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Old 02-25-2014, 10:20 AM   #9
PeterR
 
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Dojo: Shodokan Honbu (Osaka)
Location: Himeji, Japan
Join Date: Mar 2001
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Re: Which branch of Aikido emphasizes Spirituality?

Quote:
Mary Malmros wrote: View Post
Understood. But what makes it "spiritual"? Can an action be considered "spiritual" regardless of the mindset of the person who is performing the action? Is it purely in the eye of the beholder: bowing to the kamiza = "spiritual" because that's what we label it?
I am probably guilty of defining spirituality by what it isn't but I concur the mindset of the person is critical. For that reason I insisted that you need to ask the individual students what their level of spirituality is rather than look into what's said or done.

If all I thought about was "lunch" (guilty of that too) then my answer would be low spirituality. With respect to rei - the demonstration of respect is spiritual - again not necessarily religious. My bar for spirituality is probably far lower than yours but I do consider the mental aspect of what we due to be spiritual as opposed to the technical.

Peter Rehse Shodokan Aikido
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