Aiki principles, Aiki in action

Following I will talk about Aiki. To be more precise, I will talk about Aiki in which I see the principle of non-resistance to be the core principle. Again I want to declare, that whatever I say about Aiki and the principle of non-resistance just mirrors my own and limited understanding of the subject. So please don't hold it against me, if you have a different understanding of it all. I genuinely respect that. Maybe with your better understanding, you would want to help me to get to a better understanding as well. You are most welcome to do so in respectful manners. 

So then, the functioning of the principle of non-resistance is quite simple, to put it into practice though, isn't simple at all. Once we understand how it works it becomes easier, but still it's quite difficult to do it right. To understand, we have to experience first. To experience, we have to do it quite right for the least. So this is like a closed loop or circle which makes it difficult to get in or on, as there is no way that would gradually lead us there, step by step. We have to jump right into it. Sagawa sensei explains 1 : "True training begins once you understand Aiki".

To my understanding, the principle of non-resistance is the key to Aiki and Aiki is the key to Aikido. Aiki in Aikido is the invisible technique that stands behind every Aikido technique. More than a technique, Aiki is the principle that stands true in every Aikido technique. Aiki is the principle that always has to be there in Aikido. Without Aiki it simply wouldn't be Aikido.

Again, as we go back to the roots of Aikido, we might ask ourselves, if the Aiki in Daito-Ryu is the same as the Aiki in Aikido? After all, O-Sensei learned from the great Daito-Ryu master Sokaku Takeda. And O-Sensei was, without a doubt, a great Daito-Ryu master himself before he named his own art Aikido 2. Even to his last days, when doing Aikido, the techniques themselves remained about the same as they were in his day as a Daito-Ryu master. So where or what is the difference between Daito-ryu and Aikido or more precisely, where is the difference between the Aiki in Daito-ryu and the Aiki in the Aikido of the founder? O-Sensei points out that indeed there is a difference 3: "The Aiki of which conventional martial artists spoke and the Aiki of which I speak are fundamentally different in both essence and substance."

 

"you control your opponent
without trying to control him"

 

Tokimune Takeda explains Aiki in Daito-Ryu 4: "Attacking is Kiai. Aiki on the other hand, is go no sen" (self-defense). Even though Aiki in Daito-Ryu is described as “go no sen”, in Aikido it is not. O-Sensei in an interview, when asked if Aikido was "go no sen", answered 5: “Absolutely not. It is not a question of either sensen no sen or sen no sen . If I were to try to verbalize it I would say that you control your opponent without trying to control him. That is, the state of continuous victory. There isn’t any question of winning over or losing to an opponent. In this sense, there is no opponent in aikido. Even if you have an opponent, he becomes a part of you, a partner you control only”.

With this explanation, O-Sensei gives us several important clues to a better understanding of his Aiki and his Aikido. He also distances the functioning of Aikido from the functioning of Daito-Ryu with Daito-Ryu declaring it's Aiki to be “go no sen” or self-defense. 

As a side mark I'd like to remark that some of the quotes used about Aikido and about Daito-Ryu might be contradictory to other quotes. As I can only speculate about the what and why, I just let those quotes stand as the respected masters reportedly have said and told.

 

"In Aiki, if we lead our partners
according to the principles of Aiki,
indeed no force at all is needed"

 

Aiki is non-resistant. Since resistance is also a form of violence, it could also be said that Aiki is non-violent. In Aiki there is no action whatsoever against an opponent. In Aiki, if we lead our partners according to the Aiki principles, indeed no force against our partners is needed at all. Aiki allows us to lead an opponent without fighting against the opponent, thus the opponent becomes our training partner. By being in Aiki ourselves, we are also letting our training partner experience Aiki. This is the only way of transmission in Aiki from teacher to student, apart from the oral transmission.

