Today's Schedule:

5:15-6:15pm Aikido

6:30-7:30pm Aikido

Practice is like a bright, clear mirror. It can be merciless. Merciless not in the sense of brutal and violent, but merciless in the sense of totally honest.

In this way, Aikido becomes the perfect tool for one's inner, spiritual training.

MONTHLY DUES:

In Japanese, "monthly dues" is called "gessha" and does not mean "monthly dues" at all, it literally means, "monthly token of thanks." Monthly dues is just a token of appreciation. In our dojo, most of the dues goes to the operation of the dojo, so I receive no salary, no salary or wage for the last 25 years. Luckily, I have no wife and kids to take care of, I live in the dojo, wear cheap clothes, so it is easy for the dojo to survive. If I tried to lead a normal life, the dojo could not survive at all and would be long gone.

Despite this, we always have a problem of collecting dues from the students. I prefer to go on the "honor" system but this doesn't seem to work at all. Usually, the students most able to cover their dues always seem to weasel out of it, and the students who are most financially hard pressed, always pay their dues on time. If there is a financial hardship, I do not mind at all, but I think that most students show their lack of appreciation to the dojo and to me as a teacher, by always being late and skipping their dues whenever they can get away with it.

From now, we have to take valuable time from practice, to check each student at the beginning of class to verify everyone's dues are paid. To me, this is demeaning to the students and shameful to the dojo that we have to be so concerned with money. It shames O'Sensei too and forces me to depart from the true path of the art. Before O'Sensei's picture, I have to demand that you pay your dues each month - it makes me so sad. But, the "honor" system doesn't work and I cannot understand why. It is your responsibility to pay your dues on time.

TO BLACK BELTS:

It is good that you are making decisions in the dojo on your own but you forget the essential and important point to communicate to everyone what you are doing. In any group of people working together, you must communicate everything so that everyone is on que. Many misunderstand that by not communicating they are expressing their own independence and they are "not under the thumb" of someone else. This is a misconception; to others, you only appear arrogant and underhanded.

You must communicate easily and develop this skill if you are not good at it. Some of you have very bad communication skills, and this really compromises your credibility and people's impresssion of you as an adult.

Many often use the excuse, "I thought you knew. . . ." or "I assumed. . . " This is so childish and vain and shows a lack of maturity and an inner lack of self-respect.

Sloppy thinking only develops sloppy martial arts.