Building community through a shared commitment to personal development.
Eugene Aikikai is a 501 (c)3 non-profit martial arts organization serving the Eugene, OR community since 1994. Our mission is to develop quality Budō, as represented by Aikido, Iaido, and Zazen, through wholehearted practice. By quality Budō we mean much more than technical expertise. The sincere practice of Budō is a process of continual growth. We actively support each student in developing continually as a human being.
Eugene Aikikai is a home for all people to explore and embrace the path of Budo. Through four pillars of practice (Aikido body arts, Aikido weapons, Iaido, and Zazen) we acknowledge the many paths to the heart of Budo. The dojo is offered as a place of sanctuary where all community members can share in deepening sensitivity, awareness, compassion, and resiliency. Through martial practice, we relinquish ego and illuminate a more whole way of knowing.
Classes in Aikido and Iaido are offered in a spacious and safe environment. We invite all people to join our dojo community and explore the path of Budo, together.
OUR VALUES
In the practice of Budo, service to others is the way to understanding; generosity of spirit is the way to strength and integrity.
Cultivating Sensitivity We acknowledge the infinite ways of being and work diligently to open our whole selves to that which surrounds us.
Harnessing Compassion We seek to strengthen our community and ourselves through building and expressing compassion in all of our actions both in practice and our daily interactions outside of the dojo.
Nourishing Resiliency We invest in one another. Together, we struggle and overcome again and again. In our practice, there is no failure, only another opportunity.
Deepening Awareness We actively train to perceive correctly and respond appropriately to the people and actions that surround us.
Enacting Generosity We give from our spirit joyously without expectations of reciprocity. Our practice is open and willing. We do not get caught in the exchange mentality of position and rank. We celebrate the moment through our gift of attention and focus.
AIKIDO | BODY ARTS
Empty handed practice involves two practitioners who alternate roles as Uke, the reciever of energy, and Nage, the giver of energy. Through practice, each person cultivates sensitivity, awareness and compassion. Aikido is not a competitive martial art, but rather a path, or way, to self discovery and spiritual development. Since winning and losing are never a concern, the trainees are free to dedicate their efforts to mutual goals. It is therefore possible for men, women, and children of all ages to walk together down the path of budo, the heart of Aikido.
AIKIDO | WEAPONS
Most of Aikido's empty hand work was developed from the use of weapons. The study of weapons aids students in the cultivation of martial awareness, which is critical to the individuals understanding of Aikido as a martial way. Through examination of balance, distance and timing, students are exposed to a greater depth of self-awareness.
ZAZEN
Many of the qualities needed in Aikido training- fearlessness, energy and focus required to plumb the depths of one's own existence in the midst of conflict- are demanded in Zen as well. When the dualistic separation of "self" and "other" is transcended through the forging of deep mind-body training, the concept of an opponent loses all meaning. The practice of Zazen offers students an opportunity to train their mind, cultivating stillness and calm.
IAIDO
"Iai Battoh-Ho, meaning "sword-drawing method," is based on Iaido, "the Way of sword drawing," and other traditional forms of Japanese sword work. In Birankai North America, Battoh-Ho is studied in large part for the same reasons as weapons work with bokken and jo: for what it reveals about the roots of Aikido as a martial art.
OUR COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY
In the words of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido, "True Budo is the loving protection of all beings with a spirit of reconciliation. This means allowing the completion of everyone's mission."
We acknowledge that a society has both the right and obligation to protect equally all of its members. Further, a society has both the right and obligation to allow equal possibilities of personal development to all of its members. All members of any community have the right to complete their mission, and it is society's role to support and uplift that powerful personal work.
Eugene Aikikai recognizes that our current society fails in various ways to exercise these rights and fulfill these obligations for many of our communities. We wish to make clear that we welcome our black, indigenous, POC, trans, gender non-conforming, and LGBTQIA+ communities.
Aikido is a rank-based martial path, and within that structure there is hierarchy. This hierarchy is based in practice and personal development. The goal of aikido, of Budo, is to relinquish ego, dismantle systems of personal and political oppression, and to experience the world unfolded and in its most pure state. In the pursuit of this goal, there is no rank. There is only oneself, and change. Understanding compassion and what it is to be a human being is Budo.
Eugene Aikikai, its leadership, Board of Directors, and members stand in solidarity against all forms of oppression and inequality. No matter your culture, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or ability, we stand with you in the completion of your mission.
Aikido is a liberatory practice. This practice will awaken the individual and dismantle the parts of being that do not serve oneself. Within this, it becomes the responsibility of all aikido practitioners to apply themselves actively in dismantling systems that do not serve all people. Aikido is a martial way, also described as the art of peace. There can be no peace until all people experience true equality; where their unique identities, beliefs, and bodies are not subjugated, diminished, or called into question.
Eugene Aikikai acknowledges the systemic unequal treatment of BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and women identified communities and we explicitly welcome those affected by institutionalized harms to come and learn at our dojo. We invite you into our dojo as equals on the path of Budo. At Eugene Aikikai we train people.
Partnership
Eugene Aikikai is proud to partner with Fists Up Eugene! A chapter of Warrior Sisters, a national non-profit founded in Eugene, OR who focus on providing free empowerment-based, trauma-informed, self-defense for marginalized communities. You can learn more about the Warrior Sisters project by clicking their logo.
Check out a class at Eugene Aikikai
In 2018, we had the pleasure of hosting Jim Ballard and Nicole Trobaugh of The Path Yet Taken travel blog for an introductory class in aikido. You can check out their experience at our dojo in this episode, Oregon Asian Celebration.
