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Old 05-26-2008, 05:55 PM   #51
budokid
Location: Makati
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 11
Philippines
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Re: Tracing my Philippine Aikikai Roots

Sorry Raul, but honestly, I don't understand what you are talking about...your choice of words ... too profound ...

Quote:
Raul Roldan wrote: View Post
Forums like these are really a great way to exchange ideas, information, facts. Especially in this case, as the intent, it seems to me is to sort of evolve an accurate picture of Aikido history in the Philippines. As diversity is typical in this world, I can glean that a microcosm of that is also reflected in the evolution of aikido in the Philippines. It is not altogether unusual that there would be contractions and expansions; divisions and coming together. People have personalities and with that, perceptions, opinions and even, how we feel about ourselves; yes, differences abound.

Obviously, some have emotional investments with certain groups. This is not unusual either. Certain things drive us and we feel good about certain affiliations.

Why I premise my thoughts with the above is to convey that you are all actually in an open forum and totally exposed to the rest of the world. If you are mindful of that, you'd be more mindful in your choices of words. It's like what they say about emails you want to send in the heat of the moment. Try to read it first and send it to yourself and see how you feel. It also allows you to be more specific and precise with your language.

Aikido is quite evolutionary; I think all learning are. I cannot be sure if I am right in this but I think that the Japanese mode of learning Shu-Ha-Ri sort of reflects that. At Shu stage, you follow the form given you. I sometimes just call this the mechanics of techniques. Following that is the Ha stage where you learn to internalise what you learned. The Ri stage allows you the experimentation or the adaptation of what you learnt to what best suit your temperament, body structure, and what other factors that is you. So, really in that sense, there is no such thing as corruption of aikido. Every time a new person takes up aikido it is likely that he will develop his own aikido over time. Affiliations, teachers, fellow practitioners, strangers can provide you with experience of their aikido; you can glean from them what fits yours and you take it from there. But to say, aikido has pure form is not really quite correct. So, I guess what I am saying here is there's really no point I arguing about matters of affiliations, certificates or what-not. Since someone started this, just provide the facts and hopefully, even how fractious it is, it can at least give us the picture of how aikido in the Philippines evolved and we can honour everyone who played a part in it.
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