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
