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Eric Tilles wrote:
I am going to weigh in on the anti-emotion side of this
discussion. To do Aikido, you need to be relaxed and be able to
follow uke's attack. Any of the big time emotions (rage, anger, etc.)
is going to un-relax you. You also have to be able to deal with the
situation without any preconceptions: don't anticipate and don't
guess; deal with what is. If you are emotional, at the very least you
will have an unnecessary filter through which you are experiencing the
situation. At the worst, you will have a preconceived notion of hoe
to deal with uke. If you are angry, your anger may cause you to miss
an attempt by uke to disengage. If you are sympathetic, you may forgo
an appropriate "hard" technique and leave yourself open to attack. To
me, it's better to leave the emotional baggage off the mat.
Mike and Joshua among others, have also made contributions to this
theme which I feel are close but I would like to add the following
thoughts.
One day I asked a student how he was doing. He replied, "Not so well,
I still get angry". I responded that getting angry wasn't the problem
- anger is a natural reaction - it is holding onto the anger that is
the problem. Many folks not only get angry or experience fear but
choose to hold onto that emotion to the detriment of effective
response. Our training in relaxation and calmness should help us to
shed the negative elements of these emotions and get on with
business. I word it this way because this applies to daily living as
well as MA. Some where there may be a state of perfection toward what
every you see as the end point of life, but until then we learn what
we can, train how we can and do the best we can at any particular
time, and then review what we did, train to do better, and grow. We
are a "work in process" until we die. Let us make the best of it,
what ever our training approach..
George Simcox
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