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Old 11-12-2012, 07:56 AM   #7
Cliff Judge
Location: Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 1,276
Japan
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Re: Is aiki a clash of forces?

Quote:
Hunter Lonsberry wrote: View Post
Well reading the characters which make up the word aiki would indicate otherwise.
Hunter,

One thing I wanted to ask you is, what's your understanding of the word and what's your academic background with regards to the Japanese language?

I took a couple of college-level courses, never lived in Japan or developed any fluency. But the way I understand it, kanji are evocative of meaning and not descriptive; meaning is highly dependent on context, and in some areas of Japanese thought, the context is such that there are several meanings at once.

One thing that has always perplexed me about is to what extent it carries a meaning of unity or oneness, as opposed to a joining of different things.

I.e. when "two" things come together - is this two things joining into a new whole, or is it as two halves reuniting into one thing.
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