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Old 03-03-2012, 07:44 AM   #128
Marc Abrams
Dojo: Aikido Arts of Shin Budo Kai/ Bedford Hills, New York
Location: New York
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1,302
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Re: How to be non-competitive in a competitive world

Quote:
Andrew Bedford wrote: View Post
I ment, make it as peaceful as you possibly can. Avoid it if you can, if you cannot avoid it, then injure slightly, if you have to maim/disable, before you kill, and if you must kill, kill cleanly and swiftly ( do not let them suffer) because not one drop f life should be wasted even in death.

This I believe is what O sensei ment, then technique from no matter what style, form or indeed different martial arts, will have that same intent behind it, do as little harm as possible to control the situation in hand.

This does not say do nothing if the violence escalates, indeed to do nothing when you can, is cowardice and it is vileness to my eyes, when I think of Budo.
Andrew:

Have you ever been in really violent, physical encounters? The idea that you have some choice as to trying to control the level of "peacefulness" is in my own view, unrealistic and frankly dangerous to ask anyone to consider when faced with such a situation. The same applies to killing cleanly. All of that sounds awesome from the rear seat of an auditorium listening to a lecture on that topic. Unfortunately, there may be some practical considerations regarding your genuine, physical well-being that supersede such a luxury of thought.

Quote:
Andrew Bedford wrote: View Post

Ask yourself where are you at this moment, I guarantee you when you read this the answer will be.......HERE NOW. You cannot be anywhere else. Please do try and tell me I'm wrong. And Come up with a convincing argument that is not based on the thought of form, because if it, is it is based in some kind of fear of future or past. if you can theN, you are not really present at all.

Andy B
Andrew:

What you are saying is too simplistic to genuinely understand what I was trying to say to you. I will try, in short, to give you a primer in the neuropsychology that I was referring to.

1) We are telic beings. We function as entities that seek to define our experience based upon some internal constructs. That is at a meta-level- akin to an existential psychological means of understanding.

2) We, among several other species, have memories. Memories serve to frame our experiences so as to provide us a construct of understanding. IN OTHER WORDS, your present experience always involves the past.

3) Because we ascribe meanings and understandings to events and interactions, along with that, comes the predictive element to our understandings. This creates a sense of continuity of experiences. IN OTHER WORDS, your present experiences always involves the future.

4) If you are sitting in a room and you are hallucinating and believe that you at a beach, where are you? Once again, our experiences are the end result of a series of bio-chemical reactions. Your wanting to say that you are only here in the now, is as a result of points 2 & 3.

In summary, any experience that you have is as a direct result of internal constructs that are at its essence, bio-chemical/electrical processes. Those internal processes are framed for us as past, current and future experiences, all encapsulated within a moment. It does not matter whether you or I believe this or not, it is simply the best scientific understanding we have to date. If that changes, I will make a note to appraise you of those changes.

Marc Abrams
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