Abundant Peace

A must own for all that take Aikido and are interested in the philosophy behind it. I use the principles of Aikido almost every day in my life and John Stevens did a great job of getting to the essence of Aikido's philosophy and the spiritual views of the founder. Thanks John Stevens for writing this book!

There is not a more complete work on this subject to be found in the English language. O'Sensei was both enigmatic and cryptic, and this book clears up much of the cloudiness. From rare photos to rare personal insights, it is a must-have in any Aikido collection.

Stevens' biography of Morihei Ueshiba goes a long way towards providing the interested student with great information about the origins and philosophies behind Aikido. His examination of the Omoto-kyo religion and Ueshiba's esoteric Shinto beliefs provides a great background on the philisophy of Aikido, while the information on Morihei Ueshiba's teachers and personal investigations into the martial arts shows both the origonality and relation to other arts of Aikido. The book moves reletively quickly over Ueshiba's life, and at times it feels as if a lot of time is being rather quickly skipped over. It would be interesting to know what other information there is to fill in these gaps. The author also makes obvious his own personal admiration for Ueshiba; the many stories of O-Sensei's unbelievable feats are presented uncritically, and with no more concrete attribution than any of the other apocryphal reports of Ueshiba's power. Abundant Peace is perhaps most valuable as a source of information on the martial and philisophical origins of Aikido, particularly for its focus on the origins of the Omoto-kyo movement, Ueshiba's own beliefs in kotodama, and the innovation involved in the techniques of Aikido. As a biography of Morihei Ueshiba it is at times too brief and too uncritical, but serves as an excellent starting point for learning about the life of the founder of Aikido.

A wonderful book for Aikido students of all levels

John Stevens, Aikido teacher, Professor of Buddhist studies, and author has put together the first full biography of the life of Morihei Ueshiba, Founder of Aikido. This book is an absolute must for any person wishing to understand the context in which Aikido was developed and see the art as the Founder himself saw it. The relationship O-Sensei had with his two primary teachers, Sokaku Takeda of Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu and Onisaburo Deguchi, of the Omotokyo religious movement is especially important. It shows how O-sensei in many ways embodied the characteristics of the ultimate warrior (Takeda) and the ulitmate mystic (Deguchi) in a combined form allowing him to create something completely unique in the practice of Aikido. The only caveat regarding the book is from its tendency to repeat uncritically some of the less believable, mythical stories about the Founder's martial accomplishments as if his true accomplishments needed some embellishment.