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Old 06-28-2009, 11:16 AM   #51
C. David Henderson
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Re: Trust

If I were Dew, I imagine I would find it hard to trust people, and hard to trust my own perceptions of people.

I would find it valuable to find tools to overcome this.

If my Aikido practice proved helpful, I think I would highly value that aspect of my practice.

So, to the extent that "outing" him may have the effect of discrediting his perceptions, I'd offer the thought that, instead, it may contribute some context to understand his thoughts.

As Jung famously said of Freud's analysis of art, it is a mistake to reduce the product of the person's thought and creativity to a morbid symptom.

If I were Drew, I'd also be feeling pretty distrustful at having been "outed" the way that he was. Was his response all sweetness and light - no, but that's hardly surprising.

Its pretty ironic, though, that this all came up in a conversation about trust.

cdh

Last edited by C. David Henderson : 06-28-2009 at 11:18 AM.
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Old 06-28-2009, 01:18 PM   #52
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Re: Trust

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We continue through the Looking Glass.......
Well, life's a trip, man.....but what exactly do you mean?

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Old 06-28-2009, 01:46 PM   #53
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Re: Trust

Quote:
David Henderson wrote: View Post
...I imagine I would find it hard to trust people, and hard to trust my own perceptions of people.
If there's one thing I've learned from history, it's that this is probably very justified. I mean, really, how well does any of us know anyone else? We know only what we're presented and as such are confined by the parameters of how things are presented to us.
As it relates to Aikido, I trust more now both because I've spent some time training with a variety of people in a small variety of settings, "looking outwardly," and because I've observed myself in those interactions, "looking inwardly." I've achieved similar results in other activities of course, but there is something unique about allowing someone to twist your limbs around and figuring out how to maintain a degree of center while doing it.
At any rate, that's my thinking, FWIW.
Take care all!
Matt

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Old 06-29-2009, 02:28 PM   #54
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Re: Trust

I feel kind of badly that what was turning around is now back where it was. Drew had moved on from his earlier position, and so had the thread.

I wish people would read the whole thread before commenting sometimes. It would help...some of us put some real effort into the improvements. As did Drew.

Best,
Ron

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This kind of vomit-inducing condescension really surprised me so I looked around a bit.
From this thread of January 2007 ;
http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11715
We'd all do well to heed Mr.Künzang's advice;

Look, a smiley! :

Ron Tisdale
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Old 06-30-2009, 03:50 PM   #55
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Intuition

I appreciate the support.

By trust, I really can only go so far as either attending a new dojo, or newcomers entering a current dojo. As soon as I grab a wrist of a stranger, I must stay alert but still trust him / her not to perform a devastating technique. I've never distrusted a stranger to the point which I wouldn't train with him / her. And, I've never been hurt beyond a short time of my wrist being sensitive to nikkyo. As far as people in everyday society, my initial feeling is "hope for the best," which does not mean trust.

I believe what I was more interested in getting at is the concept of intuition, and how it relates to trust/distrust. Maybe two percent of people are completely benevolent, always placing service before self, society-first, absolute samurai types. Another 96% are anywhere from really close to that 2% to just barely above the 2% who are purely evil. I look at it like a standard normal (z) distribution. If you haven't taken stats class, I just mean a bell curve. In finance, we learned whether a corporation should approve a project or not. The methodical way is to see if the cost of capital (the cost of borrowing money) is less than the projected, present-valued returns. What surprised me is that one of my professors said not to ignore "gut instinct." We all know much more than we're aware we know, perhaps in our unconscious minds. He said that gut instincts are in fact more important than we might think. So, FSU FIN 4000 aside, I really want to know if Aikido enhances intuition and gets us more in touch with our "gut instincts" better than a substitute activity. This is really hard for me to answer in a "how much intuition have I gained from Aiki training," but I hope to hear Aikidokas' gut instincts as far as whether Aikido has increased intution, had no effect on intuition, or even decreased intuition. I know this is somewhat nebulous and qualitative, but what's your best guess?

