THE FIVE WAYS AIKIDO NURTURES HUMAN LIFE

While training with Hikitsuchi Sensei in Shingu in 1973 he told me that Osensei used to talk about how Aikido nurtured or developed human life. He then said 5 words, KI-IKU, CHI-IKU, TAI-IKU, TOKU-IKU, JOSHIKI.  He said these were the five areas  Aikido practice developed.  O'Sensei thought that Aikido nurtured each person in the areas of understanding KI, increasing  our knowledge and wisdom through study and experience, strengthening and purifying our bodies, increasing our understanding of ethical behavior and social sensibilities. The practice of Aikido would help us in all these areas if we practiced sincerely, with the intent to help others.

I was moved by this teaching and have thought about it and studied it through my own practice of study and teaching. You can see this in action in your own dojo if you watch the development of beginners as they advance in their training.  With helpful guidance all of us could develop in profound ways, as I believe, O'Sensei wished.