graham christian

Hi George. Good meeting you again. I can't disagree with any of what you say for I understand where you're coming from and the only difference I see is based on one word.

The word is 'respect'. Let me explain why. For years I tussled with the concept as I had it as a principle which I was taught and it came from Tohei's principles and it was 'respect your partner's Ki'

I went from thinking I knew what it meant to seeing I didn't know what it meant to seeing it sometimes depending.......

Finally I saw what it meant and my view on the word itself changed, the power of respect took on a whole new meaning. You want to know what it meant? It meant repect your partnes' Ki.

As usual in these things it was back to the simplicity.

What I wasn't getting was that I thought if something was bad I couldn't respect it. It happened in two stages: First a reality of Ki and the fact that everyone, beyond the presented illusion has Ki and to 'see' it, know it and respect it. As Ki itself is good then it is also to see past the presented force or even negative energy as they are not Ki. So of course I could respect their Ki and link with it even if they didn't know they had it or was sure what they were using was it. On doing and practicing this It expanded out to why not respect what they are doing anyway whether bad or good for respect is an inherent part of my spiritual being so why let others make me give up part of my true self?

Now once again this doesn't to me mean I agree with or even should let it carry on, it's down to personal judgement. For example if someone wants to do Aikido in my space, in my dojo, and yet not according to the principles I teach then after showing them the difference and respecting where they are coming from they realize either this is the way they were looking for or they leave. I respect them either way. If someone is acting obnoxious towards others I can respect it and accept it and yet communicate through to the true them it is not allowed and if they persist they will have to go somewhere else.

In fact using the rope analogy I would say that when a thread is overtly disrupting or even covertly undermining or harming the rope(group) that generally in life the group or person in charge of the group takes appropriate action and this would be known as justice.

So that is what I meant by respect and once again I probably should try to articulate clearer sometimes.

Respect. G.