The Way of Open Mindedness

Aikido is the way of harmony. And to harmonize the world, the usage of the techniques alone will not help, the development of human values and addition of virtues and wisdom will also not be enough for the way of harmony. To totally harmonize with the world, we must not only harmonize with our own mind, soul and body, but also everyone, nature, the world and the cosmos.

Tao or the way is the concept of Taoism, and to gain the world, it is through acceptance and open-mindedness. To win over people's hearts, we must put our disagreement and dislike aside and accept all reasons of everyone. When O' Sensei was creating his own martial art, he studied many ancient text, not only his own religion, Shinto, but he also studied Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism and even Christianity. All these religions have a similar and whole concept, it is virtue, harmony and unity.

In O'Sensei's quotation, Aikido is not just a self defense martial art, it is also a philosophy. Harmony is open-mindedness and acceptance. All martial art have a common goal, sharing, accept and enlightment. Arrogance or Discrimnation shuold not exist. Different schools have different cultures, they have disadvantages and benefits. Putting ourselves in other people's shoes, we are able to understand the feelings and the reason behind their very actions.

Aikido is not to correct others, but to correct ourselves and then share the different experiences to the world.

Joke of the Day

Anyway, Scabies is a skin infection :)

Weapons of War!!!!

In almost every martial art. there are needs of weapons. In Taichi, straight chinese swords are used. And in Aikido, we used Jo(stick), Bokken(sword) and Tanto(knife). What are the usage of weapons and how many weapons are there in the world???

Weapons are mostly used by martial artists or warrior. Weapons are the arms of the warrior, the extra expansion of a warrior hand. For example, stick or spear are long ranged weapon. Ever long range will be archery.

In Chinese martial art, there are Eighteen weapons of War:

1. Sabre
   
2. Spear
3. Straight sword
   
4. Staff
   
5. Halberd
   
6. Axe
   
7. Battle Axe
   
8. Hook sword
   
9. Fork/ Trident
   
10. Steel whip
    
11. Mace
    
12. Hammer
    
13. Talon
    
14. Ranseur/ Trident-halberd
    
15. Lance
16. Short cudgel
    
17. Stick/ Crutches
    
18. Meteor hammer
    

These weapons are long ranged, short ranged and destructive.
For example, the sabre can be long or short ranged. The Green Dragon Sabre used by Guan Yu is a long ranged one and destructive due to it large and sharp blade, therefore it is heavy in weight and hard to handle.

Spears and lances are commonly used by soldiers or knight. They are long and light in weight. Although it is easy to control and have increased agility, but it is a soft weapon, it possess less strength than the Sabre.

The choice of weapon depend on the capabilities of the particular person, the strength, the area of space and comfort.