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Old 05-12-2012, 10:10 AM   #10
Chris Parkerson
Dojo: Academy of the Martial Arts
Location: ohio
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 740
United_States
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Re: Intelligent Fools, Dragons, and Princesses

I suggest love is both rightly and wrongly applied within each of us daily (should we use such manichean terms). Another more holistic way of putting it is to say along with author bell hooks, "Love is as Love Does." Each of us has layers of pain-body that, as they get exposed, we have an opportunity to improve the quality of our love. This is something that cannot be put into kata, for it is so often not "what we do", but "why we do" a given thing. It is about finding ways to break our hearts open, allowing the full feelings of joy and pain to be fully experienced, and to feel connected to all with, for lack of a better term, "inter-being."

As a young ministry student at Point Loma College in 1974, I talked with two Christian student surfers
were confronted by local surfers who were angry that Cal Western had sold it's campus to the Nazarenes. These two surfers were literally boasting to schoolmates that they had "turned the other cheek" when they got bullied by the locals. I saw fear in their eyes and challenged them regarding
their true motives.

Love and compassion can also be fierce. "Jigme" is a fine Pali term for such a spirit and is the Buddhist name for a female friend of mine who was struggling to climb to base camp at K1. A yak herder on the trail behind her kept pitching pebbles at her. She was aggravated about it but kept walking. Base camp was only 200 yards away. She didn't know it but the yak herder did. No kata can encompass what must generate from the heart.

Practicing fearless clarity, authenticity, honesty, and compassion - allowing the whole you to be present and accepted by yourself is the path of love. Once love arises it can act in ways many folks cannot understand. Indeed, they may ridicule you and even kill you for it.

This is the core of my Aiki as well as my Budo. I honor all and am grateful to those who help me "do love" as I practice my kata.

Last edited by Chris Parkerson : 05-12-2012 at 10:15 AM.
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