Bits and pieces

Ki means many things to many people. There are many ways of defining it, ranging from scientific and bio-mechanical explanations to extremely spiritual viewpoints, and people’s feelings about it run the gamut of complete disbelief to mystical adulation. O Sensei believed in Ki, and he apparently talked and certainly wrote about it a lot. He did take a rather mystical approach to it, which can be rather hard to understand, and perhaps even harder to put to use in the actual practice of Aikido, let alone in daily life. I’m not going to debate the reality of Ki here, I’m just going to offer one way to look at it that may help some people relate to it, and perhaps even offer a way to bring it into their realm of experience.