“Among many Aikido books that exist today, Takemusu Aiki has a special place. It focuses on the spiritual message of the founder, a message that needs to be appreciated and understood wherever Aikido is found.”
Review of “The Heart of Aikido, The Philosophy of Takemusu Aiki”
By Morihei Ueshiba
Foreword by Moriteru Ueshiba
Originally Edited by Hideo Takasahi
Compiled and Translated by John Stevens
Published by Kodansha International
ISBN 978-4-7700-3114-3
144 Pages
Publication Date March 10th, 2010
Introduction
This is the newest installment in a series of recent books about the life and teaching of Morihei Ueshiba, O-Sensei, Founder of Aikido. These books include the “Secret Teachings of Aikido,” “A Life in Aikido” (both published by Kodansha) and “Aikido Pioneers” published by Aiki News. “The Heart of Aikido” is compiled from a series of lectures O-Sensei gave to a spiritual group called Byakko Shinko Kai (White Light Association). The group was founded in 1955 by Masahisa Goi (1916-1980), a close friend of O-Sensei.
“It is an organization dedicated to world peace and to raising the consciousness of everyone and every living being on earth. Its activities are rooted in the universal prayer for world peace, ‘May Peace Prevail on the Earth’ as advocated by the late founder, Masahisa Goi, as well as other powerful forms of easy to practice spiritual techniques.” (Quoted from the Byakko website, www.byakko.org).
For those interested, the practices are described on the website under the Education and Learning Center Tabs.
The Byakko Shinko Kai was an outgrowth of the Omoto-kyo movement, which heavily influenced Morihei Ueshiba and the philosophy of Aikido. Goi Sensei was a member of two groups that grew out of Omoto-kyo. The first, Sekai Kyusei Kyo (Church of World Messianity) was founded by Mokichi Okada (1882-1955) in 1935. The second, Seicho-No-Ie (The Home of Infinite Life, Wisdom and Abundance) was founded by Dr. Masaharu Taniguchi (1893-1985) in 1930.
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We apologize to all of those who look forward to our daily newsletter in the form of a digest containing links to the latest blogs, dojos, events, etc. The last newsletter to go out was on October 22. The culprit turned out to be our ISP which recently merged with another company and changed all of their DNS servers. The code triggering the newsletter was pointing to a server that no longer existed! If all goes well, you will get your newsletter today, and then normally thereafter.
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