by Régis Soavi

“Non-fighting” is not the same as refusing to fight, in the same way that “non-doing” is never the same as “doing-nothing”. Understanding life in its most unusual, most upsetting, most incongruous and sometimes apparently most incomprehensible manifestations is perhaps the real fight to be carried.

Practising Aikido and returning to the origins of being

This article is difficult for me, because I was originally a fighter who, thanks to the practice of Aikido and Katsugen undo, now aspires only to “non-fighting”. Revolted since my early teens by the conditions and solutions proposed by society, my path could have been very different had I not crossed that of my master: Tsuda Itsuo. It took me seven years to have defused within me what would only have brought me to my doom. After that, a few decades were enough to respond to my inner demand and strengthen the direction I had begun to take. I then found a personal antithetical response through the work of emancipation and release of the people who come to practise in our School. Allowing everyone to rediscover their inner strength, as opposed to reinforcing all their acquired tendencies, which are merely the result of an underlying education orchestrated by a world that makes us believe in our weakness, that accustoms us to fear and thereby pushes us into submission.

If our art were some mere “self-defence”, I would not have practised it for so long, I would not have got up at the crack of dawn every morning, for nearly fifty years, to go to the dojo. I have not sacrificed anything for this, but I have not let anything divert me from this direction. Aikido is a ‘total social fact’ in the sense that Marcel Mauss understood it. It has led me to deepen my own understanding in many ways. It has driven me to fight against the injustice suffered by individuals of all genders, through the normalisation of bodies that have become rigid and blocked, and through a return to the truth of inner strength which is only waiting to emerge once more. Stepping outside the box to show its falseness. Proposing self-management of groups in dojos, the independence of individuals, the power of the encounter between beings rather than incomprehension or manipulation: these are both the conditions and the answers to be provided.

A legitimate fight: promoting life

Any fight can be legitimised on the basis of a theory or ideology, but its effects and consequences must be measured in each situation. The end does not justify the means. Too many fights have been lost by those who had won them, this even if they did so rightly, because the means were unjustifiable in the face of life. The violence done to human beings in an unjust society provokes a fight, and the response is very often a rightful conflict, a struggle against adversity. However, the struggle is not meant to be a violent fight, but a fight without a struggle is doomed to failure. The revolt against injustice of all kinds, whether individual or collective, must pass through our sensitivity and empathy, and be nourished by them. If it leads us to fight, how can we refuse it? It is rather to the form that we are due to pay attention. Thus shall we be able to practise “non-fighting” and act in Non-Doing.

A solution: co-evolution and possible symbiosis

On an individual level, we need to put an end to the reasoning that legitimises everything by relying excessively and exclusively on Darwin’s all-too-famous ‘struggle for life’. In the 19^th century already, when scientific knowledge of how the body works was still in its infancy, libertarian theorist Prince Kropotkin, without denying the theory of evolution in its entirety, pointed out that the best-adapted species are not necessarily the most aggressive, but can be the most social and the most supportive. This theory, incidentally, will get a confirmation in this beginning of the 21^st century in researcher Marc-André Selosse’s writings about biodiversity, microbiota and symbiosis. Darwinism has been the justification used since the 19^th century to stifle social revolt, legitimise the exploitation of human beings, establish patriarchy on pseudo-scientific grounds and ultimately destroy the planet in the name of immediate profit. Dutch-American primatologist Frans de Wall, who has studied the feeling of empathy in animals, concludes that social Darwinism ‘is an abusive interpretation: yes, competition is important in nature but, as we have seen, that’s not all.’ ‘We are also programmed to be empathetic, to resonate with the emotions of others.’¹ For me, promoting life at both individual and collective levels and using an art like Aikido to spread the possible enrichment of humanity along the path towards which our masters guided us is more than just a task – it is rather a conviction.

