Thread: Aikido and time
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Old 05-10-2018, 09:51 PM   #40
Peter Goldsbury
 
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Re: Aikido and time

Quote:
Stefan Hultberg wrote: View Post
Hehe, of course I am overthinking it, I used to be a scientist - I overthink everything

Meditation and keiko (not much difference to me, wonderful stilness and movement) are my main diversion from my overacademic nature

All the best

Stefan
Hello Stefan,

I spent a few years in what might generally be called a monastery: a place where people follow a fixed rule in almost complete silence. So there was much time to debate the questions with which you are concerned in this thread. One possibility is to choose one of two alternatives: overthinking (as Ron R puts it); or 'underthinking', which I suppose would be militantly in the 'present moment' to the exclusion of everything else.

Or not. One of the attractions of aikido, for me, is the dimension of humor, of not taking anything too seriously--and this includes all those 'cosmic fragment' sayings of Deguchi, O Sensei, and all the disciples. There is a tradition here as well, of course, well represented by philosophers like Heraclitus and Parmenides. An aikido 'sensei' occupies an analogous role: he / she is supposed to make 'important' statements (sometimes called kuden) with the generally acknowledged aim of helping students along the 'way'--whatever this turns out to be.

In my experience there was a long tradition of inviting Hombu shihans to give weekend seminars and after training we would all gather and 'ask Sensei questions.' For me it began when I was at Harvard and attended a seminar given by Kisaburo Osawa. Since I was at Harvard, I was supposed to ask the really difficult questions. Now I am in an analogous position. I do the teaching and my Japanese aikido students are in the position of asking the questions--or not. For I tend to discourage questions.

Since I do philosophy, the topic of the role of language in the pursuit of truth is the one with the longest history; it probably predates the question whether time is real.

Best wishes,

P A Goldsbury
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