Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Aikido As Transformer
Aikido As Transformer
Teacher as Healer
Michael A. Gordon
Aikido as Transformative and Embodied Pedagogy
Michael A. Gordon
Aikido
as Transformative
and Embodied
Pedagogy
Teacher as Healer
Michael A. Gordon
Simon Fraser University
Vancouver, BC, Canada
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Foreword
How do we align with those deep currents that flow within and between
us? How, in an age of such stunning threat and conflict, do we hold the
spirit of mutual protection and preservation?
We are steeped in a worldview of distinct subject and object, a materi-
alist, positivist quest for absolute truth and control over the other: plant,
planet, and sometimes person. As both product of and perpetuator of
that worldview education centers on acquisition of external and largely
abstract knowledge and instrumental skills. These are worthwhile expec-
tations of schooling. The trouble—it is not hard to recognize—is that
this worldview (and this knowledge), for all its might and value, leaves us
distant from the earth, one another, and ourselves. From this detached
stance, the world is disenchanted, to use Max Weber’s term. And we end
up doing quite stunning violence to each of these realms.
Five hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci anticipated the conse-
quence of this, at the time, emerging view. He named it an abbreviators
approach. He saw that in missing the embeddedness, embodiment, and
interconnectedness of the thing we observe in favor of some abstract,
abbreviated representation of it or merely its immediate utility, we miss
the fullness and even enchantment of the thing itself. He made explicit
that taking this shell, thinking we have the nut, leaves us doing injury to
knowledge and to love.
Though we can now acknowledge the domination of this abbreviators
approach, we can also recognize a great shift in worldview that is well
v
vi Foreword
On Joyful Immersion
One of my earliest memories as a young boy is of learning to fly a kite.
Standing out on the windswept muddy flats of Vancouver’s Locarno
Beach, the tide exposing a seemingly unending expanse of wet sand out
into the harbor. Or perhaps it was the long grassy knoll rising above
the rocks leading up toward the cliffs around the University of British
Columbia and neighboring Wreck Beach. I felt the wind push and knock
me about as I struggled to keep my feet planted, my tiny hands wrapped
around the plastic spool of nylon string, the other end of which was con-
nected to a brightly colored diamond-shaped kite, flapping in the wind
like a restless bird set to take flight. Perhaps, an adult or parent was
holding the string along with me, arms wrapped around, coaching me
through the steps, or maybe holding the kite slightly aloft for takeoff.
‘Run!’ they said, releasing the kite. ‘Run, run, run! Let the string out
now!’ I felt the whoosh of air as ran headlong into the air current, the
kite struggling and pulling against the string, trying to tug it away from
my grip. And then suddenly, a feeling of ease, of lightness and giddy joy:
The kite was soaring upward, darting through the gusts of wind but sta-
bilizing and pulling skyward as I let out the string. It was exhilarating
to feel connected to that magical object, as if I too was flying toward
the sun like a bird, feeling the pulse through the string of the kite as it
danced above me, guiding and joining with it through the choreography
of my hand movement.
ix
x Preface
Sense memories like this come flooding through as I let my body and
imagination revisit these early experiences. As a young child growing up
on the west coast of British Columbia, our family and that of my parents’
close friends co-rented a house in the summers on the Sunshine Coast,
a forested and rocky peninsula jutting northward a short ferry ride away
from the city, and which overlooked the Salish Sea toward Vancouver
Island. Now that I have bought a house on the same coast, I reflect
back on the countless hours I spent here mesmerized with the marine
life teeming in the tide pools along the rocky beaches. Countless more
were spent exploring the thick coastal forests with their majestic trees
and woodland creatures, tiny and large. The real and imagined world
I moved through intermingled through stories, drawings, and future
nature trips and, as a teenager, a developing passion for capturing this
sensuous beauty through photography.
Looking back, I can make a clear connection between my earliest
physical and emotional sensations connected to discovering my own
body sensations and movement, and that of the natural landscape and
life around me. This curiosity and intrigue would carry forward through
a plethora of physical activity: Skiing, racquet sports, soccer, hockey,
and baseball were part of my sporting and physical life, some of which
carry through to this day. Competitive team sports and their attendant
machismo tendencies, however, never really took root, despite the usual
boyhood fantasies about wartime heroism, battle courage, and myriad
other ‘combative’ or revenge scenarios. As I reflect back on these more
meaningful and authentic early kinesthetic experiences, two elements
stand out prominently. Firstly, that, as I just mentioned, competition was a
social or performative dynamic that did not ultimately resonate deeply. It
was the doing of the activity, the joyful immersion and call of natural curi-
osity and skill-enhancement that carried me through. Second is that the
mirroring of the rhythmic movement and energy of natural life around
me that did move me (i.e. observing, being in nature; solo, non-com-
petitive activities like swimming, cycling, climbing) have led to the most
lasting, meaningful, and ongoing interactive passions in my life. These
enduring activities fall into three broad autobiographical categories:
music, Aikido, and motorcycling. This book explores the latter two—
Aikido and motorcycling—as core practices in my life. I have deliberately
left music, acting and other creative pursuits aside in this study, as they
would likely comprise an entire other exploration. In place of the profes-
sional career and life path, I have pursued through singing, playing guitar
Preface xi
and piano, songwriting, and playing in musical groups since the age of
13, I have explored the kinesthetic, aesthetic, and rhythmic body move-
ment of music performance (i.e.) through the taking up—for the pur-
poses of this book—of another creative practice: Japanese calligraphy or
shodo. In essence, I wanted to ‘port’ my other lifelong practices (Aikido,
music, sports, photography) into something new, and specifically as an
exploration in the context of this study about self-cultivation—of practice
as a mirror of one’s spiritual development.
I bring up these early life memories to draw a line from my early psy-
cho-emotional and kinesthetic inclinations through to the present as a
way of getting at what Henry writes of as ‘life phenomenology’ (Henry
2008, 2015). Henry refers to the ‘auto-affectivity’ that inhabits and
informs our senses and connects us to the vital energy that suffuses life
all around us—in nature, and in our bodily, emotional and psychologi-
cal registers as we move through our world of experiences. Rather than
forming a phenomenological study per se, however, this book examines
the ways in which this universal and vital life energy (ki in Japanese)
infuses, animates, informs, and gives rise to self-cultivation and increased
relational awareness through conscious and concerted reflexive practice.
Overall, the various life experiences that form the ‘ground’ of this book
are drawn out across all aspects of living, with a particular emphasis on
interdependence and a specific emphasis on the practices of motorcycling,
Aikido, and shodo (Japanese calligraphy). While not everyone may take
up the practice of Aikido, shodo, or motorcycling, the virtue-ethic and
embodied approach to these practices as way is put forward here as an
orientation that offers more generalizable insights into teaching and
learning relationships that may become more fully conscious, human-
ized, and attuned aspirationally toward harmonious relationship-making.
This book evolved from my doctoral dissertation, titled ‘Practicing
Love: Embodied Attunement Through the Lens of Aikido,’ and which
was defended at Simon Fraser University in the fall of 2018. As a man-
uscript thesis it is comprised of essays which are self-contained, have
been presented at peer-reviewed conferences, and otherwise appear else-
where as peer-review publications in specified academic journals and
books. Collating these essays here as chapters from which they originally
appeared in thesis manuscript form invites a difficulty in linking them the-
matically, with the disadvantage that each piece cannot refer back to the
overall thesis in which they are placed. Thus, this opening piece serves
as an expanded and exploratory essay on the themes and concepts that
xii Preface
unfold through the book pieces and form the shape of this book. Overall,
the essays here shape the thesis’ dominant theme of practice as self-trans-
formation, toward healing or wholeness. This relationship to practice
reflects strongly the classical East Asian philosophy, such as Buddhism,
Confucianism, and Daoism, and their view of education as self-cultiva-
tion, especially through contemplative practices. From this viewpoint,
education is ontological in nature, and spiritually speaking, cosmologically
situated. One’s beingness, hence the ontological, is inseparable from one’s
self-development toward an understanding of their place and practices
within-the-whole. Learning as self-cultivation, then, is a circular, cyclical,
and holistic integration of practice and self-reflection that both occurs
through and results from intersubjective and non-dual awareness.
The book itself is structured, and its constituent essays organized, to
model this cyclical and holistic framework of self-cultivation. This learning
cycle is grounded with the purpose of virtue ethics as self-cultivation at
heart and, as we shall see shortly, is thus teleological in nature. The book
is organized into three parts that reflect this cyclical or holistic structure.
Part I follows this introductory essay and takes ‘A Psychospiritual View of
Self-Cultivation.’ The idea here is that our unique, localized, idiosyncratic
conditions form the ‘ground’ of our being, our immediate outlook, psy-
cho-emotional conditioning, or in Buddhist terminology, our ‘dependent
origination.’ The first chapter examines pedagogy as fostering ‘wholeness’
or ‘healing’ by developing a more holistic, ‘ecological,’ or non-dual view-
point. Part II moves into practice of this non-dual viewpoint through ‘An
Intersubjective View of Knowing and Being.’ The two essays here look at
the phenomenological, psycho-emotional, and relational aspects of Aikido
and motorcycling, respectively, and how they inform intersubjective
awareness from a practice orientation of mind-body integration, which
itself approaches a non-dualistic experience and outlook. Lastly, Part III
forms ‘A Relational View of Practice’ by looking at how the embodied
attunement practice of Aikido can inform transformative and self-reflec-
tive learning through ‘embodied habitus’ (Inoue 2006) of non-dual rela-
tionality in broader relational and pedagogical settings. The following
sections of this introductory essay expand on these themes of self-reflec-
tive learning through practice, through autobiographical notes that situ-
ate my research, more detailed unfolding of the holistic methodology and
conceptual framework, and the thematic and theoretical perspectives in
which the book as a whole is framed.
References
Henry, M. (2008). Material phenomenology (S. Davidson, Trans.). New York:
Fordham University Press.
Henry, M. (2015). Incarnation: A philosophy of flesh (K. Hefty, Trans.). Evanston,
IL: Northwestern University Press.
Inoue, S. (2006). Embodied habitus. Theory, Culture and Society, 23(2–3),
229–231.
Acknowledgements
xv
xvi Acknowledgements
education. To Dr. Tobin Hart, I extend my deep gratitude for your men-
torship and friendship as a fellow traveler, scholar and human on the path
to creating a better world for all beings.
Lastly, to my parents, without whom I wouldn’t have come into this
world: For the difficult but transformative growth together along this
path of life, one which has allowed me to appreciate the best in each of
them and the opportunity to continue to discover the person I am.
Contents
xvii
xviii Contents
6 Conclusion 163
Index 187
List of Figures
xix
List of Tables
xxi
PART I
A Psychospiritual View
of Self-Cultivation
obscuring me from the oncoming car as I pulled forward past the truck’s
front bumper to make a left turn.
The oncoming car hit me broadside. The bike was hit with such
force that it was knocked out from beneath me, spinning and skittering
on its side axis into the middle of the opposite oncoming side traffic.
According to a witness, I was knocked head-down off my motorcycle,
straight into the pavement—mercifully landing after the car had pushed
through. While my head and neck made direct impact, I can only attest
to the fact that decades of martial arts training and break-falling in the
Japanese defensive art of Aikido had effectively saved my life, instinc-
tively putting me into a state of coordinated, relaxed body posture and
protective responsiveness. As the witness stated later: ‘I don’t know how
you survived that!’ As horrific as the accident was, I came out relatively
spared of physical injury—this considering I ended up hitting the pave-
ment helmet and hands first, my bike scattering across the road and
ultimately written-off as a mangled unrepairable loss by the insurance
company. In that life-threatening blink of an eye, years of quick reflexes
and martial arts training in Aikido proved its merit, protecting me from
significant shock, trauma, and, possibly, death.
This dramatic autobiographical event serves as the pretext of this
book, where I use the ‘brush with mortality’ to examine the psychos-
piritual, kinesthetic, and relational aspects of practice as it applies to daily
life. By this I suggest not just life and death situations (which a mar-
tial art such as Aikido suggests via ‘self-defence’), but rather to the sense
of being fully immersed in living. Aristotle laid the early foundation for
later phenomenological philosophy and study of ‘aliveness’ with the
Greek term aesthesis, which forms the root of his theory of aesthetics.
Jungian scholar James Hillman (1992, p. 60) is one of a succession of
modern philosophers from Nietzsche through Heidegger to revive the
Aristotelian idea of aesthesis (from Greek, meaning ‘sensation’), which
relates to the experience of aletheia (meaning ‘unconcealment’ or ‘dis-
closure’ of truth through phenomena). As educator Elliot Eisner points
out, ‘The opposite of aesthetic is anaesthetic!’ (as cited in Coghlan &
Brydon-Miller, 2014, p. 121). Thus, in terms of ontology, and prac-
tice, being alive is not simply a measure of being not dead but being
fully awakened. Speaking to this ‘aliveness,’ I take up the full kinesthetic
(e.g., embodied) aspects of my own practices toward connecting with
their generalizable and practical applications for full and joyful immer-
sion in life. In my self-study for this book, the focus on aesthesis or ‘alive
1 INTRODUCTION: PRACTICE AS TRANSFORMATIVE WHOLENESS 5
Ontology as Gestalt
I introduce Gestalt Therapy to widen the view from the immediate
accident parameters (causality) of my accident to my overall ‘life ecol-
ogy,’ both inner and outer, and how conscious and unconscious syn-
chronization of such ‘inner/outer’ phenomena (namely, coordination
of mind-body-environment through ki-awareness) leads to my greater
reflection and integration of what happened. From this holistic, ecolog-
ical, or gestalt perspective, I contend that this study aligns with Yuasa’s
(teleological) discussion of Jung’s ‘synchronization’ (1993, p. 145), the
idea that life ruptures such as my accident can be viewed in terms of
8 M. A. GORDON
In Part III of this book, I lay out this ‘relational view’ of practice in
terms of the outcome of this teleological outlook on self-cultivation and
interdependent relationality. In the Buddhist context, as in Fromm’s call
to love as a skill, and Aikido’s founder’s mission to ‘love and protect all
living beings,’ this ‘practice of love’ is laid out both methodologically
and aspirationally as ‘skillful means’ or practical wisdom. I examine love
as a pedagogical undertaking through this understanding and through
the lens of Aikido as do, michi, ‘way’ or practice. I do so not only from
a virtue ethics standpoint, but practically speaking as embodied attune-
ment. I explore—through reflections on personal and professional expe-
rience, namely: teaching, psychotherapy, Aikido, and motorcycling—an
expanded notion of practice, beyond theory and technique, to some-
thing ecological.
