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Old 01-03-2009, 01:53 PM   #17
Erick Mead
 
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Dojo: Big Green Drum (W. Florida Aikikai)
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Re: Physical Theory of Aiki?

Quote:
David Henderson wrote: View Post
This is, for me, a keystone to your response. I say that because, when I look at the question this way there are some questions that tend to come up (just questions, really, not criticisms).

An epitome may be an ideal or typical example, or "embodiment" of something larger.
Literally, an epitome is a "slice of" something, a more simply demonstrable portion of the rest of a less accessible whole, the tip off of the proverbial iceberg. The ideal or superlative of something is the "acme" -- but Wile E. ruined that one -- for many generations to come.

Quote:
David Henderson wrote: View Post
Suppose we agreed that Aikido is a way of "reconnecting" physically, and that it "epitomizes" reconnection in a larger sense. Does my practice then provide simply an object lesson on the larger issue? Or should it be viewed as a modality or reconnecting rather than an epitome of it?
I don't see a meaningful distinction. Yes, to both.

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David Henderson wrote: View Post
Even in a more narrow context of Aikido as a martial art, how does the "ki of my thoughts (intent)" in the context of practice represent oscillation as a principle?
Inclination, in the attitudinal sense, matches precisely with the physical aspect of moment, the potential for rotation about a point. Poised, ready, but not tensed or pressed or anxious in the slightest. When the structural restraint preventing motion is lifted, you simply move freely about the center already defined for you. Attention to center focusses the intent and defines the potential and the action. Then one seeks to shift the center, and thus the further potential, by that intent, and thus control the resulting action.
Quote:
David Henderson wrote: View Post
Interesting how the mind/body duality manifests itself in this discussion.
At classical scales Berkeley's demonstration that Newton's absolute sapce and velocity were no supportable was demonstrated by virtue of the relative nature of angular momentum. The lack of any absolute position or velocity means the point of observation is definitional, and thus the "observer" and mind/body "problems" come automatically to the fore. I see them less as problems and more as foundations.

Cordially,

Erick Mead
一隻狗可久里馬房但他也不是馬的.
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