Drew
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Old 06-30-2009, 04:17 PM   #56
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Re: Intuition

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Drew Gardner wrote: View Post
I really want to know if Aikido enhances intuition and gets us more in touch with our "gut instincts" better than a substitute activity. This is really hard for me to answer in a "how much intuition have I gained from Aiki training," but I hope to hear Aikidokas' gut instincts as far as whether Aikido has increased intution, had no effect on intuition, or even decreased intuition. I know this is somewhat nebulous and qualitative, but what's your best guess?
I think the answer depends on what you mean by "intuition" and "gut instinct". There's a good book called "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin de Becker, which is all about learning to listen to the intuition that tells you there's something wrong in a situation. Intuition, in this case, is the feeling that a situation is dangerous without being able to immediately point to something that tells you so. In the cases that de Becker recounts in the book, it's possible, with hindsight, to identify specific danger signs -- but when it was going down, all the victims had was a "feeling". The thing about this "intuition", though, is that (at least in my opinion) there's nothing mystical about it. You have the data, and your subconscious mind is adding it up and arriving at a total of "sketchy situation". You don't have conscious access to those facts and how they fit together, however, which is what makes the whole process of "intuition" seem magical to some. I think, instead, that intuition is a process of reasoning based on logic and fact. It's just not a conscious process.

By that definition, I think that aikido training can develop intuition, but I don't think that it helps you to get in touch with whatever intuition you already have. Aikido training gives you another bundle of facts that your subconscious can work on when problems present themselves: train for a while, and you'll have more knowledge about how people can move, what attacks a certain posture may indicate, etc. The end result is intuition that can serve you in more situations. Aikido training does not, however, help you to develop your intuition regarding situations that don't involve an active physical threat. It won't help your intuition when it comes to dealing with a co-worker who's showing signs of becoming violent, or walking into a bar and appraising the environment as friendly or hostile.

Hope that makes sense...
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Old 06-30-2009, 05:09 PM   #57
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Re: Trust

Indeed, Mary, that does make much sense. So I gather that you feel in a martial situation, more and more Aikido training becomes more and more intuitively enriching. And that this occurs on a "subconscious" (unconscious) level. I still do wonder if perhaps Aikido training can play a part in increasing non-martial intuition. Maybe it does, and maybe it doesn't. Although my gut says yes, it may be incorrect. Without input from other Aikidoka, my gut might be in a marching band, wondering why everyone else is out-of-step.

Drew
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Old 06-30-2009, 06:07 PM   #58
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Re: Trust

I think to the extent our minds are full of noise, it's hard to tell intuition from anxiety (or whatever). I also think there are a number of art forms and athletic forms and spiritual practices that can turn down the noise, so when an "intuition" arises, it can be noticed. Martial arts training may be helpful in that regard.

cdh
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Old 06-30-2009, 06:19 PM   #59
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Re: Trust

Hey Drew,

I suppose anything is possible, depending on your training. I don't get the sense that most aikido dojos really teach situational awareness, except on the micro-level: what to do when someone is physically attacking you with such-and-such motion. A lot of what was in de Becker's book is recognizing and dealing with threats that are much more subtle, e.g., a "helpful" stranger who insists on carrying your bags to your car even though you've said, "No thanks, I've got it," or a co-worker who is just a little too interested in the details of your life. I don't think aikido training, generally speaking, is going to develop your intuition in such situations...but I think it can help you with more physical situations outside the dojo.

