With deep respect, thank you, Ron, for taking your time to entertain my questions. Know that such a sincere exchange likely challenges me more than you, helping me to better understand my own aikido as well as what I am transmitting to others. Best regards!

Hey Joe - Thanks for the discussion, you've given me food for thought. I may revisit this topic at a later date but for now it's time for me to move on.

I see peace in the prison yard, not considering the snipers watching from above. I see peace in a village, not realizing each person is afraid his neighbor is an informer. I see two people working peacefully together, not realizing each is prepared to blackmail the other. Bodies are still, but minds are on fire - not "true peace."

"It's not how I teach Aikido, it's how Aikido affects those who study it." There may be a semantic loophole here: Does aikido manifest clearly within the student regardless of the instructor; or, will you say that if the student is not affected as you might expect, then the teacher was not teaching aikido?

Peace is not "sensed", it's either practiced or not. Therefore terms like true and false are meaningless when used to describe what is essentially a behavior.

I have always had a dislike (aversion) for violence. I have found Aikido study to strengthen my aversion for violence both as a personal practice and a form of entertainment. There are students I have taught that, when they began their study, felt otherwise about violence and have subsequently changed their views and adopted a more peaceful way of living. It's not how I teach Aikido, it's how Aikido affects those who study it.

A roomful of people with "aversion to violence" creates a false sense of peace. A roomful of people with fudoshin---immovable mind---creates a different peace, wherein the people can act freely without being swayed by thoughts of violence, non-violence, pretty, ugly, and so forth. Depending upon how it's taught, I suspect sincere aikido practice can create either variety of "peace."

If this is an objective of training, then violence goes the way of good and evil: Operating within the moment, there is no room for such thoughts. This returns us to my original question about your phrase "aversion to violence"...

I do not know the mind of the fellow with the bokken. I cannot make an assumption about his intent---which may include my judgments such as "violent" or "not violent," whether he will stop if I do not move, etc.---since my action should be based upon what is, not what I believe.

In the moment you can't know since the moment is a singularity in time. All around the moment, however, you and your partner are free to choose. Whether or not the overall event (which is composed of many moments strung together) qualifies as violence depends on the choices you both make.

Answer: In the moment, how can I know?

In your example the potential for violence exists. Questions - will he hit you if you don't move? When you throw him, will you do it in such a way as to hurt him no matter his ukemi skill? Violence, at least among humans, is married to intent.

Understood, no problem. Feel free to use more than 1 comment if 500 characters isn't enough.

(Sorry, by the way, Ron: The size constraint on comments makes me sound curt or testing; that's not entirely the intent. I'm just exploring, but know my intention is polite.)

My friend faces me and we bow. Then, with ferocious kiai, he swings his bokken freely toward my head. If I do not move, my skull will surely be shattered and I may be killed. Without thought, I hurl him to the ground. If not for his own skilled ukemi, he might be paralyzed or killed. We stand, we compose ourselves and bow, and then we smile. Is there violence here?