wayne hansen wrote:I have met plenty of people who if they had the right stuff from the start would be good students
They have been taught to look with deluded eyes
A student of mine who had been training for 30 years told me my tai chi was the best he had seen
I told him he thought that because he had been taught to look with my eyes
He was looking from a biased outlook
If all the charletens went away tomorrow only the real stuff would remain
Some people would stay and learn the lot others would not
At least they would have the opportunity
If there is only pure water to drink we would drink
For those that don't want the real thing there is always Morris dancing
The reason traditional martial arts is not so strong today is because the best students go to MMA
Give me those students I will produce warriors
Saying all that it matters little
What will be will be
I am just a little bitter I will take real gems to the grave as many others have
It is not I that will miss out but a long thread of priceless knowledge will be lost
Wayne you always seem like a stand up guy
my experience is that even the real stuff comes at different levels of concentration...
and they will say that the others are doing it wrong
but instead of jumping on that train-- i have found the most useful
is the study why they do it a little different...
a long time ago i gave up investing in what I thought people should or should not be doing
(in martial arts and in traditional medicine)
i realized that people have their own path..
you can offer advice
but it is up to them to take action on it...
its their own path to walk -- and they are ready and can handle what they are ready for and what they can handle at the time...
hopefully you won't take your gems to the grave...
you have students for over 30 years...
and in this modern era you could put your teaching out there for the people who were interested..
and for the people that were ready for them
(i found that even if you share openly -- it will only be the people that are ready that will actually get it...
the drawback will be the people who don't get it and who only repeat what you taught but without the substance...
but even that is a fault of many traditional schools-- how many times have we seen senior students of someone who just did not have the skill-- even after spending years and years with hands on instruction...)
just some thoughts man..
Franklin