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Old 01-13-2011, 11:19 AM   #39
dave9nine
Dojo: Aikido Institute - Oakland
Location: Oakland
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 80
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Re: What Is Your Responsibility in Training?

Quote:
Peter A Goldsbury wrote: View Post
The consequence is that the Hombu becomes a business, geared to the market, one result of which is that students come to be regarded as customers and their satisfaction--established by means of the latest market research--becomes paramount. Training has to cater for all these customers, or essential market share will be lost. PAG
this is exactly what i was trying to get at. it helps crystalize a thought, such that i think i can now frame it:

this is about 2 different paradigms. people seem to either approach the art from 1) a business/customer relationship, or 2) a traditional sensei/deshi relationship.

i think the scenario described in the OP is a product of #1. especially nowadays as people are raised more and more as consumers, developing passive, download-life-while-sitting-at-home sort of interfaces for learning (the way most schools are set up seems to reinforce this). in this context, then, a seminar is much like a rock concert; people are paying money to go and see an 'act', to live vicariously through the 'star' as it were, and to be able to say that they were there.

#2, on the otherhand, is a mentality/cultural understanding that is harder to maintain/develop/instill as generations progress, particularly in a world economic context where advanced capitalism has gotten to where it is now. is it a stretch to suggest that the aspects of 'traditional' koryu are/were culturally interwoven with the fuedalism surrounding them? and that it was precisely the movement away from that era that coincides with the changes in the approach to MA in general?

with all this in mind, i think the answer to the OPs question depends on which paradigm people operate under:
if it's #2, the 'responsibility' in training is to humble oneself and focus intensely on soaking up all that sensei has to offer/teach; to serve sensei and sempai with dilligence, and to be the best training partner one can be, and to learn with the understanding that one day whatever was learned will also be passed on to others to continue the 'way.'

if it is #1, then im afraid that 'responsibility' disappears...

my 2 pesos, anyway....
-dave
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