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Old 07-25-2008, 09:17 AM   #27
Marc Abrams
Dojo: Aikido Arts of Shin Budo Kai/ Bedford Hills, New York
Location: New York
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1,302
United_States
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Re: When did you stop being a beginner in Aikido?

Lyle is an excellent martial artist and a person whom I respect and a person whom I call a friend. That being said, I do not necessarily agree entirely with modesty having to be false. Jennifer talked about one of the main philosophical pillars of my school, which is shoshin. An English phrase might be "The more one knows, the more one realizes how little they know." I am always in the process of deconstructing what I do so as to gain knowledge as to all of the mistakes that I am making, so that I can learn to make corrections. The longer that I do Aikido, the more subtle the mistakes are that I realize that I am making and the more profound and powerful my Aikido becomes when I correct those mistakes.

I try and always keep a beginners mind and an open mind. I am always willing to test out my ideas. Things either work or they don't work. Instead of looking at the perspective of being a beginner or something more advanced than that, I think that we should look at this as a life long process/road. I always hope that I have people ahead of me on that road so that I have models to use to improve. I hope to have plenty of people around the same turn in the road as me, so that we can honestly work on where we are. I hope that there will be people behind me on that road that are open to my sharing what knowledge I have gained to date.

Marc Abrams
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