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Old 09-06-2007, 10:07 AM   #10
jennifer paige smith
 
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Re: AIkibudo/Yoseikan Techniques

Quote:
Graham Wild wrote: View Post
All I have as evidence is the change in language and teachings from before and after the war. O'Sensei's text from before the war, Budo and Budo Rneshu, talk about the spirit of Japan, making a better country, and excluding gaijin. Then after the war O'Sensei talk about spreading Aikido to the world and building a golden bridge to unite all man kind. The thing in between was the war, ergo, the war is the result of the change.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum.

I don't buy that
Graham,
I'm so pleased to read this summation as well the one you posited in a post before on this thread.
I have held this view and have tried to express it through an empathetic approach to what O'Sensei may have experienced both from my education and intuition of his internal experiences; like the 'golden vapor' episode where his understanding of the martial way and natures path became one, and his external experiences or circumstances surrounding WWII and the catastrophic bombing of Japan. I say empathetic because in retroespect I experienced something very similar as the world went to apersistent confrontational model/ War in the last few years during which time I experienced a profound shift in my perspectives, intuition and insight.
Hopelessness arises when mans machines exceed mans capacity to control them and to live well. In the face of such unleashed human power it occurs to me as instinctual and even normal to respond with a drastic change in perception and philosophy. So often this element of change in him has been overlooked or triangulated toward 'this student trained with him before the war' or 'after' so it becomes a purely technical distinction and not a distinction of realization or learning.
O'Sensei may have held himself as a model of behavior on a private level ( I don't know that , but I hear others talking about it. ) but his public transmissions beg his students to follow him following nature's model. That, in my observation, has been the defining feature of the power and strength that exists in aikido (the power of nature trancending the power of man).
So perhaps at this point I turn this post away from the intent of Graham's post and say that it is natures power that became apparent to O'Sensei. I would also say that it eclipsed his previous emphasis on human power. I believe the war cemented this perspective.

Onegaishimasu.

Jennifer Paige Smith
Confluence Aikido Systems
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