Guest guest Posted April 29, 2007 Report Share Posted April 29, 2007 Here is a response from David Lynch, Shihan. He refers mainly to the path of Aikido but his response is simple and clear. Thanks Love Olly >Hi Olly > >Your think-piece on cross training refers. > >Forgive a top-of-the-head response, but here goes: > >1. There would be no aikido if Osensei hadn't trained in several different >budo and (not to forget) dedicated himself to various spiritual ways. On >the other hand, do we need to repeat the refining process since he has >left us a good legacy? > >2. Different individuals learn in different ways. There isn't one size to >fit all, physiques, temperaments, levels of understanding. > >3. My gods are not your gods. When it comes to spiritual development/ >understanding you are on your own and self-knowledge cannot, by >definition, be handed on from someone else - otherwise we would have >thousands of Osensei-clones today, instead of a hodge-podge of different >interpretations of his teaching. > >4. Some introspection is necessary (IMHO) to discover your own individual >purpose for training. The desire to be 'strong' (rubbished by Osensei, but >then you can quote the old man on numerous seemingly contradictory >viewpoints) and fill in apparent gaps in aikido's 'effectiveness' could >lead one away from the spirit of the art - or not, depending on the >individual's temperament. > >5. We would be doing Osensei a disservice if we ignored his 'spiritual' >teachings and focussed entirely on the physical training (or vice-versa) >and spent our lives trying to figure out why he chose to include certain >movements and exclude others. Perhaps the real question is (assuming one >is interested in the psychology or cosmology aikido), " How martial does >the training have to be to create the environment for Osensei-style >insight? " Tohei and Shioda had different answers, but they were very >different individuals. Perhaps the question cannot be answered, and it >isn't much use answering it academically anyway. > >6. All great truths are paradoxical, and as Krishnamurti says, the >important questions have no answers, but it is important to ask them >anyway. The answer is in the question. > > >Personally, maybe because of laziness, I stick to aikido as it seems to me >to contain plenty of challenge and I don't really want to be 'the >strongest in the world', not that I ever had much hope of being anyway. It >is as deep as you want it to be, and I feel the spiritual teaching is far >more important than the technical side, which I have never found the need >for outside the dojo in my 40-plus years of training. > >But I try to keep and open mind (whatever that really is?) and, for >instance, I met a Tai Chi teacher the other day (from the 'boxing' side >of the art) who was extremely impressive which not particularly violent. >If I had another lifetime I would sign up under him. He was 59 and had >been training in China daily since age eight. And during the Cultural >Revolution when tai chi was banned, he practised from 2:00 till 6:00 a.m., >every day - and then went to work! > >Maybe that sort of dedication would make the question you ask irrelevant. > > >Cheers. > >David > > >David Lynch >david > > > _______________ Could you be the guest MSN Movies presenter? Click Here to Audition http://www.lightscameraaudition.co.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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