View Single Post
Old 05-26-2012, 03:51 PM   #38
MM
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,996
United_States
Offline
Re: Being Committed to Aiki

The truth is a hard pill to swallow. So, sometimes, people like to cast aspersions upon those telling the truth to make life more complacent and "reasonable".

So, if I were to say that the way that Ben Roethlisberger plays is world's apart from the way Tom Brady plays, no one ever seems to think that I was demeaning or having disrespectful rhetoric. So, too, Ueshiba's aikido is world's apart from Modern Aikido.

Anyone can go on and on and on about Modern Aikido, love, peace, tranquility, enlightenment, techniques, speed, size, etc all they want. It's such an open field that the world has redefined it several times over. People are happy with it. There's room for everyone, whether they want more technical, martial techniques or more spiritual cooperative training. The man who made that possible? Kisshomaru Ueshiba. Personally, I think his picture should be on many dojo shomen. He started something from nothing (less than nothing) and built a legacy for the world to enjoy. In some ways, he did more than his father.

But, Morihei Ueshiba has a specific and defined approach to aikido. If anyone wants to try to say that their Modern Aikido is true to the Founder's aikido ... then, I completely and wholeheartedly agree that there should be due diligence to confirm this. So far ... that hasn't happened. In fact, I found it utterly and amazingly preposterous that I was to disregard direct students interviews of Morihei Ueshiba as legends, myths, stories while being told that a complete fantasy version of Ueshiba coming back to life and "speaking" should be taken to heart as good and solid information. This is "due diligence"? Really? People actually think this is worthy of reverence?

The truth is a hard pill to swallow. It is far easier to close the ears, imagine a different world, and eat more rice. The offering is the red pill or the blue pill. Which one do you choose?

(The red pill and its opposite, the blue pill, are pop culture symbols representing the choice between the blissful ignorance of illusion (blue) and embracing the sometimes painful truth of reality (red).)
  Reply With Quote