
The Art of La Paz Lessons of the
founder of the Aikido Morihei Ueshiba
Morihei Ueshiba (1883 - 1969) was
the greatest teacher of martial arts of history. Even being a old one of 80
years, it could disarm any enemy, win to any number of attackers and immobilize
to any opponent with a single finger. Although invincible like Morihei soldier
he was mainly a peace man that detested the fights, the war and all class of
violence. Its way was the Aikido, that can be translated like "the Art of La
Paz".
;
The Art of La Paz is an ideal, but
it was developed in the life in many fronts. In his Morihei youth it served in
the infantry in the Russian-Japanese war; soon it faced pirates and bandits
during an adventure in Mongolia, and after dominating several martial arts he
was instructor of the military schools of elite in Japan. Nevertheless during
all his Morihei life it felt a painful restlessness by the fights and
confrontations that plagued their world: the battles of its father with corrupt
politicians and their mercenarios, the devastation of the war and the brutality
of the military leaders of its country.
Morihei was in a spiritual search
and had three visions that transformed it. First it happened in 1925, when it
was 42 years old. After overcoming to a skilled swordsman of high rank when
avoiding all his advances and cuts (Morihei was disarmed), it went to his garden.
"Suddenly, the Earth shook. A golden steam arose from the ground and it
surrounded to me. I felt transformed into a golden image and my body seemed as
light as a pen. Suddenly I included/understood the nature of the creation: the
Way of the Guerrero must show the Divine Love, a spirit whom it embraces and it
nourishes to all the things. Tears of gratitude and joy ran by my cheeks. I saw
to the whole Earth like my home, and to the sun, the moon and the stars like
intimate friends. All attachment to the material things vanished ".
The second vision took place in
December of 1940. "Around the two in the morning, while a ritual purification
practiced, I forgot suddenly all the techniques martial art that had learned.
All the techniques that my teachers had transmitted to me completely appeared
renewed. Now, they were vehicles for the culture of the life, the knowledge, the
virtue and the sense common instead of resources to demolish and to immobilize
people ".
The third vision happened in 1942,
during the worse one of the battles of World War II and in one of the darkest
periods of human history. Morihei saw the great spirit of La Paz, a footpath
that could lead to the elimination of all fight and the reconciliation of the
humanity. "the way of the soldier badly has been interpreted like means to kill
and to destroy to others. Those that looks for the competition commit a serious
error. To strike, to hurt or to destroy are the worse sin than a human being can
commit. The true way of the soldier must prevent the slaughter, is the Art of La
Paz, the power of the Love ". As of that moment, Morihei retired to the field
and dedicated every minute of its life to refine and to spread the Aikido, the
Art of La Paz.
Unlike the old classic text
authors of soldiers like the Art of war and Libro of the five Ring, that accepts
the inevitabilidad of the war and emphasizes average the astute strategy as to
arrive at the Morihei victory included/understood that the continuous fight --
with others, we ourself and surrounding means -- would ruin the Earth. "the
world will continue changing dramatically, but the fight and the war can destroy
to us totally. What now we needed they are technical of harmony and not of
confrontation. The Art of La Paz is required and not the Art of war." Morihei
taught the Art of La Paz like a creative discipline of the body and the mind,
like an average practitioner to handle itself before the aggression and like
means of life that feeds the anger, the wisdom, the love and the friendship. It
interpreted the Art of war in the possible amplest sense and thought that its
principle of reconciliation, harmony, cooperation and empathy could valiantly be
applied to all the challenges that the life presents/displays to us in the
personal relations, in the interaction with the society, the work and the
businesses and the relation with the nature. All man can be a soldier by La Paz.
Although the Aikido was originated
with Morihei in Japan, tries to be a gift for all the humanity. Some have chosen,
or will choose in the future, the Aikido like their own Private road, practicing
it on the mats and applying it to their daily life. Many have been and will be
more, I hope, inspired by the universal message of the Art of La Paz and its
implications for our world.
