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Old 03-13-2007, 09:46 PM   #94
Erick Mead
 
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Dojo: Big Green Drum (W. Florida Aikikai)
Location: West Florida
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Re: Aikido as External Art -or- Where's the Chewy Center?

Quote:
George S. Ledyard wrote: View Post
... They failed to see what he wanted them to be.... Training should be a transformative experience. ... That's why I keep saying that folks from outside Aikido can't save the art. The idea that these internal skills ARE Aikido is wrong. They are part of skilled Aikido but they are hardly the point of the training. Winning over some enemy or beating some hypothetical opponent simply misses the whole point. That's what O-Sensei meant when he said "no one is doing my Aikido."
May I respectfully suggest: that O Sensei's Aikido was intended to be internal training directed far deeper than some are prepared to acknowledge, willing to seek, or to work on.
Quote:
Cady Goldfield wrote:
Why wouldn't this be compatible with opening one's heart, and of embracing a set of values centered on harmony, peace and non-violent resolution of conflict? The caveat is that we can really be truly peaceful, compassionate and merciful only through a position of strength.
Power. You are talking about power -- the ability to make choices and influence outcomes. Fundamentally, my training leads me to conclude that aikido is not about power. It is certainly powerful, but that is not the same thing. Gravity is immensely powerful and inexorable in its action, but it makes no choices, has no desire for influence, nor any concern about outcome. It just is and acts. Aikido is about giving up power, to become powerful in something that may ultimately approach that quality. O Sensei's Aikido , it seems to me is not about force of will, but force of nature.
Quote:
Cady Goldfield wrote:
No one can bargain freely from a position of weakness. The power to bargain lies in the hands of the person who has the underlying ability to stand for himself.
Is budo really transactional? Do I bargain for my life? Is this bargaining really free, on either side? What price is that, exactly? Do sell it as dear as I can? If I sell mine for the cost of five or ten others, have I made a good bargain, then? These are legitimate questions in the logic of bargaining power. They seem far removed from the reason of aikido.

Cordially,

Erick Mead
一隻狗可久里馬房但他也不是馬的.
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