Posts by Paul Campbell3

Jesse Allen2 said:"Some"? I think you mean most. So many people start acting loving when there isn't a shred of actual emotion behind it. Most of them! 😢

And what's the problem with that? You have to start somewhere 🙂

bluemason3 said:Of course he is... though you’ve still got your New Agers😍 and then there's how things look in the Bible.😬

I told the guys over at the MMA gym this ages ago: there isn't a damn bit of difference between those people and the religious crowd😁 😉

bluemason3 said:So, it's pretty clear there's an actual learning process involved. There's a specific methodology at play, even if every aikido organization does things a little differently. Everything is defined for a reason, which means 😁

Jeap. But wait, isn't that true for every religion and cult on the planet too?
Even if God is one and the same 😁

Jesse Allen2 said:Why did I get my wires crossed?
Because to even begin something, you need at least a baseline level of understanding. Moving toward a goal without any comprehension is like having sex without any emotion—which is really just a linguistic paradox, isn't it? 😛
On the flip side, once you truly *understand* aikido, you don't need to "understand" anything anymore, especially not how Uyeshiba interpreted it. So, as I said, I mixed up the order, but hey, it happens. 😁

That's why I asked who mixed up the pots... I hadn't said anything else until then.

Alright, fine. Maybe I wasn't being explicit enough and people are misinterpreting me—probably because I like leaving things a little vague when it comes to my favorite topics. 😍

I’ll only disagree with you on that first paragraph: you don't need to understand Aikido to start practicing it. Think about how many people just show up to a class, like they're walking into a local YMCA, enjoy the vibe, and decide to stick with it because they wanted to try a martial art. You don't need total comprehension to start something new, just like TincH said. That understanding comes (or doesn't) with time and practice.

Then again, there are those rare individuals who walk into an Aikido dojo and just *get* the essence immediately, even if they've never trained before. They just live it.

Anyway. A hundred people, a hundred different temperaments, five hundred different motives. 🙂

Jesse Allen2 said:🤣 🤣 actually, I think you've got it backwards!

Who? You? 😲😁😍🤷😳

Robin Rodriguez5 said:Dragonfly, when Ueshiba passed away without clearly outlining the succession plan—who would represent the art, who would evolve it, or who would lead the charge—it left a massive power vacuum. It’s a classic scenario; you see this kind of messy transition in royal bloodlines all the time, so it shouldn't be any surprise in a martial art. Following strict tradition, the mantle fell to his son. The problem? He wasn't the top student, nor was he the most skilled, nor was he the right-hand man. That role belonged to Tohei for years. Honestly, if we're talking about who actually preserved the legacy, it's debatable whether the son kept the flame alive at all. At that stage, his grasp of the art was shallow compared to Tohei, who was miles ahead in terms of raw knowledge, experience, and pure mastery.

So what? 🙂

Does any of that actually matter in the grand scheme of things? 😳

Fine, I’ll play along. Based on what you just said, I guess I’d define myself as being part of the traditional Aikikai school because that’s the club I train with.

And you? You’d probably claim you belong to Katsuya Tohei's Ki Aikido clan.

And now what? What's the next big question? 🙂

So, you think Tohei couldn't stomach being taught by someone lower in rank than him? 😕

Look, even if that were true, neither Tohei nor anyone else actually grasped the core essence of what Uyeshiba was teaching. If they had, they wouldn't have messed it up so badly (don't get defensive, Paul Campbell3, I'm just repeating what's been said).🙂

First off, to start practicing aikido, you don't need to understand a single thing about his cosmology or the deep philosophy behind it.

But, if you want to live aikido and truly grasp it the way Uyeshiba intended, then sure—that's necessary. But again, it’s not strictly required, haha! 🙂

Tradition, technique, and methodology are one thing, but the spirit and the very essence of existence? That's something else entirely.