The divine beauty. Of the sky and
the Earth.
All the creation, members of a
family.
The appointments of this book have
been compiled of reunited them char of Morihei, its poems and handwritings and
the oral tradition.
The term ki appears in some
places; one talks about the subtle energy that impels the universe, the vitality
that impregnates the creation and that maintains to all the together things.
The Art of La Paz begins with you.
It works on same you and with the task that has been assigned you in the Art of
La Paz All we have a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained of
certain way, an advisable footpath to follow. You are here with the single
intention of darte counts of your inner divinity and to show your innate
illumination. It feeds La Paz in your own life and soon it applies the Art to
everything what you find.
They are not necessary buildings,
money, power or prestige to practice the Art of La Paz. The sky is exactly there
where you are and that is the place to train.
All the spiritual things,
materials and, arise from a same source and are related as if they formed a
family. The past, the present and the future they are contained in the force of
the life. The Universe emerged and development from a unique source, and we
evolved through the optimal process of unification and harmonization.
The Art of La Paz is the medicine
for an ill world. In the world they exist and the disorder badly because people
have forgotten that all the things emanate of a single source. It returns to
that source and it back leaves all thought autocentrado, all stingy desire and
all wrath. Those that they are had by the anything have everything.
If you have not been united to the
true vacuidad, you will never include/understand the Art of La Paz.
The Art of La Paz works everywhere
in the Earth, from the vastness of the space to the smallest plant or the
smallest animal. The force of the life penetrates everything and its strength is
limitless. The Art of La Paz allows us to perceive and to resort to that
enormous reserve of Universal Energy.
Eight forces maintain the Creation:
movement and calm, solidification and fluidity, extension and contraction,
unification and division.
The life is growth. If we stop the
growth, technique and spiritually, we are as useful as corpses. The Art of La
Paz is the celebration of the connection of the sky, the Earth and the humanity.
He is all the true one, good and the beautiful thing.
Time and time again it will be
necessary that you retire between deep mountains and hidden valleys to restore
your bow with the life source. Déjate inspires and to elevate to the borders of
the Universe; it expires and it lets to the cosmos return within you. Soon it
inhales all the fecundity and vitality of the Earth. Finally, it combines the
breath of the sky and the Earth breath with the yours own one, transformándote
in the same breath of the life.
All the principles of the Sky and
the Earth are alive within you. The same life is the truth and this never will
change. Everything, in the Sky and the Earth, breathes. The breathing is the
thread that ties the creation and it maintains it united. When the myriad of
variations of the universal breathing can be perceived, the individual
techniques are born of the Art of La Paz.

It considers the flow and ebb tide
of the tide. When the waves come to strike the border, they are raised and they
fallen causing a sound. Your breathing would have to follow the same pattern,
absorbing the Universal whole number in your belly with each inhalation. You
must know that all we have access to four treasures: the energy of the Sun and
the Moon, the breathing of the Sky, the Earth breathing and the flow and ebb
tide of Marea.
Those that they practice the Art
of La Paz must protect the dominions of the Mother Nature, divine reflection of
the creation, and maintain it beautiful and fresh. The quality of the soldier
gives origin to the natural beauty. The subtle techniques of a soldier arise as
naturally as they appear the spring, the summer, the autumn and the winter. The
quality of the soldier is not another thing that the vitality that sustains all
the life.
When the life is victorious, there
is birth; when prevented, there is death. The soldier permanently is dedicated
to a fight of life or death by La Paz.
He contemplates works of this
world, listens to the words of the wise person and takes everything what is good
like own. With this as he bases, he opens your own door to the truth. You do not
despise the truth that is right before you. It observes freely as the water in
the stream of a valley flows, smooth and between rocks. It also learns of sacred
books and wise people. Each thing -- including rivers and mountains, plants and
trees -- would have to be your teacher.
It again creates every day
vistiéndote with Sky and Earth, bañándote with wisdom and love and colocándote
in the heart of the Mother Nature.
