By engaging in the arts of Aikido, Yoga, Meditation, and the Art of Tea, it is our intention to offer the space and opportunity for individuals to discover a perspective free from doubt and fear, to embody the principles of harmony, creativity, and spontaneity, and to learn how to transform conflict, outer and inner, into wisdom, a return to integrity and a movement of evolution.
In order to walk this path, we value meeting life free from resistance, recognizing that we can not know what the next moment will bring, trusting that whatever the next moment is, it is an opportunity to evolve, renouncing our investment in fear, separation, and aggression, facing this moment with respect, reverence and gratitude.
With this intention and these values we hope to create a movement whereby we, both individually and collectively, become authentic, aware, and independant. Where we express and embody clearly the techinque, the wisdom, the energy, and the vision of the arts that we practice, and that we strive to be a catalyst for positive change in our community both locally and globally. To give a perspective of the direction that the dojo takes in regard to the training and exploration, here are some excerpts done by Cassidy Sensei:
"Aikido is about expressing who we already are : timeless, immovable, harmonious beings with a limitless capacity to respond with Life. Placing our attention on surrendering to the discovery of that being, trusting the intelligence of that being, and placing all or our faith into the birth of this being in this moment, we are Free. Then the creation of what is known as Takemusu Aikido becomes possible. We can not take credit for it. We are it. We can not improve it. It improves this moment. We can not do it. It does us. We can create space for it to awaken. We can choose to be available to it. We can study and create a language for it to speak with. But we can not control or use it. Finally in the end we disappear into It and we then are It; Free finally to create and contribute to the rest of Life that is who we are as well. No longer looking for permission to live, we move into the space that Life offers without reservation or hesitation. Embracing what arrives in this moment without resistance, we witness our response and relationship being born fresh in the moment again and again without end. We come to rest at the Beginning, a place of innocence and trust, hands open, welcoming the Unknown. As we meet that which is out of balance, that which is unresolved, we meet it with no walls and a clear heart, being open and available for transformation to occur, a transformation of conflict into clarity, an alchemy of energetic opposites that gives birth to an evolution of the event and all who are in it. We do not try to form the event into a preconceived direction but witness a movement beyond concepts speak its Truth in this moment. This movement of this transformation is freshly revealed and always beyond what the mind may think to do."
"The art of ukemi is the system that keeps us true. The ability to lose one's balance in a way that brings us back to balance. The fall leading to a greater place. The ability to transform the hit into a gift. To transform poison into wisdom. To take the moment of being out of balance as a moment of evolution rather than of failure. To see that the loss of balance is a catalyst for a movement to a greater depth. Ukemi is an art of healing. To willingly be transformed by the loss of balance as it takes us into the unknown. As it takes us into the unknown and into a discovery of freedom. Freedom to be with the energy of the conflict rather than being victim to that energy. Ukemi is Aikido. Ukemi is the art of receiving. Ukemi is the art of transformation. Ukemi is the art of weightlessness. Ukemi is the art of freedom."
"Recently I have looked at what I see as being an inherent dilemma of the traditional training in Aikido. From my perspective, Aikido is meant to be the practise of learning how to resolve conflict in a way that is harmonious with the other and with Life as a whole. Life and the objects in Life are unpredictable by nature. There are patterns and rhythms but fundamentally, each moment is unknown and the elements in that moment are new. But in Aikido we approach learning how to harmonize with the unpredictable, the unknowable, by learning formulas, techniques, patterns. Learning formulas can be rewarding and help to stabilize the individual but it will not give the individual the ability to respond to the unpredictable. For this to happen we need to become Spontaneous. We need to be at the place where the moment is created, with the moment in its creation, co created so to speak, in a way our response is part of that creation. In this way we are "IN HARMONY", we are that Harmony, we are with Life. This, from my perspective, is the issue of training, the Jewel of the art, the reason for our work. It can not be measured, or grasped, or owned, it is very elusive and can not be stored like memory. Either I am spontaneous or not, either I am willing to be naked with Life or not, either I am taking the risk of embracing the Unknown or not. Which is why we are attracted to the knowable, the formula, because with formula, we can measure our improvement and rely on the past training to face the conflict and perhaps find a way to deal with unknown, but we will never be In Harmony with the unknown this way. That path does not lead there."