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Alejandro Villanueva wrote:
Maybe it's a "simple adjustment" for you. Surely not for others. Maybe it's a "secular context" for you. Surely not for others. Is it that hard to understand that not everybody lives by your standards?
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The problem is, they're not my standards. I'm a descriptivist, not a prescriptivist.
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And... what is exactly "the spirit of Aikido"? Did you really "got it"? Obviously not, in my opinion. Maybe yes in yours.
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I really have no idea, which is why I used quotations marks. I seriously doubt I "get it". Don't much want to, either.
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This is the kind of intolerance that Jun allows in the forum. Oh, because the wording is low tone. Is this the "spirit of Aikido" too? I call BS.
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Asking a pointed question is hardly intolerance. Sure, I question whether someone who can't make the cultural leap to bowing in the dojo can understand the more esoteric aspects of aikido, or indeed any martial art. That doesn't mean I give a damn what anyone does in their training.
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Christopher Li wrote:
Well, he's a little rough, but he makes a valid point. That is, the "simple adjustment" is not so simple for many people of faith. I think that's hard to understand for many people.
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I stand by my statement. It is an unequivocal fact that bowing in Japan has no
inherent religious meaning. That doesn't mean that it can't have that meaning in certain contexts, only that it is so ubiquitous, it has all the inherent religious meaning of clapping one's hands. Which, incidentally, can
also have religious meaning in certain contexts here in Japan, and yet Christian people clap all the time.
So it comes to, either one sees bowing in the dojo as not inherently religious, and thus not a sin. Or despite the large number of Japanese atheists
and Christians who bow like madmen throughout their daily lives, even in dojo, one believes that the act of bowing is inherently religious, and thus a sin against God/Allah. For the latter, I have my doubts that they'll come to understand the deeper concepts of aikido in specific and Japanese budo in general. But I don't mind being proven wrong; hence my question. I'd like to know how they could do it. Maybe they don't care; maybe for them all they want from aikido is some technical skill and the platitudes common to pretty much all traditional martial arts. More power to them. Heck, there are plenty of people who
do bow, but never explore aikido deeper than that, as Mary suggested earlier. I personally think they are missing out on a lot of interesting stuff. But then, my girlfriend deplores my simple, basic tastes in food, and unwillingness to try new dishes. Different strokes.
Edit: Let it not be thought that I'm singling out Christians as the non-bowers here. The same goes for Muslims clapping, bowing in everyday life, etc.