Budd

My own view is that judo and aikido, by themselves, as modern martial arts, aren't necessarily going to give you a "way" or "path" to follow unless you're shown one, or create your own. In either case you ultimately have to take ownership of what you're doing and where the path takes you.

When you add the "internal training" - I think that it's meant to be the engine that drives any martial art, whether it's aikido, judo, taiji, silat, krotty, whatever . . and I'm believing more and more that you only get good at it if you make it part of everything you do (in addition to specific activities that only focus on "that").

That doesn't necessarily mean that you're always thinking about training . . it needs to be conditioned to the point where you aren't thinking about it, too - part of the process where things get automatic.

And honestly, you may not care, which is fine . . but for those interested in that kind of personal cultivation AND how it's meant to be expressed in martial arts like aikido (engine of the car) or judo (probably a good reason why Kano sent Tomiki to see what Ueshiba was doing) . . without trying to be too much of an apostle spreading the good news, I have to say that I think it's definitely worth following up on to see what the fuss is about.