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Old 08-05-2013, 09:48 PM   #14
RonRagusa
Dojo: Berkshire Hills Aikido
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 824
United_States
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Re: Ki energy defined

Quote:
Corky Quakenbush wrote: View Post
I used the word ki in two contexts - first as fundamental energy, the source of all observable forces of nature, then as the particular observable force, a fifth force of nature, that creates life out of non-living matter. I made this distinction because most people referring to "ki" are speaking of the latter. In this context the word ki would be synonymous with spiritual energy or spiritual force.
When I wrote that my view of Ki was incompatible with your explanation it was because I use Ki in an entirely different context. It's much less sweeping than your Ki as fundamental energy and has nothing to do with Ki as the generator of life from lifelessness.

While my blog has many posts regarding my take on Ki, for the sake of brevity I'll just say that for me Ki is manifest via the coordination of mind and body. Spirit is the facilitator of mind/body coordination. When I have coordinated mind and body I enter a state of correct feeling and Ki is noticeably evident.

Quote:
Corky Quakenbush wrote: View Post
Quarks are observable, to those with the tools to measure their effects, as subject to all forces of nature. All the forces of nature have connective properties -- quarks combine to produce hadrons and are never found isolated. So even at the most basic level of physical reality, the quark model recognizes the fundamental principle of connection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark. It is when they exhibit the connective property, again common to all, that hadrons combine to become chemical elements.

An atomic nucleus blown up to the size of an baseball sitting on the pitcher's mound of a major league baseball stadium would have its closest electron the size of a pin head orbiting out past the furthest bleacher seat. Matter is mostly empty space. Think of physical reality as 3d projections of pure energy forming a holographic, tactile image that appears solid and "real" to our gross senses and yet is mostly immaterial.

The paradox in quantum physics is that particles also appear as a wave. Imagine fundamental energy radiating from its source, the central core of the big bang; broadcasting, if you will. The interference pattern created by this radiant energy throughout time space continually creates all of what we call physical reality across the entire cosmos through the mechanism of quantum physics.

Within that physicality the known forces of nature become observable by their properties. We start to see differentiations in the way compounds act in accordance with gravity, for example. Fluid mechanics as a subset of gravitational forces demonstrates how the constricted flow of liquid through a fire hose seems to defy gravity and shoots water up many stories to subdue the flames of a burning building. A fire hose hooked up to a 125' water tower will have no problem spraying water that high with gravity as its only propellant, but fill the water tank with sand and the sand won't make it out of the hose.

At the level subatomic particles become atoms, differentiation of gravitational and electromagnetic forces are already observable because those subatomic particles form atoms of cobalt, iron and nickel.

This is the level at which ki (spiritual force) differentiates also, because at the atomic level various elements come together to form molecules of amino acids.

Spiritual energy has not been recognized by the scientific community at large because it has heretofore been unquantifiable. Weight and mass and magnetic fields can be measured, but no one has come up with a way to measure a flow of love between individuals or a quantitative difference between a living being and a corpse.

As for the effects of the properties of ki (spirit force), they are easily observable if not measurable. From a purely biological perspective, that organisms exist and reproduce is the simplest observable fact. On earth the ingredients of our planetary mass acted upon by ki formed chains of the elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, but on other planets perhaps the chemical building blocks of life may be specific other elements depending on the various factors of that respective planet.

Ki (spiritual force) is as ordinary and as profound as gravity and the electromagnetic spectrum, but as a force of nature it is found acting, like gravity and electromagnetic radiation, in harmony with all other observable manifestations of fundamental energy, in the creation of living beings in evolving, expanding fractal patterns.
Your physics seems on solid ground with respect to the Standard Model. Your speculation regarding the roles of Ki as being the source of the four known forces and the bestow-er of life is like String Theory, Quantum Gravity or M Theory in that before it can be accepted as scientific "fact" it must undergo experimental verification.

You can, of course, choose to simply accept your view on faith, convinced that it is correct because of your own observations over the past 10 years. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with that. It's your metaphor and (from what I read in Mark Freeman's blog) you have been able to employ it to take your Aikido to another level. Can any of us ask more of our metaphors?

Quote:
Corky Quakenbush wrote: View Post
What I believe to be Morihei Ueshiba's greatest discovery, through an epiphany, was that the connective properties of ki manifest physically in conflict situations between human beings.
I agree with that sentiment.

Your training paradigm sounds interesting. After watching a few of your videos on YouTube, I can see that while our metaphors and methods are different we have goals for our Aikido that are very much in common.

Ron