Practicing Love: Embodied Attunement Through the Lens of Aikido by Michael A. Gordon M.Sc., Liverpool John Moores University, 2009 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor Of Philosophy in the Faculty Of Education Educational Theory & Practice Program © Michael A. Gordon 2018 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2018 Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Approval Name: Michael A. Gordon Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title: Practicing Love: Embodied Attunement Through the Lens of Aikido Examining Committee: Chair: Charles Scott Adjunct Professor Heesoon Bai Senior Supervisor Professor Stephen Smith Supervisor Teaching Professor, Simon Fraser University Allan MacKinnon Internal Examiner Associate Professor John Miller External Examiner Professor Curriculum, Teaching and Learning University of Toronto, OISE Date Defended/Approved: November 9th 2018 ii Abstract Contemplative practices, such as secular mindfulness meditation, are being increasingly integrated into pedagogical settings to enhance social and emotional well-being and to address stress-induced overwhelm due to increased pressures on the education system and its constituents. While these practices bring benefits, including increased self- awareness, emotional self-regulation, and empathy for teachers and learners alike, this dissertation makes the claim that pedagogical practices on the whole reflect an epistemological worldview that privileges a highly cognitive approach to teaching and learning, one that fails to fully account for the deeper psychological, emotional, and somatic registers of human participants, and that sees them as separate from the other- than-human ecology of life around them. In a time of global crisis, such contemplative approaches to education, as beneficial as they may be, run the risk of reinforcing the psychosomatic notion of the individualized human self—itself rooted in interiorized experience--the Cartesian notion of mind-body dichotomy, and a host of other factors that underscore an already hypercompetitive and anthropocentric world. This dissertation extensively draws on the author’s lifelong practice in the non-competitive and defensive Japanese art of Aikido. Known as the ‘art of peace,’ Aikido is an inherently relational practice that teaches practitioners to view and engage an ‘opponent’ from a virtue-ethic standpoint and ontological view of non-dualism, non-violence, and calm, controlled physical resolution. Aikido is rooted in a spiritual and practical ethos of harmonized relations, or more radically, of unifying ‘love.’ To be effective, one has to embody this ethic not only from the intention of an ‘inner posture,’ but through fluid timing, relaxed movement, and non-aggression in their ‘outer posture’ and intercorporeality. Learning Aikido requires one to focus not only on cognitively acquired skill, but also on mind-body-spirit integration. The four essays in this thesis explore the various ways, through the lens of this non-violent relational art of Aikido, that pedagogy is always something being practiced (on the level of psychological, somatic and emotional registers) and thus holding potential for transformation into being more relational, ecological-minded, and reflecting more ‘embodied attunement.’ Thus pedagogy, as Aikido, holds potency as the skillful practice of empathic connectivity or ‘love.’ From the ‘art of motorcycling’ to ‘teacher as healer,’ these essays present teaching-learning practice from the Japanese philosophy worldview as ‘way’ or path— one that is taken up for daily life and based on self-cultivation of virtue-ethics as an aspirational achievement of mind-body integration and wholeness, rather than preoccupation with establishing claims about absolute truth. iii Acknowledgements I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my partner Helena for her inexhaustible support, insight, and resolve in helping me through my doctoral journey. I would also like to extend my deep appreciation to my senior supervisor, Dr. Heesoon Bai, without whom none of this would have been possible. Thank you, Heesoon, for your belief in me and my work from the beginning, and the patience and determination in helping me see my vision through to completion. I would also like to acknowledge my doctoral supervisor, Dr. Stephen Smith, for his humour, continued commitment, and critical insights into my work as we pushed it along towards being more meaningful, alive, and relevant. I wish to also extend my gratitude to Dr. Avraham Cohen who, as both colleague, friend, and fellow Aikidoka, saw promise and potential in the rich interweaving of the psychological, spiritual, and phenomenological aspects of the interpersonal practices and values we have in common. I also wish to thank Dr. Mark Fettes and Dr. Vicki Kelly for their personal and academic friendship and guidance along the journey towards this dissertation. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge Sensei Stephen Duffin for his continued support, friendship and guidance both on and off the mat. iv Table of Contents Approval ............................................................................................................................... ii Abstract ............................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... vii List of Illustrations ............................................................................................................. viii On Joyful Immersion ........................................................................................................... 1 PART ONE: A Psychospiritual View of Self-Cultivation ............................................... 5 1. Practice as Transformative Wholeness .......................................................................... 7 2. Teacher as Healer: Animating The ‘Ecological Self Through Holistic, Engaged Pedagogy .......................................................................................................................... 61 PART TWO: An Intersubjective View of Knowing and Being .................................... 83 3. Awakening to Wholeness: Aikido as an Embodied Praxis of Intersubjectivity ............ 85 4. Moto-Morphosis: The Gestalt of Aikido and Psychotherapy, and Motorcycling As ‘Way’ .............................................................................................................................. 102 PART THREE: A Relational View of Practice ............................................................. 127 5. The Way of The Classroom: Aikido as Transformative and Embodied Pedagogy Through Self Cultivation ................................................................................................. 129 6. Looking Back, Looking Ahead .................................................................................... 151 References ..................................................................................................................... 163 v List of Tables Table 1: Eightfold Path and Three Divisions .................................................................... 42 Table 2 Ground, Path, Fruition (Conditional View).......................................................... 43 Table 3 Ground, Path, Fruition (Unconditional view) ....................................................... 43 Table 4: Ground, Path, Fruition via Aikido and Gestalt Therapy ..................................... 48 Table 5 The Cycle Is The Whole: Learning As Ontology ................................................. 50 Table 6 Layout of Essays ................................................................................................. 51 vi List of Figures Figure 1 Triangle, Circle, Square: Sangen. Brushwork, Zen Master Sengai Gibon (1750- 1837) Spiritual Roots Of Aikido ................................................................ 45 vii List of Illustrations Illustration 1 Sai Sei “Reborn” ............................................................................................. 4 Illustration 2 Ai “Harmony” or “Love”................................................................................. 57 Illustration 3 Ki, "Universe; Life Force" ............................................................................. 84 Illustration 4 Senshin, "Purify Heart-Mind; Reform One’s Self" ....................................... 87 Illustration 5 Shūchū, "Concentration or Focus" ............................................................ 117 Illustration 6 Do, "Way or Path" ..................................................................................... 128 Illustration 7 Keiko, "Training; Practice; Study" ............................................................. 138 Illustration 8 Hara, "One Point; Centre" ......................................................................... 142 Illustration 9 Kokoro, "Heart;