For example, maybe three years after I'd first started training in martial arts (pre-aikido, this was), I took a new job and got assigned to a client that nobody else in the company wanted to deal with. In my first meeting with him, I realized that this guy, who was quite large, was crowding me and also kind of looming over me. Prior to training, I don't think I would have had that same awareness -- I would only have felt a vague unease, which my co-workers shared (this being why they didn't want to deal with this guy), and which I would have immediately dismissed as irrational. Nevertheless, he was using body language that signaled "threat". Realizing this, I also realized that the reason why he did it was because it had worked for him in the past -- clearly, it allowed him to dominate others and get his way. But I also realized that the "threat" was completely empty -- this was a business meeting, of course this guy wasn't going to haul off and belt me! So, I was able to remain relaxed and act as if the "threat" wasn't there -- because, effectively, it wasn't.

I have no idea if this guy was conscious of his behavior. I tend to think not -- my sense is that he was just a large person who had unconsciously come to associate certain body language on his part with certain behaviors on the part of others. After that first meeting, though, his whole body language changed, became much more relaxed and assumed a more appropriate distance. He may have gotten a bit of an amused, "I know what you're doing" from me, which may have helped the process along. It's hard to say when none of this is ever verbalized.

To bring it back to martial arts training, I think the physical training of martial arts made it possible for me to identify a threat: someone's size, their distance relative to me, how they're standing. I think it was off-the-mat intuition that let me put the whole picture together, to recognize the emptiness of the "threat" and to act accordingly.
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Old 06-30-2009, 06:43 PM   #60
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Re: Trust

Quote:
Drew Gardner wrote: View Post
I still do wonder if perhaps Aikido training can play a part in increasing non-martial intuition.
I think it can. I suppose it depends on which non-martial intuitions one might be talking about, but I would say body language alone applies to nearly any social interaction. Seeing what a person is looking at, where their hands are and how they're being held, etc. can tell you a lot about a person's state of mind. By focusing the attention on these things regularly, it starts to take on an automatic quality.
However, as a counter-example, I tend to be pretty self-conscious so I am often aware of these things in myself and have adjusted my behavior in the past to hide the way I was feeling or what I was thinking about. Some folks are harder to read than others.
In the past I have spent a lot of time working on my intuition, mostly through simply observing the things around me and comparing them to past observations and at times I would say I've been very intuitive; other times not so much, but the underlying relationship has always seemed to be how much mental effort I put into "reading" things. The human mind is constantly taking in information and processing it to find meaning...I think a good analogy might be that the conscious mind is just the tip of the iceburg. By constantly "widening" that perception in a calm, unattached, but purposeful way we can create an active feed from the larger portion of our mind. To my mind it's like softening the grip, but creating greater surface area (a broader connection) and just as aiki seems to demand high degrees of relaxation and intent to develop, so too does the intuition...or so I think, anyway.


...That is to say: what Mary said.

Last edited by mathewjgano : 06-30-2009 at 06:51 PM.

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Old 06-30-2009, 06:58 PM   #61
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Re: Trust

Matthew, did I inspire your signature about noodles? Ha! Can you imagine a 170 pound animal never being the least bit physically harmed by them, yet dreading them?

I must have worded it better this time, because you all are offering great replies.

Has anyone been uke for a sensei, or even a mudansha when sensei couldn't come to class? I have found that that's when I've really got to focus extra hard. In those situations, the impending technique is unknown. Either kohai has achieved practical enlightenment and totally lives in the present, or kohai has to figure out quickly what sensei is about to unleash on him / her. I have found these precious times to truly test my focus, and perhaps intuition. Any thoughts?

Drew
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Old 07-01-2009, 02:08 AM   #62
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Re: Trust

Quote:
Drew Gardner wrote: View Post
Matthew, did I inspire your signature about noodles? Ha! Can you imagine a 170 pound animal never being the least bit physically harmed by them, yet dreading them?

I must have worded it better this time, because you all are offering great replies.

Has anyone been uke for a sensei, or even a mudansha when sensei couldn't come to class? I have found that that's when I've really got to focus extra hard. In those situations, the impending technique is unknown. Either kohai has achieved practical enlightenment and totally lives in the present, or kohai has to figure out quickly what sensei is about to unleash on him / her. I have found these precious times to truly test my focus, and perhaps intuition. Any thoughts?

