2010.01.19 07:00 - Aiki PaB

The Guardian for this meeting was Riddle Sideways. The comments are by Riddle Sideways.

Yakuzza and Calvino were waiting for me when I took so long getting from the last place I left SL to the sesssion.

Yakuzza Lethecus: hey cal, riddle
Calvino Rabeni: Hello Yaku-san and Riddle
Riddle Sideways: good morning, YaK and Cal
Riddle Sideways: In RL we are having pretty nice storm and I may lose electricity
Riddle Sideways: or internet down the chain

Trees down in my neighborhood and lost power twice yesterday, but I made it through the whole session.

Calvino jumps right into today's topic.

Calvino Rabeni: Riddle, your skirt looks like a hakama - is it?
Riddle Sideways: Yes, I at least I tried to make it look like a hakama
Riddle Sideways: still can't make a belt
Riddle Sideways: Obi
Calvino Rabeni: Do you have them in RL also?
Riddle Sideways: Yes, but don't wear as much
Riddle Sideways: I have stopped teaching kids classes
Riddle Sideways: getting old and my knees, back, stamina etc.
Calvino Rabeni: What classes were you teaching?
Riddle Sideways: Aikido
Riddle Sideways: was mostly the kids classes
Riddle Sideways: but many times the adult teacher might not show up
Riddle Sideways: how about you?
Calvino Rabeni: Was this in an ordinary school or a dojo?
Riddle Sideways: in a dojo
Riddle Sideways: but did outreach to schools
Riddle Sideways: am now doing more Aiki extension works
Calvino Rabeni: It was long ago - I used to teach in the college, even though my rank was only ikkyu - because it was far from the dojo
Calvino Rabeni: I still have the hakama and other things
Calvino Rabeni: I enjoyed doing that instruction
Riddle Sideways: I was ikkyu for about 20+ years
Calvino Rabeni: I was for 6
Calvino Rabeni: I felt no hurry for some reason
Riddle Sideways: me either
Riddle Sideways: seemed like a big step
Riddle Sideways: ha, and it was
--BELL--

Here is a link to just an intro into what is being done.

Riddle Sideways: http://www.aiki-extensions.org/
Riddle Sideways: where do you / did you train?
Calvino Rabeni: when I got older I switched from aikido to tai chi / boxing, because of body issues
Riddle Sideways: yes, I am about to start tai chi
Calvino Rabeni: USA, west coast, Seattle and Oakland, California
Riddle Sideways: ah, I know many of the Oakland and Seattle Aikidoka, Sensais and Dojos
Calvino Rabeni: Tai chi partner practice is a lot of fun, besides being a good art

Not sure how to get this idea across to you the reader.  There is a 'Time' thing going on in both arts.  Aikido starts fast/big movements and with practice it becomes almost slower.  Tai chi starts being learned at a slow rate and over years becomes faster and bigger.  Both arts reach a place where time can stand still (or more correctly, has no bearing/meaning/control anymore).

Riddle Sideways: That link above is what many of us are doing with Aikido ideals into the RL
Riddle Sideways: the body ages, the mind needs to pass it on
Calvino Rabeni: Yes true
Riddle Sideways: the realization of a dojo for palestinians and isralis to train, grow, Be together
Riddle Sideways: for an hour or so the walls come down
Calvino Rabeni: good work
Riddle Sideways: another branch is bring introduction to alternatives to school kids
Riddle Sideways: show teenagers that there is an other alternitive to stand and fight or run away
Riddle Sideways: for a person to "know" they can 'Blend" with
Calvino Rabeni: I understand - it is useful for that to be available to some teenagers

ah, the tie in

Riddle Sideways: PaB is almost backward method of teaching the very same thing
Riddle Sideways: in dojo we throw each other around and gently learn harmony/reality
Calvino Rabeni: So do you mean we will learn to throw each other around in PAB :)
Riddle Sideways: here we chat/discuss things/ideas that matter and gently take them into RL conflicts

1. I did not say that right.  In RL dojos we use physical means to learn mental.  In SL/PaB we use virtual/mental means to learn real, physical, RL, reality, useful.
2. Not as much a joke.  The ideas, practices and quips/typos here throw me many times.  I really do think we do learn to throw each other around, off, into and within in PaB/  I try to "throw" every person I meet here.

Riddle Sideways: A third branch of Aiki Extensions is taking principles into Business
Calvino Rabeni: The second dojo I attended was about halfway between these two poles you mention
Calvino Rabeni: Like a PaB / Dojo mix
Calvino Rabeni: Here is a quote - to get a feel for that mix:
Calvino Rabeni: The core of Cheng Hsin is increasing the depth and sensitivity of our conscious awareness through contemplation and experiential investigation of mind, perception, self and Being. Often such pursuits are limited to belief systems and dogma. We aim for a direct personal experience of the truth regarding everything we encounter.
Calvino Rabeni: Some PaB similarities, yes?
--BELL--

Please take 90 seconds to re-read the above quote.
It is well worth the study.

--BELL--
Riddle Sideways: yes
Riddle Sideways: over a hundred people come to PaB
Riddle Sideways: from many/all of different beliefs, dogmas, points of view, etc.
Riddle Sideways: through direct global personal experiance have produced our shared truths
Riddle Sideways: the opposite side is
Riddle Sideways: being amid a business day
Riddle Sideways: and a 15 min gong goes off
Riddle Sideways: you relax and loosen up

Benedizione joins us for a while.

