Our Symbiosis
I think most people, especially at first, don’t understand why I give my training away for free. First, the lessons my teachers have given me cannot be bought. Don’t get me wrong: I have paid for them, but others often pay as much without getting anything special. Only “special” people tend to get those lessons, while the rest pay the teacher’s bills. Because I’m doing this for free, I can happily run off the people I don’t want to work with. I’m not financially beholden to them, so I don’t need to keep the dross around, messing up our practice area. I only work with sincere and hard-working students. So everyone who stays gets “special” instruction: the kind of material I teach people at yellow belt is not even taught to black belts in many schools, usually because the instructors don’t know it either. They were not the special students who received the masters’ secrets. I was, and with more than one teacher. Now you are too.
Beyond that, though, I get more out of teaching for free than most can imagine. I think the quote below sums it up nicely:
Receiving is a powerful – and intimate – practice, for we are actually inviting another person into ourselves. Rather than focusing on our own practice, or on our own virtue, we can focus on providing an opportunity for someone else to develop generosity. In spite of its complexities and entanglements, the moment of exchange is one of simple connection and opening. That moment itself is unsullied. For that reason it is said that generosity is the discipline that produces peace.
– The Practice of Giving, by Judy Lief
Your acceptance of my gift allows me a simple, uncluttered moment of peace a few times each week. You have a responsibility, in receiving this gift from me, to provide me with “an opportunity for [me] to develop generosity.” This is the nature of our symbiotic relationship. I help you practice by giving my time and energy. You help me practice by giving your time and energy.
What we do in our training is thus much, much more important than money. In this way, through each other and our training, we touch the heart of generosity, sincerity, and humanity. It is not a process any of us can do on our own. This is budo. This is It. Even in the simple bow we use to begin and end class, we say to each other “thank you” and, at the same time, “you’re welcome.” Mutual gratitude and acceptance flows in both directions. This is our practice.