Drew
Afraid of noodles?! That's hilarious! I've heard of a spaghetti monster in the sky...that sounds a little scary, lol. No, my quote is from the best movie in the world: Kung Fu Panda! Awesomeness and attractiveness? No charge!
I've taken ukemi for sensei Barrish and one thing he has done is to draw out technique and do henka waza (?) where he gives me slack to regain my center after taking it away repeatedly. It's a great way to open up the body I think. I don't always know what the "right" answer is as uke so it's an interesting process of discovery!

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Old 07-01-2009, 06:48 PM   #63
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Re: Trust

Quote:
Matthew Gano wrote: View Post
I've taken ukemi for sensei Barrish and one thing he has done is to draw out technique and do henka waza (?) where he gives me slack to regain my center after taking it away repeatedly. It's a great way to open up the body I think. I don't always know what the "right" answer is as uke so it's an interesting process of discovery!
I like that idea much. Even Aikidoka, even high ranking sensei, find ourselves imperfect, and losing our centers time and again. What your Barrish Sensei seems to like teaching sometimes is, when we're off our centers, regaining stability. This seems like an essential thing to teach, and I wonder how much of it we learn in a more indirect fashion, through not-so-specific training.

Drew
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Old 07-03-2009, 11:14 AM   #64
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Re: Trust

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-- "Trouble at t'mill. One on't crossbeams gone owt 'skew on treadle."

-- .....

If you get --- you get it.
I can honestly say that I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition in an aikido forum.

For me, the trust issue only comes into play with people around my own rank/skill level (I'm 5th kyu aikikai). People of higher rank often seem to sense what I can and can't handle, even if I've never worked with them before.
Maybe that has something to do with the intuition you are talking about, Drew. I know I need to work on how observant I am. A couple of days ago I was partnered with someone who had recently returned to aikido. We had gone through the technique a few times before I began to realize that he had very sensitive wrists, and that I needed to be way more careful.
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Old 07-03-2009, 06:07 PM   #65
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Cool Re: Trust

I kind of think of it as similar to "True victory is self Victory" in that the ability to trust others really begins with trusting oneself. If one makes a conscious effort to improve one's Ukemi and takes an active role in their Ukemi instead of just placing ones trust in Nage and "hoping for the best" one will have a better experience in my opinion. In such a relationship one can then feel free to "push the envelope for them" and step outside of their comfort zone even with strangers and grow more.
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Old 07-03-2009, 07:00 PM   #66
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Re: Trust

Quote:
Jason Rudolph wrote: View Post
I kind of think of it as similar to "True victory is self Victory" in that the ability to trust others really begins with trusting oneself. If one makes a conscious effort to improve one's Ukemi and takes an active role in their Ukemi instead of just placing ones trust in Nage and "hoping for the best" one will have a better experience in my opinion. In such a relationship one can then feel free to "push the envelope for them" and step outside of their comfort zone even with strangers and grow more.
So here's another tangent: does trust imply knowledge, or lack of knowledge, or does it not imply anything either way? By that I mean (to use Jason's example) if you've worked hard on your ukemi, you know what you can and can't do, and your "trust" in your ukemi is knowledge-based. Likewise, if you are working with a partner you've trained with many times before, you know what they're like, and they know what you can do, and you "trust" them because you know that they have good judgment and control (assuming they do). Then again, the word "trust" is used in situations where no such knowledge exists: where nage is an unknown quantity, where you're trying to perform ukemi that you've never done before, etc. So, although we use the word "trust" in both situations, aren't they fundamentally different things?
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Old 07-03-2009, 11:10 PM   #67
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Re: Trust

Mary, are you talking about two "fundamentally different things" in which we use one word to represent both of these "two fundamentally different things." Both things/situation, you have to depend on each situation that poses risk differently, and thus risk being related to trust each situation is treated differently in terms of trust. It is your view that for different situations there are different kinds, or levels of trust. There is not a single trust applied universally?

