Training is a gift. Every moment in the dojo is an opportunity to grow. Sometimes the lessons go beyond technique and enter the realm of history or social construction, but every moment has the capacity to stretch our minds and bodies.
I remember a time when I was in the dojo training and I had an epiphany about the whole of human knowledge. It was taught by a grain of sand I encountered on the mat. As I rolled the fragment between my thumb and forefinger, squeezing and feeling, I thought about how small my knowledge was, then how finite the knowledge of the entire human race, but today, I reflect anew.
In every moment there are many grains of knowledge, and if we accumulate them, and synthesize them through the pressure of our teachers, and the long of our training, we form the solid rocks of our foundation. There is no substitute for training under a good teacher, but we must steal the grains of knowledge and make them our own. Keep training!
Iaido Tanshinjuku 