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Chapter 1

Omoto Philosophy for

Today's Practitioner

While Daito-ryu aiki-jujitsu was the martial root of aikido, the Omoto cult of the Shinto religion was the spiritual root. O'Sensei created aikido based on a fusion of the spiritual and the martial. The Omoto philosophies are deeply ingrained in the study of aikido. Though a practitioner of aikido does not become a convert to a different religious practice, one does encounter and apply universal spiritual truths to strengthen his or her personal philosophies. Above all, aikido emphasizes physical training and practice; in its spirituality, aikido welcomes people of all faiths, allegiances, and denominations in the name of a higher spiritual truth based on inclusion and the loss of judgmental and dualistic thinking.

SHINTO-SPIRITUAL BEGINNINGS

O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba was originally a follower of the Shinto religion. Shinto, or Shindo, is a native religion of Japan. It is the way of kami, the spirit, deity, or God. Shinto believes that there are invisible superhuman powers in everything in nature. Spirit and nature become one and emphasis is placed on ancestor worship.

THE WAY OF PEACE

As any advanced student of aikido knows, the word aikido has many definitions. Literally, it means the way of harmonizing energy or spirit. More often, most know aikido as the way of peace.

O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba designed aikido as both a martial art and a spiritual art. Aikido is martial in its practical and powerful techniques. Aikido is spiritual in its attitude of application and philosophy of nonresistance and loving protection of even the attacker. Many martial art systems and artists say that the ultimate goal is peace, while their training methods and techniques are extremely violent. Aikido is congruent in training, application, and ultimate goals. All training and application in aikido is practiced in the spirit of harmony, cooperation, peace, and protective love and respect.

Throughout training in aikido, one vacillates between the way of peace and the martial application, the way of war. Eventually, the advanced student trains against realistic honest intention and intensity and applies the techniques of aikido with equally honest intention and intensity. This honest intent and intensity demonstrates and expresses the powerful and effective techniques of aikido, while the practitioner maintains a sense of inner peace and protection of his or her training partner. Honest intent and intensity are very important in aikido training for the advanced practitioner on both a martial and spiritual level. To progress on this journey, one must be honest and genuine in discipline and training. The desire to train and progress must come from deep inside and be something that you are willing to make an honest commitment to and to keep that commitment with honor. Further, you must be very honest about the reason why you are training. Is it your honest and genuine intent that directs your training and your ki? With a genuine committed intent to the discipline and training in aikido, there must be an equally honest and genuine commitment to the physical intensity of that training and discipline. Intent is of the mind. Intensity is of the body. When both share in an honest and genuine commitment toward the same goal or direction, this unity provides the basis of and potential for spiritual awakening and enlightenment.

The way of peace only comes through strength. Peace through weakness is acceptance of defeat and compliance. Strength allows peace to be a choice. Aikido develops and trains one in that choice. Aikido chooses peace through strength. Aikido is not the body of war, but the spirit of loving protection and peace. Most ways of peace have been philosophically strong and physically passive. History suggests that those who challenge peace do not appreciate, respect, or respond to a passive, compliant approach to peace. Those who want control and power often take this passive, compliant position of peace as permission. While fighting to end wars has brought only temporary peace, it has proven to be the only means to stop tyranny. Therefore, a way of fighting had to be developed in which the philosophy of peace and the responsiveness were congruent and did not add directly back into or give perpetuating permission to more aggression. Aikido accepts that there is conflict and aggression in the world. Rather than responding with passivity or fear, aikido enters directly into and blends with the conflict. Aikido can redirect the aggressive energy, utilizing it against itself, without adding more aggression. This blending and redirecting continues until the aggression is subdued. The advanced aikido practitioner responds directly to aggression, requiring honest and genuine strength of character. Using only the aggressive energy offered, without adding to it, requires a relaxed body and mind and a minimum amount of physical strength. This is the beauty of the aikido way of peace.

Today in most dojos, Shinto practices are still performed, though more out of respect for the custom than for spiritual conversion. For example, in Shintoism bowing is an expression of worship. The clapping of hands two or three times is also a Shinto practice to summons the kami before offering a prayer. The shomen, meaning head, at the front of the dojo reflects many of these early Shinto practices. A picture of O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba reflects a respect for ancestors and the gifts they give us, and suggests that our ancestors still watch over us as we train. The frame of the shomen is often a torri (gate to a Shinto shrine) that suggests and reminds us that aikido is a spiritual practice.

