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Old 02-11-2007, 07:58 PM   #14
Gernot Hassenpflug
Dojo: Aunkai, Tokyo
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 319
Japan
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Re: What has aikido caused you to do?

Caused me to go out and find knowledge, and realize what a trap Asian hierarchies are. The basic premise to go by is that a teacher won't teach the real deal, and that should be indirectly gotten from someone who is teaching something else (which he won't teach you) but is not protecting that particular thing you're after from him. This doesn't go just for Aikido of course, but the dojo was where I realized this most clearly, by seeing the difference between the few with inside knowledge, and those without. As soon as I learnt some basics (badly, still) from elsewhere (Akuzawa) all that insider knowledge that a few had became worthless (though still magnificent when arrayed against the ignorance of the rest of the practitioners).
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