Aiki Peace Week 2012 Messages

Help Us Celebrate the Third Annual Aiki Extensions

International Aiki Peace Week

September 16-22, 2012

We asked aikido students via Facebook to tell us one thing that they would want to communicate about aikido to the world and why they chose it. Here is a sample of what they said:

‘Aikido is beauty in motion’

‘I would explain about the way it is used in harmony with others. The reason is you can affect people in a positive way in every day situations, which you do not get in the majority of other martial arts’.

‘Quite simply, having practiced a very different martial art before for some 20 years, I have found that Aikido makes me feel so happy!’

‘Aikido is ethics made physical.’

‘The idea that conflict can be dealt with easily with a smile on my face.’

‘Aikido offers unique training for mind-body-spirit. An opportunity to experience peace and harmony as you deal with the practical issues of conflict.’

‘Aikido helps you find the best possible outcome of adverse circumstances.’

‘That Aikido is the art of living peacefully...With yourself, your opponent, your community and the world. I choose this because it seems to be the core of O Sensei's teaching.’

‘A way to refine myself to hold/be in a more positive space as I move through the world; this seems to give others the opportunity to have a space in which to breath, relax, soften and grow.’

It’s fair to say that we all practice for our own reasons and maybe we all have a slightly different take on what it is all about, but all of the statements above emphasize something other than the martial aspect of aikido and most focus on what we might call positive outcomes.

This is the gift of aikido, it offers fundamental principles within the practice of a physical art, which when applied by the skillful practitioner simply make you feel good. What is more, these principles can be applied just as successfully off the mat, in everyday situations and, (surprise, surprise), they make people feel just as good then. So International Aiki Peace Week gives us the chance to communicate an important and powerful message to each other, to our students and to the world at large. So whether you signed up for IAPW, simply because you thought the idea deserved support or because it gave you a real chance to do something different within your dojo or local community, doesn’t matter. It is all positive energy and in your own way, you are taking a step to change the world for the better and that is a very good thing!

We hope you find this message inspirational and would ask that you share it with your students and your aikido contacts.

Quentin Cooke

Chair of Aikido for Daily Life

Aiki Extensions Director

Help Us Celebrate the Third Annual Aiki Extensions

International Aiki Peace Week

September 16-22, 2012

Today's message comes from Miles Kessler Sensei, 5th Dan, who trained with Morihiro Saito Shihan in Iwama for eight years and has been teaching in Tel Aviv since moving to Israel in 2005. HisIntegral Dojo combines training in Aikido and Meditation, and his "Aikido Without Borders" foundation provides joint training opportunities for young Palestinian and Jewish youth within a systematic curriculum that offers concrete and positive replacements for violence, hatred, and aggression. He has also created a popularAikido app for the iPhone/iPad. Here is his message for the day:

"Conflict can only happen when there is separation. All separation begins in the mind, and only then manifests outwardly through boundaries, barriers, and walls. True peace requires people to go beyond these boundaries of separation both in their minds and in the world. Peaceful co-existence can only be attained through connection, never separation.

The truth of 'Oneness' can never be seen from fixed perspectives. Any view which says 'we hold the truth, they are wrong' reflects limitations that perpetuate conflict. It seems that this understanding only opens up when one reaches a global, or world-centric perspective. For it is only a world-centric perspective that has the capacity to stand in another person's shoes.

My claim is that this isn't just another relative perspective, but rather a developmental level that needs to be aspired towards. Walls prevent that development, connection encourages it. We practice connection to evolve ourselves and others. We evolve ourselves and others to realize that we are already connected.

That is what Aikido Without Borders is all about."

Miles Kessler

Aikido Sensei, Dharma Teacher, AWB Director

Help Us Celebrate the Third Annual Aiki Extensions

International Aiki Peace Week

September 16-22, 2012

Today's message comes from Robert Frager Shihan, 7th dan, founder of Sofia University (formerly the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology) in Palo Alto, California. Keynote speaker at this June's Aiki Extensions conference in Virginia, Frager Sensei is a pioneer in applying aiki principles to daily life. He is also a Harvard-trained Ph.D. in psychology, ordained Sufi spiritual guide, and direct student of O Sensei. This is his message:

‘I was immediately drawn to Aikido when I read O Sensei’s saying, “The martial arts are love.” It touched me very powerfully. Then I read O Sensei’s explanation: Love is the spirit of protection of all things and the martial arts are meant to protect our families, towns and countries. The best way to protect others is love not violence. More recently I’ve been struck by another saying of O Sensei: “The goal of Aikido is to turn an enemy into a friend.”

