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Old 06-01-2010, 07:10 PM   #95
Kevin Leavitt
 
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Dojo: Team Combat USA
Location: Olympia, Washington
Join Date: Jul 2002
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Re: The purpose of Aikido?

Quote:
Larry Novick wrote: View Post
Exactamundo, although I think of it as the ability to be highly martially responsible, rather than the ability to fight, as that implies, to me, a certain mindset that I feel limits me. But my context is limited to my life arena, I ain't in the military.

(I have started to roll again though, with a close friend about to get his black belt from one of the Machados.... we practice how to apply a sense of Aiki, and how to use Ki and Center, in BJJ.... fun stuff.)
That is cool. A black belt from one of the Machado's. I have trained with RIgan Machado and he promoted my current instructor to black belt. Great guys!

I think that the whole reason Budo works in general is it explores the differences and the synthesis of the duality of conflict, of course. Personally, the more I learn about the power we possess or at least the potential that we possess, I also learn (I hope) about the responsibility that comes with it, and how close we walk on the knife's edge constantly even if we are not aware of it!

To say that Budo is about "X" or it is about "Y" I don't really understand. To me budo simply is what it is and you get up everyday, you train and you train and you train. Some days are good days, some days are bad days, but even on the bad days I can look to my brothers and sisters along side of me and find strength and joy in our practice to get up another day and continue to fight the hard fight one day at a time.

For me, It don't get any more spiritual than this. Being in the moment of the time that I get to spend on the mat.

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