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Old 11-09-2010, 01:10 AM   #17
Peter Goldsbury
 
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Dojo: Hiroshima Kokusai Dojo
Location: Hiroshima, Japan
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Re: Focus and Aikido Training

Hello Francis,

Two clarifications.

Like you, I have a dojo that is formally affiliated to the Aikikai. I have trained in Aikikai dojos and from Aikikai teachers almost from the very beginning of my aikido training.

Secondly, when I stated that the Aikikai stands as a monument to one way of interpreting Ueshiba, I spelled out what this way was in the rest of the sentence. However, I never stated that it was the only way of interpreting Ueshiba. I once asked the present Doshu why he always gave the same demonstration and his answer was that he believed it was his duty to transmit the essence of aikido as he understood it: nothing more, nothing less. The only absolute statement I have ever heard him make was to declare that if aikido had competition, then it was not true aikido.

Finally, the reference to the warehouse was an attempt to understand your complex statement, quoted below.

Quote:
Francis Takahashi wrote: View Post
Rather, it is not the singular man, and certainly not his unique and unduplicatible accomplishments, but the universally applicable example of how to glean building materials from the infinite warehouse of things Aiki, and the proven value of forging one's own way to do so effectively, that is the true legacy, relevance and benefit to treasuring the priceless event of a man called Ueshiba.
There are a fair number of superlatives here and it is not clear to me what you mean(t). You used the term warehouse and called it both infinite and full of things Aiki, which are presumably the building materials. The man called Ueshiba was an example of how to glean such building materials from such a warehouse, but also a universally applicable example. So the gleaning is something that anyone can do. Right? However, to glean effectively, one must forge one's own way and Ueshiba's life has proved the value of forging one's own way to glean the building materials. Right?

So, no, I do not have kami-like powers of discrimination to judge treasure from dross, but, on the other hand, the building materials have to be gleaned, which suggests to me the need for discrimination and the ability to make judgments of value or worth, with respect to these same materials.

So we have a choice with respect to the building materials in the warehouse of things Aiki. We can use Ueshiba's life as an example, and attempt to do what he did, in so far as we can approximate his life to ours. Or we can go our own way, using Ueshiba's life merely as an example of something universally applicable, but not in any sense to be emulated in detail.

Or have I misunderstood you?

Best wishes,

PAG

P A Goldsbury
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