Thread: Vantage points
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Old 01-02-2013, 06:25 PM   #100
DH
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,394
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Re: Vantage points

Quote:
Hugh Beyer wrote: View Post
Of course, Chris. The Good Lord himself had his detractors, it would be very surprising if Dan didn't have more than a few. But the same calculation of % out of all those who were there applies on both sides of the ledger. And balancing those who don't like to say anything negative are those who would very much have liked to say something negative about Dan.

But (all together now) IT'S NOT ABOUT DAN. It's about the overwhelming acceptance of the skills he's been kind enough to share among experienced aikidoka. That's the phenomenon that needs explaining.
You would be hard pressed, very hard pressed to get any section of attendees to say I make this stuff about me. It was NEVER about me. I can state definitively that I make that case pretty strongly at every seminar I have ever done.
We need to keep our eyes on the work that produced all these giants for generations, and stop getting side tracked on the people themselves.

Chris Hein
Your counter argument for such tiny percentages makes my case when I say to you "Do you have anything positive to say at all?" Given any opportunity you choose to accent the negative and almost begrudgingly mention something that might be positive. That said, we are not talking about just me are we? At least I'm not. The overwhelming impact that those with IP have had on Aikido (once an art based on IP) is the real point. Hence the argument for the correct translations, the correct pedagogy, the fact that the same work produced other unusual men, etc etc.

And last...two small points you missed.
1. While it remains an almost 100% success rate...the real point is that all 100% upon testing...failed. and this by their own admission. I find that significant, so did they. So, *I* don't need to really say this is a better way to produce soft power and aiki. Virtually all of the Aikido teachers I have met -100%- have proved that Ueshiba's way is a better way to move just by standing on a mat against it.
2. That said.
None of this was ever mine. It is Ueshiba's....and it is brilliant.

Lineage
How valuable was the connection to Takeda to all but a handful of his students?
How valuable was the connection to Ueshiba for all but a handful of his students?
Ask the students of Tokimune Takeda, including the president and treasurer of his organization for over 35 years how valuable their association with him was? He stated openly at the end of his life that he never taught them the real art.
Sagawa stated openly that he lied and hid the real art from his people.

We must face facts.
They...do...not...teach large groups of people. How many times do you have to be told and see it occur that only one of two under a teacher "get it?" A VERY famous Japanese shihan goes around teaching internals ...this very day... and states plainly in open rooms. "I don't care if anyone get's it. Its not my job to teach!"
Fine. Thanks for telling us. Next!!.
How many times do we need to hear these things before we get it? Before we finally realize that all of this lineage stuff promises nothing. It has always been handed down in small numbers.

I would suggest that instead of hugging the tree that bears little fruit, you cultivate the ones that do.

Dan
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