AikiWeb: The Source for Aikido Information AikiWeb's principal purpose is to serve the Internet community as a repository and dissemination point for aikido information.
Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.
If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!
Today, a reading outside of aikido literature has led me to ask some questions about what I, an aikidoka with Asperger's Syndrome, am attempting (among other things) to accomplish in my training: to apply the Founder's budo to the resolution of my personal challenges. But how complicated a proposition is this? And more directly, how in blazes will this WORK?!
I've begun reading Nick Dubin's rather thoughtful work, Asperger's Syndrome and Anxiety: A Guide to Successful Stress Management. In the second chapter, Dubin expounds at length on a number of the social & psychological challenges that "Aspies" like me face, while trying to keep the reader from becoming intimidated or discouraged, and summarizes by saying, "Instead of viewing the world as a dangerous place, view yourself as a brave warrior heading into battle." This, I now realize, is EXACTLY what I've been trying to do, my whole life, through MA practice & fandom.
It's an appealing metaphor, to be sure. But it runs into a kink when you consider, further, how Aikido interprets the warrior ethic: as being utterly opposed to conflict on principle, not bracing for it with every moment. So before I go overboard with the analogy of "asper-kido" as the solution to all my problems, I'd better sort this out.
Ueshiba-kaiso had a unique interpretation of the word, "budo": the martial path. It might be said that he took the Tokugawa-era principle of "The Life-Giving Sword" to an extreme, when he recast budo as the m
...More