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.

This is, actually, the youngest of the traditional Japanese martial arts. It was founded by The Great Teacher, or O-Sensei, Morihel Ueshiba. He was an expert in various other traditional Japanese discipline, staring with Jujitsu, Kenjutsu and Sojitsu. But, he was also really interested in religion and spiritual part of the training.

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.

If you compare Aikido with other martial arts, the first thing you may notice is that the main goal is to defend yourself without causing injuries to your attacker. The movements are circular, and, since most attacks are basically linear, this techniques kind of harmonizes with these attacks, using arm pins and wrist locks, for example, to unbalance the attacker, avoiding direct confrontation.

Aikido is a true Budo. This means that it is a martial art based on traditional Japanese warrior arts, on ancient Samurai battle tactics, but dedicated to perfecting the spirit. O-Sensei used to say that the secret is in harmonizing your movements with the movements of the Universe. His Mahatsu Agatsu statement states that the true victory is the victory over oneself.




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