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Old 06-28-2012, 07:57 AM   #316
DH
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,394
United_States
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Re: My Spiritual Aikido.

Quote:
Marc Abrams wrote: View Post
Gary:

You spelled it out beautifully! Frankly speaking, Graham's continued avoidance of Dan's kind offer (and others for that matter) amounts to little more than...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX1YzS_CYIw

At the end of the day, Budo is not about what you say, but what you can do without excuses.

Regards,

Marc Abrams
Hi Marc
I have not considered myself as a peer of Grahams. That's your job.
My offer to him was that regardless of his methodology he used to deliver the results he shows....I can fix the results he shows, just as I am for teachers, one after the other. I offered to help Aikido folks with an open hand for the simple reason that I think that Aikido-ka, while having a host of physical issues, are sincere in their pursuits. The understanding of the mind/body connection had an ultimate yield. It was never a nebulous, spiritual whos who, tooth fairy, kitchen sink endeavor. It is a mind/body technology. The men who pursued it were substantial.
So reading modern corruptions in understanding from people lacking any power whatsoever places them outside...looking in from the jump. It should disqualify them at the start, but the real problem is that so many in Aikido are so unaware and uneducated that they can't take part either. They see the physical issues with their apporach and they try to fix it with waza, movement and sadly- muscle. At least they see some of the failures in the model though.

The rather Ecumenical movement approach to group spirituality we are reading here does not apply to tried and true models of power building that exists in practice in Asia. Most notably those used for warriors, and the ones Ueshiba was quoting as his own methods for Aikido. Since the people lacking power don't truly have any idea of what it takes to produce power and aiki, what it looks like or feels like, or what to look for, they grasp at straws hoping for a positive outcome.

Interestingly, there actually was/is a spiritual/mind/body process with an ultimate yield that warriors and monks explored. None of what has been expressed here, has anything to do with that though. Ki as "universal energy" is just not going to get anyone there.
Dan

Last edited by DH : 06-28-2012 at 08:09 AM.