Aikido blossoms into a form of explicit community building when it is extended beyond the traditional boundaries of its physical practice. Combining aikido with theater and facilitation techniques, Brandon WilliamsCraig Ph.D. created Martial Nonviolence (MNv) to be a method of regular practice for all ages, a way to prepare body, mind, and spirit to respond as one system to conflict of all kinds in ways that lead people--young and old--to build communities which practice peace.
Just as bodymind management can be developed to result in efficiency in combat, it can also be imagined as an art form which applies themes learned in the training process to many areas of daily life. This is the distinction between the Japanese suffixes -jutsu (jujustsu, aikijutsu) and -do (judo, aikido). The first is traditionally more utilitarian, in this case oriented toward victory in battle, whereas the second is practiced for its own sake, as a way/path/process (do) that includes ongoing discovery of the relationship between the practical and intangible realities of life beyond the battlefield. Obviously, the distinction is inexact as a -jutsu can be practiced to reveal process-oriented themes and a -do can be reduced to efficiency and martial effectiveness without practicing its relational extensions.
Many aikido practitioneers, among the over one million people around the world studying the art today, believe that the future of aikido must include a fundamental contribution to peace practices. The more these people shape their desire into specific opportunities to train in peace practices, the more likely it will be that human beings come to expect that daily life will include some discipline by which everyone learns to do conflict well.
The future of life on Earth depends on finding some way to balance the relationship between human creativity and the complex needs of living environments. Many technically advanced but relationally simplistic ideas are being used to conduct business, structure conflict, and build communities. The people participating find themselves in need of clear practices for increasing their depth of understanding in order to make both practical and sustainable choices. Peace Practices are both familiar and innovative ways of doing things re-imagined as art forms, practiced for their own sake, so that the process of artful crafting may be learned and applied to things about which human beings seem rather artless at this time in history. Perhaps this will help us to develop a sense of what balanced relationships look and feel like. -- Brandon WilliamsCraig Ph.D.