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Old 10-03-2012, 10:26 AM   #15
David Orange
Dojo: Aozora Dojo
Location: Birmingham, AL
Join Date: Feb 2006
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Re: More on Aikido and the Floating Bridge of Heaven

Quote:
Mark Murray wrote: View Post
No disrespect, but I personally wouldn't go by the article's explanations. If you're thinking that you're shaking your hands up and down, you're not doing what Ueshiba did. Again, all IMO. But, looking at millions of people who have trained aikido for 10-40 years who think that it's shaking their hands up and down to calm the spirit ... well, how far has it gotten any of them to Ueshiba's level?
Thanks, Mark.

I guess I'm not writing as clearly as I thought. I was trying to say more or less what you said.

My point is that this article is a great example of the commonly seen explanations of these strange exercises O Sensei did, emphasizing the vaguely general "gods" of Japan when the subject is much more precise: the "gods" are specifically two--Izanagi and Izanami, or yin and yang, in and yo, and they are really principles of nature simply described as "gods" or "spirits." Furitama is about balancing those two principles specifically, rather than the general "calming the spirit and centering the mind."

Explanations like in the article allow people to believe the exercise is impenetrable because they don't know which "gods" they're calling into their bodies, how many "gods," or much else about it. Also, most people in the West don't really want to call unknown "gods" into their being, so they just skip that part and do the outer form as they can see from examples.

I was going to say, myself, that from the many teachers I've met who do that exercise, none has really impressed me with skill. Even before I started feeling the internals.

Quote:
Mark Murray wrote: View Post
If you read some of Ueshiba's translated works (mostly by Chris), you find talk about how in was on one side while yo was on the other. Correlate that to some of the Chinese works and you find it very similar, sometimes identical. So, when you read about that "purple cloud", I would research some of the Chinese texts because there is mention of a purple light as a stage in internal training. Ueshiba was merely echoing many known martial things, just in his own spiritual way.
My post really wasn't very clear, was it?

I've been devouring Chris' translations on the floating bridge. Finally someone is telling us in clear language and with detailed meta-physical context, what Ueshiba said, what it meant and how it translated into what he was doing with his body.

The part that led me to furitama was the specific assignment of in to one hand and yo to the other when I know that this has to reverse almost constantly. Doesn't it? You don't always leave the left hand as in, do you?

That was the question that made me think of joining the hands at the hara for furitama.

I'm thinking that it's related to in on the left and yo on the right.

Quote:
Mark Murray wrote: View Post
Find inyoho. Train IP/aiki. Change the body. Then, when you move, techniques will be born.
Which is takemusu aiki.

I never understood or even had much idea of what "takemusu aiki" meant except as a vague, general reference to harmony, which explains how aikido got in the shape it's in today--generally vague and general.

Thanks to Chris, Dan, you and many others, it's going to get a lot more specific from now on. And that's a tremendous help for me.

Thanks.

David

"That which has no substance can enter where there is no room."
Lao Tzu

"Eternity forever!"

www.esotericorange.com
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