Quote:
Jason Casteel wrote:
More wisdom from the mountain top. What you're suggesting is nothing more than blind faith. Anyone, regardless of training or skill can find themselves in a situation where they lose their focus and get in trouble. It's complete foolishness to suggest that a type of practice where the only real consequences are that someones hand might get caught in your gi as they run through you to the wall has equal chances of success as someone who has faced some level of real pressure and knows what it's like to be able to focus through that and get something done. One is blind faith and the other is actual preparation.
Aikido can be a lot of things, movement practice, fighting practice (kind of) or spiritual practice. There's nothing wrong with it being any of those things, but don't suggest that it's all or some of those things when it clearly is not. It's at best disingenuous and at worst dishonest.
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That really cuts to the heart of the matter.
I don't think anyone has trouble with the gentle people who practice their spiritual aikido. Trouble only arises when....they...and it is always...them... who want to claim that which was unearned.
Martial veracity.
And here is the rub
When they are challenged on that score
It is ...they..and it is always....them....who run away and hide.
Why?
Inside, they know you can't have something for free. There are no fighting skills that are unearned. The practice of the gentle people is fine and everyone has fun. Who has a beef with that? It is only when that practice is claimed...
as a budo that trouble arises both from within the art, and from those outside watching. Most reasonable people know it is hollow and meaningless in any martial sense and I suspect those doing it know it too. From there you have to discern their motives in communicating their ideas to the martial community.
Quote:
Demetrio Cereijo wrote:
Well, Graham has his fans who consider him wise and enlightened, His approach has a market, so be it.
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I disagree. To me this really isn't about Graham. It is about those practicing a so called spiritual aikido and stealing your arts hard earned reputation and work as a form of Budo.
Yup.
Stealing it, and then eventually destroying your arts reputation.
How's that?
When the gentle folk invaded aikido-- the numbers went up and the death of aikido began.
Now that the MMA craze hit and more and more people interested in Budo joined Koryu; the reality and demands of real budo sunk in to a broader range of aikido-ka due to the increased exposure. So now the numbers and that type of practice actually hurt Aikido. And when everyone complains about the numbers drastically falling off in dojos worldwide...one need only look right at those gentle folk out there staring at a smarter audience and trying to convince them (and themselves) that what they are doing actually works!
Of those who remain practicing the ultracooperative and spiritual side-watch carefully and you will see an underlying pretense in a host of these gentle folk.
1. If they are practicing a spiritual path, why are they dressed in budo clothing and brandishing weapons?
2. To what purpose?
3. Because they want to believe and want others to believe, they are a part of budo.
Yup, beyond all protestations and argument, that is all it really is. And they are borrowing someone else's good name and hard work to substantiate their own skills.
Don't believe me? Hang out with them. wait and see how long it takes before they talk about practical fighting and applications and...and...the feats of a "spiritual" Ueshiba to defeat all those bully boys. Now you just have to see who has the guts to step up and actually take part in that same practice with their budo attire and weapons..with people who actually suffered and trained hard to gain real skills.
What happens?
In person-they run away.
On the internet? Reams and reams of typing and fashioning excuses to explain away one simple fact.... why they ran away.
Movement aikido, and Spiritual Aikido are not and will never be
Budo. The community needs to call people on it and let them know the reality of just what their practice really is. Otherwise you are staring into a further decline of your own making. Exposure and education is the only way for the art to move forward.
Dan