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Old 04-10-2012, 05:47 PM   #21
Chris Li
 
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Dojo: Aikido Sangenkai
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Re: Aikido and the Floating Bridge of Heaven

Quote:
Mark Murray wrote: View Post
There is a lack of 5 and 6 in your blog post, but I'm sure it's covered elsewhere. But, it's interesting to note that Ueshiba broke down some of it so nicely.
Sharp eyes - it's not covered yet.

In Aikido and the Floating Bridge of Heaven the last part of one of the quotes mentioned is "That is something that is enacted through the breath ("iki"). This breath ("iki") is Aiki."

This is kind of a big topic in itself, so I'm leaving it for a future blog of its own.

Quote:
Mark Murray wrote: View Post

So if we take, for an example, the often used unbendable arm where one is supposed to imaging water going out one's arm so that it becomes unbendable. But, according to Ueshiba, that's not nearly enough. One must have opposing forces. Wait, not quite right. One must have opposing forces that are in a spiral. Thinking of water going out the arm is only 1/3 of the whole equation. Kind of hard to actually get to aiki if 2/3 are missing.

Now, we have to wonder just where all these fire/water spiral(s) are supposed to be happening? Not just externally, because Ueshiba pretty clearly laid out the fact that it's all within oneself. So, where are these fire/water movements taking place?

It's nice to see the Chen model on display, thanks. We can see that in Chen style, these opposing forces are all over the body. But, is there anything in Ueshiba's talks to point to that? Just curious. (You know I'm 100% behind you - I'm just musing out loud to the public and trying to generate conversation.)
Also coming...

Quote:
Mark Murray wrote: View Post
Then we have aiki ... According to Ueshiba, once you have fire/water, yin/yang, in/yo, Izanagi/Izanami, heaven/earth spirals, you must intertwine them with ki. To do that, you use breath. Once you have that, you have aiki. But, that's quite a leap of, um, faith.

If I had not been specifically shown certain things and heard those words, I'd have been completely lost. Even knowing some of the Chinese classic theories, unless I actually had more of a physical understanding, I'd have trouble following Ueshiba. I can certainly see why his students (both pre-war and post-war) complained about not understanding him.

Anyway, just some thoughts. Hope you're doing well. Maybe one day, I'll make it over there to say hi in person.

Mark
Thanks Mark, we're still waiting for you to make it out here!

I'm definitely going to stay away from any "how to do" stuff, so there's going to be a significant and continuing gap between a more accurate explanation and actually translating it into a physical expression.

Besides the fact that my "how to do" is mostly "how to don't", it's just too tough to try and get into much of a detailed physical explanation without the kind of common reference that we both share. I have my hands full just not screwing up anybody around here, let alone screwing up people virally over the internet.

Anyway, better physical explanations may be forthcoming.

Best,

Chris

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