To be one with everything.
7 years ago I decided to start teaching Aikido Tendoryu and with the years I discovered that "to teach", is "to learn" twice.
Aikido is an arduous but incredibly successful path, full of constant paradoxes and teachings. When I received Daniela's invitation to write about it, I decided to share from my subjective and limited perspective what makes me continue and want to learn more every day.
One of the main problems of the world has always been the lack of empathy. The Ego supposes that we are always right and that others are wrong, believing that we are different.
Sometimes I think that O’Sensei understood that the problem is our way of perceiving the world.
There is no opponent outside. The whole universe is in constant motion with us in it.
Things happen all the time and we qualify them as good or bad: earthquakes, storms...
also among people: crimes, robberies; and it’s normal to feel the desire to rectify many things that happen in the world, but I believe nature itself needs all of its various manifestations –This is perfection-.
For that, Aikido is not about fighting to correct or change anyone or anything, it’s about how to harmonize even with what I find complex to harmonize.
To be one with everything.
I know that maybe it sounds exaggerated but I think that during the Keiko, we trained to have that correct vision. If we don't do the technique 100% connected with the partner, it´s not Aikido, if we move alone, even if our movements are perfect...it's not Aikido. We must embed in a single universal embrace everything that surrounds us, that is Aikido, maybe for that it's well know as “The Art of Peace”.
I hope to live many more years and to have the condition to continue practicing, learning and one day to see everything as perfect as it is.
Lorena Fortolís Gutiérrez from Mexico City, MX, 3.Dan, 1998
