Customer Reviews

The Practice of Freedom: Aikido Principles as a Spiritual Guide

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This is an elegant book, both in the rigorous mathematical sense, in that it accomplishes its purpose with not an ounce of extra baggage, and in the aesthetic sense, in that its rich insights and clear language, like poetry, inspire realizations and insights in the reader.

For me, the book is about growing up. Using her practice of aikido as a guiding path, the author suggests a clear progression of levels of consiousness that invites and draws the reader from chaos, through seemly and effective behavior, to wisdom. As in aikido, the day-to-day techniques can be deceptively simple, and may occasionally seem counterintuitive. An example is the idea of engaging and transforming aggressive behavior with relaxed, confident awareness, rather than perpetuating it by fending it off with raised hackles and barriers. This relaxed, confident awareness can actually be achieved by normal people, with practice that includes such simple tricks as maintaining good posture and remembering to breath. The practicality of what might seem to be a "new age" or video game pipe dream can be demonstrated by the author with an effortless turning of her hips that sends an attacker twice her weight flying through the air, or painlessly to the mat.

In a culture that harangues for greater speed and complexity, Ms Palmer shows us that it is in the compassionate and persistent reversal of that cultural pull, that stillness, clarity and confidence, is achieved, and true growth is realized. This book should be required reading for high school boys.

Wendy Palmer has captured what it feels like in your body to be off center and to get re-centered. She has transformed Aikido into much more than a maritial art - a way of being in relationship to others without losing yourself. This is a great book for couples as well as those who too often find themselves thrown by strong emotions and reactions. It will give you a physical sense, rather than just intellectual or analytic, of what it means to hold your own space in the world and in relation to others

I am prompted to drop you a note thanking you for your new book, "The Practice of Freedom"; it struck a strong, resonant chord in me. I, too, attempt to follow the Tao (for many years)
and practice aikido (for four years). Many of your thoughtful insights are ones I have felt but have been unable to articulate to friends and family regarding the value of aikido to my life.

Recently, I was challenged by the deaths of my parents; my father's 15 year long decline from heart disease and Altsheimer's and my mother's 1 year battle with a horrific brain disease, both dying within 3 months of each other. The aikido principles of entering and blending helped me not only summon up the courage to engage death but also to "dance" with it, to make peace with it, thus enabling my latent compassion and deep love for my parents and, hopefully, giving them a measure of comfort and peace as their lives wound down. I then felt I was able to be the loving caregiver my father never had (which made me rethink Wordworth's line, "The child is father to the man").

By "surrendering" to what was being offered (as you note in your book), I feel my true self, my soul if you will, benefited greatly; I was able to be emotionally and spiritually engaged with my parents during that ultimate transition. Paradoxically, through this engaged experience with death, I now better appreciate my life and my close relationships and have attained a level of serenity.

As you elegantly mention in your book, I see us all as fellow travelers; each a separate universe, yet united in a larger continuum. You acknowledge Mitsugi Saotome in your book and I must mention that when I was researching aikido, before I started practicing, I was fortunate to read "The Principles of Aikido" and "Aikido and the Harmony of Nature" as my theoretical introduction to aikido. Both books, like yours, struck a deep chord. Some day I hope to attend one of his seminars when he comes into my area (Los Angeles).

Thank you again for articulating and validating important themes of spiritual growth that can mean so much to so many people.

This book is neither a path or do, nor is it a book really about Aikido and based on the title one would think that it's based on the idea that Aikido is a spiritual path and talks in length about how. On the contrary, in my honest opinion, it fails horribly at the task. She makes more references towards other spiritual paths and ideas rather then Aikido. Not that I disagree with those points made, but they are not related towards Aikido as a Spiritual Guide. To me it would have seemed more proper had she called it; "My personal thoughts on various religions and how each hold a little truth for me personally" and then just list Aikido as one of them.

On a whole, I found the entire book very speculative and without path. There is a proverb Buddha used when speaking about enlightenment; "When a finger points to the moon, the person only looks at the finger". I find that this entire book, is just that; talking and thinking only about the finger. It completely misses the Moon, and that path that leads there. I kept pushing through all of the text thinking about how amazing she was at saying so much yet communicating so little as I waited in vain for a conclusion or solution that never came.

Speaking to a friend we likened it to a person that wrote a travel book for a country she has never been too but would like to go there but has only read a lot about it from various places and sources.

I previously read a similar review to my own somewhere online and at first I was dumbfounded because the sample chapters were enjoyable. However, that review was in retrospect, dead on. If you are on the fence about this book I would suggest finding it through your local library or getting a used version that you can then sell back once you've finished.

Most of us get involved in the repeating "stories" of our interactions and our lives, and stop noticing our deeper connections to ourselves and to the universe.

To me, Wendy Palmer's book offers a doorway to that deeper experience -- through the Aikido practices she teaches, and the ways she describes our interactions.

Surprisingly revealing, the book tells about Wendy Palmer's own life experiences, and suggests ways to touch-in to the more universal connections we often ignore.

One way to seek balance, she suggests, is to focus attention on our vertical connection with earth (grounding) and sky (spirit) so that it becomes as strong as our horizontal connection to our "life stories."