Questions for "Voices of Experience"

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[akiy]

Hi Voices of Experience members,

Since this forum is "drying up" a bit, I was wondering if folks here would be amenable to answering questions posed by other members of the Forums?

What I was thinking was that I would take questions and/or thoughts from other members via private messages and/or private e-mail which I would then relay into this Forum. In this way, I'd serve as a sort of "moderator" as to which questions got asked here.

Any thoughts from the current members of the Voices of Experience Forum?

-- Jun

[Chuck Clark]

I have no problem with questions. I often have problems with answers though.

I suspect all of the members of this forum really prefer real time on the mat to answer most questions of a technical nature.

[Dennis Hooker]

I am open to about anything. If someone thinks I got something worth knowing I am happy to talk.

Dennis Hooker

www.shindai.com

[Peter Goldsbury]

Hi Voices of Experience members,

Since this forum is "drying up" a bit, I was wondering if folks here would be amenable to answering questions posed by other members of the Forums?

What I was thinking was that I would take questions and/or thoughts from other members via private messages and/or private e-mail which I would then relay into this Forum. In this way, I'd serve as a sort of "moderator" as to which questions got asked here.

Any thoughts from the current members of the Voices of Experience Forum?

-- Jun
Actually, I thought this was what you planned to do to begin with, Jun. Doing this is fine with me, bearing in mind, however, the time constraints we all have to cope with.

Best wishes,

[aikishihan]

Hello Jun,

I believe that a key purpose for offering this forum for VOE panel members,is the fact that this is a generous opportunity for them to express themselves, share their experiences and insights, and to learn from the responses from others. In my mind, you have done just that, and it is up to your reading public to provide the continuing momentum to keep it going and remain a worthwhile activity.

It is helpful that you occasionally suggest topics to ponder, and that your Forum rules are appropriate, encouraging and worthy of respect and being honored. This is much appreciated.

I find that the majority of posts and their responses deal primarily with issues of technique, historical perspectives, as well as requests for personal assistance with terms and situations. Since much opinion on these subject matters are highly subjective, and assumes that the answers are genuine from the point of proven experience and acknowledged history of successfully dealing with such issues, I choose to maintain ma-ai.

Unfortunately, I feel neither qualified nor inclined to address such subjects in an online forum only. It seems to me that a direct face to face or even a hands on explanation or demonstration is what most of us would feel most comfortable with, but realize that such is not to be.

For my part, I am mainly interested in exploring what the VOE personnel think about in terms of applying Aiki principles to their training, and to their day to day interactions with their respective environments I guess at some point, I will need to clarify what I envision such "Aiki Principles" to be, and, perhaps, my choice of subject matter is an attempt to do so. And so, I will continue in this vein.

My understanding has long been that a mutual condition of accountabiity exists between "teacher" and "student". A student has the right to ask his teacher to teach him, with the teacher agreeing to comply. In return, the student must always be available to assist the teacher in any reasonable way to make his life manageable and comfortable. Any further limits or conditions need to be worked out personally between those two.

So, when you offer to have questions from a greater public put forth to the VOE panel, as it were, what appropriate expectations should there be in terms of both questioners and responders? I am thinking more in lines of respect, etiquette, and thoughtful preparations of such questions, along with responsible and clear answers to them.

Even though the VOE panel members are not "sensei" or even "teachers" to those with questions, shouldn't there be some form of understanding that it is a privilege to both ask the questions, as well as to answer them"? Perhaps this may result in better questions, along with more thoughtful answers.

For such a format, I too would be in favor.

In Oneness,

[akiy]

Hi Francis,

Thank you for bringing up your concerns regarding the "open" question feature of the Voices of Experience forum.

The Voices of Experience forum was first created as an experiment to respond to requests from people with many years of experience to have a place where they could interact with each other. The forum permissions were opened up a bit more a little while back so that anyone could ask a question by starting a thread in the Voices of Experience forum (as described here (http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showpost.php?p=172558&postcount=10)).

I believe the questions that you asked of me are very pertinent and important ones to consider -- not just in terms of the Voices of Experience forum but also in terms of general interactions on AikiWeb itself.

You wrote:

So, when you offer to have questions from a greater public put forth to the VOE panel, as it were, what appropriate expectations should there be in terms of both questioners and responders? I am thinking more in lines of respect, etiquette, and thoughtful preparations of such questions, along with responsible and clear answers to them.

Even though the VOE panel members are not "sensei" or even "teachers" to those with questions, shouldn't there be some form of understanding that it is a privilege to both ask the questions, as well as to answer them"? Perhaps this may result in better questions, along with more thoughtful answers.

At this time, I would like to turn the tables a bit and direct your questions to the other participants and members of the Voices of Experience forum.

What would be your thoughts, oh Voices of Experience members, on Francis's above questions?

-- Jun

[Chuck Clark]

I agree with what Takahashi Sensei said in the above post.

I don't know how to change anything that would make this forum better. We have a private question/discussion forum for Jiyushinkai and we often have very good communication going both ways. Of course this works because we all know each other and have a common understanding of terms, etc.

Much of what happens in open forum is nothing more than "chatter" that only really registers with a few participants. I remember in days gone by when the new form of communication was CB radios. A huge number of new users came on the air and tried to adopt truckers' lingo and it ended up quickly being a lot of nonsense where most of the communications became inane, dumbed down, waste of everyone's energies. There was so much of this chatter that real communication was impossible. I see similar things going on in most open internet forums.

I've been reading and sometimes trying to take part for many years on AikiWeb and was surprised to see someone dig up an old thread that's nine years old. As new entries were added the exact same stuff was going on and I suspect no one got much out of it. I am not smart enough or probably also not willing to spend the time. I also don't watch "reality TV" that isn't real. I have no answers. I'm willing to enter into the sort of relationship that Sensei describes in his post above with anyone that wants to communicate in that fashion. Most do not.

Best regards,

[ToddDJones]

Agreed.