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Old 08-07-2009, 12:51 PM   #640
Misogi-no-Gyo
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 498
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Re: Is It Missing In Everybody's Aikido?

Quote:
Dan Harden wrote: View Post
I think this post remains one of the best. In trying to address the spiritual and physical aspects-it gives examples of many of the challenges, and questions.
Yet remains largely ignored.
Thoughts?
Dan
Dan,

largely ignored yes, but completely ignored...? not exactly. Of course, I know you didn't say that.

You and Mike and Akuzawa Sensei (and others) have come along and been embraced as some of the go-to options to better budo, today. No quams there. Aikidoka, just like others who train in various martial arts have a need to answer the martial integrity/practicality question as a way to validate ourselves as teachers of our respective art forms. While I have always trained with that in mind, and therefore agree with the merits of that method of determining who students should seek out and learn from, I do so only to a point that martial effectiveness is or should be the indicator that one has knowledge of the true of nature of the art. But I digress...

However, if we agree that using the martial integrity/practicality has merit, and it is that very merit which has given rise to the Aikido community's willingness to open its arms and embrace you and others, must we not find some similar standard when it comes to the spiritual side of Aikido? I want to point out that I am not in agreement with the need to deconstruct any art form in this manner, but if we are going to apply a standard with regards to one aspect, then should we not do the same across the board?
If the logic holds, then we need to ask ourselves at that point...
  • Who are/should be the leaders we recognize when it comes to Aikido's spiritual side?
  • What are the standards by which we should judge them to be competent?
  • What might we use as a standard to determine an agreed upon definition of the nature of the spiritual component of O-Sensei's Aikido
  • Would there be latitude given to other spiritual, or perhaps even religious aspects other senior teachers want to incorporate into Aiki arts that might not be compatible with O-Sensei's Aikido, but might be well founded as part of some other Aikido, like say, Shodokan, or Yoshinkan, or "Real Aikido" as they are accepted as something different than what the Founder was doing?
  • Should there be competitions to decide competence, or merely debate to find who is the stronger person spiritually?
  • Will we define testing protocols along the lines of Tohei Sensei's KI tests to determine if people have it?
and the all important question - the one I am really interested to get your thoughts on...
  • Does a leader with regards to some agreed upon spiritual component within Aikido need to be able to back up their points using a physically/martially/practical version of Aikido?

I certainly have been thinking about these things for at least the last 17 years. Just has you, Mike and others have been working for years on your efforts to bring about some sort of Aiki revolution with the art, I have been working behind the scenes and engaging people with regards to what surely will be known as the spiritual revolution of Aikido should it ever be as successful and firmly take root. However, as I also pointed out, looking back to the Founder's time, no one was really interested it listening to him, so I am not too sure how we may actually define success when it comes to revealing another thing hidden in plain sight...

You can be sure that I have a very long list of questions should someone like yourself be willing to discuss the issue, engage in debate about their merits, or even step up and provide some answers... I really can't wait...

Best in training to you and all...

PS - Congratulations on what I am sure was an event whose success will finally be understood when the next generation of budoka surpasses the understanding and abilities of those who brought it about.

.

I no longer participate in or read the discussion forums here on AikiWeb due to the unfair and uneven treatment of people by the owner/administrator.
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