Trích dẫn:
The Relationship of Mentor (Shi) and Disciple (Deshi)
It was about 20 years after starting aikido keiko that I began to practice not just at Hombu Dojo, but overseas as well. In conversations with my senior, I often heard them say, “So-and-so is my deshi (disciple)”.
At the time, I had no criteria for distinguishing between “disciple” (deshi, 弟子) and “student”(seito, 生徒). I considered the people who came to my keiko as “student” for those times, and the word deshi never entered my mind. I suspect that for any keiko session, the people who were attending recognized themselves as seito (i.e., “I’m a student). Therefore, it is probably a bad thing for instructors to make light of the mentor-disciple relationship, transforming the people who come to their keiko into their possessions and saying things like, “That’s my deshi”.
In the dictionary, the definition of shi (here in the current work, “mentor”) is, “one who teaches an academic subject or technical art or skill; one has qualifications”; the definition of deshi is, “one who follow the teaching of the shi”; and the definition of seito is “one who receives education, such as at school”. Even among deshi, there is such a thing as an uchi-deshi, who lives everyday life together with the mentor and, by being by the side of the mentor, can “know the breath” of the mentor. One who is a true disciple is always by the mentor’s side and learns from the mentor, and indeed, one who ultimately surpasses the mentor.
The disciple can choose the mentor, but the mentor cannot choose the disciple. Unsui (itinerant Buddist monk) sought his one true mentor, walking in search of this mentor like the clouds, like flowing water.
Yoshida Shoin (one of the most distinguished intellectuals in the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate) stated, “Do not indiscriminately become someone’s mentor and do not indiscriminately make someone your mentor”. When I heard these words, I started to think that being someone’s mentor was an extremely weighty responsibility – one that would require me to be a good judge of myself and to continue studying. Also, I began to feel that raising a person was extremely difficult. For these reasons, whenever someone asked to become my disciple, I always refused.
Fujsawa Hideyuki was a most esteemed and respected player in the world of igo, a master from whom everyone wished they could take even just one lesson. A few years ago, I saw on TV teaching, surrounded by many young people, presumably his disciples. I was struck by a statement that he made at the time: “I am fostering disciples in order to refine myself”.
I myself had been avoiding taking on disciples. I thought that disciples were people I needed to take care and foster. However, when I heard that disciples are those who may refine and foster me, I reconsidered, saying to myself that it was not too late. Since then, I have decided to take on disciples, currently numbering ten. All of them have families and jobs, and cannot be by my side at all times. However, they have been coming to my keiko for a long time and are all people who try to realize my belief that aikido is something that can be done anywhere. When I meet them, I observe how they appear and do keiko with them, and we mutually refine each other.
And I myself must be a mentor who is never an embarrassment.
Recently, there seems to be a tendency for people to seek the title of shihan based on the fact that they have been around a long time or that they are of high rank. For those who seek such a title, they should unflinchingly reflect upon themselves and their aikido, and be mentors who are never an embarrassment.