Thread: Defining Kokyu
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Old 07-15-2005, 04:58 PM   #18
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
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Re: Defining Kokyu

Quote:
Jim Baker wrote:
Usually, I just translate it into Latin first, then English: "Kokyu"- "in spirare" - "inspiration".
The root word is "spiro, spirare" simply meaning "breathe". Like in "Dum spiro, spero" ("While I breathe, I hope", often translated as "While I live, I hope").
Quote:
I suspect that Ueshiba's use of "kokyu" was closer to way "spirare" came to be used, relating it to the indwelling of the spirit or to the breath of God. He had a Numious experience and used the language of his religion and martial culture to describe it. Perhaps he and the Western philosophers were describing the same experience, filtering it through their different languages and cultures.

Maybe it's a conspiracy, which is to say they "breathed together".

Jim Baker
Depends on what you're smokin', I guess.

Mike "Try not to inhale so much" Sigman
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