Thread: Cheap Aikido
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Old 09-13-2002, 02:03 PM   #5
Paul Smith
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 59
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Money is nothing more than a means of exchanging perceived value between a buyer and seller about the thing or service sold.

It is known that O'Sensei paid handsomely for access to the "hiden" of daito-ryu, and that he could do that, in part, because of his family's wealth. The idea that Sensei are somehow otherwordly, spiritual beings who, by passionately living for their art, have transcended this nefarious world of money is, I think, a sadly misguided notion. Sad, because many who have the talent to teach full time, to give themselves completely to owning and running a dojo in order to professionally transmit the gift they received, may not do so if the idea generally holds sway that by earning a living they debase themselves, their art and their students.

I do not think passion and getting paid for it are mutually exclusive. I believe that to transmit this art we need full time, professional instructors, who in addition to devoting their lives solely and completely to teaching budo, must do so while being able to feed their families on what they do. A centralized, established and true "place of the way," a dojo, requires, in my view, just such a person, and just such a condition.

Paul

Paul Smith
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