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Old 06-27-2012, 03:45 PM   #297
graham christian
Dojo: golden center aikido-highgate
Location: london
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,697
England
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Re: My Spiritual Aikido.

Quote:
Matthew Gano wrote: View Post
And yet many of us have. So you're suggesting those who disagree do so because they don't know what it is. Of course this is a two-way street, so we're left where we started. Enlightenment or delusion, who can tell? Not you and not me. Your certainty seems to suggest an answer to me...and I'm pulling for you. I want to believe you; to find a compelling answer that offers some kind of clarity.

I have searched for demonstrations of this kind and have yet to find one. I've seen people suggest something was demonstrated, but it wasn't any more than I'm now demonstrating my secret handshake.

He emphasized different things to different people and people assumed they knew more aout the context than they did. Hence the confusion.

Oh, you mean heat? I presume, if it exists (not commenting on my beliefs one way or the other here), spiritual relates to those areas that are physical and mental too.

Maintain an open mind, I suppose. And what of those who believe they feel spirit, but are wrong? Enlightenment or delusion, who can tell?

Convenient isn't it? Or, perhaps that's inconvnient?

As well as built on physical principles, which apparently come about from the spiritual. This is the argument many are making with regard to the importance of the physical; not a seperation of physical and spiritual like you're reading into (and which I too have misread). The Shinto view is that we look to nature to understand the spirit; we also can look to concrete examples for that which inspires awe (kamisama).
The argument for why people don't understand has often been that they're just not sensitive enough, and a good many people have taken advantage of this supposed axiom in order to persuade others. Enlightenment or delusion who can tell?

And yet those clothes are derived from spiritual threads...even though they are "merely" this or that. In one breath you seem to suggest we look to the thread and in another you seem to suggest it weaves into a pittance.
I like what you have to say more when it speaks of your own perspective and doesn't make presumptions about others'. Enlightenment or delusion, who can tell? Not me, and I am, I believe, about as open minded as it gets. Unfortunately that means I have to consider I am not as open minded as I think. Dammit. C'est la vie, non?
Take care,
Matthew
p.s. I like that, Don!
Yes Matthew. An open mind can look and say maybe this or maybe that. An open mind can accept the possibility of that view and that view. An open mind can weigh it up for theirself.

But the who can tell mind that stays there doesn't progress from shoshin.

There is both a separation needed in order to understand so that the correct relationship can be seen and understood. Heat by the way is something physicists can explain and is physical energy. Physical manifestation. You can of course spiritually manifest it too. But more importantly here for the sake of showing a difference let me use the word space.

Physical space is one thing, described and defined by physics and in the three dimentional physical world. They may even go on theoretically to describe other universes and spaces. C'est la vie. But then there is spiritual space. Very important to recognise the difference and how they both fit in Aikido and in what way. Technical. Real. Not physical, not mental.

The main reason rather than argument which has been pointed out time and time again by enlightened folk is awareness, consciousness I would say.

Yes it is true I point out the relationship and also I point out the view of the clothes as 'merely' this or that. I say both. To show degree of import. Not to totally disregard the relationship. That's why I like the story of Boddhidharma and indeed shin shin toitsu. Boddhidharma basically saw all the monks following the spiritual path and trying to reach enlightenment yet he saw they wouldn't do it, or rather many wouldn't by merely sitting still and doing 'nothing' He thus introduced motion. Being in the states whilst moving, whilst addressing the real world, whilst facing whatever comes up. Shin shin toitsu being moving meditation had that difference too. Unifying whilst in motion.

Basically getting reality on the spiritual truths learned and seeing they are real.

I will and do give how I personally see things and apply them in Aikido and life of course but when asked or challenged theoretically or philosophically then I can also explain as above. As you say, c'est la vie.

Peace.G.