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Mary Malmros wrote:
Well...this is the premise of your argument, that aikido students are so motivated, prima facie. If you're unwilling to entertain the possibility that at least some aikido students are not so motivated, there really isn't any basis for discussion, is there? It's not that hard to build an airtight case if you can dictate the premise. But is it a castle built on sand?
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Mary, I'm not stating that "all" aikido students think this way. There are plenty of people here who have clearly retained Ueshiba's motivations. But the vast majority, it seems, have bought only half the concept. They put peace above all else, but Ueshiba's entire life was an exercise in developing vast power for the purpose of living in peace. It's natural, in that sense. What is unnatural is expecting peace to be maintained by inability.
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Mary Malmros wrote:
I'm not trying to derail your thread, and I'll step out of it at this point, because clearly it's not something I can speak to. Nevertheless, all your "you have tos" and "you need tos" derive from a different truth than mine.
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Well, mine comes from the root of aikido. This was the way Ueshiba really thought and lived. What does your truth come from? So many follow a path based on "part" of what Ueshiba is thought to have said, when close examination of what he really said turns out to be instructions for developing fantastic physical/mental/spiritual power.
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Mary Malmros wrote:
In your world, all aikido students are either consciously seeking power, or are deluding themselves that they aren't (somehow struggling and failing to be anti-power, whatever). Could it not be that you're oversimplifying things into a single dimension, a linear spectrum in which everyone is somewhere along the "power" line...and that the reality of human motivations is more complex than that?
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That's a fairly good question, but my line in no way limits the spectrum of motivations. I'm just addressing this one aspect in detail because it's like the keel of the ship of aikido, or the roofbeam of the house. Everything attaches to and branches from that single concern. All values of aikido practice are derived from how truly one adheres to that main spar. Without that, the whole thing falls apart, so I've posted to bring people's attention to focus there at least long enough to recognize its centrality.