|
|
Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.
If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!
|
02-17-2004, 01:33 PM
|
#1
|
Dojo: Shobu Aikido Cape Cod
Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 152
Offline
|
Aiki spirit and Two wolves
TWO WOLVES
An elderly Choctaw Native American was teaching his
grandchildren about
life. He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me...it
is a terrible
fight, and it is between two wolves.
One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret,
greed, arrogance,
self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false
pride, superiority,
and ego.
The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing,
serenity, humility,
kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity,
truth, compassion,
and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every
other person, too."
They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his
grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Choctaw simply replied..."The one you feed."
|
|
|
|
02-18-2004, 02:33 PM
|
#2
|
Dojo: Aikido Musubi Ryu/ Yoshin Wadokan
Location: Hamilton
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 306
Offline
|
Nice analogy...it seems this idea is universal huh?
|
"flows like water, reflects like a mirror, and responds like an echo." Chaung-tse
|
|
|
02-18-2004, 05:00 PM
|
#3
|
Dojo: Oberlin Aikikai, and Renshinkan London
Location: Oberlin, OH
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 74
Offline
|
ooo, i like that.
|
|
|
|
02-18-2004, 11:01 PM
|
#4
|
Dojo: Kenkyu Kai
Location: Australia
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 62
Offline
|
The real hard part is trying to work out which one is which when things are calm and quiet. easy to see the unwanted one when they are fighting.....
(In Australia, would we say two dingos?..... )
Jamie
|
|
|
|
02-19-2004, 08:49 AM
|
#5
|
Dojo: Boulder Aikikai
Location: Boulder, CO
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 129
Offline
|
I get the story, but how is it aiki spirit?
|
"For peace and happiness are presences, not objects we can grasp and hold onto."
--Lilian Smith
|
|
|
02-19-2004, 09:03 AM
|
#6
|
Dojo: Shobu Aikido Cape Cod
Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 152
Offline
|
Saotome once said to a group of Aikidoka after class I attended that the Spirit of Aiki
is to always strive to be better.
"Not just on the mat, but in each thing you do in life".
He said we will all have days that the right way will seem less easy that the wrong way, but the right way will, in the end, prove the easiest.
So, when I read the Two Wolves, I thought that the Spirit of Aiki is recognizing what is good and what is not good and having the strength to choose that which is good.
The story of the Two Wolves may not embody the Spirit of Aiki to all, but it did to me. That does not make it right or wrong....it is just what I felt. I hoped to share this with others as it stirred some emotion and self-examination within me....
|
|
|
|
02-19-2004, 09:29 AM
|
#7
|
Location: Phils.
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 15
Offline
|
It is positive & negative thought form, we are the ones or ourselves/innerselves that will balance or chose the way we go. We have to ground or discharge negative energy and take more positive energy, but the power is on balance energy. so we have to weigh which is good and bad. thought is a form of energy or spirit, so it is aiki...
|
anton
|
|
|
02-19-2004, 04:44 PM
|
#8
|
Dojo: Boulder Aikikai
Location: Boulder, CO
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 129
Offline
|
I guess I just interpreted this like how Tich Nhaht Hahn (I know that's probably spelled wrong) talks about watering our positive seeds. We have the seeds of anger, jelousy, etc, in us, but also seeds of love, compassion, etc. We should choose which seeds to water. I didn't see how making a choice of which seeds to water was making harmony with thought or emotion energy, or how it was discharging certain energy. Nor did I see how it was about having the strength to choose what was right over what was wrong. I thought it was more like deciding not to feed the negative energy, so as to not let it arise in the first place.
It's not that I thought that other people's ideas were wrong, and it's not that the story didn't touch me in some way (I'm likely to use this story in conversation sometime). I just wasn't quite sure where people were coming from on this.
Last edited by Anders Bjonback : 02-19-2004 at 04:49 PM.
|
"For peace and happiness are presences, not objects we can grasp and hold onto."
--Lilian Smith
|
|
|
02-21-2004, 07:08 PM
|
#9
|
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 64
Offline
|
Very nice: )
I like it.
|
|
|
|
02-22-2004, 01:58 PM
|
#10
|
Dojo: Aikido Of Berkeley
Location: Alameda
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 47
Offline
|
Thanks Larry! That is a great one!!!!