Now if that is the case, isn't that an individual choice who a person looks at trust and what trust is to them. If say, Joe Aikidoka, has a view similar to Jason's, is that Joe Aikidoka's choice to define and apply trust anyway he feels he needs to.

Now you might say, well what about the other people in the dojo. What if they have a different view of trust that doesn't match Joe Aikidoka's view. Therefore, what I said still stands. I would reply with sure, that is an essential part of trust, is matching the same views of the risk and how risk with be treated. And you hold the other person to that. Therefore, you have to start with yourself, and then move on to other people. Every time you move on to new people to trust you evaluate the same risk and offer the same trust but according to each person the amount of trust you are willing to afford them.

I think women see trust and risk naturally different than men. They have to, for many, many reasons. I think people who grow up with different backgrounds have differing views and all that, do to. This goes with people who individually have different views from others due to personal experiences, as well. Point being, I think it is hard to categorize trust. It can be done maybe at general broad level for basic communicate of the topic. For example, say in a self-help book where it needs to be categorized for the sake of communicating through a book. But, applied in a dojo situation that is an individual personal thing. That is why I think this topic continues with different views because different people have different reasons, levels, and criteria for trust.

Last edited by Buck : 07-03-2009 at 11:23 PM.
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Old 07-04-2009, 08:49 AM   #68
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Re: Trust

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I think women see trust and risk naturally different than men.
Oh, jeez, here we go...

The question that I asked was a very simple one; don't needlessly complicate it, please (and yeah, I know I'm asking in vain).
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Old 07-04-2009, 10:26 AM   #69
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Re: Trust

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Sneaky insults are just as bad as direct ones.

Drew
This is Aikiweb Drew.
Direct insults get you banned. Sneaky insults jabs and comments are accepted.

Some of the comments I've see flying around the forum remind me of one 6 year old with his finger an inch away from another child's face yelling 'I'm not touching you I'm not touching you!'

I've never hit my black lab yet if I take off my belt near him for some crazy reason he cowers.
You have over 300 posts here, you had to have realized how your comment about hitting your dog with a foam pool noodle would be turned around by someone on this forum. Some people get of on that stuff, it's like some kind of mental/verbal randori.

I knew exactly what you meant and I also knew exactly how someone would twist things around and start an argument over it.

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Old 07-04-2009, 07:41 PM   #70
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Re: Trust

Quote:
Mary Malmros wrote: View Post
Oh, jeez, here we go...

The question that I asked was a very simple one; don't needlessly complicate it, please (and yeah, I know I'm asking in vain).
I didn't realize I was writing so complex and complicated for you. I apologize. The dimensions of trust, demands, and must be a comprehensive philosophical discussion on this topic of trust, and that discussion would, as a result, be a complex one. Far more complex than what I am doing here.

We first must look at trust as a property and not an attitude. Evaluate each individual to determine if the relationship is warranted for trust. And only works if both parties agree to be trustworthy, within that agreement risk is assessed. I won’t go over risk again, to abstain from redundancy.

What is accrued from trust you might muse in solace? It would be knowledge and autonomy.

“Autonomy is another good that flows from trust, at least insofar as being autonomous is a skill that we acquire and exercise only in social environments where we can trust people to support it. Feminists in particular tend to conceive of autonomy this way—that is, as a relational, or socially-constituted, property (Mackenzie and Stoljar 2000).”

Hence my reference to woman, which implied a view you have openly supported. So than it is said many feminists proclaim autonomy due to dominate oppressive sexist male society abnegates autonomy. Simply they can’t trust men and fail to gain autonomy. And not every one is a sexist or feminist, btw.

The nature of trust discussed that owns itself to knowledge and autonomy has been argued in this thread authentically and with acumen to be self-directed as well as other-directed. Thereby, trusting ourselves in evaluation and application is a major operator. But, done dynamically and not within a singular dimensional model.