Riddle Sideways: hi Bene
Calvino Rabeni: There's still such a gulf between mind and body in the thinking of most people
Riddle Sideways: I see you can walk on water
Calvino Rabeni: Hello Benedizione
Benedizione Vita: at the time I was a cloud haha
Benedizione Vita: hello all
Calvino Rabeni: All the word / being issues we talk about in PaB were intimately familiar to the martial ways also
Riddle Sideways: ah, and when you encounter one of those persons with their mind and body separated?
Riddle Sideways: how do you help them blend
Calvino Rabeni: Good question Riddle
Calvino Rabeni: By being calm and physical, they get it on some level
Calvino Rabeni: And by not being dogmatic where it looks like there are splits in thinking
Riddle Sideways: not being there for their mental or physical attack
Calvino Rabeni: I'm not thinking about attack
Calvino Rabeni: I'm thinking about attitudes
Riddle Sideways: sorry, I use word attack in a loose/general way
Riddle Sideways: it is loaded word
Calvino Rabeni: For example, someone holds themself back unnecessarily
Calvino Rabeni: That could be considered an attack on self, loosely speaking
Riddle Sideways: yes
Calvino Rabeni: But, I prefer to think of it as a positive opportunity not taken
Calvino Rabeni: for lack of an imaginative appreciation of the possibilities
Riddle Sideways: and the sharing thereof
Calvino Rabeni: Yes

...

Riddle Sideways: was looking at your profile Benedi
Riddle Sideways: how do you do the Qwaq to SL liason?
Benedizione Vita: oh that is an old thing
Benedizione Vita: a dinosaur, really :)
Riddle Sideways: I have not been to Qwaq since the block Avs
Benedizione Vita: it isn't a software thing
Benedizione Vita: I see
--BELL--
Benedizione Vita: yes, qwaq has some new avatars these days
Benedizione Vita: also, it is now teleplace
Riddle Sideways: see, I still only know the old name
Riddle Sideways: I think I got that memo :)
Benedizione Vita: what memo?
Riddle Sideways: name change email
Benedizione Vita: oh I see

...

Riddle Sideways: I remember experiencing the extreme demo of what we were talking Cal
Riddle Sideways: Robert Nadeau Shihon was speaking on the things that mater. From all points of view at all times
Riddle Sideways: being grounded in the clouds
Riddle Sideways: while 2 big 250 pound guys were attacking him and they kept sailing across the room
Riddle Sideways: the attitudes you present... splat
Riddle Sideways: the total present of not being there... whish
Calvino Rabeni: Yes
Calvino Rabeni: It is dramatic for a demonstration
Calvino Rabeni: When I was a beginner, the subtle things captured my interest
Riddle Sideways: now that I am a beginner again and an aged expert they captivate me again
Calvino Rabeni: like the "no touch throw", or the throw while holding with a feather light grip
Calvino Rabeni: in which the experience of "mass" seems to change

I read a book that said mass was.  Declared to be the same if at the same spot and temperature.  I both believe it and not.  I have known the mass to be different.
Another book said it would take Q amount of energy to move that mass.  I have used less and moved it further.
Personally, I love books...  They tell me thinks I do not know.

Riddle Sideways: to see it done, to feel it donw to me, to try it, to do it
Riddle Sideways: stages along the way
Calvino Rabeni: Yes, nice progression, it makes things get realer
Benedizione Vita: time for me to split--just wanted to pop in and listen for a bit :)
Benedizione Vita: good day, all--happy play
Riddle Sideways: please come back more
Riddle Sideways: bye

Calvino Rabeni: And then later enters, the ontological stuff, but after it is a little grounded in physical reality
Calvino Rabeni: for example a quote:
Calvino Rabeni: All these things are difficult to form into words. If a person gives a name to something and then holds fast to that name, he will miss the real meaning. Yet if no name is given, then he floats about in empty space and does not attain awareness. Chozan Shissai - Master Swordsman, Japan 1728

Riddle Sideways: ah, that balance
Calvino Rabeni: Yes, that one :)
Riddle Sideways: the name is not the thing
Calvino Rabeni: It is discovered along the developmental progression you stated just before
Calvino Rabeni: But the name and thing actually one, or intimate, when held in presence
Calvino Rabeni: and only then
--BELL--

...

Riddle Sideways: yet now... (maybe I develop) I have so many friends, essences, ____ that have no names
Calvino Rabeni: the "real meaning" referred to - neither name nor thing, but their relationship in being
Riddle Sideways: oooo that is what I meant
Calvino Rabeni: That is a very rich world you are talking about
Riddle Sideways: my friend that foggy type image that spreads across the pool
Riddle Sideways: that is just a Sl / computer / virtual construct
Riddle Sideways: that reminds me I must gravitate toward the next phase of life
Riddle Sideways: in other words... go to work now

Calvino Rabeni: good talking to you Riddle
Yakuzza Lethecus: bye riddle
Riddle Sideways: thank you. I could talk this all day
Calvino Rabeni: It is rare I make this time slot
Calvino Rabeni: another time :)
Calvino Rabeni: have a great day :)
Yakuzza Lethecus: when do you usually start working cal ?
Calvino Rabeni: Calvino Rabeni says - what is "work" :)
Calvino Rabeni: But today I am at the computer early
Calvino Rabeni: The Sun just rose above the horizon