Ralph Pettman
Going For A Walk In The World
DEEP WEIGHT A couple of simple exercises can make this mental dimension easier to see. I don't want to claim any more for these exercises than they warrant. But it's hard to appreciate just how much difference a change in mental intention can make to our physical performance without experimenting a little with changes in mind and seeing what changes they make to the body. And it's just such experimentation that can start a line of personal enquiry that can lead, through an art like aikido, to a much more profound awareness of what mental awareness means in practical, physical terms. Stand close behind someone and put your hands under their arm-pits. Tell them to think of their head as being extremely light, like a big, helium-filled balloon about to fly to the ceiling. Tell them to really try feeling empty, as if they were about to go up without effort. Then try and lift them. Next tell them to think of themselves as being extremely heavy, like a deep-sea diver wearing big lead boots and a heavy metal suit. Tell them to really try feeling as if they were stuck to the floor. Try and lift them again. You will notice at once a difference between how they feel when they are thinking "light" and how they feel when they are thinking "heavy". There is no outward change in what is happening. There is only a change of mind. The result, however, is a dramatic change in what someone seems to weigh. If your partner is sceptical let them choose which way to think. Tell them to think "heavy" or "light", but to keep their decision a secret. Then try to lift them. You will know at once which decision they've made. They'll know that you know too. Try this change of mind while standing on the bathroom scales. The needle won't move at all. The difference, in other words, is not a physical one. You can't decrease gravity by thinking light. You can't increase gravity by thinking heavy. The difference lies in the relationship between you and your partner. A partner who thinks light is actually collaborating with you in your efforts to lift them up. They don't know it but they are helping you to lift them up. A partner who thinks heavy gives you their dead weight - and more. They give you no help at all. There is no difference in what they actually weigh, in other words. There is a very big difference in how much they are prepared to help, however. This makes a very big difference in turn in how they feel to you. What does this mean for a martial art like aikido? Thinking "light", with your weight in your head and shoulders, makes you very easy to throw. You will actually be helping an opponent who wants to topple you to do just that. Thinking "heavy", with your weight low in your body or along its underside surfaces, makes you much harder to throw. You can still be light on your feet. You don't have to clump about as if you were salvaging the Titanic. It's more a matter of using your mental weight in a tactically intelligent way. It's more a matter of how you relate to your opponent and the way you picture that relationship in your mind.
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