 Hey tribal journeymen and women Give me a sec. I'll take off this mask and we'll get into a subject, which is gonna be Really interesting. We're gonna do it on our favorite bench by the way In our nice location for that aside the story we're about to go into is Digging down into understanding Akito's philosophy Which is a worthwhile subject already. I think honestly, I think it's a It's actually a great philosophy and There's a lot of nice ideas in it but it's everything it also has a dark side and if you hang out in Doing something for long enough You usually bump into the dark side to usually start to reach the limitations of that aspect and that definitely helped It happened to me with Akito if you know my background you probably know a lot about it, but Usually when I talk about Akito, I talk about the technical side of it like You know the hierarchy structure and how it pollutes the dynamics in community and the abuse of power by Instructors and the lack of critical thinking and pressure testing so all of that It's more than a technical level and it's been a while since I actually spoke about what specifically the Akito philosophy is But again, well, oh Attacked me, but again while there's a lot of awesome stuff in the Akito philosophy Which I'll be actually enthusiastic to share because it's that it's been a long time since I spoke about it at the same time there are I think personally, I think Akito fails in delivering that philosophy in living up to what it's supposed to be and There are good reasons for why it fails so if you're interested to learn all about that stay tuned for this episode and Let's get going so in order to understand the Akito philosophy first of all It's important to know at least a little bit about the history of Akito or more specifically the history of Akito's founder who kind of created the whole philosophy and and eventually it started to kind of Become very confusing because of certain aspects, but that's down the line initially everything started from Morhio Shiba and Now I do need to say that Morhio Shiba is he's one of those characters one of those figures in history where he was Apparently able to do some things which other people weren't able to do like he was stronger than others or he was able to do some kind of tricks, which seemed supernatural and I think when that happens when you have that kind of legendary status and Especially since also you're involved in spirituality, which he was he was you could say very spiritual Basically, you could say also religious But then when you have that combination Usually it happens so that those people get tied like flies are attacking me today. What heck is this? so Usually what happens is you become tied with a whole mythology or People when you leech reached that kind of living legend status stories about you start to surface which are Most of them are not true, but they get passed around You know, maybe some part of it was true and they get expanded like you know I caught this big fish and you expand the fish kind of the same dynamics and The same I believe it happened with more here Shiba and it there's actually a funny story I had already I went for a personal experience of this. It was really crazy But I'll give you a personal experience example so you would know what I'm talking about So big very brief reminder I was a yoga a keto instructor and I would often be invited to schools too because I Seems I'm very apparently I'm very good with especially teenagers or kids I'm good at inspiring them kind of engaging them and so schools wouldn't might need to talk to them and motivate them and I was I went to one of the schools I think to introduce kind of a keto or something like that. So I was dressed in my a keto gear you know with a whole Haka mine everything it looks quite impressive and the main teacher who was Hosting me or welcoming me When we stayed in the room just her me and my senior student who was helping me out She kind of came close to me and she said so Will you be able to show us your magical trick? I was like What what are you talking about? And she's like I heard I heard that you're able to pass through a pen for a room without touching and I'm like What I'm like, I don't get it like what is she talking about and I start digging into what she means and I realized It was a misunderstanding because when I was doing some projects in schools There was one exercise like a teamwork exercise Where I would take a bunch of kids and I would give them an exercise Like a brainstorming exercise that would tell them you need to pass on this pen From one side of the room to the other without touching it Physically with your hands and so they would have to come up with creative ways Which one of the best ones is just gather a bunch of pieces of papers or notebooks and you know create this line and and you pass it down and But so I try to explain to her I said so that's what it is and she's like she's looking at me like no No, no, no, I know and she's like dead serious. It's like I It's like like don't don't lie to me. I know I know you're able to do that It's like so come on. Will you show it and I'm like, oh, I'm like, oh, well, yeah, maybe not today. So basically There was this legend in her mind that I'm able to pass through it pen Through a room without touching it because it was a misunderstanding But then you know, she would tell that to others obviously and others would believe someone believe and then you know because I think because I was also part of that Mythology of spirituality and martial arts and they're mystified often I guess that gives a better gateway for these legends to spread So it's crazy that I actually even went through a personal experience of bumping into that But I'm dead sure that that's exactly what happened with more. He is she but and there are a lot of crazy and Interesting stories about him like people getting knocked out but just being touched by him and so on and you know It's hard to say whether it's hypnotic susceptibility Which I made a video on one of my channel in my main channel about that in past or or what it was but I think it's like a mix of everything mix of unique abilities that that individual was able to show like kind of special abilities, but But then mixed with all types of talk So so so when I'm gonna tell that story the reason I'm bringing this up is I'll do my best to portray a quick story of more yeshiva also known as all sensei the great teacher but Note that I'm not like, you know a history expert and I dug into his history quite a bit back in the day So I will probably portray quite well, but it's it's it's also a mess of you know Legends and stories and so on so I'll just give you a