Quote:
Mark Uttech wrote:
Cutting an uke after taking the tanto away polishes the murderous intent inherent in us all. I have heard it said that this 'murderous intent' we have is why birds don't come near when we go for a walk in the woods.
In gassho,
Mark
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Really? I thought it was because I forgot to wear deodorant that the birds didn't come near along with any other living creatures, (especially women).
But seriously, I agree that an Aikidoka should be free from "murderous intent". It is the murderous intent of the uke, which leads to his near demise, anyway. To injure someone when we have the power not to is....evil.
I thought this point is interesting, because I have seen it in many dojos, not only in weapons practice but also in taijutsu practice. People teaching things like "if we were on the street, here is where you would break his arm/neck, etc.". I have never agreed with it.
On the other hand, someone brought up the point of slicing someone in a situation against multiple attackers. I'm not sure what to think about this. I can see how it might be necessary to break one guy's arm when you've got 5 more coming at you. But then this leads to another question of what is violence? Is it ok to do a little slicing and dicing and break a couple of bones as long as we don't kill anyone? I don't know.
I have read where Saotome sensei said that if we don't know how to kill, then we can't know how to save. So perhaps the part of using the tanto to carve our initials into our attacker is meant to show what we are not supposed to do.
I wonder why we have weapons training at all in Aikido (with the exception of tachi waza) Many of the kumitachi end with killing the uke with our katana, or with a whack to the back of uke's head with a jo. This doesn't seem to jive with Aikido philosophy.
Very interesting questions.