Thread: Ki Eureka
View Single Post
Old 01-07-2011, 12:19 PM   #12
gregstec
Dojo: Aiki Kurabu
Location: Elizabethtown, PA
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,110
United_States
Offline
Re: Ki Eureka

Quote:
Mark Murray wrote: View Post
I look to what I've experienced for a lot of things. When I look to the people who are interested in these things, I find that they realize they're beginners. They realize there's a whole lot to this stuff. They feel like kids in a candy store because of the huge potential this stuff has to make their martial art worth something more to them.

They are a wide diversity of people from all aikido organizations ... well, let's just name those organizations, shall we. Ki Society, Shodokan, Yoshinkan, ASU, USAF, Aikikai, Birankai, and offshoots of the above. These people that I've stood in rooms with and trained with, all (except for the very rare one or two individuals) were upstanding, hard working, intelligent, witty, and great people there to learn this stuff. None so far have heralded that they know it all. In fact, the opposite. They've realized how deep this stuff is and are all that more giddy at learning, training, discovering it.

That's just the aikido side of it. Let's add the rest of the people from karate, judo, FMAs, BJJ, TKD, CMAs and Daito ryu. They're just like the aikido people I've described above.

Every one of them is working on these skills. Not only that, but they are doing it across organizations! Talk about working together. They are white belts to shihans. These people, by working together, bring hope not only to their own art, but to all the martial arts involved. I don't know of anything in the history of the martial arts that has brought people together like it has now. Aiki, internal strength, internal skills, internal power, whatever you want to call it, has been shown to be a decidedly specific training paradigm to instill solid martial skills in a person's body such that it begins to fulfill what the martial arts were there for in the first place. To. Be. Strong. And if you take that as a negative, you should research what that really means.

This group talks more about this stuff than ever before. The talk takes place in emails, forums, phone conversations and in person. Talks range from basic concepts to more advanced stuff that perhaps one can't yet do, but is looking forward to. From history to current trends and everything in between.

Just to show the dedication of these people, I know about one person who had traveled to another state for a different kind of training. This person had been up for over 12 hours, then drove for 4 hours to get together with some people to talk and train this internal stuff for a couple of hours. Then drove 4 hours back before getting just a few hours sleep to get up the next day.

Or another person who flew long hours from another country.

Or several people who have picked up and moved to where they can train.

So, I look at the hundreds of people from across the United States and a few countries and I see them reaching out to one another to help each other become better. They train together, tend to buy each other meals, share expenses, cut some slack when people are having financial difficulties, pool together to help other people, and support each other. Hundreds. From about every martial art there is. I think what some people have reiterated to me is relevant here: Budo Is All About Relationships.

Right now, I see Aiki building Golden Bridges.

Ueshiba would be proud.
Nice post Mark - and a good summary of what I have being seeing as well - of course, some of that experience has been with you

Greg
  Reply With Quote