Budo is Love .....Why?

Why did O'Sensei say Budo is Love? Why do I say so with such certainty? How is it so?

Basically because it is the ultimate discipline and thus the ultimate Budo. So you could also say that Budo is Hate. You could say that Budo is Fear. These too would be types of Budo but they are not ultimate and thus of course they take less discipline.
If they take less discipline then they are more lazy, is that not true?

So it is that in my Aikido emphasis is given to the principles of such things and getting yourself to stick with such principles is the discipline until it becomes more and more natural to do so.

Being with, embracing, being at one with, sharing, being open, these are all principles of love. But what is love and what does it do?

It's an emotion. It's a very special emotion. It's a divine emotion. Why is it divine? Because it is the only true emotion. It is the true spiritual emotion and thus is the heart of life.

Now, below this emotion are many other emotions and all the other negative emotions too but they are not the true you, they are thus mind. They are not spirit they are mind. Being led by your own mind you adopt them and say then you are this feeling, this negative feeling and then you even justify your acts and behaviour and actions by saying it's you and you did it because you were angry or fed up or bored or such like. Thus we have mind leading self and to that degree lost self.

So back to emotion and what does it do? It is a vibration on the scale of motion and thus is moves you. It moves you in a direction. The direction can be even to inaction and then you would merely be in yet another emotion like hopelessness or some such. In Aikido we say say that love is like the welcoming sea that contains and sustains all life. This is you. This is me. This is the highest form of Budo.

So much emphasis is placed on intention lately in the Aikido world as if it is some very special secret principle that you need to develope. It's a start. But that's all. In the scheme of things it's nothing special really. It is merely the start for someone to start actually looking at what they are doing, actually looking at themselves and their intention. But what may I ask is intention? What is it? It is merely a type of thought. That's all. There are many thoughts and many types of thoughts so it would be better to first understand this and to understand that when you are dealing with intention you are dealing with a thought and putting your attention on thought. So you should know what thought does first of all, that would be a wise thing to do when taking up such a venture.

Thought takes you off in a direction. That's what it does. Thought leads you.

Thought is a one point. Thus it is a point of focus and leads your Ki and attention. Each thought is a one point. Now you have many thoughts don't you? Thus you are led all over the place hundreds of times a day. So now from this perspective you may begin to see how the discipline side comes into play for if your energy is being led all over the place you cannot be very stable and while thinking of last night you walk straight into the lamp post, thump. This is where the idea of mind leads Ki leads body comes from in translations of various chinese martial arts or internal arts. But the funny thing is it's seen as natural and wanted. Oh, dear, they are heading for a thump.

No, there is more to understand first in order to understand Aikido. The first thing to understand is that each thought being a one point also has a vibration, a carrier wave if you will, and that carrier wave is emotion. With every thoght you ever have there is with it emotion and that is what moves YOU. FUNNY THING IS IT IS LOVE THAT MOVES YOU TO HERE AND NOW. All else is just people dramatizing some past, stuck in some negatve emotion, unaware they are not being here and now.

Different levels of emotions, different vibrations, different ways of viewing and acting. Unfortunately therefor different ways of self destructing and calling it normal. Different ways also therefor of doing an activity based on budo is love and harmony and yet viewing it and doing it from the perspective of some other emotion.

Masakatsu and Agatsu......true victory is the victory over oneself. Your true heart is love, your true devine motion is love and thus an all embracing attitude and fun. Why let your own mind convince you otherwise? Why let others and their minds convince you otherwise? Why be led by anything else? This is budo is love. You cannot in truth have a broken heart but you can be so convinced and play out the role. Masakatsu and agatsu.

What of joy? Love is the ultimate emotion and it's fun so what is joy? Well, it is not an emotion. It is the ultimate something else. It is not a thought. So what is it? Once again it is the ultimate of something that also has different levels. Once again it has consequences for when you are naturally joyful in yourself and thus towards all things others being stuck in and viewing from some 'miserable' emotion may try to make you not so. Come to spoil your day ha, ha.

So I will leave you with this: THE ULTIMATE EMOTION IS LOVE AND THE ULTIMATE NEUTRALITY IS JOY.

Peace.