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Old 03-04-2006, 05:59 AM   #36
Mark Freeman
Dojo: Dartington
Location: Devon
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 1,220
United Kingdom
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Re: Desperate to rehabilitate ki

Quote:
"Ki" is sort of an amalgam of effects, sort of a "gestalt" or "holistic" composite of several unusual body characteristics that can be trained
I agree with this, but it deals with only half the picture. For me the mind is the 'key' element in the 'ki' debate.
As Mary has described, ki developement exercises are often based around mental 'imaginings' which through partrner practice are shown to be effective or not as the case may be.

All of my aikido training has been in ki-aikido, so I only know this type of practice. A little under half of all of that time has been spent doing ki development exercises. I'm not saying this to somehow imply that I have a greater understanding of 'ki' than anyone else. Rather, just stating that more time is spent on practicing something that is difficult to 'describe', than perfecting named techniques through more refined movement.

For me mind/ki are inextricably linked, if I am trying to teach unbendable arm to a beginner I will use terms like imagine water flowing through your arm, out through your fingers and across to the wall at the end of the dojo. A mental exercise picked up in a few moments by most people. The result is their body is relaxed and their mind is extended meters ahead. Once people get used to 'extending their mind' then if asked to 'extend ki' they can and will do so. Our partner work is to test that this is so. There seem to me to be no difference from a practical point of view.

Now I realise that this does not explain what ki is and that the description above might look like it negates the 'ki' as a separate energy point of view. No neccessarily so, if ki is a separate universal energy that is just hanging around waiting to be used, it is not 'outside' of us, it will be the stuff that fills up the space between the electrons and the nucleii of every atom in existance.
So perhaps 'thought' or the 'feeling' of ki extending from our body is the trigger that sets off a quantum level change in the 'ki' stuff and that this actually happens, even though it is not at present scientifically measurable.

It is nearly unanimous in the scientific community that our understanding of the universe only holds true/together if we factor in 'dark matter' and 'dark energy' Which makes up approximately 90% of all known mass/energy in existance. At present it is not possible to physically detect this 'stuff', but they are desperately working on it ( not surprisingly ).

My conjecture is ( and let me know if youve heard this before, otherwise contribute it to me ) Dark matter / dark energy is/could be 'ki' - the stuff that makes the universe work / hold together - universal energy- the life force, call it what you will. It would explain so much. The ancient sage's intuitive understanding of invisible energy could then be seen as hard scientific fact, we are not there yet, but maybe, just maybe.

I would love this to be proven to be the case, as it will put ki firmly in the 'real world'. Until then there will be speculation, argument, discussion, and bit by bit a little understanding. Those of us who practice aikido 'know' that ki is 'something' that exists, those of us practicing ki-aikido would look a bit daft if it didn't.

My teacher say's "I do not know what ki is, but I know how to use it" And so I keep diligently practicing his methods to attempt to emulate his skill in the use of ki. This interests me way more than the martial aspects of aikido, which I see as a useful side effect of the practice.

Just my 2 penneth worth, over to you guys,

regards,
Mark

Success is having what you want. Happiness is wanting what you have.
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