You do not let learn of the pure
voice of the mountain stream that flows eternally sprinkling rocks.
La Paz is originated with flowing
of the things, its heart is like the movement of the wind and the waves. The way
is like the veins that make circulate the blood through our bodies, following
the natural course of the force of the life. If you are separated at least a
little the divine essence, you are far from the footpath.
Your heart is full of fertile
seeds hoping to appear. In the same way which a flower of loto arises from mud
to bloom in all its splendor, the interaction of the cosmic breathing makes
bloom the spirit so that of fruit in this world.
It studies the lessons of the
pine, the bamboo and pimpollo of the plum tree. The pine is always green, firmly
taken root and is venerable. The bamboo is strong, resistant and unshakeable.
Pimpollo of the plum tree vigorous, is perfumed and elegant.
Mantén always your so luminous and
clear mind as the vast sky, the great ocean and the highest tip: empty of all
thought. Mantén always your full body of light and heat. Llénate to same you
with the power of the wisdom and the illumination.
As soon as you take care of the "good"
and "badly" of your resemblances, you create an opening in your heart by which
the malicia enters. To examine, to compete and to criticize to other debilitate
to you and it defeats to you.
The penetrating brightness of the
swords maintained by the followers of the Way strikes to the enemy evildoer
hidden in the deep interior of its own bodies and souls.
The Art of La Paz is not easy. It
is a fight until the aim, the slaughter of bad desires and the inner
falsification. In some occasions, the voice of La Paz resonates like a
thunderclap, shaking to the human beings and removing them from its lethargy.
Clear like the crystal, acute and
shining, the sagrada sword does not admit site to lodge to badly.
In order to practice the Art of La
Paz suitably you must: to calm the spirit and to return to the source. To
eliminate all malicia, egoísmo and desire to clean to the body and the spirit.
To feel eternal gratitude by the received gifts of the Universe, your family,
the Mother Nature and your resemblances.
The Art of La Paz is based on four
great virtues: value, wisdom, love and friendship, symbolized by the Fire, the
Sky, the Earth and the Water.
The essence of the Art of La Paz
is to clean your being of malicia, to harmonize with your atmosphere and to
clear your footpath of all the obstacles and barriers.
The only cure for the materialism
is the cleaning of the 6 senses (eyes, ears, nose, language, body and mind). If
the senses are obstructed, the perception is clouded. The more cloudy the
perception, the more the senses are contaminated. This creates disorder in the
world and that is the badly greatest one. It refines your heart, it releases to
the 6 senses and déjalos to work without obstructions, and your whole body and
soul will shine.
All life is a manifestation of the
spirit, the manifestation of the love. And the Art of La Paz is the purest form
of that principle. A soldier is responsible to stop all discussion and all fight.
The universal love works of diverse forms; to each manifestation free expression
is due to allow him. The Art of La Paz is true democracy.
All and each one of the teachers,
without concerning time or place, received the call and reached the harmony with
the sky and the Earth. There are many footpaths that take to the top of the Fuji
mount, but are a single summit: the Love.
Loyalty and the devotion do to the
brave one. Valentía leads the sacrifice spirit. The sacrifice spirit generates
confidence in the power of the love.
The economy is the base of the
society. When the economy is stable the society is developed. The ideal economy
unites spiritual and the material, and the best merchandise with which to deal
they are the sincerity and the love.
The Art of La Paz does not lean in
arms nor in the brute force to prevail; instead of that we sharpened ourselves
with the Universe, we maintain La Paz in our scopes, we nourished the life and
we avoided the death and the destruction. The true meaning of the word samurai
is that that serves and adheres to the power of the love.
It lodges and it refines to the
quick spirit of the soldier while your service in the world; it illuminates the
footpath according to your inner light.
The footpath of La Paz is
extremely vast: it reflects the intention of both worlds, the manifesto and the
hidden one. The soldier is the living temple of the divine thing, the one that
is to the service of that intention.
