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Old 03-05-2004, 06:36 PM   #38
Deb Fisher
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 145
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Just because Peter is the only contrarian here, two quick thoughts:

1. One of the most important things training has taught me (in my less than two years) is that personal responsibility and responsibility to others is all the same thing. It sounds like there was a whole lot of neither going on that particular class, which winds up of course being everyone's problem. Of course it is bad to push beginners, and of course it is everyone's responsibility to take care of beginners (the most popular theme going on here). But of course it is also important to learn how not to compromise yourself. I cannot say that I wouldn't have gone along with the same situation, but I do hope that I would wake up just a little bit wiser about my own boundaries/limits/ignorances.

(just to present a whole picture--I think this is what Peter was getting at in previous posts)

2. When I started training, I often felt 'scolded' and worked through it and learned a lot about how much training was about my ego and pleasing my sensei. I started assuming that my sensei was doing it on purpose to show me my ego, and eventually got much more comfortable training with myself for my own reasons. Then eventually I realized that he's just like that, that he wasn't scolding me at all (and that whatever it was, it had nothing to do with me).

Feeling bad while training is lame, and should be examined--don't get me wrong. I guess I'm just saying that there are lessons in everything, and that some lessons are worth sticking through (some are better to take with you, of course).

Deb Fisher
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