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Old 10-22-2002, 09:33 PM   #14
Misogi-no-Gyo
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 498
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diluted?

Quote:
Eugene Lo (eugene_lo) wrote:
I am more concerned about where aikido is going. Am I overly fearful (or even pessimistic) that aikido is becoming "diluted?" Moreover, is it even a bad thing that this dilution is occurring?
Is the basis by which you reach this conclusion based upon the assumption that you have ever really seen, or felt (in either case, directly experienced) "real" aikido? I am not challenging any particular style/teacher/organization, however I have seen quite a bit (more often than not) what many would call Aikido that wouldn't even pass for dance classes at an old-aged home.

If you had asked O-Sensei, "Well, who really knows Aikido?" and he answered, "These ten people over here..." wouldn't you then begin to wonder about the tens of thousands of students who were trying to learn it from someone else??? I would!
Quote:
What do you people out there think about the future of aikido?
A good answer is - it will be what YOU make of it. Find the greatest master you can - and spend your life seeking the depths of his soul.
Quote:
I am asking based on a very general and elementary observation of what has happened to martial arts in the US and since they arrived in the US. I think that I can make a general observation that martial arts in the US (and for that matter, even in their countries of origin) have been corrupted. Principles and philosophies have not been held true to. Techniques have vanished or deteriorated. Competition, greed, arrogance, ill-will... must I go on?
When I read that, It made me think of what my teacher told me he was thinking when he began to train under Seagal Sensei, back at the Osaka Tenshin Dojo. He said, "It was really difficult to confront the fact that he felt he had to study with a "non-Japanese" to get a true representation of the art. One of my senpai, Craig Dunn Sensei, from Taos New Mexico, who came over with Seagal to open the Taos Dojo back in 1981 said something very similar. He said, he found it quite bizarre that after looking high and low for the best Aikido teacher for what he wanted to learn, that he had ended up traveling thousands of miles to study with a Westerner. My point - many of the Japanese teachers, both here and in Japan are the reason for the decline you speak of. I would go as far to say that they are the cracked foundation upon which the international community teeters.

As with everything else - there is always much more mediocrity than good, when you add in the really downright poor attitude of the typical student/apprentice (of any nationality) you get the sorry state of affairs that adds up to the crock of a world we live in. What to do? Live in a cave, vote for new bunch of crooked-lying politicians, encourage anarchy? Well those are certainly the options of 99% of the world's population. I think the bottom line here is - if Mastery were easy, than everybody would be a master. It just isn't that way, nor should it be. If it were, then what would be the value of mastery? Given that, as a choice, we have on the one hand, be like everything else, and help flush the world down the ever-spinning toilet, or take on truly becoming a master on your own. If we really look at O-Sensei, we can see that this is what he did. I believe that he, through aikido, has asked us to do the same. Stand on his shoulders and reach a little higher.

I would say more, but then I would be "Bruce Baker" and he seems to do a better job of that than I ever could...

I no longer participate in or read the discussion forums here on AikiWeb due to the unfair and uneven treatment of people by the owner/administrator.
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