In part due to these modern reflections of Shintoism, many still hold that the practice of aikido is spiritual by nature and will put one in touch with higher power. O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba believed that aikido was a gift from the spirit to help heal a violent world. In 1903, O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba received a certificate of spiritual enlightenment from Reverend Mitsujo Fujimoto at the Jizoji Temple.

AN INTRODUCTION OF THE OMOTO RELIGION

Omoto translates into the great origin or the great source. It is a religious and spiritual movement that came into being based on the insights and experiences of its foundress, Nao Deguchi, in 1892. Its interreligious work of joint worship and exchange with other religions are central to its divine mission. This work continues today.

Nao Deguchi was born December 16, 1836, into a family of a poor carpenter in a mountain village northwest of Kyoto, Japan. It was a time of famine, high taxes, oppression, and social and political turmoil. Her early years were filled with suffering and hardships. Because she was illiterate, her family farmed her out to the Deguchi family as a nursemaid and servant girl.

Eventually the Deguchi family adopted her, and she was given in marriage to another of their adopted children. From that marriage, she produced eleven children, three of whom died at birth. Her husband was a carpenter by trade and overgenerous and a drunkard by nature, leading to a life of extreme poverty. Nao continued to be a model wife even after her husband fell from a roof and broke his pelvis. He died in 1887.

In 1892, at fifty-five years of age, appearing possessed and in a dream state, Nao Deguchi received visions detailing plans for the salvation and reconstruction of the world. She saw a divine palace and figure in her visions. This figure spoke through her. All, including Nao, feared she was insane or possessed by an evil spirit. She questioned the spirit and was tested by fortune-tellers and priest-mediums whose occupations were to verify such entities. It was soon confirmed that she was possessed by or channeling a great deity, Ushitora, who wished to reconstruct the world. Her lifelong suffering was a test and preparation for the task she was about to undertake.

Even though she was totally illiterate, Nao began to produce automatic writing detailing the plan. The content of the Ofudesaki, the scripture of Omoto, reached 200,000 pages by her death in 1918. One of the prophecies was the coming of a man from the east.

Onisaburo Deguchi (1871—1948), after meeting Nao, became a follower of Omoto in 1898. He later married the daughter of Nao Deguchi in 1900. Adopting the family name, he became a central figure, spreading the teaching of Omoto. His charisma, humanity, and colorful ways helped spread Omoto beliefs as well as generate controversy. At times, there were disputes about the direction of the Omoto faith and the difference between Nao and Onisaburo. In 1904, at the age of thirty-three, possessed by the spirit of Mizu, he wrote the Divine Signpost, a sacred text of the Omoto faith.

The religion gained enough followers to become a significant religious and social force. Due to the movement's growth in popularity, the Japanese government brutally suppressed it in both 1921 and 1935. The Japanese government was concerned about the outspoken Omoto movement, its opposition to many government and cultural practices, and the fact that the Omoto cult had not received official recognition and permission. In both instances, the government destroyed property, and arrested and imprisoned high-level officials of the Omoto religion.

When Onisaburo Deguchi met O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba in 1919, there was an instant meeting of the minds and recognition of kindred spirits. O'Sensei accompanied him as a bodyguard in several misadventures, including one to Mongolia that resulted in imprisonment. Due to O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba's long years of martial training and cultivation of a still center, he was able to detect the intent of bandits and avoid bullets during an attack. The ability to detect intention of an assailant encompasses the ability to develop awareness, with minimal body clues, of an attack and the line of that attack; an intuitive awareness of the level of intent to do damage; and the ability to respond by getting out of the line of fire or attack. Onisaburo believed not only that O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba was a great fighter but also that he was to be a great leader of budo.

Onisaburo influenced, supported, and encouraged O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba in the development of what was to become aikido—a martial art of peace based on universal spiritual truths. Several of the prayer and meditative practices taught to O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba by Onisaburo Deguchi sustained and strengthened his intense willpower and unmovable spirit.

Many of the spiritual and metaphysical lectures given by O'Sensei in the teaching of aikido came from this Omoto/Onisaburo influence. Many students did not understand this top-down, universal conceptualization approach to training in what they defined as a very physical martial art. The technical training was the application of the universal spiritual truths.

