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Physical violence is an inevitability in any martial art. The question should be more around how the resolution is enacted.
I, in some part, practice Aikido to be safe. Knowing that I may have to use my skills, but, developing the morality, and the ability to control what I do becomes most important. At this level, ethical choices can be made at the moment of blending; I can, and must, make a clear ethical choice at that moment: strike, throw, control, or evade. This is the moment when true benevolence can be expressed, or ignored.
In this way, Aikido becomes a test of character and the violence becomes less of a focus.
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