It is also considered rude to cross your arms in class since this is considered a gesture of passing judgement on your classmates. Such a gesture is an even bigger insult if you cross your arms in front of a person of higher rank than yourself and in Dorian's words "It just makes you look lazy." Recognition and respect of those in higher status than you is stressed not only in order to make the lessons run smooth!.
er but is probably a throwback from the days of a caste system in ancient Japan. This is illustrated when the students line up to begin and end class. The highest ranking individual always lines up to the far right of the instructor with the second highest just a little bit behind and so on down the line. So that the formation resembles something like the blades of a fan but not as severe. When the student is standing in line and looks to the right or left out of the corners of his or her eyes he or she will only see the next highest ranking person on their right and all those below them on their left. This is functional because it causes the person to concentrate only on the next level of advancement yet allows them to see all that they have accomplished. According to Dorian this helps a person subconciously, so that they will not be overwhelmed at the amount of effort it would take to be at the front of the line.
When I asked Dorian if I could interview him about superstition and ritual in the martial arts he said that he wasn't very superstitious. But as he began to talk he revealed that although he was not very outright superstitous, he went through the buisness of getting ready for and succeeding in tournaments with a great amount of ritual. He only mentioned one superstion that he did perform. He would walk through the doors of the building in which the tournament was to be held backwards. Dorian said that he read about how the gorillas in Congo, a novel by Micheal Crichton, would look behind them when they were unsure about the future.
Conservative Jews take the middle road, keeping most of the old rituals and beliefs but admitting that change is needed because of the modernization and industrialization of the rest ! ... We can commune with these gods and devas through temple worship, rituals, sacraments, and personal devotions. ...
China is the home of the world's longest continuous tradition of writing, dating from the first use of Chinese characters for purposes of ritual divination during the Shang dynasty (1570-1045 bc). ... China's imperial rulers were major patrons of the arts. ... It combines various theatrical forms "including speech, music, acrobatics, dance, mime, and martial arts "to tell stories from Chinese history and folklore. ... In the present text I am writing down some of the important and interesting aspects of China's culture. 2-ARTS AND CRAFTS 2.1 The Clay Fertilit...