Quote:
Ross Robertson wrote:
In any case, I have found this distinction enormously helpful. Good discussion.
|
Yes agreed.
Discussion and distinctions are very good.
I remember when I started Aikido. I was told to move "naturally". After years in FMA, the way I was moving was "natural" for me. But that wasn't my "natural" way of moving before I studied FMA. And FMA said that the way I "naturally" moved when I started wasn't "natural" either because it had been patterned by other bashing arts.
I finally accepted that "natural" had a referential index: "natural" according to who or in what context?
Same way with people's thought and behavior. Its"natural" for them, but not "natural" for some one else raise by different people in a different context.
So I started to separate "natural" from "normal".
As a Zen Koan, what was my "natural" face before my "normal" face?
Is my "social" self different from my "natural" self? Since I have never been raised in nature, everything I think I am came from the family/social context I was raised in. And when I look for a "natural" self before the "social" self, I find no one, no self.
As one of my training mates said after reading a couple of my columns, he was just glad he didn't have to live inside me head. LOL
Thanks for reading and responding. I get a lot out of these AikiWeb discussions.