Legitimate defence

Before addressing the issue of legitimate defence, it is important to reflect on our humanity, our ancestral animality, our primitive reactions which are often antithetical, and above all on our instinct for life which overrides our reflex for death. Sometimes, very simply, the instinct to survive is enough to wake us up from the numbness caused by our fear of what surrounds us. To carry out this reflection, we cannot be satisfied with an overview of general thinking, nor can we look around us for either answers or examples. If our reflection, our thought is meant to be intelligent, it must delve into the very depths of our being in order to find answers that will always be relative, never definitive, and in motion so to say, because the elements at our disposal are both numerous and contradictory, theoretical, legislative and even religious. They have their purpose in different societies, different times, and we cannot disregard them with a stroke of the pen or adopt one on superficial grounds. That is what makes the art of Aikido so precious: an art which leads us both physically and spiritually.

An adequate response

The nature within us needs answers, and these answers must be right and clear. They must be unambiguous and no more problematic than the question itself, nor engender further misunderstandings in an outburst of resentment. The situation that leads to the fight already favours, if we understand it, our giving it a right answer. It is our attitude in life that is our starting point, and this is why practising Aikido is so important. It is not just about training to fight, but rather about finding the sensation of the living down in all aspects of everyday life. Life is not a long, tranquil river, nor is the world an amusement park. Injustice and violence are present, and no one can ignore them. Even if the result of conditioning or fear of the future, closing our eyes to what surrounds us would only be childish self-centredness or cynical egotism. I cannot see fighting only as an individual or collective solution, but much more as a sane demand for health, for intelligence of the world and as a search for unification, pacification, return to unity.

Is relaxation a necessity in fight?

Relaxation is not an option, nor is it a tactic or a subterfuge for victory, but more simply the result of a state of being. It cannot be acquired but can rather be discovered by following a path of simplicity and sincerity. It is a way of life when body and spirit are “finally” in harmony. It is this return to the deepest nature of ourselves that must occur when we have rid ourselves of what encumbers us, of what shackles us, of what obstructs the clear vision we could have if we were freer. Aikido is the royal path to achieving this, Tsuda sensei called it ‘The path of less’,² as opposed to the path of acquisition, which creates tension and conflict. It is a new basis that takes us back to our early childhood while not being childish,³ with, on the other hand, the strength of age, experience and perhaps a little of that wisdom brought by our art.

A poem like the one I found in Utomag magazine is sometimes better than a long argument:

“Fighting”

Being always ready

Observing in a diffuse way

Not acting unnecessarily

Acting at the right moment

In a relaxed body ready to pounce

This is very clear with cats:

Constant vigilance is not permanent tension

On the contrary, they are capable of great relaxation

Their bodies are supple, ready to tense up for action,

and then, to relax again

Their aggressiveness, deployed when necessary, is matched only by their voluptuousness, used without moderation

Should we condemn them for one or the other?

Should they give up one or the other?

No

Because they act in total harmony with their function as animals: to be

There is nothing constructed or thought out about this

They are, they live, they protect their integrity, their territory.

They won’t be aggressive for the sake of being aggressive, just as they won’t not be aggressive on principle

Fighting is a means of self-preservation, not an end in itself.

If it is, it may be that the instinct for self-preservation has been touched.

Sometimes, preserving oneself means not fighting

But not fighting must never mean renouncing oneself, one’s ability to preserve oneself.

Article by Régis Soavi published in January 2025 in Self & Dragon Spécial Aikido n° 20.

1. interview of Frans de Waal by Natalie Levisalles (in French) published online on 11 March 2010 on French journal Libération website
2. [see also Tsuda Itsuo, The Path of Less, Chap. XX, 2014, Yume Editions (Paris) (Translator’s note)]
3. [see also: ‘Aikido for me is an art of becoming a child again. The difference between being a child and doing Aikido is that a bit of order is introduced therein. In children, there is not much separation between thought and action. It is not the same with adults. It takes art to become a child without being childish.’ (The Path of Less, op. cit., Chap. XVIII, p. 175) or yet ‘[Tsuda Sensei] often said that through breathing “Aikido is an art of becoming children again… without being childish”.’ (Tsuda Itsuo, Heart of Pure Sky, ‘Excerpt from Bushido’, Yume Editions, 2025, p. 179) (Translator’s note)]
4. Estelle Soavi, Utomag N° 23 (in French, available online), February 2024, « Le combat » [‘The Fight’], p. 14