In review, this book is formulated from the following key themes and
components:
Ki is the Key
The underlying ‘auto-affectivity,’ as Michel Henry (2015) calls it in his
‘life phenomenology,’ or aesthesis of this self-study is considered through
embodied, interpersonal, and transpersonal ki-energy awareness. Ki both
14 M. A. GORDON
symbolizes and carries with it the self-sustaining life drive of all organ-
isms. Suffice to say here that ki is a current of life, or better yet a currency
of affective exchange, dynamic energy interplay, and the stuff or hyle
of life itself. Yuasa (1993) points out how scientific studies explore the
measurability of ki in the body as biokinetic energy, or the measurable
effect of ki as such a transferable energy between ki-therapist and clients
in what he describes as ‘transpersonal synchronization’ (p. 145). Yuasa
notes that, as in quantum particle physics, problems abound practically
and theoretically in terms of ‘observer effect’ in such experiments. In line
with Yuasa, the pertinent point regarding self-cultivation in Japanese and
other East Asian philosophical traditions (i.e., Daoism, Zen Buddhism)
is not ultimate truth, but practical outcome (in terms of harmonized
relations). As is the wu wei or ‘non-doing’ flow of Daoist thought, the
principle meaning of ki and more importantly aiki as the central tenet of
Aikido is the idea of connecting mind, body, and spirit with the intelligi-
bility of the natural world, or the ki of the universe—of being in balance.
As mentioned earlier, Yuasa refers to the dedication to one’s self-cultiva-
tion through East Asian practices, to the balancing of one’s ‘inner’ ki and
external ki (i.e., others, the world) as being informed by an unconscious
‘teleological intentionality’ (Yuasa, 1993, p. 177). Yuasa’s mind-body
theory identifies ki as an aforementioned ‘third term’ or force beyond
the Cartesian dichotomy of mind and body. In doing so, Nagatomo (in
Yuasa, 1993) points out, Yuasa mirrors the projects of Maurice Merleau-
Ponty’s ‘intentional arc’ and Henri Bergson’s body ‘motor-scheme’—the
idea that perception and experience extend from both internal mapping
and external interaction as mind-through-body vis-a-vis the phenomenal
world (Yuasa, 1993, p. xxv). This interactive modality extends beyond
mind (subjective perception) or body (physical) duality, or singular cau-
sality (Yuasa, 1993). Nagatomo (in Yuasa, 1993) points out how Yuasa
defines ‘ki-energy as a third term with a psychophysical character that can-
not be properly accommodated within the dualistic paradigm of think-
ing’ (p. xii). As Yuasa highlights, in acupuncture the ‘field’ or holographic
view of the human body as comprised of energy or ki/qi meridians for
example stands in contrast to the anatomical topography of conventional
medical science and its organ-focused locality. The ‘invisible’ psycho-
physical force of ki, says Yuasa, not only moves throughout the body,
but in ‘transpersonal synchronicity’ with other persons and is entangled
with the environment. Thus, says Nagatomo (in Yuasa, 1993), that in
his ki theory, ‘Yuasa provides the empirical basis for the old wisdom that
1 INTRODUCTION: PRACTICE AS TRANSFORMATIVE WHOLENESS 15
Shodo and Aikido
The two featured experiential practice ‘ways’ that form the self-study
of this book, shodo and Aikido, serve as a microcosm of Yuasa’s ‘teleo-
logical intentionality.’ There is also a vital historical link between them.
Seiseki Abe achieved a historically unique level of mastery in both prac-
tices: He received 10th Dan (black belt) in Aikido and also taught callig-
raphy to Aikido’s founder Ueshiba. In an interview3 published in 2013,
Abe elaborates on the connection between commitment to one’s prac-
tice(s) and self-cultivation of ki. He speaks about the concentration (of
18 M. A. GORDON
ki) that is required the moment one puts the brush tip to the calligraphy
paper—the smaller the point, the greater the concentration. He goes on:
After you make a point on the paper, you begin to form lines. In aikido, if
someone grasps your hand, it is like the brush touching the surface to form
a point. When you move your hand, you are now forming a line. The dif-
ference between shodo and Aikido is that in shodo, when you form lines,
they are visible on paper. The aikido lines are invisible and disappear from
moment to moment.
Abe’s latter point here gets to two integral points in this book. First,
that self-cultivation through ki development (cf. Davey, 2002; Yuasa,
1993) is about being present, engaged, and synchronized. This inten-
tional commitment through ‘way’ both enhances and informs the prac-
titioner through moment-to-moment ‘auto-affectivity,’ the sensitivity to
which falls somewhere between a strictly somatic perception or cognitive
(or especially, intellectual) awareness. This very psychosomatic ‘between-
ness’ is akin to how Yuasa (1993) designates ki as a ‘third term’ of mind-
body consciousness. Secondly, as I intend to show, the Japanese ‘ways’
in a sense cannot be limited to skill development in an egological way, as
(in line with ‘teleological intentionality) they are embedded in life itself.
Shodo master Abe goes on to explain that Aikido founder Ueshiba’s
commitment to study shodo was driven by the desire to try and ‘cap-
ture’ and leave a lasting impression of his powerful ki, which otherwise
disappeared moment-to-moment. “He wanted to put his ki on paper,”
says Abe, exclaiming in the interview how, decades after Ueshiba’s death,
one can still see and feel the founder’s powerful ki through his shodo.
Another way to express this phenomenon of the vitality or ki-energy
of shodo is through the dynamics of ‘flow.’ Csikszentmihalyi (2008)
describes flow experience as complete immersion, presence, engagement,
merging of action and awareness, and exhibiting ‘autotelic personal-
ity’—that is, being driven by intrinsic reward or motivation rather than
by external goals. Davey (2002) relates how Tempu Nakamura Sensei, in
conceiving of his Japanese yoga system of mind-body coordination (Shin
Shin Toitsu Do), expressed the experience of merging or blending into
one’s practice, the ensuing effortless mind-body unity, and the falling
away of the perceptual boundaries of the egological ‘self’ as muga ichi-
nen: ‘no self, one thought’ (Davey, 2002, p. 164).
1 INTRODUCTION: PRACTICE AS TRANSFORMATIVE WHOLENESS 19
remained stable. I felt stable. But as soon as the test came on, with the
other person’s ki in front of me, I felt this…ripple, in my mind and body.
I couldn’t resist it or deny it, so I let it happen.’
I have included this vignette of a ki development exercise from a recent
Ki Aikido class in my private dojo in Gibsons, British Columbia, to con-
vey an experiential sense of Yuasa’s theory of ki as a ‘third way’ (Yuasa,
1993) of bio-energy affectivity. ‘Ki Aikido,’ as explained earlier, evolved
out of Aikido ex-Chief Instructor Koichi Tohei’s observations about
how most students could not embody the same effortless ki-flow exhib-
ited by Aikido’s founder Ueshiba. Following Ueshiba’s death in 1969,
and having studied Nakamura’s (Davey, 2013) Shin Shin Toitsu Do of
mind-body coordinated Japanese yoga, Tohei incorporated the same
principles into Aikido—enabling him to teach mind-body coordination
without students having to do rigorous Aikido training, and similarly,
allowing Aikido students to start with a connection to ki development
rather than spend years on the mat doing rigorous Aikido training to cul-
tivate relaxation and move without effort. One of these mind-body prin-
ciples involves putting one’s concentration on their lower abdomen or
‘one point’ (hara). Doing so, while not fixating on the physicality of the
spot but rather simply concentrating our attention to our center shifts a
person into a natural state of balance and stability. All of these principles
lead to a similar state of equilibrium, which is attributed to harmoniza-
tion of the subconscious and conscious mind-body into equilibrium or
flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008). In Aikido’s spiritual pedagogy, the mind-
body calmness and cosmological non-duality are one-in-the-same.
As a Ki Aikido teacher, I elaborate how this kind of extended pres-
ence and awareness helps us sensitize ourselves to oncoming disturbances
and naturally expands and incrementally increases our ki outward. In this
sense, ki operates as the kind of current I describe earlier in this intro-
ductory essay, akin to a flow of electricity, or subconscious bioenergetic,
telepathic resonance or a kind of ‘whole somatic intention.’ Tohei’s
vision of introducing ki principles into Aikido training not only enables
practitioners to enjoy greater stability and calm in their daily life, but to
provide an empirical, embodied, and enjoyable practice through which
to bring to fruition Ueshiba’s grander vision for non-dual awareness and
aiki—harmonization with the universe, or love.
1 INTRODUCTION: PRACTICE AS TRANSFORMATIVE WHOLENESS 21
As Perls et al. (1951) explain, psychology and therapy then are a pro-
cess of ‘creative adjustment’ of not the ‘what happens’ but the ‘how,’
and in what way it is interiorized, metabolized in relation to the experi-
ence at the ‘contact-boundary’ between the subject and their ‘field’—the
space between them and others, their tactile and experiential ecology and
so forth. As they continue: ‘the achievement of a strong gestalt is itself
the cure, for the figure of contact is not a sign of, but is itself the crea-
tive integration of experience’ (Perls et al., 1951, p. 26). In the course
of researching, reflecting, and writing this book, what has become a
profoundly influential book landed in my lap, one that has helped me
contextualize, process, and find ongoing meaning and even value in the
events of 2010 in a gestalt-like way. Hollis’ book The Middle Passage:
From Misery to Meaning in Midlife (Hollis, 1993) gave me a Jungian
therapeutic understanding that the shadow-work of coming-of-age out
of my lifelong struggles and crises made sense in what he describes as
the ‘second adulthood’ individuation often not-embraced or known by
those entering middle life. As Jung laid out, our ‘first adulthood’ occurs
after adolescence, when we establish autonomous lives as adults. Later
in life, however, free as we may be of the dependencies of our childhood
in material terms or freedom, we have yet another process of individu-
ation—the sloughing off of our internalized dependencies from our
parental relationships and dynamics. Hollis explains that many people,
seemingly struggling with the ‘misery’ of aging into midlife, are missing
this vital piece of inner work that otherwise eases and enrichens the pro-
cess of ongoing maturation and self-knowledge.
In the barest of terms, Hollis’ explication made evident that the work
I had embarked on in my own healing and healing of/through others
through Aikido and psychotherapy was exactly the psychospiritual calling
28 M. A. GORDON
True budo means to win over yourself and eliminate the fighting heart of
the enemy… it is a way to absolute self-perfection in which the very enemy
is eliminated. The technique of aiki is ascetic training and a way through
which you reach a state of unification of body and spirit by the realization
of the principles of Heaven. (Ueshiba, 1957, pp. 198–219)
or ‘higher love.’ We can say then that through the wavelength or ‘cur-
rent’ of ki development practices (i.e., shodo, Aikido) a practitioner is
committing herself to attuning to the ruptures or healing of interper-
sonal, relational, and transpersonal (e.g., ecological) flow.
In the next section, I discuss the methodology of this book and the
model by which the transegological practices laid out in this introduc-
tion can be seen as a wholistic cycle of learning toward non-dual interde-
pendence. For the moment, situated in the personal narrative that opens
this book, suffice to say that my own near-death experience (NDE) was
an awakening to my own mortality, grappling with the meaning of my
life’s journey and meaning—my gestalt—as a radical reflection on my
self-relationship, my self-love. One could say this violent contract with
my Jungian shadow-self and mortality was a test of my raison d’être, my
own existential reckoning. In the context of my Aikido training—which
saved my life in this motorcycle accident—it was a dramatic call for me
to examine my spiritual values in the context of budo, which as expressed
by O Sensei means ‘learning how to live,’ instead of ‘learning how to
die’ (as cited in Haroun, 2015, p. 87). In the arch of this work, I extend
the notion of ‘learning to live’ toward ‘learning to love.’ To illustrate the
phenomenological aspect of ki-awareness as embodied skill development
toward enhanced relational attunement, I include a second vignette as
follows.
they are asked during a debrief after the exercise. ‘It was a completely
different feeling’ said the students. ‘I don’t know, it was just a gut feel-
ing in my body that I didn’t want to get any closer. It wasn’t fear, just a
very powerful feeling she was emanating that made my body slow down
and hesitate.’ The group resets again. Next, the male student who began
in the middle originally is asked to stand behind the pregnant woman.
After the group does their ‘approach,’ again slowing down and feeling
the strong protective feeling from the pregnant woman, the male student
is asked what he felt as he stood behind her. ‘Very calm and protected’
he remarked. Resetting one final time, the male student now stands in
front of the pregnant woman, focusing on a strong feeling of protective
love and care for her and her unborn child. Now the approaching line
stops even further away…
The preceding vignette of a Ki Aikido demonstration conveys some
of the experiential, felt vital energy registering of ki as it relates to the Ki
Aikido principles of mind-body coordination. A group of approximately
15 visitors had come to do a trial class in my Vancouver, BC dojo. After
a brief explanation of ki development, its spiritual and transpersonal sig-
nificance and relationship to Aikido training, I conducted the exercise or
‘experiment.’
I highlight this vignette here as a means of reinforcing early on in this
study how Yuasa’s (1993) ‘teleological intentionality’ manifests itself via
somatic, emotional, cognitive, and otherwise intra/interpsychic regis-
ters through ki and Aikido training. By embodying and thus projecting
a feeling of loving protection and centeredness, both the participant and
he experiment group in this vignette display the affect and effect of a
powerful vital energy that supersedes conscious effort or application of
conscious technique. Thus, rather than technique or skill manifesting
the principle (e.g., ki), it is the principle which informs the exercises and
informs the embodied learning and awareness.
All heuristic inquiry begins with the internal search to discover, with an
encompassing puzzlement, a passionate desire to know, a devotion and
commitment to pursue a question that is strongly connected to one’s own
identity and selfhood. The awakening of such a question comes through
an inward clearing, and an intentional readiness and determination to dis-
cover a fundamental truth regarding the meaning and essence of one’s
own experience and that of others. (Moustakas, 1990, p. 40)
itself. In other words, the holarchic motif of Aikido’s spiritual and cos-
mological self-purification model of sacred geometry (triangle within
circle within square) is applied as both methodology and design in this
book. In Aikido cosmology, Triangle represents one’s ‘ready posture’ or
open awareness. This is manifest as calm, stable mind, and body posture.
