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Old 08-26-2011, 12:15 AM   #106
Kevin Leavitt
 
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Dojo: Team Combat USA
Location: Olympia, Washington
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 4,376
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Re: philosophical or practical martial art?

Reminds me of a conversation I was having with my 11 year old this week who was struggling with the paradox his martial studies are presenting between what he thinks he is learning in TKD and Aikido.

For me, I think it maybe the depends on how you look at it.

Learning to kill or not to kill.....which is it?

well I think we break things down way too simply and try to get evangelical or fundamentalist with it. We wanna "bible" to tell us what is right and wrong.

I don't it is as simple as "the difference between aikido is you learn how NOT to kill".

I believe that in aikido you explore many aspects of how things work...both the yin and the yang.

I think you have an open book that you must figure out how this stuff works for yourself.

I think many of us...myself included believe we have choices that in the end we may not have...they are only delusions and in the end we hold ourselves up to standards that we do not have the ability or the fortitude to actually back up with any real, and honest substance.

I think a big part of aikido, for me is letting go of all that crap and simply expanding our knowledge and our practice...finding new things and gaps in our own weaknesses...and improving them.

killing or not killing....well I wish I were that good to be able to make those "choices".

I think techniques are techniques...they are what they are.

People...well they are what they are.

Luck, intent, and situation are all elements that also play into equation and things we don't always control.

So, the same "technique" you learn in Jiu Jitsu that you believe is about killing...is the same "technique" you learn in aikido that is about NOT Killing.

What is the difference? who knows in the end. Alot of it has to do with many other factors both internal and external to us.

I think Aikido is more about learning to identify those factors than it is about ANY thing to do with the up front physics of a technique.

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