The way of No Enemies

Our library's Teen department just had a program about Aikido. The Sensei, who has been teaching and doing Aikido for years, spoke a bit about the philosophy of the martial art and I was pretty amazed about it.

Aikido is the only Martial Art that does not seek to harm the enemy or attacker. In fact, the main point of Aikido is to prevent the attacker from being hurt. It surprised me, as I was put into a hold, to demonstrate the graceful power of one of the moves; how this was a dichotomy to what we usually think about when we think about martial arts. It's mostly kicks and strikes and ways to crush or eliminate your enemy.

In Aikido, one of the main aspects is that there are no enemies.

This got me thinking. In our world, we have so many people who we might consider enemies. People of different faiths, or philosophies or different politics. We decide, in our hearts, that, since we don't agree, they're the bad guy. And likewise, they do the same to us.

How often do we really look at other people like they are not our enemies, even if we disagree?

I tend to take the viking way of doing things. Enemies are to be left alone, until they try to hurt me or mine. Then, I act with righteous and exacting vengeance. Even in this, I usually let whatever things they do go, because it's almost never worth me going to prison.

But the way of Aikido says that even the neighbor who poisoned your tree or ruined your fence is not an enemy. They are not enemies, no matter what offenses they have committed against you.
There are NO enemies.
That's a pretty unusual, but in my honest opinion, a very valuable and thoughtful philosophy.

It isn't an easy one to adopt, but it may be worthy to try.