From this readiness, one is prompted by contact, challenge, or rupture
and moves into circle, which represents circular movement, containment,
joining, blending, and balance. Again, as Phillipson (2009, p. 121) is
quoted earlier in this introductory essay, this aspect of calm engagement
predicates ‘becoming one with the situation.’ Finally, the square repre-
sents applied control, skillful technique, and resolution. As the triangle
moves into the circle, and is finally all contained within the square, the
‘all-in-one’ integration represents the spiritual blending of the three
‘sangen’ or realms: the hidden, the manifest, and the divine. This ful-
fills Aikido’s spiritual aim of bridging ‘heaven and earth’ or (absolute)
cosmos and (relative) mortal human existence (Stevens, 1997, p. 77).
This ready (triangle), enter (circle), and structure (square) process reso-
nates strongly with my process of reflective inquiry. Going even further,
I have come to an even deeper pedagogical understanding of the cycle
1 INTRODUCTION: PRACTICE AS TRANSFORMATIVE WHOLENESS 39
See Prebish (2000) and Keown (2006). Prebish notes, quoting Keown (1992), that traditional Buddhist
soteriology sees moral virtue (sīla) as a goal for laity, while for those in the monastic tradition it is seen as
a prerequisite in preparation for Samadhi (meditation). The later interpretation in Buddhism, also reflect-
ing recent scholarship, is the view is that sīla isn’t progressively (e.g., transcendentally) attained resulting
in wisdom (prajñā).
Ground is the situation as we find it, the conditions inherited from some
previous activity or situation; path is effort that we apply to those conditions;
and Fruition is the outcome which would not have occurred without our
effort. (2008 Seminary Transcripts Class, Berkeley Shambhala Center, n.d.)
Focusing less on our relative experience of life and more on the absolute
nature of reality: Ground is the way things are in absolute reality, Path is
awareness developed through meditation, and Fruition is an awakened
mindfully present. (2008 Seminary Transcripts Class, Berkeley Shambhala
Center, n.d.)
Takemusubi Aiki is the living embodiment and form of the dynamic work-
ing of One Spirit, Four Souls, Three Origins, and Eight Powers residing
within Taka Ama Hara, the High Heavenly Plain. It is the life force of
the continually unfolding creative energy of universal law. It is you your-
self! Man bridges the gap of spirit, mind, and body: the divine, astral and
physical realms. He contains them all. It is his responsibility to protect and
nurture them. (Gleason, 1995, p. 73)
A triangle with its point ascending symbolizes fire and the cosmic linga….
The three sides of the triangle represent various trinities: heaven, earth and
humankind; mind, body, and spirit; past, present, and future. A triangle
signifies the dimension of ki-flow.
A circle is a universal emblem for infinity, perfection, and eternity.
Nature expresses itself in circles, circuits, and spirals. A circle is zero, the
emptiness that fulfills all things. It represents the liquid dimension.
A square is stable, orderly, and material. It is the base of the physical
world, composed of earth, water, fire, and air. The square signifies the solid
dimension.
The body should be triangular, the mind circular. The triangle represents
the generation of energy and is the most stable physical posture. The cir-
cle symbolizes serenity and perfection, the source of unlimited techniques.
The square stands for solidity, the basis of applied control. (Ueshiba, 2002,
p. 80)
The overall conceptual design of this book functions from the previ-
ously seen ‘three-fold logic’ of Buddhism. I am proposing here that four
‘modalities’ are included in this tri-fold conceptual model:
The practice of the path is not simply linear; in one’s progress along the
path it is not that one first exclusively practices good conduct and then,
when one has perfected that, moves on to meditative concentration and
finally wisdom. Rather the three aspects of the practice of the path exist,
operate, and are developed in a mutually dependent and reciprocal rela-
tionship. In other words, without some nascent sense of suffering and
what conduces to its cessation one would not and could not even begin
the practice of the path. (Gethin, 2010, p. 84)
This is particularly important with the assertion here that the idiomatic
characters (kanji) for ai-ki-do line up in an ordered, matched sequential
way in reference to ‘ground-path-fruition.’ However, it is important to
note a disclaimer that this assertion is not evident anywhere in the schol-
arship or traditional presentation of the system of Aikido philosophy and
practice that I have encountered in my research. Aiki is a word O Sensei
reinterpreted from its basic meaning from ancient martial arts prac-
tices: ‘to blend with an opponent’s movements.’ When combined with
do (‘way’ or path), O Sensei gave it a core philosophical significance as
spiritual purpose8 (Saotome, 1993, p. vii). However, Aikido is variously
described also as Aikido. The distinction is not trivial. Returning to the
conceptual framework of Table 1.4, seeing each movement through the
threefold logic process, the factors ‘join up’ to complete the whole. This
is certainly the case of the geometric sangen in Aikido, which combines
to represent the totality and structure of the universe (Stevens, 1997).
This holistic, cyclical model is expressed in Table 1.5.
1 INTRODUCTION: PRACTICE AS TRANSFORMATIVE WHOLENESS 45
Readiness
Stable posture
Sensing
PATH 気 Maru Growth
(‘Practice’) Ki Movement Elasticity
action (‘spirit; life force’) Cauldron/crucible
Heuristic awareness Cooking Alchemy Engaging
Intention/attention Meeting with world
Confluence Dialogue
Containment
Expansion
Spiral yin/yang
Balance
Harmonization
Blending/‘Musubi’
‘AiKi’
FRUITION 道 Shikakushikaku Wholeness
(‘Result’) Do Stability
Praxis (‘Continued way’)
Fulfillment Nourishment
Realization
Attainment
Practical wisdom
Applied control
46 M. A. GORDON
GROUND-PATH 気 CONTACT-
(‘Practice from AIKI (‘Blending of GROWTH
View’) spirit; life force’)
PATH-FRUITION 道 CONTACT-
(‘Result of Insightful AIKIDO GROWTH-
Practice’) (‘Continued way WHOLENESS
of harmonization
of Ki’)
Three divisions Aikido Aikido and Sangen (‘Three origins’) Gestalt Therapy Essays
Summary of Essays
This work is organized into three thematic parts: Part I: A Psychospiritual
View; Part II: An Intersubjective View; Part III: A Relational
View. These parts are comprised of four peer-reviewed essays that have
been published, are pending publication, have been submitted for publi-
cation, or have been presented at peer-review international conferences.
The book’s parts and essays are organized within an overall conceptual
‘architecture.’ As stated previously, the book design is based on Buddhist
‘three-fold logic,’ with parallel holistic structure based on Aikido cosmol-
ogy (Triangle, Circle, Square), and Gestalt Therapy process. This model
is presented as a theory-as-methodology or praxis approach—that there
is a cycle of reflective learning and practice that fulfills the aspirational
virtue ethics underpinning its stated purpose. The essays are listed by
their sequence in the Table of Contents, with the first essay serving as an
expanded introduction.
2.
Teacher as Healer: Animating the ‘Ecological Self Through
Holistic, Engaged Pedagogy.
Presented in panel discussion ‘Investigating Inner Space:
Consciousness, Pedagogy, and Myth,’ Simon Fraser University
2016 Graduate Critical Studies Conference ‘Dialectics of Space:
Enclosure and Resistance,’ Vancouver. BC. Presented and included
in conference proceedings, 17th Annual Hawaii International
Conference on Education, January 2017, Honolulu, Hawaii.
3.
Awakening to Wholeness: Aikido as an Embodied Praxis of
Intersubjectivity.
1 INTRODUCTION: PRACTICE AS TRANSFORMATIVE WHOLENESS 49
Synopsis of Part I
In Part I, I take a psychospiritual view of self-cultivation. This view con-
stitutes ‘ground’ in the conceptual and design framework of this work:
ground, path, fruition. To take a psychospiritual view is to study both
the nature and fact of being (e.g., ontology) from the situational—the
contextual. This view is the ‘whatness’ of the situation, which in the
‘three-fold’ logic of this book constitutes the ground, the starting point,
the ‘here-and-now’ as Yalom (2013) calls it, and specifically the autobi-
ographical narrative that informs this self-study. In the first essay of this
manuscript, Teacher as Healer: Animating the ‘Ecological Self Through
Holistic, Engaged Pedagogy, I draw out to a wider psychosocial view
through the work of Jungian scholar and psychologist James Hillman to
examine the scope of such a transpersonal gaze of the world that implies
more holistic, cosmological knowing and being. Specifically, I write
about Hillman’s (1992) position that the two predominant theoretical
orientations of psychotherapy are polarities, and thus leave the suffering
human subject in a void, which doesn’t facilitate full healing, or whole-
ness. The first of these ‘poles’ is the psychoanalytic model, which attrib-
utes psychological disruption to intrapsychic phenomena. Thus, argues
Hillman, it decontextualizes the person’s situatedness in the broader
context of existence and meaning (e.g., Cosmos; spirituality; ontology).
50 M. A. GORDON
Synopsis of Part II
In Part II of the book, I take ‘An Intersubjective View of Knowing and
Being,’ rooted in a Japanese philosophical notion of the social self. This
1 INTRODUCTION: PRACTICE AS TRANSFORMATIVE WHOLENESS 51
Notes
1. The word Aikido in this book refers to my training in Ki Aikido, reflecting
Tohei’s vision for Aikido not just as martial skillfulness but for ‘daily life.’
2. Embodied learning here invokes the neurophenomological view that
Varela et al. (1991) describe as circularity, as it denotes their theory of
‘enactive consciousness.’
3. https://blackbeltmag.com/arts/japanese-arts/the-master-who-taught-
calligraphy-to-aikido-founder-morihei-ueshiba-and-actor-steven-seagal-
part-1.
4. As a professional singer-songwriter and recording artist with some traction,
I had secured a very high level ‘O1’ visa into the USA for a period of three
years.
5. As further explored in Introduction of this book, and introduced here in
the Prologue, the deeper Shinto foundations of O Sensei’s Aikido are based
on the spiritual ethos of kannagara no michi—‘the continuous path of the
Gods’ (Saotome, 1993).
6. Known as the ‘fourth wave’ (analytical, behavioral, humanistic being the
initial three) in psychology, the transpersonal approach has its roots in
depth psychology (Carl Jung, William James), humanistic (Abraham
Maslow, Carl Rogers) while incorporating the ‘transegoic’ or spiritual psy-
chology of human experience. The ‘human potential’ movement evolved
in the early period of this field, with figures such as Roberto Assagioli,
Stanislav and Christina Grof, Ken Wilber, John Welwood among influen-
tial contributors who brought eastern psycho-philosophical awareness to
the study of human experience and psychotherapeutic practice.
1 INTRODUCTION: PRACTICE AS TRANSFORMATIVE WHOLENESS 53
7. [1] The truth of suffering; [2] the origin of suffering (clinging or iden-
tification with experience—seeking pleasure; averting discomfort); [3] the
truth of the cessation of suffering (through meditation); [4] the truth of
the path or eightfold noble path (Ray, 2002).
8. Haroun (2015, p. 89) notes that: ‘Between 1922 and 1942, the names
of the art transformed from daito-ryu, to aiki-ryu, to aikijujutsu, to
aiki-budo, and finally to be known as aikido (Kiyoshi Nakakura, in Pranin,
1995, p. 253) after the beginning of World War II in 1942 (Ueshiba,
2008, p. 39).’ The latter occurred when Ueshiba’s art, along with most
martial arts, were centralized under the Greater Japan Martial Virtue
Society (Dai Nippon Butoku Kai). As Haroun (2015) highlights, O Sensei
had an important influence in the transformation of bushido to what later
became known as budo. As O Sensei said: ‘The heart of Japanese Budô is
simply harmony and love’ (Ueshiba, 1984, cited in Wagner, 2015, p. 86),
also more directly proclaiming that ‘bu is love.’
References
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54 M. A. GORDON
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Springer.
CHAPTER 2
Introduction
The following essay takes a ‘micro-macro’ view of the development of
‘self’ and identity as it pertains to relationality in pedagogy with an eye
to moving toward an ecological consciousness. On the macro-level, the
ecopsychological view of Shepard (1998), Roszak, Gomes, and Kanner
(1995), Hillman (1992, 1998), and others may compel us to see beyond
our intrapsychic drives, our dualistic notion of self and ‘other’ or self
and ‘world’ as reflecting a Cartesian subject-object split, to ‘identify,’ as
Naess (2008) suggests, with a self that is sensitized, unified, and separa-
ble from the extended ecology of life and the natural world. To do oth-
erwise leads us to continue in disrepair and disconnection through what
Bateson (1987) calls the ‘epistemological error’ of this dualistic world-
view. Hillman refers to this inseparability of self and ecology through
the psychoanalytical lens, inviting us to see that our erstwhile psycho-
pathological problems reside neither in strictly intrapsychic nor interpsy-
chic terms or causalities. Rather, Hillman suggests, healing occurs in the
context of seeing psychology as the study of ‘soul,’ meaning and our
capacity for engaging the complexity of life within an understanding of
the anima mundi—the living cosmos or world. Shepard (1998) takes
an even more macro view, suggesting that the epochal developmental
stages of human civilization symbolize a kind of arrested development
that coincides with moving away from smaller-scale, tribal, and familiar
social units of organization (e.g., hunter-gatherer) into more hierarchi-
cal, undemocratic, and resource-exploitative social organization. Shepard
points out that early-stage relational dependency (neoteny) supports
healthy social attachment and bonding, the process of which facilitates
later-stage individuation and social locality (ontogeny). What Shepard
emphasizes here however is that the early process of social attachment
that supports neoteny is limited not only to social relationships but also to
our bonding with nature. Hence, the movement away from smaller-scale
social organization that supports both tribal and ecological attachment
has manifested in a distorted ontogeny seen in civilizational epochs that
are ruptured or antagonistic in their ecological relationship with the nat-
ural world.
On the ‘micro’-level of psychosocial development, the following essay
draws on critical pedagogy theorists including hooks (1994) and Freire
(2000) with their emphasis on fostering an attuned, locally situated, dia-
logical, and love-as-praxis model of teaching and learning relationships.
