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Old 06-17-2008, 11:35 AM   #8
jennifer paige smith
 
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Dojo: Confluence Aiki-Dojo / Santa Cruz Sword Club
Location: Santa Cruz
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,049
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Re: Aikido & Community Service

Quote:
Janet Rosen wrote: View Post
I think that service to the DOJO community is what I would consider appropriate. Anything else makes dojo members subject to the dojocho's world view vis a vis social issues, culture, religion, etc when it comes to selecting a "service" to do.
I agree with this with the caveat that the Dojo does not make claims that they are providing for 'the community' (meaning the broader community) by providing services only within their own walls to a benefit greater to themselves than to the benefit of the "the community."

Indeed, it should be discerned what someone means when they say community.

I've been greatly impressed and inspired by Homma Sensei's Mission and I follow in-step because it suits me and my mission of service for this world, which also translates to my dojo as I'm the dojo-cho.

I ask my teen students to provide service to someone, be it mowing the lawn for an elderly neighbor or putting time aside to help their siblings do their homework. And we, as a dojo, tithe $ and goods to the greater community. My dojo is not a non-profit, and so it is my choice to do this with our funds. And I 'spose having a program that runs in out of the way places to provide aikido to people who wouldn't otherwise be exposed is a form of service. But the bottom line is I do this because it does my heart and the heart of the dojo good.

To each their own.

Jennifer Paige Smith
Confluence Aikido Systems
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