Thank you, Sensei, for this interview! …
A few excerpts: „I wish we can learn from Systema more basic Japanese martial Arts, the origin idea.“ – „Many Japanese Martial Arts have made Budo to sports, more movement, only movement.“ – „Basic Japanese idea is more internal, more Ki or energy system“. – „We should develop another power to make Aikido also another Martial Art keep going right away.“
These are some of the most important reasons, why we practise Seishinkai Aikido. Actually it means ‚back to the basics‘ and should simply be called ‚ Aikido‘, if one would connect O-Sensei’s creative mentality with it.
Sei in SEISHINKAI is the rice-corn that is planted into the ground. Sei is the origin of the personal development in budo, the aim of which is the final liberation of fears. Only a free human being can truly serve society.
In the four-pillars-training of Seishinkai Aikido (‚Grundlagen’/Basics of Martial Arts – Jo-Jutsu – Ken-Jutsu – Aikido) the Basics of Martial Arts take up an equal rank to the other three disciplines. Without the Basics, the origin of movement – in great things as well as in small – our Aikido is ‚only movement‘.
From the viewpoint of Aikido the Systema-trainings in SEISHINKAI are basic work. Every Aikidoka can broaden his basic training according to his own judgement. From the viewpoint of the Systema school naturally it is ’systema‘. – And that is NOT an antagonism, because in Seishinkai Aikido Systema is one of the most essential building blocks of the training of ‚Grundlagen’/Basics of Martial Arts.
Systema-practitioners could object: But with this, you limit this great martial art considerably. – Very clearly: No. What could be greater than our own freedom, which only waits to take us along?
During the ‚passages‘ this motif consistently appeals to me very strongly. We are all on the way – but where do we go? The aim is not at all uniform, as a matter of fact there are not any two similar paths. A passage can only succeed if in the vital moment the training-community is really present. Because we are the gate for each other!
The image of the passage represents an utopia for me as well, how societies could function. Rules suitable to offer the greatest measure of personal freedom possible to the members of society.
Addendum: Utopias – Greek, the No-Place – do as a definition not exist in any real place. Not in Seishinkai Aikido either. But we have ‚rowed‘ a long distance in direction of utopia, sometimes against the stream. – And today there exists new scope for development, promising connections and a clear perspective for one’s own development within the four-pillars-training. Systema has a valuable part in this, by supplying the fundamentals needed to develop inner mental strength. My personal experience corresponds with Ikeda Sensei’s statement in the video presented above.
Thorsten Schoo
