In 1968 Morihei (Ueshiba) was hospitalized and his condition was diagnosed as liver cancer. His health gradually declined, but he continued to train and teach as much as he could. Morihei needed assistance to get to and from the dojo, but once the master stepped on to the mat, he was still the invincible warrior.
From the "Training with the Master : Lesson with Moriehei Ueshiba, Founder of Aikido " by John Stevens and Walther v. Krenner.
I have met a couple of people who have died from cancer, and their efforts to continue to live their lives seem almost herculean.
(On the back cover, in paraphrase ....)
If the purpose of Aikido training is not to simply simply make you stronger or tougher than others: but to make you a warrior for peace, how can one be a warrior, one who fights or affects the outcome of a physical confrontation, without learning to be a healer too?
Shouldn't the process be a mutual study of not just physical practice, but a study of medical healing of some sort?
I am convinced that many of the practices in place need to be reviewed, not because they are wrong, but they are not properly practiced in manners that counter our physical practice to heal the body after a taxing workout? The strength of body is not always the strength of ones will power, which seems to be the real key to becoming an invincilble warrior.
Should teachers begin to integrate a study of healing into Aikido to provide a balance of health benefits along with the physical practice? In relation to jumping into a physical workout without warming up, the same dangers of health seem to exist by mixing up some practice drills for aikido. Like most people who seem to do amazing feats, even the founder was flawed when it came to his own health.
Have we come far enough along in our own studys, as the third generation of Aikido practitioners to begin to examine and add onto the foundation of Aikido laid out by the founder?
(By the way, I opened this book at random, to this page with this quote, how strange.)