With that stuff on the table, what I see, possibly, is the cognitive malfunction that trust is a single dimensional model. Common as that is, that model fails to demand flexibility that is exercised with a fair acumen when applied. And often as a result of personal centric thinking, and the association of individual estimation, this model of trust is often projected as an universal single dimensional model that is singularly constituted as solely an attitude. Usually, this is a ridged and single dimensional model that often fails to be applicable to the dynamics and complexity of trust and the human interpersonal matrix and applications it holds.
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Old 07-04-2009, 09:33 PM   #71
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Re: Trust

I began work on an acrylic painting yesterday, and I should have it finished by tomorrow. Trust is one of the themes. Some people will probably think, *Big deal.* I'm hoping that it will cause some observers to ask questions. My visual art and writing sometimes generate more questions than answers. All the while, I do like to get some points across. I really like to work in this way because I feel thought stimulation is sometimes more important than pure persuasion.

Drew
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Old 07-05-2009, 10:03 AM   #72
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Re: Trust

My personal view FWIW, as a result of living is your got going to very far without trust- that is true for Aikido training. The key is when do you trust and how much do you trust, how far are you going to go with that trust, what is the object of trust, and what happens when that trust is broken or loss. This stuff has to be weighed individually. When in Aikido practice the risk and the result of lost or broken trust isn't that big of an investment, interpersonally, or contractually. And in Aikido risk is managed to be a low risk activity which makes trust not a big investment.

I am not sure, but it is possible, that Aikido facilitates trust and the stuff trust produces knowledge and autonomy, any more or less than any other martial art or thingy. I think it would be a result of the Sensei and how the Sensei runs the dojo if it focus on producing and fostering trust. I do think Aikido provides a place for the development of trust, you do need a certain amount of trust and stuff if you want to actively learn the art. And how an individual sees trust, approaches trust, and all that becomes an personal and individual thing.

Now on the other hand, it reasons that because Aikido is a martial art, and as such by nature teaches against trust, in its application it is used for self-defense against an attack. That in itself teaches not to trust. To make a technique in practice and to make practice successful in learning an demonstrating and effective technique you don't trust. I feel in O'Sensei writings and a picture with a caption of him that said he was always on guard, he didn't trust in a certain way. If you want good technique and be sharp against the unpredictable application such as randori you aren't going to trust any one. With that said, it goes without saying there has to be some interpersonal trust in these situations in the dojo, and Aikido.

For me , I look for balance knowing the dojo is one place and the world is another and that is the purpose of Aikido and trust- for me. There should be solid trust in the dojo in the interpersonal realm but because we are human there is ego, and jealousy, hidden competitiveness and all that other ugly interpersonal stuff that sabotages the environment for trust and trust itself to develop in many dojos. And so, none of the good stuff that results in trust never gets a good chance to develop as it should.

Last edited by Buck : 07-05-2009 at 10:08 AM.
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Old 07-05-2009, 02:01 PM   #73
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Re: Trust

Quote:
Philip Burgess wrote: View Post
My personal view FWIW, as a result of living is your got going to very far without trust- that is true for Aikido training. The key is when do you trust and how much do you trust, how far are you going to go with that trust, what is the object of trust, and what happens when that trust is broken or loss. This stuff has to be weighed individually. When in Aikido practice the risk and the result of lost or broken trust isn't that big of an investment, interpersonally, or contractually. And in Aikido risk is managed to be a low risk activity which makes trust not a big investment.
I agree people can't go very far in society without trust. A little over 10 years ago when I was dealing with some social anxiety issues, my lack of trust kept me very much to myself. I usually hid it fairly well when I was in group settings, but the less I trusted, the less I found myself in group settings. Work suffered, friendships suffered, and in general, I suffered. I realized I had to start working on these trust issues or I wouldn't end up a pretty sight.
I would disagree that Aikido practice is a low-risk activity in and of itself. For example, if someone torques too hard on your shoulder, it can be a life-time injury if it's bad enough. In my mind that's a very serious trust issue. I'm guessing you meant on a more personal note though and if that's the case, I pretty much agree. The convenient thing about most dojos is you don't see (or don't have to see) the people except in that very specific role; the interactions are usually very specific...and you have an activity to keep yourselves preoccupied with.

