View Single Post
Old 01-24-2006, 09:35 PM   #66
Edwin Neal
Dojo: Ronin
Location: Henderson, North Carolina
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 597
United_States
Offline
Re: Practicing perceiving other energy?

Jo you are absolutely right; however i feel that too many times what is basically common sense, and a natural process, or effect, to those of us dicussing this is "over-mystified" by some people... that being said i use the word KI to explain certain aspects of aikido, but i feel i do so responsibly... i don't make patently absurd claims or practice "mumbo-jumbo"... my favorite illustration for this type of thing is George Dillman (did you already guess that?), although i have encountered it in aikidoka as well... as you said ki is a general way of referencing natural energies and processes that occur all around us... as to intense concentration this is a diffucult idea--- don't we first develop MUSHIN, then concentrate or focus (KIME) that energy and awareness... i can't cut open a person and remove your CHAKRA, but as a method of generally indicating a portion of the body the concept is useful... words are sometimes poor conveyors for very broad concepts, and sometimes people get caught up in the nomenclature... my favorite example is from my college philosophy professor take the word RED... if you think of all the possble shades of red (nearly infinite) and add all the OBJECTS that could be red, past present or future this concept appears to be so broad as to be meaningless... yet we all understand (in our individual way) what we mean when we say red... i find that the over mystification of aikido is a veiled attempt to boost EGO ( in the broad sense)... aikido is fundamentally simple and accessible to all by Osensei's design, attempts to make it more mysterious go counter to what i feel was the founders intent...

Edwin Neal


  Reply With Quote