2 TEACHER AS HEALER: ANIMATING THE ‘ECOLOGICAL SELF’ … 59
Zajonc (2006a, 2006b) and Palmer (1993) refer to this overall intention
toward dialogue, inclusivity, and well-being—as well as being ecosophi-
cal and ecopsychological in approach—as an ‘epistemology of love.’ I also
briefly explore Taylor’s (1992) consideration of the ethics of ‘authen-
ticity’ as it relates to one’s psychospiritual development and impact on
others. Taylor suggests that rather than falling into narcissistic cynicism
(e.g., ‘only about me’) or a kind of collectivized enforcement of altru-
ism (e.g., ‘I must sublimate my truth for the good of the many’), there
is a middle ground that allows for authentic self-discovery with a valu-
ation of a ‘horizon of significance’ as it pertains to social and ecolog-
ical consequence of one’s actions. Drawing on critical theory I make
brief mention, in line with Taylor’s (1992) ‘ethics of authenticity’ the-
sis, of Foucault’s (1996) revival of the Aristotelian practice of ‘care of
the self.’ Foucault’s contention here is that authentic development of the
self is critical to an engaged, informed, self-aware and free society, and
based on an understanding that such multilateral and pluralistic practice
of ‘care of the self’ enables the further Aristotelian notion of parrhesia
or mutual ‘speaking truth to power.’ Making space for such authentic,
multifaceted, multifarious, and diverse experiences is what hooks (1994)
refers to in her critical pedagogical approach as the ‘practice of freedom,’
and what Freire emphatically states as the actual praxis of love, which is
dialogic, inclusive, and auto-generative from situated communities.
A significant number of other scholar-practitioners have written else-
where extensively about ‘pedagogy of love,’ contemplative practice, and
contemplative education and, while not cited here formally, are worthy
of mention, including: John P. Miller, Ron Miller, Sharon Salzberg, Jon
Kabat-Zinn, Ram Dass, Jack Kornfield, George Leonard, Mirabai Bush,
Daniel P. Barbezat, Judith Simmer-Brown, and Richard Brown.
Lastly, Bowlby’s (1969) attachment theory forms a ‘hinge’ for
the micro-macro approach in this essay. Bowlby’s studies of children
who exhibited psychological and emotional instability due to ‘insecure
attachment’ with parental figures have implications that transcend fam-
ily relations or one’s ability to form secure relational attachments. As
child psychologist Donald Winnicott (1960) already established in his
elaboration of object relations theory, infant-parent attachment bond-
ing not only secures the child to the emotional and physical safety
of the family, but also forms the basis for which the child feels existen-
tially secured and attached. Certainly, attachment eruptions are linked
to psycho-emotional disturbances or relational deficits in individuals.
60 M. A. GORDON
the natural world. It is suggested here that this disconnect stems from
a ‘cognitive dissonance’ between the fact that on the one hand we are
biological beings whom are (inter)dependent with our environment, and
on the other that we pursue a path of unchecked growth that dooms
that very interdependence and survival. This dissonance or juxtaposition,
it is suggested here, constitutes a kind of ‘epistemological paradox,’ a
contradiction in our ways of knowing and making meaning in the world
between what is evident (human need for survival) and what is done
(ecologically harming ways that undermine our survival). As Palmer
(1993, p. 9) so eloquently states: ‘The failure of modern knowledge is
not primarily a failure in our ethics, in the application of what we know.
Rather, it is the failing of our knowing itself…to allow love to inform the
relations that our knowledge creates.’
In this essay, I suggest that the imperative role for teachers is to
restore a more holistic understanding of this human interdependence
with the other-than-human, or with what is classically referred to as the
anima mundi—the living world. This view brings an urgency in the call
for education and pedagogy to restore an awareness and moral agency
of the ‘ecological self.’ I suggested that since the root of this ecological
crisis lies in what Bateson (1987) calls an ‘epistemological error’ (e.g.,
the notion that we as cognizing humans are distinct or separate from
nature), the way forward requires a ‘healing’ or a move to seeing our
relationship with life itself from wholeness or interdependence. There is
a plethora of research, for example, addressing the ill-effects of separa-
tion from nature in urban settings (e.g., Kuo, 2001; Mitchell & Popham,
2008) as well as those that demonstrate the link between positive mental
health and connection with natural environment (e.g., Berman, Jonides,
& Kaplan, 2008; Bowler, Buyung-Ali, Knight, & Pullin, 2010; Cervinka,
Röderer, & Hefler, 2012). My purpose here is not to examine these det-
rimental and reconstitutive factors in and of themselves, but rather to
look at them in a more meta-theoretical application to shed some light
on the role of pedagogy as having a restorative social and psychological
effect on learners and educators.
This approach thus goes beyond theoretical concerns and requires
of educators to bring it down to practice. At the teacher-student level,
hooks (1994) advocates for what she calls ‘engaged pedagogy’ as a
‘practice of freedom,’ restoring wholeness in relationship and ecological
thinking and acting. She differentiates between ‘education as the practice
of freedom and education that merely strives to reinforce domination’
62 M. A. GORDON
(hooks, 1994, p. 4). Moreover, she emphasizes that the teacher’s own
awareness and practice of their well-being is vital in fostering that eco-
logical view, and that self-care and self-actualization are critical to engen-
dering awareness in the classroom. Taking further Freire’s (2000) notion
of creating ‘conscientization’ within classrooms through an emphasis
on praxis—‘action and reflection upon the world in order to change it’
(p. 14) hooks draws influence from the ‘engaged Buddhism’ of Thich
Nhat Hanh, whom she says, ‘In his work…always speaks of the teacher
as a healer’ (hooks, 1994, p. 14). As hooks says:
Whereas Freire was primarily concerned with the mind, Thich Nhat Hanh
offered a way of thinking about pedagogy which emphasized wholeness, a
union of mind, body, and spirit. His focus on a holistic approach to learn-
ing and spiritual practice enabled me to overcome years of socialization
that had taught me to believe a classroom was diminished if students and
professors regarded one another as ‘‘whole” human striving not just for
knowledge of books, but knowledge of how to live in the world. (hooks,
1994, p. 15)
It is in this spirit that this essay considers the role for ‘teacher as
healer’ in the sense of leading toward wholeness through a holistic view
of interdependence, inclusivity, and an ethic and practice of ecological
awareness and care. To explore the practical possibilities for the role of
‘teacher as healer,’ this essay briefly considers Jardine’s (2012) herme-
neutic approach toward a ‘pedagogy left in peace,’ Zajonc’s (2006b)
‘epistemology of love’ and call for contemplative pedagogy, Van Manen’s
(2013) emphasis on pedagogy as a ‘call to contact’ (Van Manen, 2013)
and embodied presence.
the world ensouled’ (Hillman, 1990, p. 99). Thirdly, how can education
reimagine itself within Hillman’s anima mundi. This leads us to explore
critical pedagogy as a loving, even spiritual act (Palmer, 1993), one that
calls for an ‘engaged pedagogy’ (hooks, 1994). This reimagining and
reengagement with interdependent life itself is critical to the survival of
the biosphere on which all life forms depend. It portends, one hopes, the
next great epochal shift to what Berry (Swimme & Berry, 1992) called
the Ecozoic Era, and Macy (1996) suggests as ‘The Great Turning.’ The
intent here, to continue the latter metaphor of ‘turning,’ is to highlight
and examine the interdependent relationship between self (micro) and
World (macro), such that one’s psychodevelopment can be seen as circu-
lar engagement and interrelational to life itself (Shepard, 1998). Rather
than look to Macy’s (1996) Great Turning, Naess suggests, we simply
need to consciously engage the Great Spiral that already informs and viv-
ifies the human life process, and that of life itself.
The great danger here, Hillman (1992) warns, is that external, mate-
rial conditions themselves—the very world—if not addressed either intra-
psychically or interpsychically, ‘lie outside the soul’ (1992, p. 95). What
lies outside the soul, by definition then, lies outside awareness, care, con-
cern and connection: outside Taylor’s ‘horizon of significance.’ Hillman
writes:
For all the while that psychotherapy has succeeded in raising the con-
sciousness of human subjectivity, the world in which all subjectivities are
set has fallen apart …. We cannot inoculate the soul nor isolate it against
the illness in the soul of the world. (1992, p. 96)
Let us imagine the anima mundi neither above the world encircling it as
a divine and remote emanation of spirit, a world of powers, archetypes,
and principles transcendent to things, nor within the material world as its
unifying panpsychic life principle. Rather, let us imagine the anima mundi
as that particular soul spark, that seminal image, which offers itself through
each thing in its visible form. Then, anima mundi indicates the animated
possibilities presented by each event as it is, its sensuous presentation as a
face bespeaking its interior image—in short, its availability to imagination,
its presence to a psychic reality. (1992, p. 101)
need for continuous attachment with a primary attachment figure for the
first two years of life. In empirical studies observing separation tolerance
from the primary attachment figure, Bowlby established several ‘styles’
of insecure attachment, leading to ongoing deficits in ego stability and
relational capacity in adult life, to name but the most basic consequence.
Winnicott, the British child psychologist and object relations theorist,
outlines how children enter into the developmental stage of differentia-
tion through ‘transitional objects,’—a process that allows them to move
through the ambiguous identification of ‘me and not-me’ (Winnicott,
1971). Barrows (1995) calls this ‘shadowy area of experience’ a ‘dynamic
interpenetration between the self and something in the world’ (1995,
p. 106). However, Barrows goes on to echo Bateson’s (1987) ‘epistemo-
logical error’ critique, noting that the conceptual formation of a world
of ‘outside’ and ‘not me’ and in contrast with the interiorized notion
of a bounded self is a product of Western dualistic thought (cf. Barry,
Roszak et al., 1995; op cit.). In what she cites as a ‘new paradigm’
Barrows suggests that Winnicott’s transitional phenomena serve as a
‘permeable membrane that suggests or delineates but does not divide
us from the medium in which we exist’ (1995, pp. 106–107). It is in
this blending of subjective and objective experience and meaning-con-
struction that Barrows says ‘intersubjectivity is possible’ (Barrows, 1995,
pp. 106–107). This non-dualistic sense of an ecological self, says
Barrows, is in line with Thich Nhat Hanh’s (1995) concept of ‘interbe-
ing.’ One practical observation Barrows (1995) makes is that in psycho-
therapeutic settings, a child who has developed with this ‘ecological self’
formation is more open to considering her or his situation, psychody-
namic material, and otherwise ‘ebb and flow’ of his or her psycho-emo-
tional and relational life in an expanded (or transpersonal, transegoic)
sense of self. Barrows’ comments regarding Winnicott provide solid
ground on which to discuss Naess’ (2008) concept of the ‘ecological
self’ as a new kind of identification. First, however, a look at Bateson’s
‘double-bind’ theory will prove instructive here toward reimagining the
role of education in fostering a more ecological, relational self within this
world of psychic and ecological ‘splits’ as Jordan (2009) puts it.
Bateson’s (1987) double-bind theory places the child in a ‘no-win’
scenario. Here, the child’s instinctive attachment drive is pitted against
the overt, indifferent, or negligent (narcissistic) dominance of the paren-
tal figure. If the child is given a direct instruction (‘do what I tell you!’),
2 TEACHER AS HEALER: ANIMATING THE ‘ECOLOGICAL SELF’ … 73
the corollary follows as such: (1) if the child complies, they have no
autonomy; (2) if the child disobeys, they are seen as disobedient,
non-compliant, and defiant. Either way, both are in deference and
dependence to the original command. Worse still, in the case of abuse
from the caregiver or guardian, the child’s instinct to seek comfort and
security through attachment overrides any rational discernment—of
which they are developmentally and socially incapable—that the caregiver
or attachment figure is the source of the abuse. As Holmes (2009) lays
out: ‘The potentially psychotic adolescent is given an approach-avoid-
ance message from his or her “schizophrenogenic” parent, thereby
triggering a psychotic response as the only possible escape from an intol-
erable demand’ (2009, p. 505). Holmes goes on to describe the ‘positive
feedback loop’ in which the child’s ‘attachment behaviours are acti-
vated, and the more he or she seeks out a secure base, the more the child
feels threatened, and so on’ (2009, p. 505). He continues to describe
the ‘bizarre dissociative manifestations of disorganized attachment’ that
result (2009, p. 505).
That this double-bind effect is reflected in our current dissociated
state of consciousness as humanity is no understatement. Rejoining
Hillman’s admonition that ‘the sickness is out there,’ we see the urgency
with which he addresses the ‘bizarre dissociative manifestations of dis-
organized attachment’ prevalent in our world: fixation on technology,
narcissistic social media addiction, unchecked growth, global wars, poi-
soning of our air, water, and soil. Indeed, neoliberalism or liquid moder-
nity places us in the gravest of double binds: that which juxtaposes our
soulful engagement with the ecology of life against our daily material
survival and competitive mode in a highly urbanized, polycentralized
distributed-self world. In relevance to family systems theory and ther-
apy, Dell (1985) comments on Bateson’s emphasis on ‘epistemological
errors’ as attempts at social control gone haywire, and which violate the
ecological holism. Specifically, says Dell (1985, p. 4):
Bateson was especially bothered by the use of power. He insisted that the
use of power to enforce control was a particularly dangerous, anti-ecologi-
cal form of “epistemological lunacy” (Bateson, 1972i, p. 487): “there is no
area in which false premises regarding the nature of the self and its relation
to others can be so surely productive of destruction and ugliness as this
area of ideas about control. (Bateson, 1972h, p. 267)
74 M. A. GORDON
What must always be considered is the surrounding world, the gestalt, the
environment; this for Bateson is crucial to the understanding of the devel-
opment and behavior of the organism. Survival for the organism consists in
meeting the challenges set by the world in which it finds itself. (Brockman,
1977, p. 84)
The ‘ecological self’ itself is a term, along with ‘deep ecology’ attrib-
uted to philosopher Arne Naess. As Bragg (1996) lays out, Naess’ defi-
nition of the ecological self is transpersonal, which as Maslow defines it
is ‘a sense of self that extends beyond one’s egoic, biographic, or per-
sonal sense of self’ (Maslow, cited in Bragg, 1996, p. 95). Naess outlines
the problem of identification of the ‘I’ (ego) with our inhabited physical
body, preferring to say that one can instead identify with the ‘ecological
self,’ defining ‘identification’ as ‘a spontaneous, non-rational…process
through which the interest or interests of another being are reacted to as
our own interest or interests’ (as cited in Bragg, 1996, p. 95).
76 M. A. GORDON
far less able to imagine the other beyond a fantasy of usefulness, the other
as a true interiority with his or her needs, intentions or feelings. “An edu-
cation that in any ways neglects imagination is an education into psychopa-
thy. It is an education that results in a sociopathic society of manipulations.
(1990, p. 171)
One implication is that people can learn but they can’t be taught; or at
least, they can’t be taught anything of real significance. And that is partly
because people can never know beforehand, neither can their teachers,
exactly what is of personal significance—that is, what each will find signifi-
cant. (1998, p. 409)
Children dream, but adults want to teach them; children know what inter-
ests them, but adults want them educated.
