Iron is full of impurities that weaken it; through forging, it becomes steel and is transformed into a razor-sharp sword. Human beings develop in the same fashion.
Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace
But can the man who does not know what abstinence is, claim to be truly abstinent? or brave, if he has never purged his soul of the fears of pain, death, and superstition? or just, if he has never, in language approaching that of philosophy, discussed the nature of virtue and justice, or of the laws that have been given to mankind by nature or established among individual peoples and nations?
Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, XII.2.2-3
As I’ve mentioned before, a central conundrum that has plagued both rhetoric and aikido since their institution is that both arts represent a powerful force that can be used to harm or to heal a community. The way the ancient rhetoricians got out of this dilemma was by defining the orator as the vir bonum dicendi peritus, a good man, speaking well. Moral virtue was, by their lights, a prerequisite to the practice–otherwise, you were doing propaganda, or demagoguery, or marketing perhaps, but you were not doing rhetoric.
Aikido has a strikingly similar set of arguments for how it can be guaranteed that the aikidoka will use their powers for good and not evil. Here we see O-sensei using the image once again of forging, in which iron ore is repeatedly put under force and stress to hammer out its impurities, refine and focus it into a precision instrument. Quintilian argues much the same with his series of rhetorical questions here. Both masters are pointing out that their arts are not composed of a series of principles to be learned–rather, they are lifelong disciplines to be pursued.
Strangely, I find this prescription not exhausting but comforting right now, as I’ve lately been beating myself up about why it’s taken so long for me to learn certain lessons, to break certain habits. O-sensei and Quintilian remind me that I was seeking a short-cut that simply wasn’t there. I had to try and fail and try and fail–and the heat and pressure generated by that cycle are what finally drove me to find a better path in life. If it could have been gained just via a sign pointing in that direction–I’m not stupid, I would have been there long before now. But there’s no way around the forging process if we truly seek refinement for ourselves and our communities.
The Rookery 