Rupert Atkinson

Actually, I disagree 100%. Words are important. You have broken the concept of aiki into its constituent parts. Aiki is the target. Terms like 'union of ki' make it sound mysterious and prevent learning. You could break the word 'broadcast' down to its components to explain its meaning, but there really is no need so no one ever does. Some might get mixed up and 'cast the broad' and get rather lost. It's there in the name, hidden in plain sight: Aiki-do. I say, stick with that and use it. It is simply, The Way of Aiki. We have to use our Aikido syllabus to learn aiki. Our focus should be on what aiki is and how to learn it through the techniques. The waza are the 'means', but for 99% of people, the waza are the 'end'. There is nothing else. Everyone is graded on waza, for example. A higher grade just = more waza. They think, "I know more than you." Some schools have ki-no-nagare but they are usually just another bunch of waza that people perform in unison like robots (foot here, hand there, etc.). Other schools do bokken/jo waza and, from what I clearly see, what they do contradicts what they do in their Aikido. We should unify what we do. What you learn in one place should reinforce what you learn in another. Your ikkyo should reinforce your irimi-nage etc. What you learn in shiho-nage should reinforce every other waza etc. We should isolate common principles (ideas) and put them in everything. I rarely see that. And that is still just at the level of waza. Some people have found some aiki through extended training - but it is all accidental. They do not understand it even though they can do it a bit so can not teach it. Nor can they develop it because they don't know exactly how they got it. They hit on one idea, then everyone has to follow ... but it fails to reproduce.
When I was younger I travelled a lot ... for Aikido. I mean .. a lot. More than most I'd say. I have seen a lot of 'different approaches'. And still ... it is hard to train aiki !!!

Just my 2c.