This dreaming self then, in a sense, situates the ‘liquid’ self of moder-
nity as the ‘fluid self,’ the ‘self-becoming,’ and the self within the ‘world
soul-ensnared.’ The ‘ecological self,’ as defined by Naess (2008), takes
on greater import as the ‘widened and deepened’ self that connects, as
Palmer says, interdependently, with nature itself. Naess too references
connection through Eros—though here as:
the immense variety of sources of joy…where part of the joy stems from
the consciousness of our intimate relation to something bigger than our
ego, something that has endured through millions of years and is worth of
continued life for millions of years. The requisite care flows naturally if the
self is widened and deepened so that protection of free nature is felt and
conceived as protection of ourselves. (2008, p. 93)
Notes
1. This references the crimes against humanity articulated in the decisions of
the Nuremberg and Tokyo International Military Tribunals in World War
II, differentiating between a ‘crime of commission’ (e.g., perpetration) and
a ‘crime of omission’ (passively allowing a crime to occur).
2. This continually arises in public discourse as the false dichotomy of ‘jobs vs
the environment,’ where it is suggested economics are somehow antitheti-
cal to ecological balance.
3. Shepard’s (1998) brilliant treatise on this, Nature and Madness, explores
this move from tribal, hunter-gatherer small-scale ecologies to mass
agrarianism and modern industrial society as epochal shifts. Shepard dis-
tinguishes these epochal shifts as representing an overarching arrested
development, in terms of our maladaptation away from nature as our pri-
mary figure of attachment and social organization.
4. Here, Psyche and Eros are referenced in classical Platonic form
5. A ‘conductor of souls’ to the afterworld, from myths of Hermes to Anubis.
References
Alexander, B. K. (2001). The roots of addiction in free market society (pp. 1–31).
Vancouver, BC: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Barrows, A. (1995). The ecopsychology of child development. In T. Roszak,
M. E. Gomes, & A. D. Kanner (Eds.), Ecopsychology: Restoring the earth, heal-
ing the mind (pp. 101–110). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
Bateson, G. (1987). Steps to an ecology of mind: Collected essays in anthropology,
psychiatry, evolution, and epistemology. Northvale, NJ: Aronson.
Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid modernity. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Berman, M. G., Jonides, J., & Kaplan, S. (2008). The cognitive benefits of inter-
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tematic review of evidence for the added benefits to health of exposure to nat-
ural environments. BMC Public Health, 10, 456.
84 M. A. GORDON
Swimme, B., & Berry, T. (1992). The universe story. San Francisco, CA: Harper.
Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self: The making of the modern identity.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Taylor, C. (1992). The ethics of authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
Winnicott, D. W. (1960). The theory of the parent-infant relationship. The
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 41, 585.
Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Playing and reality. London: Tavistock Publications.
Van Manen, M. (2013). The call of pedagogy as the call of contact.
Phenomenology and Practice, 6(2), 8–34.
Zajonc, A. (2006a). Contemplative and transformative pedagogy. Kosmos
Journal, 5(1), 1–3.
Zajonc, A., & Montessori, M. (2006b). Love and knowledge: Recovering the
heart of learning through contemplation. Teachers College Record, 108(9),
1742–1759.
PART II
Awakening to Wholeness:
Aikido as an Embodied Praxis
of Intersubjectivity
Introduction
This essay looks at intersubjectivity by way of a distinction between ‘first
person’ contemplative practice (e.g., mindfulness meditation) and ‘second
person’ practice (in this case, the Japanese defensive art of Aikido). The
essay examines a paradoxical aspect of intersubjectivity and relational
practices such that a dualistic epistemological view of subject-object pre-
sents a ‘double-bind’ regarding the aspirational aim of Buddhist practice
as fostering a worldview and relationality as interdependence. This essay
draws on the author’s lifetime experience in Aikido, a unique ‘mind-body’
art that teaches practitioners to ‘blend’ and ‘harmonize’ their movement
and ki (‘life force’) with the ki of their attacker. Aikido is rooted in a
nondual worldview, cultivating interdependence through the taking up
embodied ‘second-person’ practice for daily life. Through this embod-
ied attunement, Aikido practitioners experientially develop a somatic
and spiritual understanding that their own ki and that of universal ki
(Cosmos) are inseparable.
Musubi
To paraphrase Aikido master teacher, Mitsugi Saotome, musubi princi-
ple is at the ‘heart of aikido.’ It is translated into English as ‘unity’ or
‘harmonious interaction,’ and essentially refers to the attuned commu-
nication and connection between one and one’s partner in and through
Aikido training (Saotome, 1989). As Saotome (1989) explains:
In practice, musubi means the ability to blend, both physically and men-
tally, with the movement and energy of your partner. Musubi is the
study of good communication. In any interaction between people, com-
munication exists, whether acknowledged or not. It is up to the partici-
pants in the interaction to determine whether the communication will
be productive or useless, friendly or hostile, true or inaccurate. Musubi,
as it is refined, can mean the ability to control and alter interaction,
changing a hostile approach to a healthy encounter or an attack into a
handshake. (p. 9)
96 M. A. GORDON
De-ai and Ma-ai
In accordance with the principle of musubi, which expresses the inter-
connectedness and, most importantly, the blending of one’s movement
and energy through Aiki, de-ai (correct timing) and ma-ai (respectful,
harmonious distance) are vital components in Aikido training. It is criti-
cal to distinguish between blending with one’s attacker/partner through
aiki (harmonization with universe, restoring order, oneness) and merging
with the attack. The latter implies a kind of convergence or absorption of
the partner’s ki. To some extent, at least tactically, this is visibly true—
one’s calmness and non-resistant blending allow nage to neutralize or
dissipate one’s opponent’s energy. However, true to its origins in budo
(particularly kendo, or sword training), respectful and proper harmonious
distance (ma-ai) is integral for mutual protection. Tactically speaking,
ma-ai means not allowing the attack to enter and occupy one’s spherical
center; and de-ai refers to the correct timing in order to fulfill musubi
(blending) and harmonious connection with one’s partner. The implica-
tions for this training as a metaphor for daily life lived in intersubjectivity
are at the heart of Aikido as a ‘path of love,’ and are further explicated
and emphasized in the pedagogy and praxis of Ki Aikido.
Aikido thus represents a praxis or path moving beyond mere conflict
resolution to one of harmony through nondual awareness, and with
3 AWAKENING TO WHOLENESS: AIKIDO … 97
within it. In this sense, this ‘ki development’ of sensing, joining and
being inseparable-from Ki (universe; wholeness) is akin to Bohm’s idea
of the implicate and explicate order—both are inextricably enfolded, or to
describe more accurately (quantum) entangled (Bohm, 1981). Ueshiba
defined this dynamic as love. For our purposes, we can recognize it as
moving from conceptual intersubjectivity to engaged and embodied
intersubjectivity.
Now let us talk about the actual ki training method. Listed below are
the two sets of Ki Development and Ki Aikido principles. These prin-
ciples11 (Shifflett, 1999, pp. 78, 167) were developed by Sensei Koichi
Tohei, former Chief Instructor of the Aikikai (world aikido body) who
after the founder’s death went on to incorporate Japanese yoga principles
into the study of ‘ki development’ in Ki Aikido.
Four Principles of Mind-body Coordination
The first set of principles give students a method for effectively observ-
ing the nature of their mind manifest through their body state as regards
stability, calmness, and relaxation, while being tested for balance or reac-
tion by their partner. For example, by thinking of one’s virtual center at
their abdomen, the ‘one point,’ the mind and the body align in a natu-
ral way to become ‘immovable’ (fudoshin), which results from ki-joining
and harmonization. Similarly, with these principles in place as embodied
awareness and state-based calmness and relaxed movement, practition-
ers can engage in Aikido exercises in motion—attack and defense—with
the relational aspects of Other (e.g. ‘respect your partner’s ki’) as a
means of blending or harmonizing their movement with the attack. In
doing so, aikidoka (participants of Aikido) are thus engaged in shared
100 M. A. GORDON
Standing on the edge of life and death, you cannot make a lie. Standing
on the edge of life and death, your physical and your spiritual vibration can
only speak the truth, and your deepest self will appear. A master under-
stands this, and he awaits an imbalance, an opening in the other’s defence.
He surrounds the emptiness, the negative space in which to catch the ene-
my’s spirit and vibration, with his presence. (1993, p. 169)
Notes
1. Raúl Fornet-Betancourt, Helmet Becker, Alfredo Gomez-Müller, &
J. D. Gauthier. (1987). The ethic of care for the self as a practice of free-
dom: An interview with Michel Foucault on January 20, 1984. Philosophy
and Social Criticism, July 12: pp. 112–131. ‘Practices of freedom’ is in
reference to Foucault’s thoughts on the co-relation between freedom
and ethics being co-related, as expressed in late life interviews, as regards
his theory on ‘care of the self’ and how it impacts ethical relations with
action towards others.
2. I have written about this elsewhere, as regards Aikido as praxis, and the
implications for pedagogical application regarding intersubjectivity.
Gordon, M. A. (2016, March). Towards pedagogical warriorship: Aikido
as contemplative education through relational praxis and the primacy of
other. Paper presented at the 60th annual conference of the Comparative
International Education Society, in Vancouver, Canada.
3. This utterance was made by Ueshiba, following a challenge that he,
unarmed, accepted, from a naval officer student who attacked him with a
wooden sword. Ueshiba’s famous epithet arose from his ability to effort-
lessly evade his attacker while simultaneously protecting the challenger
from harm. This ability emanates from an embodied non-duality with the
flow of nature, the Universe, both conceptually and physically.
4. As Gunnlaugson (2009) defines it: “second-person approaches to contem-
plative education involve exploring contemplative experience from an inter-
subjective position that is represented spatially as between us, in contrast to
inside us (subjective position) or outside us (objective position)” (p. 2).
106 M. A. GORDON
5. Yasua guides us here that the Japanese term “between” (aida) connotes
a physical sense of space, ‘between a thing and a thing,’ such that our
“betweenness” implies our existence in a definite, spatial Basho (place,
topos, field). “Naturally,” he says, “this Basho is not a position in a neu-
tralized, physical space that obliterates any human significance; rather, it
is the life-Basho in which we find the interconnected meanings of the life-
world” (Yuasa, 1987, p. 38).
6. h ttp://www.salon.com/2015/09/27/corporate_mindfulness_is_
bullsht_zen_or_no_zen_youre_working_harder_and_being_paid_less/
and http://www.buddhistpeacefellowship.org/white-privilege-the-
mindfulness-movement/?blm_aid=6718486.
7. Feenberg (1999) comments that: ‘Nishida shared this concept of pure
experience with D. T. Suzuki, who popularized the identification of
enlightened consciousness with a kind of immediacy prior to all reflec-
tion. Suzuki’s influence, in turn, is explicitly present in Nishida’s later
theory of Japanese culture where he writes that “No-mind (Mushin) can
be considered the axis of the Oriental spirit (Suzuki Daisetz)”’ (Nishida,
1991, p. 72, in Feenberg, 1999).
8. Kapstein, Matthew. (1997). Buddhist perspectives on ontological truth.
In Eliot Deutsch, & Ronald Bontekoe (Eds.), A companion to world
philosophies (pp. 420–433). Oxford: Blackwell. This is a reference to the
Buddhist theories of ‘emptiness’ and ‘two-truths’ (śūnyatā) explicated
by highly influential Indian philosopher Nāgārjuna (ca 150–250 AD) of
the “middle way” (Madhyamika) tradition. These two paradigms can be
expressed (cognitively and ontologically) as a dialectical tension between
what “is” (“absolute truth”) and what “appears to be” (phenomenal, or
“relative truth”), leaving us with a “both/and” paradox in his teaching of
Emptiness (that the relative and absolute truth are interdependent).
9. Aikido movements revolve around two general principles: in tenkan, one
enters into the centre of an attack (in the attacker’s ‘place,’ accelerating
the centrifugal or centripetal force; in irimi, the nage or defender enters
into the attack, redirecting uke’s force to cause them to turn. In either
general counter-movement from the nage, the uke is—by the nature of
his continued attack—forced to make ukemi: escape. In essence, this ulti-
mately forces the uke to question his aggression. In its most advanced
form, suggested Ueshiba, the attack is over before it begins. Thus, exists
the axiom about Aikido that it is “winning without fighting.”
10. Koichi Tohei (b. 1920–d. 2011) was an early student of the founder,
eventually becoming chief instructor and the first awarded the high-
est rank of 10th Dan. Tohei keenly observed that while many students
were emulating the founders’ movements, they were incapable of throw-
ing and controlling their ukes with the same effortlessness. Ueshiba,
3 AWAKENING TO WHOLENESS: AIKIDO … 107
References
Bohm, D. (1981). Wholeness and the implicate order. London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul.
Buber, M. (1971). I and Thou (1st ed.). New York: Free Press.
Feenberg, A. (1999). Experience and culture: Nishida’s path “to the things
themselves.” Philosophy East and West, 49(1), 28–44.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed: 30th anniversary edition. New York:
Bloomsbury Academic.
Gordon, M. A. (2016, March). Towards Pedagogical Warriorship: Aikido as con-
templative education through relational praxis and the primacy of other. Paper
108 M. A. GORDON
Introduction
This essay explores the idea of ‘skillful attunement’ and ‘embodied
consciousness’ (Merleau-Ponty, 2012), and body-mind-ecological unity
through the intersubjective and intercorporeal practice of the Japanese
defensive art of Aikido. Aikido is a practice of non-dual awareness, teach-
ing practitioners to make no conceptual distinction between themselves,
an ‘opponent’ and the world around them, allowing them to ‘harmo-
nize’ and blend their spirit or life energy (ki: Japanese) with infinite ki of
the Cosmos. These phenomenological aspects are also considered via the
intersubjective notion of social self in the philosophies of G. H. Mead,
Buber, Tetsuro Watsuji (cf. Odin, 1995)—and expand the idea of gestalt
(e.g., in Gestalt Therapy) through Japanese philosopher Kitaro Nishida’s
notion of basho (Japanese: temporal-spatiality). Spiegel’s (2010) phe-
nomenology of motorcycling as ‘rider-bike unity’—much like the har-
monious relationship between attacker and defender in the non-dual
ontology of Aikido—is seen as a practice that cultivates one’s attuned,
incorporated relationship with the dynamics of perception, experience,
reality-at-hand, and ecology at large.
