The flow of mind in water and Aikido

Senta Yamada was born in Fukuoka Japan in 1924, and he is the founder of Kikusui Kai. He studied Judo with its founder, Dr. Jigaro Kano, who sent him to study Aikido with its founder. In 1961, he first published his book, The Ancient Secrets Of Aikido, which was revised and reprinted in 2004. Recently he has been involved in humanitarian aid, helping the government of Sri Lanka feed its people and grow its economy by providing information on new farming techniques designed to increase crop yields. Everyone who meets him comes away feeling blessed to have met such a great yet peaceful and humble, "gentle" man.

Recently I had the pleasure and honor of meeting Senta Yamada sensei for the first time. What follows is a loose translation of Yamada sensei's words, embroidered by the larger picture I sensed he was pointing toward. Uncharacteristically for a Japanese person, he moved his hands as he spoke, to portray the movements he perceived as inherent in the mind of Aikido and the mind of water. You might try doing the same as you read the words that follow. Take your time, breathe freely and move your body so as to feel the movement and mind that the words suggest.

Water unites all the world's land masses, large and small, connecting what is seemingly separate, distant and different into one seamless spherical whole. In Aikido, we strive to embody the mind of water. We cultivate our energy flow to become one with our perceived adversaries and adversities, dissolving any sense of separation, distance or difference. We might move away from, but we do not run away from. Even when we move away from, we eventually return.

Water not only joins together the land masses of earth; it also unites the earth with the sky via never-ending cycles of evaporation and precipitation. This process of never staying the same mirrors the path that human beings follow between heaven, earth and heaven. Becoming, being, dying. Life, death and recycle.

Water expands and contracts, and the same is true of the human spirit. When you are harsh to a child, his spirit tends to contract. When you love a child, his spirit expands... out past the two of you and into the universe.

The presence of water throughout the ecosystem of earth is similar to the presence of the body's fluid system, enveloping and uniting the cells and tissues of the body. The mind of water, the mind of the body's fluid system, and the mind of Aikido all have similar intention... moving with, joining with, nurturing, cleansing, renewing. When everything is experienced as "One" - there is no disease, no attack, no separation, death or destruction.

Rain, mist, steam, dew, snow, ice... water in all its various manifestations has a spherical mind. This mind of roundness is a key principle in the mind of non-dissension. In Aikido, we project a full, round presence to our adversary and flow with his movements. We offer no hard surfaces to bump up against and nothing to grab hold of.

We encourage our adversaries to follow their course of action to its likely outcome in the same way that water follows the path of gravity downhill. Moving always toward center, until the time for renewal and rising up again. Regardless of the obstacles encountered, water does not stop. It does not give up. It does, however, rest and wait for the proper circumstances... an opening. Water joins with, is absorbed by, and surrounds. It does not strive to act separately but is moved by the forces of nature.

This mind of endless, effortless rest, renewal, and movement,
As calm when doing as when simply being.
Realizing the end of every journey is a new beginning,
We experience every destination as temporary,
Every goal as cyclical.
Beginning complete, we remain complete.
With nowhere to go,
No need to have to,
Nothing to fulfill,
Except our destiny.
Our destination of returning is never in question.