Thread: Aikido and time
View Single Post
Old 09-19-2017, 07:44 AM   #24
StefanHultberg
Dojo: Roskilde
Location: Roskilde
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 70
Denmark
Offline
Re: Aikido and time

Quote:
Peter A Goldsbury wrote: View Post
Hello Mr Hultberg,

Perhaps levitation is too soon for shodan and should be required for higher dan ranks, perhaps to match the larger size of the diploma and the increasingly smaller registration numbers?

I am joking, of course, but I agree with Katherine Derbyshire, whom I regard as one of the saner members of AikiWeb (there are many others, of course), whose feet seem to be pretty firmly on the ground.

Perhaps keeping one's feet firmly on the ground is not the most appropriate metaphor for aikido, but it fits the type of training I have received from my own teachers, who were all Japanese and, with one exception, were direct students of Morihei Ueshiba. I learned from them especially the crucial importance of correct attacks. I also learned a little about Morihei Ueshiba. Ueshiba was a superbly gifted martial artist, with a formidable memory, who was also superb at reading the mind and intentions of the attacker. However, he was also strongly influenced by Onisaburo Deguchi and used Omoto as a vehicle for much of what he stated about aikido. I say, 'he stated', but you have to realize that his own disciples struggled to make sense of what Morihei Ueshiba said and almost all of what he stated about aikido was edited by these disciples. They probably did this with the best of intentions, but with the definite intention of placing him in a particular context, which is that of aikido as a new and emerging postwar Japanese ‘budo.' I have discussed these issues in some detail in my AikiWeb columns.

Have you ever read anything by J M E McTaggart? He was a philosopher who believed in the unreality of time. I was introduced to his writings when I was a student. My major was modern philosophy, but I decided to begin at the beginning and go back to the Greeks, especially the threesome of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. One of my teachers also encouraged me to study empiricism, especially the other threesome of Locke, Berkeley and Hume. Since I had spent a few years in France studying existentialism, the study of Hume especially was a welcome return to the practice of keeping one's feet firmly on the ground when doing philosophy. In fact, the Greeks, especially Aristotle, were a good model.

I have looked at the questions you raise in your No 2 paragraph and one of the advantages of my own philosophical training was the focus my teachers placed on language and the importance of language in even stating philosophical problems. To take one question you ask: whether mind truly shapes reality. You emphasize "truly" with capitals and I wonder why you did this. This comes at the end of a whole string of questions and this makes me also wonder what you believe would count as an answer—either way. A revelation? Your question also assumes that mind is a general term, like time. Did you mean this, or did you mean something more specific, like your mind or my mind? I would be interested to see what aspects of aikido lead you to think that mind TRULY shapes reality.

I should add that you are approaching Morihei Ueshiba in English translation. Are you sure that this is the best method for involving Ueshiba as a guide for answering the questions you ask? When I studied Greek philosophy, I began with the Greek originals and then looked at the translations in English French and German. Later, in Japan, I looked at the Japanese translations and found them very seriously wanting. One of the reasons for studying Morihei Ueshiba in Japanese, and also the Omoto background, was the unsatisfactory nature of the English translations that we have.

Best wishes,
Dear Peter Sensei

Thank you very much for your input, it is much appreciated. You raise some very interesting and valid points. I will reflect on them and respond as soon as my old brain and its sluggish thought-processes allow

Many regards and best wishes

Stefan
  Reply With Quote