Quote:
Mike Sigman wrote:
However, many of the current "Aikido Teachers" are so invested in the "love" schtick that few of them would drop the schtick for what Aikido really is. The schtick is more important than the art and besides, it would take a lot of hard work to change over.
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You say that as though love and violence are contradictory -- that's simply false. You say that as though there are no places where aikido is trained in that 'paradoxical' light. It is equal error to assume that love is not violent as to assume that violence is not loving. Granted, love and violence are not always properly connected in training -- aikido or otherwise -- but that is a problem that exists on the flipside as well -- especially in "competitive" forms that strive for all the violence and none of the love.
Measured by strength of will and viciousness, a loving mother protecting her young is the most dangerous creature on the planet -- of whatever species. Predatory killers in comparison are not usually interested in the risk of injury from attacking that level of commitment. There is a reason lions creep on their bellies to take a momma gazelle's baby (which can't outrun the lion) before momma is aware of the threat, though the lion can kill her too. She can often kill the lion though dying in the process. There is a budo lesson there somewhere. Nathan Bedford Forrest said a battle is won by the "first with the most" -- Love brings it
all so, not an inconsiderable "force multiplier," I should think.