Aikido is a martial art of Japanese origin founded by Morihei Ueshiba (called O-Sensei, or Great Teacher) in the 1920s. It is sometimes called the non-martial martial art -- the word itself translates to the way of harmonizing with life's energy, with ai meaning love or harmony, ki meaning life force energy, and do meaning the way of. This attitude of blending with life, rather than moving against it, is central to embodiment work.
how do aikido & somatics interact?
Many of the practices in the lineage of somatics I'm in are drawn from aikido techniques & principles, such as the idea of organizing oneself to move from center. More specifically, take a practice we engage regularly in somatics around eliciting our conditioned tendency under pressure. It's called grab practice as it involves a grab to the wrist, with the grab representing those things in life that knock us off center, blindside us, or activate our nervous system. Many “attacks” in aikido training begin with a grab to the wrist, which the aikidoist addresses with a variety of techniques. The one featured in the image attached to this blog post is shiho nage, or four directions throw. Nage is also the name of the person executing a technique in aikido. It means the one who throws. Before nage addresses their training partner (called uke for one who receives), they must first address their own internal state in order to move from center, & not from a state of nervous system activation that engenders a habitual reaction rather than an intentional response. This is the process we explore when we engage our grab practice in somatics.
"If we do not relate appropriately to our own excitement while under stress, it is unlikely that we will be able to handle an attacker. If we are insensitive to our conditioned tendency, the way we block and immobilize our own rush of energy, it's a mistake to think that we will be able to manage someone else's energy." Richard Strozzi-Heckler, The Anatomy of Change
The above is from one of the originators of the Strozzi Institute for Somatics. Richard is a lifelong aikidoist who has been training since 1972 & teaching at Two Rock Aikido since its founding in 1987. This dojo is also where many in-person trainings take place for the Institute, including the coaching program I underwent.
Another clear example of the influence of aikido on Strozzi somatics is the 31 jo kata. The jo is a wooden staff used in weapons training. Kata means form or series of moves. The 31 jo kata is therefore a series of 31 moves with the jo that are executed the same way every time. In this repetition, however, we are able to practice many different ways of moving & being that relate to what we care about. This might be moving from center, or collaborating with gravity, or relaxing in our movement, or using power responsibly. My jo practice right now is focused on not making constant micro-adjustments with my feet, as I feel that supports my sense of focus. Here is a video of Morihiro Saito (or Saito Sensei), a person who was a direct student of O-Sensei. He is also the person who distilled O-Sensei's jo practice into the kata we use.
A stance of nonresistance
I have “attacks” in scare-quotes above because of an attitude in aikido about the nature of having opponents. O-Sensei left us wisdom in many forms, including words. Below are a couple quotes I’d like to surface.
“Victory over onesself is the primary goal of our training.”
“Aikido is invincible because it contends with nothing.”
“Opponents face us continually, but actually there is no opponent there. Enter deeply into an attack and neutralize it as you draw that misdirected force into your own sphere.” Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace
He expounds on this topic of no-opponent by saying things about letting your heart be big enough to envelop the whole universe, your apparent enemy included. Students of his have written that he would exhort, “Don’t make an opponent! Don’t be strong!” To me, the attitude here is one of overwhelming compassion. There is a covalence with metta, the Buddhist concept of lovingkindness. This attitude accepts life as it is. This accepting isn’t the same as condoning, and it isn’t the same as capitulating. It’s an acceptance that says I won’t struggle any longer to deny what is happening. It points to a way of being with the world that is centered in our power to train responses rather than reactions, even as opponents appear to face us continually.
“The source of bu [martial arts] is divine love. It is the spirit of love and protection for all things. The training of budo [the martial way] is the forging in our minds and bodies the power of divine love, which produces, protects, and nurtures all things in the Universe. The techniques of budo are signposts pointing the way which leads to this.”
When I first heard this quote, I said, How is it possible that the martial essence is love? I couldn’t wrap my head around it. But then, through a somatic process of dignifying anger, I realized: the martial essence is love when we’re engaged in a fight for what we care about. It’s love when we are in a fight against systems of harm, when we are fighting for the sake of the dignity, belonging, and safety of all beings.
strozzi institute of somatics & aikido
The influence of this art on the work I’m trained in is deep. It’s also an art that originated in a different culture than my own, and because of that, it’s important to me that a couple things are clear. First, O-Sensei was explicit in his intention that aikido become practiced worldwide. He sent students to other countries to found dojos, & many people came from other lands to train with him in Japan. Richard Strozzi-Heckler was himself a student of Saito Sensei, the person I mentioned above who crystallized the 31 jo kata. Alongside this, SIS received express permission to use aikido principles & practices in somatic work. The Institute was in a relationship of tithing money directly to Saito Sensei, until his family stopped cashing the checks in recent years.
To honor the great wisdom of this art, I do my best as a practitioner to be very clear about when we are using practices & principles drawn from aikido. I’m also very happily in regular training at a dojo near my home. I began training there at the same time I began practitioner training to deepen my relationship with somatics, but I quickly fell in love with the art in its own right. I am learning so much at the dojo about how to be with my own aggression, discomfort, activation, & perfectionism. I am learning new ways of intimately contacting others while staying inside of myself, & allowing myself to be contacted in return. I’m learning how to stay connected even as I’m taking a fall, how to use my center to affect another person’s center without using force, & how to leverage the liquid nature of my body in its dance with gravity. I’m also learning how to stick up for myself in a way that leaves another person’s dignity intact. Not to mention aikido techniques and terminology!
O-Sensei is quoted as having said that he did not invent aikido, but rather that he learned it from the kami, or nature spirits. In my view, this attitude of being a student of life's mystery is essential.
the dialogue door is open
I hope this has been a helpful grounding of the relevance of aikido. I am curious to hear from you, reader: what is your relationship to martial arts, fighting, aggression? What is your relationship to spirit, oneness, mystery? Also, what questions remain about the relationship between aikido & somatics?
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