brief introduction But you know take it with a grain of salt and some some places I may be mistaken But I'll give you the main essence the main picture so What it's important to know about the founder that based on his histories that from early days he was inspired and enthusiastic about Kind of the mystical or the religious the supernatural and he was into a shintoism the you know pagan tradition of Japan He apparently was a very weak child And very introvertive so he would spend time a lot of time thinking and observing things around him and Based on the story he that's how he got exposed The whole spirituality traditions and rituals of shintoism And he became really fast about it and later he picked up martial arts And I think those two things always kind of went toe to toe in his life He apparently trained a lot and became very Very effective very effective martial artist very powerful one His devotion can be seen by the interesting moment where He even built a house for a martial arts instructor so kakutakeda descendant of a samurai line practitioner of Daichiru Aiki Jujitsu And so he built or more he actually built a house for him and hosted him there And like I think provided everything for him just so he would teach him my Not Aikido Aikido didn't exist back then but he's like a Jujitsu So you can see he was kind of very you know Devoted and very kind of intense. There's a lot of stories about how he was like that But besides him training martial arts another significant moment in his life is that he met Anisaburo Daiguchi it's been a while since I said those names, but I think I'm right He was basically a cult leader like a spiritual religious cult leader. Uh, and he had his own Religion I think it was in Omo Tokyo If I'm not mistaking it or whether it was it was another one, but I'll write it to you down somewhere Not that it matched I guess but he had his own religion which apparently from what I gathered I was aiming to unite all religions But apparently it was like really spiritual and there's this moment where they went to korea I believe and try to create this kind of spiritual hub Like an independent city and they got in trouble and they nearly died That's the moment where stories say that moriashiba was able to see And I think that's how he perceives it himself. He was able to see bullet lines Like before the guns shot and he was able to avoid those bullets Uh, and that's how he survived and he would I think that that story is documented and one of the interviews he gave so Apparently he believed in it himself Interesting that like a quick note now that I'm looking back about It's been a while since I thought about it all but, uh, if you think about the theory of flow And there's a great book about it With a weird name the name is the rise of superman But it's a great scientific book about the state of flow like that in deadly conditions your brain goes into maximum capacity And it's able to do things which you normally wouldn't be able to like you you perceive things as slow motion and so on Like it's a legit thing. So, you know, there is a chance that Moriashiba he went in that near-death experience where he was shot at from distance You know, his brain went into the flow state and he started avoiding those, uh bullets Maybe you know, I'm not saying like bullets bullets I think the way he expressed that story in one of the translations is that He perceived the lines of the guns that were aiming where they were aiming and he would be able to position himself Like where he wouldn't get shot, which sounds more realistic of it than dodging bullets directly Uh, but yeah, so, you know, maybe he did have some some of these extraordinary experiences which made him even more into this mystical figure But uh, one rear another, uh Eventually, he got encouraged by his, um Spiritual leader the Gucci to kind of continue to train martial arts not to drop them I think if I remember well, but you correct me I think he was at a crossroad where he was kind of considering well if I'm doing spirituality Maybe I should just drop martial arts, but he was very, you know, kind of proficient at them So so his teacher suggested him to continue on and he would teach, you know, the the spiritual cult they had martial arts But a very significant point in his life aside that I consider to be is When Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened, you know, the nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan and I think the story goes that that really impacted more Hiroshima And it was interesting because I think there's there's kind of a dark side to his history that I think it's not commonly spoken of but Some people addressed that to me a few times and I got fastened about it, but never dug into it But I think initially in his young days Mori Yoshiba was very pro-japan. He was very nationalistic like I guess most Japanese And then he was all about, you know Japan rules and let's let's make this happen But I think with over the years he kind of became a bit more open-minded and especially when Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened he That really made him think apparently based on the story that he realized that war is such a mass destructive Thing, you know second world war is happening over those years and it ended with that note And I think that made where she'd understand that if we will continue like many people I guess that if we will continue down this road and if we'll have, you know more nuclear wars We're fucked, you know humanity is not going to survive Uh that that kind of relates to the quote from einstein, I believe which is a great idea I think it's einstein if i'm correct that he said that You know, uh I don't know how world war three is going to look like but I know that world war four is going to be fought by sticks and stones Meaning, you know, the nuclear war will just blow away everything and then we'll have to restart civilization so I think a lot of people were exposed to that idea and That made where she book kind of reconsidered. So what the fuck is what the fuck are martial arts for You know because martial arts basically it's you know, it's especially if we look at the old school days Which he was still kind of in the transition period between the japanese, uh, the whole shogun state, you know, where it was all pro warriors and You know, it was all a samurai and warrior class related and then At at his growth time that was kind of changing into the modern civilization of the west world So he was exposed to both and he clearly he knew, you know that The way of the warriors basically the way of death It's it's martial arts our means to kill basically and at the same time there was