Quote:
Linda Eskin wrote:
Doshu makes no reference to any level of proficiency or number or years' training one should achieve before reading the Founder's words, or for that matter before presenting the true spirit of Aikido. He doesn't specify which ranks he means when he says "It is our responsibility..."
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A while back, I told myself that I had had my say on this thread and that I was done with it, that anything else I said would only be repeating myself...but the persistent misunderstanding of the comments about reading, such as the comment quoted here, have gotten me to renege on that promise. The message isn't, "Don't read", and it certainly isn't, "You may only read when you've trained x years and achieved y rank." The message, as I see it, is that when you are a beginner, reading isn't going to help you, and may in fact only serve to confuse or mislead you. Once again, as with my most recent comment, I see a significant and nontrivial difference between these two points. It's necessary to paraphrase in order to address one another's points; however, in doing so, we need to be very careful not to alter the core meaning of each other's statements.