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
