Kikai, the ocean of energy.
Tanden, the centre.
Kikai tanden, the centre of the ocean of energy.
Seika tanden, the centre located below the navel.
Aikido techniques do not arise from muscular action, but from the activation of the energy located in the centre of the human body, slightly below the navel. The video shows a simple kokyu nage exercise that helps develop this process:
When the centre begins to move in a spiral, the rest of the body obviously participates in this movement, but the legs and arms that move are only following; they are not autonomous, and they are even less the origin of the action. It is in this sense that the movement is not muscular.
The origin of action is energy itself, ki, which is located in the lower abdomen. And the action of the human body is limited to its role as a vector of this energy. However, the vector is neutral; it does not act. It is the energy that acts through it. This is what we call non-action in Western culture, and what Taoism calls wu wei.
Subjective action is at cross-purposes with the world; it introduces particular personal and arbitrary choices that are too human. Aikido as a whole is basically the learning of neutrality, which is the condition for objective action, for action in accordance with the order of the world.
