thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

There were two men ahead of me in line...the one right ahead of me was slight and much shorter that I am...I thought a forearm choke from behind would be nice for him....the other was bulky and slightly taller, though not as tall as I am. His pony tail would provide a good place to grab as a kokyu nage redirected his head. :cool:
Do you guys ever think like this in public? :freaky:
Mary

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Of course.......more often, since the weirdness of the past few decades has increased the "shooting spree mentality".
I notice exit and escape routes.

My wife thinks I am weird.
Lan

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

I always note escape routes these days and if walking after dark my brain goes into threat assement mode. Its mostly automatic. I don't notice it unless there is a potential problem.

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Developing the skills, you see the opportunity to use them.

In seeing the opportunity to use them, you've lost your center.

More practice. ;-)

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

How so?

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

The mind went off like a samurai while the body stayed behind to buy coffee and donuts.

Thinking of attacking the others, you are already dead.

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

no donuts.
no attack.....just a strategy for defense.
Mary

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

It's a near constant process for me. I size up everyone everywhere I go nearly and plan out what I'd do if something were to happen.

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Ah, no donuts. Fine, give them back then---I'm hungry ;)

Shorty and Ponytail Guy didn't feel a thing when your mind attacked---and you did see the attack, didn't you?---but you were unquestionably dead for a moment. No one was driving your body while you were away. :hypno:

Mind & Body? Not integrated.

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

There's a difference between thinking of attacking and realising attacking options. One contains intent the other doesn't.

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Two hands reach toward you (ryokatadori?), one hand with intent, the other without. How do you respond?

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Are they owned by the same person or two different people?

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

They belong to one person, of course!

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

I don't see how you can hand one hand having intention and one hand not since the hands are only responding to the intention in the mind of their owner.

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

what kind of donuts did you buy?

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

A major part of Aikido application is practicing awareness of your surroundings and visualizing scenarios and responses.

David

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

I can visualize myself on Pluto, playing a harpsichord concerto to a packed amphitheater while fending off hoards of ninja attackers---all while eating one of those donuts, of course. :cool:

Hell, I can imagine you doing the same, and I don't believe we've even met!

I'm not trying to be an ass, by the way. Yes, I used to do this all of the time too, especially while walking through a crowded mall---somehow flow of traffic was always against me. And yes, I think there's some value to "shadow boxing" and visualization aikido-style---especially when you have no partner immediately available.

However, if you believe mind-body integration / being centered / whatever is an objective or even a major aspect of your training, you're missing out if either your mind or your body is not in the game. When you're out and about and your mind drifts to combat, then everything you see around you is combat---and that can become a habit---and that can also become problematic. On a lesser scale, I found that when I was doing that giant randori in the mall, I wasn't fully present with my wife walking beside me. Poor choice.

Perhaps while not in the dojo with your training partners, the aspect of your practice that you should reinforce is practicing being where you are? :rolleyes:

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

:D

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

I usually identify the soft and hard cover, movement routes, strategic and tactical priority of each individual including a rough estimate of combat capability, and how gray I am appearing at any given time. It is all quite burdensome, actually. Unfortunately the djinni doesn't want to go back into the bottle.
By the way I completely disagree with Joe. You are almost guaranteed to be daydreaming when something starts. Why? Because humans are daydreaming 99% of the time. Its nothing to be concerned about, just machinery that runs independently of your intentions. Even the voice in Joe's head which just told him that I am wrong about this point is a daydream. Daydreaming, listening to the voice in our heads, etc. is just a natural process and I have never met anyone who could turn it off for more than a few seconds at a time. Even the best meditators I know have simply come to understand and love it as the biological process it is.

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

I rarely think like that...only if I see some signs of aggression or potential conflict...then my mind usually starts assessing options, attacks, escapes, etc.

My mind usually focuses on which person is either talking to me, themselves, or wearing one of those damn blue tooth phones...my next thought is thanking our blue tooth friend for sharing all their personal business with everyone in line. Then my mind wanders to how oblivious/rude they are holding up the line trying to take phone orders at the register and finally all is forgiven upon gazing upon the holiest of the holy's, Gods finest creation, the Apple Fritter. Mongo like apple fritters.:D

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Haha, of course! What testosterone-rich man doesnt?

But really, i usually do, even at work i'll analyze my customers, think of the best place in which i would want to be in incase they became hostile, and definitly what the quickest way to drop them would be.

Glad to know that its not just me:p

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

I like that :D

Anyway, 99% (sure, why not?) of the time we do not have the focus that the masters reach. Don't worry about it---embrace it!

... right? :hypno:

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Hi, Alex- So we don't get lost inside the thread, send me a personal message if you'd like to follow through with this a bit :) -Joe

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

lol... Kevin, I see where your mind is at.:D
No donuts...I don't eat sugar.
mary

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

hmmmm...I don't do it very often ...it just popped in.
And I know what it feels like to lose my center....this felt very centered.
Mary

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

No sugar... So you take your coffee black, or just with cream? And decaffeinated? Are you right or left handed?

