The Chinese emperor Shun was said to embody the concept of “wu wei” or effortless action, the affairs of state went smoothly without his decree or intervention, “What did he do? All he did was make himself reverent and face south in correct posture.” That sounds a lot like aikido…
Robert Frager explains the experience of people taking ukemi from O’sensei for the first time as getting back up after the throw stupefied thinking “What happened, I never saw him move, I never felt him move, I felt like he just stood there and I moved.” (This passage is from Remembering O’sensei )
Thanks to Tom Osborn (KNSA Aikido with Veterans) I learned about the concept of “wu wei.” Throughout Chinese philosophy there is a stress on getting on the train of the universe, it’s already on the move and too much of what we are inclined to do is going in the opposite direction. Simply, get yourself together and stop getting in the way. I have often thought of aikido as an added skill used to sort things out but I think its more a practice of stripping all the non-aiki things away until we no longer stand in the way of resolution.
The Tao Te Ching says the following…
Thirty spokes are joined in the wheel’s hub.
The hole in the middle makes it useful.
Mold clay into a bowl.
The empty space makes it useful.
Cut out doors and windows for the house.
The holes make it useful.
Therefore, the value comes from what is there,
But the use comes from what is not there.
…In practicing Tae no Henko the other day I looked at what Uke was doing to my hand and I realized that the grab directed my hand into the right form for the technique. If I was successful with coordinating moving myself to a non-oppositional posture and position without disturbing the grab Tae no Henko happened without me.
