This post is of an interesting nature. There may be a tendency to not refute what Sensei says or teaches. If you are that type of Sensei, stop it! Sensei is merely a human, a person, a flawed product of the Universe - a perfect form of imperfection.
In my past I have been exposed to some very intelligent and knowledgable persons of karate, martial arts. I have been surprised when I make some statement that I can see in their body language and facial expression they disagree to the statement but when I ask them to comment they refuse, in one case a simple shake of the head no but the body language spoke to me .... no way dude, your wrong.
It may or may not be a part of how your dojo is run. It may be a misplaced ideology supposedly derived from the assumption that it is the way they did it in a traditional Asian dojo. So what, we are not Asian. We are not them. We as American's understand our innate need to ask questions and to question things.
I have received a comment or two in the past as to my views as posted on my blogs. One said they posed the blog topic and my view to their Sensei and were told to disregard what was written. When an answer was pursued the Sensei said something Asian like, "You will understand when you reach a certain level of proficiency, go practice your basics."
My view, either a bit of misdirection due to a perceived threat to authority or a lack of sufficient knowledge to understand the view or both. No one person of any rank, level or grade; no one person of any age, no one person of any level of knowledge, and no one person of any level of proficiency knows all.
The moment you believe your doctrine is the end all of all the martial arts or any endeavor of life you have simply stated to yourself that you don't want to learn more, your comfortable, your in control and you have your following so why much it up. Then again, it is my view, my perspective and my blog.
If your Sensei simply states something like, "I would like to take time to consider this information. I will get back to you." When they get back to you they can say one or two things, "I have never heard of this," or "I don't know about this. I will ask others about it and get back to you." Anything at all because you don't and do not have to know everything. You can be right, you can be wrong and you can be both. We are fallible, we are human even if we wear a red belt and people think we "master."
Last, even if Sensei knows of it. If he/she says they know of it but they don't use it in their system. Don't discard it. Work it out for yourself and if you can make it work or the thing speaks to you then use it. Maybe not in the dojo but rather in your private practice. If your a newbie then file it away for later so you can establish your foundation and then review it.
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