Gong Xi Fa Cai! In the full swing of CNY festivities, I want to share with my blog readers what is the secret of "Prosperity" of a Dojo, its true "Gold".
Some of you might be familiar with the ancient myth of Ulysses (or Odisseus), a clever and shrewd Greek that, after winning the Battle of Troy, wanders for years trying to go back home, throughout many difficulties. Ulysses' errand brings him in different places, where he has all sort of experiences that underline his faults as a man and as a husband; it's an errand full of mistakes, often costly. After all, "errand" and "error" share the same ethimological root from Latin "errare", which means both "moving" and doing something "wrong". And it is a very interesting double meaning: only if you actually go and try, do something you can make a mistake. Therefore a "mistake" is something that comes out of experience, and through it we learn and become enriched and more proficient at anything. The lifelong practice of Iaido is akin to Ulysses' unending travel; it is full of experiences and full of mistakes - without each, we wouldn't be able to progress at all. But when we practice and teach often we try to apply mental schemes mutuated from the School system, with marks, interrogations, punishments when someone doesn't conform at the same rate as everyone else. The error is seen as something to be systemically and swiftly eradicated - while the truth is that mistakes are the gold in the practitioner's garden. Our role as beginners, practitioners, teachers is tackling problems and obstacles, not swipe them under the rug, showing trust in each one's capabilities and offering autonomy. So while Ulysses' weapon was the Bow, we instead chose the Sword and its scabbard but our mental attitude should be the same, one foot after another, learning from our own mistakes and trying to "steal" as much as we can from our teachers, with "Eijo-shin", how the Japanese say, "an Artisan's mind" rather than a massmarket educator's. We have to educate ourselves, and not only inside the Dojo, to the difficult task of appreciating other people's efforts, willpower and attempts. To achieve this we have to train our eye to be that of a Bonsai master, seeking perfection but not always in a traditional or canonical direction. With this mind, I wish you all a great Year of the Dog!
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