Re: My Spiritual Aikido.
Hi Dan,
Your comment on non-duality makes sense to me only if I enlarge it to encompass a wide range of external expressions. In other words, it could inspire an Aiki response in a martial situation if the person had the skill or it might manifest in some other way entirely. In any case it should have a quality of impeccability. For example it might move the person to offer themselves as a sacrifice.
Isn't it possible that a person who is very able to an effective martial response is simply able to be a skilled brute with a spiritual poverty? One doesn't seem to guarantee the other.
I have known extremely effective warriors whose skills employed in war in very nasty ways. They remain quite scary as individuals and I admire their apparent lack of fear. But they also suffer tremendously and seem damaged beyond cure.
On the other hand, some of the very best people I have known were not versed in Budo. They have been tested by life and have responded time and again with heart and incredible integrity. They weren't interested in impressing anybody.
I wonder if the spiritual side of your art if something you brought to it and in doing so found a great compatibility that strengthened both. Or did the study of budo draw you into the spiritual side?
Thanks for being provocative.
Don Hebert
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