No matter the size, shape, or style of a motorcycle, the experience
of riding can be enthralling. The kinesthetic, elemental, sensorial, and
pan-affective aspects of riding demand of a rider moment-to-moment
attention which, if such a rider is not fully attentionally engaged, provides
a panoply of sensual, motor-sensory delight. If we are not so enthralled,
the aspects of riding that elicit such heightened experience between rider,
machine, and road can make themselves known abruptly catastrophi-
cally and unforgivingly. In 2010, I had a motorcycle accident that, by
all measures, should have taken my life. Instead, I walked away relatively
unscathed—physically, that is. The impact of what happened and its bear-
ing on me would unfold long after the debris was cleared from the pave-
ment. By physical and psychospiritual measures, I contend that three
factors respectively saved me: A lifetime of motorcycle riding experi-
ence; a lifetime of regular training in the Japanese defensive art of Aikido
(i.e., mind-body coordination, relaxation, alertness, break-falling); and
a lifetime of self-development and reflectivity through creative practices
and psychotherapy.
This essay explores this near-fatal accident as interpretive inquiry, spe-
cifically how it affords reflection on the gestalt—that is, the whole con-
text, totality, the eruption—of my overall life situation (Perls, Hefferline,
& Goodman, 1951). I am not reducing the analysis of my accident
to a momentary lapse in otherwise sound riding judgment. The cen-
tral concern here rather is what allowed this near-fatal lapse of skillful
attention in that split-second leading to my collision? What undermined
my otherwise highly attuned sense of timing, readiness, and situational
awareness accrued through decades of Aikido training? Certainly, emo-
tional stress occurring in my ‘life ecology’ was a contributing factor. As
a self-employed psychotherapist and a lifelong professional singer-song-
writer, I was at a crossroad in my personal and professional life as regards
my domestic relationship, my career, ambitions, and sense of purpose-
ful path. The flashpoint of my near-death experience (NDE) serves in
this essay as a reflection case study into a meta-view of ‘practice’ in these
three critical areas of my life: therapy, Aikido, and motorcycle riding.
Taking the psychotherapeutic lens, the unconscious psychological forces
affecting me and dominating my gestalt at the time constitute what Jung
called the ‘shadow self’—the unseen but powerful drivers at work in the
hidden corners of our subconscious process of ‘individuation.’ Rather
than dwelling singularly on this psycho-emotional aspect, however, this
essay focuses on the ill-effect on rider awareness and skillfulness—my
general level of stress and emotional distraction serving as a background
(or ‘ground’) in the terminology of Gestalt Therapy. In the Gestalt
Therapy model, the individual subject (‘figure’) is considered in terms
of their ‘boundary contact’ with his or her overall situation (‘ground’).
The various movements to withdraw, push away, suppress, and resist
4 MOTO-MORPHOSIS: THE GESTALT OF AIKIDO … 111
such contact are the subject for therapeutic discovery and ‘growth.’
Existential psychotherapist Irvin Yalom (2013) describes working with
the ‘here and now’ of the in situ therapy experience between client and
therapist, contrasted with analyzing the ‘there and then’ of one’s past
trauma, relationships, and experiences which may entail emotional dis-
tancing, intellectualizing, and other associated shifts away from client
growth. On a motorcycle, not being fully attuned in the gestalt sense to
the ‘here and now’ of a situation at hand can prove fatal.
Regarding the physicality of riding, I address both the practical and
phenomenological relationship and dynamics of the rider and bike dyad,
and in particular the idea of ‘rider-bike unity’ through the work of
Bernt Spiegel (2010). Spiegel invokes the phenomenology carried from
Heidegger (2010) through Merleau-Ponty (2012) and Ingold (2002)
regarding the ‘transparency’ of tool usage as an extension of our sens-
ing-sensate self. Here, Spiegel differentiates between what he calls a
‘cargo-rider’ (one who rides on a bike), and a ‘component-rider’ (one
who rides with or in a motorcycle). This is a relational understanding
of riding, albeit through a transhuman relationship. This understand-
ing is based on the idea of rider-bike unity that one is not relating to
a motorcycle but to the world, through the motorcycle. The motorcy-
cle is to the rider—like Merleau-Ponty’s (2012) blind man (sic) sens-
ing the world through a walking stick—an interface with the world.
Thus, in the Gestalt Therapy psycho-phenomenological model explored
here, rider-bike unity becomes a measure of one’s gestalt awareness.
As regards the kinesthetic and ontological aspect, Käufer and Chemero
(2015) point out that Merleau-Ponty ‘views the body schema as a kind
of knowledge of a whole Gestalt’ (Käufer & Chemero, p. 105) and that
in Merleau-Ponty’s own words: ‘the “body schema” is, in the end, a
manner of expressing that my body is in and towards the world’ (cited
in Käufer & Chemero, p. 105). Käufer and Chemero (2015) note how
Merleau-Ponty illustrates this motor intentionality through the ‘trans-
parency’ of tool usage, as the way our ‘lived body’ engages with the
world. As an example, he speaks of a blind man (sic) using a cane, the
latter of which ‘dissolves’ as a tool object and is, as Heidegger suggested,
‘ready-to-hand’ in an indistinguishable sense from the user’s body. Put
more clearly, there are ‘levels’ of awareness in the practice of motorcy-
cling. Firstly, there is the ‘inner awareness’ or rider-rider unity, that is,
one’s integration psychosomatically within one’s experiential bound-
ary before one interfaces with the bike. Secondly, there is the rider-bike
112 M. A. GORDON
Map Legend
Before we begin, a few key terms are worth highlighting for refer-
ence throughout this essay. The broader themes of Aikido and Gestalt
Therapy will be introduced in depth further along:
Ground Zero
The details of my accident are quite straightforward enough: I was side-
swiped by an oncoming car. Stopped at a pedestrian-controlled crosswalk
on an east-west corridor, low evening sun blocked the western horizon
on the downslope to my right. To my left was the upslope facing east.
116 M. A. GORDON
What, then, is Aikido, and how did it save my life? First, let me fore-
stall the thought that the critical, ‘autonomic’ skills and embodied
responses acquired through a lifetime of motorcycling (at least the one’s
after the critical error in judgment to risk a ‘stale’ red light) weren’t
indeed critical in protecting further injury or death. These shall unfold
later on.
Aikido (ai: harmony; ki: energy, life; do: way or path) is a defensive
art originated in Japan by founder (O Sensei, or ‘Great Teacher’) Morihei
Ueshiba.
By his own account, Ueshiba had studied and integrated some 30
martial arts, notably from the samurai warrior or bushido combat tradi-
tions, and in particular from kenjutsu (swordsmanship) and jiujutsu (K.
Ueshiba, 1985). After Ueshiba’s own spiritual transformation however,
Aikido emerged in its full form as the founder’s vision of non-violent
skillfulness, based on his re-interpretation of budo (martial way or ‘war-
riorship’) as ‘loving protection of all things.’ Aikido became known and
promoted as the ‘art of peace’ and ‘non-dissention’ (M. Ueshiba, 1992).
As an evolved combat art, Aikido simulates life and death interactions,
particularly involving edge weapons (i.e., katana or samurai sword, or
the wooden version: bokken). With progressively developed calm, stable,
and fluid movement, attackers (uke) are skillfully and protectively con-
trolled with minimal exertion or force by the defender (nage or tori).
However, extending from Ueshiba’s foundations in Shinto and shin-
gon Buddhism, Aikido is aimed at fostering psychospiritual transforma-
tion through continuous training (shugyo), ‘purification’ of one’s inner
aggression, dualistic conditioning (e.g., self vs. other; subject-object,
mind-body dualism, humans-nature) and narcissistic orientation such
that it is replaced with an empathic, non-competitive, unified cosmologi-
cal relationship with all life (Gleason, 1995).
Returning to the earlier point in the vignette of my accident, what
undoubtedly contributed to saving me from an otherwise fatal impact is
years of repetitive ukemi in the Aikido technique/principle of ikkyo. In
its basic technical form, this ‘first principle’ of Aikido is summarized as
an attack-defense sequence thusly: uke (attacker) comes straight toward
nage (defender), aiming to control nage by grasping the nage’s oppo-
site-side wrist (ostensibly, to prevent drawing of nage’s sword or other-
wise to destabilize the nage). This would appear in this example with the
attacker coming to grasp the defender’s right hand/wrist with their own
118 M. A. GORDON
right hand. Nage ‘agrees’ with the onrushing movement, ‘drawing in’ the
attack by taking a diagonal step off-the-line to their own rear right corner
while ‘leading’ the uke’s grasping right hand where nage’s own hand was
in relation to the initial point of attack. In effect, the uke must keep ‘chas-
ing’ the point of attack (hand/wrist) that is moving away in unison with
nage’s entire body. The nage is literally ‘not there’ at the point of maxi-
mum attack. In continuous motion, this ‘drawing in’ of the attacking/
grasping hand of the uke, while offering no counter-move or resistance,
gathers up the forward energy and redirects uke’s grasping hand/wrist
and elbow in a sharp, circular, and fluid motion back toward the uke’s
face in a sweeping upward circle, while also taking control at the uke’s
elbow at a right angle. To avoid losing balance backwards with this ‘wave’
of movement coming back at them in the form of their own wrist and
elbow moving toward their face, the uke must protect his or her balance
by pivoting her or his body 180° in the direction from which he or she
came, thus giving up the initial attack vector. The nage’s continued circu-
lar ‘agreement’ with the attacker’s thrust (more specifically, the attacker’s
ki; Japanese: ‘life force’) back towards uke allows her or him to move with
the whole body through uke’s elbow and wrist, controlling him or her
forward, down and finally pinned by the arm to the ground.
For beginners, this movement has a slow, sweeping sequence: attack,
evasion, redirection, and immobilization. This is to allow the nage to
develop timing, maintain ma-ai (Japanese: harmonious or respectful dis-
tance, spatial relationship), and for uke to build a confident attack full of
ki, while allowing her or him to safely break the fall. At a very high level
however, the defense technique happens instantaneously—matching the
unhesitant and explosive rate and force of the attack itself. Rather than
turning around and ‘guiding’ the uke back in the direction from which
she came, the ‘turn’ or circle redirecting her force is executed in a much
smaller circle at the point of contact (awase) with much greater rota-
tional torque. The result is that the uke is directed straight down on her
or his head and must distribute the force of impact throughout the bodily
points of contact with the mat to minimize injury: turn the head, slide
heel of hand forward, shoulder down, then legs slowly landing down or
cantilevering along the body axis like the runners of a rocking chair. The
returning, circular energy of the attacker’s movement comes back toward
them like the cut of a sword, in one fluid motion.
While the above description may seemingly contradict or violate the
avowed ethos of non-violence in Aikido, it is important to note that
4 MOTO-MORPHOSIS: THE GESTALT OF AIKIDO … 119
every moment. In life, on the mat in Aikido, and on the road, one is
constantly confronted with the liminal edge of life and death, be it fig-
urative, material, or spiritual. It is not simply the case that motorcycling
and Aikido both develop interrelated skillfulness in timing, and coordina-
tion of movement. While that is true, the awareness here is that there is
an integration of skillfulness that works in circularity between these two
key practices. In each situation—on the bike, or with a training partner
on the mat—I bring nuanced embodied skill and learning from one to
the other. Some of these nuances include minimal effort or movement,
enhanced peripheral awareness, ‘feather’ or light touch (on bike con-
trols, brakes; on partner’s body) and so forth. The key point brought
forward from Aikido training here, however, is that a focus on height-
ening one’s ability to react in the most skillful way—in the moment—is
largely misguided. Research has indeed shown that, in visual perception
at least, there is a 250 ms delay or latency between stimulus and cortical
processing or awareness (Woods, Wyma, Yund, Herron, & Reed, 2015).
It is, in other words, ‘too late’ by the time one recognizes an attack and
tries to respond. In our psycho-emotional experience, suppressed or
otherwise unconscious patterns, schema or traumata can be triggered,
leading to panic, conflict, generalized anxiety and a range of other symp-
toms. Similarly, in the risk-reward balance of riding motorcycles, lack of
sophisticated, continually attenuated skillfulness can result in unnecessary
injury or fatality.
Motorcycle racing instructor and author Code (1993) labels these
dangerous blind spots in riding ‘survival reactions,’ unconscious limbic
and sensory-motor responses that leave us ‘freezing up’ and making crit-
ical, life-threatening errors (Code, 1993). The triangle-openness-ready
stance of Aikido as an embodied ‘way’ has a parallel in motorcycling.
What is meant here is the embodied relationship one has with the motor-
cycle before one climbs on. In his book The Upper Half of the Motorcycle,
Bernt Spiegel contrasts being on a motorcycle with being in a motor-
cycle (Spiegel, 2010). Spiegel lays out his model of unification between
rider and machine, of moving from what he calls ‘cargo-rider’ to ‘com-
ponent-rider’ relationship of rider-machine. Here, we are no longer
‘on’ the motorcycle, we are ‘in’ it, or rather, with it. Compared with
the Aikido context, rather than seeing the uke (attacker) as initiator and
driver of movement, it is really the nage (one executing technique) who
is following the uke. If one is in perfect sync—especially before the actual
122 M. A. GORDON
Experience occurs at the boundary between the organism and its environ-
ment, primarily the skin surface and the other organs of sensory and motor
response. Experience is the function of this boundary, and psychologi-
cally what is real are the “whole” configurations of this functioning, some
meaning being achieved, some action completed. (1951, p. 3)
They continue:
example of the ‘pointer’ touching the wall), such that while the physical
interface is between the user and tool, it is also where the sense receptors
physically terminate, and subsequently it is where the tool becomes an
extension of one’s sensing self in the world, and hence ‘where the inter-
face is experienced’ (Spiegel, 2010, p. 87). He continues:
Code (1993) says that these SRs are the result of automatic (or sub-
conscious) fear reactions. ‘Whether for a real or an imagined reason,
130 M. A. GORDON
the light of day, this overt depression can be addressed and treated
through self-care, therapy, and repairing one’s relationships both with
self and others. My accident was a wake-up call—particularly for some-
one who was gainfully employed as a psychotherapist helping others
through such crises, and as someone focused on mind-body-spirit coor-
dination in daily life through Ki Aikido. In the case of my NDE, having
calmly survived the immediacy of the accident and being relatively phys-
ically unharmed, I awoke abruptly days later in a cold sweat of uncon-
trollable panic and emotion. Physical survival and shock being out of the
way, it was now ‘safe’ for my body and psyche to let the layers of fear,
shame, and existential gravity surface.1
Closing Thoughts
This essay has engaged in an interpretive inquiry into my personal
NDE by way of looking at the embodied awareness and skillfulness of
Aikido—a defensive Japanese martial art that requires studied attune-
ment into relationality, intercorporeality, and interconnection. Parallels
between Aikido training and advanced motorcycling reveal a simi-
lar sense of intercorporeality or kinesthetic attunement with through
enhanced rider-bike mutual incorporation or integration. In this
enhanced rider-bike unity—as with Aikido bringing the practitioner into
‘being at one with the situation’—comes an ecological, non-dual and
holistic ‘field’ awareness of ourselves and environment, we have drawn
on phenomenology and Gestalt Therapy to see the inseparability of self
(‘figure’) and experience/world (‘ground’). Spiegel’s (2010) ‘inter-
face displacement,’ where the motorcycle (or in Aikido, one’s attacker)
is seen in non-dualistic relationship with the rider allows—even necessi-
tates—‘immediate insight into a situation.’ Similarly, in the traditional
and Japanese psychosomatic view of selfhood in Buddhism, Aikido and
contemporary social cognition theory, we have explored how practices
that cultivate ‘mind-body unity’ are grounded as aspirational and achiev-
able, the latter in the sense of not only ‘first-person’ integration of mind-
body, but the lived, liminal, fluid, and intercorporeal sense of the world
as aida or ‘betweenness.’ Finally, rather than succumbing to the dualistic
notion of riding on a bike, the practice of being in the bike can attune us
not only to the machine but the road—our ecology of experience, per-
ception, and interaction with daily life.
