Aikido is Useless without Discipline

I don't expect responses on this thread, call it a rhetorical thread. But if people what to response go for!

With all the talk of Aikido is this or isn't that, or can't do this or that especially with the MMA crowd, and others Aikido who favor pre-war over post war Aikido. This isn't to get their goat or put a flame under their butts. But I thought that it is interesting that all the talk is about the validity and approach of the physical technique and not the mental disciple required by Aikido which imo is the most core element and is over the physical. You can't even really talk to deeply about physical technique unless mental and physical discipline is discussed properly. Just food for an errant thought.

Philip Burgess wrote: I don't expect responses on this thread, call it a rhetorical thread. But if people what to response go for! With all the talk of Aikido is this or isn't that, or can't do this or that especially with the MMA crowd, and others Aikido who favor pre-war over post war Aikido. This isn't to get their goat or put a flame under their butts. But I thought that it is interesting that all the talk is about the validity and approach of the physical technique and not the mental disciple required by Aikido which imo is the most core element and is over the physical. You can't even really talk to deeply about physical technique unless mental and physical discipline is discussed properly. Just food for an errant thought.

I guess I agree with you in a sense that in order for you to appreciate Aikido you first need to get your head right with regards to martial philosophy. Otherwise, you end up frustrated.

One-Aiki,

Iking

IMHO, everything is useless without discipline.

Discipline of self is by far the most difficult part of training.
I tell myself ALL the most effective excuses!

Lan

What tempers discipline, to prevent it from shifting towards violence to one's self?

Mindfulness, I take it, is in turn necessary in practicing "discipline?"

DH

David Henderson wrote: Mindfulness, I take it, is in turn necessary in practicing "discipline?"

IMHO, mindfulness is the discipline, everything else is content.

Philip Burgess wrote: You can't even really talk to deeply about physical technique unless mental and physical discipline is discussed properly. Just food for an errant thought.

Hi Lynn,

It's certainly valid to me to treat mindfulness as the mode of discipline, and everything else as content.

The OP also, and I think understandably, talks in terms of physical commitment. I guess what I meant to say relates to that aspect of the topic:

Physical commitment has had on-the-mat connotations, to me, including confronting challenges, facing fears, and enduring discomfort or fatigue. My sense of discipline, in this context,urges me to stay on the mat and practice.

To me, mindfulness and self-observation need to touch and inform (if not subsume) the idea of discipline here, for my own sake and my partners'.

Physical commitment also has off-the-mat connotations for me, including balancing practice with my life.

Mindfulness here encounters both guileful temptation and genuine need.

Anyway, that's how the topic strikes me.
Regards,
DH