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Old 11-20-2011, 07:31 PM   #6
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Re: Ueshiba's Golden Lights

Quote:
Eric DesMarais wrote: View Post
Okay, that is a reasonable assumption in my book. There is no particular reason to deny his claims of enlightenment that I have seen.

If we are talking about body skills that Ueshiba had, and Takeda had, and Sagawa, and perhaps others, could there be a term that would disentangle that from his enlightenment?

It seems to me that there is a claim that while his body skills were amazing, others also had these skills. Thus, in my mind, it seems possible that the body skills are not necessarily (although they could be) connected to his enlightenment.

I think about this because in the book I referenced in the first post, it argues that one can use QiGong to develop martial skills, health, or enlightenment. Or any combination of the three.
I think it would be very hard to disentangle Ueshiba's aiki from his spirituality/enlightenment. Ueshiba's spirituality, his spiritual ideology, is a tricky thing. Is it possible that his body skills are not necessary to his enlightenment? Of course. Is it probable? I really don't know. Once he was on the path of aiki, literally everything changed for Ueshiba.

Remember, he said, I am aiki. He said, this is how to do that with aiki. Aiki systematically alters and changes the physical body and also the mind on a fundamental level. Once that occurs, how can you disentangle it from whatever one does?

To even begin down that road is a lot of work and research. A lot. Much more than aiki training. Not that it can't be done. In fact, I think it'd be extremely interesting and valuable.
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