In a more recent text by Hidemaru Deguchi (Deguchi, H.), successor of the founder, he writes on the creation of meaning. He states that the path of self-cultivation is to know one's true self, to recommend self-examination, to see oneself as part of the whole, and not to be confined by the notion of hell. In the search for human sincerity, one should look for one who can weep and feel anger, shows true merit in times of adversity, lives in freedom, lives devoted to what he or she believes and does his or her very best, practices self-cultivation to the final moment, produces a driving force for advancement, and is not encased in a hard shell. A way of life awakened to love means to not show merit, appreciate action, or be enslaved by ideology and the cultivation of conjugal love. Action cultivates true strength through practice instead of theory, seeking self-knowledge within oneself, spurring on the body, experiencing varied circumstances, and living from the gut. Nature's providence is a world of interest—work in accord with nature's timing, surrounded by innumerable teachers, going with the flow, following the rhythms of heaven and earth, and the world is an interesting place. Living with all one's might means looking above and looking below, seeing between two opposing things or forces, and living appropriately; sometimes fighting is best, overcoming both good and evil with forgiveness and tolerance.

THE OMOTO PHILOSOPHY

The philosophy and practices of the Omoto religion (Deguchi, O. 1904) found practical application through aikido techniques. Musubi, which usually means connecting, also means giving birth to spirit. Musubi is the bringing forth of life by the energy generated when two opposite energies or ki sources come together. The great laws of the universe came from its inherent active energy that demonstrates a will or intent to maintain order. The universe, Mother Nature, and humanity are not separate entities but a single body. Humanity's role is to accept this unity, harmonize, and love all creatures with a sincere heart.

The spiritual truths of Omoto ask everyone, including today's advanced aikido practitioners, to align harmoniously with others, to receive personal understanding and insight, to understand repetitive patterns in all things, and to become more creative.

To align harmoniously with life and the universe requires the advanced aikido practitioner to take responsibility for his or her interaction with others. Resistance is not harmonious; it is discordant. Nonresistance provides the means to enter and blend with others by joining and aligning ourselves. Those of the Omoto belief established, supported, and attended many international interfaith conferences to demonstrate this need to align harmoniously with others. What those of the Omoto belief practice philosophically in coordination and alignment with other faiths and organizations, the advanced aikido practitioner practices in training and discipline with the dojo by aligning harmoniously with their uke, or training partner.

The Omoto teaches us to receive personal understanding, insight, and the revelation of celestial truths and its lessons. This is to make an honest and genuine commitment of intent and intensity to train until one gains and owns the perceptions, concepts, and techniques of the Omoto belief or aikido. Knowledge is the accumulation of knowledge presented by others and still belonging to them because it does not come from one's own experience. To truly know something, not just the knowledge of it, is to pursue the training and discipline necessary until those understandings and insights are the product of the continued validation of one's own personal experience. Knowledge can be gained from others as the reporting of facts as they perceived them. Wisdom is the understanding and insight one can only get from one's self. The Omoto belief and aikido encourage each of us to proceed with our training until we receive personal understanding, insight, and enlightenment.

To understand the repetitive innate patterns of the behavior of man, society, and the cosmos is to accept all things for what they are. Sequentially, the present comes after the past and before the future. Past, present, and future become a repetitive pattern because the present will soon become the past and the future will become the present moment. Each season leads to the next in a repetitive pattern of the year. Day follows night, and vice versa, in a repetitive pattern. The repetitive pattern of life suggests that nothing is permanent, that there is a sequential cause-and-effect relationship in observable and knowable operations, and that we are all creatures of habits with predictable repetitive patterns of thinking and behaving.

Creativity is the basis to respond spontaneously and with an instinctual drive. Creativity provides hope for new thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Creativity is a means to move beyond our habitual repetitive patterns and to search our own personal experience of understanding and insight to find new ways to align harmoniously with others in peace. Creativity means to accept that many of our old ways of behaving and interacting that have consistently led to fear, hatred, and war need to be abandoned and new ways found. Creativity challenges the established ways and institutions. To be effective and efficient in all aspects of life, we must learn to be creative and resourceful. Training and discipline in aikido basics teaches us the repetitive patterns of entering, connecting, blending, and aligning harmoniously with others. Advanced aikido practitioners will creatively begin to apply the concepts and principles of aikido to their movement and spontaneously execute the appropriate response or technique, takemusu-aiki.

