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Old 07-23-2010, 08:50 AM   #21
Gorgeous George
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 464
United Kingdom
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Re: Aikido: more than a martial art?

If you spend a lot of time being relaxed; moving naturally; practicing non-resistance; looking to understand others and yield to them; etc. etcetera, then this will mould your character thus.
Hence philosophy is inherent in aikido practice.

From what little I know of Zen and Taoism, this is where they fit into it, too: they are about alignment with our natural selves, which is obscured by acting unnaturally; so if we start to act naturally - which is what we do in aikido, as the movements of aikido are natural movements - we will come to understand nature, and ourselves.
I accept that aikido will affect people on this level to varying degrees - but it's undoubtedly untrue that what we do has no effect at all on who we are, and how we act subsequently: as Aristotle says: 'Character arises out of habit'.

It's pretty obvious to me that what we do, makes us who we are: if we spend a lot of time competing with others, then we will become competitive people; if we spend a lot of time ignoring others, then we will become ignorant; if we are very kind to others, we will become kind people; and so on.
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