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What the ‘Aikido’ philosophy can teach us about living a courageous and creative life
(An illustrated introduction)
I was recently reading the teachings of one of my favourites: Morihei Ueshiba.
I was struck by how inspiring and relevant to today his writing was.
His words bring a much-needed freshness and vigour to the distracted and stressful lives many of us can live.
What I like is how he often uses the natural world as a metaphor to help us more deeply understand how to live bravely.
Morihei Ueshiba (1883–1969) was a Japanese martial artist. He was known to be an invincible warrior. He was very much against fighting, war and any violence. This seems at odds with being a warrior, except that he promoted a form of defensive engagement.
He understood that continued fighting with others, ourselves and the environment, will ultimately ruin the Earth. And so he taught ‘Aikido,’ translated as ‘The Art of Peace.’
Aikido is a creative mind-body discipline, taught as a practical way to handle aggression, external attack, and as a philosophy to deal with…
