Respect your partners' Ki.

Following on from a few insights into what lies behind Toheis principles of Aikido then I will now share my thoughts on 'Respect your partners' Ki'.

Firstly I will say that the norm is to practice and over time come to recognize what Ki is even before you can get to grips with really respecting your partners' or even opponents or enemies Ki. So there are enough funny ideas about that aspect yet here I am going to approach from a different aspect.

Here I will approach from a different word in that principle and one which I would say most don't put much attention to in regards to it's deeper meaning and that is Respect.

It doesn't say follow your partners Ki and it doesn't say stop your partners Ki. It doesn't say interfere with your partners Ki and it doesn't say take your partners Ki. Respect, that's what it says.

So I'm not going to quibble or debate the various meanings of respect but I am going to tell you that true respect does something. As usual for the 'logical' mind it actually does something other than thought tells you. Hence true respect is magical in effect. Indeed it is divine.

Let's move away from respect Ki for a moment and let's respect something else. You can respect anything negative and if truly respected you will benefit and so will the person from whom the negative comes from. This is the real application of true respect. Why?

Because you are the unwanted effect of that which you do not respect.

That line should be written in gold plate.

When you can respect your own failings then you can regain balance and positivity. When you can respect others failings you can regain a balnced more aware view of said other. Respect, a key component to be worked on in order to to understand the principle.

Through respect may you then see the difference between the enrgy of the attacker and Ki. For with negative intention comes what many call negative Ki but in fact that energy is not Ki as there are no negatives in Ki. It is a replacement energy. Those who believe such things as negative Ki only lead themselves down a deadend path.

So much is said about intention but if intention is negative ie: against, to harm, to hinder, to belittle, to overwhelm etc. etc. then intention becomes not such a great thing. But with respect and only with respect can you see the intention of the attacker and know it despite all protestations from the attacker as to what they say their intention is. Now through this ability you can also also see what they cannot and that is their true Ki and in Aikido you connect with that despite what they are giving you 'in the name of Ki'. It takes respect to do this.

Respect anothers' hatred and you will empower yourself rather than be the unwanted effect.

The more you can respect the more relaxed yet dynamic you will become.

Respect has no agreement or disagreement in it thus it is immovable.

Peace.G.

Chris Sawyer wrote:

Henry Ellis
Co-author `Positive Aikido`
http://britishaikidoboard.blogspot.com/

Returning to this post because it was, unbeknownst to me, perfect timing for me to read it before going to class last night. As I was working with a fellow student doing a suwari waza ki exercise I realized that he was really not respecting my ki.

I say this because he was intentionally and repeatedly stopping my ki to the point that I could not execute the technique, and then upon my request to restart, would not restart the exercise. The instructor noticed this and mentioned that everyone needs to resist only enough so that the tori can feel the difference between minimal to more intense resistance and find their technique.

As we were training I thought of this thread.

I love to train with an uke that is going to sell the technique; don't get me wrong. I am basically a new student again and this is still my first week back to training after an 8 year absence, and I am sure over time I will learn the techniques to the point that I will do them with enough speed and fluidity to prevent this; but thought that this was a bit over the top.