Thread: Feeling
View Single Post
Old 01-28-2012, 01:51 AM   #42
graham christian
Dojo: golden center aikido-highgate
Location: london
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,697
England
Offline
Re: Feeling

Quote:
David Orange wrote: View Post
Tell, 'em, Graham. You can tell Dan that you can do everything he can do and no one should tell you you have to prove it. You can just take credit for it.

Of course, when Dan said what he could do, he was always willing to prove it, but that's not always necessary to get credit for being able to do it.

I once met Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was big and impressive-looking, but it didn't bother me. I told him, "I can lift as much weight as you."

He said, "Come to the gym and let's see."

I said, "Nah...I do it a spiritual way, so I don't need to prove it."

I met Mikhail Baryshnikhov and said, "You're a great dancer, but I can do anything you can do."

He said, "Oh, wonderful. We need a male dancer for our next show. Come to the studio and let's rehearse together."

I said, "Nah...I do a spiritual kind of dance. You don't need to see it."

He said, "Actually...I have seen a video of your dancing and, frankly...it wasn't so good."

I just snorted and said, "You don't understand." And that was good enough.

I met Miles Davis once and said, "Your music is pretty good, but I play the trumpet as well as you do."

His eyebrows went up and he said, "Strange I've never heard of you. But since you're good, come by after my set tonight and we'll jam."

I said, "Nah...I play a spiritual trumpet. I don't have to show you."

So I can blow the horn like Miles, lift weight like Arnie and dance like Mihail, but if anyone wants me to prove it...they're just being unspiritual.

I won't even bother you with what happened when I met the Dalai Lama, but I can tell you, he was impressed.

I'm sure Dan would shut up if you were to put hands on him, but I know that what you do is spiritual, so there's really no need for you to do that.

Of course, of all the budo men (and women) I've ever met, if anyone ever told them they could do something in budo, the budo folks always said, "Show me. Do it on me."

Talk is fine, but the rule of budo has always been "Put up or shut up."

You should think about that.

Cheers.

David
David. Of all the 'budo' men and women I have ever met, any that said show me I have shown. One rule of budo is also mind who you say put up or shut up to. Think about that too.

As this thread is about feeling I'll hazard a guess that you are expressing some feeling. Well done.

In real life rather than the fantasy you portray above a person interested in or doing some kind of martial art who I meet and get into conversation with is generally, in fact 99% of the time very understanding and appreciative. Most very honest too, that's why I find this forum strange at times. When I tell another in real life what I do and they share with me what they do they are really up front. They say straight away either 'I've never really gotten into the spiritual side' or 'That's interesting, I'm more into the rough and tumble' or other real things. No conflict, no prove it, no third degree interrogation of each other. Real.

I would say maybe 25% of those times lead to a little demo of some aspect. That's real.

Now as for peers and such like if you believe that is real then good for you. There is a thread on testing going right now, maybe you would enjoy that thread.

In my view a true budo person is testing themselves every day and it has nothing to do with peers. That is real and as real as it gets. A good musician is one who has done the same, continually improved and on his journey put himself in places to test himself and then moved on to his next challenge and so the cycle goes.

I don't think I have put down any other art on this forum or persons way of Aikido or method whether they are well held or not, famous or unknown,(except Dan once, which was rectified personally) I doubt you can say the same.

So you cannot be upset by me saying against someone only by me saying about me. I find that strange.

Regards.G.
  Reply With Quote