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Old 08-04-2010, 06:12 PM   #61
Gorgeous George
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 464
United Kingdom
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Re: Aikido: more than a martial art?

Quote:
Alex Lawrence wrote: View Post
Again here's this compassionate art where if you slightly change the technique you end up ripping someones arm out or breaking their elbow and you were complaining about a punch to the face or a kick in the back of the knee being unacceptable?
As I previously said: your technique has to be commensurate with the situation; killing a man for grabbing your shoulder to tell you you've dropped something is not.
If you choose to break somebody's wrist instead of killing them (when they were trying to kill you), then you are showing them compassion - not to mention the fact that the essence of aikido is to yield to this person.

The purpose of budo in O'Sensei's thought, to the best of my knowledge at least, is to protect people - not to hurt or kill needlessly, or for its own sake: you take up a martial art to help people/society, not to harm people.
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