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The Importance of a Teacher |
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| Dai
Sensei Gichin Funakoshi | Dedicated
to my Sensei - Sasaki Shoichi | Masatoshi
Nakayama Sensei |
| Asked by my webmaster to provide the first
article on the JKA India website my intial reaction was that |
| this honour should be Sensei's and not mine.
So I called him up and asked him to send an article, but |
| he declined saying that it was my duty to do what
was necessary as the site was of JKA India. His advice | |
gave me my topic - The
importance of a teacher. |
| |
The Calligraphy used for Sensei represent the following: The 1st
kanji Sen signifies ahead. | |
The 2nd Sei means life or birth. When used together they mean Teacher |
| In India, the relationship
between a Teacher and a Student is known in Sanskrit as the "Guru Shishya
| | Parampara".
Amongst the most important of the ancient Brahmin rituals is that of the sacred
thread | |
ceremony denoting the time when the boy of the house is sent to his teacher to
seek knowledge. | |
Indian folklore is filled with stories about the Teacher Student relationships,
the most famous being found | |
in the Indian Epic the Mahabharat where the student cuts off his thumb as an offering
to his teacher | |
to show his devotion. In India, the Teacher is venerated above everybody else |
| Learning is a never ending process.
It begins from the moment that we are born and all our lives, we |
| keep learning. The process begins in the environs
of the home where we learn from our parents, our | | elders
and our immediate family. The circle widens as we go to school where the teachers
and our | | peers group become
influences in our sphere of learning. Very few however realize this truth that
both | | the teacher
and the taught have a responsibility to what is taught and learned. The one to
teach must | | ensure that what
is taught is the truth and the learner has the responsibility to search for and
learn to | | follow that which
is the truth. Through the diligent practice of karate-do, this simple statement
speaks | | volumes, we learn
to seek within ourselves the truth - about our weaknesses and our strengths, and
by | | coming to understand
them, learn how to use them for our betterment. The teacher on this road of karate
| | is called sensei - who teaches
you not only about the techniques of karate-do, but through this teaching, | | also
about how to use the principles learnt during training in your daily life. |
| I have asked students what they expected
from a karate teacher and the list ran into a few pages. I am |
| listing just those that were most
commonly stated and are not listed in any specific order |
| Good Technique | To
be able to demonstrate karate wazas correctly | |
Good Theory | To have the
ability and knowledge to explain | |
Good Charectar | To be an example
worth following | | Good
Tolerance | To have patience
to handle situations without being perturbed | | Good
Guidance | To be
able to not only criticize but also give advice to rectify mistakes |
| For many Karatekas around the Globe,
Senseis are Demi Gods. They can do no wrong and even if they |
| are wrong, they are still right.
I have known my Sensei since he was still in his early thirties, and me just |
| out of my teens. I have been with
him as the years have gone by, I have greyed and he has entered his |
| twilight years. He has seen the organization
grow from a 2 dojo unit to expand the length and breadth |
| of the country, faced the betrayal
of those whom he trusted in India and seen the effect of the break up |
| in Japan here in India all of which have served
to strengthen his bond with the students of this country. |
| He
came to India at a time when this country of ours was considered amongst the poorest
countries | | in the world, when
the image was of bullock carts and hand pulled carraiges, when even a telephone
| | or a television were a rarity
or non existant in most households. With typical missionary zeal he went |
| about his work and the sole purpose of his
visits was to spread the karate-do of the JKA in India. To | |
ensure that we got good training he arranged for us to train in Japan. So every
year a bunch of us | | would travel
to Japan and train there. We would stay there for 6 weeks and train in his dojo,
enter the | | prefectural tournaments
and the All Japan. In the early years he was very strict, even brutal at times.
I | | remember many a time in
Japan when I wondered about the reason I came there to train. But all those | |
trepititions did each me not only correct Karate-do but also the pursuit of perfection.
