Quote:
Fred Little wrote:
Were baseline body skills described in terms of philosophical and cosmological terms for over a thousand years? Sure. Did the cosmology arrive as a direct outgrowth of baseline body skills and then get applied to the world outside the human body? Don't be silly.
|
Tsk, Fred. "Don't be silly"? That's not like you.... I hope.
I don't want to extend this part of the discussion unnecessarily, but you should be aware that the idea of the human-body embodying the universe and vice versa is/was a pretty well-established idea in China. Hence some of the neat drawings depicting the human-body, the stars, etc., all as one thing. There's actually a pretty compelling argument that the 'baseline skills' are part of religious practices going back through Buddhism to Hinduism. The curiosity is not how far back the religious and cosmological associations go, but how long essential body skills maintained religious connotations. Think about Tohei's description of the time he and O-Sensei were on Hawaii, Tohei was drunk and hungover and how O-Sensei thought of Tohei's 'unliftable' trick in terms of kami and Tohei thought in terms of sinking his middle.
But no, it's not "silly" to consider that the universal cosmology was heavily tied into aspects of 'baseline skills' in the human body.
2 cents.
Mike