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Old 10-31-2012, 08:58 AM   #51
DH
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,394
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Re: Ueshiba the monomaniac?

Quote:
Cliff Judge wrote: View Post
I am arguing for the possibility that this is a very myopic view of what these men were after, in the case of Kodo, Sagawa, and Takeda, about which we know comparatively little.

That Taichi guy...who didn't build a house for his family because it would cut into his training time...that's a powerful cautionary image but I don't think it is the proper cookie cutter for the four aiki greats we are discussing.

In the case of Ueshiba, "martial power" was clearly a trivial matter to him in his latter decades. His focus was spiritual. And going back further, what is your explanation for the whole Omoto involvement? Why go to Mongolia? Why get involved in politics? The huge investment in personal time and energy he put into these things, at the expense of training his internal power, really indicates that the martial power aspect was a minor piece of the puzzle.

I would go so far as to say that a solo training / internal power training method cognate to what Ueshiba was doing, followed simply for the benefit of pushing oneself off of walls and avoiding joint-locks and such, is a far more degenerate version of what Ueshiba was doing than Aikikai Aikido.
I would say that if one were guilty of simplifying an argument your is the worst case.
I would say there are people with unusual power, that did not sacrifice family, job, or even other hobbies.
What I think is pertinent to the discussion is that there is almost no one involved in these discussions who:
1. Has unusual power.
2. Knows what it took to get it.
3 Therefore understands in a far more definitive fashion just how ludicrous this idea of "obsession" to the point of twisting and limiting the persons life ..truly is.

Again, I can't help but note that I think it is outsiders looking in and judging values of a skill set they do not possess, have no understanding of, don't even know how to pursue it, much less what it took others to attain it. The discussion for most people is over the heads. And in the greatest sense of hubris, they now insinuate that those who did manage to get it...had to be weird, unbalanced, OCD people incapable of sustaining healthy relationships.
Good job!

I don't mind making comments, but I am not going to argue about it. As one well known teacher said about the internet:
"Why argue with students?"
Dan
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