Wolfgang Stieler on Aikido: Art for Life

Dear Martin, thanks for this beautiful writing. Let me add two things: My personal impression is that there is a common misconception about the word "way". Most of the times it is too literary understood as a way leading from point A to point B. But it can also be understood as a way being. A certain way of acting and living - without a starting point and an end point (mastery or whatsoever). I think of Do more in the letter interpretation. Learning something like Aikido is about learning to take circumstances with a certain kind of mindset. The second addition refers to art. In which way can Aikido be an art? I think there are two ways of understanding this. The first is the notion that visual arts like painting create structures in space - in certain artistic ways. Music in this concept is a structure in time. Aikido in this notion is indeed like dancing. It is a structure in space AND time. The other idea I have is about perception and feedback. When i draw or paint in the beginning I am oriented towards the model or the scene I see. But over the time I am redirecting my attention to what I see on the paper. Trying to amplify what I painted. So for me art is about perception and feedback - some kind of closed loop. The same can be said about Akido - therefore I call it an art. Thank you, keep on writing. Best, Wolfgang