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Techniques employ four qualities that reflect the nature of our world. Depending on the circumstances, you should be: hard as a diamond, flexible as a willow, smooth-flowing like water, or empty as space.
Morihei Ueshiba, The Founder of Aikido
The above quote is perhaps one of the most important you will ever read for your Budo training. It will become more important as you train harder and longer. When we first begin to train we believe that being tough and hard is the secret to a strong defense or offense and so we go off in this direction seeking proficiency. Necessarily, after a few years of training we see that this is not so and that there are other "forms" that we must take in order to be successful in more situations. O-Sensei expalins it well. Depending on the circumstances you should change your form to respond appropriately to the opponent. Hard, or the diamond mind-set, isn't always successfull, sometime you need to be soft and/or empty. Learning how to switch between these states or forms is where mastery lies. Anyone can learn one form if they study hard, but one form is not mastery, you must always try to grow and learn other ways of movement and mental states. This is why Budo is a life long pursuit!
Shihan Henderson
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