jigoro kano the founder of judo and he was struggling with the From the history. I know he was struggling with the same idea that notion that People were not so hyped about martial arts anymore, especially the second world war because that gave just destruction and and just most people wouldn't relate to samurai And so jigoro kano started to make it more ethical and kind of bring values into it and kind of bring a progression system To make it more accessible to people and to make it kind of a dough Which in japanese means the way kind of a practice versus a jutsu, which is means a technique So there was aiki jutsu Uh But then uh, morishio shiba went from aiki jutsu. He went to there was aiki budo, but then eventually there was aiki dough Which basically good. It's a it's a tough way to explain what aikido means the name And that's because aikido Japanese languages like that. It's it's kind of more intuitive or or there's more meanings to one word than one But some of the best ways to explain what he meant by So i it's three words i means unity or harmony or Or shiba like to say that stress sometimes that it was he would mean love By that by the word i think he decided that later because love actually the i has a different kanji from what I know But still unity love connection peace Then ki is either breathing or or kind of Universe or energy and dou is the way the path that you walk the discipline So if you unite all those words many people like to make different interpretations based on what's most comfortable for them But you know from what I learned about where shiba and his kind of the way his mind works Uh, I would guess that for him it meant more or less Now the way of unity With the universe or the way of love and unity With life kind of that that would be probably the best direction or some people say the art of peace And I think that's fair to say but you know, it's kind of a mix of all those terms But then coming back to his story. So I think he was already between that time establishing aikido as As as aikido he transitioned into his own martial art creating his own martial art and after Hiroshima Nagasaki he isolated himself he moved to iwama A village where I think he bought some land or was given some land and cut out some trees and built a dojo Where he kind of secluded himself and he devoted himself to perfecting the martial art of aikido And he would have uchi deshi living students who would travel to him and live with him and that dojo is actually still there. It's called the iwama dojo long story another video But uh, so he would be surrounded by students and they would work the farm and and train and he would travel and Teach seminars, but he would always come back there and uh from what I understand. He was basically just uh focusing a hundred percent on Creating this new form of a martial art which Uh, which was coming from the notion the understanding that martial arts are destructive and through Hiroshima Nagasaki the war in his life experience realized that destruction is not the way You know that it doesn't lead to real solution and that's when he started speaking a lot about kind of unity and harmony and And there's another significant moment in washiba's life, uh, which he spoke about as well where he apparently the story goes that he was facing a a challenge from like high-ranking army guy, I think who was a swordsman And the story goes that the swordsman was trying to attack more shiba with a sword and or shiba was just dating and he would see like Again, he would have that flow state. I believe like a death life situation and he had that flow state and he started avoiding all those the sword strikes and After he survived that that battle eventually, you know, the guy gave up He sat down by the by well and he kind of went into this unity state of kind of opening up And actually I have this whole video about that state and what I believe it actually means it's called in life And it's not what you think so check it out if you want to dig it down deeper into that subject but basically I or since he had that, uh experience of unity and In that flow state if you look at science It kind of makes sense because in that flow state when you're in that state of unity The brain part shuts down which which localizes you as an individual as a separate being It shuts down and then you feel like you're part of everything and people experience that it's not like an uncommon thing to experience and When many people associate that to be enlightenment But basically that's what happened to more here shiba and he perceived that he's one with everything and I think that drove him to understand the martial art of like, you know, even better that He would he actually started to perceive and that's what he would speak about often is that um Aikido or no, I said, you know, but that we are all We're all one kind of that zen saying that big zen state phrase that we're all united We're all connected that we're not separate and that means that we're all we are all one family and Basically when you look at it that way And there's actually a great story, but I'm seeing that you know this video is already getting into 20 minutes And I've spoken a lot about ostensia's history And what I think I'll do I'll just cut it make this episode into two parts And I'll focus this one on ostensia's history Uh, kind of giving a background of where Aikido came from in my understanding in my perception And then I'll dig into the main subject that I wanted to introduce in this episode I'll introduce the next one about You know the whole what what the essence of Aikido is and why I think it fails to deliver that It's a big subject and a worthy one to put attention in But to just summarize the the kind of journey of ostensia and Morhio Shiba So he understood that we are all Connected we're all one And and that obviously made him question basically like so how do you practice some martial art? Which is about destroying someone else killing someone else How do you practice it with that spiritual realization that we're all all one? And That would let him to create Aikido. He started developing in martial art, which he felt was Uh a peaceful way to end a conflict that it's it's redirecting energy and it's flowing It's kind of uniting energies and and his idea was that Aikido using Aikido you would defend yourself and defend others without hurting them Now that's where controversy hits and you know what? I think I'll just I got you probably intrigued But I'll stop the episode here. You got the background And I'll get into the controversy in the next one Sorry for leaving you hanging here, but let's do it this way Keep questioning. I'll continue the next one