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Old 12-09-2011, 07:03 PM   #20
hughrbeyer
Dojo: Shobu Aikido of Boston
Location: Peterborough, NH
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 653
United_States
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Re: Rethinking the meaning of various phrases in light of "aiki"

Quote:
Ron Ragusa wrote: View Post
Quote:
Hugh Beyer wrote: No attack; "win over everything in accordance with the mission of heaven"--harmonize aiki in yourself first; then when you meet the attack you meet it without resistance or opposition because then you would no longer be harmonized with yourself. We practice exactly this.
Pardon my lack of understanding here, but are you saying that you haven't always practiced "exactly this" in your study of Aikido?
If you'd asked me before we started this journey, I would have said yes, of course we do. Be centered, move from center, neutralize the attack, yada yada. I've heard people say the words every since I first started Aikido.

But now we practice exactly this. Now we practice exactly this. Harmonize aiki in yourself first. Do it. It's work. Okay. Here's the attack. Meet it. No, don't fight it. No, don't run away. Own it.

Like that.

There's a scene in the Patsy Kline movie where she leans back after bumping uglies with a guy who's not yet her husband and says, "I was starving to death and I didn't even know it."

Okay, icky analogy, but...
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