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Old 05-11-2009, 06:27 AM   #1367
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Re: Aikido does not work at all in a fight.

Quote:
Kevin Leavitt wrote: View Post

(snip for length)

It is about building you tool kit.

How you choose to use those tools, that is framing against your personal values, ethics, morales...is up to you.

However if you limit yourself to a myopic view constrained by a perception of what is acceptable and not acceptable within the constraints of a particular dogma...well you are going to set yourself up for failure when someone you meet does not particularly understand or agree with your dogma! Then you have real problems!

I hope this helps explain my perspective some!
and

Quote:
Philip Burgess wrote: View Post
I have read Dan's posts with interest. I have a question. Dan you speak of Alki power, I will assume that is a typo (I make allot ) and you mean Aiki power. My question very simply is do you see Aiki power something that can be measured on a spectrum, having different degrees, frequencies, intensities, varieties, and that kind of thing, or the opposite? Oh, and can it be defined, of course. If so what would be the defination? Because you state it is something universal, something like a universal joint, or tool? An instrument that can be applied to all things. Thus, the origin of my question. To get a better, say compelet understanding of our explaination.
and

Quote:
Minh Nguyen wrote: View Post
Well, is your Aiki concept the aiki in Aikijujitsu or Aikido? I don't have a deep knowledge in martial arts, but I do know there is a difference between Aikido and Aikijujitsu. O Sensei created Aikido under the inspiration of Daito Ryu Aikijujitsu, but LOVE is his intention. Aikido is about harmonizing a person with one's self, the universe, and other people. It's also about controlling aggressors' attacking movements until they give up their aggression.

I watched some Aikijujitsu clips on youtube. Its techniques are very powerful and can kill people. I think the point is if a martial practitioner is enlightened about the Aiki concept as you describe without having a solid moral in his heart, he can kill his enemies.
Aiki is *not* a tool. It isn't waza. It isn't something you *do*. It's something you *are*. For the sake of thinking "outside the box" or of something you may have no experience with, please don't associate aiki with techniques or tools. It isn't either of them.

Aiki is what transforms your body, transforms *you*, your being.

There is no building a tool kit, no using tools appropriately or in different fashions, no universal instrument in aiki. Aiki rebuilds *you* so that whatever tool you decide to use, you use that tool more powerfully (in a budo sense).

If you want to see aiki in action, search youtube for the vid where Ueshiba is sitting and people are trying to push him over. If you want to read about aiki in action, read the thread about Push Test and Ueshiba. Because Ueshiba is showing the world aiki in its glory.

Think about that. All the force of people pushing and there sits or stands Ueshiba. He uses no tools, no waza, no techniques, no universal instrument, but yet, he takes away uke's strength. More than that, he takes away uke's "will" to attack. And he does it without any kind of technique. As he's quoted in the Tenryu incident. He could not push me over because I knew the secret of aiki.

Just where is all that energy going from those pushing? What's happening? Why is it that Ueshiba viewed what he was doing as aiki, when he wasn't doing technique at all? That many complained he never repeated techniques? Does that sound like building tools to use? Universal instruments?

As Tanahashi said (paraphrased) in the YouTube video, we commonly pushed on Ueshiba -- I don't know why.

Perhaps the answer is exactly what Ueshiba stated -- It's the secret of aiki. Perhaps the gem, the gold, the treasure, the very core of Ueshiba's skill is that secret. And perhaps he lived it because it wasn't waza to him, it wasn't a tool to him -- He, well, as he stated -- Aiki, I am aiki!

So, perhaps that common thing, that simple demonstration -- all those push tests that he had people do ... maybe, if you step outside the box you've labelled "aikido" ... maybe that "secret of aiki" can be found in what Ueshiba's body skills are doing. All without tools, waza, instruments, etc.
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