10/26/2017 Anya van Til
Aikido and Reiki are the two opposite ways of training in my opinion, which in the end teach you the same:
Do not anger,
do not worry,
be true to yourself
show compassion to yourself and others.
Reiki teaches you to integrate these precepts through a calm meditation.
And if something arises you have the choice to go on with it or to stop.
In Aikido you are being attacked, so there is quite a lot of internal stress involved and you can’t really walk away.
Somewhere in the middle of these two practising methods is life where you could check the effectiveness of the embodied states of being open.
Reiki precepts in Aikido become very evident.
Once on the mat, you should not get angry at yourself if the technique doesn’t work. It’s useless. You shouldn’t get angry at your opponent if his technique doesn’t work as you know from your own experience that it’s not as easy as it may seem.
Being afraid or worried on the mat means immediately that your movements stiffen, your body freezes resulting in a bad technique or a painful fall. You hurt yourself first, you can cause physical discomfort for your partner and then you make yourself and your partner worry.
Being free from anger and fear leaves you true to yourself, which a state of being focused and centred in Aikido. If you can forget how big or quick your opponent is and just focus on yourself and the technique you can move freely and centred.
This state makes your technique much better, much more relaxed, clear, controlled and it costs you minimum effort.
This all results in you feeling happy and flowing, your opponent is relaxed and can accept the technique much easier and does not suffer pain.
If you think about it, then it all starts with yourself. All your internal self-anger and self-worry gets projected at people you interact with. It makes the situation complicated.
But your being open, centred, relaxed and happy has direct effect on your partner in practice/life.
It’s just so obvious on the mat, makes me always smile.