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Jennifer Smith wrote:
If you wish to align yourself with O'Senseis teachings, you will need to align yourself with nature at some point.
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I'm very interested in his budo, and his humanity and his passion. Like every other human being, his foibles are what make him interesting, but why would I want to model my life after a man who did the things he did and made the choices he made? I want my children to know me and enjoy spending time with me.
Quote:
Jennifer Smith wrote:
You will (need to /choose to )abandon the model of competition that we are discussing here to surmise how nature really functions.To open your mind to a new model. If this is your training goal, as it was for the founder,to train in the model of nature, than this will break down.
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I'm sorry Jen, but your comments about nature completely violate everything I've ever learned by actual observation. Nature is extremely competitive. As a gardener, you should have some idea about that.
As someone who majored in biology in college, and studied anatomy, and who is fascinated by nature and it's examples, I would offer the following current conclusions:
1) Competition is a fundamental part of nature and natural systems.
2) What we really are learning when we learn "aiki" is not natural at all. If fact, it is directly counter to our instincts of how to deal with opposing force. It works by studying nature and working WITH natural movements and responses and reaction to create a new outcome, but the chosen actions of tori are not 'natural' in any normal sense of the word, although they certainly do have to become relaxed and 'natural' movements.
What I am exploring in my training today is in fact to remove my natural responses and reactions to being attacked and to have the ability to choose something else. Hardly 'natural', IME, to change my internal responses to being hit, pushed, or otherwise attacked.
Ask me again in 10 or 20 years and we'll see if I've modified this opinion.
[quote=Jennifer Smith;178800] Nature is simple. Re-aligning our lives and egos with it is not.
Nature is the most complex system in existence. The global warming fiasco is a great example of an oversimplification of science and an understanding of how and why the world is changing.
Quote:
Jennifer Smith wrote:
Just try competing with it.
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I had steak for dinner last night. Mmmmmm.
Regards,