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Old 05-11-2009, 06:41 PM   #35
lbb
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,202
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Re: Did Aikido die with O'Sensei?

Quote:
Joe McParland wrote: View Post
It is unfortunate---from one point of view---that there does not seem to be a certified "you got it"-type transmission from O-Sensei to any of his students, though. That does leave things open-ended.

From another point of view, though, it's quite fortunate: There's nothing so dissatisfying as understanding. Satisfaction with your understanding often leads to no more learning, while continuous questioning of your understanding often leads to growth.
...and satisfaction that you do understand usually leads to not realizing why you still feel that there's something missing, and then to externalizing the reason why. If you feel that you get it (for any value of "it"), but you still feel something missing, it's easy to conclude that the fault is outside yourself, with the "it" in question -- so then you charge off looking for some other "it".

I remember a conversation I had once with a manager who told me, in a very confessional manner, that she hadn't really figured out "what I want to do with my life", and she was tremendously troubled by that. As I told her at the time, you never figure it out, at least not on the level she was looking for. Some people deliberately choose to live very simple lives: they devote themselves to one thing, and that's what they do, day in day out for their whole lives. The wise ones do so realizing that their one thing is not, and never will be, all that there is, that there will always be answers beyond it, and worthwhile things that they are giving up in order to devote themselves to this one thing. The wise ones know the tradeoffs and accept them willingly, and so can be content with a life spent in meditation, or on an island playing drums, or in any focused life. It seems to me that any "way" involves abnegation to at least some degree, and understanding and embracing that is critical to following any "way". I see value in that. I really don't see a whole lot of value in trying to endlessly interpret what someone said and extrapolate from it -- that's how you get from "thou shalt not boil a calf in its mother's milk" to "cheese is not allowed to touch the plate that has had meat on it".