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Old 06-29-2012, 09:38 AM   #374
David Orange
Dojo: Aozora Dojo
Location: Birmingham, AL
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,511
United_States
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Re: My Spiritual Aikido.

Quote:
Graham Christian wrote: View Post
Spirit and spiritual are all to do with harmony and oneness and all embrasiveness and life thus Aikido fits spirit like a glove.

Mind is about data, arguments, memories, storage, survival, rightness, wrongness, fears, compulsions, insecurities, cravings for power etc.etc.

One must let go of one to achieve the other.
Graham, while I might readily accept that you have 'let go' of your mind, I'm not so sure you've ever grasped the essence of spirituality.

In the Chinese concept, mind is necessary to direct the spirit: "mind leads the ki, ki leads the body."

You attribute many negative qualities to mind, and only the rosiest things to spirit. But it is entirely possible to have a very bad spirit and, thus, to have very bad "spirituality".

Ignorance and distortion are two of the characteristics that turn a "spiritual leader" into a "cult leader", resulting in groups like Aum Shin Ri Kyo led by Shoko Asahara and The People's Temple, led by Jim Jones, both of which attempted mass murder in the name of their "spirituality," which they believed was far greater than mental understanding could approach.

The relation between mind and spirit, like that between body and mind or body and spirit, is a prime concern in the Chinese tradition and that carried through to Morihei Ueshiba's aikido. It is a serious mistake to posit mind as somehow negative and spirit as only positive. It is equally mistaken to think that development of technical precision somehow undermines spiritual development. In the asian view, technical polishing is the vehicle for spiritual development and the mind is the "driver" of that vehicle. You have every right to see it differently, but that is also where your path diverges from real aikido and where you should stop preaching about aikido because you are seriously mistaken about it.

Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart come the words of the mouth." And he was referring to lying and envy, hate and such. These come from the heart (spirit)--not from the mind. In the Chinese tradition, the mind is the necessary master that prevents the wild passions of the heart and spirit from consuming one's life and destroying others' lives. Applying the mind to perfection of physical technique is a prime tool for affecting one's spirit, in this view. Of course, all traditional wisdom has to come in through the mind and must be understood by the mind to be fully understood.

So spirit can be bad--even evil--and mind can be the discerning master that chooses which spiritual tendencies to feed and which to starve.

What I perceive in you is a burning need to establish yourself mentally and intellectually as a master of aikido among masters of aikido. What belies that status is your refusal to adhere to the traditional standard of "put up or shut up," which is the same as "put your money where your mouth is" or "prove what you claim." Your insistence on "mentally" presenting yourself with words (often very judgmental) where you physically will not present indicates a spirit that is badly mislead and unbalanced.

If it were not so, your actions would all be spiritual. You would not be reaching for our mental attention with so many words. All your posts are matters of mind and they reflect a spirit that cries out for correction. Dan, Marc, myself and many others try to give you what you are asking for, but you continually laugh it off and continue asking for more. We don't keep contradicting you for our own pleasure, but because you keep crying out for correction.

Good luck.

David

"That which has no substance can enter where there is no room."
Lao Tzu

"Eternity forever!"

www.esotericorange.com