Physical training alone cannot fulfill the necessary levels of contemplation and self-reflection that must take place in order for the core of our being to be cultivated.  Theory outside of practice is void of meaning, but practice outside of introspection is superficial.  Though history has touched Budo in many ways, though one can indeed find both the Enlightenment’s preference for the idea and Muscular Christianity’s prejudice denouncing contemplation as a “feminine” act in Budo examples, true Budo exists outside of this spectrum of Western influence.​

 

In true Budo, theory and practice are understood to be mutually interdependent.  This position first came to Budo via the sophisticated epistemologies being propagated by the culturally dominant Buddhist schools of medieval Japan.  Those schools rightly posited that practice void of theory would lead to a degeneration of practice and thus to a decrease in one’s capacity to master said practice.  They also rightly posited that theory void of practice would lead to empty and useless exercise.​

 

Today it is quite popular to hear folks say things about Aikido that they may have heard said about Zen, such things as, “Aikido is beyond words,” etc.  These types of statements, and the polemical actions that follow, are based upon misunderstandings of Zen training.  To be sure, silence has its place in Budo training, as it does in Zen training.  However, we cannot, and should not, assume by some sort of default that Budo training is to occur totally outside of our intellectual capacities.  It is not, or it does only at the risk of becoming an empty and useless exercise.

 

These writings are part of an effort to keep our training whole.