A pure budo

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[gdandscompserv]

The following quote from the Aikikai Foundation's web site captures the essence of Aikido's spirituality for me.
"A pure budo comes with the unification of technique, body and heart. The budo, which will manifest itself, does not depend upon the technique, but rather upon the heart of the practitioner.
The aim of Aikido is a kindness of heart expressed through this spirit of budo."

[statisticool]

Nice, I like it. :)

[Dirk Hanss]

Although it is jut a pure spiritual comment, there are important technical and physical implications.

There is no technique excluded, unless there is no way to unify it with body and heart.
There is no single way to perform a technique. It depends on your body and heart.

The best technique is worthless if it is done without heart, so you might think about a good performer "that is not aikido", but it is rather "he still has got something to learn / some way to go" as we all have. Me somewhat farther than others ;)

So who can assume the position of the judge, when unification is present or not?

My answer is:
For yourself rely on your sensei and your own (critical) judgement.
For your students give your best advice and as much liberty as possible for them to find out.
For others: you might discuss freely, but open-minded. In doubt, leave them as they are. There way might not be the best choice, but how much do you know, that you can determine, if it will not lead to the same top?

Kind regards

Dirk