Your mind would have to harmonize
with the operation of the universe; your body, with the movement of the universe;
body and mind forming a unit that is unified with the activity of the Universe.
Although our footpath is
completely different from the arts single-breasted uniform jackets of the past
it is not necessary to leave the old ways totally. It absorbs the venerable
traditions in the new art having them with fresh articles and constructs all the
classic styles to create better forms.
The daily training in the Art of
La Paz causes that your inner divinity shines more and more. You do not take
care of good and the bad thing of the others. You are not making accounts, acts
with naturalness. Mantén your mind directed to the Art of La Paz, and you do not
criticize other lessons or traditions. The Art of La Paz restricts, neither
limits nor puts ties to no thing. It embraces everything and all it purifies it.
The Art of La Paz practices
sincerely, and the bad thoughts and bad actions will disappear naturally. The
only desire that must remain is the thirst to become qualified more and more in
the footpath.
Those that has reached the
illumination never stop to work to themselves. The understanding of such
teachers cannot be expressed in words or theories. The most perfect actions are
the echo of patterns that are in the nature.
Day after day adiéstrate to same
you, refining your technique: it uses the One to attack the Manifold! That is
the discipline of the soldier.
The way of the soldier cannot be
included with words or by letter: It catches the essence and it advances towards
the understanding!
The intention of the training is
to tighten the loose thing, to fortify the body and to polish the spirit.
The iron is full of impurities
that debilitate it; the forge transforms it into steel and makes of him a filosa
sword. The human beings are developed in the same way.
From old times, the value and the
knowledge have been both pillars of the Footpath: through the virtue of the
training, it illuminates your body and your spirit.
The instructors single can
distribute education fragments. The mysteries of the Art of La Paz arise to the
sacrificed own life through your practical one.
The way of the soldier is based on
the humanity, the love and the sincerity; the heart of the martial value is true
valentía, wisdom, love and friendship. To accentuate the corporal aspects of the
quality of the soldier is useless, because the power of the body always is
limited.

The true soldier always counts on
three arms: the radiating sword of the pacification; the mirror of valentía, the
friendship and the wisdom; and the precious stone of the illumination.
The heart of the human not
difference of the soul of sky and earth. In your practice they ten always
present the interaction of sky and earth, water and fire, yin and yang.
The Art of La Paz is the principle
of the nonresistance. Because he is not resistant, it counts from the beginning
with the victory. Those that has bad intentions or pendencieros thoughts are
defeated instantaneously. The Art of La Paz is invincible because against
anything it fights.
In the Art of La Paz there are no
fights. The true soldier is invincible because he does not fight with anybody.
To win means to defeat the dispute idea that we lodged in our mind.
To hurt an opponent is herirte to
same you. The Art of La Paz is to control the aggression without producing
damages.
The totally wide-awake soldier can
freely use all the elements contained in sky and earth. The true soldier learns
to correctly perceive the activity of the Universe and to transform the martial
techniques into purity vehicles, kindness and beauty. The mind and the body of
the soldier must be impregnated of deep calm and luminous wisdom.
The Art of La Paz with vitality
and joy always practices.
It is necessary to develop a
strategy that uses all the physical codifications and the elements that are
within reach. The best strategy leans in a limitless set of answers.
A good position reflects the
correct attitude of the mind.
The key of the technique is to
maintain right hands, feet and hips and trims. If you are centered, you can
moverte with freedom. The center of your body is the belly; if your mind also is
there, you have the victory ensured in all action.
Muévete since a light beam; it
flies like the ray, it strikes like the thunderclap, turns in circles around a
firm center.
The techniques use four qualities
that reflect the nature of our world. According to the circumstances you must be
hard as the diamond, flexible like the willow, of smooth flowing like the water,
or as empty as the space.
If your opponent shell, responds
with free water, hazte to you totally movable and of flowing. The water, by its
nature, never hits anything or bankruptcy. On the contrary, it absorbs all
attack and it is undamaged.
