Help aspiring aikidoka train to be their best by donating to the Aikido Seminar Scholarship fund at One Dojo!
Why Attend Aikido Seminars?
Aikido seminars are one-of-a-kind, interactive events where students from various dojo get to practice together and learn aikido techniques directly from visiting, high-ranking instructors. Typically, seminar teachers have several decades of experience and have trained directly under world-renowned Aikido instructors for many years.
Participating in seminars is an excellent way to witness your current ability, advance your conceptual understanding, and accelerate your proficiency in the Art of Peace. These immersive training opportunities have become rare, especially as the first generation of Aikido instructors—who were taught by the founder, Morihei Ueshiba Sensei, or his direct students—are aging and retiring.
What Inspired the One Dojo Aikido Seminar Scholarship Fund?
One of our current goals at One Dojo is to cultivate a supportive community where we create opportunities for aikidoka, friends and family to connect and create a supportive network. The world is rapidly changing and now more than ever we need to learn how to find strength in our communities and from our neighbors.
With this in mind we are launching the One Dojo Aikido Seminar Scholarship Fund to make special events, like Aikido seminars, accessible to all of our community members. In an effort to both make this possible and properly compensate our guest instructors, who make a living by traveling the world to teach, we are hoping to crowdsource funds to cover the cost of attending these events.
As with any community, there is always a spectrum of income levels among our members. Our hope is that our One Dojo friends and family members who have the resources will consider donating to other members who are eager to attend and train from our amazing guest instructors, but are unable to due to cost of attendance.
Putting “Doing Good in Secret” into Action
In his 22 Shokushu (Ki Sayings), Koichi Tohei Sensei wrote about the importance of being benevolent through “Intoku,” meaning “doing good in secret” in Japanese: “...before wishing for our own happiness and welfare and that of our children, we must do good in secret. To do good in secret means to act without seeking attention and praise, to act without any hope of reward. This is called Intoku."
“The highest form of Intoku is to practice the way of the Universe, while leading people and helping them practice.”
The One Dojo Seminar Scholarship Fund will be a rolling fund, meaning, money not used for an upcoming seminar will go into the fund for future seminars and cover the costs of the next aikidoka, who is eager to train, but requires a little “help from our friends.”
Our vision for this fund is to inspire generosity and Intoku in our members, as well as provide many students, who would otherwise not be able to participate, to reap the benefits of practicing Aikido at an upcoming seminar.
We thank you in advance for your support of this endeavor.