Looking back at the | | 70s,
I see how much he has mellowed.Today, only those who understand his eyes can see
the old | | spark burning. He
does not ever take the stick to anyone and the only ones he ever raises his voice
at | | are the old students
who have borne the marks of his shinai. Even though he has suffered a stroke,
he | | still trains. When we
were young and during training we would be injured he would tell us to carry on.
| | when tired, he would push
us beyond what were our thresholds of endurance. All this to make us |
| understand the power of our spirit. We were
famous for our lack of punctuality and it took Sensei years to |
| instill in us the sense of time.
Over the years he would rant and rave and made sure that we started our | |
Tournaments on time and ensured that we did everything according to schedule.
| | He suffered a huge
setback in his health some years ago but despite his illness, he still trains
| | and in doing so
he has inspired a generation of young karatekas in India. He is a living example
| | of the old adage
that if one has the will, one can always walk the way. |
| There are so many things that I have learnt
from him over the years that it is impossible to list them but |
| I will try to put those down that immediately
come to mind. | | 1)
All that matters in the end is what kind of a human being
you are. If you are not a good person, |
| regardless
of how good you are technically,
no one will want to be with you (After a visit
to Mother |
| Teresa's
home in Calcutta where he was overtaken ) |
| 2) To complete a thing on
time, you have to start on time. and once started ensure that you keep
to the | | schedule.
Unless you do so, you cannot finish on time( At the end of the each of the
first ten nationals) |
| 3) To
be able to teach, you must be able to do what you teach (After my first
Instructor grading in Japan) |
| 4)
It is always lonely at the top. ( After I was asked to head the org.) |
| 5) Never show
favour or anger to anyone, all are students in your eyes. All that matter are
rules ( After he | | expelled
someone in India) |
| 6) The tree in a garden never
grows without a seed being planted, but remember that the seed cannot |
| grow into a fruit bearing
tree without being looked after. So it is important to respect both the planter
| | and the
caretaker. ( To my senior upon his return to the country after nearly
two decades) |
| 7) You cannot grow laterally
without support. You need supports, so you have to make the supports as |
| strong as you can. This is
so that even when you are weak the supports will still make sure that your |
| organization is strong.That
is the way of the JKA. (When the JKA split as did the Indian org) |
| 8) Always be honest with yourself, because if you
dont, first you will lie then you will steal and at last you |
| will kill. ( After he
felt betrayed by someone in India) |
| 9) Always accept everything
graciously, for the person giving it to you has worked hard for it. If it is food
| | and you
do not like it take just a little but do not refuse, for then you insult his hospitality.
Be grateful | | that
you are getting at least that and not going hungry. (After a party for the
Indian Team in Japan when a | | lot
of plates were untouched ) |
| 10)Every year many students undergo his training
in India, that even if one student learnt just one aspect |
| of his teaching correctly, the purpose of his annual
vist would be achieved. |
| He has always made sure that we get the right
technical education, calling both his seniors and juniors in |
| the JKA Hombu to teach. This has led to the
JKA having the most technically proficient karatekas in |
| India. He has always been pushing us to get technically
qualified. I have seen many of my peers | | in
the JKA karate world still not having technical qualification licences His philosophy
is very simple,- | | progress.
that as long as he is there, there will not be a problem with any technical matters
but he wants | | us to be able
to continue after his retirement. Therefore the more that get technically qualified,
the better | | it
would be for the country. It has always been that way with him, the organization
is the first priority | | the
individual secondary. |
| About 20 years ago, we lost a student in the
dojo in Japan, immediately after a session due to a | | coronary
arrest. We were in a foreign country not knowing what to do but Sensei stood by
us | | all through the tension
filled period, bearing all the expense, taking care of all the proceedures, |
| never saying a word, just making
sure that things were OK. -- just being there to help when needed. |
| About
the author |  |
Sensei Anand Ratna is the Authorised Representative
of the JKA in India and the Technical Director of the | |
of the JKA India Branch . A 6th Dan JKA Black Belt with Technical licences in
Instruction, Judging and Examining | |
He is a member of the Directing Commitee of All India Karate-do Federation and
the Coach of the National | |
All Style Team. He is a qualified Judge at the Asian Karate Federation level and
a member of the Referee | | Council
of India and an authorised Examiner for the Shotokan ryu at the Federation level |
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