The second part that I’ve put in bold, below, resonated with my thinking around theoretical vs. practical learning, specifically the idea of striving to know the thinking of the originators of a theory. It easily relates, also, to the ideas of aspiration, relationship, and communication.
http://www.aikidojournal.com/article?articleID=662
I am mystified and challenged by O-Sensei, a man who went to war, who obsessively trained both in bujutsu and austere religious rituals, and emerged, claiming that “aikido is the realization of love” and “aiki is not a technique to fight with or defeat an enemy. It is the way to reconcile the world and make human beings one family.” I would encourage readers to look at the photograph that has been printed several times on the back of this magazine, advertising O-Sensei’s films, in which he is in a tenkan movement with his wrist held by Kazuo Chiba. I would submit that there is nothing, anywhere, in any other martial art, that is expressing exactly what O-Sensei expresses here, with his perfect postural alignment, and open curved arms. Were someone to lay a sleeping baby in his arms, that infant would not wake. Yet this is where the “problem” of aikido lies, for O-Sensei himself trained much as that senior exponent of hapkido describes above, a method very different than that handed down to the followers of aikido. The question that still nags at me and drives me onward after all my years of training, both within aikido and outside its boundaries, is simply, “Is aikido the best way to learn aikido?”
When I practice my koryu, I make every effort to reach the spirit of the founders, who were born and died in a bloody era of survival. Such practice has both kept me safe, and enabled me to help and protect other people. But as I practice, I often stop and think, “What are you doing? There are millions of people, right this minute, slaughtering others using methods not too different from what you are practicing now.” I have found good reasons to continue my martial training, but I must be mindful of its pitfalls every time I practice. To paraphrase Nietszche, if I begin to play with power too casually, it may begin all too casually to play with me.
When I ask if aikido is “for real,” I mean “Will aikido create, within me, what O-Sensei asserted was created and embodied within him?” The development of combat skills will probably always be an interest of mine, but such concerns are relevant only in so far as their execution keeps me safe so that I can ask truly important questions. Thus, in my heart of hearts, I deeply desire that all my studies lead me to be able to stand in as elegant and perfect a posture of welcome and protection as the old man in the photograph. Strong, open, at peace.
When I took a swing dance lesson for the first time, I didn’t have it in mind to try to be able to do exactly what those more experienced people were doing. In fact when I saw experienced people doing the “real thing” at my level I couldn’t catch all the intricacies, but only the grossest impression. And when I was started on learning the most basic steps, it was fitting to this initial mindset – that whatever I was doing was pretty detached from real swing dancing. I’m sure that as I progress, I’d get to the point of watching others and starting to wonder, “Do I look anything like that? Can I look like that – wouldn’t it be a small, do-able jump to make?” (i.e., starting to practically refer to others), and further still, “I wonder how they became able to do that?” (i.e., becoming curious about broadening my conception of the learning process further than my own to that point). But in the beginning, I may be so dependent on guidance that I have no sense of independence and “standing on my own two feet”. (At what point a person starts to feel like they’re standing on their own two feet is individual and subjective. Some, at the very beginner stage of knowledge, may feel completely dependent and yearning for external guidance. Others, at the very same stage, may feel more independent and wanting guidance only as exceptions.)
When I started aikido, I had a similar attitude and experience. However, at some point I learned that, supposedly, there was a point to doing aikido that I hadn’t considered, such as to become a peaceful person, etc.