Quote:
I do think Aikido provides a place for the development of trust, you do need a certain amount of trust and stuff if you want to actively learn the art.
In my own case Aikido helped reinforce the idea that when I am centered, which seems to require a relaxed engagement process, trust comes more naturally (as opposed to forcing myself to do it). I noticed a tendancy to try REALLY hard to focus on whatever was happening around me, be it personal exchanges or physical ones, but that just caused me to get fixated on something. Now I feel if I'm trying really hard at something, I'm probably not doing it right...the correlation as I see it being that trust and relaxation go hand in hand. Trusting doesn't mean giving yourself over; it means recognizing that you already have simply by interacting in the first place and that allows for you to take care of self and trust others at the same time...if I'm making any sense.
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Last edited by mathewjgano : 07-05-2009 at 02:05 PM.

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Old 07-05-2009, 03:26 PM   #74
Buck
Join Date: Feb 2008
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Re: Trust

Quote:
Matthew Gano wrote: View Post
I agree people can't go very far in society without trust. A little over 10 years ago when I was dealing with some social anxiety issues, my lack of trust kept me very much to myself. I usually hid it fairly well when I was in group settings, but the less I trusted, the less I found myself in group settings. Work suffered, friendships suffered, and in general, I suffered. I realized I had to start working on these trust issues or I wouldn't end up a pretty sight.
I am glad you are past that. Did Aikido help and if so how?

I would disagree that Aikido practice is a low-risk activity in and of itself. For example, if someone torques too hard on your shoulder, it can be a life-time injury if it's bad enough. In my mind that's a very serious trust issue. I'm guessing you meant on a more personal note though and if that's the case, I pretty much agree. The convenient thing about most dojos is you don't see (or don't have to see) the people except in that very specific role; the interactions are usually very specific...and you have an activity to keep yourselves preoccupied with.

Quote:
Matt, your right, you can get injuried and seriously in Aikido and I don't want people to think you can't. My use of low risk without more explaination was misleading. In my head I was comparing a was comparing Aikido (as a low risk) to high risk activities like base jumping, ski diving and surfing, and that stuff. I was basically picturing Aikido being low risk because we learn to fall safely, our philosophy is not to purposely injure or kill. Thanks Matt for pointing that out, I think I was over-simplifing Aikido's potencial for injury.
Quote:
Trusting doesn't mean giving yourself over; it means recognizing that you already have simply by interacting in the first place and that allows for you to take care of self and trust others at the same time...if I'm making any sense.
Good point. Total agreement by me! There are people I have trained with that struggled with trust issues because they haven't come to understand your point. Your point in an Aikido class, if consciously taught and practiced, can make Aikido a place an environment promoting and maintaining trust- especially with people over-time, in the right conditions and people.
-----------------
FWIW. What I am concern about is that people will regard, as authoritative, your point, to the philosophy of Aikido and a O'Sensei. Thereby, promoting that altercation to O'Sensei and his beliefs, and Aikido. I don' t know precisely how O'Sensei felt about trust. Why assoicated any thing to how O'Sensei might have viewed trust is my angle.

Last edited by Buck : 07-05-2009 at 03:35 PM.
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Old 07-05-2009, 03:44 PM   #75
Buck
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Re: Trust

I guess what I am trying to say is, is if you are going to custom an original tell people you did so, don't say your custom job is the original. Not that anyone is doing that and stuff. Just how those kind of things can be misunderstood.
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