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Old 02-24-2012, 10:39 AM   #13
akiy
 
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Join Date: Jun 2000
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Re: Response to: It Had to be Felt #4: Arikawa Sadateru: "Please, put your hand Down!

Hi folks,

To clarify a few things that may be unclear here…

Before Ellis posted his now series of columns, I spoke to him on the phone at length about them. I had my concerns that people may have differing opinions and experiences from what he wrote, but I came to the conclusion that this series is something that I wish to support.

I feel that the four criteria that he lists at the bottom of each of his columns in this series (and explained at length in his introductory column) are quite clear and that they set up a very interesting experiment -- in a nutshell, to have the posts in his threads be based only on one's personal experience and opinion rather than in response to someone else's writings. Of course, posts responding to one of the posts in the series are welcome, only simply in a different thread (so as to keep the viewpoints in the series to be one and only one's own).

I split off the first post in this very thread as it did not meet these criteria. It was clearly written in response to Ellis's experience and meant to address them. Likewise with the second post as well.

As another point of clarification, however, I wish to state that Ellis never once asked for the first comment in this thread to be moved/removed due to his having taken offense with his "inexperience." Rather, the criteria as I refer to above were what prompted the moving of the first comment.

Please note that this is not to diminish anyone's personal experience with any teacher. To be clear -- Niall, I understand and appreciate that you have had a different experience with Arikawa sensei than that of Ellis; after all, Ellis's experience with him was during the 70's and yours some time later. The moving of your thoughts to this different thread is not meant to be any sort of disrespect regarding your experience. My request to you would be to please (please!) post your experiences with Arikawa sensei -- especially if your experiences differ -- without reference to Ellis nor argument with Ellis's own experience, so that your experience may stand alone rather than being dependent on what has already been written.

No matter what the circumstance, we will have differing experiences. I trust that the reader will be able to take that into consideration in reading these responses. I appreciate everyone's understanding and support for this experiment.

Best regards,

-- Jun

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