THE MENTAL DIMENSION

Aikido teaches harmony and harmony is about sensitivity. Sensitivity's more complex than it sounds, however, including as it does feelings of a "centred" self, feelings of "extended" strength, and the ability to anticipate what a partner or opponent will do next.

Mechanical practice can't develop the feeling of having a "centre", or the feeling of "extended" strength, or the feeling of a connection so close that two become one. Training that repeats set moves will not generate these feelings. It will skill us in making the movements we repeat, but we can't get the feelings of "centredness", "extension" and "connectedness" by doing only this.

To get these deeper feelings we have to move with some sense of inner meaning. We have to have a mental sense of what we want to achieve that is without the intellectual "friction" of preconception and thought. We have to harmonise body and mind.

The difference in practice is the same as the difference between doing physical exercises and studying an art. Doing physical movements on their own is robotic. It's mechanical. It makes people defensive, brittle and light. Harmony training, however, like studying any art, is mindful and expansive. It's about mental awareness and it's this awareness that makes people confident and relaxed, well-balanced and flexible, powerful and free.