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Old 08-31-2007, 05:17 PM   #51
tarik
 
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Dojo: Iwae Dojo
Location: Boulder Creek, CA
Join Date: Jun 2000
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Re: What makes Aikido aikido (to you)?

Quote:
Mike Haftel wrote: View Post
I'm not sure what, exactly, you are asking here.

But, to me, it's like asking:

How is a spoon a spoon?
How is a spoon not a spoon?

Catch my drift?
Not really, no. I don't know anyone who find their lives changed because of their obsession with and/or practice of spooning.

It seems to happen a lot in aikido. Arguably, such obsession should be tempered, but that's a different thread.

Quote:
There just...is.
Define "is".

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Questions, like the one posed in this thread, can not be answered using written word or verbal communicaiton. The world must be experienced; it can not be abstracted or defined in terms.
I'd agree with you if you had inserted the word 'solely'.

Quote:
The only logical answer to the questions like, "What is Aikido? How is Aikido Aikido? How is Aikido not Aikido?" would be to demonstrate Aikido ON the person doing the asking.
I wouldn't rule it out and in fact believe that there's a lot that must be felt to make clear what we're talking about, but to say that there is no meaningful verbal or written communication that can be conveyed does not match my experiences.

Quote:
But, this is all just rehashed theories and thoughts from other studies like linguistics, semantics, pragmatics, Taoism, and the Ding an Sich.
And yet much of the commotion discussed on aikiweb.com and elsewhere around aikido is because people have trouble with identifying aikido, agreeing upon it's original intended purpose, agreeing upon other purposes to which it can be put.

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Go to an Aikido dojo, hop on the mats and find out.
I would hope that most of us do that.

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Anything anybody talks about, reads about, watches, or thinks about...is not Aikido.
My intent was not to get existential with my questions, but if you read it that way, that's cool. My intent was to find out why the heck so many people who practice aikido have a hard time with other people who practice aikido a little differently, but have no less legitimate a lineage.

That and it's interesting and informative (educational) to me to read how different people approach their practice, what defines it, and even whether the discussion of it is meaningful to them. It's all educational to me.

Thanks,

Tarik Ghbeish
Jiyūshin-ryū AikiBudō - Iwae Dojo

MASAKATSU AGATSU -- "The true victory of self-mastery."
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