Kokyunage

Last week Sensei asked us: why do we practice kokyunage? Kokyunage
refers to a group of techniques called "breath throws" or "ki throws".
They aren't practical techniques from a martial arts perspective, though
the principles of ki flow are universal and can be used in a practical
situation. To paraphrase his answer:

O Sensei (the founder of aikido) wasn't into technique at all. He was
beyond technique. One of the things he focused on was purification. So
you could say that when we practice kokyunage, we are "burning our
karma", as an exercise of purification. If we are already pure, we burn
others' karma.

From my perspective, any group of people working together form an
energy field, or more accurately, a set of interacting energy fields.
In aikido, we are constantly working together to bring our energy to a
place of harmony and peace.