motivation to continue training

Mayland,

So I gather that your real answer to my questioin was for you to take some time off to realize what exactly aikido had ot offer you. Sounds like your focus shifted from something goal oriented or progress oriented to process oriented. You just enjoyed the process of training and learning and let progress come as it may.

This is how I started out. Just wanting to train. I never started testing until earlier this year. I've been training off and on for about 8 years now. Took me six or seven years to find "my teacher".

Paul,

I think you're right. However I think the myth perpetuated in this country is that there is some objective standard as to "normality" to base "crazy" off of.

I think America is one giant celebration of the individual. Everyone is special... just like everyone else:-) Very few (particularly in our youth) feel any sort of belonging, and it creates a lot of angst. Witness Columbine.

I think we all have varying levels of dysfunction.

This is why aikido appeals to me. Aikido is about a culture infused with duties and obligations as opposed to rights and privilages.

Jim

James Growney (jgrowney) wrote: Mayland, ... Sounds like your focus shifted from something goal oriented or progress oriented to process oriented. You just enjoyed the process of training and learning and let progress come as it may. ...

That's about it in a nutshell. Part of the learning is the brickwalls or plateaus that I've hit along the way when nothing seems to work right. Its a real buzz when you work your way through them. That's where I've done a lot of my learning and understanding. For me that's very motivational. I guess I'm just plain stubborn. My wife says that I'm stubborn and contrary but I don't agree with that

Happy training

I like to think of how my teacher answered this all for me... He said, "I see that point high on the mountain top. I am not sure how long, nor what it will take to get there. I move forward each day, and get a bit closer by following along the path carved out by those who came before me - not in their footsteps, but rather in my own." As for teaching, or as he calls it, "leading others" he added, "While on my path, I am aware that there are others who follow behind. While on my path, I keep my eye on the goal, and do not glance back to see who is following, how close they may be, nor gaze upon them with any malice or contempt should they pass me by."

When I think about it all, it reminds me of a very simple point clearly illustrated in the movie Forrest Gump. Picture the scene when he is jogging coast to coast and back again. He just runs. While aware that others are following, he never makes them the point of his journey. When he finally reaches his own goal, he suddenly stops - much to the amazement and disappointment of those dedicated few who have aligned themselves with what they thought their own goal should be. Therein lays the trap. This helps me to remember that while I may follow my teacher - at least on the path that he has carved out, I always do so in my own footsteps by maintaining my own purpose for my training. Should he stop, I would run right by him and keep moving forward towards my own goal.

While we each may choose to express our aikido in different ways, the spirit which has us continue our training is the common bond which allows us to look upon each other and recognize where we are connected regardless of where, how often or with whom we choose to train.

When Forrest Gump was shown in Japan the title was changed to..."Ichi go ichi ei."

Kind of appropriate, no?

"Ah just felt lack runnin..."

Practice for the sake of the practice.

"This helps me to remember that while I may follow my teacher - at least on the path that he has carved out, I always do so in my own footsteps by maintaining my own purpose for my training. Should he stop, I would run right by him and keep moving forward towards my own goal."

what an interesting thought.

Chuck, what does ichi go ichi ei means for the illiterate few like me?

There are many ways to translate "ichi go ichi ei" with poetic meanings that show it's true meaning.

Simply, one meeting one chance

or Right Here, Right Now - Choose and Act!

or Live in this instant

etc, etc ...

>I like to think of how my teacher answered this all for me... He said, "I see that point high on the mountain top. I am not sure how long, nor what it will take to get there. I move forward each day, and get a bit closer by following along the path carved out by those who came before me - not in their footsteps, but rather in my own." As for teaching, or as he calls it, "leading others" he added, "While on my path, I am aware that there are others who follow behind. While on my path, I keep my eye on the goal, and do not glance back to see who is following, how close they may be, nor gaze upon them with any malice or contempt should they pass me by."<

Maybe it's just the tone in which it's written, but this makes it seem like a lonely journey as opposed to uniting people towards a common goal, and moving forward together as one. I'm sure that combined, these are two sides of the same coin.

Jim

James Growney (jgrowney) wrote: Maybe it's just the tone in which it's written, but this makes it seem like a lonely journey as opposed to uniting people towards a common goal, and moving forward together as one. I'm sure that combined, these are two sides of the same coin. Jim

Jim-San,

We are all alone in the end. The training is learning to accept that by embracing it in every moment. As far as uniting people, I guess you "could" say that if we all came to that as a realization the world would be a much different place.

If I would dare to contribute a thought:

we all start together alone;

we all end alone together.

Perhaps not so much "two sides of the same coin" as two phases of the same journey.

Biologically, none of us starts life alone. All life starts from other life; but at the start of life, we are so self-centered that we are, experientially, quite "alone." Parents understand that, to a great extent, their young children live in their own universes. The children are together with the partents, and could not live apart from their parents, but the child's "reality" is quite distinct from their parent's. We start together alone.

But most people end life feeling alone if not actually alone to some degree, less initimately connected to others, but hopefully with a much greater reality of common humanity. We end alone, but full of the common human experience. We all die alone, as individuals, but hopefully much more connected with humanity and the universe.

We start like babes in the arms of a mother we don't understand; we may end alone like hermits with hearts filled with compassion for all mothers and babes! (You can now decide I'm just an old man babbling...)

The martial arts journey often has these aspects. We all start closely related to others. But most advanced sensei that I know have a distinct sense of "aloneness."

Peace,

Frank

Frank,

Great analogy. Really great analogy. It makes sense in regards to life experiences. However just because the body "experientially" is born and dies alone, does not mean the spirit does.

But I think that's way beyond the scope of this discussion.

Jim