Chudo

Chudo is Japanese for "the middle way". We should always try to manifest chudo through our aikido. To manifest chudo in aikido is the ultimate physical goal of aikido. By doing so, your technique will be light and flowing, not heavy and stilted. No matter whether you are receiving the technique (uke) or executing the technique (nage), you should try and maintain chudo with your partner. Each of you should work towards this goal as you practice.

But chudo also has a philosophical manifestation.

As human beings, we view the world through the prism of dualism. Light/Dark, yes/no, strong/weak, push/pull, happy/sad, good/evil, etc. The world moves in natural cycles of extremes. The cycle of a day naturally moves from light to dusk to dark to dawn to light and on and on. Seasons move in cycles of hot and cold. Weather moves in cycles of sunshine and rain. It is the contrasting nature of this dualism that informs our worldview with perspective and contrast.

Though this dualistic distinction can be useful to our worldview, it can also be detrimental. Instead of working within the cycles of nature, many times we, through the misguided use of our reason and ego, try to fight against them. For example, when someone pushes us, we push back. When someone does something bad to us, we look for revenge by doing something bad to them. Though these reactions seem natural, they actually add to the chaos in the world by fighting against what is natural. It is like trying to swim upstream.

One must remember that without pain one would not experience pleasure. Without periods of sadness one would not experience periods of joy. These cycles are natural and should not be resented or avoided. One could not exist without the other. This is what I meant when I say:

"Nothing in life is special because all of life is special. Nothing in life is common because all of life is common. Because of this, the special and the common are the same."

This does not mean we just sit back and allow ourselves to be taken advantage of by the inequities of life. We must engage and blend with that which is at odds with us in order to help dissipate it. This is at the heart of aikido. We use what we learn in the dojo to engage violence or confrontation, whether it is verbal or physical, blend with it, and help bring it to a non-violent conclusion.

We should try and seek chudo in our aikido and, ultimately, in our life. In doing so, we begin to understand why we experience pleasure and pain, why we experience gain and loss, and why we experience suffering in general. By understanding the interplay of these opposites and their existential relationship to one another through our aikido practice, we gain a greater appreciation for, and a more robust ability to control, our reactions to the vicissitudes of life outside the dojo. We can then begin to live in accordance with these natural cycles and our sense of suffering will naturally begin to dissipate. Thus we will live in harmony with the world as it is and not how we wish it to be.

This is living in chudo.