Terry Dobson was one of the first Americans to practice and teach aikido.
(36) I wish you would see me not as a spiritual leader, but rather, as a mechanic. I consider myself a mechanic. I'm a transmission specialist of a sort. I'm working on the transmission of ki, of intention. I'm heir to a legacy that comes down from many generations, regarding point, or presence. Many Japanese warriors got cut down or killed; a lot of people paid in blood to learn lessons about being centered under fire. I'm not the repository for the entire sum of knowledge on the subject but I have been close to some good teachers and I do know something about it.
While I don't necessarily want to prepare you for the OK Corral, perhaps something I say may be of help to you.
It's a Lot Like Dancing: An Aikido Journey by Terry Dobson, Riki Moss, and Jan E. Watson
Berkeley, CA: Frog Ltd, 1993
ISBN 1-883319-02-1
Dobson is also the author of probably the most common aikido tale, the subway story.
My teacher, Sensei Kanai Mitsunari, was an uchi deshi [live-in student] of the founder, Ueshiba Morihei, at the same time as Dobson and disagreed. Kanai Sensei was of the opinion that martial practice and dancing weren't at all alike.
I like to practice but I also like to dance, these days especially the tango. Mostly, I'm just grateful to be able to breathe and stand.
(15) The secret of focus is virtuous intention. Nothing else. Any fool can focus. Any fool can concentrate. But the real life, and deathness, comes in why you are focusing. The reason that you are focusing is important. The techniques you learn in Aikido are not weapons. They are tools which can be used to save a life. If you use them as weapons, you will get cut by them. You will hurt somebody or get hurt. If you use them with virtuous intention, you will go right through the opposition. I stole this theory from 150 Japanese sword teachers.
(43) The Mohawk Indians, who live not far from me in Vermont, have a tremendous feeling of anger. they believe they face real genocidal opposition on the part of the whites. To deal with their feelings, they have a traditional ceremony called "Kill the Enemy." Let's say I have an enemy. Let's say it's Yamada. I choose several other people to help me, to join me in a sweat lodge. Our task will be to think of every positive attribute of Yamada. "He's tall. He's handsome. He's very strong. He's not lazy. He gets up early, blah, blah, blah." We do that for a set period of time, maybe a few hours. By the end of that time, since only his positive aspects have been focused upon, we've essentially killed the enemy. He's too good to be our enemy, we like him too much. We are in harmony. Pretty soon, it's impossible for me to remember Yamada was my enemy.
(48) The next time you are in conflict, don't resist. When the person you are dealing with finds no resistance, they change. They go to another place. It's so simple in theory and difficult in practice. You get into arguments because you think you are right. So stop thinking you are right!
56-57) We are all for nonviolence, but there are times when the right course of action is to fight like hell.
I was waiting to be seen by a doctor in the Emergency Room of Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. I had broken my shoulder had had an operation, and now one of the steel pins was working its way out of my skin. It was 3 am and I had been waiting for hours, entranced by the entertainment offered me by the participants in one of the city's least elegant public hospitals.
It was a hot, August night and most of the doors were open to the street. All of a sudden, I heard a roar. Ahhhhhhhh! from far away, but growing closer. Everybody sat still, wondering what it was. Was it an animal? Was it a human? What was it? Then, screaming "Ahhhhhhhh!" at the top of his lungs this Puerto Rican guy burst into the Emergency Room. He was a big man, a body builder or maybe a professional wrestler. Blood was trickling down his totally shaven head. He was wearing a pair of bikini underpants and nothing else. No shirt, no shoes, no pants, nothing.
He came in running at full speed screaming at the top of his lungs. He was the most frightening thing you've ever seen in your life. He ran past the nurses' station. Beyond it, there was a door on his right sheathed in lexan. It was obviously bullet-proof. Two big New York City cops flanked this door on either side. They were carrying guns.
Without stopping, the guy raced up, hit the door hard, and smashed his way through it. His energy must have been incredibly and obviously righteous, because those armed cops just stepped aside and let him through. He was bizarre in the extreme, he was like Godzilla, right?
"Yes sir, you wanna come in, yes sir, I'm not going to stop you."
He ran out of sight, still screaming.
All of a sudden, "Bam!" The outside door bursts open again.
This time, five elderly Puerto Rican ladies dressed in black come in carrying a baby. The baby is absolutely blue, can't breath at all. Suddenly the guy emerges from the inner door, clutching a doctor by the throat. The women approach with the baby. He brings the doctor, and says to him, "Fix him!" They all disappear into a room.
Five minutes later they come back. They're all laughing and they leave.
Now, if this guy had come in there and done a New Age "excuse me ma'am, I have a baby here and he's blue," they'd say, "OK what's your social security number? Have any insurance? Where do you live?" They'd go through all that and the baby would die.
I watched the whole thing. The Emergency Room is the entertainment capital of the world. It's Charles Dickens in three dimensions.
(59) At no time do we sense energy more than when we are in love or in conflict. There is a heightened sense of awareness. A lot of the messages that you get and send out during conflict are in the medium of ki, or non-physical energy. I think it is physical energy, but we don't have a meter reading for it yet.
(79) Early in the morning, in the main squares of small Spanish towns, you see old men walking along, talking. I didn't know what they were talking about and I don't think it matters. I could tell by the way they related to each other that there was honor there, respect, camaraderie. If there were more of that in our daily life, I don't think we would be so moved by the thought of going to war.
(80) I think one of the reasons why this country goes to war so easily is because men want to get together in a way that affirms them. War is an easy way to do it. Start a war, everybody gets together, people help each other out. It's a wonderful feeling, a real expression of love. If our society offered more ways to affirm our love, we would not be so compelled to answer calls to war.
(82) Francis Bacon said it back in the sixteenth century, "I know not why, but martial men are given to love." There is a close connection between love and war.
(169) The purpose of conflict is harmony.
Conflict Does Not Have to Be Armed
Resilience Can Be Security
Solar IS Civil Defense