaller piece of rock. You can only get apples from an apple tree. We like to say that we can attain Peace through violence - but, if we think about it seriously, it is only a flimsy excuse to absolve ourselves from our desire for violence. It doesn’t work this way ultimately as we can see this in our world today where violence continues and continues without end. . . . unabated.
To end violence, we must cease to be violent - this is the difficult part because we are so attached to power, sex, money, and our egos.
There is no way to rid ourselves of our lust for power, money, and our ego because it is a part of man's nature. The function of wisdom is to manage our egos and use wisdom in a positive way or to live in a way which expresses Peace and Harmony. We find this wisdom on the mats in correct practice.
It is violence that animals must die and plants are uprooted so that we can nourish our bodies and live. There is no way to avoid this unless we ourselves cease to exist. By living in awareness of the lives lost for our sake and being forever grateful that we are blessed with such sacrifices daily, means that the lost lives have not been in vain and this is how violence can be mitigated.
I know this does not make much sense to many of you. It is only another example of how many things in this real world can only make sense in the spiritual. To live only in the so-called real world, only means that nothing will ever make sense to you at all. . . . . Please think about this.
Read the article from this magazine cover here: Inside Karate
Read more about Furuya Sensei here: http://www.kenshofuruya.com