Jonathan

Fascinating thread.

I've never had any interest in incorporating Omoto kyo, or Shinto, or Zen Buddhist religious ideology into my practice of Aikido. I hold very strongly to my biblical beliefs without significant tension between those beliefs and my practice of Aikido. Moreover, I don't think that my practice of Aikido is somehow lessened or hindered by not holding to specific Far Eastern philosophical/religious systems.

I should remark that the "all streams lead into the ocean" philosophy is, logically speaking, fundamentally and profoundly flawed. Not all differing perspectives and beliefs can be held to be correct or true at the same time. This is logically impossible. Much (but not all) of the thinking expressed in this thread, though, holds to a patchwork, collage-like, adoption of Truth. For many on this thread, there is no Truth but what the individual makes. Truth is almost completely subjective and opposing views on what the Truth is are implicitly held to be equal in value. This kind of thinking, however, is a recipe for personal, and cultural disaster. It leads, not to clarity, but to greater and greater confusion ethically, morally, philosophically, and spiritually.

I think it has become chic to doubt. Being without hard and fast answers to the big questions in life is more "tolerant", more "open", more "broad-minded". Of course, if there really is Truth out there, this kind of willful ignorance makes one blind to it. I wonder if the same thing is true in the practice of Aikido? I mean, there are those who would suggest that there is no right and wrong Aikido, only your Aikido and my Aikido. Is this a better way to think about the nature of Aikido, or is this the means to the dilution and ultimate destruction of the art? Hmmm....

Have I gone too far of topic?