To do this, one follows the four principles. One must train the body and mind for purity and purification. One must maintain optimism by believing in the goodness of the divine will. One must strive progressively for social improvement. Finally, one must unify rather than separate all things by reconciling all dichotomies. These are very wise aspirations for us all, worthy of dedication regardless of where they originated.

This harmonious inclusive philosophy is practiced in the tenshin-nage waza (the heaven and Earth throwing technique) in which one hand is held high, representing heaven, and the other hand is held low, representing the Earth. Tenshinkai, meaning the organization of heaven on Earth, is the name given by aikido founder O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba to a uniquely fluid and powerful style of aikido and the Sensei and federation that oversees it. Overcoming, integrating, and utilizing dualism demonstrates the harmonious congruence in aikido conceptually, philosophically, and in its practical application. These are the basic universal truths represented in aikido application and training. Aikido is the way of harmony and peace in the midst of conflict and aggression.

The concept of divinity, or God, in the Omoto faith is inclusive of all three concepts of monotheism, polytheism, and pantheism. Omoto worships the one ultimate original spirit of God, while acknowledging the same character of spirit of God in many and all things.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICES

For most people, the practicing of spiritual truth is isolated to specific places and times. Aikido encourages its advanced practitioners to maintain these spiritual truths in their hearts and minds because the practice of the techniques is designed to deal with aggression and conflict in a nonresistant, nonviolent, noncompetitive way. It has long been held that the benefits of spiritual truths are apparent when they are practiced and applied in daily life and interaction.

If one wants to go beyond the physical practice of techniques, one can follow some more spiritually based exercises.

Kotodama: Spirit Sounds

Similar to chanting, Kotodama is the belief that every sound has some spiritual property and power. Kotodama is a Shinto practice of intoning various sounds to produce mystical or spiritual states. Sounds have a specific vibration or rhythm. They synchronize the brain wave rhythms by repetition. The seventy-five sounds of Kotodama form words that purify the universe and teach the way of aiki as deigned by the universe. The sounds of the kotodama are ka-ko-ku-ke-ki and saso-su-se-si. Notice that these consist of the common denominators and most used aspects of even the English language, the vowels a-e-i-o-u. Words in language have a sound, a voice, a rhythm, and a literal, as well as a deeper, meaning. The air and breath give life to these sounds and words. This type of practice is very common in most religious rituals.

O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba performed Kotodama as part of his daily spiritual and martial practice. He believed that out of stillness comes the resonance of heaven and Earth. This resonance or sound, when chanted, helps one become aligned, harmonized, and at one with the vibratory resonance of the universe. Human beings are a microcosm of the universe. By developing awareness of the connectedness of human nature, one begins to hear Kotodama.

The vibratory resonance of Kotodama makes and moves everything. The Omoto explanation of the origin of the universe suggests that an ever-increasing density and explosion, similar to the Big Bang theory, created the universe. The subsequent birth and movement of Kotodama generated the material and spiritual world. All things first exist in the spirit world before a latent causative predisposition transfers them to the material world, just as all physical behavior comes from thought.

The actual practice of Kotodama may be too esoteric for most aikido students. Further investigation, study, and training should only be done under guidance and supervision.

Chink-Kishin

Chink-kishin refers to the meditative or mind-calming techniques of the Omoto faith. One of the aspects that drew O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba to the Omoto belief is the methods used to calm the mind. These techniques are referred to as chink-kishin. Very little detailed information is readily available about the specifics of these techniques unique to the Omoto faith. They do tend to follow the generic patterns of mental training and meditation as presented and discussed in Chapter 3: Training the Mind. Calming the mind is very important in any spiritual or psychological progress and evolution. Holding the concept that nature is spiritual, it is often our internal mental consciousness that blocks and prevents a direct experience of understanding, insight, and enlightenment. By learning to calm the learned ego identity of the mind, advanced practitioners will find their training and technique becoming more spontaneous and directed by natural causes. These causes may be attributed to advanced levels of training leading to takemusu-aiki, or a feeling that they are divinely directed, as described by O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba. It is beyond this book and beyond the expertise of its authors to provide explicit descriptions of or information on the instructions of these techniques. One is encouraged to seek further exposure and experience directly from the Omoto foundation.

Yusai

Yusai refers to prayer. O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba was known to practice daily rituals and prayers as a part of his spiritual practice and routine. It is sometimes said that prayer is talking to God and meditation is when one listens. The two practices complement and support each other. Many advanced practitioners of aikido, before starting practice and training, bow and offer a prayer to their spiritual godhead asking for guidance and protection. After a training session, another prayer is offered in gratitude to all that was offered, learned, and received.

