Solemnity

[windwalker099124 154]

I’m really struggling to understand this. Any thoughts?

“The reach of the opponent's ki (気), and your own ki.”
In our practice, this would be understood in terms of intent and what we call the qìchǎng (气场).

The qìchǎng is the field surrounding the body. Intent, together with awareness, allows one to sense and interact with that field.

I'm sure the logical, rational part of your brain will revolt against all this haha, but it's a thing

Reading or seeing demos of it in use, most will

 

[isshinryuronin14 13]

I’m really struggling to understand this. Any thoughts?

If ma is the technique, then maai is the bunkai. Ma is physical distance, maai represents the potential and possibilities within, filling that distance.

But further than that is really a distance between you and your opponent on a level of awareness. More on the level of picking up on intention. The intuitive intertwining with the opponent so there IS no distance. The space between each person isn't empty at all, so tapping into that ma seems what it's hinting at.

Good insight. The thoughts in that video are worth pondering. There may be differences in how each of us interpret Nichika Sensei's vision of maai, but I feel each of us can take something helpful from it.

 

[Gyakuto124 133]

“The reach of the opponent's ki (気), and your own ki.”
In our practice, this would be understood in terms of intent and what we call the qìchǎng (气场).

That fits in with my The Force analogy!

The qìchǎng is the field surrounding the body. Intent, together with awareness, allows one to sense and interact with that field.

‘A disturbance in the force’

 

[Gyakuto124 133]

I was taken on one side to be shown kaishaku by someone who had done this during WWll. As an officer he was requested to perform this on another officer. I was taught that the method varied throughout Japan. I was shown it as a one-handed cut with the left hand as a stopping hand. Anything stronger was sure to decapitate someone. The blade has to cut so that the head can be stitched back on and not show injury at the front when clothed.

 

[Gyakuto124 133]

Thus in synopsis,

Ma can be envisaged as a field that surrounds, permeates and interposes everything (a bit like the luminiferous aether). An enemy’s intent is manifest in his Ki (it extends outward) which perturbs the ma field and this can be ‘detected’ and be used as the initiation for a reaction to that intent.

Is that a serviceable analogy?

 

[Gyakuto124 133]

I’ve revised my model in response to Nichika Sensei’s latest video and it seems to fit his previous descriptions very well!

One’s Ma and the enemy’s Ki are rather like ‘chemotaxis’ in a cell which extends an investigative protuberance when presented by a new stimulus.

The enemy extends his ki and thus his intent and one’s ma extends, meets and conforms to the ‘shape’ of the intent of that Ki allowing one to respond in accordance to the ‘intent shape’; whether it be murderous intent -> suspicious curiosity ->vigilant observation -> complete disinterest and that conformational change in one’s ma in response to the ‘shape’ of the ki’s leading edge is what helps you decide the apprise course of action.

I’ve been spending too much time in Glastonbury…