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Old 11-24-2012, 10:22 PM   #1
RonRagusa
Dojo: Berkshire Hills Aikido
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Two Hundred and Eighteen

Keep One Point.

One Point is where my mind and body come together. It is not a point in space. Not a location in my body; though that is sometimes a useful metaphor for envisioning the result of the dissolution of the separation of mind and body. My mind and body are welded together by intent which, when it becomes the sole focus of both, facilitates the emergence of mind/body, my most dependable state. One Point is connection, the primary connection I must make with myself before I can hope to effectively connect with uke. Aikido training is a vehicle which provides me with the tools I need to discover and strengthen One Point.

Keep One Point. It's not a principle, it's an instruction.


(Original blog post may be found here.)
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Old 11-25-2012, 07:07 AM   #2
gregstec
Dojo: Aiki Kurabu
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Re: Two Hundred and Eighteen

Quote:
Ron Ragusa wrote: View Post
Keep One Point.

One Point is where my mind and body come together. It is not a point in space. Not a location in my body; though that is sometimes a useful metaphor for envisioning the result of the dissolution of the separation of mind and body. My mind and body are welded together by intent which, when it becomes the sole focus of both, facilitates the emergence of mind/body, my most dependable state. One Point is connection, the primary connection I must make with myself before I can hope to effectively connect with uke. Aikido training is a vehicle which provides me with the tools I need to discover and strengthen One Point.

Keep One Point. It's not a principle, it's an instruction.

(Original blog post may be found here.)
Gee, Ron, that sounds a lot like "Aiki in me before aiki between you and me" maybe you have more in common with those neanderthal IP/IS people than you thought

Of course, those IP/IS dudes are doing it with a balance of in/yo by dual opposing spirals and other apparently mystical stuff, but there is a coordination of mind and body as well

Greg
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Old 11-25-2012, 07:48 AM   #3
RonRagusa
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Re: Two Hundred and Eighteen

Greg -

Despite differences in terminology and training paradigms, coordination of mind and body by any other name is still coordination of mind and body. It is the central theme of the Aikido I was taught and continue to practice. If I don't have One Point, I have no Ki. Without Ki there is no Aikido.

Ron

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Old 11-26-2012, 06:21 AM   #4
Carsten Möllering
 
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Re: Two Hundred and Eighteen

Quote:
Ron Ragusa wrote: View Post
If I don't have One Point, I have no Ki.
When you talk about Ki, especially in Ki Aikido, is it "something" you can sense in your body, "something" you can collect here or send there in your body, "something" you can "pack" or "move in your body?
Said in anonther way: Is it similar to what is experienced as qi in tai chi or qi gong?
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Old 11-26-2012, 09:39 AM   #5
RonRagusa
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Re: Two Hundred and Eighteen

Quote:
Carsten Möllering wrote: View Post
When you talk about Ki, especially in Ki Aikido, is it "something" you can sense in your body, "something" you can collect here or send there in your body, "something" you can "pack" or "move in your body?
Said in anonther way: Is it similar to what is experienced as qi in tai chi or qi gong?
Honestly Carsten, I have no experience with tai chi or qi gong so I can't equate what I feel to what is experienced in those arts. When I have coordinated mind/body and someone pushes on me I don't move. When I do move under a load I do so not because I'm being pushed but because I choose to. With a coordinated mind/body I have no need to control uke in the sense that I make him go where I want him to go. He will go where he goes and I'll go with him, leading as I follow him.

To answer your first question, what I refer to as Ki (coordination of mind and body, One Point, correct feeling...) is something I can definitely sense. I feel it more as a state of being than a force like gravity, electromagnetism or the strong and weak nuclear forces. It's not something in me, it's me.

Ron

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Old 11-27-2012, 02:42 AM   #6
Carsten Möllering
 
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Re: Two Hundred and Eighteen

Quote:
Ron Ragusa wrote: View Post
... It's not something in me, it's me.
Thank you!

I think, apart from other details, this gives me a hint, that we may talk about different aspects when referring to ki:

In my case "me" is ki+body+mind+... connected together, affecting each other and so on. "Me" is ki, shin, tai, alltogether. And we often use the word kimochi, which means feeling, to describe "how we are" during waza.

But ki itself is "something in me":
Just this weekend at a seminar we tried to have our ki in our fingertips (instead of our palms). Or we try to pack ki in the hara/tanden. And during the solo exercises I do, part of which are connected to a certain form of qi gong, I move the ki through my body from one part to another.
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