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The Sword that Takes Life is the Sword that Gives Life: Aikido and the Martial Way of Peace by Benjamin Pincus Sensei Chief Instructor, Aikido of Champlain Valley O Sensei, the founder of aikido, believed that martial training is a path to non-violence, a physical method of creating a harmonious world: "True Budo is a work of love. It is a work of giving life to all beings, and not killing or struggling with each other... Aikido is the realization of love." Aikido is also a martial art that can be used to hurt or kill; despite the "soft," circular nature of aikido movements, one could argue that there is nothing intrinsically ethical about its powerful throwing techniques. In Budo, his 1938 training manual and first major explication of aikido, the Founder illustrates the martial effectiveness of a system based on harmonious movement: "in order to deliver a devastating blow to an enemy, one must be enlightened to the principles of heaven and earth..." How can aikido serve as a vehicle for peace and reconciliation? Or more precisely, what does a combat system teach us about non-violence and harmony? Intensive martial training leavened with ethical and physical sensitivity inculcates compassionate awareness. Without an experiential understanding of aikido as a fighting art and the concomitant clarity that comes with such training, the concept of aikido as a path of love and reconciliation makes little sense. This creative tension between life and death, creation and destruction, is the wellspring for the philosophy of aikido. A synthesis of combat and spirit uniquely Japanese, aikido was influenced by the Founder's Shinto sensibilities (the notion of harmonious, procreative forces in the natural world) and a martial tradition infused with Buddhist ideology. In order to explore this paradox it is helpful to look back to feudal Japan and the concepts of satsujinken (the killing sword) and katsujinken (the life-giving sword). With the relative peace of the Tokugawa period in the I 7th Century, samurai culture placed greater emphasis on self-cultivation through fine arts, meditation and introspection. While various martial ryu (schools) increased in combat sophistication, religious strains of thought (in particular Shingon and Zen Buddhism) influenced the study of martial arts. The moral, internal emphasis of Buddhist philosophy promoted martial training as a physical metaphor and path for learning to live virtuously and harmoniously in a chaotic world. Samurai and Zen priests alike viewed a warrior's intense ascetic training as analogous to Zen meditation, a means to overcome the delusions of the ego and discover a profound sense of inner peace and self-awareness. According to Yagyu Munenori, 17th century Master of the Yagyu Shinkage Ryu of swordsmanship, Zen's anti-doctrinal emphasis on spontaneity applies equally well to sword fighting: "Once you have understood something, don't let it stay in your mind, even if it is the True Dharma [Buddhist law]... keep your mind empty so that you may conduct yourself with a natural mind... Unless you attain that state, you can hardly be called a master of swordsmanship... This observation is not limited to swordsmanship, it is applicable to every field of endeavor [emphasis added]." In other words, the skills of a swordsman serve equally well in times of peace, and physical skill and spiritual growth are essential for true mastery of the art. The sword that gives life is integrally connected to the sword that takes life. Zen Buddhism in particular appealed to samurai because a warrior with a mind focused through rigorous physical training and meditation was also a person who could kill with ruthless efficiency and commitment. And in an era of relatively little violence, intensive training provided samurai with the mental alacrity, poise and compassion to choose non-violent (or at least non-lethal) alternatives to drawing a sword. This emphasis on life-giving, internal training served the samurai well during the Tokugawa period, when the samurai as a military force under individual daimyo (feudal lords) seemed somewhat antithetical to their new role as a symbolic source of power for the stable shogunate. Consequently, some martial schools emphasized training as a source of vitality rather than martial prowess. The Yagyu Shinkage school of swordsmanship, for example, explained that the "the sword should never be used to kill but rather to sustain one's vigor." It seems that O Sensei continued to develop this internal, ethical interpretation of martial training. He created aikido by integrating a number of traditional martial arts, in particular Daito Ryu Aikijujitsu. How is aikido different from these older styles? Aikido movements are more rounded and circular in nature, with fewer techniques that cause hyperextension of the joints. Nevertheless, O Sensei retained many of the effective elements of traditional jujitsu, and his fiery spirit and powerful technique made it evident that this new form was still a lethal martial art. In Budo, he explains that you should "always image yourself on the battlefield under the fiercest