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Old 01-27-2011, 01:58 PM   #124
Budd
 
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Re: Ikeda Sensei Demos of Ki

Quote:
Marc Abrams wrote: View Post
Budd:

I do not think that many people are trying to get other people to not look at their idols with scrutiny. I think that most people are trying very hard to get everything they can from a teacher (maybe I'm being too optimistic). I think that Dan's statement "You don't know what you don't know." is a wise cautionary note. The hubris contained in some people's beliefs that they can gain all from seeing a video, or from watching a person do something, should speak for itself. How many times have you made advances in some area and when you look back on something, you go, "Oh my GOD, it was always there in front of me! Why could I not see it then?" How many times have you directly trained with someone and find more going on than meets your eye? Even hands-on experience will be limited to our ability to be open to learn and experience new things.

All of us, our teachers included, are all students on some path. Many struggle with their own progress and then compound that with their struggles in how they can teach their students what they have learned (or are learning). We know that having skills is a different subset from being able to teach a skill. We then have to compound that mess even more by recognizing that people learn in many different ways and at very different paces.

I think that this learning and transmission process has always been a convoluted affair. I would assume that many generations before us struggled with similar issues that we debate within ourselves and with others. History tends to indicate that "the greats" have been the result of serendipitous interactions between certain people at certain times. Maybe someone can find a more efficient and effective means of transmission. We all are trying to find that elusive "holy grail."

I think that we all need to keep a good dose of humility, open-mindedness, a willingness to share, a willingness to be wrong, a willingness to try and experience as much as you can - First Hand, as we try and learn new and different things. I greatly appreciate your efforts to tone down the rhetoric and bring things back on topic. At the same time, we also have to be careful to place a caveat around what we state to reflect the distinct possibility that there is always more there than meets our eyes at this moment in time. Ushiro Sensei cautions people that the greatest impediment to learning is what we already think that we know.

Regards,

Marc Abrams
Marc,

That's fair - and I'm not advocating everyone just assume they know what's going on from a video - but what I am saying is to use the available resources - video, testimonials, hands on, etc. . .get the experiences you can, compile them.

Both Dan's comment "You don't know what you don't know" and Ushiro's "impediment to learning is what we already think that we know" I think speak a lot to this. I used to be the poster child for getting out and meeting people. I will get back to it in the next year, hopefully.

But on that topic - I understand where people don't want their idols maligned - or even perceived to being maligned. But I'd really like us to get to the point where someone can give an opinion or assessment of someone else's skills (respectfully, I'd hope) without getting attacked or everybody being fast to assume that they didn't "get" what was happening.

But that's just me