Dojo: Roskilde
Location: Roskilde
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 70
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Re: Aikido and time
I don’t know whether there is interest or if, indeed, it makes any sense at all to revisit this diskussion about time and, specifically, time in aikido.
O-Sensei, I think, was a “true believer”. When he expressed that “time doesn’t exist in aikido” I think he actually believed it. It wasn’t a parable, no metaphor. That was his true view of reality.
Earlier in the thread Katherine Derbyshire says “Don't confuse changes in your subjective perception of time with changes in actual physical reality” - and she is so right, anything else is just so far from common sense. BUT STILL, even if I probably confuse the two is it possible, could we go past everyday conceptions of time (and space) and aikido????
And then, one more twist – reality is really really weird and the more I study it the more I am willing to believe almost anything. Time, is a dimension which ought to be quite comparable with the space dimensions. Our consciousness as well as the laws of thermodynamics seem to be intertwined with the linearity and directionality of time. Could these things be suspended in a sort of "true reality" of time??
When it comes to time in aikido and the whole question of whether one, whether I, could be a true believer too. Can I truly believe that time doesn’t exist in aikido and could we be able to experience openings and possibilities in aikido close to the one’s experienced by O-Sensei?
Can one practice aikido in a true state of enlightenment, free from the illusion of linear and unidirectional time? If that state is possible – how can it be achieved.
O-Sensei gives us part of the solution, he stressed training, training training and training, aligning ourselves with the movements of the universe. His advice is worth any amounts of gold. Still, lying here on my sofa with a back ache from hell my training will have to be more mental than physical for a few weeks – again. I think and I speculate, I meditate and I search.
If anyone has some advice as to where the ultimate aikido, the one where time truly does not exist, could be found – even for old men with aching backs ………
In the mean time – a few inspirational lines from Rydberg’s “tomten” (“the elf”):
The cold of the midwinter night is harsh
The stars glitter and sparkle
All is still at the ancient farm
Deep in the midnight hour
The moon wanders its nighttime walk
The snow lighting up the dark
The roof a crystal slate
Only the elf is awake
He stands there, grey beside the barn
Grey against the white snow drift
His gaze rests afar
Upon the moon in its usual shift
He looks at the forest, the pines tall
They shelter the house, a protecting wall
He ponders, as in a dream
The riddle, the riddle supreme
He runs his hand though his beard and his hair
Shakes his old head resigned
That old riddle, one all sentients share
Will not be answered in my time
He straightens, ready for duty
For practical work in its beauty
He tends the farm
Silently enters the barn
He checks the locks and the doors
Making sure all is safe
The cows dream of summer and grass of course
Moonlight strokes them, full of grace
The wagon forgotten
The horse also dreams
A crib full of clover
Appears and he eats
He goes to the door for the goats and the sheep
Cozily lying there, fastly asleep
On to the chickens, where the old cock
Stands proud on the highest knock
The dog in his doghouse is cozy and warm
Wakes and wags his tail
He knows this old elf, guardian of the farm
Friends are they without fail
Silently he goes into the house
To check on the beloved folk
He knows they give honour and he feels proud
Over this deep bond they hold
He reverently enters the room of the young
the children, for a while he stays
His heart fills with joy, with song
His dearest love are they
So he has seen them, father to son
Newborn, and then old and brittle
Where do they come from, these sleeping young
Again there it is, the riddle
The generations all followed eachother
The grew, they blossomed, they followed the others
The riddle comes back, he wonders
Where do they go, he ponders
The old elf climbs up to the loft
That is his favourite place
Feeling warm, laying soft
On his bed of hay
The swallows nests are barren and empty
But spring will be back with birdsong a plenty
The swallow will clean out its dome
A new family calling it home
The swallow can tell, spin many a yarn
Of many a travel sight
Yet nothing to dispel, here on the farm
The ache of the riddle in his mind
Through a small crack in the wall of the barn
A silver moonbeam shines down on his arm
He studies the moonbeam and wonders
The riddle, the riddle he ponders
Silence covers the forests and fields
Life is frozen and still
From far away, though, he can hear the stream
A silent song down by the mill
The elf listens and half in a dream
He follows the silent song of the stream
Where does it go, this stream of time
Where is its source, oh riddle of mine
The cold of the midwinter night is harsh
The stars glitter and sparkle
All sleep deep at the old farm
Until the morning hour
The moon concludes its nighttime walk
The snow still lighting up the dark
The roof a crystal slate
Only the elf is awake
My practical advice, just to be safe, is to use zanshin to, among other things, fill yourself with a feeling of having performed a perfect technique in order not to ruin it by reaching back in time with a feeling of failure……..
I don’t know WHAT I believe….
Last edited by StefanHultberg : 02-09-2017 at 03:49 AM.
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