Amazingly, an upright posture makes turning easy and leads toward love. This turning, when it occurs, seamlessly follows centering, joining and irimi . They help to transform violence into love. Practicing the appropriate exercises and movements replaces habits of avoidance and aggression with those of approach. It is moral education through re-training the physical body.
Words can only hint at the hope and faith developed in such training.
Healing, Liberation, Community and Transformation. Five days a week LPAC staff, young people of the community and supporters from communities of faith and their aikido counterpart gather in a mirrored dance room below the Jerome Avenue elevated tracks to learn to center, join, irimi and turn in meditation and moving practice. While both AVP and I-Key Workshop intensives are part of this Peace Center experience, it is daily practice that helps people to embody the principles in their lives. Participants include members of major street organizations. As a result of the Peace Center, a young street organization leader has just attended the planning committee for the First International Youth Summit of Peacemakers and intends to lead a delegation to the Phoenix conference in 1999.