I am enjoying this discussion.
I'm a pretty long-time student of aikido, which is a martial art. In
my aikido communities, the idea seems to be that until your skill
reaches a certain level, you will do best to copy your teacher as
exactly as you can. After a certain point, you can begin to express
your own individual style in the art. If you start to try to do that
too early, it will be flawed--in part because it takes a long time to
even begin to have a grasp of the basics. If you do it as a natural
extension of your own study, it will not only be obvious to your
teacher and probably to your peers, but it will also be inevitable.
Plus, it will take a lot longer to get to that place than you would
like it to.
As with just about anything I've done which rewards discipline, I see
a strong parallel between my experience in aikido and my (brief)
experience studying shakuhachi. The upshot is: listen to your
teachers, assuming they are any good at all. Don't worry about stuff
that your teacher doesn't tell you to worry about. (I am assuming
that all of us here have wonderful teachers, which may not be true.)
-j
On Wed, Aug 20, 2003 at 09:45:15AM -0700, Peter H wrote:
> > "Do not seek to follow the footsteps of the masters. Seek what they
> > sought."
>
> Great quote, Herb! Now, how does that translate into particulars, in
> our yuri discussion, for example? That's always the hard part, isn't
> it?
>
> Peter
--
jeremy bornstein <busy@indolent.org>
-*-
i do believe that where there is a choice only between cowardice and
violence, i would advise violence.
[mahatma gandhi]
-*-
http://indolent.org/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 06 2004 - 14:09:34 PST