TheMiddleRoad

Today it is seeming that there is these discussions about building the body to be greatest Aiki body. However the Aikido is known as a spiritual art leading to enlightenment. O Sensei talking about the chinkon kishin, and the purifying with the misogi. More that Aikido is Misogi.

When I think of the Buddha or Jesus, Gandhi and the other great spiritual leaders, I don't see the great martial artists brandishing great aiki body. When I think of all the great martial artists of the aiki body, who can we say is the leader of a spiritual art. I only know the O sensei. Was there others, too?

So question really becomes

Can it be that the perfecting of great waza is mere but a ruse, a stepping stone to the abandonment of waza altogether as a method of spiritual enlightenment? Didn't there be many great masters that decide, "well now it is time for the mastering the Cha-do, Ikebana-do and Shodo?

is anyone on the aikiweb thinking like this way, too?