My thoughts - Kev Price
My own experiences with aikido in every day life:
I have recently been through some situations which have made me realise and come to know and experience many of the philosophies taught in aikido. Previous to these experiences I would listen and would agree and would believe the teachings but recently I have watched them unfold within myself.
I was made to look seriously at emotions and the cause of them, why someone feels happy or feels sad or gets angry. The conclusions I came to are these.
Humans are made up of the body, the mind and the spirit. The body exists within time, the spirit exists outside of time and the mind is the control centre of both.
In every day life our minds think many thoughts, about the past, about the future and about the present. and since our body cannot go to the past of the future then the mind directs the spirit to those areas spreading it across time.
We make plans for the future and do things for what we can get out of them instead of doing them for the enjoyment of the process.
It is at these times that illusions can get destroyed. When doing things for what we can get out of them we have an illusion of control, and illusion that we can control what we have or what we get in the future.
When this works out then we are happy as our illusion is validated, when it doesnt work out we become sad because our illusion is destroyed.
Our own ego creates attachments to outcomes of the experience of being. Attachments to things that are out of our control and so emotions are chaotic as they are not souly governed by our actions but the actions of the world around us.
My illusion of future control was smashed recently, my spirit was invested very much in trying to control an event in the future. and because the attachment to that outcome was huge then the hurt from that was also huge.
But from it I came to realise that through life we judge people, we have expectations about people, we try to control what they think and do and then when they go against expectations then we are surprised, somtiems good and sometimes bad.
All of these realisations pointed at the same thing... the moment. that is the only thing we have true control over.
we can control our own actions, reactions and choices within that moment. nothing else.
and so if we do not try to control anything outside of ourselves and the moment then we have no attachments to the outcome as we realise the future will come to us, and no expectations of people and so believe that anything is possible.
And so I have come to understand through this, the experiencing of the moment. Not allowing my spirit to fly off to the future or the past and invest its energy in things that I cannot change, but instead focus it in the present giving me more energy to act and choose within the sphere of things I can change.
I realised all of this and it came to my attention that this is what I have been taught in aikido all along and tried to apply to my life, but now with the illusions shattered it is alot easier.
Focusing the spirit on the one point in the abdomen bring the spirit to the focus of the body, and since the body exists within the moment and not the past or the future then that is where I bring the focus of the spirit. To a place and a time.
Living in the moment allows you to experience the moment to the full not have your spirit flying all over thinking many thoughts, it is about deliberate action and choices, knowing that all things are possible and so being prepared for anything. Not having judgements for anyone and so not having a reason to dislike anyone or a reason to want to harm anyone.
When an opponent attacks I am aware of the moment and I become aware of the choices I can make. The opponent has made a choice to give me control of his energy within the moment, I can choose what to do with it in that moment and act how I choose. Since I know that anything is possible and that the opponent has the choice to attack me then I am able to react. In reacting my spirit has made the descision for me. I can then choose to control that energy that the opponent has chosen to give me in any way that I will.
I can choose to use that energy to hurt him, but since his actions have not angered me then I have no reason to choose that. Instead the energy can be direct harmlessly away.
So even before the opponent has attacked his fate is already sealed. So in essence he throws himself, I am just in harmony with what he chose to do.
Aikido is all about the moment, life is only in the moment, our awareness is only in the moment.
Experience the moment.