Aikido is just one way to express and achieve that, but it isn't the only way. 🙂

The universal spirit of love and its manifestations (like moving meditation—which is what aikido, or any martial art at its purest, really is... honestly, even chopping onions could be 😁 ) doesn't depend on a specific school, a teacher, a certain day, or tradition. That's just my take on it.

The universal spirit of aikido is singular. It isn't "owned" by any organization, any single instructor, or any specific school.

Techniques, the passing down of tradition, teaching styles—those are different matters altogether, and we can argue about those, but personally, I'd rather talk about fighters than this stuff here. 😉

jademarlin26 said:Ki Aikido is merely another cultish approach to a good idea, implying you must belong to a specific group to achieve any level of spirituality (whatever that means to anyone). Ueshiba simply called the system Aikido. It is obvious that by adding "Ki" before Aikido, someone was trying to appear incredibly important and unique, even though "ki" is already inherent in the original term (ai-KI-do); doubling it is both redundant and thoughtless.

Incidentally, Tohei's style is called Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido. However, specifically emphasizing that you are unifying mind and body (shin shin toitsu) is absurd, especially when used to differentiate styles. Every martial art involves the unification of mind and body. Chopping onions for lunch requires the unification of mind and body. Sweeping the floor is an act performed with Kim, because as long as you are alive, you cannot escape it.

That's pretty much my take on it too—why highlight the KI component of something that already fundamentally includes it? 🙂

There's only one founder of Aikido, O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba, and as far as I know, the man was a master of Shinkage Ryu Ju Jutsu and originally a top-tier warrior and expert in several martial arts. 👍

At one point, he couldn't reconcile two things: the damage martial arts can inflict on another human being versus his own deep desire to establish peace and harmony among all people. Originally, his path was that of a warrior, and he thought his internal longing for peace and harmony stood in direct opposition to that life.

There's this story: once during an argument, he got into a confrontation with an Englishman who pulled a sword and tried to stab him.
He successfully evaded him until the guy finally gave up, completely exhausted.

That's when O'Sensei realized (he had an epiphany 😬) that maybe what seemed irreconcilable at first—aggression and the attacking styles found in many Japanese arts vs. universal love—was actually perfectly compatible. 🙂

And that's how Aikido was born—the practice of mind and body and, as jademarlin26 puts it, the path toward unification, ultimately uniting the individual with the entire universe.

Look, I train "standard" traditional Aikido, which—let's be honest—is a hell of a lot "harder" than Ki Aikido.
In my opinion, trying to separate or categorize different styles is just pointless. No skill is inherently bad, and every single one offers a chance to grow—the only thing that can be "bad" is the person practicing it.
It all comes down to approach. You see people training for years who become technically perfect, yet they haven't even scratched the surface of what they're actually doing.
Aikido is a journey, and just like any other path, it’s full of ups and downs and hurdles. It demands constant effort and forces you to face one singular opponent. Because even though the people standing across from you change constantly, the only person an Aikidoka truly has to confront and measure themselves against is themselves. 🙂
And honestly? That’s the most beautiful thing Aikido has ever given me.

After bumping into a guru AT a cocktail party, a psychiatrist couldn't help himself—he just had to pick the guy's brain about something.

"So, give it to me straight," he asks. "How do you actually help people?"

The Guru just looks at him and says, "I take them to the point where they stop asking questions altogether."

😁

mistybison said:😛

In Japanese, the word for "heart" is kokoro (心 - こころ), and it encompasses much more than just an organ; it refers to the heart, mind, spirit, feelings, core, soul, and thoughts.

The kokoro, heart-mind, means the whole thing—it represents the entirety of our being. It integrates the cerebral, the emotional, and the psychological into one cohesive unit.

I found this interesting passage (for those who read English):

Conversations about Clown and zen : a language of The Heart? Kokoro!

🙂

👍

Hui Neng says:

“Thoughts spring from absolute truth, from our deepest nature. Even though we have six senses and four functions—seeing, hearing, feeling, and perceiving—not even ten thousand worldly phenomena can touch that true nature. True nature is always free.”