Working in harmonious set, the
right and the left give origin to all the techniques. The left hand seizes of
the life and the death; the right hand controls them. The four extremities of
the body are the four pillars of the sky, and show the eight directions, yin and
yang, outside and interior.
It shows yang, with your right
hand, balancing it with yin of your left, and guides your companion.
The techniques of the Art of La
Paz are fast neither slow, are not outside nor inside. They are beyond time and
space.
It appears of the Great Earth;
álzate like the Great Waves; enraízate like a tree, rests like a rock; it uses
the One to attack Everything. It learns and it forgets!
When an opponent goes ahead,
enfréntalo and salúdalo, if she tries to back down, déjalo to follow its way.
The body would have to be
triangular, the circular mind. The triangle represents the energy generation and
is the more stable physical position, the circle symbolizes serenity and
perfection, the limitless source of techniques. The square represents solidity,
the base of the control.
It always tries to be in comunión
with sky and earth, this way the world will appear in its true aspect. The
presumption will vanish and you will be able to harmonize with any attack.
If your heart is ample like
including your adversary, you can see through them and avoid its attacks. Once
you have included them, you will be able to guide them by the way that sky and
earth have indicated to you.
It frees of all weakness, not
tending to ignore the crude attack of your enemies: Bear and acts!
You do not face east world with
fear and rejection. It confronts with value everything what the Gods offer to
you.
Every day of the human life
contains wrath and joys, pain and pleasure, light and the dark, growth and decay.
Every moment is noticeable with the great intention of the nature, you do not
deal with oponerte or to deny the cosmic order of the things.
The techniques of La Paz,
protectors of this world and guardians of the Way of the Gods and the Budas,
enable us to face all the challenges.
The same life is always a test. To
adiestrarte you must ponerte on approval and refinarte to be able to confront
the great challenges of the life. It extends the limits of the life and the
death, and then you will be able to face calm and security any crisis that
appears to you.
It is even thankful always, the
defeats, the shortages and to the bad people. To learn to move with such
obstacles is an essential part of the training in the Art of La Paz.
The failure is the key of the
success. Each error teaches something to us.
Extreme situations, the universal
whole number is transformed into our enemy, at so critical moments, the mind
unit and technique is essence: you do not allow that your heart titubee!
At the moment at which a soldier
confronts the enemy, all the things fall under the center of their glance.
Even though a single enemy
protests to you, remains in guard, because you are always surrounded by legions
of enemies.
The Art of La Paz is to complete
the faltante.
In order to be able to illuminate
the Footpath it is necessary to be prepared to receive the ninety and nine
percents of the enemy attack and to face the face of the death.
Our techniques completely we
entered, we mixed ourselves in totality and we controlled with firmness an
attack. The force is when the ki is stable and is concentrated, the confusion
and the malicia arises when the ki stagnates.
Two types of ki exist: The worldly
ki is heavy and dense, the true ki is light and versatile.
In order to evolve well, you must
liberarte of the worldly ki and impregnate your organs with true ki. This is the
base of a powerful technique.
In the Art of La Paz we attacked.
To attack is test that one is outside control. You never flee from a challenge,
but you do not try to eliminate or to control an opponent of unnatural way. It
leaves them attacking approach of the way in which they want and mézclate with
them. You never persecute an opponent. It reorients all attack and mantente
firmly back.
When seeing me in front of him,
the enemy attacks, but for that moment already I am signs surely and behind him.
When they attack to you, it
unifies the parts superior, average and low of your body. It enters, tour and
mézclate with your opponent, in front and back, right and left.
Your spirit is the true shield.
Continuously the opponents
confront to us, but in fact there is there no opponent some. He deeply enters
the attack and neutralízalo attracting the force that goes in direction missed
towards your own sphere.
You fixedly do not watch the eyes
of your opponent, could hipnotizarte. You do not fix your glance to its back,
could intimidarte. Nonapproaches the glance in your opponent: it could absorb
your energy. The essence of the training is to attract your opponent within your
sphere completely. Then you will be able situarte where you wish.
