Wednesday, April 6, 2011

10

It is bad taste to yawn in front of people. Then one unexpectedly has to yawn, if he rubs his forehead in an upward direction, the sensation will stop. If that does not work, he can lick his lips while keeping his mouth closed, or simply hide it with his hand or his sleeve in such a way that no none will know what he is doing. It is the same with sneezing. One will appear foolish. There are other things besides these about which a person should use care and training.

This I have experience with. At one time, my Master was talking with the class about something very serious. Then something happened (I will not mention what) that struck the 3 highest ranking students (myself included) as funny. We were not able to control our laughter and as punishment, sent to the back of the Dojang and made to do an undetermined number of push ups. When my Master returned (approx. 15 minutes later), we were able to stop. This is the most vivid memory as it was Thanksgiving week and my arms were so wrecked that I couldn't even touch my face. The meal that Thursday was a bit of a trial. What this passage and my experience lends to is the idea that we need to have control of ourselves at all times. Our laughter took away from the message that my Master was trying to instill in us, the students. I know that myself, as an instructor, if I see students yawning in class I feel that I need to ensure that they are awake, I feel that maybe they are bored or disinterested. Depending on the day, I may feel that it is an insult to what I am teaching. We cannot control how people react to what we do. However, we can attempt to control what we give them to react to.

No comments:

Post a Comment