Quote:
Attilio Anthony John Wagstaffe wrote:
There will always be cheaters and that is looking at the negative side of things.....I would say we are competing against ourselves to better polish our "spirits". We compete, not to destroy eachother, but to help polish one another's "spirits"...... 
We all have frailties, but we must learn to overcome them or wither, which we will all do eventually, we have no choice in that, but best to make the best of what we have and strive to become the best you can be?
That is competition I would say..... |
Hi Tony,
This is your friendly aikibunny here. I like this answer of yours and thought it needs validating.
In this thread it has gone to a debate on competition and the use of it, the pros and cons, and I bet you think because I am an advocate of Aikido being spiritual and harmonious and the fact that I agree with what O'Sensei said that I therefore disagree with competition.
Actually it's quite the opposite. I look at it this way:
There is competition in all games and all sports and all walks of life. The differences I see are based on the TYPE of competition. This is to do with the PURPOSE of your activity. For instance if you run a shoe shop and your purpose is to be better than the other shoe shops then you are competing with them. If on the other hand your purpose is to have lots of satisfied, happy customers then you are not interested in the other shops from the view of competition yet you are now in competition with yourself. It is a challenge and there is lots to learn and accomplish on the way to a successful business. Lots of challenges to overcome.
I see in all sports there are those who use honest endeavour and discipline and continually improve and in the end, once they have 'mastered' their craft then they perform with confidence and to them it is now just an enjoyable game. The spirit of play is with us when we are born and the only enemy of it is our unwillingness to be and do the best we can as you so rightly said.
Regards. G.