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Old 01-04-2010, 01:14 PM   #7
R.A. Robertson
Dojo: Still Point Aikido Center
Location: Austin, TX, USA
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 346
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Re: The Greater and Lesser Problem

Quote:
Piyush Kumar wrote: View Post
And, actually i have one more question,
Can this concept be applied to real life too? As in our daily life, in pursuit of our goals such as passing a exam, or a long term goal such as getting a PhD degree. If so, what must be our goal so that we may be able to align ourselves as is necessary?

And even in aikido, what shud be our goal even while applying the concepts of non doing? Shud we be aiming to take the attacker to the ground or have an empty mind?

Thank you for the time,
Piyush
Just as doing aikido can be truly hard work, and yet is also the study of effortlessness, your life can also be expected to be hard work, and yet to unfold naturally.

If you want something you do not have, you must go and get it. This may require overcoming obstacles, breaking down barriers, and imposing the pattern of your will upon the receptive world. This is the doing part of aikido. As a seeker, you are uke, but this does not mean you are an attacker wishing to do violence. It only means that you are willing to spend energy to make a change. If you can do this constructively and compassionately with sincere regard for the world you are changing, then you are doing good aikido.

In your seeking, you may expect to get thrown off balance and off course once in a while. You might even get stuck, unable to move for a while. Obviously the practice here is to learn the art of recovery and the return to seeking.

Even with such an endeavor, you may be able to be on the lookout for when you are pushing too hard. There may be times when it is better to arrange circumstances so that you can be confident of inevitable outcomes. This is the non-doing, where you understand that things come in their own time, at their own pace, and only need a bit of nurturing to realize their inherent fullness.

This is the kokyu, or breath. We breathe out, and we breathe in. We seek to cause change, we let change come to us.

In our taijutsu, I think the situation must determine our course. In training, because non-doing is harder for most of us, I think it's more often best to train without attachment to specific outcomes. It matters very little if we throw or pin. We learn more efficiently if we just pay attention to the truth of the immediate movement, knowing it will find its own grounded state if we let it. Maybe we are the ones who are thrown or pinned, but it doesn't matter if we learn to observe the flow and stillness. And this is the non-doing.

Now, if our lives are at risk, or that of our loved ones, then throwing and pinning may be the urgent necessity. If we are well trained in non-doing, then our doing may be done well. But there is certainly a time for doing.

Let me say again that aikido is both doing and non-doing. It is important to understand their difference and not to think that only one or the other is real aikido. They are different and must not be wrongly applied. But they are also complimentary, and each informs the other.

I hope you understand that I am not giving you any answers, but merely speaking my thoughts so that you can find your own answers.

Ross
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