Occupy the space in which the attackers intent lies

“Move the totality of the consciousness along the orbital path, finish in hanmi”

“Aikido is not about changing the other, but about changing the self”

“When the attacker comes they do not exist, and I do not exist”

Morihei Ueshiba

The initial movement before any contact with Uke is made occupies the space in which their intent lies, this movement of the Hara, without any apparent bodily special movement sets the centre up to occupy the area intended to be occupied by the centre of the opposing person. The first aspect of this is that it engages the attacker, another way to look at this is that it subtly links together your Ki creating a bond/connection between the Ki of the attacker and the Ki of the one attacked. Ki Musubi is initiated with your intent connecting with the animal part of the attackers mind.

Modern Aikido has developed so that the first step is usually to the side avoiding the attacker, increasing the power of their intent, rather than absorbing and neutralizing this power. If the centre/hara of the attacker is not disturbed or controlled they can pivot their centre within their sacrum and track your intended movement generating the same power and intent continuously.

The attackers intent is therefore the place that their mind resides, if we make an initial movement that joins together these opposing forces, occupying the space between us, the attackers line continues UNCHANGED, and a single entity is created, that being a single point of reference that remains unchanged in space and time, we train to recognize this point and move ourselves in direct relation to it, utilizing the intention of the attacker against them.

The difficulty is intent. Once we intend to do anything to the attacker this connection becomes void. We must see/feel their intent or line of force relative to our line, but remain invisible to their perception. You cannot lead an attackers ki/mind, this creates two seperate minds, when no minds exist, then this concept is understood. We study basic movement to free ourselves from such contrivances. We attach because human desire to feel in control and safe, to teach is to have a tangible objective to pass to students, when such objectives are irrelevant, we have a crisis of identity that was of our own creation. To add worth to life’s pursuits rather than just letting the flow of all creation to unfold of its own natural volition – and to have a moment when we realise that the idea of control over anything is just an imagined attachment related to fear – of failure, of death, of the unknowable……..

Imagine you are walking down a steep incline, and you trip over. In front of you is a tree with a branch extended, you reach out with this extended hand, and MENTALLY prepare yourself to accept its resistance and arrest your fall, this tree is unmoved and the branch represents a mentally predetermined point in space and time at which resistance is EXPECTED to occur. Now imagine what happens when the branch snaps and no resistance is felt.

When someone attacks you they mentally prepare to meet resistance, they predetermine this point of contact in space and time, if our initial movement is avoidance, the mind connection is broken, and a new cognitive sequence is started, this sequence can occur multiple times in the attackers mind during a single attack, instantaneously. This keeps us retreating, and creates a sequence of attack and counter attack that can go on forever.

Occupying the line with moon shadow (understanding the heart centre or solar plexus relationship)changes this sequence to a singlularity. Mentally we are talking about the pre-cognitive function of the mind. Although scientists cannot yet agree on an exact time frame, the mind pre-loads sequences from between 3 to 6 seconds ahead of actual time. A great example of this is to imagine it is a dark night and you are walking along an unfamiliar track carrying a torch, where do you shine the torch? At your feet, or off into the distance? If the torch is shone at the feet, progress is very slow, as the brain deals with obstacles in a closed loop of about one second between the eyes and the feet, the movement becomes totally reactive, not proactive. Now walk as you normally would, shining the torch off into the distance. Normal walking cadence is now restored, and although you cannot see the feet and where they are stepping with the eyes, the minds eye knows where the feet are and what they are doing. This is Pre-cog, and moon shadow uses it as a tool against the attacker.

Peter Kelly