To control a person without wanting to control the person means to control the person by following the Aiki principles. Thus we are not forcefully controlling the person to do something we want, against their own will. We can only control the person by leading the person according to the Aiki principles, which is not a thing we could possibly come up with on our own and then wanting it to happen the way we want. We can only follow the Aiki principles and let the Aiki principles work on their own. To control a partner in Aiki means to lead the partner according to the Aiki principles. In a way we let Aiki take the lead to control the partner instead of ourselves trying to control the partner according to our own will. 

Of course, I am well aware, that this all is the ideal to go after. In a training situation things may look a bit different, as we, even as we give our best to do it well, we'll still do things the wrong way as we simply aren't there yet able to do them all right. Remember, that's just part of the process to allow Aiki to manifest and there's no need at all to get frustrated about it. It's quite the contrary, as there are so many possibilities to advance and getting better at what we do, there's great joy in it.

 

"Aiki is action in harmony
with the laws of nature"

 

Aiki is action in harmony with the laws of nature. In Aiki, we ourselves are in harmony with the laws of nature and by leading our training partners also bringing our training partners into harmony with the laws of nature by letting them experience Aiki.

Just recently I took notice of an article 6 by Takuma Hisa about Daito-ryu Aiki-budo where in the subtext to a photo he speaks about "the defender's tegatana reach the point of Aiki". "Reaching the point of Aiki", what does it mean? What does it mean in Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu? Is there a before and an after reaching this point of Aiki, where there is no Aiki yet or anymore?

As I understand, the Aiki O-Sensei's speaks about, always has to be there, before, while and after an "attack". This is what it means to lead our training partner. We lead them way before the attack has formed, we are leading the attack by calling the attack. And in doing so there's not really an attack anymore. 

 

"It’s quite difficult
to explain Aiki"

 

It’s quite difficult to explain Aiki, but then again, that does make sense, doesn't it? Since, if it were easy to explain and easy to understand, most probably many more people would be using Aiki in their Aikido. One could argue that Aiki should rather be felt. And exactly there is another point that makes Aiki difficult to understand. Since Aiki means to lead our training partners without using force against them, it's not exactly possible to feel the power of Aiki, yet we are experiencing it.

 

"If these things are visible,
or can be felt, it's not Aiki"

 

Aiki is not visible as a cause resulting in an effect. No connection can be made between Aiki as a source to an effect being caused by it. When dealing with Aiki, it is helpful to understand what we actually don't want to see and feel, when Aiki is in use.  Because if these things are visible or can be felt, it's not Aiki.

In Aiki, we lead our training partners in a way so they can not perceive the direction of the force acting on them. Aiki follows the laws of nature and is therefore absolutely in harmony with what is naturally happening. In Aiki there are no clashing forces. Aiki is the working of circular forces. In a circle, a force does not have a starting point or an end, it circles endlessly, unless the circle is broken.

 

"It only seems to be mystical.
In Aikido we utilize the power
of the opponent completely"

 

O-Sensei's students, according to their own statements, had no idea from where or how they were thrown. This also is a strong indication that O-Sensei was working with this kind of Aiki. Aikido with Aiki seems to be magical, but there is no magic involved. As O-Sensei explains 7 : ”It only seems to be mystical. In Aikido we utilize the power of the opponent completely. So the more power the opponent uses, the easier it is for you”.

"Aiki is the technique or the principle
that stands behind all Aikido techniques"

 

Aiki is the technique or the principle that stands behind all Aikido techniques. It is a principle that we can learn to understand and practice with our body and our mind. This requires a lot of training and also the capacity and willingness of allowing oneself to leave the all so secured and safe road of known to be working techniques. At first we have to fully accept our faults and our weaknesses (it can't be stressed enough that this acceptance is absolutely crucial) and we have to be willing to take the risk of not being successful in our Aikido techniques. Since most of us were not born with perfect Aiki abilities, we have to allow ourselves to make mistakes. According to my own experience, only by completely overcoming the will to win over the opponent it is possible to use Aiki. I must admit, indeed a task not so easy and a great challenge again and again.

