View Single Post
Old 09-10-2014, 03:16 PM   #80
mathewjgano
 
mathewjgano's Avatar
Dojo: Tsubaki Kannagara Jinja Aikidojo; Himeji Shodokan Dojo
Location: Renton
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 2,276
United_States
Offline
Re: Refining my view of aiki

Quote:
Jeremy Hulley wrote: View Post
I'll see if I can track it down in the next day or two...English translation and I agree about mistranslation.
I'm rereading the passage on ki right now (thanks for the reminder! It's been about a decade since I last read it) and so far he's been talking about harmonizing the individual ki with the universal ki.

Pages 19-31 speak to "Harmonizing Ki" and finishes with a doka.

Quote:
Aiki is the power of harmony
Of all beings, all things working together.
Relentlessly train yourself-
Followers of the Way
On pages 24 and 25:
Quote:
Through budo I trained my body thoroughly and mastered its ultimate secrets, but I also realized an even greater truth. That is, when I grasped the real nature of the universe through budo, I saw clearly that human beings must unite mind and body and the ki that connects the two and then achieve harmony with the activity of all things in the universe.
By virtue of the subtle working of ki we harmonize mind and body and the relationship between the individual and the universe.
Quote:
The subtle working of ki is the maternal source that affects delicate changes in breath. It is also the source of martial art as love. When one unifies mind and body by virtue of ki and manifests ai-ki [harmony of ki], delicate changes in breath-power occur spontaneously and waza [proper technique] flows freely. The change in breath, connected with the ki of the universe, interacts and interpenetrates with all of life. At the same time the delicate breath-power enters into all corners of one's body. Entering deeply, it fills one with vitality, resulting naturally in variegated, dynamic, spontaneous movements. In this way the whole body, including the internal organs, becomes united in heat, light and power. Having accomplished unification of mind and body and being in oneness with the universe, the body moves at will offering no resistance to one's intentions.
Quote:
The delicate changes in breath cause subtle movements of ki in the void. Sometimes movements are fierce and potent, at other times slow and stolid. By such changes one can discern the degree of concentration or unification of mind and body. When concentration permeates mind and body, breath-power becomes one with the universe, gently and naturally expanding to the utter limit, but at the same time the person becomes increasingly self-contained and autonomous.
Quote:
Ki, then, is twofold: the unity of individual-universe and the free, spontaneous expression of breath-power.
(English translation; 1st edition paperback)

Last edited by mathewjgano : 09-10-2014 at 03:21 PM.

Gambarimashyo!
  Reply With Quote