Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Terrific book. I also highly recommend. It's a great mix of shakuhachi and education about Japanese culture. I'm actually still in the process of finishing the book. Another good book to get is "Blowing Zen:Finding an Authentic Life" by Ray Brooks.

saille wrote:

I wonder whether I'm the only person here hesitant to establish a relationship with a teacher.

I have always been a "question authority" kind of person, especially since the authorities have so often felt a need to question ME. But when it comes to learning a particular skill, I love returning to the role of a beginner, letting go of what I think I should learn, softening up and absorbing whatever wisdom a master has to offer. Sometimes this wisdom comes with cultural baggage. For children, the cultural baggage can be devastating -- our OWN educational system is a case in point. But as adults I think we can keep things in perspective, learning techniques and even adjusting our philosophical outlook without giving our souls away. Sometimes I think we're way too afraid of losing our mythical American individualism, as if it were an endangered species. The real danger to our individualism is not the dojo but the mall.

Chris' book seems like a corrective, in some ways. He knows what objections an American is going to raise and answers them in advance, occasionally with the annoyingly righteous fervor of a Westerner who has "put in his time" while the rest of us merely sift through the tradition for easily-gleaned jewels. I can totally see his point.

I think you'll find that many teachers these days are pretty flexible and have absorbed a variety of approaches to pedagogy. Take the whole issue of gaikyoku. Chances are that you are not going to find a teacher in America who insists that you learn fifty or sixty sankyoku pieces before touching honkyoku. Most recognize that it doesn't make sense in a culture where it is difficult to find koto and shamisen players to play with. So there is a continuum of approaches: some teach only honkyoku, some teach lots of gaikyoku but switch it up with periods of honkyoku, some teach fewer of the sankyoku pieces than is customary in Japan. If you are lucky enough to find a teacher at all, I think it's good to follow his or her lead in this area rather than always trying to figure out for yourself what you need. No matter what, you will learn something very valuable, even if it's not precisely what you had projected you would learn. To get the most from any kind of teaching, I have found it is best to let the teacher be the stubborn one in the relationship.

I taught other disciplines (Western and Eastern) before shakuhachi, so my personal style is based on a variety of approaches. But it is rooted in the Japanese take on discipline: respect for the kata, for the tradition, for all the centuries of experience that have gone into this art. I feel that I OWE my students some of the more difficult aspects of the process.

By the way, I have only had three suicides so far, and they were all people who couldn't get the second octave anyway.

saille wrote:

Maybe what I encountered before was an abuse, or at the least an extreme.  ??  I just wonder where, traditionally, the boundaries are.

A teacher who attempts to control a student's life outside the limited context of the particular discipline itself is clearly abusing the student-teacher relationship. I have never heard of a shakuhachi teacher, no matter how traditional or untraditional, doing anything like this.

I appreciate this exchange regarding teacher student relationships. I've been a student of meditation for over 12 years and I've seen a fair amount of abuse, mostly mild in nature, and I've heard stories of considerably more bouncing around different communiteis. I personally have been lucky to find ethical teachers with genuine compassion from whom I've benefited a great deal. I too am leary of authority and have had my run ins with the boss. But I relate to nyokai's comments about embracing the tradition. This can be a wonderful process if it is done with wisdom and compassion.

Steven