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Old 07-04-2008, 12:15 PM   #116
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Re: Is Aikido effective for police?

I, myself, do not define Aikido by what has become "customary" practice and/or by what has customarily have become "kihon waza." Thus, I cannot really adopt the notion that we need to go "outside," etc., because my "inside" is not limited to what in essence is nothing more than the whims of time and history. For me, when I hear folks talking about mixing, inside, outside, etc., well, it hardly makes sense. Aikido cannot separate mind and body, as it cannot free ourselves from our spirit, as it cannot separate striking from throwing, throwing from pinning, entering from tenkan, standing from lying on the ground, etc. This, for me, is what it means to be before a universal. Being a universal is being in truth (at least from a mystical point of view). Inversely, when things can be so artificially separated, one cannot be before a universal, one cannot be of Truth.

On the other note, I agree strongly with Jen's position - Aikido's capacity to cultivate further and further, higher and higher, states of spiritual maturity. As this is vital for every human being, people that by occupation are more prone to face higher and higher degrees of suffering are by necessity open to receiving Aikido's practical benefits.

David M. Valadez
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