Wednesday, January 16, 2019

A lesson for an instructor


 
 
Let me begin with a short story, about a tradition that is most likely not your own.


I had been teaching my program maybe 10 years at that time, Tristan Sutrisno, A friend from a different tradition shared something with me. He did not pay attention to the Isshinryu I was teaching, it was never his interest. But one day he made a suggestion to me, that as I thought about it made more and more sense.

 

While he did not care about my Isshinryu, he had observed my efforts at becoming an instructor over the years. He did not award me any rank, or title. Rather he made a suggestion about the obi I wore. In his tradition being an instructor was not about rank, it was something deeper, it was about the obligation that went along with the title. His suggestion was that I should wear the black/red/white obi, and except for formal occasions wear it with the black side out.

 

So  to the world I would just be seen as a black belt, for that is all we were. But each time you don that obi with the colors on the inside, you would be remembering what was your obligation. Not for others to see, but for you to remember, forever, what you owed your students. The truth of what you were sharing.

 

With that in mind, I remember several lines from the Bubishi, which became the Isshinryu code of karate. Extremely important lessons, not meant for teaching in a box, not meant for a contest, though each of those venue’s also needed this, but for the larger lesson that never ends, how to live a karate life.

 
 

The section which read (from several different traditions)

 

The eye must see all sides.
The ear must listen in all Directions.

Or

See what is unseeable.
Expect what is unexpected.

Or

The eyes must watch all four directions (Left, Right, Up and Down). Do not become so engrossed in your own techniques that you fail to observe your opponent’s actions. This will cause you to lose.

The ear must listen in all eight directions (Left, Right, Up, Down, Forward, Behind, Left Angles and Right Angles).

Or

The eyes miss nothing.
The ears listen well in all directions.

 

Just a few words, but something I thought about each time I donned that obi as an instructor.

 

I believe the following historical lesson states why this is important better than I have ever seen it put.

  


 

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