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Old 05-09-2008, 03:29 AM   #6
Stefan Stenudd
 
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Dojo: Enighet Malmo Sweden
Location: Malmo
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 539
Sweden
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Seeing directions, sensing intention

To me, ki is not something visible in itself, but in its manifestations. It's a reading of dynamics, of movement and change, rather than a substance.

I like to regard ki as "the ether of intention", and somebody's intention is often possible to perceive - for example by minute initial movements of the body, its posture and balance, and so on. I am sure that all of us are often able to see on somebody where he or she intends to move, before that movement has commenced.
That is tracking the ether of intention, and of course it can be described in other words.

I would not at all be surprised if all ki phenomena could be explained in terms of established natural science. In aikido, though, the ki concept and its apparatus are practical and effective methods of exercising aikido fundamentals.
So, to me ki is something for using, not for observing in itself. I would even say that it does not exist other than in the dynamics of its manifestations. When it has nothing to do, it is not there.

Stefan Stenudd
My aikido website: https://www.stenudd.com/aikido/
My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Aikidostenudd
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