The Sincere Attack - Akido as Moral and Political Discipline

Mary Stein, a black belt, offers a quite remarkable account of akido.  The one who has mastered akido welcomes the "sincere attack," and finds in danger a "gift."

By striking sincerely and precisely, we provide our partners with an essential risk. This demand for sincerity goes to the heart of aikido.

The sometimes contentious comment section in this blog is written in that spirit. I welcome the sincere attack.  If my posts provoke such attack, it is for the instructive purpose, as in akido, of achieving lasting harmony through controlled violence. In the western tradition going back to Greece and Rome, underlying our democracy, with its open debates, and contentious public square, the phrase was, "concordia discors": the well accorded strife of opposites. Such disciplined conflict sustains the life and health of nature as of the body politic.