4 MOTO-MORPHOSIS: THE GESTALT OF AIKIDO … 135
Note
1. In my work as a psychotherapist. I almost exclusively use Eye Movement
Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy—a modality based on
a trauma model. Simply put, by mimicking and stimulating brain process-
ing through cross-hemispheric stimulation and coherence seen in Rapid
Eye Movement (REM) during deep sleep, EMDR allows clients to safely
reprocess traumatic material. These trauma episodes or internalized pat-
terns of fear, shame, or powerlessness—which are often ‘somaticized’ or
in-the-body—shift from reoccurring or being triggered as a ‘present’
or real experience, to being related to as a past memory. In reducing the
overwhelming mind-body ‘state’ (hyper-arousal) triggered by the past, cli-
ents are able to engage their affective state (emotions) in a much more
workable way. Feeling is no longer synonymous with danger. Similarly, this
article points to cultivating mind-body calmness and non-reactivity as a
way of actively diffusing overwhelm, danger, and unnecessary defensive-
ness in-the-moment, pro re nata.
References
Code, K. (1993). A twist of the wrist volume II: The basics of high-performance
motorcycle riding (D. Chandler, Ed.). Glendale, CA: Code Break.
Davey, H. E. (2002). Living the Japanese arts and ways: 45 paths to meditation
and beauty. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press.
Davey, H. E. (2013). The teachings of Tempu: Practical meditation for daily life.
Albany, CA: Michi Publishing.
Frost, R. (1914). A servant to servants. North of Boston. New York, NY: Henry
Holt & Co.
Gleason, W. (1995). The spiritual foundations of aikido. Rochester, VT: Destiny
Books.
Heidegger, M. (2010). Being and time: A revised edition of the Stambaugh trans-
lation (D. J. Schmidt, Ed. and J. Stambaugh, Trans.). Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press.
Ingold, T. (2002). The perception of the environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling
and skill. London and New York: Routledge.
Inoue, S. (2006). Embodied habitus. Theory, Culture and Society, 23(2–3),
229–231.
James, W. (2012). Essays in radical empiricism. Auckland, New Zealand: The
Floating Press.
Käufer, S., & Chemero, A. (2015). Phenomenology: An introduction. Cambridge:
Polity.
136 M. A. GORDON
Introduction
In this essay, I explore the psychospiritual, non-dualistic, and relational
aspects of Aikido as a model of self-transformation toward an ‘embod-
ied habitus’ (Inoue, 2006, p. 230) of moral virtue (altruism), empathic
resonance, and interconnectedness. This essay begins with British psychi-
atrist Ian McGilchrist’s (2009) stirring notion that our over-rationalistic
epistemological worldview has actually negatively altered our cognition
through neuroplasticity. In other words, our skewed, dualistic, acquisi-
tive, and target-focused view has become our practice, resulting in a
world that reflects the ‘epistemological error’ of our separateness from
nature. The approach of Aikido teaching and learning as a pedagogy as
self-and-other transformation is explored here in ways that are aimed at
being transferable and generalizable to many educational contexts.
The use of two specific words in this essay—‘pedagogy’ and
‘classroom’—is of important note here. In conventional usage and
indeed throughout the literature on holistic and contemplative edu-
cation, ‘pedagogy’ usually points to school instruction methods,
The question arises: what is being practiced, and what is the impact on
the well-being of those involved? Do these practices reproduce or trans-
form the aforementioned problematics of ‘hydroponic education,’ social
isolation, and individualized ontology?
As a psychosocial—and psychospiritual—model, Aikido is presented
in the context of a classical Eastern education paradigm as moral vir-
tue, relational and aesthetic self-cultivation through practice or ‘way’
(Japanese: do or michi), even practice as spiritual cultivation (Davey,
2002; Nakagawa, 2000). I suggest here, then, that Aikido is both a prac-
tice that is a pedagogy, and pedagogy as practice. As a ‘way’ in the Eastern
tradition, Aikido also resembles what we shall explore further on as
the idea of ‘living curriculum.’ The notion here is that the contempla-
tive-transformative axis of practice becomes us through ‘embodied habitus’
(Inoue, 2006, p. 230). It is suggested here that, as in Aikido, one’s
grounded, calm, and centered non-threatening stance can have a neutral-
izing or grounding effect in-and-of itself. This is not, however, to imply
that to such aspirational qualities could only be achieved through such
specific training. Rather, it is that contemplative practices akin to Aikido,
those that focus on mind-body coordination in-and-through relational
144 M. A. GORDON
trainees (or, Aikidoka) may appear like any other martial arts practition-
ers: engaged in a matrix of vigorous, repetitive attack-defense exercises
(forms or kata). However, it is the aiki, the ‘blending and harmonizing’
with one’s partner, that distinguishes Aikido.
Ki Aikido, developed by Koichi Tohei (January 20, 1920–May 19,
2011), former Chief Instructor of the Aikikai or central worldwide
Aikido organization, is an evolution of Aikido. Drawing from Japanese
yoga founder Tempu Nakamura’s (July 20, 1876–December 1, 1968)10
shinshin-toitsu-do (‘way of mind and body unification’), Tohei adapted
his own shinshin-toitsu Aikido. Traditionally, as in many Japanese mar-
tial arts, one discovers and develops their flow of power—ki—without
direct instruction but rather through repetitive, dedicated training (keiko,
‘practice’) that results in more relaxed, natural, and efficient execution of
techniques (Illustration 5.1).
Ultimately, the aim is to sense the intention, the ki of the attack, before
it begins; to move in undetected paired rhythm (da-ai; timing) with-
out being grabbed, so that at the maximum force or thrust of the attack,
nage is not there, and uke is projected forward, or otherwise neutralized.
A throw, for example, is expressed as the principle of kokyu or ‘breath
power.’ Kokyu-nage is thus a technique of perfect timing, ki and harmo-
nious space (ma-ai: Japanese) that appears to outsiders as improbable as
it seems pre-arranged or choreographed, rather than what it is: throwing
without throwing. The very ethos of Aikido is expressed, thus: ‘victory
without fighting’ (masakatsu agatsu: ‘true victory is victory over one-
self,’ in Stevens, 1995, p. 104).
In Ki Aikido, one develops a foundation in mind and body coordi-
nation, learning to ‘extend their mind’ (ki), and think from their center
(Japanese: hara, tanden). One can think of these two principles as radi-
ating concentric circles. The ‘inner circle’ is developing the embodied or
subconscious habit of thinking and moving from one’s physical center.
The ‘infinite circle’ is to see one’s physical center as being the center of a
universe that extends limitlessly in every direction. Thus, to ‘extend one’s
150 M. A. GORDON
When an enemy tries to fight with me, the universe itself, he has to break
the harmony of the universe. Hence at the moment he has the mind to
fight with me, he is already defeated. There exists no measure of time – fast
or slow…Aikido is non-resistance. As it is non-resistant, it is always victori-
ous. (Ueshiba, 1985, p. 177)
One is instructed to make a circle between their index finger and thumb by
touching them tip-to-tip. Their hand will look like the universally recog-
nized ‘OK’ gesture one makes with the remaining three fingers extended.
Looking down on top of the circle, the person connecting the thumb and
forefinger tips is instructed to hold tightly with conscious physical effort.
Their partner, with no effort at all, is able to insert their left/right hand
index fingers at opposite sides of the ‘circle’ and pull it apart.
Now the first partner is instructed to connect their thumb and fore-
finger tips together forming the circle, but this time with no physi-
cal exertion. They are instructed to hold with enough pressure as if to
hold a piece of paper aloft. What changes, however, is the visualization
and thus the intention and feeling (otherwise, their extension of ki) that
is now directed in an unbroken circuit, round-and-round through their
hand, from the tip of their thumb back around to the tip of their index
finger. The energy loop is closed, like a cyclone moving through their
hand. When the other person now inserts their fingers into the circle to
try and break the loop, it is immensely difficult. The fact that it requires
much more leverage than before to try to break the circle open, with the
other person NOT resisting or using strength, suggests that their coordi-
nated mind and body exhibit a much more stable and unbreakable bond.
This test does not prove an ‘unbreakable grip’ but rather the principle of
‘immovable mind.’ In other words, when one embodies the exclamation of
Aikido’s founder Morihei Ueshiba (O’Sensei) that ‘I AM the universe,’
they become exponentially more immovable in spirit. When one focuses
on one’s limited circle of physical power (e.g.. the body) their mind and
body are thus easily moved.
Anyone can learn the exercise outlined above. Many of us have heard of, or
even witnessed, feats of ‘superhuman’ strength—a mother is suddenly able
to lift a car or an enormously heavy wooden or steel beam with her bare
hands when her child is trapped beneath. Again, to emphasize that such
feats are not supernatural phenomena is to recognize that often our own
inner psychophysical patterns of self-doubt and resistance (e.g., fear, aggres-
sion, tension) prevent us from naturally utilizing the full mental or phys-
ical power that comes from unified mind and body (or, put another way,
fully unified conscious-subconscious responsiveness). How, you may ask, is
this relevant in the classroom or the schoolyard? What good are these class-
room/dojo laboratory micro-instantiations of stability through mind-body
unification when it comes to physical or virtual bullying or shaming?
5 THE WAY OF THE CLASSROOM: AIKIDO AS TRANSFORMATIVE … 153
‘Breathe deeply,’ the teacher begins. I hold the brush upright, hovering its
long, tapered bristles, ready with black ink, precipitously above the paper.
‘Now, with your out-breath press the tip down on the paper. Pause…Then
carry on in one continuous movement and pressure in the direction of the
character’ (kanji: Japanese).
I am studying Shodo, Japanese calligraphy, otherwise translated as the
‘way of the brush.’ After a quarter of a century, and now an advanced
Aikido practitioner and teacher, I am a neophyte to this art. And yet, when
the sensei guides us to ‘use your whole body to move the brush, not just
your hand,’ the instruction is immediately familiar, actionable, and embod-
ied. To move the mind and body in a coordinated way is the very core
of Aikido training and its principles. We move in silence, connecting to a
sense of body-mind—brush flow within our own deep concentration, with
the aim of calmness, relaxation and connection to the spirit, feeling and
meaning of the kanji we are brushing. This is aesthetics not merely as skill
acquisition, but as path.
Again, if we do not see the world as an objective, that is, separate ‘it
is,’ but as ‘we are,’ then when we begin to transform what we are in our
reactive patterns, and in turn transform our world. The world we inhabit
then becomes more an exercise in the aiki of Aikido—the path of harmo-
nizing our conditional, illusory, and relative ‘self’ with the absolute and
unconditional ki of the indivisible and non-dual Cosmos. In an educa-
tional context, what might this look like? An otherwise overwhelmed stu-
dent or teacher can ‘extend her or his mind’ (e.g., thinking of connecting
with the larger ki of the universe) when they think about the mountain
of work ahead, or the chaotic energy of the classroom. By making it their
practice to think from their ‘one point’ or hara in the lower abdomen,
one develops a calmer mind and more stable posture, both inner and
outer, to verbal or physical threats. Ultimately, Aikido (‘the way of har-
monizing oneself with the universe) moves us from an epistemology and
habitus of separation, to non-dual awareness and relationship with the
Cosmos itself. When we don’t see others as an enemy, when we begin to
let go of attaching our personal identity to outcome or result, when we
can approach new situations with openness and relaxed attention rather
than fear, we breathe into life as-it-happens more adaptively.
Final Thoughts
Given the grave challenges facing inhabitants of earth for a sustainable
future, the radical transformation of education is a call to action to shift
our very way of relating. Aikido, as reflected upon in this chapter, is pre-
sented less as a means or a skillful discipline of self-defense but rather as a
transformative pedagogy—a path or ‘way’ (do) of learning that shifts our
individualized, siloed approach to learning-outcomes to one of immer-
sive relationality and attunement. Aikido is a path of ‘living spirituality,’
or in Hadot’s words, ‘philosophy as a way of life.’ In Aikido, one tran-
scends form itself (or technique) to give way to takemusi aiki: sponta-
neously arising (non) technique, blending one’s movement effortlessly,
without conscious thought, to mirror the movement of others toward
diffusing dissension and restoring harmonious order. As Zajonc (2006)
emphasizes, this combination of ‘inner posture’ and outward skillfulness
reflects a shift in attention from what we know to how we know. In this
sense, we move from simply ‘first person’ contemplative intention and
awareness into practice that becomes immersive in, and transformative
of, relationships. It is, as Zajonc states, ‘the profoundly difficult task of
5 THE WAY OF THE CLASSROOM: AIKIDO AS TRANSFORMATIVE … 157
learning to love, which is also the task of learning to live in true peace
and harmony with others and with nature’ (2006, p. 2).
The transformation of education through contemplative and rela-
tional ‘ways’ such as Aikido invites us to embrace the idea of ‘living
curriculum,’ to cultivate spirituality not in the religious or metaphysi-
cal sense but in terms of more refined and empathic attunement to all
life. We must, as Zajonc (2006) suggests, ‘balance the sharpening of
our intellects with the systematic cultivation of our hearts’ (p. 2). In
the Japanese idiom, this is the cultivation of kokoro (heart-mind), call-
ing and ‘leading’ (as the etymology of ‘pedagogy’ suggests) to ‘prac-
tice an epistemology of love instead of an epistemology of separation’
(Zajonc, 2006, p. 1744).
