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Old 11-13-2011, 10:42 AM   #7
Gary David
 
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Location: Long Beach, CA
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Re: why do people outside Aikido for IS?

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Mary Eastland wrote: View Post
There seems to be a crisis on some people's path that they they are trying to fix. Its seems like some people having been training for a long time and have not grown strong. That must be disconcerting and discouraging. Maybe it is what causes the level of nastiness that seems to rise up on these threads. Are you angry because your Aikido is lacking something? Are you feeling cheated?
Mary I am not in crisis, not disconcerted or discouraged, nor angry that my Aikido is lacking something, but it does. It lacks development to the highest level that I as an individual can achieve. This is for many reasons, some physical (i.e., my body just can move that way, couldn't when I was 20 either), some perception....limits on what I can understand...the biggest one now being age....and I accept these limits and work within them. These are all limits I control. What gives me pause are the external limits, these being what is actually allowed to be passed on to us and what our teachers actual can display and teach. I have been told by a number of folks that limits exist. We are likely getting Aikido 101A/B and maybe some to Aikido 201A/B....no one is getting Aikido 301A/B or 401A/B and not the graduate work for sure. If you want you have to go find it. I don't feel most of the imported teachers here are much beyond 301. Please don't take this as rap on these individuals as I know many of them, like them with only a few have the kind of personifies that make them hard to like. As I noted on another thread I have be told by some one outside of Aikido that at some point if you continue to seek you will reach the level were your teacher can no longer provide growth and you will need to move on if you want to continue.

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When the spiritual part of Aikido is missed, could it be that the internal part is missed also. Maybe there is more connection than you have been led to believe.
Aikido is not my spiritual path, it is rather another set of tools in my tool kit. As such I want these tools to be effect and available when needed. This does not mean I am not spiritual.

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Does that make it okay for you (not you, Dan, others that speak for you) to disparage others' ways? With great strength comes great responsibility. Internal practice could cause internal inspection and responsibility for one's own thoughts and process.
Again not everyone sees Aikido as a spiritual path, have different priorities and approaches. Everyone should have an internal practice for self-inspection and take greater responsibility when dealing with others. It seems to me that you yourself can be quite adamant about your positions at times. I do have some envy of where you live....would love to see the Berkshires.

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Maybe as individuals you all think that you are expressing yourselves. But to me it comes across on here as lemmings repeating doctrine.
Actually I am no one's mouth piece though I have been called a useful idiot for speaking up for Dan in the past. I am no one's lap dog to jump down an defend or any of the other things that might imply that one is tied thoughtlessly to someone or some approach. I have been called a "crazy Uncle" the kind everyone likes...and mostly because I do speak up in a local Aikido dojo setting that I have been connected to since the 70's......just not much in this forum.

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One of the reasons I am not interested in what Dan has to offer is because of how some people that train with him talk to others on here. Why would anyone want that? Real internal strength helps us think for ourselves. It helps us develop compassion and appreciation of diversity.
All the folks I know that have trained in his workshops are for the most part good folks and are thinking for themselves, they would have to be to go some of the distances they travel to explore what Dan is offering. Some of the discussion here on this forum are shaped to drive people into groups...the for and the against when all most folks want who go to Dan's workshops are insights and skills that are not being offered to them, that can not or will not be offered through their current teachers or organizations. Be really clear that Dan is not offering a new martial art or trying to replace Aikido with what he offers. What Dan does augments the technical skill developed through Aikido waza

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Our Path involves Ki development, Aikido waza and internal responsibility. We talk about it all the time on here. Yet when we have a seminar not one person from the Aikido world other than our own students come. And then on here we are told we don't know what we are talking about. Only Mike and Dan have the "goods". How could anyone possibly know because none has come to our dojo to find out.
Why folks don't come I can't answer, only you can analyze that. Maybe you need to get out more. For me I would drop by just to check you folks out if I didn't live 3,000 miles away.

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I not writing for sympathy or empathy. I really want to know. Please try not to write back if you have nasty things to say. Let's discuss these ideas without being mean.
Not sure any of what I have said helps.....just saying

Gary
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