lbb

Purely personal perspective here: I see this as distinct from "to create inner peace". Not that I want to quibble over definitions, but I am cautious about paraphrasing when speaking of the fuzzy stuff. It would seem harmless, even necessary, to paraphrase when having such conversations -- we're not talking about building a watch, here -- but over and over again, I've seen discussions where a paraphrase has the same sense and meaning in the mind of the speaker, but introduces an entirely different sense, meaning or at least connotation to the audience. I've known plenty of people with petty ambition up the wazoo, who (if asked) would have said that they had "inner peace", and who do by their definition. I've known plenty of people whose actions and attitudes are completely inconsistent with "inner peace" as I know it, but whose mental outlook allowed them to reconcile it all.

Also (heresy alert here, avert your eyes if you have a problem with that sort of thing) I don't see "the man himself" as the ultimate moral authority, or even as the ultimate authority of "the real purpose of the martial arts". I completely accept his statements about what aikido is for in the same sense that I accept General Motors' statements about what one of their vehicles is for: he created it for an intended purpose. Does that mean that we must have the same purpose in order to practice aikido? Maybe you'll argue that we should, but I'm not sure that even with the best of intentions we can. I get nothing at all from the oft-quoted "The Art of Peace" -- no more than I do from any other out-of-context translations of soundbites. Some might say that I should pursue a more in-depth, scholarly approach to understanding what O Sensei meant, but practically speaking, I don't see a way to do that except by accepting the authority of someone else's interpretation first (in the form of translation and context). And, if I were to arrive at "the truth" of what O Sensei intended for aikido -- or at least, came to an understanding that I could accept as "the truth" -- what if I found that I disagreed with it? Or what if I think I've got another way to "obtain control of one's own character" that's better and more effective than aikido? Should I stop training?

That is, of course, a rhetorical question. It's possible I might stop training in the future, but if I do, it won't be because of a philosophical difference of opinion with the presumed intentions of the founder. In the meanwhile, I train as long as my own reasons are sufficient. I won't try to figure out what O Sensei meant and hammer my own thinking into conformity with whatever I think that is. General Motors may have intended that car to drive on a paved road, but in a changed world a hundred years from now, in a situation that's yet to be, who's to say that that's its best function? It may serve better as a shelter, a work of art, a source of scrap materials to build things that are more useful in that time and place. It may serve one person best as a vehicle and another person best as something to duck behind when the rocks start flying. I think aikido's no different.