Notes
1. McGilchrist indeed contends that the human cranium has adapted to
accommodate increased left-hemispheric cortical mass.
2. Rasmussen (2016) for one has spoken of hydroponic education.
3. Throughout this essay, ‘east’ and ‘west’ are used not as geographical or
cultural pointers, but rather to signify differences between their respec-
tive classical, canonical, and philosophical roots. For a historical Western
epistemological overview, Tarnas (1993) is excellent, while Kasulis et al.
(1993) are instructive in comparing the two historical worldviews as they
regard philosophy of ‘self’ and ‘body.’
4. Paraphrased from Aikido, seiryoku zeny (‘focused effort, maximum effi-
ciency’) is a concept introduced by Judo founder Kano Jigoro (October
28, 1860–May 4, 1938), which has also proliferated through other mar-
tial arts, notably Aikido (Stevens, 2013).
5. more aptly, budo, meaning the ‘way of the warrior’ which is expressed as
‘loving protection for all living beings.’
6. In the Western tradition, Hadot writes eloquently of philosophy as a ‘way
of life’ which requires self-reflection for transformation (Hadot, 1995).
7. Bourdieu’s ‘habitus’ is defined by Webb et al. (2010) as ‘[a] concept that
expresses, on the one hand, the way in which individuals “become them-
selves”—develop attitudes and dispositions—and, on the other hand, the
ways in which those individuals engage in practices’ (2010, p. xii). So this
relates to the internalization, not necessarily deterministically, of social
values and norms. Bourdieu makes a further distinction however that
specifically speaks to the ‘bodily hexis’ of ‘physical attitudes and disposi-
tions which emerge in individuals as a result of the relationships between
particular fields and individuals’ habitus’ (2010, p. x). It is argued here,
158 M. A. GORDON
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Green, B., & Hopwood, N. (2015). The body in professional practice, learn-
ing and education: A question of corporeality. In B. Green, & N. Hopwood
(Eds.), The body in professional practice, learning and education: Professional
and practice-based learning (Vol. 11, pp. 15–33). Cham: Springer.
Hadot, P. (1995). Philosophy as a way of life: Spiritual exercises from Socrates to
Foucault (A. I. Davidson, Ed.) (p. 102). Oxford: Blackwell.
Hart, T. (2004). Opening the contemplative mind in the classroom. Journal of
Transformative Education, 2(1), 28–46.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom.
New York: Routledge.
Illich, I. (1971). Deschooling society. New York: Harper & Row.
Inoue, S. (2006). Embodied habitus. Theory, Culture and Society, 23(2–3),
229–231.
Kasulis, T. P., Aimes, R. T., & Dissanayake, W. (Eds.). (1993). Self as body in
Asian theory and practice. Albany: State University of New York Press.
160 M. A. GORDON
Conclusion
See Illustration 6.1.
attempt to eradicate the problem. This splitting of the self against the self
or against its world only perpetuates suffering’ (pp. 28–29).
Epstein makes the keen observation that the Buddha’s own life—
though mostly unnoticed in commentary about his life and work—was
shot through by the developmental trauma of losing his own mother
shortly after his own birth. While it would be tempting to psychopathol-
ogize the Buddha’s teachings in a reductive way by highlighting this
‘primary trauma’ in his early life, Epstein’s work deftly focuses on how
the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths and other teachings on suffering and
enlightenment focus on the primacy of suffering itself. Life is suffering,
taught the Buddha. As Epstein writes: ‘The traumas of everyday life can
easily make us feel like a motherless child’ (2014, p. 17). He goes on, in
relating a story about a therapy patient, ‘It is not as important to find
the cause of our traumatized feelings as it is to learn how to relate to
them’ (ibid.). To further emphasize this point of taking personally what
happens to us, to identify with tragedy or trauma, Epstein says that often
this alienation, isolation, and shame—as has been explored in this book’s
chapters—is rooted in early life neglect, attachment insecurity, and lack
of parental attunement. ‘Traumatized people are left with an experience
of “singularity” that creates a divide between their experience and the
consensual reality of others’ (2014, p. 55). Epstein’s work focuses on
the Buddha’s view and ‘methodology’ of how to escape this ‘singularity’
phenomenon through the Four Noble Truths. Namely, these teachings
are rooted, as Epstein reminds us, in what the Buddha called ‘Realistic
View.’ That we suffer and feel alone, in the face of daily struggles
and tragedy, is a fact of life. The ‘developmental trauma’ of not being
securely attached precedes any ‘singular’ experience—it is universal. As
Epstein writes: ‘We emerge, as infants, from a relational matrix and then
struggle to come to terms with the trauma of aloneness’ (2014, p. 48).
The Buddha’s prescription for the Four Noble Truths is laid out in what
he called the ‘Eightfold Noble Path’ of conduct and attitude. In other
words, if life is suffering, and all sentient life struggles with imperma-
nence and survival, then a practice with this view is the ‘way out.’
Modern Western psychotherapy is of course grounded in the the-
ories of Sigmund Freud, who characterized these endemic human ‘life
and death’ drives (Eros and Thanatos) as the forebearers of what he called
‘neurosis.’ And, as explored earlier through Freud, Marcuse, Shepard,
Butler, Hillman, and others, much of human activity and civilization can
be seen as the projection of these ego-afflictions, of the struggle with
166 M. A. GORDON
Love as ‘Way’
One word thematically unifies the subject of this book: love. I use this
word not in the modern romantic or familial sense, but in the classical
meaning of higher universal love, or agape. From the previous descrip-
tions of Ki Aikido principles—with their roots in pragmatic training and
as spiritual purification, we see not just a dedication or intention toward
love as a quality, purpose, or ethic, but as an ontology. Love is the uni-
verse, according to the principle of aiki (spiritual harmony of heaven/
earth). In the western context, Fromm (1956) highlighted the difference
in the prosaic or romantic, and spiritual, concepts of love by suggesting
that the modern cultural norms focus on acquiring a love object. That
is, being loved by another, and thus proving our lovability, impedes our
focus on being loving toward another—or others. Rather than being an
object, Fromm says, love is a faculty, requiring us to ‘become aware that
love is an art, just as living is an art; if we want to learn how to love we
must proceed in the same way we have to proceed if we want to learn
any other art, say music, painting, carpentry, or the art of medicine or
engineering’ (1956, p. 6). He elaborates:
The main condition for the achievement of love is the overcoming of one’s
narcissism. The narcissistic orientation is one in which one experiences as
real only that which exists within oneself, while the phenomena in the out-
side world have no reality in themselves, but are experienced only from the
viewpoint of their being useful or dangerous to one. The opposite pole to
narcissism is objectivity; it is the faculty to see people and things as they are,
objectively, and to be able to separate this objective picture from a picture
which is formed by one’s desires and fears. (Fromm, 1956, 118)
teaching which is the most important one for human development: the
teaching which can only be given by the simple presence of a mature,
loving person’ (Fromm, 1956, p. 117). Our task, then, as educators, par-
ents, and fellow sentient beings, as put forth in this manuscript, notwith-
standing the priorities of curriculum, subject matter, methodology or
assessments, is the focus on the development of the teacher or individual
as leader, as healer, as an ennobled warrior of compassion.
In the following sections, I summarize and review the major themes
of this book as follows:
Notes
1. Returning to the Chapter 1 with the Triangle, Circle, and Square, this
would represent the sequence of (1) ready posture (Triangle, openness);
(2) moving into connection (Circle, engagement); and (3) applied control
(Square, resolution).
2. Fromm’s driving analogy here echoes Merleau-Ponty’s unilateral incorpo-
ration (2012) in which the latter extends the notion of embodiment to
include the ‘bumper-to-bumper’ incorporation of the car as an extension
of one’s own body.
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186 M. A. GORDON
G I
gestalt, 7, 12, 13, 26–28, 32, 34, 39, ichi go ichi e, 100, 119
45–47, 75, 109–113, 120, 133, ichi go, ichi go-e, 7
164, 181, 183 interbeing, 51, 72
Gestalt Therapy, 7, 21, 26, 27, 45, 48, interconnectedness, 12, 52, 78, 90,
109–111, 114, 115, 120, 125, 96, 105, 139
126, 129–132, 134, 180 intercorporeality, 109, 112, 114, 123,
gestalt, 7, 21, 26, 111, 115 124, 134, 174
ground, path, fruition, 40, 41, 43–45, interdependence, 11, 23, 28, 34,
49, 93 42, 51, 61, 62, 64, 69, 83, 89,
three-fold logic, 40, 43, 51 91–93, 97, 122, 141, 177
interpsychic, 26, 35, 58, 69, 70
inter-psychic. See interpsychic
H intrapsychic, 23, 26, 28, 49, 58,
Hanh, Thich Nhat, 51, 62, 72, 80 69–71, 94, 164, 167
hara, 16, 20, 42, 149
harmony, 8, 10, 12, 15, 31, 32, 42,
45, 47, 53, 92, 96, 98, 100, 102, J
105, 112, 117, 119, 130, 146, James, William, 52, 114, 166
148, 150, 154, 157, 168, 169, Jung, Carl, 6–8, 19, 26, 27, 52, 110,
173, 174, 177, 178, 181 168. See also Jungian
healing, 11, 13, 26–28, 34, 36, 37, Jungian, 4, 34, 37, 49, 64, 133
39, 49, 58, 60, 61, 64, 65, 74,
78, 82, 83, 120, 145, 154, 164,
173, 181 K
Heidegger, Martin, 4, 79, 111, 127 keiko. See shugyo
hermeneutic, 21, 36, 50, 62, 70, 77, ki, 5–10, 12–20, 22, 23, 25, 31, 34,
175, 179 35, 43, 89, 90, 92, 94–96, 98–
heuristic, 30, 36, 37, 45, 50 101, 103, 104, 107, 109, 112,
hidden curriculum, 80, 144 115, 117–119, 124, 126, 133,
Hillman, James, 4, 28, 37, 49, 50, 58, 134, 146–153, 156, 169–172
64–66, 69–71, 73, 75, 77, 78, ki aikido, 5, 20, 22, 24, 35, 52, 90,
80, 81, 165, 181 96, 99, 107, 112, 113, 124, 126,
holarchy, 68 147–149, 172, 173, 177, 181
holistic, 7, 9, 13, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30, ki development, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24,
33, 39, 43, 44, 47–50, 60–62, 35, 90, 98, 99, 112, 148, 151,
65, 114, 120, 134, 139, 141, 172, 177
144, 173, 176 kinesthetic, 4, 9, 17, 19, 51, 90, 109,
Hooks, Bell, 58, 59, 61, 62, 64–66, 111, 112, 134, 148, 182
79, 80, 145 kokoro, 90, 157
horizon of significance. See Taylor, kokyu, 16, 22, 149
Charles kotodama. See Aikido
190 Index
52, 59–65, 74–76, 80, 89–94, 97, self-cultivation, 5, 6, 9–19, 22, 25, 28,
98, 102–105, 109–115, 120–127, 30, 32, 37, 39, 49, 51, 60, 112,
129, 131, 132, 134, 139–145, 113, 120, 122, 126, 139–141,
150, 151, 153–158, 165, 166, 143, 146, 150, 168, 176, 178,
168, 169, 172, 174, 176–184 181, 182
‘practice of freedom’. See Foucault, self-inquiry. See heuristic
Michel selflessness, 12, 178
praxis, 28, 45, 47–49, 58, 59, 62, 64, self-reflection, 17, 22, 112, 157, 166
76, 89, 91, 94, 96, 104, 105, self-regulation, 29, 93
122, 141 Shepard, Paul, 58, 60, 66, 83, 165,
Psyche. See Eros 182
psychodynamic, 70–72, 81, 132, 181 Shinto. See Ueshiba, Morehei
psycho-emotional, 11, 26, 59, 71, 72, shodo, 5, 13, 16–18, 22, 28, 34, 39,
110, 120, 121, 131, 132, 145 51, 154, 155, 164, 180, 182
psychosomatic, 18, 23, 25, 111–113, shugyo, 32, 93, 100, 117
122, 123, 134, 180, 182 skillfulness, 15, 17, 23, 32, 33, 52,
psychospiritual, 4, 6, 11, 12, 15, 22, 110, 113, 117, 120, 121, 126,
27, 32, 36, 37, 39, 49, 50, 59, 129, 133, 134, 156, 174, 177,
60, 63, 110, 117, 120, 126, 131, 178, 180, 181, 184
139–141, 143, 164, 178, 182 soteriological, 12, 41, 102, 104, 122,
psychotherapy, 5, 13, 21, 25–27, 29, 178, 181
33, 36, 39, 47, 49, 51, 70, 77, soul, 28, 36, 42, 50, 58, 64, 65, 69,
110, 133, 158, 165, 166, 179, 182 70, 78, 81, 83
Spiegel, Bernt, 109, 111, 121,
127–129, 132, 134
R subjective. See objective
rationalism. See objectivist subjectivization, 60, 67, 68
recursive, 6, 17, 22, 23, 32, 113, 144 synchronization, 7–10, 19, 149
relational, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12, 15, 17, 23,
28, 29, 31, 33, 34, 39, 48, 51,
52, 58, 59, 65, 72, 76, 89, 92, T
93, 99, 100, 102–105, 111, 112, takemusi aiki. See Aikido
122, 123, 131, 139, 140, 143, Taylor, Charles, 59, 67, 68, 70, 176,
145, 150, 151, 153, 157, 165, 182
169, 179, 182, 184 teleology, 5, 12
responsiveness, 4, 24, 25, 92, 102, 142, temporal-spatial, 10, 24, 91, 109, 112,
148, 151, 152, 155, 168, 169 113, 115, 133, 180
rider-bike unity. See Spiegel, Bernt Tohei, Koichi, 16, 20, 52, 72, 99,
106, 107, 112, 113, 147, 148.
See also ki aikido
S transformation, 12, 15, 16, 23, 26, 31,
Sangen. Seetriangle, circle and square 33, 37, 52, 53, 76, 79, 93, 112,
self-actualization, 29, 62, 65, 80, 92, 117, 139–142, 146, 156, 157,
114, 175 164, 180
192 Index
V
virtue ethics, 11–13, 23, 28, 32, 48,
122, 169, 176