YouTube: Terry Dobson on Takemusu Aiki

Here's a video of Terry Dobson sharing his thoughts on "Takemusu Aiki." (Here is a nice post from Ellis Amdur on Terry Dobson's training history: http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20609)

What are your thoughts on this video?

-- Jun

I know there are a lot of Japanese speakers here. Can anyone shed light on the idea that the word "takemusu" could mean "protection?" I mean, how much does a person have to read into the word in order to see a "protective" meaning?
From what I understood, it is easy to see understand "takemusu aiki" as being "the aiki that gives rise to bu." I'm intrigued by the idea of "the aiki of protection" as another direct meaning.

During a lunchbreak on a UK course with Chiba Sensei (1992 maybe) someone asked him what Takemusu meant. I can't remember what he said exactly, but he mentioned animals are in a constant fight for survival, be alert to survive, which also corresponded with what another instructor told me (Omura Hiroaki - Uchideshi same time as Chiba): - keep your wits about you (my translation, he spoke no English). I wrote the following on my old 1994 website (I recently shut it down). I think I have expanded on it somewhat .. so the following are mostly my thoughts (I purposefully avoided calling it self-defence).

Takemusu
Take a look out of your window into the garden. All those millions of insects are part of one great struggle, every day until their death. This cycle of life and death is inescapable - but humans have created society and have mostly overcome it, or rather, in the martial sense, lost it. So, in order to improve our minds in martial arts we must consider what we have come to lose. If we are to survive we must fight ceaselessly, we can not be passive even for a moment or we will die (lose). All creatures follow this cycle. In fighting for survival, it is best to harmonise with "nature" rather than fight against it. In fact, this is nature's way - all is in harmony - what is not will cease to exist. Accordingly, to harmonise is to offer a greater chance of survival.

Another take on Takemusu from me is here:
http://discovering-aikido.com/philosophy.htm

That is how I like to understand it. If anyone has other or better ideas - then my ideas will change too...

How can we take take from take musu? It seems to me that there has to be a martial element in the translation.

Dan Rubin wrote: take take from take musu?

Aiki tongue twister?

Take = martial Musu = to give birh
I've always thought that takemusu meant to instantaneously give birth to martial techniques. You just do stuff according to the attack and it just happened to work. You have no idea what you just did therefore you can't repeat it. You just did takemusu aiki, the ultimate aikido according to Osensei.

Mike Braxton wrote: Take = martial Musu = to give birh I've always thought that takemusu meant to instantaneously give birth to martial techniques. You just do stuff according to the attack and it just happened to work. You have no idea what you just did therefore you can't repeat it. You just did takemusu aiki, the ultimate aikido according to Osensei.

I would agree with that 100%. I think if you follow my link above it says pretty much exactly that.