We're in seminar "high season," the time when camps, seminars and taikai of all types are scheduled back-to-back and many personal vacations are planned around them.

While we all look forward to the enthusiastic sharing of sharing of knowledge, this is sometimes tempered with certain concerns. A reader recently emailed with a question:

I have a question about training and learning from other instructors. In our dojo there is a group of talented and strong students who love to travel to every seminar we hear about and train with any dojo willing to have us. What we are finding out is that our basics are questioned by the instructors and senior students at some of these other dojo. On the other hand, they say our advanced techniques look great. This leads us students to return to our home dojo wondering how we should apply what we learn at seminars, when what we are taught at our dojo could be quite different. How do we handle the differences? Are there any rules for learning from anyone other than your main instructor?

Rules, no. But perhaps the following perspective will help in coming to terms with information received from various sources.

Seminars and conferences, by their very nature, encourage and promote the sharing of ideas and knowledge. They present wonderful opportunities for "upgrading" ourselves. We know our computers need it periodically, and we do, too. Following our acquisition of new knowledge, we return to our dojo and to daily training.

The home dojo, in one sense, is a laboratory - a place where we regularly conduct investigations, test hypotheses, observe results, and ultimately discover our own truths. Returning from stimulating "field trips," we share our "finds" with our comrades and put them to the test with practice, practice, practice and question, question, question. Through this process, we learn that we are ultimately responsible for our own progress. If you consider a student of music, it is obvious that a teacher can point the way, but the student alone must hone the physical skills.

The dojo sensei is like the lab director (or the music teacher) who guides a talented research team, providing direction and support. S/he has a thorough knowledge of the material, oversees the general operation of the research study, attends to the funding, ensures the safety of the study, and challenges each team member to do quality work. In these ways s/he participates both actively and indirectly in the ongoing and ever-deepening investigations.

The lab director and the dojo sensei have responsibilities that not everyone is able to assume. For example, the lab director's hand may be too unsteady to perform a delicate transfer or calibration technique, but the project continues, because the brilliant young intern on the team can accomplish this with ease. Conversely, this capable intern may not have the slightest inclination or ability to lead and motivate others. His desire may be to devote his life to important, singularly focused research. I think you can see how this analogy might apply to a dojo and its unique collection of individuals. The fact is each member makes a contribution.