Until most powerful of the human
beings it has a sphere of limited force. Sácalo of that sphere and atráelo to
yours; its force will dissipate.
To left and right, it avoids all
the cuts and shutdowns. It catches the thoughts of your opponent and disípalos!
The true Art of La Paz is not to
sacrifice one single one of your soldiers to overcome the enemy. Defeat to your
enemies manteniéndote always in a inatacable position and out of danger; then,
there will be no losses in no side. The way of the soldier, the art of the
policy, is to stop the conflict before it begins. It consists of defeating the
adversary spiritually, making see the madness him of his action. The way of the
soldier is to establish the harmony.
It dominates the divine techniques
of the Art of La Paz and there will be no enemy who dares to desafiarte.
In your training, you do not hurry,
since to dominate the basic thing and to arrive at the first step it takes a
minimum of 10 years. You never imagine to be masterful of the perfection that
all knows it; you must continue your daily training next to your friends and
disciples and to progress together in the Art of La Paz.
The progress arrives at which is
trained uninterruptedly; to trust secret techniques will not take to you nowhere.
To play with one and another
technique is of little utility. It acts with decision and without reserves!
If you perceive the true sky form
and earth, you see with clarity your true form. When you see with clarity a
certain principle, you can put it in practice. After each practical application,
it reflects on your efforts. It progresses constantly this way.
The Art of La Paz can be
transformed thus: the true victory is the victory on himself. That that day
arrives with prewalls! The "true victory" means reckless anger; "victory on
himself", symbolizes efforts without titubeos, and "That that day arrive with it
prewalls! "it represents the glorious moment of the triumph in here and now.
It throws outside you the thoughts
that limit and returns to the true vacuidad. Sitúate in means of the great
emptiness. This it is the secret of the way of the soldier.
In order to truely put in practice
the Art of La Paz, you must be able to play freely in the manifest kingdom, the
hidden one and the divine one.
If you conceive the Art of La Paz,
this difficult footpath, as it is, it includes the circle of the sky.
The techniques of the Art of La
Paz change constantly; each encounter is unique, and the suitable answer must
arise with naturalness. The morning techniques will be different from those from
today. You do not let yourself catch by the form and appearance of a challenge.
The Art of La Paz does not have form; it is the study of the spirit.
Finally, you must forget the
techniques. The more crude the less lessons it has. The great footpath truely is
a nonFootpath.
The Art of La Paz that I practice
has I surround for the eight million Gods of the world, and I cooperate with all
of them. The God of La Paz is very great and conjugates everything what divine
and it is illuminated in the Earth.
The Art of La Paz is a plegaria
form that generates light and heat. It forgets your small being, libérate of the
attachment to all object, and you will emanate light and heat. The light is
wisdom; the heat is compassion.
The divine thing is not something
distant and over us. It is in the sky, it is in the Earth, it is within us.
Únete to the cosmos, and the
importance idea will disappear. The importance belongs to the profane world.
When all vestige of importance vanishes, the true person -- the Divine being --
pronounces itself. Vacíate to same you and leaves works the divine thing.
The Divine thing does not wish to
be locked up in a building. The divine thing yearns for the open space. It is
here, indeed in this body. Each one of us is a Universe in miniature, a living
temple.
When reverences deeply the
Universe, you receive reverences; when you pronounce the name of God, it
resonates in your interior.
The Art of La Paz is the religion
that is not a religion; it totalizes and it completes all the religions.
The Footpath is extraordinarily
vast. From old times to the present, to the greatest wise people they were
incapable to perceive and to include/understand the complete truth; the
explanations and lessons of saints and teachers single express a part absolutely.
Nobody can express it completely. Simply encamínate towards the light and the
heat, learns of the Gods, and through the virtue of the sacrificed practice of
the Art of La Paz hazte One with the Divine thing.

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