Aikido Dojo San Francisco Philosophy

By Roger Williams


There are so many martial arts that are highly popular today. Although some are more popular than others, most of them base their philosophy on similar things, and include not only physical training but also the unity of body and mind. This spiritual part of these Eastern techniques make them especially interesting in the Western world.

Harmonized body and mind is a must. Even so, there are numerous other benefits in practicing these techniques. If you visit one Aikido Dojo San Francisco center, you may find out more about this particular teaching, and why it is so special, even compared with other popular martial arts, and why it really deserves you attention.

So, like many other Japanese names, Aikido is also composed from a few meaningful words. In this case, it is especially interesting name, because 'Ai' means harmony, 'ki' means energy or spirit, and 'do' means path or way. Well, you can translate it as the way of spirit and harmony, or maybe the harmonious spiritual path. Anyway, you will find highly efficient ways of defending yourself and really appealing philosophy and environment.

Although this is the youngest Japanese martial art, founded in the beginning of the twentieth century, by famous O-Sensei, or The Great Teacher, Morihel Ueshiba, it is bases on Traditional Japanese techniques and Samurai tactics. Actually, O-Sensei Morihel Ueshiba was the master of many other techniques, such as Jujitsu, Kenjutsu, and Sojitsu first, but really interested in spiritual and religious aspects.

O-Sensei soon became famous, because he was able to conquer his attackers without even touching them. He developed his non-violence technique, basing it on defending yourself without direct confrontation, avoiding causing harm to your opponents. His basic philosophy is harmonizing the movements of your body with the movements of the universe.

In fact, anyone can start practicing Aikido, and it doesn't matter how old or how fit this person is right now. This is not only really efficient defense technique, but also the sort of training that you will benefit from in many different ways. It brings not only great physical improvement, but also better health, especially cardiovascular health, better concentration, coordination and balance, etc.

But, there are some other important benefits that need to be mentioned here. For example, conditioning body, mind and spirit leads to better self-confidence, the peace of mind, better results in other areas of your life, and, finally, in finding your own life-path. It's certainly isn't just about fights and strength, it's so much more in it.

So, the point is in defending yourself efficiently, but without seriously harming your attacker. Everything is based on circular movements, and since most attacks are linear, this is the way of using different techniques, such as arm pins or maybe wrist locks, in order of making your attacker helpless, and avoiding any direct confrontation at the same time. The point is to unbalance the attacker.

As the Great Teacher used to say, Aikido is really a true Budo, based on traditional Samurai tactics, but really focused on perfecting the spirit. His well-known statement called Mahatsu Agatsu say that true victory is victory over oneself, and the secret is in harmonizing your movements with the movements of the universe. This is really a path of love, in the opinion of the famous O-Sensei.




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