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Old 08-22-2006, 09:16 AM   #11
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: Aikido is Love text

Quote:
Robert John wrote:
For those interested, I thought I'd throw in a rough translation of this
first let's break it up into parts

"合気とは愛なり"
Aiki is Love! ( oh man, there's that word again)
"天地の心を以って我が心とし"
I make my heart the heart of heaven and earth.

<commentary>
In this case heart can refer to "feeling". As in the core of his physical being is related to the "up-down/heaven-earth" relation. Refers to a physical feeling I'm guessing. Ark has no relation to Ueshiba, never has read this, but describes it in the same manner.

"万有愛護の大精神を以って自己の使命を完遂する事こそ武の道であらねばならぬ"
I recieve my mission from the Universal Spirit of Protection/Love/Care/Lovedovey, and the consummation of this is the ultimate goal of the Martial Way.
<commentary>
Anyone that can come up with a better translation, feel free to do so. I could state my opinoin, but it'd turn into a page long dialogue, most of it having to lay out why he talks like this, and lay parallels to bodyskill development. In short, it's not that important in the overall scheme.

"合気とは自己に打ち克ち敵をして戦う心なからしむ,否、敵そのものを無くする絶対的自己完成の道なり"
敵に戦いの心を起こさせず、また敵という概念を超える

Aiki is not about breaking down our inner enemy and "winning" against it. Rather, it is the ultimate way to complete oneself and erase the conception of "enemy" all together.
<Comments>
The fat and short of it, get rid of the conception of "enemy" all together, or "clashing" with an opponent. Again, typical of the developmental process in internal styles, not limited to just Ueshiba, Inc. This refers to a physical feeling when engaging the opponent, and isn't some half baked hippie mystical gobbley gook if you ask me. Others might have a different take on it.

"而して武技は天の理法を身体に移し霊肉一体の至上境に至るの技であり、道程である"
Martial technique is about making the Laws of Heaven one with body and soul, and a way to take the body and soul to the summits (of "insert whatever sounds inspiring to you")
<Commentary>
This probably refers to the natural harmonies governing the body, which you strengthen with internal connction, continue to train this, and there are no "limits".
Thanks, Rob. That loose translation actually indicates a re-stating of the idea of the "order of the Universe" idea, which would be more traditional for a martial arts expert to do than to talk about "love" in the sense that we in the West mean it. In other words, if you look at it in your terms, he's really simply stating that his martial art fulfills the "orderliness", the "harmony" of the universal laws that is the cornerstone of the Chinese cosmology (which is used as a basis in the Japanese beliefs as well).

The problem in discussing the issue in front of people that don't have the kokyu and ki skills (i.e., they're just some "academic" things that are mentioned probably as rituals by the Asians, etc.), is that the idea of using kokyu/jin to "blend" with all incoming forces doesn't seem to be more than some academic maunderings.

To me, he is saying that he makes his heart/core/essence the standard "primal qi", which is the combined "Ki of Heaven" and "Ki of Earth".... combining the qi of heaven and earth is the cornerstone concept for the "internal" jin/kokyu/ki development. Using that core, he has no need to conflict because any incoming attack is simply accepted into one's own circumstances, rather than fought against. If there are no conflicts because you "aiki" everything that comes into contact with your sphere, then there are no "enemies".

So I agree that this is more a discussion about what you can train, physically, to do with this wondrous combination of "the ki of heaven and earth", than it is a ministerial exhortation to love all things and then there are no enemies. This actually sort of feeds into my comments about some translators conveying ideas that are not necessarily reflective of the original intent of some of these classical writings. Ueshiba was at core a traditionalist; he would have made sure that whatever he espoused would have conformed with the accepted traditional ideas of the cosmology and the harmony with the natural laws of the cosmos.

Thanks for taking the time to write that, Rob.

FWIW

Mike
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