Misogi: Purification

Misogi usually refers to austere or ritual training practices used for spiritual and physical development. Misogi is a traditional Shinto practice to purify the body and spirit.

The most common image of misogi is standing meditation under an ice-cold waterfall. Other practices include breathing during movement such as the aikido turifune-no-gyo (rowing) exercise, hand shaking, chanting long prayers, kiai (spirit shout), seated meditation using mudra (hand postures) and visualizations, and specific dietetic restrictions, such as fasting. Eventually, with consistent and persistent training, the student practices misogi in more common everyday activities. Regular dojo activities and responsibilities, such as sweating, cleaning, and training can serve the purpose of misogi, a purifying ritual.

Throughout all these activities, there is a focus and emphasis on consciously controlling the breathing. Breathing is essential to life and to the purification of life. Breathing connects the physical and emotional states. Beginning students of aikido will tend to hold their breath as a stress reaction when practicing. Eventually, students will naturally synchronize their breathing with their movement and their training partner's. Breathing creates the connection and joining of the two into one. This process is spiritual and purifying.

Common to the misogi practice is the ability to keep the mind calm and clear, as in mushin, while the body is undergoing severe, often repetitive, experiences. Taking a very cold shower while keeping the mind calm is a common, very private, form of misogi. O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba was often known to pour cold water over himself to start the day. Another commonly available form of misogi is the use of saunas to provide extreme heat conditions and an opportunity for the mind to be disciplined and to overcome the body's reaction to discomfort.

O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba believed that the practice of aikido itself was misogi since aikido purified and united all beings in nature and provided a bridge between heaven and Earth. The kami gave O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba aiki to protect and perfect humanity. Practitioners use misogi as a way to connect with the divine. Misogi is budo, martial arts constantly polishing the spirit of the warrior through rigorous daily practice.

SPIRITUAL TRAINING

In addition to the profound and abstract psychological, philosophical, and spiritual meaning of these spiritual truths, aikido also contains many practical martial applications. Many of the characteristics used to describe peak performances, such as the "flow" and the "zone" states of athletic performance, are similar or identical to those words used to describe a mystical or spiritual experience. One can find and produce these methods and experiences, both athletically and spiritually, through aikido training. In the chapters on training philosophy and training the mind, more specific ideas will be presented and discussed on how to find and produce these methods and experiences. What is required is the honest and genuine intent and intensity in training the body while maintaining a calm and peaceful state of mind.

It is not necessary to acknowledge, endorse, or embrace any of the spiritual concepts and philosophies of aikido in order to gain a high level of technical proficiency and the benefits of training. However, many believe that you will only be limiting yourself from achieving the spiritual benefits of aikido, which are a natural extension of the training.

True budo cannot be described in words or letters; the gods will not allow you to make such explanations. Techniques of the Sword cannot be encompassed by words or letters. Do not rely on such things — move on towards enlightenment. (UESHIBA, M. 1991, P. 28)

The Shinto and Omoto spiritual philosophies that influenced O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba's thoughts and practice, believed in the spiritual presence in nature. The Shinto practice of having many spirits or gods suggests that all of nature has inherent and innate spirituality. The interfaith practice of harmoniously aligning with others suggests that the same spirit lives in all things natural. Though most of us are acutely aware of distinctions and differences, it is the natural sameness of spirituality that connects us. This is not a byproduct of training or the result training to make it so, but the actual natural state of the universe. O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba loved the countryside and farming as a means to commune with nature and receive inspiration directly for kami, or spirit. Spirituality, seen as natural and existing in all nature, is not about religious affiliation or denominations but about personal character and having mindful clarity beyond the learned ego identity and duality.

Many aspects of advanced aikido training and discipline can be considered spiritual. These practices have very little martial application but make for a better person and a contributing member of society.

The formal respect given to all and the code of conduct and honor based on natural inherent worth is spiritual. Many of the bowing rituals of aikido are based on Shinto spiritual practices. Bowing formally acknowledges the spirituality in all.

The selfless participation as a training partner offers and sacrifices your time and your body to be of service to another. Placing the interest and advancement of others above one's own personal desires, and even potential safety, demonstrates compassion and spiritual values. It is this attitude of selfless self-sacrifice that makes the training and discipline. If the same participation were practiced purely out of formality with the anticipation of what one will get in return or with resentment, the practice would not be considered spiritual. Learn to practice and give to others freely.

