The new students are always looking for challenges, to have fun, to participate in the camaraderie of the adventure or to assume control of the helm and lead the ship into what waters they believe the whole expedition should be heading. Although it may seem like a good time for the teacher to participate in the movement of the students, to be fluid, to alter and adapt, I believe that the teacher should remain as focused on his own warrior craft as possible. That once the doors close and class begins, the teacher becomes serious about the craft. I see the possibility of a great disservice to both the student and the teacher if this basic tenet is not followed.
Omote
When a student begins to sand box or question or participates in below a standard of respect in the dojo he is being inauthentic to his desire to learn. His behavior, even in jest, diminishes his intention. It lowers his standard of attention, his ability to learn, and his intention of retaining information gleaned. At the same time it, inversely, increases his attachment to his ego, by self perpetuation of his internal self loving perfection, thus increasing his judgments of situations and skill sets that he may not fully understand. The more he is allowed to play around, the more possibility that he will simply not respect the teaching nor the time there and will in fact miss the real, deeper, point of the whole. The omote, that is, what is seen, for the student is the process of learning a martial art. For them, at this stage, discipline should almost be paramount.
The problem arises when you attempt to institute a strict ethical approach in a martial arts dojo. In another time or in another place, such reverence of the place and the teachings were made possible by the realization of what the undesired end could be: that is death. New students to the martial way were raised with the warrior intuitions and strict moral upbringing, coupled with the everyday experience of war and fighting that came with true self determination.* The current society is so designed to eliminate ultimate self determination by outlawing and the subtle undermining of personal growth. This isn’t a judgment, simply an observation of the facts. By removing the constant threats of old, our modern society has bred a child like adult, whom spends much of his early adult years playing like a child in his adult body. This translates into how the body is used, how it learns, what value it applies to those things it learns, and more importantly, the value-less-ness of those things it did not learn. For those things that get lost are hard fought to impress upon unwilling flesh later.
Those students that are sandboxing, asking a lot of what if questions, who struggle and fight back against techniques, are designed by our society to behave this way, and as a teacher, you should help them to see that they aren’t even really seeing themselves, not fully. Like looking into a series of foggy mirrors trying to find your one true reflection. The teacher’s job is not simply to offer a martial art. The art itself is a tool and nothing more. But his job is to help the student become a human being. A true, self determinate, independent, lover of life, defender of his ideals. The true teacher is a mirror breaker. Taking us back to our first image. That’s how important we are to the teacher, that he takes on the ‘karma’ of all those broken mirrors right along with us.
The problem is that the student whom practices these behaviors is not trying to rise to the teacher, but is instead trying to bring the teacher to his own level. A student of first year math has no right to take a course in algebra; his presence in the class would be disruptive. He’d be lost, question everything, and basically find no value in the whole proceeding. Is a white belt really much different? The difference is, we are suppose to have the patience and love for the beginner’s heart, to help nurture his unique nature and foster in him a true grown up human being. Can you see the conundrum this creates? Where in the student, by his nature, is drawing the whole downward and the teacher is attempting to elevate the situation. Of course in any closed system, black body radiation is very efficient. In other words, the teacher radiates at a black body, whom simply reflects with little absorption.
Ura
For the teacher, his desire to offer the student the best possible education in regards to his martial training can be all consuming. This leads to cases of getting to what if scenarios, jumping into the sand box to play with the students, and so forth. I cannot speak for all teachers, for some might find this method of teaching beneficial. Some styles, some purposes, some warrior creeds may in fact desire this approach. I can only reflect my limited viewpoint and the few notch hole observations I’ve made of this vast battlefield. It is my opinion that teachers should not sand-box, or fall prey to the ‘what if’. Unless, they fully intend to go 100% on the student. The teacher must always exhibit his intention to fully perform the techniques, the approaches, the desires of the school and most importantly: his own Warriorship. If at any time he softens, to allow for the student to postulate or play, then he is doing damage to his own identity. By giving room to others whom will take advantage of the situation for their own benefit.
The teacher needs to remember that the student has signed on to learn, not just the throwing of fists into the air, but all the underlying, metaphysical, aspects of what is going on in the dojo. Where the Warriorship leads. I have a friend who teaches Yoga and it disheartens her when she finds students returning to her classes that haven’t realized that Yoga is a spiritual practice, that it’s not simply a place to become limber and socialize. That the yoga studio is a place of reverence, a kind of temple. It may not be a church to me, but it is a great spiritual path to her and I respect that and would assume that those entering her doors should quickly learn that there is a penance to be paid and homage to be adorned. The same is true for every Endeavour that a student undertakes. Whether that is martial arts or basket weaving. There is a seriousness, a meaning, a point to the adventure. Every step of our lives is … Our life and it should be serious. One of my favorite Hindi says is, “Before your birth, god inscribed upon you your allotted number of breathes. It is yours to decide how to use them.” I have a limited scope, a finite time. Why waste it with half truths and half-hearted foolishness?
It therefore is necessary for the teacher, in order to maintain his own path, to not engage in things that would bring him away from his identity. Sandboxing, what if, etc. leads the teacher into someone’s feign where most likely he will be flanked and crushed. Remain true to your strategies, stick to your tactics. Do not, never, let the student pull you down to his simple mathematics. It’s not your fault he doesn’t know Pythagoras and sometimes the only way to show him that there is more than addition and subtraction is to simply dump the entire system of Algebraic geometry on him and watch him squirm. It’s not mean, it’s not cruel. Often times our egos get in the way of ourselves. I disagree with ego killers, I submit that the ego is necessary for existence. That it is an intrinsic part of our being and that no matter how hard you try to destroy it, it will simply evolve to be the thing you called destroyed. I can’t think of a single person who can outthink himself, for you are only as smart as your own capacity. How can I fool my own thinking, let alone a part so fundamental that it has access to the whole of my mind? I believe that the folly of the ego is that it can become a monster, unchecked, without restraint. That is the creature of desire of wanton waste a warrior should beat with a stick until it dies (overly dramatic visualization intentionalized) .
The point is simple: The teacher at his core, should live up to his ethos, not offer the conversion of sacred ideas to bland passing phases in hopes that those who see can look past the obvious rape of the basic foundations of the idea and see the real meaning. In the end, the opposite is always true and the sacrifice is lost to history leaving only event as evidence of it’s every happening. From there the event takes on what ever meaning an individual requires it to, thus, the sacred is lost. Warriors protect their own sacred selves.
* - Our modern society is repulsed by war, so they seem to think, more so than our ancestors. We forget to realize that not to long ago a group of guys, a few thousand men, could seize an entire nation, simply because they wanted too. Those times aren’t dead. Selfish desires of power haven’t ended. In fact, they have increased as we have been vilified and stripped of our freedoms. A warrior ideal, that is, the realization of self-determination over social responsibility via guilt (nothing wrong with being socially responsible, but it should come from the enactment of the Golden Rule, not from fear of reprisal or scorn) his highly needed in our current world. We need real, excuse the brash statement, Jedi knights, whom are determined to place more than themselves, more than their gods, more than their governments at the center of all things. Truth seekers.