 

"In Aiki, the word 'success'
takes a new meaning"

 

In Aiki the word 'success' takes on a new meaning. Whereas in the martial arts, normally success is defined by winning over the opponent, so it's the result that really matters, not how it was done, in Aiki things are a little different. Aiki is like walking on a rope crossing a river or a gorge. It's not the last step that gets us across, but every single step is crucial in the process. Just one step off the rope and we are lost. It doesn't matter if this happens on the first or on the last or on any other step in between. In Aiki we have to have a good balance at every single moment, at every single point in our movement. Hence every moment we are able to do correctly, we might see as 'success'. Looking at it this way, being unsuccessful or making mistakes, is just normal, because it's just normal not all the time being in perfect balance. Still, we should try to get as near as possible to the best perfect possible. In addition we have to do it without desperately wanting to be perfect, because if we want it to much, we get tensed up and being tensed up really isn't such a good thing when it comes to being balanced.

Maybe this is what it's all about? Training ourselves to better ourselves, to become a better self to become a more balanced self, step by step, little by little, day by day, everyday.

 

"isn't it like, that from the mistakes
made this time, we can learn
to really make it better next time"

 

Unfortunately, all to often in modern life and society we feel like we are not allowed to make mistakes. Hence we try to do everything to avoid making mistakes or we forcefully try to convey our mistakes by selling them as "no-mistakes". Actually, if we want to understand this Aiki, neither of these ways will work. These ways won't help in the process to get to Aiki. Really, making mistakes is part of the process and is not the real problem here. Only making the same mistakes over and over again, would have to be considered to be problematic. Anyway, isn't it like, that from the mistakes made this time, we can learn to really make it better next time? To be able to do so, we must admit our mistakes in the first place. Without doing so, real progress cannot be made, can it?

If we look at Aikido merely as a system made for self-defense, then surely enough, all to often we got to see the same patterns. We are not allowed to make mistakes, because in self-defense our life may be at stake. We then might see ourselves standing in situations competing for life. Even if a situation isn't about life and death, as long as we are or we see ourselves in a situation of competition, in a situation where we want to win and where we are afraid to lose, Aiki will not show itself. Koichi Tohei once said the we have to "trust the universe" 8. 

Even when techniques are executed with the highest and the most refined technical skills, without Aiki, we just got to see Aikido as a Jujutsu, that is Aikido without Aiki. Aikido as I understand, was designed and promoted by the founder as a training method to find, understand and work with Aiki. We train with a partner, we don't fight against an opponent. Only with a mindset that is completely without competition, will we be able to work with Aiki.

 

1  Quote taken from "Tranparent Power" by Tatsuo Kimuro
2  "It is unclear exactly when Ueshiba began using the name "aikido", but it became the official name of the art in 1942 when the Greater Japan Martial Virtue Society (Dai Nippon Butoku Kai) was engaged in a government sponsored reorganization and centralization of Japanese martial arts". Quote taken from Wikipedia.
3  Quote taken from "Enlightenment through Aikido" by Kanshu Sunadomari
4 Quote taken from an interview with Tokimune Takeda taken by Stanley Pranin in 1987 as published in Aikido Journal online 
5  Quote taken from an interview with O-Sensei as published in Aikido Journal online
6  Quote taken from an article on Daito-ryu Aiki-budo by Takuma Hisa as published in Shin Budo magazine and translated by Guillaume Erard as published in Aikido Journal online
7  Quote taken from an interview with O-Sensei as published in Aikido Journal online
8  The exact source of the quote is unknown. The quote is given as remembered by the author.

 

  

Page first published on 04.10.2023
Page last updated on 09.04.2026

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Disclaimer: everything presented in this post only represents my personal opinions based on my personal  knowledge, understanding and experiences made regarding the matter in discussion except where quotes are made. Other opinions are highly respected as long as they can withstand the argumentation. Some of the points presented may be purely speculative on my side due to the lack of evidence known to me. Any evidence presented to help clarify the points in question is highly welcomed. The post may still undergo little changes, although the content will mainly remain the same.

Notes on Copyrights: None of the content was written by AI. Neither text or parts of the text may be used or published elsewhere without the consent of the author. It is OK though to quote with correct references made to this text.
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