There is the expression of compassion toward and protection of your training partner. The techniques of aikido, especially when applied with honest intensity and intent by an advanced practitioner, can cause great pain and damage. Compassion, restraint, and mercy can only be developed and demonstrated in the presence of potential harm. Overcoming one's own internal drive for power and control over others through violence and aggression leads one to develop a mind, heart, and body based on peace and spirituality.

Facing internal mental fears creates mindful clarity. While it is not always necessary to know the truth, it is necessary to see through illusions if one wants to develop and progress spiritually. Love is spiritual. Some would say that hate is the opposite of love. Hate is produced by fear. Others would say that apathy is the opposite of love. Apathy is also produced by fear. The opposite of love is fear. You must choose a life based on love or a life based on fear. Seeing through and overcoming the internal repetitive negative fantasies that create fear make it possible to face conflict and attack with compassion and love.

There is a deep sense of humility based on personal experience of knowing there is so much more than the individual learned ego identity. Knowing how much one does not know opens one to more learning. True humility is based on acceptance that one has something to be humble about, and accepting that any skills or abilities developed do not make someone any better than anyone else does. Humility is based on the acceptance of the imperfections of being human. The imperfect construct is the learned ego identity and the mental constructs used to define the perceptions of reality. In the midst of severe training (shugyo and misogi) one responds instinctively without the internal reference and analysis of the learned ego identity. There is no longer an "I" that is detecting, assessing, deciding, and responding.

To have a spiritual experience in aikido training, one needs only to train with honest and genuine intent and intensity. Instructors in aikido or spiritual practices can only point the way. They cannot make it happen. One cannot make a spiritual experience happen either. With honest intensity and intent, one must let the spiritual experience happen on its own, at its own time, and in a way that is personally idiosyncratic. The spiritual experience, truths, and benefits of aikido training are simply waiting for one to get out of the way. Truth has always been there waiting and available to all who seek it and are open to letting it come into their life. Aikido provides a means and a place to practice these truths.

AIKIDO PHILOSOPHY BEYOND THE DOJO

Foster and polish the warrior spirit while serving in the world; illuminate the Path in accordance with the divine will. (UESHIBA, M. 1991, P. 28)

Aikido is a powerful and effective means of personal transformation. aikido teaches its philosophical ideation of nonviolence through practical application and training rather than lecturing. Seldom does one hear lengthy lectures on the use of aikido for personal insight, growth, and transformation. Recently, several individuals and books have taken aikido out of the dojo and into the personal and professional lives of its practitioners. Their contributions and insight are worth the investment of time and energy. A higher level of personal transformation becomes the message and messenger of higher social transformation.

Aikido is a means of social transformation only as far as it is a means of personal transformation. Social, and spiritual, transformation means seeing beyond one's self. The social realm extends to one's training community, one's sensei, the school, the style, and the larger aikido world community. It extends to one's family and friends. It extends to the community one lives in. It extends until one sees the common unity in his or her country and the world. It extends until the one includes the all. Society tends to transform one person at a time until it reaches a critical level of acceptance. The more people who express the values and philosophies of aikido in their personal and professional life, the more social choices and responsibility transform. Advanced students of aikido will naturally practice personal and social responsibility because they practice aikido. There should be no distinction or discrimination between the rules of respect inside or outside the dojo's walls.

CONCLUSION

There is much controversy about the spiritual aspects of aikido training. Because of its spiritual emphasis, many people have questioned if a denial of their current faith is required for advancement. Hopefully, this chapter has helped all practitioners understand that the basic spiritual concepts and beliefs of aikido, though based on Shinto and Omoto doctrines, are common to all spiritual faiths as well as social and cultural awareness and responsibility It is not necessary to undergo any conversion per se, but there is a requirement to accept a nonviolent noncompetitive philosophy of harmonious alignment with others, a quest for personal experience and insight, an acceptance and blending with the repetitive patterns in nature, and the use of creativity to overcome selfishness and work for the mutual benefit of all. Many advanced practitioners of many faiths have found that the training and discipline of aikido complements and strengthens their own individual expression of spirituality.

The inner development of the advanced aikido practitioner incorporates the spiritual concepts in a comprehensive training philosophy.