Aikido gives us a practical way to practice peace. May we all practice Aikido with this loving attitude, especially during this coming Peace Week.’

Best,

Bob

Help Us Celebrate the Third Annual Aiki Extensions

International Aiki Peace Week

September 16-22, 2012

On this the 7th day of Aiki Peace Week, our message comes from Aiki Extensions President Robert Kent, 4th dan, winner of the 2008 Ben & Jerry's Peace Pioneer prize for his work with The PeaceCamp Initiative:

Budo is love.

Love is compassion.

Compassion is to be joined to another by empathy, or shared experience.

One of the most tangled webs humanity has woven for itself is the complex history of cultural, political, religious, and economic forces at work in the Middle East. Normally, those who seek peace negotiate from a starting point of what the different parties agree on towards an increasing acceptance or at least acknowledgement of the other party's positions on whatever points the parties do not agree on. The particular challenge for those who seek peace in the Middle East, however, is that there are virtually no points on which everyone agrees such that a dialog leading towards peace can even get started. The hard-line voices on each side deny the legitimacy of the other side entirely, and the more moderate voices on each side struggle to get public traction amidst the flurry of headline-grabbing reactions to one perceived provocation or another.

Hercules, when faced with the Gordian knot, pulled out his sword and cut through all the complexity in a single stroke. My contention for today is that O-Sensei's observation that "Budo is Love" might just be a sword with which we can also cut through, or resolve, conflicts even as entrenched and embittered as the Israeli/Palestinian relationship. Or at least start to.

The idea behind The PeaceCamp Initiative is that the only way to peaceful coexistence is to groom a generation of leaders who have forged the bonds of trust and friendship that political movement towards peace always requires. As a youth aikido teacher, I believe the best time to groom leaders is when they are in their teens, young enough to change, but mature enough to understand the context in which they operate. I also believe, having spent my summers at one for more than 35 years, that the best place to forge bonds of trust and friendship between teenagers is a sports camp, where kids come to a beautiful site in the country for several weeks, get to learn new skills each morning, and then put them to use in competition that afternoon - in a context where their opponent on the sports field is also their friend, and may be their bunk mate, may be their buddy for swim down at the lake, or may sit at the same table for meals.

So far, we've brought 20 Palestinian and Jewish teenagers to Camp Susquehannock in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania, all of whom have been participants in the Israeli program Budo for Peace, which creates sister-school relationships between martial arts dojos in Palestinian and Jewish neighborhoods. Each year's delegates have become close friends, and have also served an important educational role in conversation with their mostly American and European fellow campers, all of whom now have a more personal stake in the progress towards Middle East peace.

Of course, it will take more than 20 people, or 200, or 2,000, for there to be lasting peace between millions of people, but every little bit helps, and every child you teach the way of harmony will touch the lives of thousands as they grow up and into positions of responsibility and power. How can we risk NOT teaching this to everyone we can?

* Please click on the links at the top of this email to share this message with your social networks on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share it with friends, colleagues, and students in person and by email.

You are among dozens of other aikido practitioners and advocates of peace who have received this email. Become part of this growing international movement to expand aikido into places that need it most, and to deepen O-Sensei’s vision of peace. Join Aiki Extensions today.

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Aiki Extensions Board of Directors

Don Levine, Founder

Robert Kent (President) • Aviv Goldsmith (Vice President)

Quentin Cooke • Paul Linden • Chris Thorsen • Christian Vanhenten

Brandon WilliamsCraig • Bertram Wohak • Jamie Zimron

Questions? Contact Greg Harkless

Aiki Extensions is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization as described in section 501(c)(3) of the IRS tax code.

Help Us Celebrate the Third Annual Aiki Extensions

International Aiki Peace Week

September 16-22, 2012

Today’s message comes from Mark Leitzel of the Two Rivers Dojo based in Kalispell Montana, one of the participating dojos in International Aiki Peace Week. It was in response to the following question that we asked on Facebook:

'If you could explain one thing to the world at large about aikido, what would it be and why did you choose what you chose?’

We felt Mark’s reply was so good that we wanted to share it with you.