Everything that exists comes from a single, unified heart. This one heart that birthed everything is essentially like water. That’s why the heart can never truly be broken. Sure, the *image* of the heart might break, but at the end of the day, even that image came from the same unified source. Any breakage is just an illusion. 🙂

The Sixth Patriarch, Hui Neng, puts it this way:

“True nature is inherently unmoving, yet it can produce ten thousand different things. None of those ten thousand things can ever be separated from true nature—from the heart.”

Haha, briskraven28, you're my absolute hero! 😘

Ryan Wilson2 said:Like I said, you can push your own agenda on a thread where you're the mod. You could even play hero and help out some ladies in distress, since they struggle to do anything without at least a tiny bit of power in their hands.😁

In their hands, khm.. 🤔 ? 😁

Gregory Turner71 said:boldsailor32... let's try this instead.

Apply to be a moderator for the spirituality forum, and we'll gladly accept your candidacy. Once you're set up as a mod, you'll get access to the moderator lounge where you can actually fight for your ideas.
Deal? 🙂

And then the genie granted the wish.. 🥳 😁

It’s the same deal with everything in life. I once knew this hardcore smoker—not a pipe guy, just straight cigarettes—who told me, "Look, I actually only need three a day: one in the morning, one after lunch, and one after sex" 😁. Anything else? Just a smelly, toxic habit.

coastalmoose21 said:Anyone who has truly been pulled into samadhi understands that the ego was nothing more than an illusion to begin with. They surrender the game and the pieces to "the other" with absolute joy.
Much like how you might use a hammer to drive a nail, the ego can only be countered by using the ego itself. However, while you think you are driving a nail into someone else (not necessarily someone else's ego), you fail to realize you are actually striking yourself from behind. These are games without boundaries...

🙂 🙂 🙂

shadowcobra13 said:Yeah, that’s exactly how they lay it out in Sex and the City.
The idea is that if you don't let all that energy just leak away physically, and instead channel it up toward the sixth chakra, you'd actually reach enlightenment. Now, look, I’m not claiming a woman absolutely *has* to stop her period to reach spiritual awakening—that's a big leap—but it would certainly make the whole process a lot smoother. According to the teachings in Sex and the City, halting menstruation effectively halts the aging process in women. The logic is that you retain more estrogen instead of burning through it. So, ladies, you might want to give that some serious thought...🙂

I saw it posted on Reddit too. 😬

bluemason3 said:infidelity ☕

An owl laughing at its own shadow... 🙂 😍

😬

Look, let's be real here: the only thing about a period that actually makes life difficult is the pain.

If you aren't dealing with pain, or if you manage to get it under control, I don't see any damn reason why women can't jump right back into spiritual practices or physical workouts.

Obviously, it’s all personal. It comes down to how you actually feel and how you perceive what's happening with your body during your cycle.

For me? Both help. Staying active actually helps me recover and eases the physical discomfort. But hey, I get it—some people won't even be able to lift a finger. There are days when I'm totally wiped out too, so I'll just stay still on day one, sip some tea, and read a book. Most of the time, though, I'll knock out all 26 asanas twice.😁 It depends.

Everyone knows their own body (or at least they *should*), and you have to listen to those signals—regardless of what some doctor or holy scripture tells you to do. 🙄

Bradley Davis33 said:Look... every woman deals with her period differently, but honestly, trying to perform Salah (Islamic prayer) would be pure torture for me, especially during those first two days...
And Salah isn't the only way to pray, right?

I'm pretty sure the Quran doesn't actually define menstruation as "unclean," just more like an inconvenience... and let's be real, it is! Those hormone swings causing emotional sensitivity are a total drag, and don't even get me started on cramps—I wouldn't sign up for that if I could help it...

I actually do yoga through my first, second, and third days—and even beyond that. Honestly, any kind of physical or spiritual activity helps level out those hormonal shifts. If the pain gets too intense, I just take an Advil.