In gassho,

Mark

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Yes. It is part of training. Training isn't left behind in the dojo when class is over.

I personally imagine on coming people in a mall as if they are about to attack me and run the scenarios in my mind.

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Was you after thier donuts and coffee or thier place in line?

David

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

it's dangerous to think while waiting for donuts and coffee. I have seen a dozen of jelly-filled and cream-filled donuts sneak up on a man along with their buddy the espresso. it was horrible. the carnage and destruction were total and absolute. the scene gave me nightmare for weeks. one should always be mindful and ever vigilant against such fiends. I have not found a martial arts that proves any affect against such incredible aiki and internal power of chocolate cream-filled donuts with sugar coating :D

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Just because you are paranoid it doesn't mean they're not out to get you.;)

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Don't forget about the POWDERED SUGAR that may blind you temporarily when it get in your eyes and that's a proven fact :freaky:

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

And that is just what could happen at the doughnut shop. Can you imagine if you actually did any thinking at work or at school? There you are trying to solve some problem and POW your enemies take complete advantage of your inability to be 100% present in the moment every second of your life. What is the last thing you to cross your mind before they slit your throat? If only I had been more like the "masters!"

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

you meant "stuff your throat", right? we are talking about killer donuts, right? if you travel in the orient, you will notice some sort of deep fried flower thing similar to donuts. those are the great great great grand daddy of donuts which, according to legend (based on phi's made up stuffs), have in ages past, defeated many masters and grand-masters in martial arts. if you noticed that many grand-masters tends to be a bit round in the middle. yup! 'em donuts left their marks. :)

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Aikido people seem to be especially susceptible to the mark of the doughnut!

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

"The whole of reality is in the Center of Goodness. The Center is the Void -- but all Goodness surrounds and defines the Center of Emptiness. The Void is the Fullness and the Center of all Goodness --- but without the Goodness that surrounds, the Void is empty and without Form. As the emptiness in the belly is at last filled with Goodness -- so too shall the Goodness be consumed and at last become the Void -- joining the Goodness and Void as ONE -- at the Center."

[The next lesson shall dwell on the impermanence of Being and the transience of crumbs ...]

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Ah, but what kind of a donut shop was it? It makes a difference, you see. If it was a modern chain donut shop, those are weak flabby donuts, totally unsuitable as either a bludgeon or as a projectile. You could leave them sitting on the shelf for a couple of weeks and they'll be totally unchanged, they're so full of preservatives. In contrast, if you take a good old-fashioned preservative-free donut and let it sit out for 24 hours, you'll have something like a hockey puck. So, unless you're in a good old-fashioned donut shop, and unless they have a day-old shelf, I'm afraid this is all just paranoia.

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Virginia Tech
Columbine

Funny, Benjamin.

Sometimes people see things that aren't there.
Sometimes people don't see things that are there.
How might things change if people saw clearly?

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

Just to throw in my 2 cents.
Joe, I like your aim here, it is off beat from what everyone else is considering.

When you are buying donuts, buy donuts. Don't let the destruction of potential enemies distract you from your purpose, which is to buy donuts. That is the death mentioned in Joe's 2nd post.

Now in the case of purchasing donuts, alternatively the above would suggest that you will be cut in front of in line whilst considering just how much this person's neck might actually sound like celery snapping.

If it was chado, or kyudo, or iado, we would see this immediately. You are there to perform the task of making tea, letting fly the arrow, or drawing the sword. It's an exercise in presence.

The funny part here is that, well, I'm just buying a donut, no need to focus. If what you're doing is not deserving of your full presence, then why do it?

*Disclaimer* I love donuts, and I get distracted from my purpose plenty, nor do I do nearly all the worthwhile stuff I should be doing. But then 'worthwhile' as a qualifier is another thread entirely.

As for what everyone else is discussing, the first thing I look for in environments when I get less than perfectly comfortable is obstacles, primarily what can I situate between myself and them, such as tables, pillars, unlucky passersby (kidding...). Then I size 'em up.

The zen of donuts and their holes. incredible ... : )

michael.

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

taking your 2 cents and raise you a nickel. :)

would you think the probability of physical harm, from eating and/or drinking something versus being attack by someone, higher or lower? how often you eat and drink something versus a confrontation with another human being?

now, as far as donuts holes go, they are, perhaps, the most underrated aiki-jujutsu practitioners. however, one must not discount of their effectiveness. you reach out for them and they disappear on you. they blend with your energy and use it against you and you can't resist with just one. their aiki is very affective. if that doesn't work, they will fall back on the jujutsu, which can lock your internal up tight and choke out your heart. you would not know what hit you until it was all over, but a down wash of bitter, desperately dark coffee. they have defeated my known and unknown masters. many are more known than unknown; some are unknown more than known; then others just rather not known, thus, remain unknown. :D

Re: thoughts while on line at dunkin donuts for coffee
 

"On the one hand you feel this. On the other you feel that. That's why when making a decision we wring our hands together." -A Taxi Driver

no big deal.