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Old 02-27-2016, 11:11 AM   #3
Chris Li
 
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Dojo: Aikido Sangenkai
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Join Date: Dec 2000
Posts: 3,313
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Re: Create a Beautiful World

Quote:
John Hillson wrote: View Post
Nice! Stupid question:

Guidelines for practice say "Aikido is to be kept secret."

In this video, you say Kisshomaru Doshu had said he started learning Aikido after learning the techniques, and that learning the techniques only takes about 2 years.

So, the secret or even Aikido itself is Not in the techniques?
I would say yes, that's correct. I would even say that Morihei Ueshiba, in my opinion, would say the same thing (Mark Murray discussed this a little bit here).

That's not to say that technique isn't important, or that folks shouldn't study technique, just that it isn't the heart of the matter.

Put another way (I mentioned a similar example somewhere in the interview), I memorized the multiplication tables when I was in elementary school. It's a useful tool, of course, but that's just something to help introduce you to mathematics and help you to deal with mathematical problems more easily. If you saw someone still running over the multiplication tables after thirty years in mathematics (and purporting to be a professor of mathematics) you'd probably say that something was wrong. Or at least, I would.

Best,

Chris

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