‘To the world at large? How can it be said any better that what O' Sensei said, "Aikido is a way to reconcile the world." It is becoming more and more clear that it is not about fixing or changing the world. It is about our own way of interacting with it, of harmonizing with even the most violent attack and coming to a place where we do not even any longer perceive "attack" just an earnest need for deep connection and Unity and then becoming the humble Host for this Banquet of Reconciliation and Peace. Again, O' Sensei said, It is not what I stand for (or against) but how I stand in relation to the world, and I stand in Harmony." Until we stand in harmony we train Aikido. After we stand in harmony, we train Aikido. Robert Nadeau Shihan says, "Aikido is self correcting . . . It corrects the self!" That is the best current explanation I know of the "one thing" about Aikido.’

Thank you for all your efforts,

IAPW Committee

*ps: please use the links at the top of this email to post this message on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share it with your friends, colleagues, and students in person and by email!

Help Us Celebrate the Third Annual Aiki Extensions

International Aiki Peace Week

September 16-22, 2012

Today is the United Nations' Day of Peace and it seems very appropriate to share the thoughts of Jamie Zimron Sensei, one of Aiki Extensions’ primary movers and shakers. The projects in which she is involved and which Aiki Extensions supports and promotes are incredibly important and demonstrate more powerfully than words how a few people can make a difference. By subscribing to International Aiki Peace Week, we think you, too, are making a difference. Every journey begins with one step!

O-Sensei: “RELY ON PEACE!”

By its very nature, Aikido builds bridges. Its aim is to neutralize aggression, with no harm coming to anyone. Its method is to connect with an ‘other’ or attacker, not to counterattack or to vanquish. Its larger goal is to bring inner peace to its practitioners, and peace within the entire human family. Martial arts peace training directly cultivates values and actions for human beings to live in true respect, equality, health, security, prosperity, harmony.

As O-Sensei taught: “Aikido is medicine for a sick world. There is disorder in the world because people have forgotten all things emanate from one Source. Return to that Source … The Art of Peace begins with you ... Rely on Peace to activate your manifold powers!”

Since its launch in 2004, The Mideast Aikido Peace Project (MAP) has been fostering contact, cooperative ties and non-violence training amongst Arabs and Israelis. Muslims, Christians and Jews are mixing it up on the mat, with the harmonizing influence of Buddhist philosophy and eastern body-mind practices. Regular joint trainings and even sister schools are already a reality in the Middle East and in the international Aikido community.

As AE’s 2012 International Aiki Peace Week gets underway, I’m reminded of 4 days in 2005 when 100 Aikidoists came to Cyprus from the conflict-ridden Middle East, Turkey, Greece, Bosnia, Serbia, and Ethiopia. Along with a few Westerners, we met in the UN Buffer Zone between Greek and Turkish Cyprus for Training Across Borders. Everyone practiced, meditated, danced, massaged, ate, took pictures, went to workshops, laughed, talked, cried, hugged, did more Aikido, and basically had a mind-boggling life-altering great time!

Cyprus was truly a watershed, creating effects that continue to ripple and multiply. These words from participants continue to light the way for peace efforts through Aikido:

“I put myself in the hands of O-Sensei second and God first, decided to jump… and landed in a bed of roses too good to be true. There was a Harmony and energy flow unlike I ever experienced and it split my heart in two.” Alaa, Jordan

"A lifetime experience. From this moment the world is my family." Spiros, Greece.

"Amazing. Heaven on Earth for 4 days. We managed to pull off what governments only dream about." --Scott, Turkey

“It was great to meet Aikidoists from all over the world, especially countries I am not yet allowed to visit.” Efrat, Israel

"These days were a good reminder to an easily forgotten fact - It's people out there. Thank you for the opportunity to raise my eyes from the narrow sight of daily stressful life, and realize there is a bigger and much more beautiful picture to see." Eyal, Israel

"This seminar achieved its goals, and went far beyond. We proved that the training mat is a perfect tool that helps people forget their hate, and even love each other. I hope the seeds of peace planted in Cyprus will grow very quickly, and that we will see its positive impact on our lives at home." Khaled, Palestine

“Aikido lets us share a mutual experience of harmonizing our movements. This is so needed! That way we can come closer, combining the actual people that represent the different sides.” Dekel, Israel

“Glow, peace, glow." Ayman, Jordan

* Please click on the links at the top of this email to share this message with your social networks on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share it with friends, colleagues, and students in person and by email.