The Way of the Classroom: Aikido as Transformative, Embodied Pedagogy for Self-Cultivation

• In Event: 43.049 - Contemplative Pedagogies and Profound Transformation of Teaching, Learning, and Being

Abstract

This paper introduces the art of Ki Aikido as training for calm readiness in daily life. As a defensive martial art Ki Aikido uses principles of ‘mind and body coordination’ incorporated from Japanese yoga to focuses practitioners’ attentiveness on their psycho-somatic state when under challenge or ‘attack.’ By incrementally reworking our inner reactivity, Ki Aikido teaches us to diffuse an ‘outer’ challenge or attack through calm, fluid timing and the ethos of the budo (jap: ‘warriorship’) principle of ‘loving protection.’ Without requiring one to enter and endure years of traditional advanced Aikido training, one can immediately develop an embodied awareness of non-dissention. This paper foregrounds the practice of Ki Aikido as a model for transformational, relational, contemplative education.. As a kind of ‘moving meditation,’ Ki Aikido is highlighted as a cultivational approach that is restorative for both educator, students, and towards harmonized relationships with life at large.

Author

• Michael Alan Gordon, Simon Fraser University