Re: Does Budo require a sense of shame?
Hello David,
In my 35-year aikido career, so far, I think I have met only one such teacher and I do not know him well enough to know whether this is really true.
I think there is a great danger, where aikido is seen as a mass martial art available for everybody, that instructors who are not mentally or spiritually equipped to do so, will attempt to teach by including shame and guilt as a necessary part of the dojo curriculum, whether or not their students are, in their turn, mentally or spiritually equipped to cope with such training.
A significant part of my aikido career to date, significant enough to be troubling, has involved trying to repair emotional and spiritual damage done to students by such instructors, who believe they are acting in good faith and with the best of intentions.
The problem in such a dojo is to be able to distinguish between different spiritual influences, as Ignatius of Loyola puts it.
Best regards,
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