Guy
:-)
|
|
|
|
02-22-2004, 04:52 PM
|
#11
|
Dojo: Boulder Aikikai
Location: Boulder, CO
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 129
Offline
|
Quote:
Larry Murray wrote:
Saotome once said to a group of Aikidoka after class I attended that the Spirit of Aiki
is to always strive to be better.
"Not just on the mat, but in each thing you do in life".
He said we will all have days that the right way will seem less easy that the wrong way, but the right way will, in the end, prove the easiest.
|
The more I think about this, the more I like it; the more I consider it, the more it makes sense.
This makes a lot of sense with the idea of karma--doing the right thing, in the long run, makes things a lot easier. Also, if one continues to do the right thing even when it is hard, it will make him or her stronger. The more one does what is difficult, the easier it becomes. There was this story of this Tibetan archetypal hero, and one of their sayings is that he would not nearly be so strong if not for all the things his archenemy did to him. And I think that doing a good job in whatever you do, in the long run, usually pays off, despite it being harder in the short run. One is known as a good worker sooner or later.
This just seems to go with the natural way of things, at least from my point of view, in a less conctual way than thinking about karma, etc. But then again, I'm putting my own ideas onto the statement without really knowing its context and the way Saotome Sensei thinks, so I'm probably way off from what he meant.
Last edited by Anders Bjonback : 02-22-2004 at 05:07 PM.
|
"For peace and happiness are presences, not objects we can grasp and hold onto."
--Lilian Smith
|
|
|
02-22-2004, 11:26 PM
|
#12
|
Dojo: Kenkyu Kai
Location: Australia
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 62
Offline
|
Wow, interesting thoughts.
I once heard a phrase that said if you always take the easy way, you will become all twisted and bent, and all your potential will merely be diluted by sloshing from side to side.
cant rember how it ends, but have always (kind of) remebered the first part.
Jamie
|
Aikido: Love and compassion at one metre per second.
|
|
|
01-23-2005, 06:51 AM
|
#13
|
Dojo: Makiling Southside
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 46
Offline
|
Re: Aiki spirit and Two wolves
I like this story
|
|
|
|
01-26-2005, 11:10 AM
|
#14
|
Location: kansas city
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 29
Offline
|
Re: Aiki spirit and Two wolves
i like it too! thanks for sharing.
|
|
|
|
01-26-2005, 03:40 PM
|
#15
|
Dojo: Boulder Aikikai
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 450
Offline
|
Re: Aiki spirit and Two wolves
Although that is a truly excellent story, I would not be too quick to label the Thanatos wolf as evil and the Eros wolf as good.
|
|
|
|
01-26-2005, 06:53 PM
|
#16
|
Dojo: Oswego Aikido Club
Location: Syracuse, NY
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 40
Offline
|
Re: Aiki spirit and Two wolves
I loved the story, I might even tell it to my students ^_^
|
Think big, Live humbly.
|
|
|
01-29-2005, 06:00 PM
|
#17
|
Location: Burlington, Vermont
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 21
Offline
|
Re: Aiki spirit and Two wolves
It's not about winning. Even if the "good" wolf wins, that leaves you as half a person. We have a tendancy (well, at least I do..) to want to be able to "rest," to have a security, without conflicts. That is not reality. The key is to understand the necessity of both wolves. Freedom comes with the ability to dance within the chaos, to meet the violence head on and embrace it, realize that it's a part of you as well as the peace. "Only a warrior can choose pacifism- all others are condemned to it." The ability to embrace conflict without being destroyed by it is the heart of aiki. Of course, that's just my opinion.
Peace,
Dillon
|
|
|
|
01-31-2005, 08:18 PM
|
#18
|
Location: Tupelo, MS
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 180
Offline
|
Re: Aiki spirit and Two wolves
I like that Dillon...sums up my thoughts on the matter...
Bryce
|
|
|
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:40 AM.
|
vBulletin Copyright © 2000-2024 Jelsoft Enterprises Limited
Copyright 1997-2024 AikiWeb and its Authors, All Rights Reserved.
For questions and comments about this website:
Send E-mail
|
|